Wendy Science

Like humans, animals seem to have an innate preference for small numbers on the left and larger numbers on the right By | | Think of a number. Now think of a bigger number. Now imagine them in front of you. If you are seeing the smaller number on the left, you have just confirmed an oft-repeated finding: people tend to map numbers onto space from left to right. Mounting evidence, including research on preverbal infants, suggests this tendency is innate, although it can be easily overwritten by culture. Now, in a study published this past January in , a team of researchers at the University of Trento in Italy, led by cognitive psychologist Rosa Rugani, has shown that infants of a different species altogether also prefer to see bigger numbers on the right. The team trained three-day-old chicks to walk around a panel for food. First, a group of chicks learned to find food behind a panel displaying five dots. Then the researchers replaced that panel with a pair of new panels. When these...

If you ever happen to meet a government official from Austria and would like to have some polite fun at their expense, tell them to get Austria to build nuclear power plants so it can better fight global warming. They will probably smile and squirm as they explain that the Constitution of Austria prohibits nuclear power. That’s how anti-nuclear Austria is: . Austria has a relatively robust renewable energy industry. Thanks to its location in the Alps, from hydropower. But it still its Kyoto Protocol commitments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Nuclear power could help with this by displacing fossil fuels used for electricity and maybe also heating, and eventually by switching to electric cars. Other countries could do the same. Worldwide, nuclear power could help make a large dent in greenhouse gas emissions while meeting growing energy demand. Emissions from nuclear power are not zero, due to energy consumed for uranium mining and power plant construction. But total nuclear ...

On Sunday, Paris held " " - a day without car - as authorities closed down approximately 25% of the city center to vehicle traffic and reduced speed limits to 20 kilometers per hour in the surrounding areas. This day without cars was held as Paris prepares to host the United National Climate Change Conference (“COP21”), which will begin on November 30.   to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International and COP 21 Conference Chair Laurent Fabius, the goal of this conference is to achieve “a global agreement to ensure that our planet remains a healthy environment for us to live in.” While the primary focus of the COP21 conference is on mitigating the impacts of global climate change, increasing attention is being paid to immediate co-benefits for public health that come hand-in-hand with reducing carbon emissions. According to a recent  , a shift to a low carbon electricity and transportation would have huge positive impact on cleaning up...

Although Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases may powerfully impact the mental functioning of individuals, sufferers can find some solace in the fact that substantial memory deficits—when unaccompanied by changes in moral characteristics—seem to have no effect on how others perceive “who you are.” Have you ever wondered just what it is that makes you, you? If all your memories were to fade away, would your identity dissolve along with them? Would friends and family no longer perceive you to be the same person as before? For the 5.3 million Americans experiencing memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease, these frightening questions are more than just theoretical. Fortunately, science appears to suggest that being robbed of one’s memory does not equate with being robbed of one’s identity. A has found that “who one is” is largely defined by one’s moral behavior, and not by one’s memory capacity or other cognitive abilities. Thus, although Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerati...

A combination of climate-driven sea level rise and stronger tropical cyclones is putting New York City at risk for more and higher floods like those seen during Hurricane Sandy, a group of researchers has found. In  published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers compared sea level and storm surge heights from 850 to 1800, before significant human influences on the climate, to the period from 1970 to 2005. The average flood height increased by about 4 feet in New York between the two time periods and with continued warming, larger and more extreme storms along with even higher sea level is likely to cause more frequent and intense flooding. “The study is the preamble for what we have to be concerned about,” said  , special research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who was not involved in the research. “Areas like the Rockaways, Staten Island, are just not sustainable. They cannot exist in 100 or 1...

Royal Dutch Shell has abandoned its Arctic search for oil after failing to find enough crude in a move that will appease environmental campaigners and shareholders who said its project was too expensive and risky. September 28, 2015 | By Karolin Schaps LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell has abandoned its Arctic search for oil after failing to find enough crude in a move that will appease environmental campaigners and shareholders who said its project was too expensive and risky. Shell has spent about $7 billion on exploration in the waters off Alaska so far and said it could take a hit of up to $4.1 billion for pulling out of the Chukchi Sea for the "foreseeable future". The unsuccessful campaign is Shell's second major setback in the Arctic after it interrupted exploration for three years in 2012 when an enormous drilling rig broke free and grounded. Environmental campaigners and shareholders have also pressured Shell to drop Arctic drilling. Some are worried a...

The potentially pricey treatment shows promise against progressive MS, a disease marked by steadily worsening symptoms September 28, 2015 | While there are a number of treatments for relapsing remitting MS, the most common form of the disease, there are no approved drugs for progressive MS, which is marked by steadily worsening symptoms. More on this Topic By Ben Hirschler Switzerland's Roche has moved into pole position in the race to launch the world's first treatment for progressive multiple sclerosis but smaller players are working hard on rival approaches. While there are a number of treatments for relapsing remitting MS, the most common form of the disease, there are no approved drugs for progressive MS, which is marked by steadily worsening symptoms. That makes the success of Roche's antibody drug ocrelizumab in a 732-patient global clinical trial big news. The drug will now be filed for approval in early 2016, implying it could reach the market around a yea...