Topic: Science & Technology

Can you hear what a person looks like? A growing body of research suggests so.

“The mere sound of a person’s voice contains important, embedded biological information,” says Susan Hughes, assistant professor of psychology at Albright College in Reading, Pa., who has researched vocal attractiveness and body symmetry. In her latest study, she finds a relationship between voice quality and another important biological marker: digit ratios. “The ratio of the second (index) finger to the fourth (ring) finger – the 2D:4D ratio – is an indirect measure of prenatal sex hormone exposure,” she says.

California's native plant species are so vulnerable to global climate change that two-thirds of them could suffer 80 percent reduction in their geographic range by the end of the 21st century.

Two-thirds of the plants native to the state of California could suffer more than an 80 percent reduction in geographic range by the end of the century, according to a recent study.

You can follow along online as Egyptologist Betsy Bryan and her team of graduate students, artists, conservators and photographers expand their investigation of Luxor's Mut Temple this summer, turning their attention to the temple's Sacred Lake.

Follow along online as Johns Hopkins University Egyptologist Betsy Bryan and her team of graduate students, artists, conservators and photographers expand their investigation of Mut Temple this summer, turning their attention to the temple's Sacred Lake. Bryan and her crew are once again in Luxor, Egypt, sharing their work via "Hopkins in Egypt Today," their popular digital diary offering a virtual window into day-to-day life on an archaeological dig.

Researchers have developed the first detailed chemical analysis revealing what processing is needed to transform pig manure derived 'crude oil' into fuel for vehicles or heating. Mass production of this type of biofuel could help consume a waste product overflowing at U.S. farms, but it will require a lot of refining.

After a close examination of crude oil made from pig manure, chemists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are certain about a number of things.

When researchers observe natural changes in clouds and temperature, they have assumed that temperature change caused the clouds to change, and not the other way around. This can lead to overestimates of how sensitive Earth's climate is to greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate experts agree that the seriousness of manmade global warming depends greatly upon how clouds in the climate system respond to the small warming tendency from the extra carbon dioxide mankind produces.

Technology can send a man to the moon, help unravel DNA and let people around the world easily communicate through the internet. But it can't substitute for nature in relieving low-level stress.

Can technology substitute for nature?

Apparently not, according to a new study that measured individuals’ heart recovery rate from minor stress when exposed to a natural scene through a window, the same scene shown on a high-definition plasma screen, or a blank wall. The heart rate of people who looked at the scene through the window dropped more quickly than the others. In fact, the high-definition plasma screen had no more effect than the blank wall.

According to new research, by 2030, expanding urban areas will fill 350,000 square miles, an area the size of Texas. At present, humans are building the equivalent of a city the size of Vancouver every week.

Today, The Nature Conservancy and Harvard University released a new study examining the effect of staggering urban growth on nature and people that finds if we don’t improve urban planning now, we may lose some animals, plants and natural resources for good.

Prof. John Quigley conducts the first systematic analysis of environmentally-sustainable construction and its economic impact on the real estate market.

Everyone’s talking about “going green” but the cost of the investment has, up to now, been difficult to justify. Energy savings aside, what are the financial benefits of using environmentally sustainable materials and technology in construction? Professor John Quigley at the University of California, Berkeley – Haas School of Business is conducting the first systematic analysis of environmentally-sustainable construction and its economic impact on the real estate market.

Rising background levels of ozone in the atmosphere are a likely contributor to the global food crisis, since ozone has been shown to damage plants and reduce yields of important crop, including soybeans and wheat.

Heat waves, droughts and fuel prices are just a few reasons for the current global food crisis that is making headlines around the world. Research by William Manning of the University of Massachusetts Amherst indicates that rising background levels of ozone in the atmosphere are a likely contributor to the problem, lowering the yield of important food crops, such as wheat and soybeans.

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Ozone damage on morning glory plant.

Although efforts to improve the fresh water side of the salmon's life cycle, many are not surviving their salt water stay. Global warming might be partially to blame.

Since 1983, sports fishermen from the Drammen River in Norway have been saving the scales of Atlantic salmon, caught as they return from years at sea to spawn in fresh water. A team of researchers including Jennifer McCarthy of the University of Massachusetts Amherst is using these scales to solve the mystery of why most of these endangered fish never survive their ocean stay.