ScienceDaily: Science & Society News

Within the next decade, the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 could become little more than a nuisance, causing no more than common cold-like coughs and sniffles. That possible future is predicted by mathematical models that incorporate lessons learned from the current pandemic on how our body's immunity changes over time.

Some climate activists advocate large-scale tree-planting campaigns in forests around the world to suck up heat-trapping carbon dioxide and help rein in climate change.

Scanning technology aimed at detecting small amounts of nuclear materials was unveiled by scientists in Sweden today, with the hope of preventing acts of nuclear terrorism.

Researchers developed a suite of AI tools that can automatically identify characteristics of every buildings in a city and compute the risks they would face during a natural hazard event. The team tested the tools with simulated earthquakes in San Francisco; and hurricanes in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the Texas coast, and Atlantic City, New Jersey. The simulations generated realistic spatial distributions of buildings and identified some building characteristics with 100% accuracy.

Optimistic predictions expect reliable autonomous vehicles to be commercially available by 2030, at a time when mobility is undergoing a profound shift away from traditional modes of transportation and towards door-to-door services.

With pandemic lockdowns still in place last summer, The Ohio State University couldn't host its in-person Summer Success Program to help preschoolers from low-income families prepare for kindergarten. Staff and teachers quickly pivoted to a fully virtual program, but they were worried: Could this really work with 4- and 5-year-olds who had no previous experience with preschool? A new study suggested it did.

More than three quarters of Iran's land is under extreme groundwater overdraft, where the rate of human uptake is higher than the rate of natural recharge. Mismanagement by the country's authorities is exacerbating existing strains on the semi-arid country's aquifers by an inefficient agriculture industry. Without urgent action, researchers note, the country faces multiple national crises.

Indigenous subsistence of the Bears Ears region modified the landscape, leaving ecological legacies that persist today. A blend of Indigenous knowledge and western science can be used to build management plans for effective stewardship of the region's botanical and cultural resources.

A new review finds that research requiring participants to estimate their own digital screen time cannot provide reliable information on mental health impact.