Plants are remarkably good at adjusting how they capture sunlight and produce food through photosynthesis. A new computer model helps scientists better understand these adjustments by looking at what happens at different heights within a plant canopy, from the sun-drenched leaves at the top to the shaded leaves near the ground. Chi Chen, assistant professor […]
Research
Does Framing Climate Change as a Racial Issue Backfire?
New research finds that news stories about who is most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change can have very different effects — depending on whether they focus on race or income. Climate change doesn’t harm everyone equally. Flooding, heat waves, and other extreme weather events tend to hit lower-income communities and communities of color […]
Teaching Robots to Fly Like Birds
A bird banking in a crosswind doesn’t rely on spinning blades. Its wings flex, twist and respond instantly to its environment. Engineers at Rutgers University have taken a major step toward building bird-like drones that move the same way, flapping their wings like real birds, using electricity-driven materials instead of conventional electromagnetic motors to power […]
Childhood Obesity Makes It Harder to Climb the Economic Ladder, Study Finds
Childhood obesity may be quietly undermining one of the central promises of American life. A study by a Rutgers researcher has found that children who are obese are far less likely to climb the economic ladder as adults, raising concerns that a rising health problem also could deny many young Americans the chance to achieve […]
Professor Siobain Duffy and International Team Receive Prestigious UK–US Breakthrough Award for Global Food Security Innovation
At a reception hosted at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. on March 4, Professor Siobain Duffy and her international research team were recognized with the Pioneering UK–US Breakthroughs (PUB) Award, a distinction honoring seven collaborative teams whose work is addressing some of the world’s most urgent challenges. Presented by His Majesty’s Ambassador to the […]
New Jersey Kids Care About the Planet — But Don’t Connect It to What’s on Their Plates
Ask a New Jersey middle schooler what they think about when choosing what to eat, and you’ll probably hear: taste, texture, and whether it’ll upset their stomach. Ask them what they do to help the planet, and they’ll mention picking up litter or recycling. What most won’t mention? The connection between the two. A new […]
Coral Killer: Scientists Uncover New Clues About a Disease Devastating Caribbean Reefs
A mysterious disease has been quietly destroying coral reefs across the Caribbean for over a decade. Stony coral tissue loss disease, or SCTLD, causes coral tissue to simply fall away, killing entire colonies — and no one has been able to pinpoint exactly what causes it. Now, new research is offering some of the clearest […]
Scientists Develop New Gut Health Measure That Tracks Disease
Scientists have identified a new way to distinguish healthy guts from diseased ones and track how some illnesses progress by measuring how gut bacteria interact with one another. According to a study published in Science, a Rutgers-led team of scientists found that healthy and diseased digestive systems behave like two distinct ecological states, driven not by individual microbes but […]
Will Melting Glaciers Slow Climate Change?
For scientists who study the Southern Ocean, a long-standing silver lining in the gloomy forecast of climate change has been the theory of iron fertilization. As temperatures rise and glaciers in Antarctica melt, ice-trapped iron would feed blooms of microscopic algae, pulling heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow. There’s just one problem: The theory doesn’t […]
Haskin Lab Strengthens Oyster Industry Through Research and Collaboration
The Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory has played a central role in supporting New Jersey’s oyster industry through decades of research, collaboration, and science-based management. Since 1953, the lab has worked closely with the Delaware Bay oyster industry and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Fish and Wildlife to address challenges affecting oyster […]
