Heat index maps uncover when city greening cools most—and when it can backfire

Feelings of despair at the state of the world can be overwhelming. Social and environmental problems persist, but political discourse is polarized, divisive and often ineffective.

In new research published in Nature Materials, a team of researchers led by Columbia University chemist Xiaoyang Zhu, in collaboration with fellow Columbians Xavier Roy, Milan Delor, Dmitri Basov, and James McIver, has observed coherent ferrons for the first time.

Advances in DNA sequencing have expanded our view of the microbial world, but the inability to cultivate most microbes has been a major constraint. Now, a systematic, predictive framework that combines existing genomic and computational modeling approaches to accelerate the discovery and cultivation of novel prokaryotic taxa has been proposed by KAUST researchers, in collaboration with an international team of scientists. The work is published in The ISME Journal.

Millions of people around the world now use AI companions—for friendship, emotional support, mental health counseling and romantic interactions. This includes 72% of adolescents, according to one study from the United States.