News by Subject Social & Behavior

Human activity is causing the planet's mammals to flee daylight for the protection of night, according to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley.

A USC research team identifies harmful effects to wildlife as LED lights proliferate. Some hues, including blues and whites, imperil creatures while other wavelengths are more benign. They devised an interactive web-based tool to help people make wildlife-friendly choices in outdoor lighting.

Coupling bikeshare with public transit could be an important component when trying to increase light rail transit (LRT) ridership, according to a new study out of the University of Waterloo.

A vibrant arts, music and science culture -- as measured by images posted to social media site Flickr -- successfully predicted the economic rise of certain neighborhoods in London and New York City. The model could even anticipate gentrification by five years. With more than half of the world's population living in cities, such information could help policymakers ensure human wellbeing in dense urban settings.

The TRAX project is the only known transit-based mobile air quality network in North America. Some results are unsurprising, such as spikes of carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, byproducts of gasoline combustion, at street intersections. But the sensors also found methane emissions patterns that didn't correlate to daytime working hours, suggesting possible fugitive methane leaks.

To enable public transit agencies to engage in more rigorous and effective safety planning, their safety planning records should not be admissible as evidence in civil litigation, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

A truck kicking up dust as it speeds down a dirt road is a typical image in country music videos. But this dust from unpaved roads is also an environmental and health hazard. To prevent dust clouds, some states treat dirt motorways with oil and gas wastewater. Now one group reports in Environmental Science & Technology that this wastewater contains harmful pollutants that have the potential to do more harm than good.

The preliminary results show that sounds of nature that were played in the fruit and vegetable section of a grocery shop had a clear impact on the shop's sales. The sales of fruit and vegetables showed an increase of 20 percent compared to the previous week and 13 percent compared to the week that followed.

A international team of researchers, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has carried out a scientific investigation on dolphin liberation in South Korea.