Government subsidies for renewable energy rebounded strongly last year, registering a solid 17% increase after two years of declines. Major expansion of solar installations in China and Japan and government=backed investments in offshore wind projects in Europe helped propel green energy spending to $270 billion.
Culture
When it comes to issues as divisive as vaccines, abortion and welfare, it is commonplace to use surveys to contradict reality. It's usually wiser to accept reality.
Take this statement analyzed by sociologists Dr Kjetil van der Wel and Dr Knut Halvorsen: 'I would enjoy having a paid job even if I did not need the money' put to the interviewees for the European Social Survey in 2010.
Last night, the final episode of the fifth season of The Walking Dead screened on Australian television. The hit US series has for the last five years constantly reached larger and larger audiences around the world. In the US, each new season continues to break cable ratings records.
The 2015 elections in Nigeria were chaotic, but the country’s voters displayed immense courage in showing up at all. More than 20 people were killed, not in electoral violence between competing parties but by gunmen who didn’t want the elections to happen at all. A further 23 were rumored beheaded on the eve of the vote.
According to research published today, music is beneficial for cats in the surgical environment. But not all music is equal in this respect - cats, it seems, benefit most from classical music.
A lower percentage of children are eating fast food on any given day and calories consumed by children from burger, pizza and chicken fast food restaurants also has dropped, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.
A new analysis of data from the 2009-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) found that 3% of younger children and 17% of 9-13 year olds skip lunch on a given school day and 23% of 9-13 year olds skip lunch on the weekends.
Almost all of us walk somewhere every day of our lives. According to the UK’s most recent National Travel Survey 22% of all trips are undertaken on foot – and walking continues to be the second-most important form of transport for all journeys after travel by car or van.
For short trips of less than a mile, walking is totally dominant accounting for over 78% of all such travel. One third of all trips less than five miles in length are also on foot.
Most people say they have a comfort food and more often than not it is because of a good relationship with the person you remember first preparing it, according to the results of a new psychology paper.
From mashed potatoes to sushi, social factors influence our food preferences and eating behavior, they say. It is established that comfort food can reduce feelings of rejection and isolation but the new paper in Appetite suggests why certain foods are attractive when we are feeling down.
Reclusive giant pandas fascinate the world, yet precious little is known about how they spend their time in the Chinese bamboo forests. Until now.
A team of Michigan State University (MSU) researchers who have been electronically stalking five pandas in the wild, courtesy of rare GPS collars, have finished crunching months of data and has published some panda surprises in this month's Journal of Mammalogy.
Two scientific studies led by researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet are expected to form the basis of new international recommendations for the treatment of abortions and miscarriages. One of the studies shows that it is possible to replace the clinical follow-up examinations recommended today with abortions that include a home pregnancy test. The other study shows that midwives can safely and effectively treat failed abortions and miscarriages in rural districts of Uganda.
Young adolescents' judgements on how risky a situation might be are most influenced by what other teenagers think, while most other age groups are more influenced by adults' views, finds a new survey by psychologists.
While No Child Left Behind was in effect, American girls and boys achieved math parity for the first time in history. Regardless, it was politically unpopular and now there are concerns girls will begin to slip back again. Along with that are persistent claims of stereotype threat, which basically posit that since it is commonly believe that white males cannot dance, in a dancing situation they will be nervous about perpetuating the stereotype and dance more poorly due to the pressure.
'Just call the police' is the common belief of the public when it comes to action against domestic violence.
The thinking behind the advice is the belief that mandatory arrest is an effective way to stop the abuse. The law, active in 22 states, says that police officers make an arrest if they respond to a call - even if they can't determine if someone was violent or out of control. Obviously such a law can easily be misused, an arrest is based on accusation, but it may also be intimidating victims to where they won't call the police to report an instance of abuse.
As the world looks to American innovation to fight Ebola, malaria, tuberculosis, and a host of other health threats, a new report released today on Capitol Hill warns budget battles in Washington are eroding preparedness at home and abroad at a time when scientific advances are poised to deliver new lifesaving drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics.