Finding a parking spot at a busy shopping mall or waiting to charge an electric vehicle can be frustrating. A new study published in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems explores how to make these everyday challenges easier. The authors developed a computer framework called ‘Multi-Personality Multi-Agent Meta-Reinforcement Learning’, which helps transportation systems adapt faster and coordinate better. You can …
A new study has challenged a long-held belief in ecology: that a bee’s body size determines how far it travels and, in turn, how much land around it matters. The authors of the study, published in Ecography, tested this idea—called the “mobility hypothesis”—by analyzing 84 species of wild bees across 165 sites in the northeastern U.S. What they found was …
In a recent study published in ISME Communications, researchers discovered five brand-new species of cold-loving bacteria in the Arctic tundra of northern Finland. Lee Kerkhof, RCEI Affiliate, Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, and Max Häggblom, RCEI Affiliate, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, were co-authors on the study done in collaboration with Minna …
Rare earth elements (REEs) play a big role in modern technologies, including electronics, magnetics, and systems that generate clean energy. A new study explores the stability of some rare earth materials—specifically, rare earth oxychlorides—which is crucial for their future applications in clean energy and advanced electronics. Richard Riman, RCEI Affiliate and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science …
Over 4.5 billion years ago, Earth formed through elemental and celestial processes whose chemical and isotopic signatures remain preserved in Earth and space rocks. Some of these ancient materials originate from nearby planetary bodies and fall to Earth as meteorites. For Dr. Katherine Bermingham, Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, studying these fragments of space began with curiosity …
The Rutgers Immersive Learning through Science Storytelling Lab in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences supports students from a wide variety of majors to partner with Rutgers researchers in the co-creation of compelling video narratives that communicate science as journeys of discovery for peer and public audiences. The lab’s innovative pedagogical model was recently recognized by the New Jersey State Senate …
An article from Fast Company reports on new research showing where solar energy investments can most effectively reduce carbon emissions across the United States. The study, published in Science Advances, modeled how increasing solar capacity by just 15% nationwide could cut annual carbon dioxide emissions by 8.54 million metric tons. The findings highlight that while regions like California, Texas, Florida, …
As we use more electricity for things like cars and heating, power distribution systems are becoming more stressed—especially as our electric grids get older—and power outages are becoming more impactful. But what if the local solar panels, batteries, or even electric cars and heaters themselves could help keep the lights on? That’s the big idea in a new study published …
Once a chemical engineer, forever an artist. Atif Akin calls himself a “problem-maker” rather than a problem solver. He enjoys posing skeptical questions and ruffling feathers, and he does not worry much about answering the questions he puts forward. As an artist and designer, born and raised in Türkiye, Akin’s gateway into visual arts and design was through his background in chemical engineering …
Rutgers-led researchers find survival strategies of the great apes offer lessons for human health and diet management Humans could learn a thing or two from orangutans when it comes to maintaining a balanced, protein-filled diet. Great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, orangutans are marvels of adaptation to the vagaries of food supply in the wild, according …
