Fig and pomegranate trees, grapes, carrots, and narcissus flowers are some of the plants that Aveen Ismail likes to grow in the Domiz refugee camp in Northern Iraq where she lives. That's because these plants remind her of Syria and home. At first, Ismail did not find the dry land welcoming ...

“Hope is the thing with feathers/ That perches in the soul,” Emily Dickinson wrote. Is there hope for our feathered friends in the era of climate change? Yes, but they need our help. More than 300 North American birds will likely lose over 50 percent of their current geographical range by 2080, according to Audubon’s 2014 Birds and Climate Change Report.

A recent study of a science grant application process at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found male applicants received higher scores than women, even in a blind review. At the foundation’s request, a team from the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research analyzed this imbalance and reported that factors like scientific discipline and position, publication record, and grant history were not factors — the main difference was in the language used in proposal titles and descriptions.

The COVID-19 pandemic and school shutdowns have created new challenges for nearly all educators and students, and their families. This is especially true in the realm of special education. Each public school student who receives special education services is required to have an individualized education program (IEP) that outlines their instruction, goals, services, and more. According to a new government study (PDF), fulfilling children’s IEP’s during remote learning has proved difficult...

At the peak of a Virginia summer, the difference between the sun and shade is stark. High urban temperatures can be dangerous in the capital city of Richmond. Trees can provide substantial cooling, pull pollution from air and water, and beautify neighborhoods. But in Richmond and other U.S. cities, the racist housing policy of redlining has resulted in less tree canopy for many neighborhoods with predominantly Black residents, making them now hotter in the summer.

Accurately capturing a raindrop’s journey to the ground is tricky business. Evaporation can cause a raindrop to shrink between the time it is captured by radar in a cloud and when it hits a farmer’s field, and this can make it hard to rely on radar-based rainfall estimations in some areas. Researchers from the University of Missouri in Columbia are taking a closer look at evaporation. With the use of specialized weather algorithms ...

Artificial skins can help prosthetics and robotic limbs to process sensations and perform tasks with more dexterity. A new silicone rubber skin designed by engineers from the University of Washington (UW) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is unique in that it can sense shear force with high accuracy.

Blacksmiths in Colorado use their anvils to turn guns into gardening tools, reshaping America’s gun culture one strike of the hammer at a time. This is the work of the “Swords to Plows” initiative of the nonprofit RAWTools. Gun owners from around the country send RAWTools their disassembled weapons for transformation. Most guns can be made into several tools ...

For incarcerated young people, art can be a vital means of self-expression, a lifeline to the world outside, and a medium through which to dream and advocate. Performing Statistics, a nonprofit in Virginia, connects youth impacted by the juvenile justice system with artists, educators and policy advocates. Together, they imagine and work toward a world where no kids are locked up.

Having a role model in your field of choice can serve as a strong inspiration and affirmation. Founder of Black Girls CODE Kimberly Bryant wants to be sure young women of color find tech industry role models and mentors right in their local communities. This nonprofit creates opportunities for girls of color ages 7 to 17 ...