Scientists get their best-ever look at distant planet’s surface

Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope, a group of scientists has gotten the best-ever look at a distant planet’s surface.

Astronomers have found thousands of worlds in faraway star systems, but one of the questions that’s been hardest to answer is the one that immediately jumps to any human mind: What does the planet look like?

By analyzing subtle changes in light, researchers found the planet Kua’kua—which orbits a small star in the constellation Indus—has a dark, solid surface, possibly made of basalt or a related type of rock. It probably doesn’t have plate tectonics like Earth does, and very little if any atmosphere.

In addition to providing a glimpse into the planet’s physical appearance, these factors can help us understand the different types of worlds that exist in the universe. They can also narrow the search for potentially habitable planets by revealing whether they’ve ever had water, active geology, or other conditions that might support life.

“This technique can tell us about how the rocks on this planet formed and what processes shaped it over the planet’s lifetime,” says Brandon Coy, a graduate student at University of Chicago and coauthor on the paper. “There’s a lot of cool things we can do with this data.”

The program’s primary investigator was Laura Kreidberg of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, and the first author was Sebastian Zieba of the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Though we now know of more than 6,000 exoplanets, they’re generally too small and far away to be directly looked at, even with the most powerful telescopes. Instead, scientists must tease out clues about these planets with clever workarounds.

One of these techniques is known as the “secondary eclipse technique.” In this method, you map the light coming from the system, then wait for the planet to dip behind the star as part of its regular orbit. The difference between the readings is the light from the planet itself. Scientists can use this data to get a sense of the molecules in the planet’s atmosphere and other details.

This technique works well for big gas planets, similar to Jupiter, that are close to their stars.

“Unfortunately, the smaller worlds are harder to see,” says Edwin Kite, associate professor of geophysical sciences at UChicago and a study coauthor, “but they’re the ones most relevant to fragile carbon-based beings like us.”

Luckily, scientists have a powerful new tool on their side: “The James Webb Space Telescope has really opened up a new era in characterizing these rocky planets,” says Coy.

Kite, Coy, and the team used the telescope to focus on a planet known as Kuaꞌkua, or LHS 3844 b by its formal scientific name, which is 48 light-years away from Earth, meaning it would take 48 years to travel there even at the speed of light. Kua’kua is about twice the mass of Earth, but is much closer to its sun and zips around it faster—its “year,” the time it takes to complete a full trip around its host star, is the equivalent of 0.5 Earth days.

By analyzing data from three secondary eclipses with different models, they were able to put together a striking amount of detail about the planet.

Kua’kua’s surface appears to be very dark, most likely made up of basalt or similar rock—much like the rock you might see in Iceland or Hawaii. The planet is probably covered in a dark, weathered powder, as our moon and Mercury are. And there’s no signature in the readings for an atmosphere with carbon dioxide, or even a sulfurous one belched from volcanoes.

The color is of particular interest because a lighter-colored surface might have indicated a granite crust, which on Earth, is made in the presence of water and could also have indicated the presence of plate tectonics. It’s been theorized that Earth’s plate tectonics are key to keeping the planet’s climate stable and habitable for life, so scientists are keen to understand how common they might be in the other planets of the universe.

Combining the new findings with data from previous missions paints a picture of the planet: a dark, dry, rocky, unmoving surface, with a thin atmosphere if any at all. One side of the planet always faces its star, so that side is constantly cooked by the sun to 1,300ºF and the other side is shrouded in darkness.

You probably aren’t putting Kua’kua on your vacation shortlist. But each planet we learn about tells us more about how planets form—and by extension, how to look for planets friendlier to Earth life.

“We’ve only got four rocky planets in our solar system, and they’re very diverse. Some have atmospheres and some don’t, one is habitable and three aren’t—and one used to be habitable. So we just don’t have a big enough sample size to understand how these objects operate,” says Kite.

“The more we learn about these other planets, the better we understand the ingredients that make for stable, habitable planets.”

As for Kua’kua, plans are underway to use the Webb Telescope to try to get a snapshot of how rough the planet’s surface is and other details—which would be another first.

The research appears in Nature Astronomy.

The study made use of observations by the James Webb Space Telescope and the TESS mission, as well as the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

Funding for the work came from NASA, NSFC, the Eugene V. Cota-Robles Award, and the Nathan P. Myhrvold Graduate Fellowship.

Source: University of Chicago

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Teaching preschoolers with food boosts science learning

Using food in the classroom can help preschoolers learn more about science and increase their vocabulary skills, according to new research.

It also might get preschoolers to taste, or at least touch, the green vegetables on their dinner plates.

Food-based learning is defined as the use of food as a tool to improve children’s dietary behaviors and academic learning related to knowledge (e.g., science, mathematics, and literacy) and skills (e.g., gross motor, fine, and physical).

Researchers explored whether putting food at the center of learning could spark young children’s interest in science while also learning about nutritious foods grown in North Carolina. They also looked at whether this approach could help teachers explain science concepts more effectively.

“We want to encourage kids to get excited about science and be curious about the world around them. We saw food as a way to get kids excited about learning, because you can also use food as a way to teach so many different concepts, like science, mathematics, and language.” says Virginia Stage, an associate professor of agricultural and human sciences at North Carolina State University and lead author of a paper describing the study.

“Our work also teaches teachers how you can build those positive experiences with food while you’re also meeting the other learning standards that have to be addressed to get preschoolers ready for kindergarten,” Stage adds.

“In the meantime, we are also teaching kids about nutritious foods by giving them opportunities to explore food as they learn more about where it comes from, how it looks, smells, feels, tastes, and sometimes, even how it grows, before ever having to eat the food. This method can be particularly helpful for foods that young children are often hesitant to try, like fruits and vegetables.”

After conceiving and implementing an innovative food-based-learning program—called “More PEAS Please!”—for Head Start children in three North Carolina counties, the team examined the program using both quantitative and qualitative methods. It compared more than 125 students who received the intervention with almost 150 who did not.

One of the classroom units for the intervention was learning about seeds, the building blocks of fruits and vegetables. Children looked at and played with different seeds, examined how a seed germinates, tested how seeds grow in different environments—with and without sun and water, for example—and then made a “seed salsa” recipe made with tomatoes and corn.

The results were positive, showing that children receiving the food-based learning intervention increased their understanding of scientific concepts four times more than the group without the intervention. Their vocabulary increased, too, by almost 20% at the end of the school year, while the group without the intervention increased their vocabulary by 6%.

Moreover, the qualitative portion of the study showed that teachers learned a lot about communicating science and nutrition through food.

“We feel like teacher perspectives are critical, because we could be missing something really important about what teachers need to be successful. If we don’t have that context to understand what’s happening in the classroom, we won’t really know how to make the program more effective in the future. We’re investing in the teachers so that they can practice those skills and invest in their kids,” Stage says.

Intervention teachers attend an all-day workshop early in the school year and then receive supplemental resources throughout the year. YouTube whiteboard videos provide additional training. One example: how to talk about science with a four-year-old.

Study coauthor Jocelyn Dixon, assistant director and research project coordinator for the Feeding & Eating Education Lab in NC State’s agricultural and human sciences department, says that non-pressuring exposures to healthy foods outside of mealtime are an important aspect of the “More PEAS Please!” project.

“We try to reframe what success looks like in this field of working with healthy foods in the preschool space,” she says. “Because we often trap ourselves into thinking that success means that a child ends up eating some broccoli or spinach. But if the last time you did an activity, the child only touched the spinach with a fork, and today the child is open to touching it and tearing it with their fingers—that’s a huge win.

“That’s really the crux of what ‘More PEAS Please!’ is all about. I’m at lunch, and there’s an expectation that I need to eat this spinach, but rather, how can I explore spinach like a scientist as something that we grow in our garden or as an example of a living thing?”

The paper appears in the Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior.

Additional coauthors are from East Carolina University and Telamon Corporation Head Start.

This work was supported by a National Institute of General Medical Sciences Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA).

Source: North Carolina State University

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Positivity can help lower your heart disease risk

Continuous doses of positivity can do more than change your mood—they can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

A new study in Cardiology Clinics, coauthored by University of South Florida Assistant Professor Soonhyung Kwon, examines the best way to apply positive psychology interventions, such as gratitude, mindfulness, and optimism training, to address the leading cause of death worldwide: cardiovascular disease.

“While much of cardiovascular research has traditionally focused on stress and negative emotions such as anxiety and depression, there is growing evidence that positive psychological factors play an important role in health outcomes,” Kwon says.

“This study was motivated by a key research gap, to discover how much or how often these interventions should be delivered to produce meaningful cardiovascular benefits.”

Kwon’s research focuses on how positive psychological well-being influences physical health, particularly cardiovascular health. While positivity can encourage healthier habits such as diet and exercise, researchers still wanted to understand how much and how often these interventions matter.

To find answers, he collaborated with colleagues from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. The team analyzed data patterns across 18 past randomized controlled trials, each containing 50–200 participants.

Participants were assigned to structured positive psychology programs ranging from app- and text-based programs to journaling. The programs were delivered through weekly sessions and daily at-home activities, allowing researchers to measure changes in cardiovascular health and behavior. Kwon and his collaborators then analyzed the data to identify common patterns in when participants experienced improvements following the interventions.

“Our findings show short-term cardiovascular benefits are most consistent when interventions are delivered frequently, often daily, over an eight- to 12-week period,” Kwon says.

“In some cases, we saw people in positivity programs lower their blood pressure by about 7 to 8 points and take an extra 1,800 steps per day.”

Together, these findings suggest that simple, structured practices can meaningfully improve both emotional well-being and cardiovascular health when done consistently.

Common approaches studied in these interventions include:

• Writing down a few things you’re grateful for each day
• Practicing brief mindfulness or breathing exercises
• Reframing negative thoughts into more constructive ones
• Following these habits regularly over an 8- to 12-week period
• Continuing engagement at a lower intensity to maintain benefits

A large part of Kwon’s research is also tied to older populations and how wearable technology can further benefit them

Building on these findings, the digital platforms Kwon references are a key part of his research at USF, which focuses on digital health, gerontology, and positive psychology. Seeing these health barriers further motivates him to explore digital health interventions, such as virtual reality, mobile applications, and wearable devices.

“I want to use these tools as ways to deliver positive psychological and physical activity interventions to older adults who might otherwise lack access to traditional healthcare services,” Kwon says.

Currently, Kwon is further collaborating with USF colleagues in the School of Social Work and the Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing. He plans to develop an augmented reality (AR)‑based physical activity intervention for older adults living in the Tampa Bay area. This program will use AR‑guided movement tools, real‑time feedback and age‑friendly exercises to support broader cardiovascular health outcomes.

Source: University of South Florida

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Should you accept internet cookies?

A new study finds ad revenue that supports digital publishers and content creators tumbles when internet cookies are removed.

It’s a choice you may face multiple times a day—and, at this point, your reaction is probably reflexive. Are you going to accept those internet cookies, reject them, or spend a little time customizing your settings?

Increasingly, internet users are pushing back against cookies—the digital crumbs used by websites and advertisers to spot returning customers—by choosing privacy-enhancing browsers or clicking that reject button.

But ditching the cookies may have big implications for the free web.

If digital companies, content creators, and advertisers aren’t making money from our surfing, the quality and usefulness of the products they offer might suffer too.

In the new study, Boston University researchers highlight the potential impact the loss of cookies has on advertisers and how alternative systems designed to balance privacy and revenue fail to recoup the costs.

They analyzed 200 million ad impressions—or views—worldwide and found that removing cookies cut website publishers’ revenue by more than a third. They also discovered that privacy-enhanced alternatives, notably a major Google project called Privacy Sandbox, only clawed back a small portion of that lost revenue.

The findings appear in PNAS.

“Internet cookies—especially third-party cookies—have been central to how online advertising works,” says Garrett Johnson, a BU Questrom School of Business associate professor of marketing. Third-party cookies are those placed by an organization, like an advertiser, not connected to the site you’re on.

“In our study, removing third-party cookies reduced publisher ad revenue by about 35%—and about 66% in the European Union—showing that cookies still play a major economic role in supporting the open web.”

The European Union has tougher online privacy rules than much of the rest of the world.

According to Zhengrong Gu, a Questrom PhD candidate, because cookies help advertisers spot users around the web, they can better target and measure their ads. That makes advertisers’ spending more efficient, putting more ad money in the pockets of content creators and publishers.

“If more users decline cookies, it would likely reduce the effectiveness of digital advertising and the revenue that supports much of the open web,” says Gu.

The downside of cookies: no one really likes being followed.

“Website cookies are online surveillance tools,” writes Wayne State University researcher Elizabeth Stoycheff in a Conversation article, “and the commercial and government entities that use them would prefer people not read those notifications too closely.”

There have been a couple of different responses to the decline in cookie use. One is the implementation of paywalls and subscriptions to keep the cash flowing; another is requiring customers to use log-ins that work across multiple sites. Tech companies are also experimenting with privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) that try to balance advertising needs with user privacy concerns. One of the best known PETs is Privacy Sandbox, Google’s now-defunct six-year experiment in cookie alternatives, which included innovations such as a browser tool that shared a customer’s interests rather than their detailed online history.

“In our study, Privacy Sandbox recovered only about 4% of the revenue lost when cookies were removed,” says Shunto J. Kobayashi, a Questrom assistant professor of marketing. That weak impact was in part due to the limited adoption of the new tools and because they changed the user experience, he says, introducing “technical frictions, especially slower ad loading times.”

In their paper, the researchers write that their findings, alongside those from other studies, “informed Google’s decision to abandon its plan to replace cookies with Privacy Sandbox. The episode underscores the difficulty of aligning privacy, performance, and competition goals in digital markets.”

To examine privacy technologies in a real-world setting, the BU team used data from ad management firm Raptive, and leveraged an experiment conducted by Google and overseen by the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority. During the study, Chrome users were randomly assigned to one of three groups: cookies-enabled, cookies-disabled, or cookies replaced by Privacy Sandbox. The study included around 60 million desktop and mobile Chrome users.

“The experiment created a rare opportunity for independent, large-scale evaluation open to external participants,” says Johnson, an expert on digital marketing who has studied privacy regulations, online ad effectiveness, and the economics of digital advertising.

He adds that many European regulators are considering even tighter online privacy rules, which could have a negative impact: “Our results provide unusually strong evidence—from a global, industry-wide field experiment—that restricting cookies carries significant economic downsides that regulators should consider.”

As for users faced with that daily accept or reject decision, Johnson recognizes that everyone will make the call that works for them—but he leans toward clicking “accept.”

“From my perspective, accepting cookies creates substantial benefits for the advertising ecosystem and the publishers I care about,” he says, “with what I perceive to be little personal risk.”

This research received financial support from the Center for Industry Self-Regulation.

Source: Boston University

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Losing pollinator insects puts human health at risk

Biodiversity loss is directly threatening human health and welfare, according to new research.

The study in Nature reveals for the first time how the decline of insect pollinators undermines essential ecosystem services that support human nutrition and livelihoods.

It’s been long known that insect pollinators are vital for producing many of the fruits, vegetables, and legumes that supply essential vitamins and minerals in our diets, yet clear evidence of how their decline affects people has been limited.

Working in 10 smallholder farming villages and their surrounding landscapes in Nepal, researchers traced the full chain of connections between wild pollinators, crop yields, and the nutrients families rely on. By tracking diets, crop nutrients, and the insects visiting those crops over a year, the research team showed how pollinators directly support both nutrition and livelihoods.

“This study directly connects the crops that local pollinators visit with people’s diets, nutrition, and income,” says Matt Smith, a research scientist in the environmental and occupational health sciences department at the University of Washington.

“It was a real collaborative effort across many partners to collect and analyze a large body of data, making it possible to explore these links.”

The study found insect pollinators were responsible for 44% of people’s farming income and contributed more than 20% of their intake of vitamin A, folate, and vitamin E. When pollinators decline, families risk poorer nutrition leading to higher vulnerability to illness and infections, and deeper cycles of poverty and poor health. One quarter of the global population currently suffer from this “hidden hunger.”

The research shows there is real potential for positive change—nutrition and income can improve when communities support pollinators. Simple steps like planting wildflowers, using fewer pesticides, or keeping native bees can help boost pollinator numbers, strengthening both nature and people’s wellbeing.

Even though smallholder farmers are highly vulnerable to biodiversity loss, these practical local actions could enhance their food security and economic resilience. The findings could also help improve the health and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers around the world.

“Our study shows that biodiversity is not a luxury—it is fundamental to our health, nutrition, and livelihoods,” says lead author Thomas Timberlake, who completed the research while at the University of Bristol and is now a postdoctoral research associate at the University of York, both in the United Kingdom.

“By revealing how species like pollinators support the food we eat, we highlight both the risks of biodiversity loss for human health and the powerful opportunities to improve human lives by working with nature.”

The research shows that human health is deeply tied to the health of nature. By tracking how pollinators support food production and diets, the study reveals that biodiversity loss isn’t just an environmental problem, it threatens public health and economic stability—as highlighted in the recent UK government national security assessment on global biodiversity loss.

With around 2 billion people relying on smallholder farming and with many facing vitamin deficiencies, protecting the ecosystems that support nutritious food is essential and crucial for sustainable development.

The study’s findings offer a practical framework to help policymakers and farmers design more nature‑positive farming systems. Although the research is focused on Nepal, the same connections shape food systems everywhere. Diets, even in industrialized countries, still depend on the pollinators and ecosystems that sustain global agriculture.

The researchers—spanning universities and non-governmental organizations across Nepal, the UK, the US, and Finland—are now putting their findings into action across Nepal to tackle pollinator declines and repair the pollination systems that support food production. Working with farmers, local organizations, researchers, and government partners, they are helping people understand the value of pollinators and how to support them in everyday farming.

By demonstrating why pollinators matter, and sharing simple, practical techniques to support them, the researchers are already seeing farmers adopt changes that boost crop yields, nutrition, and income.

“A ‘win-win’ scenario exists where we can simultaneously improve conditions for both biodiversity and people,” says coauthor Jane Memmott, professor of ecology at the University of Bristol.

“It takes ecological understanding, but it costs remarkably little and there are significant gains for both parties.”

This story was adapted from a press release by the University of Bristol.

Source: University of Washington

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What do teachers really think of AI in the classroom?

Artificial intelligence has swept into American schools, and more is sure to come.

This year, both Google and Microsoft—the two biggest companies at the forefront of the AI boom—announced major investments in AI training for teachers.

But what do teachers think of this transformation of their work?

Katie Davis, a University of Washington professor in the Information School and codirector of the Center for Digital Youth, studies how technology affects young people’s learning and development. Davis has also been teaching for over two decades—first as an elementary school teacher and now as a professor—so she’s acutely aware of how earlier technological revolutions in teaching have not always played out as hoped.

Davis and a UW-led team of researchers interviewed 22 teachers in Aurora Public Schools in Colorado—a district that’s investing heavily in AI through systems like Google’s Gemini and MagicSchool, an AI tool that helps teachers plan.

Overall, teachers were ambivalent about the technology. They liked that it could reduce workload, especially for rote tasks, but worried that it could erode the social aspects of teaching.

The team presented its research at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Barcelona.

Here, Davis talks about the study and how ostensibly democratizing technologies can widen disparities in schools:

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Reducing fear is key to improving trust in police

Reducing fear is critical for improving trust in law enforcement, according to a new study.

Law enforcement is a critical aspect of ensuring safety in communities. However, unjustified harm has been associated with law enforcement throughout history, resulting in tension between police and communities.

Fear of unjustified police harm remains prevalent, especially in minoritized communities. However, research on this fear has not typically focused on the importance of psychology when it comes to understanding community perceptions of law enforcement.

The new research from Michigan State University’s School of Criminal Justice sought to understand some of the explanations for fear of unjustified police harm.

Published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, the research suggests that the perceived likelihood and severity of an incident explain why some people fear law enforcement.

“We pursued this project in hopes of contributing to the knowledge base regarding fear of police,” says Keara Werth, lead investigator on the project and doctoral student at the MSU School of Criminal Justice.

“By seeking to understand the reasons behind differences in fear of the police, we hope our findings will be used to increase the quality of relationships between police and the community members they serve.”

Conversations about police staffing and training are important for improving trust, but perceptions rooted in fear are hard to change, especially when communities have experienced unjustified harm.

Existing research has highlighted demographic differences surrounding fear. For example, Black/African American individuals typically report the greatest fear of being killed by law enforcement. Regarding political beliefs, pro-police attitudes are usually much higher among Republicans compared to Democrats.

Working with Associate Professor Joe Hamm, the research team sought to develop a psychological understanding of fear of crime through three key factors: control, likelihood, and severity of the fear of crime. They created a survey to measure these three factors and collected data from participants who have both racial and political differences.

They found that fearful participants tended to believe that it was likely that an officer would harm them and that, if they did, the harm would be severe.

The study did not find a strong link between fear and a person’s sense of control over these situations. That may suggest people feel they have little influence over encounters involving police force, or that “control” is difficult to define in these situations. The researchers say more work is needed to better understand and measure how people perceive control during police interactions.

The researchers also examined whether these patterns differed across racial and ethnic groups. While the factors linked to fear were somewhat stronger among white participants than other groups, the overall findings were similar: Regardless of background, people tended to feel fear for many of the same underlying reasons, especially how likely or severe they believed unjustified police harm could be.

The findings highlight the need to address police violence by better preparing officers to recognize and respond appropriately to threats, while limiting the use of more harmful tactics and weapons that can escalate encounters. The researchers note, however, that even if the actual risk and severity of police violence decrease, public perceptions and fears may take longer to change.

To strengthen relationships between the public and law enforcement, trust is key. Law enforcement must consistently demonstrate to the public—in word and action—that police can do their jobs appropriately and that they are serving and acting in the public’s best interest.

Additionally, the study suggests that people may not understand how they can establish meaningful control during interaction with law enforcement, therefore, important to create opportunities to expand the public’s understanding of strategies for deescalating situations or lawfully avoiding unjustified police harm to further mitigate fear.

As police officers across the nation continue to face scrutiny for their role in escalating the severity of interactions with the public, it is essential that fear and other emotions are considered when developing methods and efforts for improving trust.

“Police and community relations have long been an important conversation, but there is a lot of attention being paid right now, especially to the expanding role of federal law enforcement in the day-to-day lives of people across our country,” Hamm says.

“For many, that is—and should be—scary. There is an important balance to strike between protecting communities and motivating fear. It is important to focus attention on the efforts that are most likely to ensure that policing is both effective and appropriately bounded.”

Source: Michigan State University

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