Recent Science News

Calling a break the gap between two tasks cuts rumination and lifts performance afterwards
Framing a break as falling between two tasks, not in the middle of one, halved rumination in one experiment (20 vs 40 on a 100-point scale) and raised post-break output from 2.02 to 2.40 words found per minute.

A voice model spotted alcohol intoxication from one-second clips with 98% accuracy
In a lab study of 18 adults reading tongue twisters before and after drinking, a machine learning model using voice spectrograms identified intoxication above 0.08% breath alcohol with 98% accuracy, 98% sensitivity and 97% specificity.

Victims who keep quiet about being wronged are judged more moral than those who go public
Across five studies with 2,896 people, victims who chose not to broadcast their mistreatment were rated as better moral partners. In one study they scored 6.95 out of 9, against 4.70 for victims who complained widely.

Traffic noise costs Americans $110 billion, and poorer neighbourhoods pay most
Homes near new Florida noise barriers rose 6.8% in value within 100 metres. Scaled up, traffic noise costs the US $110 billion, falls hardest on low-income tracts, and would justify a $974 tax per vehicle.

Toronto areas that lost their ash trees saw home prices fall 7%
Using an invasive beetle that killed Toronto's ash trees, economists found one extra tree raises nearby property prices by 0.45%, and the hardest-hit areas lost 7 points of canopy and 7% of home value.

Students using an AI well-being app felt calmer, less lonely and more resilient
In a six-week trial with 486 undergraduates at three US colleges, students given an AI coaching app reported more positive emotion, belonging and resilience and less loneliness than a waitlist group. Depression, anxiety and stress did not change.

AI reads personality from LinkedIn photos and it predicts MBA pay as well as looks
Personality traits that an AI extracted from the LinkedIn photos of 96,909 MBA graduates predicted school rank, pay and job tenure. The top fifth of profiles earned 4.2% (men) and 4.7% (women) more than the bottom fifth after controls, a gap similar to the Black-White pay gap.