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A still image taken from a video available at hubcab.com showing a map of Manhattan (upper left), with the yellow lines indicating taxi trips. Where lines intersect indicates sharing opportunities. Three years ago, Steven Strogatz, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow, helped a group from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology identify the 'shareability' of cab service in New York City.

A newly published study co-authored by MIT researchers suggests that urban ride-sharing is feasible in a wide variety of cities around the globe - and indeed that the potential 'shareability' of autos in those places is more similar, from place to place, than previously expected. The work builds on a 2014 study showing that ride-sharing - in the form of, say, taxi trips shared with other passengers traveling along similar routes - could be highly effective in New York City.

ANN ARBOR'A new study finds evidence that the last time Earth was as warm as it is today, cold freshwater from a melting Greenland ice sheet circulated in the Atlantic Ocean as far south as Bermuda, elevating sea levels and altering the ocean's climate and ecosystems. The research shows a large pulse of cold freshwater covered the North Atlantic for a brief period of time about 125,000 years ago.

The discovery of a regenerative stem cell active in human blood vessels could help patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The University of Queensland Dr Jatin Patel said the finding overcomes one of the biggest hurdles in understanding cardiovascular disease and how wounds heal. "It will allow research to focus on improving the use of blood vessels which are often under strain in patients with conditions like cardiovascular disease and diabetes," Dr Patel said.

Engineering research at The University of Nottingham, UK and Ningbo, China (UNNC) has found laser scanning is a new and viable structural safety technique to detect the damaging effects of fire on concrete. Concrete is the most extensively used construction material worldwide with an average global yearly consumption of 1m3 per person.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) could offer a new non-invasive test for liver damage that could transform the care of patients with cirrhosis, say experts in Nottingham. In a paper published in the Journal of Hepatology , the researchers from The University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust have demonstrated that MRI can be successfully used to estimate the pressure in the circulation of the liver.

Melbourne's busiest day is Thursday, Sydneysiders are hardest at it on a Friday while Sunday commonly appears to be a day of rest, according to a new analysis of city temperatures. The new research, led by the University of Melbourne, investigated temperatures in some of Australia's major cities to reveal a fascinating insight into just how human activity affects the urban environment.

What's the best way to measure human exposure to urban pollution? Typically, cities do so by studying air-quality levels in fixed places. New York City, for example, has an extensive monitoring network that measures air quality in 155 locations. But now a study led by MIT researchers, focused on New York City, suggests that using mobile-phone data to track people's movement provides an even deeper picture of exposure to pollution in urban settings.

A citizen science study has revealed that being next to just one hard surface reduces the diversity of plants and animals in hedgerows. The UK-wide study asked volunteers to record details about hedges both in rural settings, like farmland, and urban settings, like gardens. Nearly 3,000 hedgerows were investigated by members of the public.

The way the ocean transported heat, nutrients and carbon dioxide at the peak of the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago, is significantly different than what has previously been suggested, according to two new studies. The findings suggest that the colder ocean circulated at a very slow rate, which enabled it to store much more carbon for much longer than the modern ocean.

Birds of the species Parus Major (great tit) living in an urban environment are at greater risk of dying young than great tits living outside cities. Research results from Lund University in Sweden show that urban great tits have shorter telomeres than others of their own species living in rural areas.

Urban birds are less afraid of litter than their country cousins, according to a new study, which suggests they may learn that litter in cities is not dangerous. The research could help birds to adapt to urban settings better, helping them to survive increasing human encroachment on their habitats.

Lower social cohesion among neighbours and higher crime rates contribute to higher rates of psychotic symptoms among urban children, a new study from researchers at Duke University and King's College London finds. Previous research has also identified higher rates of psychotic symptoms among children in cities.

People who may be exposed to trauma can train themselves to think in a way that could protect them from PTSD symptoms, according to a study from King's College London and Oxford University. Clinical psychologists Rachel White and Jennifer Wild wanted to test whether a way of thinking about situations called concrete processing could reduce the number of intrusive memories experienced after a traumatic event.

The new concrete tower construction method, which has been developed by TU Wien, offers significant benefits specifically for wind turbines. More and more wind power plants are producing electricity - but what is the best method for building them? The team led by Prof. Johann Kollegger at the Institute of Structural Engineering at TU Wien has developed a new tower construction method which combines the key benefits of the existing methods.

01. All wood, no beams: the cantonal parliament in Lausanne, which is currently being rehabilitated, will be roofed using new wood construction technology researched and developed at EPFL.

Companies with women on their executive and supervisory boards are valued more highly by the stock markets. Investors rate the performance of the few women who climbed to the top of the career ladder in companies without a gender quota as being better than that of their male peers. Economists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of Hong Kong used an unusual method to reach this conclusion.

The Munich metropolitan area is under pressure from the rapidly growing economy and population. Affordable living space is difficult to come by and the transport infrastructure is overloaded. Researchers at Technical University of Munich (TUM) have provided approaches for how to sustainably change transportation planning and regional development as part of the study "Living, Working and Mobility in Munich Metropolitan Area".

Bridges, tunnels and roads: Concrete is the main component of our infrastructure. And when the structural elements need to be repaired, it often leads to long traffic jams. At the Annual Meeting of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) in Washington, D.C. Prof. Christian Grosse from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and other experts talked about smart materials for sustainable infrastructure.

Using compost is the single best thing you can do to protect your family from any danger associated with lead in urban soils. Good compost will also guarantee that you will have plenty of vegetables to harvest. That's the main finding of a paper appearing this month in the Journal of Environmental Quality.