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New analysis of web search data from the run up to the Scottish independence referendum has shown that neither the Vow by the three main Westminster parties, which promised to devolve further powers to Scotland if it voted to stay part of the UK, nor the last TV debate, had any substantial impact on the final voting results.

Sharp and significant increases in suicides followed select financial crisis events and austerity announcements in Greece, from the start of the country's 2008 recession to steep spending cuts in 2012, Penn Medicine researchers report in a new study published online this week in the British Medical Journal Open, along with colleagues from Greece and the United Kingdom.

Mass die-offs of animals may be increasing in frequency and - for birds, fishes, and marine invertebrates - in severity as well, according to a study of 727 mass mortality events since 1940. Despite the ecological importance of individual mass mortality events, in which a larger than normal number of individuals die within a population, little research has been conducted on patterns across mass mortality events.

Conventional wisdom holds that changing the views of voters on divisive issues is difficult if not impossible — and that when change does occur, it is almost always temporary. But Michael LaCour, a UCLA doctoral candidate in political science, and Donald Green, a Columbia University political science professor, have demonstrated that a single conversation can go a long way toward building lasting support for a controversial social issue.

Oxford's law students have held their first moot court competition that specifically focuses on issues affecting people with disabilities.

Scientists report a new method for establishing whether chemical compounds are safe for human use without "in vivo" testing, based on so-called "molecular initiating events" at the boundary between chemistry and biology.

The ocean is warming steadily and setting up the conditions for stronger El Niño weather events, a new study has shown. A team of US, Australian, and Canadian researchers sampled corals from a remote island in Kiribati to build a 60-year record of ocean surface temperature and salinity. "The trend is unmistakeable, the ocean's primed for more El Niño events," says lead-author Dr Jessica Carilli, now based at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Farewell Philae - narrow-angle view Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera captured this parting shot of the Philae lander after separation. The lander separated from the orbiter at 09:03 GMT/10:03 CET and is expected to touch down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko seven hours later. Confirmation of a successful touchdown is expected in a one-hour window centred on 16:02 GMT / 17:02 CET.

Press release issued: 3 November 2014 Heinrich events, in which large masses of icebergs rapidly broke free from ice sheets during the last ice age, are thought to have influenced global climate by interrupting ocean circulation patterns with a large influx of freshwater. However, new research from the University of Bristol suggests the variations in the height of the ice sheet that happen in these events might also influence global climate.

22 Aug 2014 New research by a team of UK and European-based astronomers is helping to solve the mystery of what caused a spectacular supernova in a galaxy 11 million light years away, seen earlier this year. The supernova, a giant explosion of a star and the closest one to the Earth in decades, was discovered earlier this year by chance at the University of London Observatory.

University of Washington The disastrous March 22 landslide that killed 43 people in the rural Washington state community of Oso involved the "remobilization” of a 2006 landslide on the same hillside, a new federally sponsored geological study concludes. The research indicates the landslide, the deadliest in U.S. history, happened in two major stages.

Do school gardens influence kids' diet and physical activity? Does hip-hop belong in the classroom? How can teens use Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and other social media responsibly? Cornell faculty experts addressed these and other questions for nearly 50 Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) county leaders, 4-H educators and community partners at the fourth annual Youth Development Research Update, June 3-4 in Ithaca.

Scientists studying the social media activity in the immediate aftermath of Lee Rigby's murder have found that messages loaded with racial tension and hate were far less likely to spread than those infused with love. By collecting half a million tweets related to the attack via Twitter, academics from the University's Collaborative Online Social Media Observatory ( COSMOS ) were able to statistically model how the public reacted and have published their findings in the international peer-reviewed journal Social Network Analysis and Mining.

As Ireland marks the millennium of the Battle of Clontarf - portrayed as a heroic encounter between Irish and Vikings which defined the nation's identity - new research argues that our main source for what happened may be more literary history than historical fact. This was more than a literary flourish, it was a work of a superb, sophisticated and learned author Máire Ní Mhaonaigh The standard account of the Battle of Clontarf - a defining moment in Irish history which happened 1,000 years ago this week - was partly a "pseudo-history" borrowed from the tale of Troy, new research suggests.

Researchers from Lund University in Sweden have shown for the first time that our eye movements actively help us remember events. Where we focus our gaze can actively affect how successful we are in retrieving the right memory. WATCH VIDEO STORY The unique study used eye tracking technology to record three different scenarios.

Neuroscientists discover neurological hyperactivity that produces disordered thinking. Schizophrenia patients usually suffer from a breakdown of organized thought, often accompanied by delusions or hallucinations. For the first time, MIT neuroscientists have observed the neural activity that appears to produce this disordered thinking.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences today awarded the Nobel Prize in physics to theorists Peter Higgs and Francois Englert to recognize their work developing the theory of what is now known as the Higgs field, which gives elementary particles mass. Thousands of scientists from around the world played a significant role in discovering the particle that proves the existence of the Higgs field, the Higgs boson.

Computer graphics are moving off the movie screen and into everyday life. Home remodeling specialists, for example, may soon be able to to show you how your kitchen would look with marble countertops or stainless steel appliances. To do this, computers have to be able to recognize and simulate common materials; so Cornell researchers have drawn on uniquely human skills to build a database of surfaces computers can work with.

AUSTIN, Texas — In the wake of tragedies such as the Sandy Hook school shooting, the Boston Marathon bombing and the devastating explosion in the Texas town of West, people are often left asking, "Why did this happen?" According to new research from The University of Texas at Austin, the best way to make sense of tragedy is to turn away from detailed reports in the news and social media and adopt a more simplified understanding of the event.