https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Dartmouth College In northeastern North America, a stretch of mountains runs 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the Adirondacks in New York to the Gaspé Peninsula in eastern Quebec. Nearly 70 million people live within a day's drive of one of the alpine zones, the areas above the tree line where trees don't grow because of harsh conditions. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-alpine-peaks-greening-northeast-canada.html Earth Sciences Fri, 25 Sep 2026 07:00:02 EDT news709532821 As climate change continues to affect the U.S., many regions throughout the country, especially the West, are experiencing more drought. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-drought-northeastern-states-decreased.html Environment Mon, 21 Sep 2026 13:20:07 EDT news709206121 Few parents or teachers are likely to suggest that teenagers could benefit from playing more video games. But a new study suggests that a growing class of educational games may be a highly effective tool for treating and preventing depression in adolescents. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-video-games-built-teen-depression.html Mon, 17 Aug 2026 11:00:01 EDT news705843362 When Siddhartha Jayanti sat down to write the first computer science paper in Telugu, an Indian language with approximately 100 million speakers, he realized he first had to solve a problem that had little to do with computing. He had to find the words. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-science-accessible-english.html Education Mon, 17 Aug 2026 10:40:03 EDT news706170301 A vaccine only protects a whole community if enough people get it, including those who would stay safe anyway once their neighbors are covered. The same tension runs through climate action and social movements: The shared payoff arrives only when enough people pitch in. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-based-rewards-cooperation-free-riders.html Mathematics Tue, 11 Aug 2026 17:00:03 EDT news705681417 A new study led by Fabrice Niyigaba '27 reports the first digital tool for identifying online propaganda in Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda's 15 million people—and possibly the first for any of the Bantu languages spoken by 350 million Africans. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-07-ai-gains-tool-kinyarwanda-propaganda.html Computer Sciences Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:40:10 EDT news704388601 Dozens of archaeological sites were destroyed by looting during Syria's civil war, which began in 2011 and lasted until 2024. Because the last comprehensive analysis was published in 2017, the extent of more recent damage to cultural heritage sites since 2016—including at UNESCO World Heritage sites such as Palmyra, long-running archaeological excavations like Mari, and the ancient Roman city of Apamea, known for its Great Colonnade—has been largely unknown. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-syria-ancient-sites-widespread-looting.html Archaeology Sat, 25 Jul 2026 16:00:01 EDT news704032741 Walk into a crowded coffee shop, and what catches your eye as you take in the scene could say as much about you as the spirals on your fingertips or the mutations in your DNA. Eye movements are so unique, in fact, that they could be used to identify you through objects that have personal meaning, according to a new study by Dartmouth researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-eye-movements-reveal-personal-fingerprints.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:20:06 EDT news702832812 Errors and irrelevant details mean physicians may spend more time editing AI-drafted responses than it would take to write them, a large study of an online patient portal shows. Artificial intelligence is spreading rapidly in health care, with the goal of streamlining critical but onerous clerical tasks such as note-taking and charting so physicians and nurses can devote more time to patients. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-ai-doctors-patients.html Mon, 06 Jul 2026 09:00:03 EDT news702223917 In spring 2024, more than 100,000 people protested in Taiwan's streets. On Threads, a parallel fight was underway. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ai-generated-cartoons-reshaped-taiwan.html Political science Mon, 22 Jun 2026 15:20:04 EDT news701353781 A Dartmouth College study is the first to map the interplay of personal choice and social networks that has led to the United States being one of the world's most heavily armed countries, with 120 firearms for every 100 people. The researchers describe in Science Advances how individual incentives to buy firearms can lead to a phenomenon they call "overarming." In an overarmed society, the collective cost of firearm ownership outweighs the individual benefits of possessing a gun. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-overarming-america-game-theory-explores.html Mathematics Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:00:10 EDT news699704161 Octopuses are remarkably intelligent creatures, as was demonstrated by Inky the Octopus's famous escape from the National Aquarium of New Zealand through a drainpipe back to sea in 2016. A new Dartmouth study shows octopuses can use mirrors to find food out of sight, demonstrating spatial cognitive abilities. The results are published in Current Biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-octopuses-mirror-prey.html Plants & Animals Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:40:07 EDT news699709322 A Dartmouth study shows that annual rainfall in much of the world has consolidated over the past four decades into heavier storms with longer dry periods in between. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-heavier-usable-global.html Earth Sciences Wed, 13 May 2026 11:00:12 EDT news697802701 When we learn something new, that information does not exist in isolation. It integrates into the complex landscape of our knowledge, forging connections with existing ideas and opening up possibilities for new learning. In a study in Nature Communications, Dartmouth researchers report a mathematical technique for mapping the unique landscape of a student's conceptual knowledge from their performance on short multiple-choice quizzes. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-mathematical-framework-landscape-student-knowledge.html Mathematics Tue, 24 Mar 2026 06:00:02 EDT news693488653 Dartmouth researchers have developed a cell phone-based tool that monitors tissue health by using a naturally occurring molecule to measure the oxygen level in cells. The tool could provide a simple and affordable at-home method for detecting disease and making treatment decisions that is superior to current methods, according to a study in Biosensors and Bioelectronics. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-smartphone-tool-tissue-health-natural.html Wed, 18 Mar 2026 11:40:04 EDT news693052501 Imagine waiting in line for a shot when someone who just got one tells you it was really painful. Could hearing that make the shot hurt more? According to a new Dartmouth study, what others say about an experience can shape how it actually feels. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that social information can influence how people experience negative events, from physical pain to watching others in pain and performing mentally demanding tasks. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-hyperconnected-world-negative.html Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:40:01 EDT news692554262 A Dartmouth study challenges the conventional view that the amygdala—the two-sided structure deep in the brain involved in emotion, learning, and decision making—is simply the brain's primitive "fear center," reflexively driving us to avoid the things we fear, from high places and tight spaces to spiders and large crowds. The researchers report in Nature Communications that the amygdala is far more complex, acting as a sophisticated arbiter to help the brain choose between competing strategies for learning and decision-making. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-brain-primitive-center-sophisticated-reveals.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:00:02 EST news691155662 A Dartmouth study finds that molecular hitchhikers living within bacteria can make their hosts extra resistant to medical treatment by corralling them into tightly packed groups. The findings introduce a previously unknown avenue through which bacterial infections can become more difficult to treat, the researchers say. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-bacterial-hitchhikers-hosts-super-strength.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 10 Feb 2026 18:20:02 EST news689957488 A study led by Dartmouth Engineering professors demonstrates a possible new technique for connecting electronic implants with the surface of the brain, as well as a new method for ensuring safe, long-term medical access to the brain. Alexander Boys and Katie Hixon combined their research areas of thin-film bioelectronics and regenerative tissue engineering to produce a neural device that promotes healing of the skull following implantation onto the brain. Their study is published in Advanced Materials Technologies and will be featured on the journal's cover in March. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-neural-implant-approach-regrows-skull.html Biomedical technology Thu, 05 Feb 2026 09:40:01 EST news689504494 A Dartmouth study published in Nature Communications reveals that immune cells in the brain use a surprising two-step process to power their search-and-destroy missions. When immune cells rush to injury sites in the brain, they arrive essentially empty-handed—powered by little more than the cellular equivalent of a candy bar. By traveling light and calling for backup, the cells can take immediate action and achieve longer-term damage control. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-brain-immune-cells-powered-sugar.html Neuroscience Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:22:41 EST news688663321 Psilocybin—the psychedelic compound that occurs naturally in certain "magic" mushroom species—has been shown in trials to provide long-term treatment for depression and anxiety. But the chemical's hallucinogenic effects can make developing treatments expensive and pose significant risks to people living with other psychiatric illnesses. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-hallucinogenic-psilocybin-neural-receptor-depression.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 13 Jan 2026 16:49:00 EST news687545281 For years, researchers have documented health differences between babies born vaginally versus by cesarean section—work that revealed the importance of exposure to the vaginal microbiome during birth. But a new Dartmouth-led study of more than 3,500 children in Brazil suggests another critical factor may have been overlooked: labor itself. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-elective-sections-linked-childhood-cortisol.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:10:02 EST news686840721 A new Dartmouth study opens new avenues for understanding—and potentially manipulating—how cells decide to live or die. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-hidden-gatekeeper-cell-death-reveals.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 10 Dec 2025 12:34:20 EST news684592441 After fertilization, embryos race through rapid cell divisions before slowing down to build specialized cells that will carry out distinct functions in the developing body—but the signals that trigger this shift have remained a mystery. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-cellular-crowding-fruit-fly-embryos.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:28:04 EST news682878481 Public opinion polls and other surveys rely on data to understand human behavior. New research from Dartmouth reveals that artificial intelligence can now corrupt public opinion surveys at scale—passing every quality check, mimicking real humans, and manipulating results without leaving a trace. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-fake-survey-ai-quietly-sway.html Social Sciences Mon, 17 Nov 2025 15:00:10 EST news682602806 A new Dartmouth study finds that artificial intelligence has the potential to deliver educational support that meets the individual needs of large numbers of students. The researchers are the first to report that students may put more trust in AI platforms programmed to pull answers from only curated expert sources, rather than from massive data sets of general information. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-ai-personalized-scale-medical.html Education Tue, 11 Nov 2025 14:52:04 EST news682095121 National security officials are "overwhelmingly overconfident," which hinders their ability to accurately assess uncertainty, according to new research by a Dartmouth government professor. When they thought statements had a 90% chance of being true, the statements were only true about 60% of the time, according to the study. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-overconfidence-national.html Political science Tue, 07 Oct 2025 17:11:04 EDT news679075861 The solvent dichloromethane, or DCM, is commonly used to strip paint and cut grease. It's also what generations of chemistry students have used to dissolve pain reliever tablets in a lab exercise designed to teach them how to isolate compounds in a mixture. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-safer-solvent-chemistry-labs.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 07 Oct 2025 12:14:04 EDT news679058041 Dog owners are often associated with personality traits of being social and community-oriented, while "cat people" are often thought of as introverted and more open-minded, according to prior research. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-cat-owners-donate-slightly-dog.html Social Sciences Thu, 25 Sep 2025 06:08:03 EDT news677999281 Tune into American politics today, and you'll hear something far more sinister than simple disagreement. The language has escalated: political parties trash talk each other—blaming rival parties for policy failures or even for causing incidents with national implications. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-easy-political-hatred.html Social Sciences Mon, 22 Sep 2025 15:00:01 EDT news677748901