Food coloring, anti-caking nanoparticles may affect human gut

Metal oxide nanoparticles – commonly used as food coloring and anti-caking agents in commercial ingredients – may damage parts of the human intestine, say Cornell and Binghamton University scientists.

The right time to claim Social Security? It’s complicated

Dyson professor Suzanne Shu and colleagues found that considering one’s “future self” played a key role in how people decide when to start collecting monthly Social Security benefits. Societal norms regarding retirement, however, do not.

Precise magma locations aid volcanic eruption forecasts

Cornell scientists have unearthed precise, microscopic clues to where magma is stored in Earth’s mantle, offering scientists – and government officials – a way to gauge volcanic eruption risk.

Same-race reviews reduce inequality in Airbnb bookings

White Airbnb guests’ preference for white hosts unexpectedly is offset by the influence of same-race reviews, new Cornell research finds.

Spanish lagoon proposed as Mars ‘astrobiological time-analog’

An investigation at Tirez lagoon in central Spain, analogous to the surface of Mars, concludes that if life existed when the planet had liquid water on its surface, desiccation would not have necessarily implied that life disappeared for good.

Employing tradeoffs for more realistic COVID messaging

Johnson associate professor Ori Heffetz and a colleague conducted experiments in three countries to gauge the public’s perception of relative risk factors of different public health behaviors amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cornell, EDF aim to reduce methane output for India’s dairies

Cornell will teach small farmers in India – the world’s largest dairy producer – how to produce milk more efficiently while limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

Deer carry SARS-CoV-2 variants that are extinct in humans

White-tailed deer ­– the most abundant large mammal in North America – are harboring SARS-CoV-2 variants that once widely circulated but are no longer found in humans.

Twelve faculty members elected AAAS fellows

Twelve Cornell and Weill Cornell Medicine faculty members – six of whom are also Cornell alumni – have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society.