global briefs Wild Things
Wildness a Big Factor in Urban Parks
A new study led by the University of Wash- ington (UW) has found that not all forms of na- ture are created equal when considering ben- efits to people’s well- being. Experiencing wildness is particularly important for physi- cal and mental health, according to the study published in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Cities. This is the first
study to show that wildness in urban areas is profoundly important for human well-being. “The wilder areas in an urban park seem to be affording more benefits to people, and their most meaningful interactions depended on those relatively wild features,” says lead author Elizabeth Lev, a graduate student in the UW School of Environmen- tal and Forest Sciences.
Senior author Peter Kahn, a UW professor of envi- ronmental and forest sciences and psychology, says, “Everywhere, development is chipping away at wild areas. Humanity has caused so much destruction and there’s no stopping it—unless we stop. We’re trying to show that if you’re going to develop an area, you at least need to understand the human costs.” The research- ers hope studies like this can be used as part of the decision-making process for development proposals in parks and urban natural areas. They compiled their analysis methods into a handbook that can be used in other cities around the world.
Buzz Off
Bee Swarms Form Giant Brains New research from the University of Sheffield in the UK published in Scientific Reports sug- gests that individual members of a bee swarm behave like neurons in a human brain. The scientists applied a theoreti- cal model commonly used to study human psychology to the behavior of bee colonies, and they believe that study-
ing “bee speak” could inform us about how our own minds make decisions. In the field of psychophysics, Weber’s law describes a relationship between the size of a stimu- lus and noticeable in- creases in its magnitude. This general rule about stimu- lus and perception has been observed in birds, fish and even the collective behavior of simpler organisms, but not in whole clusters of tiny brains such as an insect hive. To investigate its role in the decision-making processes of the European honey bee (Apis mellifera), the researchers watched hives split apart and hunt for new homes. Among bees, the process of choosing a hive comes down to the interactions of scout bees communi- cating their discoveries through a visual display of
body wiggles. “The study
also supports the view of bee colonies as being similar to complete organisms,” says computer scientist and lead author Andreagiovanni Reina.
Charging Ahead New Batteries From Fruit Waste Carbon aerogels that exhibit high specific surface areas, high proportions of mesopores and signifi- cant levels of nitrogen doping have been devel- oped for the first time using waste from durian fruit and jackfruit scraps using a chemical-free, green synthesis procedure. According to the Journal of Energy Storage, the electrodes also displayed long- term cycling stability and rapid charge–discharge processes. Both electrodes are attractive candi- dates for the next generation, high-performance, yet low-cost supercapacitors for energy storage devices derived from biowastes.
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