Economic value of insect pollinators in U.S. much higher than thought

Bees come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. This diversity plays a critical role in the health of flowers and farms. Scientists call it the "insurance effect," a great variety of bees working together to pollinate specific plants. Learn more on NSF's "The Discovery Files."

Events like floods, superstorms, wildfires, heat waves, fuel supply shortages and cyberattacks can cause a power outage in one section of the country, creating a "butterfly effect" that impacts much larger regions. There is a solution. Learn more on NSF's "The Discovery Files."

Vehicle accidents can happen in the blink of an eye. The time it takes camera systems in autonomous vehicles to process images is critical. Researchers are developing a first-of-its-kind technology that can make split-second assessments. Learn more on NSF’s “The Discovery Files.”

Even if you are sound asleep, your brain is always at work, listening to, making note of and interpreting sound. The listening brain performs like an orchestra of neurons that never stops encoding incoming sounds and even has what scientists call a “conductor”. Learn more on NSF’s “The Discovery Files.”

How are you connected on the street where you live, the street where you do business, the street you share with neighbors? But how could a smarter street improve your life? Could technology help guide disabled pedestrians, eliminate traffic bottlenecks, enhance trash collection and pest control, improve emergency services, protect people from environmental and health threats. “Smart Streetscapes,” a new National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, aims to create livable, safe, and inclusive communities. Learn more on NSF’s “The Discovery Files.”

Cement is one of the most widely used industrial materials, essential in the construction of buildings and highways. The United Nations predicts that, by 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will be gathered into cities, demanding more new buildings, more new roads, more cement? Yet, the manufacture of cement contributes up to 8% of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. What is the solution, as we handle the increasing demand for new infrastructure? Is there an alternative? Learn more on NSF’s “The Discovery Files.”

What makes Weddell seals such excellent divers, routinely able to forage underwater for food as long as 20 minutes at a time? Did you know they have natural, internal scuba tanks? Weddell seal moms make an extraordinary sacrifice to help prepare their offspring for such extended underwater dives. But how? And could climate change play a role, putting mothers nursing seal pups at great risk? Learn more on NSF’s “The Discovery Files.”

Off the coast of Maryland and Virginia, on the island of Assateague, a centuries-old mystery is coming to light. Folklore has it that a shipwrecked Spanish galleon had been carrying a herd of horses that survived by swimming to the shore. The oldest sequenced DNA ever found in the molar of an ancient horse from the Americas, is giving credence to that story. Learn more on NSF’s “The Discovery Files.”

Babies are like sponges, constantly absorbing information. But how early do infants begin to learn language, a vital component of an infant’s development? What processes do they use and how can parents help? Learn more about important “naming moments” on NSF’s The Discovery Files.

Planets, interstellar gas, and stars that illuminate the night sky account for only 15% of the matter in the universe. So, how important is a “Cosmological Signature” and what is “Cosmic Microwave Background”? What does either have to do with scientists’ search for invisible, dark matter, 85% of the universe, created in the wake of the “Big Bang”? Learn more on NSFs “The Discovery Files.”