Louisiana’s coast is disappearing, and its population has already started to retreat. The shoreline, the most exposed in the world, is projected to move more than 30 miles inland of New Orleans. By 2070, it will lose about 75% of its remaining wetlands. Eventually, all of coastal Louisiana will become uninhabitable, research has showed. The state has a narrowing window to plan for managed relocation that could be a model for other areas facing climate challenges, according to a new study coauthored by Yale’s Brianna Castro. 

“Louisiana is a canary in the coal mine. It is one of the rare places where we’re already clearly seeing climate-motivated depopulation combined with other social and economic factors,” said Castro, an assistant professor of urban sustainability at Yale School of the Environment.

For the study, published May 4 in the journal Nature Sustainability, Castro worked with an interdisciplinary team of scientists from Tulane University, Florida State University, and Coastal Carolina University. The team noted that the current population retreat in Louisiana offers a “first mover advantage,” which provides opportunities to learn what policies and plans are effective in advancing social welfare and environmental quality during relocation. 

University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies has published a new white paper, “Silent Witnesses: Trauma-Informed Bystander Intervention Practices in School-Based Settings,” authored by Jar’Mel D. Taylor, Ed.D., and released through the College’s Center for Organizational Wellness, Engagement and Belonging (CO-WEB). “Silent Witnesses” focuses on the “bystander moment” in schools — the point at which an educator witnesses distress, conflict or harm and must decide how to respond. The paper connects trauma-informed practice, educator autonomy and workforce development to propose a schoolwide approach for moving from awareness to action.

Evolutionary biologists and anthropologists found that natural selection favored Indigenous Andeans who had an unusually high number of salivary amylase genes (AMY1) starting around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago — the same period when potatoes were first grown in the Andean highlands, 

A new study by researchers at UCLA and the University at Buffalo shows that Indigenous Andean populations carry unusually high numbers of a gene involved in starch digestion, an adaptation shaped by natural selection during the transition to high-altitude living and major dietary shifts 6,000–10,000 years ago. Those with roughly 10 copies or more of salivary amylase genes, or AMY1, had a 1.24% survival or reproductive advantage per generation, the researchers found. The findings highlight how culture, diet and environment interact to shape human genomes, with implications for understanding metabolism, the microbiome and gene–diet interactions relevant to human health.

From workplace assistants to negotiating bots, AI is increasingly expected to work with people. But humans often cooperate less with machines than with other humans. A new study finds that AI can overcome this “machine penalty” — but only when it acts fairly, not when it is merely nice or purely self-interested.