Collective cognition is often mentioned as one of the advantages of group living. But which factors actually facilitate group smarts? To answer this, we compared how individuals and groups of either ants or people tackle an identical ...Biological ensembles use collective intelligence to tackle challenges together, but suboptimal coordination can undermine the effectiveness of group cognition. Testing whether collective cognition exceeds that of the individual is often impractical since ...

US municipal wastewater facilities are major per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) sources known to affect drinking water quality. Among eight large wastewater treatment facilities with comparable treatment technologies and sizes to those ...Wastewater receives per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from diverse consumer and industrial sources, and discharges are known to be a concern for drinking water quality. The PFAS family includes thousands of potential chemical structures ...

One of the largest volcanic eruptions of the nineteenth century took place in 1831 CE. Although this event led to significant Northern Hemisphere climate cooling, the source of this eruption remains a mystery. Using evidence from well-dated ...Polar ice cores and historical records evidence a large-magnitude volcanic eruption in 1831 CE. This event was estimated to have injected ~13 Tg of sulfur (S) into the stratosphere which produced various atmospheric optical phenomena and led to Northern ...