Human activity and appetites have weakened Earth's resilience, pushing it far beyond the "safe operating space" that keeps the world livable for most species, including our own, a landmark study said Wednesday. ⌘ Read more
Human activity and appetites have weakened Earth's resilience, pushing it far beyond the "safe operating space" that keeps the world livable for most species, including our own, a landmark study said Wednesday. ⌘ Read more
NASA on Thursday officially joined the search for UFOs—but reflecting the stigma attached to the field, the US space agency kept secret for hours the identity of the person heading a new program tracking mystery flying objects. ⌘ Read more
The goliath grouper, a colossus of a fish that can weigh up to 360 kilograms (nearly 800 pounds), is the delight of divers in Florida, though scientists warn their numbers are down since the US state allowed fishing of the giants to resume. ⌘ Read more
The US state of California sued five of the world's largest oil companies on Friday, alleging the firms caused billions of dollars in damages and misled the public by minimizing the risks from fossil fuels, according to a court filing. ⌘ Read more
Are we alone? This question is nearly as old as humanity itself. Today, this question in astronomy focuses on finding life beyond our planet. Are we, as a species, and as a planet, alone? Or is there life somewhere else? ⌘ Read more
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 21% of reptile species worldwide were threatened with extinction as of 2022. However, until recently there have been few details of the kinds of threats affecting distinct species in specific geographical areas, and as a result, important reptile conservation opportunities may have been missed. ⌘ Read more
Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut docked with the International Space Station on Friday after blasting off amid raging tensions between Moscow and Washington over Ukraine. ⌘ Read more
Farmers across the United States will be able to monitor their crops in real time, thanks to a novel algorithm from researchers in South Dakota State University's Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence. ⌘ Read more
A database tracking hospital admissions and deaths reveals the devastating impact cars, disease and dogs are having on the South East Queensland koala population. ⌘ Read more
Counting nose hairs in cadavers, repurposing dead spiders and explaining why scientists lick rocks, are among the winning achievements in this year's Ig Nobels, the prize for humorous scientific feats, organizers announced Thursday. ⌘ Read more
Ground-nesting birds called lapwings use the shape of their nests and surroundings to hide from predators, new research shows. ⌘ Read more
A major new study has revealed that American teenagers are more likely than any other nationality to brag about their math ability. ⌘ Read more
To obtain the biggest cherry harvest, trees should be pollinated by both honey bees and mason bees. A new study led by a researcher at the University of Gothenburg shows yet another benefit of biodiversity. ⌘ Read more
The first early humans to use fire had no inkling of what it would lead to. ⌘ Read more
The AI models that power chatbots and other applications still have difficulty distinguishing between nonsense and natural language, according to a study released on Thursday. ⌘ Read more
When people feel that their resources are scarce—that they don't have enough money or time to meet their needs—they often make decisions that favor short-term gains over long-term benefits. Because of that, researchers have argued that scarcity pushes people to make myopic, impulsive decisions. ⌘ Read more
Heat waves, low rainfall and the threat of wildfires are compounding the woes of people in the forested north of Lebanon, a country where economic pain has long taken prominence over environmental concerns. ⌘ Read more
Most students who complete manufacturing-related credentials in Ohio do not end up employed in manufacturing in the state, highlighting a challenge that faces policymakers as they push to create more U.S. manufacturing jobs, according to a new RAND Corporation report, titled "Strengthening the manufacturing workforce in Ohio." ⌘ Read more
Poor decisions aren't generally something people are proud of. For investors in the stock market, poor decisions can lead to something more significant than lost pride—lost money. ⌘ Read more
A research team including Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter's Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology has investigated how the cultivation of cacao can be improved by using the right pollination technique. The success of cacao cultivation depends to a large extent on functioning pollination. If there is a lack of pollinators, for example, this leads to lower yields—and thus to financial problems for farmers. ⌘ Read more
A new study finds that a natural compound found in many plants inhibits the growth of drug-resistant Candida fungi—including its most virulent species, Candida auris, an emerging global health threat. The journal ACS Infectious Diseases published the discovery led by scientists at Emory University. ⌘ Read more
The hydrocarbon methane is highly abundant on Earth, yet its release is now known to contribute to surges in temperature and climate change. In recent years, researchers have been trying to devise reliable methods to directly convert methane into other fuels and chemicals with valuable real-world applications. ⌘ Read more
The orbits of 27 stars orbiting closely around the black hole at the center of our Milky Way are so chaotic that researchers cannot predict with confidence where they will be in about 462 years. This finding emerges from simulations by three astronomers based in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The researchers have published their findings in two papers in the International Journal of Modern Physics ... ⌘ Read more
A new study published in Biology Letters by researchers from the University of Bath (UK) and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico) shows that flowering plants escaped relatively unscathed from the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. While they suffered some species loss, the devastating event helped flowering plants become the dominant type of plant they are tod ... ⌘ Read more
Like it or not, there are lots of good arguments for eating insects—both in animal feeds and on human plates. You can farm them with much less land, water and feed than the likes of cows and sheep. Their greenhouse gas emissions are significantly lower, while they are also high in protein and essential minerals. ⌘ Read more
Spring break can be a good time for ski trips—the days are longer and a little warmer. But if people are booking their spring skiing trips the fall before, it's hard to know which areas will have the best snow coverage later in the season. ⌘ Read more
For much of her teaching career, Carrie Stark relied on math games to engage her students, assuming they would pick up concepts like multiplication by seeing them in action. The kids had fun, but the lessons never stuck. ⌘ Read more
Rescuers pulled an American researcher out of a Turkish cave early Tuesday, more than a week after he became seriously ill 1,000 meters (more than 3,000 feet) below its entrance, officials said. ⌘ Read more
The water coming out of your faucet is safe to drink, but that doesn't mean it's completely clean. Chlorine has long been the standard for water treatment, but it often contains trace levels of disinfection byproducts and unknown contaminants. Georgia Institute of Technology researchers developed the minus approach to handle these harmful byproducts. ⌘ Read more
Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize the world, allowing massive health and science computation problems to be solved exponentially faster than by classic computing. But quantum computers have a big drawback—they can only operate in subzero temperatures. ⌘ Read more
A Brock-led research team has mapped out a strategy to help high school teachers guide their students on the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT. ⌘ Read more
A team of researchers, engineers and technicians has developed a "SMART box" to power the world's largest radio telescope. ⌘ Read more
The universe is big, as Douglas Adams would say. ⌘ Read more
Astronomers from the University of Maryland and the Michigan Technological University, have inspected a mysterious ultra-high energy gamma-ray source known as LHAASO J2108+5157. Results of the study, published August 31 on the pre-print server arXiv, could help us unveil the true nature of this source. ⌘ Read more
An incongruous sight meets visitors to the northern Brazilian island of Marajo: thousands and thousands of water buffalo, animals endemic to India and Southeast Asia that have found a new home in South America. ⌘ Read more
Astronomers have discovered the first "bubble of galaxies," an almost unimaginably huge cosmic structure thought to be a fossilized remnant from just after the Big Bang sitting in our galactic backyard. ⌘ Read more
On Sept. 6, a new satellite left Earth; its mission is to tell us about the motions of hot plasma flows in the universe. ⌘ Read more
Separating molecules is critical to producing many essential products. For example, in petroleum refining, the hydrocarbons—chemical compounds composed of hydrogens and carbons—in crude oil are separated into gasoline, diesel and lubricants by sorting them based on their molecular size, shape and weight. In the pharmaceutical industry, the active ingredients in medications are p ... ⌘ Read more
South Africa is renowned for having one of the world's biggest populations of great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias). Substantial declines have been observed, however, in places where the sharks normally gather on the coast of the Western Cape province. Sharks congregate at these locations to feed, interact socially, or rest. ⌘ Read more
Plants range from simple seaweeds and single-celled pond scum, through to mosses, ferns and huge trees. Paleontologists like us have long debated exactly how this diverse range of shapes and sizes emerged, and whether plants emerged from algae into multicellular and three-dimensional forms in a gradual flowering or one big bang. ⌘ Read more
The U.S. government is investing over US$7 billion in the coming years to try to manage the nation's escalating wildfire crisis. That includes a commitment to treat at least 60 million acres in the next 10 years by expanding forest-thinning efforts and controlled burns. ⌘ Read more
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has released a draft feral cat management plan. ⌘ Read more
Disinformation about deadly wildfires in the United States and Canada has run rampant across social media, with posts falsely blaming coordinated arson, lasers—and plans to develop "smart cities." ⌘ Read more
Hurricane Lee is rewriting old rules of meteorology, leaving experts astonished at how rapidly it grew into a goliath Category 5 hurricane. ⌘ Read more
A University of Texas at Arlington hydrologist's study in the Nature journal Scientific Data provides the first-ever global estimate of human destruction of natural floodplains. The study can help guide future development in a way that can restore and conserve vital floodplain habitats that are critical to wildlife, water quality and reducing flood risk for people. ⌘ Read more
Brazilian rescue workers were on Friday searching for almost 50 people still missing after a devastating cyclone unleashed torrential rain and flooding in the south of the country. ⌘ Read more
There's a rhythm to developing life. Growing from a tiny cell cluster into an adult organism takes precise timing and control. The right genes must turn on at the right time, for the right duration, and in the correct order. Losing the rhythm can lead to diseases like cancer. So, what keeps every gene on beat? ⌘ Read more
Trading wild chimpanzees, including their meat and body parts, is illegal. And yet, social media influencers and companies still reap profits from sharing "cute" images and videos of chimpanzees and other primates poached from the wild. All the while, sanctuaries worldwide continue to receive orphaned victims of this illicit trade. ⌘ Read more
Gender has a significant impact on the socio-economic, political and religious experiences of Ghanaians. For Akans, the country's largest ethnic group, descent is traced through the maternal line. Property is transferred in this line too. ⌘ Read more
Fishermen and residents of Fukushima and five other prefectures along Japan's northeastern coast filed a lawsuit Friday demanding a halt to the ongoing release of treated radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea. ⌘ Read more
Britain is experiencing a record-breaking period of hot September weather with Friday expected to be the fifth consecutive day of temperatures climbing above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). ⌘ Read more
As a result of the climate crisis, future forests may become unrecognizable. Trees that currently make up European woods may no longer be seen—or they may have moved several hundred meters uphill. Scientists writing in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change have mapped the forests of five vulnerable mountain areas in Italy and modeled the future of these fragile ecosystems. ⌘ Read more
Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has recently garnered attention among materials science researchers owing to its ability to form two-dimensional nanosheets like graphene. The nanosheets are created by the stacking of S–Mo–S layers interacting via Van der Waals interactions. ⌘ Read more
Australia is holding its collective breath ahead of a bushfire season that may bring a return of the smoke linked to 400 deaths and 4,500 hospitalizations and emergency department visits during the 2019–20 Black Summer fires. ⌘ Read more
Antarctica's vast ice masses seem far away, yet they store enough water to raise global sea levels by several meters. A team of experts from European research institutes has now provided the first systematic stability inspection of the ice sheet's current state. Their diagnosis: While they found no indication of irreversible, self-reinforcing retreat of the ice sheet in West Antarct ... ⌘ Read more
Scientists need a better understanding of the chemistry of radium to be able to target the isotope radium-223 (Ra-223) to cancer cells. Once delivered, Ra-223 can destroy those cells with alpha particles, a type of radiation. ⌘ Read more
The safe landing of the probe is one of the most difficult challenges in Mars exploration, and the Mars supersonic parachute is extremely important for this process. To date, all the successful Mars exploration missions have used disk-gap-band (DGB) parachutes. However, the DGB parachute with the highest diameter of 21.35 m cannot be further used for future Mars explor ... ⌘ Read more
Adrián Martínez Fernández, the specialist technician in charge of the Digital Mapping and 3D Analysis Laboratory at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), is the lead author of a paper published in the journal Land Degradation & Development on the evolution of the surface and possible disappearance of Maladeta, one of southern Europe's largest glaciers, and one of the three most extensive ... ⌘ Read more
Greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea level and ocean heat content reached record highs in 2022, according to the 33rd annual State of the Climate report. ⌘ Read more
In the Himalayas, not far from the base of Mount Everest, lies the Imja-Lhotse Shar Glacier, where David Rounce conducted his doctoral research. From 2013 to 2017, Rounce and his team visited Nepal to measure the glacier as it rapidly receded—and as the lake at its base grew. ⌘ Read more
A study conducted at the Center for Research, Education and Innovation in Vitreous Materials (CeRTEV) in São Carlos, São Paulo state, Brazil, shows for the first time that including niobium oxide (Nb2O5) in silicate glass results in silica network polymerization, which increases bond density and connectivity, enhancing the mechanical and thermal stability of specialty glass. ⌘ Read more
Research led by Arizona State University, Tempe, has looked into how urbanization, species traits and environmental factors interact to shape urban wildlife communities. This research is essential for effective conservation in the face of urban expansion and climate change. ⌘ Read more
Storms that unleashed torrential flooding in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria have killed at least 11 people, authorities said Wednesday, as extreme heat gave way to heavy rain. ⌘ Read more
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 66 percent in August versus the same month last year, the government said Tuesday, while also announcing the demarcation of two new Indigenous reserves. ⌘ Read more
On a tiny Caribbean island, hundreds of people are preparing to pack up and move to escape the rising waters threatening to engulf their already precarious homes. ⌘ Read more
Indonesia has nearly halved output at a major coal-fired power plant near the capital Jakarta after the city faced major pollution spikes in recent weeks, its operator told AFP Wednesday. ⌘ Read more
Linguists have developed the comparison of the genetic code with language where nucleotides act as letters, and introduced the concept of "a semiotic nucleotide"—the minimal element that makes it possible to distinguish between codons—coding units of DNA. According to this approach, the biochemical characteristics of DNA operate as informational ones. ⌘ Read more
Large herbivores can protect local nature by eating and trampling on biodiversity-threatening invasive plant species. ⌘ Read more
Hydrogen is considered a clean and efficient energy carrier that will have broad applications in the future—as a fuel for cars, buses, for houses heating, or as an energy storage. However, it is currently mainly produced from fossil fuels. In order for it to become a "green" energy carrier, techniques for extracting it from renewable sources such as solar energy, wind, water, or biomass mus ... ⌘ Read more
A small team of evolutionary biologists at Flinders University, in Australia, working with one colleague from the University of Salford in the U.K. and another from the University of California, Los Angeles, has found fossilized evidence of the oldest-known koala relative in a central part of Australia. In their paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports, the group describes the fossil, where it was found and how ... ⌘ Read more
A new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters examines the links between drinking water quality violations and social vulnerability in the United States, revealing that these violations disproportionately affect the most vulnerable communities. Approximately 70% of the population affected ranked in the highest social vulnerability category, with many different social parameters, ... ⌘ Read more
The emission reductions in the 11 high-income countries that have "decoupled" CO2 emissions from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fall far short of the reductions that are necessary to limit global warming to 1.5°C or even just to "well below 2°C" and comply with international fairness principles, as required by the Paris Agreement, according to a paper published in The Lancet Planetary Health j ... ⌘ Read more
A global database set up by scientists to assemble data on the economic cost of biological invasions in support of effective government management strategies has grown to include all known invasive species. ⌘ Read more
Identifying and understanding experimental signatures of phases of matter is usually a challenging task due to strong electron interactions in a material and can become even harder due to external influences in samples with the presence of impurities or other sources of deformations. Typically, these interactions between the electrons in a material give rise to fascinating phenomena such as magnetism, superconductivity and ... ⌘ Read more
With their outsized ears and fluffy fur, rabbits are often seen as cute and harmless. Yet the creature is behind one of the globe's most harmful biological invasions, ravaging Australia, whose efforts to limit the problem have tended only to make things worse. ⌘ Read more
Four astronauts returned to Earth early Monday after a six-month stay at the International Space Station. ⌘ Read more
Much of the world's natural coastline is protected by living habitats, most notably mangroves in warmer waters and tidal marshes closer to the poles. These ecosystems support fisheries and wildlife, absorb the impact of crashing waves and clean up pollutants. But these vital services are threatened by global warming and rising sea levels. ⌘ Read more
An analysis of the approximately 4.6-billion-year-old meteorite Erg Chech 002, discovered in 2020 in the Erg Chech region of the Sahara Desert in Algeria, is presented in Nature Communications. ⌘ Read more
Typhoon Haikui made landfall on eastern Taiwan Sunday, unleashing torrential downpours, whipping winds and plunging thousands of households into darkness as the first major storm to directly hit the island in four years. ⌘ Read more
A large swath of Earth's oceans changed color over the past 20 years—and human activity is suspected to have caused it, a new study reports. ⌘ Read more
This week, researchers reported on two-dimensional gold sheets, a tidy little meson made of four quarks (and its buddy!) and a big and almost unimaginably dense exoplanet with an exciting backstory. ⌘ Read more
India launched its first space mission to study the sun on Saturday, less than two weeks after a successful uncrewed landing near the south polar region of the moon. ⌘ Read more
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs)—black holes with masses exceeding a million times that of the sun—are known to prevail in the universe today. However, it is not clear yet when, where, and how they formed during the 13.8 billion years of cosmic history. ⌘ Read more
For more than 30 years, the models that researchers and government agencies use to forecast earthquake aftershocks have remained largely unchanged. While these older models work well with limited data, they struggle with the huge seismology datasets that are now available. ⌘ Read more
Flowering for some plants is a yearly occurrence; for others, it is a once-in-a-lifetime event. A widespread species of bamboo in Japan, Phyllostachys nigra var. henonis, takes this one-time flowering event and pushes it to the extreme: they flower once every 120 years before dying to make way for the next generation. ⌘ Read more
A team of paleontologists from the University of Canterbury has discovered a remarkably intact fossil of one of the earliest ancestors of a group of birds now restricted to the tropics. Tropicbirds, now represented by only three living species, have a long fossil record spanning at least 62.5 million years, with the oldest described species being Clymenoptilon novaezealandicum, or Zealandian Tropicbird. ⌘ Read more
Repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) are mysterious radio transient sources in the universe that emit a repeating radio pulse lasting for a few milliseconds. Plasma lensing is the cold, non-magnetized, and inhomogeneous plasma cloud in cosmic space, which can refract the radio signal as images with frequency-dependent properties, such as the frequency-dependent dispersion measure (DM ... ⌘ Read more
Tens of millions of people in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and other southern Chinese megacities sheltered indoors Friday as Super Typhoon Saola threatened to become the strongest storm to hit the region in decades. ⌘ Read more
Disadvantaged teenagers are at greater risk of email scams and need better protection, according to an international study published in the British Journal of Educational Studies. ⌘ Read more
Bees that build microbreweries, ride a miniature merry-go-round and possibly even wear diapers: In biologist Tobin Hammer's UCI lab, all sorts of unusual projects unfold. ⌘ Read more
Germany's first cryogenic measuring setup for statistical quality measurement of qubit devices on whole 200- and 300-mm wafers has started operation at Fraunhofer IAF. The on-wafer prober can characterize devices based on semiconductor quantum dots and quantum wells as well as superconductors at measurement temperatures below 2 K. ⌘ Read more
Understanding global patterns of species genetic diversity is an integral part of monitoring and preserving life on Earth. To date, however, scientists have mapped macrogenetic patterns in vertebrates exclusively. Macrogenetics uses publicly-available data to identify global drivers of genetic diversity. Only 5% of all known living animal species are vertebrates while 95% are invertebrates. More than half of ... ⌘ Read more
While the threat of tropical cyclones increases around the world, a new study published in Nature Communications shows one area experienced a significant decline in cyclone activity. But, with recent changes in climatic patterns in the Pacific, the number of cyclones is expected to increase in the coming decades. ⌘ Read more
What is the risk of a volcano erupting? To answer this question, scientists need information about its underlying internal structure. However, gathering this data can take several years of fieldwork, analyses and monitoring, which explains why only 30% of active volcanoes are currently well documented. ⌘ Read more
A trio of volcanologists and geologists from Lithium Americas Corporation, GNS Science, and Oregon State University reports evidence that the McDermitt Caldera, on the Nevada/Oregon, border, may host some of the largest known deposits of lithium on Earth. In their project, reported in the journal Science Advances, Thomas Benson, Matthew Coble and John Dilles studied parts of the caldera and ... ⌘ Read more
Last year, Northwestern University researchers reported new observational evidence that long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can result from the merger of a neutron star with another compact object (either another neutron star or black hole)—a finding that was previously believed to be impossible. ⌘ Read more
Layered hybrid perovskites show diverse physical properties and exceptional functionality; however, from a materials science viewpoint, the co-existence of lattice order and structural disorder can hinder the understanding of such materials. Lattice dynamics can be affected by dimensional engineering of inorganic frameworks and interactions with molecular moieties in a process that remains unknown. ⌘ Read more
An international team of astronomers has investigated EX Lupi—a young T-Tauri star in the constellation of Lupus and an archetype of EXor stars. The study, presented in a paper published August 23 on the pre-print server arXiv, provided important insights into the accretion history of this star. ⌘ Read more
The Shanidar cave sits in the Zagros mountains of the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq, in a border region between Iran and southeast Türkiye. Within the cave is one of the longest-debated collections of Neanderthal remains. ⌘ Read more
Scientists from The University of New Mexico (UNM), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have detected and validated two of the longest-period exoplanets found by TESS to date. These long period large exoplanets orbit a K dwarf star and belong to a class of planets known as warm Jupiters, which have orbital periods of 10–200 days and are at least six times Earth's radius. This recent discovery of ... ⌘ Read more