This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image treats viewers to a wonderfully detailed snapshot of the spiral galaxy NGC 3430 that lies 100 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo Minor. ⌘ Read more
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image treats viewers to a wonderfully detailed snapshot of the spiral galaxy NGC 3430 that lies 100 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo Minor. ⌘ Read more
The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth's land area—particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ⌘ Read more
The fish in Alfonso Barone's net are hauled aboard off Sicily half- eaten, ravaged by bearded fireworms, a voracious predator flourishing in the increasingly warm Mediterranean sea. ⌘ Read more
Cocooned in white bags and nestled in the arms of volunteers, eight young rhim gazelles—an endangered species native to North Africa—have been transferred to an uninhabited Libyan island. ⌘ Read more
A fire raging out of control in northern California has rapidly become among the biggest ever in the western US state, authorities said Saturday. ⌘ Read more
Scientists have discovered that the serrated edges of Komodo dragons' teeth are tipped with iron. Led by researchers from King's College London, the study gives new insight into how Komodo dragons keep their teeth razor-sharp and may provide clues to how dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex killed and ate their prey. ⌘ Read more
Oregon State University researchers have made the first scientific confirmation in Puget Sound of two distinct shark species, one of them critically endangered. ⌘ Read more
Mangroves and palm trees are hallmarks of the Sunshine State not just for their beauty but for their immense importance to Florida's coastlines. ⌘ Read more
An international team of scientists, including two researchers who now work in the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology (CAST) at UMBC, has shown that twisted carbon nanotubes can store three times more energy per unit mass than advanced lithium-ion batteries. The finding may advance carbon nanotubes as a promising solution for storing energy in devices that need to be lightwei ... ⌘ Read more
Vanderbilt researchers have developed a set of nanoparticles that stimulate the immune system in mice to fight cancer and may eventually do the same in humans. ⌘ Read more
Record heavy rain forced the evacuation of thousands of people across parts of northern Japan as rivers burst their banks washing away bridges and cars, officials and media reports said Friday. ⌘ Read more
SpaceX's stalwart Falcon 9 rocket has been cleared for launch after experiencing a rare failure earlier this month, officials said Thursday. ⌘ Read more
Authorities evacuated nearly 300,000 people and suspended public transport across eastern China on Friday, as Typhoon Gaemi brought torrential rains already responsible for five deaths in nearby Taiwan. ⌘ Read more
A rose by any other name is a rose, but what of a crystal? Osaka Metropolitan University-led researchers have found that single crystals of four anthracene derivatives with different substituents react differently when irradiated with light, perhaps holding clues to how we can use such materials in functional ways. ⌘ Read more
The colorful history of plant pathology in Australia since colonization is the subject of a special edition of Historical Records of Australian Science, edited by QAAFI's Associate Professor Andrew Geering. ⌘ Read more
In July 2024, NASA announced it canceled its plans to send the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the moon's southern polar region. The rover was meant to search for water and other resources called volatiles, such as hydrogen, ammonia and carbon dioxide, which easily evaporate in warm temperatures. ⌘ Read more
Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a material that shows a remarkable ability to convert sunlight and water into clean energy. ⌘ Read more
Typhoon Gaemi passed through Taiwan overnight and was headed towards eastern China on Thursday, leaving two dead as heavy rains and strong gusts continued to lash the island in its wake. ⌘ Read more
A forest fire at a major national park in western Canada reached an evacuated town on Wednesday evening, with the army preparing to send in reinforcements. ⌘ Read more
In the Middle Ages, alchemists were notoriously secretive and didn't share their knowledge with others. Danish Tycho Brahe was no exception. Consequently, we don't know precisely what he did in the alchemical laboratory located beneath his combined residence and observatory, Uraniborg, on the now Swedish island of Ven. ⌘ Read more
New research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) has found that the Southern Ocean absorbs more carbon dioxide (CO2) than previously thought. ⌘ Read more
Hens fluff their head feathers and blush to express different emotions and levels of excitement, according to a study published July 24, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Cécile Arnould and colleagues from INRAE and CNRS, France. ⌘ Read more
Giant plumes of Sahara Desert dust that gust across the Atlantic can suppress hurricane formation over the ocean and affect weather in North America. But thick dust plumes can also lead to heavier rainfall—and potentially more destruction—from landfalling storms, according to a study in Science Advances. ⌘ Read more
An analysis of comments on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo reveals trends in the public response to measures implemented to support China's three-child policy, highlighting concerns about women's rights and employment. Lijuan Peng of Zhejiang Gongshang University in Hangzhou, China, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on July 24, 2024. ⌘ Read more
The fearsome Komodo dragon, native to Indonesia and the world's largest living lizard, has a coat of iron on its razor-like teeth to help it kill its prey, scientists found in a study published Wednesday. ⌘ Read more
On a muggy July evening, Delaware state biologist Jason Davis is doing what kids have done for ages: Trying to catch a firefly. It's nowhere near as easy as the summer evenings of his own childhood, with only a few in this large wetland between a bay and the Atlantic Ocean. ⌘ Read more
A surprise eruption in Yellowstone National Park shot steam, water and dark-colored rock and dirt high into the sky Tuesday and sent sightseers running for safety. ⌘ Read more
It's hard to know what Neanderthals ate: food preparation, especially when it comes to smaller items like birds, can leave few archaeological traces. But understanding their diets is critical to understanding these incredibly adaptable hominins, who thrived for hundreds of thousands of years in wildly varied environments. To learn what food preparation could look like in the archaeological record ... ⌘ Read more
At the turn of the millennium, gray wolves returned to Germany after 150 years and subsequently established territories in many parts of the country. But coexistence harbors challenges—for both humans and animals. Since 2006, almost all gray wolves found dead in Germany have been examined at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) in order to assess their health status and determine ... ⌘ Read more
Structured light can significantly enhance information capacity, due to its coupling of spatial dimensions and multiple degrees of freedom. In recent years, the combination of structured light patterns with image processing and machine intelligence has shown vigorous development potential in fields such as communication and detection. ⌘ Read more
A team of marine biologists and ecotoxicologists affiliated with several institutions in Brazil has found cocaine in muscle and liver samples collected from Brazilian Sharpnose sharks harvested off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Their study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, highlights the potential impact of the presence of illicit drugs in marine environments. ⌘ Read more
A dissipative time crystal is a phase of matter characterized by periodic oscillations over time, while a system is dissipating energy. In contrast with conventional time crystals, which can also occur in closed systems with no energy loss, dissipative time crystals are observed in open systems with energy freely flowing in and out of them. ⌘ Read more
In Tunisia's seaside town of Hammamet, bulldozers diligently shovel sand from a nearby desert onto a popular beach in an attempt to stop it from disappearing due to erosion. ⌘ Read more
When Ecuador's navy seized a Chinese-flagged ship off the Galapagos Islands in 2017, its hold brimmed with tons and tons of poached fish, many of them threatened species like hammerhead and thresher sharks. ⌘ Read more
World leaders must take advantage of a pivotal window of opportunity for forging a much-needed joined-up approach to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, say scientists from ZSL and York University. Without this, work on tackling either crisis could inadvertently harm progress on the other. ⌘ Read more
Imagine a thin film, just nanometers thick, that could store gigabytes of data—enough for movies, video games, and videos. This is the exciting potential of ferroelectric materials for memory storage. These materials have a unique arrangement of ions, resulting in two distinct polarization states analogous to 0 and 1 in binary code, which can be used for digital memory storage. ⌘ Read more
Using the TÜBİTAK National Observatory, astronomers from Turkey and India have observed a bright blazar known as S5 0716+714. Results of the observational campaign, published July 12 on the pre-print server arXiv, yield essential information regarding the optical variability of this blazar. ⌘ Read more
On a vast farm in Kenya's Rift Valley, a veterinarian carefully takes aim before shooting a tranquiliser dart and sending another giraffe sinking slowly to the ground before it is roped and blindfolded. ⌘ Read more
Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) is a group of inherited diseases that causes progressive degeneration of the light sensitive cells at the back of the eye. Dogs with PRA have normal sight at birth, but by the age of four or five they will be totally blind. There is no treatment. ⌘ Read more
Racialized women are often at the forefront in the struggle for social justice. Yet that advocacy often comes with significant backlash and threats. In the United States, congresswomen like Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have faced severe backlash for their outspoken stances on racial justice, police reform and foreign policy. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was censured by the House of Representatives for ... ⌘ Read more
Amor Nouira, a farmer in Tunisia's Chebika village, has lost hope of saving his prickly pear cacti, ravaged by the cochineal insect spreading across North Africa. ⌘ Read more
Imagine you're a fairywren living in a patch of scrub behind a schoolyard in the suburbs. It's been pretty nice so far, but a recent increase in neighborhood cats and the council's insect control tactics mean it's time to look for somewhere safer to live. ⌘ Read more
This is not a rerun of last week's roundup; another group of astronomers found a second intermediate-mass black hole in the Milky Way and I can't avoid highlighting it. They're cool! They may have formed in the primordial universe, they comprise the seeds of supermassive black holes, and may be formed by the accretion of multiple stars in a cluster rather than through stellar co ... ⌘ Read more
The semiconductor industry has grown into a $500 billion global market over the last 60 years. However, it is grappling with dual challenges: a profound shortage of new chips and a surge of counterfeit chips, introducing substantial risks of malfunction and unwanted surveillance. In particular, the latter inadvertently gives rise to a $75 billion counterfeit chip market that jeopardizes safety and security across multiple sectors dependent ... ⌘ Read more
A new study led by King's College London simulated the effects of various restoration policies to assess their impact on biodiversity and agricultural production. ⌘ Read more
Current gene therapies to treat sickle cell disease are complex, time-consuming, and are sometimes linked to serious side effects like infertility or blood cancer. To address these challenges, Johns Hopkins researchers have developed special nanoparticles that can send gene treatment directly to various types of cells in bone marrow to correct the disease-causing mutations. ⌘ Read more
China's panda diplomacy may have one true winner: the pandas themselves. Decades after Beijing began working with zoos in the U.S. and Europe to protect the species, the number of giant pandas in the wild has risen to 1,900, up from about 1,100 in the 1980s, and they are no longer considered "at risk" of extinction but have been given the safer status of "vulnerable." ⌘ Read more
The first rumblings of the sun's next 11-year solar cycle have been detected in sound waves inside our home star—even though it is only halfway through its current one. ⌘ Read more
Oil drops from underwater oil spills can break into tinier droplets at the surface that remain suspended in the water, according to research from the University of Illinois Chicago. That means cleanups after disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill may be removing less oil from the environment than was thought. ⌘ Read more
Pineapple peel coloration, especially the red hue, significantly enhances its commercial and aesthetic value. However, the genetic mechanisms driving this trait are not well understood, complicating breeding efforts for red-skinned varieties. ⌘ Read more
Sex determination in cucurbits such as squash is influenced by a complex interplay of environmental, hormonal, and genetic factors, with ethylene being the primary hormone promoting female flower development. ⌘ Read more
Dartmouth researchers are using computational mathematics and machine learning to develop models that better predict sea ice thickness in regions of the Arctic. ⌘ Read more
Using the Keck II telescope, astronomers have detected an object that may be a brown dwarf or a low-mass star, exhibiting a very high radial velocity. The object, designated CWISE J124909.08+362116.0 is located some 400 light years away. The finding was reported July 11 on the pre-print server arXiv. ⌘ Read more
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? Well, quite a few European governments, it seems. ⌘ Read more
Almost 2,000 years ago, Pliny the Younger wrote letters describing the shaking ground as Vesuvius erupted. Now, a collaborative study led by researchers from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and Pompeii Archaeological Park has shed light on the effects of seismicity associated with the 79 CE eruption. ⌘ Read more
As climate change drives temperature increases and lower precipitation in southern Africa, research has found that there is likely to be an increase in the number of wildfires in regions that are already hot, dry and water scarce. ⌘ Read more
In August 2023, 14,000 cubic meters of sandstone and shale detached from a slope in the French Alps. This rockslide at La Praz closed a road and a major railway between France and Italy at least until the end of 2024. ⌘ Read more
It is estimated that about 70% of the energy generated worldwide ends up as waste heat. ⌘ Read more
Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have detected 32 new bright pulsating DA white dwarfs of the ZZ Ceti subclass. The finding was reported in a research paper published July 9 on the pre-print server arXiv. ⌘ Read more
A trio of environmental specialists at the National Institute for Environmental Studies, in Japan, has found that Japanese honeybees sometimes resort to slapping ants with their wings to prevent their entry into their nest. ⌘ Read more
Billionaire Elon Musk says he's moving the headquarters of SpaceX and social media company X to Texas from California. ⌘ Read more
A team of Brazilian scientists has discovered a fossilized skeleton of what they believe is one of the world's oldest dinosaurs after heavy rains in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul accelerated the natural process of erosion. ⌘ Read more
They creep, slither and slide over and around each other by the dozen and now there's a webcam so that anybody can watch them online at any time, even at night. ⌘ Read more
Industrialized farming is often thought to reduce the risk of zoonotic diseases (those transmitted from animals to humans) because of better control, biosecurity and separation of livestock. ⌘ Read more
Based on a mathematical programming model, a study finds that the proportional allocation of water, and not additional taxes on the resource, is more effective from the point of view of those engaged in agriculture. ⌘ Read more
Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), TU Chemnitz, TU Dresden and Forschungszentrum Jülich have been the first to demonstrate that not just individual bits, but entire bit sequences can be stored in cylindrical domains: tiny, cylindrical areas measuring just around 100 nanometers. ⌘ Read more
A team including researchers from the Laboratory for High Energy Physics at the University of Bern has successfully measured the interaction rates of neutrinos at unprecedented energies using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The study was published in the journal Physical Review Letters. ⌘ Read more
Scientists have confirmed a cave on the moon, not far from where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago, and suspect there are hundreds more that could house future astronauts. ⌘ Read more
Britain, prepare for deep depression: Storms ruin tea. A new study reveals that Storm Ciaran cut an invisible path of mayhem across southern Britain last autumn, destroying any possibility that 20 million people could have a proper cup of tea at breakfast. ⌘ Read more
Ventures that pursue both commercial and social value creation have grown in popularity in recent years, but a study published in the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal better defines four distinct types of social ventures. By training a business model lens on these social good ventures, the study offers insight on how the model choices impact a firm's value creation and value capture potential. ⌘ Read more
You're enjoying the evening breeze in your California backyard when you notice something dark and scaly slithering up a tree branch. ⌘ Read more
Studying polar bears just became a lot easier with new "burr on fur" trackers which confirmed scientists' belief that subadult and adult males spend most of their time on land lazing around, conserving energy until the ice returns. ⌘ Read more
After Greece's warmest winter and earliest heat wave on record, authorities are sounding the alarm over the risk of dire water shortages in the heat of the Mediterranean summer. ⌘ Read more
A study published in Genome Biology opens new possibilities to improve production efficiency in the cattle industry and potentially animal agriculture more broadly. A team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Cornell University and the USDA discovered that, like humans, cattle have CoRSIVs. ⌘ Read more
The latest dinosaur being mounted at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles is not only a member of a new species—it's also the only one found on the planet whose bones are green, according to museum officials. ⌘ Read more
About 52,000 years ago, the skinned hide of a Siberian woolly mammoth was exposed to conditions so frigid that it spontaneously freeze-dried, locking its DNA fragments into place. ⌘ Read more
In the wet, muddy places where America's rivers and lands meet the sea, scientists from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are unearthing clues to better understand how these vital landscapes are evolving under climate change. ⌘ Read more
Books and movies of the future could all start to feel the same if creative industries embrace artificial intelligence to help write stories, a study published on Friday warned. ⌘ Read more
Researchers from the Institute for Molecules and Materials at Radboud University, Netherlands, have demonstrated that a complex self-organizing chemical reaction network can perform various computational tasks, such as nonlinear classification and complex dynamics prediction. ⌘ Read more
What happens when online investment trading platforms start to resemble games that keep people playing for hours, with badges and exploding confetti to reward investors for their engagement? ⌘ Read more
In recent years, tree-planting campaigns have been underway in the United States, especially in cities, as part of climate mitigation efforts. ⌘ Read more
Turbulence, temperature changes, water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, and other gases absorb, reflect, and scatter sunlight as it passes through the atmosphere, bounces off the Earth's surface, and is collected by a sensor on a remote sensing satellite. As a result, the spectral data received at the sensor is distorted. ⌘ Read more
Agriculture, fishing, hunting, and gathering—through thousands of years of urbanization, these ways of acquiring food, which were deciding factors in settlement landscape patterns in the primitive society, have gradually been replaced by the manufacturing, financial, and service industry. Nowadays, urban planning seems to have lost its connection with food. ⌘ Read more
Measuring the distance to truly remote objects like galaxies, quasars, and galaxy clusters is a crucial task in astrophysics, particularly when it comes to studying the early universe, but it's a difficult one to complete. ⌘ Read more
Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have created a computer program that "paints" the structure of molecules in the style of famous Dutch artist, Piet Mondrian, whose beautiful artworks will be instantly recognizable to many. ⌘ Read more
Entanglement, Einstein's "spooky action at a distance," today is THE tool of quantum information science. It is the essential resource for quantum computers and used to transmit quantum information in a future quantum network. But it is highly sensitive. It is therefore an enormous challenge to entangle resting quantum bits (qubits) with flying qubits in the form of photons "at the push of a button." ⌘ Read more
Countries on the frontlines of climate change have warned they cannot wait another year for long-sought aid to recover from disasters as floods and hurricanes wreak havoc across the globe. ⌘ Read more
The amount of dust in the air eased slightly in 2023, the United Nations said Friday, warning that poor environmental management was fueling sand and dust storms. ⌘ Read more
The wings of the world's tiniest birds are a near-invisible blur as they whizz around tourists visiting a private Cuban garden that has become a haven for the declining species. ⌘ Read more
Astronauts on spacewalks famously have to relieve themselves inside their spacesuits. Not only is this uncomfortable for the wearer and unhygienic, it is also wasteful, as—unlike wastewater on board the International Space Station (ISS)—the water in urine from spacewalks is not recycled. ⌘ Read more
PFAS, the potentially cancer-causing chemicals known as "forever chemicals," have become an increasing concern in home drinking water. Solutions to reduce the risk of exposure range from mandated municipal-level water treatment to under-the-sink home treatment systems. ⌘ Read more
It's not just presidential candidates who are old. ⌘ Read more
Researchers at Mainz University and the University of California, Berkeley, have achieved a breakthrough in zero-field nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, paving the way towards benchmarking quantum chemistry calculations. ⌘ Read more
An international research team led by Professor My Ali El Khakani of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has made a surprising discovery about the properties of molybdenum disulfide, also known as MoS2. The material is highly sought after in optoelectronics. ⌘ Read more
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have reported advancements in understanding plasma pressure profiles within flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion, a candidate for achieving net gain fusion energy in a compact device. ⌘ Read more
An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of 34 rare double-lined double white dwarf binary systems using the Intermediate-dispersion Spectrograph and Imaging System (ISIS) on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). The finding was detailed in a research paper published on the preprint server arXiv. ⌘ Read more
A decision to partially reverse a nearly two-decade ban on hunting grizzly bears in Canada's Alberta has angered environmentalists, with a group saying Wednesday they feared its impact on the species. ⌘ Read more
Predictive algorithms commonly used by colleges and universities to determine whether students will be successful may be racially biased against Black and Hispanic students, according to new research published today in AERA Open. ⌘ Read more
Twentieth century Swedish labor market policy was not solely shaped by inter-class cooperation, but also by tough conflicts. Industrial rationalization and investments in new technology were met with protests from workers. A new doctoral thesis reveals parallels between technological changes during 1920–1950 and the transition we face today with, for example, artificial intelligence and automation. ⌘ Read more
The surprising discovery of a new species of extinct crocodile relative from the Triassic Favret Formation of Nevada, U.S., rewrites the story of life along the coasts during the first act of the Age of Dinosaurs. ⌘ Read more