The H5N1 avian influenza virus—commonly known as bird flu—has been causing outbreaks in dairy cows in the United States since March 2024. Now, scientists studying the adaptation of the avian H5N1 viruses to cows have found that some of the more recent variants are more able to
The summer of 2025 brought unprecedented flash flooding across the U.S., with the central and eastern regions hit particularly hard. These storms claimed hundreds of lives across Texas, Kentucky and several other states and caused widespread destruction.
Escalating pollution and contamination of water and soil are emerging as serious threats to plant growth and its overall health. Plants are exposed to environmental pollutants for extended periods and exhibit changes in their color, texture, and internal structure in response.
A team of international researchers and educators has created an educational framework called River Literacy to help communities better understand and protect their rivers. Inspired by the well-established framework of Ocean Literacy, this new approach highlights the vital
A newly discovered promoter element "start" points to a shared regulatory syntax for controlling transcription initiation in bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes.
A new study shows that machine-learning models can accurately predict daily crop transpiration using direct plant measurements and environmental data. By training models on seven years of high-resolution lysimeter data, the researchers demonstrate strong performance across
New findings shed light on the mechanisms behind a natural purification process and identify the key microbial "teammates" that enable mosses to remove metals from water. A promising moss species was discovered in abandoned mine sites where few other plants survive. Upcoming
A new study from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the Marine Megafauna Foundation finds that young Caribbean manta rays (Mobula yarae) often swim with groups of other fish, creating small, moving ecosystems that support a
Knots are everywhere—from tangled headphones to DNA strands packed inside viruses—but how an isolated filament can knot itself without collisions or external agitation has remained a longstanding puzzle in soft-matter physics.
Materials scientists at Rice University and collaborators have developed a material that uses light to break down a range of pollutants in water, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, the "forever chemicals" that have garnered attention for their pervasiveness.
No one has yet created a fully functioning artificial cell. But a research team at Aarhus University has taken a step in that direction:
For a carbon-neutral bioeconomy, processes are needed that can efficiently capture CO2 and convert it into valuable products. Formic acid, or more specifically its salt, formate, is considered a promising candidate as it can be produced from CO₂ using renewable electricity. It
Research relies on replication: Different teams need to make the same conclusion multiple times before a consensus is reached and the finding can be built upon or applied. More may rest on the tools researchers use than previously realized—at least for understanding viruses,
A new computational approach developed at the University of Chicago promises to shed light on some of the world's most puzzling materials—from high-temperature superconductors to solar cell semiconductors—by uniting two long-divided scientific perspectives.
A study from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), published in Nature Communications, reveals how enteroviruses—including pathogens that cause polio, encephalitis, myocarditis, and the common cold—initiate replication by hijacking host-cell machinery.
President Donald Trump is making full use of his pardon power. This year, Trump has issued roughly 1,800 pardons, or nearly six times the number he issued during the four years of his first term. Granted, about 1,500 of them involved individuals charged for their role in the
Researchers at Touro University Nevada have discovered that tiny particles in the blood, called extracellular vesicles (EVs), are a major player in how a group of hormones are shuttled through the body. Physical exercise can stimulate this process.
Researchers at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum recently uncovered a slipup from decades ago: the misidentification of a poison frog specimen from Peru used as a holotype. A holotype is an individual preserved specimen collected in the
A study has, for the first time, identified minute traces of broomcorn millet consumption directly from human dental calculus, offering an unprecedented window into medieval diets and expanding the toolkit available to archaeologists for reconstructing ancient foodways.
A new study from a research team at the Center for Wireless Communications Network and Systems (CWC-NS) at the University of Oulu has introduced an approach using near-infrared (NIR) light beyond light therapy to facilitate simultaneous wireless power transfer and communication
The knots in your shoelaces are familiar, but can you imagine knots made from light, water, or from the structured fluids that make LCD screens shine?
This theoretical phenomenon was discovered after being predicted by Einstein more than a century ago The post Astronomers Observe Spacetime Whirlpool for the First Time appeared first on Nautilus .
Archaeologist Paula García Medrano, researcher at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), has just published in Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology a study on the lithic industry from the Paleolithic site of Terra Amata (Niza, Francia), one of
Corals obtain energy in two ways: firstly, through photosynthesis by their symbiotic algae, and secondly by taking up small food particles such as plankton directly from the water. In scientific terms, this process is known as "heterotrophy."
Metal nanostructures can concentrate light so strongly that they can trigger chemical reactions. The key players in this process are plasmons—collective oscillations of free electrons in the metal that confine energy to extremely small volumes. A new study published in Science
Scientists have discovered a way to efficiently transfer electrical current through specific materials at room temperature, a finding that could revolutionize superconductivity and reshape energy preservation and generation.
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed a first-of-its-kind mRNA system that switches on therapeutic genes preferentially inside targeted cells—an advance demonstrated in studies in mice that could lay the groundwork for safer, more precise
While scientists have long known that iron oxide minerals help lock away enormous amounts of carbon—sequestering it from the atmosphere—a new Northwestern University study now reveals exactly why these minerals are such powerful carbon traps.
New research published in Marketing Science finds that while Zillow's widely used "Zestimate" home-valuation algorithm boosts efficiency in the residential real estate sector, it also significantly benefits lower-income neighborhoods, even in situations where the algorithms are
Say you want to listen in on a group of super-intelligent aliens whose language you don't understand, and whose spaceship only flies by Earth once an hour. It's not unlike what Harvard scientists and others are doing, except their target species, sperm whales, thankfully live
An international research team reports the discovery of "hidden order" in systems that are disordered in space and time. The paper is published in the journal Nature Materials.
Dominant baboons rule the troops by day, but at night, they may pay a hidden cost. A study led by Swansea University has found that higher-ranking baboons get less and more fragmented rest at night than their lower-ranked troop mates.
Markings on remains unearthed from modern-day Sudan suggest that the religion’s rise influenced the design and application of body ink The post How Christianity Redrew Ancient Nubian Tattoos appeared first on Nautilus .
New experiments show how RNA might form not just on Earth but on other rocky planets, too
Our universe is filled with galaxies, in all directions as far as our instruments can see. Some researchers estimate that there are as many as 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. At first glance, these galaxies might appear to be randomly scattered across space, but
As the planet edges towards 1.5°C of global warming, a new study led by the Natural History Museum, London has revealed that scientists still have only a limited understanding of how climate change is reshaping the risk of infectious diseases that pass from animals to humans.
Snow and ice can damage paved surfaces, leading to frost heaves and potholes. These become potential hazards for drivers and pedestrians and are expensive to fix. Now, researchers propose in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering a figurative and literal green solution to
Australian researchers have played a central role in a landmark result from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment in South Dakota—the world's most sensitive dark matter detector. Today, scientists working on the experiment report they have further narrowed constraints on proposed dark
Conditions can get rough in the micro- and nanoworld. For example, to ensure that nutrients can still be optimally transported within cells, the minuscule transporters involved need to respond to the fluctuating environment. Physicists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Washington State University researchers have found a way to modulate a common virus protein to prevent viruses from entering cells where it can cause illness, a discovery that could someday lead to new antiviral treatments.
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have optimized and 3D-printed helix structures as optical materials for terahertz (THz) frequencies, a potential way to address a technology gap for next-generation telecommunications, non-destructive evaluation,
Putting solar panels above agricultural crops may do more than produce food and clean energy on the same land: It can also significantly augment quality of life for farmworkers, according to new research to be presented at AGU's 2025 Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified small molecules capable of influencing a hard-to-target receptor family linked to cancer development. The findings have been published in Nature Communications and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
A new whitepaper from Frontiers shows that AI has rapidly become part of everyday peer review, with 53% of reviewers now using AI tools. The findings in "Unlocking AI's untapped potential: responsible innovation in research and publishing " point to a pivotal moment for
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a glittering blue dwarf galaxy called Markarian 178 (Mrk 178). The galaxy, which is substantially smaller than our own Milky Way, lies 13 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear).
Bermuda may well be associated with exaggerated stories of missing ships and planes, but there is another mystery about this part of the Atlantic that has been puzzling scientists for decades: Why does the island appear to float above the surrounding ocean? A new study
When postdoctoral researcher Matthew Zipple releases lab mice into a large, enclosed field just off Cornell's campus, something remarkable happens.
New research uncovers a major blind spot in how people read and interpret online reviews, one that can lead to wasted money, disappointing purchases and piles of low-quality products. As many as 98% of consumers check reviews before buying, and most assume star ratings reflect
A new LMU study estimates that land use changes in conjunction with climate change could lead to the loss of up to 38% of the Amazon rainforest by the end of the 21st century.
Across the world, governments are tightening controls on speech, expanding surveillance and rolling back rights once thought to be secure.
