Understanding whether lakes are fed predominantly by groundwater or rainwater is critical to managing our water resources in the face of droughts and shortages, new research has found.
A 2.35-billion-year-old meteorite with a unique chemical signature, found in Africa in 2023, plugs a major gap in our understanding of the moon's volcanic history.
Astronomers want to unlock the secrets of the "Cosmic Dawn" by sending a miniature spacecraft to listen out for an "ancient whisper" on the far side of the moon.
A new U.K.-led satellite mission concept aims to strengthen the country's position in space weather observation and forecasting by deploying a suite of homegrown scientific instruments on a low-cost spacecraft in low-Earth orbit.
Recreating artificial solar eclipses in space could help astronomers decipher the inner workings of our sun much quicker than if they had to wait for the celestial show on Earth.
A cancer-killing virus could soon be approved for use after shrinking tumours in a third of people with late-stage melanoma
Are you young, female, well-educated, in a job, and live in a big city in a rich EU country? If you answer yes to all these questions, you're probably among people who are most satisfied with your life.
As prices rose across the globe following the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, many expected the usual pattern, i.e., low-income households bearing the brunt of inflation. But in South Korea, they observed something exactly opposite to the usual scenario.
Does something like "free will" really exist? We often take it for granted, but philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists have debated the issue for decades—if not centuries. In his recent Ph.D. at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), titled "The Free Will Discussion: an
Across Europe and around the world, melting glaciers are reshaping landscapes and climate systems. Researchers Elzė Buslavičiūtė and Dr. Laurynas Jukna from the Institute of Geosciences at the Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, Vilnius University, explain how satellite data
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a new and faster method for detecting and measuring the radioactivity of minuscule amounts of radioactive material. The innovative technique, known as cryogenic decay energy spectrometry
In a hunt for more sustainable technologies, researchers are looking further into enabling two-dimensional materials in renewable energy that could lead to sustainable production of chemicals such as ammonia, which is used in fertilizer.
Inside our cells, ribosomes—the tireless "protein factories" of life—have just shown off a new skill they haven't used in billions of years. A research team has become the first in the world to successfully expand the range of ring-shaped backbones in proteins using ribosomes,
Interest in the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin skyrocketed during the covid-19 pandemic, but evidence for many of its supposed health claims are lacking
Magnetic materials are in high demand. They're essential to the energy storage innovations on which electrification depends and to the robotics systems powering automation. They're also inside more familiar products, from consumer electronics to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” just signed by President Trump will slash support for clean energy, leaving the US far short of its Paris Agreement pledge
As authorities search for victims of the flash floods in Texas that killed more than 100 people over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, social media users are spreading false claims that the devastation was caused by weather modification.
Photosystem II (PSII) is the only biological machine capable of splitting water into oxygen using sunlight. It plays a fundamental role in global oxygen production and solar energy conversion. However, PSII is highly prone to light-induced damage, particularly under high-light
New research finds that not only will climate change make heat waves hotter and longer, but the lengthening of heat waves will accelerate with each additional fraction of a degree of warming.
A large increase in atmospheric methane between 2020 and 2022 raised concerns that tropical wetland emissions had surged in response to a changing climate, but a study led by the University of Michigan shows that this was not the case. The methane must have come from somewhere
Raccoons are often seen as cute and harmless wildlife—but that is a misconception. "Raccoons are native animals," "They reproduce faster when hunted," "Everything about raccoons has already been said"—these are just a few of the persistent myths circulating about raccoons in
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have created a new way to build and control tiny particles that can move and work like microscopic robots, offering a powerful tool with applications in biomedical and environmental research.
Doctoral students have described a new selective biocatalyst in an interdisciplinary and inter-university collaboration. The biocatalyst can produce useful epoxides from harmful styrene, and do this so selectively that only the desired compounds are formed and not their
"AI could potentially change education drastically," says UC San Diego education scholar Amy Eguchi, who is both excited and concerned about the prospect.
Broiler chickens, bred for rapid growth, accumulate more fat under chronic heat stress, which reduces meat quality and production efficiency. In a recent study, researchers from Japan revealed that heat stress directly alters fat metabolism in adipose tissue, regulating genes
In modern devices, such as phone screens or advanced sensors, light is often generated by pairs of organic molecules, where one molecule, known as the donor, transmits electrons, and the other, referred to as the acceptor, receives them. An international team of scientists from
Optical quantum clocks developed at the University of Adelaide have been proven to outperform GPS navigation systems by many orders of magnitude. The clocks, which were put through their paces in naval exercises, were designed to be robust enough to withstand being rocked by
A new study that looked at gut length variation between cichlid fish species found that some of the genetic loci for the trait are sex-specific even though males and females of the same species have the same gut length. The work supports a scenario of "sexual conflict," where
How do you catch an invasive fish that's solitary and nocturnal?
Ancient humans in Africa changed their behaviour in a major way 70,000 years ago, which could explain how their descendants managed to people the rest of the world
Ecosystems are characterized by interconnected structure and functions. A study published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Casey Benkwitt at Lancaster University, United Kingdom and colleagues suggests that restoring seabird populations via eradication of rats may
Hundreds of Spanish firefighters on Tuesday battled a forest fire stoked by fierce winds that had burned more than 3,000 hectares, with authorities ordering 18,000 residents to stay at home.
A wildfire in southern France on Tuesday forced Marseille airport to close and interrupted train traffic as the blaze spread rapidly to the edges of the city.
Filmmaker Peter Jackson owns one of the largest private collections of bones of an extinct New Zealand bird called the moa. His fascination with the flightless ostrich-like bird has led to an unusual partnership with a biotech company known for its grand and controversial plans
A daily mismatch between temperature and humidity, observed in certain mountain and waterside regions, helps regulate atmospheric dryness. According to a new study published in Science Advances, this protective effect may weaken under global warming.
Babies lacking in key gut bacteria are at greater risk of developing asthma, allergies or eczema
Predatory fish that evolved into the first terrestrial animals on Earth are still revealing insights into the origins of mammals—including new research into the eating habits of lobe-finned fish which inhabited an ancient reef in northern Australia.
A set of breakthroughs from scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is offering a new understanding of how energy flows through one of nature's most important molecular machines: the photosystem II supercomplex (PSII).
Over the past two centuries, humans have locked up enough water in dams to shift Earth's poles slightly away from the planet's axis of rotation, according to recent research.
In a world overrun with plastic garbage, causing untold environmental woes, University of Houston assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, Maksud Rahman, has developed a way to turn bacterial cellulose—a biodegradable material—into a multifunctional material
New research from the University of Bath finds older Brits are delaying retirement due to rising State Pension age but many younger workers, especially women, risk being underprepared by holding onto unrealistic early retirement hopes.
Putting aerosols in the stratosphere to reflect sunlight could prevent the shutdown of key ocean currents, but only if it is done soon, a computer model suggests
A Ph.D. student in biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has built a software program designed to facilitate the kind of precision genome editing involved in the development of cutting-edge therapeutics for genetic conditions such as certain
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a bright variable star, V 372 Orionis, and its companion in this festive image in this image released on Jan. 27, 2023. The pair lie in the Orion Nebula, a colossal region of star formation roughly 1,450 light-years from Earth.
Forests are a crucial resource for carbon mitigation, currently offsetting around 20% of North American carbon emissions. As temperatures continue to rise, scientists are rushing to understand how climate change is affecting forests and their carbon sequestering abilities. A
U.S. diets should include more of vitamins D and E, fiber, calcium and magnesium — all are essential nutrients that could offer health benefits.
Sunspots are the most striking phenomenon of the solar magnetic field. After the invention of the telescope early in the 17th century, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was the first to routinely observe sunspots. In the 20th century, with the help of modern techniques
The Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans) is a nocturnal and arboreal rodent that inhabits the boreal taiga forests from eastern Russia to Finland and Estonia. Despite its wide distribution, little was previously known about the genetic structure and history of this
Researchers have discovered a strategy to neutralize two highly lethal viruses for which there is currently no approved vaccine or cure.
Researchers from RMIT University and CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, have unveiled a method to significantly extend the lifetime of quantum batteries—1,000 times longer than previous demonstrations.
