Climate change is already shaping our well-being. It affects mental health, spreads infectious diseases, disrupts work, damages food supplies and forces families to leave their homes because of conflict, hunger or flooding.
Scientists have uncovered a stepwise system that guides how the brain sorts and stabilizes lasting memories. By tracking brain activity during virtual reality learning tasks, researchers identified molecules that influence how long memories persist. Each molecule operates on a
New findings show that some coastal regions will become far more acidic than scientists once thought, with upwelling systems pulling deep, CO2-rich waters to the surface and greatly intensifying acidification. Historic coral chemistry and advanced modeling reveal that these
A tiny 242-million-year-old fossil from Devon is shaking up scientists’ assumptions about the earliest members of the lizard lineage. Instead of the expected skull hinges and palate teeth typical of modern lizards and snakes, this ancient creature shows a surprising mix of
Scientists have reconstructed the most complete and lifelike profile of Edmontosaurus annectens thanks to an extraordinary preservation process called clay templating, in which a thin clay film captured the dinosaur’s skin, scales, spikes, and even hooves in three dimensions.
Scientists found that RSV infection early in life can set the stage for childhood asthma, particularly in kids already genetically prone to allergies. The virus appears to skew the developing immune system toward exaggerated responses to everyday allergens. But when newborns
Every second, trillions of tiny parcels travel through your bloodstream—carrying vital information between your body's cells. Now, scientists at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute have opened this molecular mail for the first time, revealing its contents in astonishing
In a dimly lit office in a corner of the French National Institute for Art History, Sudanese archaeologist Shadia Abdrabo studies a photograph of pottery made in her country around 7,000 B.C. She carefully types a description of the Neolithic artifact into a spreadsheet.
A planet's habitability is determined by a confluence of many factors. So far, our explorations of potentially habitable worlds beyond our solar system have focused exclusively on their position in the "Goldilocks Zone" of their solar system, where their temperature determines
A new study has revealed that successful environmental restoration is dependent on bridging the gap between ecological science and understanding the social and economic forces that drive change.
Men are earning on average A$9,753 more than women each year in the form of performance bonuses, allowances and overtime pay.
Speed matters. When an X-ray photon excites an atom or ion, making a core electron jump onto a higher energy level, a short-lived window of opportunity opens. For just a few femtoseconds, before an electron fills the void in the lower energy level, a second photon has the
Researchers have found that ongoing thyroid hormone imbalance in pregnancy may be linked to higher autism risk in children. Treated thyroid disorders did not show the same effect. The longer the imbalance lasted across trimesters, the more the risk appeared to rise. The study
On Heard Island, a remote Australian subantarctic island some 4,000 km southwest of Perth, scientists were concerned after observing high mortality rates in the elephant seal population.
Researchers studying thousands of canine genomes discovered that wolf DNA is still present in most dog breeds. This ancient genetic influence shows up in traits like body size, behavior, and environmental resilience. Even dogs bred far from wolves, including tiny chihuahuas,
Since the 1950s, humanity has been searching for extraterrestrial life with increasingly sophisticated tools. But after decades of space probes, meteorite analysis, radio telescopes, and UFO investigations, what have we actually found? A new piece of analysis by a team led by
Quantum communication is edging closer to reality thanks to a breakthrough in teleporting information between photons from different quantum dots—one of the biggest challenges in building a quantum internet. By creating nearly identical semiconductor-based photon sources and
Researchers from the Center for Food Policy at City St George's, University of London and Scotland's Rural College have set out six key areas for action that could help households cut down on food waste in a new comment article published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
"Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative," wrote H. G. Wells. This principle—that survival requires change—was mastered billions of years ago by single-celled organisms living in extreme heat. Over the past few decades, studies of these organisms'
The discovery of strange, ultra-red objects—especially the extreme case known as The Cliff—has pushed astronomers to propose an entirely new type of cosmic structure: black hole stars. These exotic hybrids could explain rapid black hole growth in the early universe, but their
One of the most elegant theories about the origins of life on our planet is that it was kick-started by a delivery from outer space. This idea suggests that prebiotic molecules—the building blocks of life—were transported here by asteroids or other celestial bodies. While these
Nearly a century after astronomers first proposed dark matter to explain the strange motions of galaxies, scientists may finally be catching a glimpse of it. A University of Tokyo researcher analyzing new data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected a halo of
This week, researchers reported that weight and health markers may rebound when patients stop using some of the new hormonal gastric inhibitory polypeptide drugs. A prototype device can restore lost olfactory sense. And a new universal law predicts how brittle objects shatter.
In a study published in Physical Review Letters, physicists have demonstrated that black holes satisfy the third law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy remains positive and vanishes at extremely low temperatures, just like ordinary quantum systems. The finding
Combining newer neural networks with older AI systems could be the secret to building an AI to match or surpass human intelligence
Past psychology and behavioral science studies have identified various ways in which people's acquisition of new knowledge can be disrupted. One of these, known as interference, occurs when humans are learning new information and this makes it harder for them to correctly
Across Africa, distance education has become one of the most powerful forces for expanding access to higher learning. Open and distance learning institutions such as the Open University of Tanzania, the Zimbabwe Open University and the National Open University of Nigeria have
Millions face Medicare decisions each year, but many don’t take advantage of tools that can save them money and stress. Insurance marketing often overshadows unbiased options like SHIP, leaving people unaware of better choices. Comparing real costs—not just premiums—can prevent