Unseen but all around us, the air we breathe in enclosed spaces is crucial to our health and well-being. Indoor air is not simply outdoor air that has been run through a filter: it has its own chemical makeup and a unique combination of particles, gases and microorganisms.
About 10 million years ago, Antarctica's Southern Ocean started to get so cold that it scared away most fish in the region. Among the fish that stayed were what are now known as black rockcod, part of a famously sturdy family of Antarctic fish. But the black rockcod's future
While the national conversation around childhood obesity often focuses on rising health care costs, new research co-authored by Ball State University economist Dr. Maoyong Fan suggests the crisis may also be limiting the "American Dream." The study finds that childhood obesity
Antarctic scientists have trialed a DNA "barcoding" technique that could improve biosecurity measures that help protect polar ecosystems from invasive marine species. The research, led by Australian Antarctic Program scientists, used environmental DNA (eDNA) in water samples to
Kombu (Saccharina japonica) is a brown seaweed extensively cultivated and consumed in Japan, Korea and China. Despite its nutritional value, its strong fishy and grassy odor can deter some consumers. Additionally, many of kombu's nutrients are locked inside rigid cell walls and
Quantum computers—devices that process information using quantum mechanical effects—have long been expected to outperform classical systems on certain tasks. Over the past few decades, researchers have worked to rigorously demonstrate such advantages, ideally in ways that are
What do coffee, sugar, wheat, soy, eucalypts and paperbarks all have in common?
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) connects us to the natural world: What we breathe out becomes fuel for forests. But inside our own bodies, CO₂ has a secret life. It sparks chemical reactions, shapes metabolism, and may even act as a signaling molecule—and a new tool is finally letting
Standing on the coast and looking out to sea, you cannot detect the changes with the naked eye. But in northern Germany, sea levels are rising, as is the risk of flooding for the lower-lying coastal regions.
New research emerging from SFUSD's Shoestrings program reveals informal exclusionary discipline is a widespread problem—but there are solutions. When San Francisco Unified School District created the Shoestrings program—an effort to reduce racial gaps in early childhood
Researchers at Murdoch University have found that artificial waterbodies could play a crucial role in slowing the decline of Carter's freshwater mussel (Westralunio carteri), a vulnerable species of freshwater mussel found only in southwestern Australia.
Houseplants and more advanced plant systems, such as indoor living walls and hydroponic towers, have the potential to raise indoor humidity, boost thermal comfort and help create healthier, more climate-resilient buildings, according to new research led by the University of
When the supercontinent Pangea began to fragment around 200 million years ago during the Early Jurassic, it reshaped the face of the planet. Vast new oceans opened, continents drifted apart and the familiar geography of today slowly emerged. For decades, many geoscientists have
Sasha Stiles turned GPT-2 experiments into a self-writing poem at a Museum of Modern Art installation—and a new way to think about text-generating AI optimization
Scientists have created a blood test that can estimate when Alzheimer’s symptoms are likely to begin. By measuring a protein called p-tau217, the model predicts symptom onset within roughly three to four years. The protein mirrors the silent buildup of amyloid and tau in the
A surprising FDA reversal on Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine, early promise from a universal inhaled vaccine, and a desert fossil find that is reshaping spinosaurid history.
The humble breadcrumb could hold the key to cutting out fossil fuels from one of the chemical industry's most widely used reactions, according to a new study. Scientists have found a one-pot microbial formula that uses waste bread to replace fossil fuel-derived hydrogen in
Researchers at ETH Zurich have now discovered for the first time that large blackwater lakes in the extensive peatlands of the central Congo Basin are releasing ancient carbon. To date, climate researchers had assumed that carbon was stored safely for millenia in the peat. How
We often stop noticing things we’ve become too accustomed to, as a side effect of our brains protecting us from sensory overload. Columnist Helen Thomson shares the evidence-backed ways to learn how to notice again
New York ordered drivers off the road and shut down schools on Monday, while residents braced for a massive snowstorm hitting the United States northeast.
Grounded until at least April, NASA's giant moon rocket is headed back to the hangar this week for more repairs before astronauts climb aboard.
Far beyond Neptune, in the frozen depths of the Kuiper Belt, many ancient objects oddly resemble giant snowmen made of ice and rock. For years, scientists wondered how these delicate two-lobed shapes could form without violent collisions tearing them apart. Now researchers at
Cleaner wrasse have revealed a remarkable new side of fish intelligence. Marked with fake parasites, they used mirrors to inspect and remove the spots—far faster than seen in earlier tests. Even more striking, some fish dropped shrimp in front of the mirror to watch how its
A Martian volcano once thought to be the result of a single eruption turns out to have a much more complex past. Orbital imaging and mineral data show it developed through multiple eruptive phases, all powered by the same evolving magma system underground. Shifts in mineral
Deep in the heart of the Sahara, scientists have uncovered Spinosaurus mirabilis — a spectacular new predator crowned with a massive, scimitar-shaped crest that may once have blazed with color under the desert sun. Discovered in remote inland river deposits in Niger, the fossil
Around 250 million years ago, what is today scorching desert in remote northwestern Australia was the shore of a shallow bay bordering a vast prehistoric ocean. Fossils recovered from this region over 60 years ago, and almost forgotten in museum collections, have now shed new
The number of days when the weather gets hot, dry and windy—ideal to spark extreme wildfires—has nearly tripled in the past 45 years across the globe, with the trend increasing even higher in the Americas, a new study shows.
Nearly a month after a wastewater pipe broke and spewed hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River just north of Washington, D.C., the latest water testing results from the University of Maryland School of Public Health continue to show high levels of
Recent investigations have uncovered forced labor in agricultural supply chains, illegal fishing feeding supermarket freezers, deforestation embedded in everyday food products, and unsafe conditions in factories producing "sustainable" fashion. These harms were not visible on
When we dream of landscapes, we might imagine rolling valleys or rugged mountains. But there is a whole landscape hidden from human view: the secret world of the seafloor.
Turning on the "For You" algorithm on X (formerly Twitter) may shift users' political opinions toward more conservative views, suggests research involving nearly 5,000 X users. These effects are shown to persist even after users return to a chronological feed, according to a
Since the pandemic, offices around the world have quietly shrunk. Many organizations don't need as much floor space or as many desks, given many staff now do a mix of hybrid work from home and the office. But on days when more staff are required to be in, office spaces can feel
Using commercially available technology and innovative methods, researchers at NBI have pushed the limits of how fast you can detect changes in the sensitive quantum states in the qubit. Their work allows researchers to follow rapid changes in qubit performance that were
Blizzards can bring a ton of snow, but here’s what else they feature
Data collected during a rowing challenge around the seas of Great Britain has found significantly higher concentrations of microplastic pollution than previously recorded, a new report finds. The team, which included University of Surrey academic Hannah Davies, rowed more than
Over the past decade, southern Australia has suffered numerous extreme weather and climate events, such as record-breaking heat waves, bushfires, two major droughts and even flash flooding.
Rapid technological and scientific advances have fueled a huge wave of innovation over the past decades. The speed of global innovation is known to be dependent on the exchange of knowledge and skills between different nations worldwide.
Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection dramatically remodels the host cell's nuclear structures. Infection leads to the formation of viral replication compartments and to chromatin marginalization to the nuclear periphery. Joint research by the Universities of Jyväskylä
Researchers in Belgium have unveiled a striking chemical reaction in which ripples along a frozen reaction front resemble the rays of a shining star. Publishing their results in Physical Review Letters, Anne De Wit and colleagues at the Université Libre de Bruxelles have shed
Tiny aerosol particles in the air play a big role in regulating how much sunlight our planet absorbs or reflects, and how clouds form above us. In a recent study, researchers found that extreme heat waves can trigger new particle formation (NPF), even at temperatures as high as
Researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) have used long-term data from the Spree River to discover that aquatic plants can compensate for declining water levels in a drier climate. In recent summers, the growth of aquatic plants in
The Baltic Sea is one of the world's most oxygen-depleted major bodies of water. The reason is excessive concentrations of phosphorus, an element essential for life—and an important ingredient in fertilizer. New research shows a way to possibly convert this problem into a
Many Canadians say they care about ethical products. They want coffee that supports farmers, chocolate made without child labor and everyday goods that are better for the environment.
In the journal Antiquity, Dr. Shokouh Khosravi published preliminary findings of the largest known corpus of prehistoric seal impressions in the entire ancient world. The corpus, made up of over 7,000 seal impressions, more than 200 clay figurines, clay tokens, and two cylinder
Publicly funded research underpins much of daily life, from policy decisions to innovation and public debate. When research remains inaccessible, its value is diminished. Australia has made real progress on open access to research. In 2024, around 59% of papers authored by
Reservoir computing is a promising machine learning-based approach for the analysis of data that changes over time, such as weather patterns, recorded speech or stock market trends. Classical reservoir computing techniques are known to perform best at the "edge of chaos," or in
When we think of ice on Mars, we typically think of the poles, where we can see it visibly through probes and even ground-based telescopes. But the poles are hard to access, and even more so given the restrictions on exploration there due to potential biological contamination.
A study by the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences and the University of Bonn has shown that pH value is crucial for sperm motility in sea urchins and salmon. An increase in pH activates the enzyme adenylyl cyclase (sAC), which produces the messenger substance
For the first time in more than half a century, there are no binding restraints on the buildup of the largest nuclear forces on Earth. The New START treaty expired on Feb. 5, 2026, ending the last agreed limits on U.S. and Russian nuclear forces.
A sweeping new scientific review suggests that pecans — America’s native nut — may pack more heart power than many people realize. After analyzing over 20 years of research, scientists found consistent evidence that eating pecans can improve key markers of cardiovascular