A new analysis of air quality data from the past 70 years shows that Canada's record wildfire smoke in 2023 is part of a broader, continent-wide trend toward smokier skies across North America.
Light is a universal stimulus that influences all living things. Cycles of light and dark help set the biological clocks for organisms ranging from single-celled bacteria to human beings. Some bacteria use photosynthesis to convert sunlight into energy just like plants, but
What effect does it have on our well-being when we put our smartphones aside for a while or otherwise disconnect from digital media? Alicia Gilbert, a research associate at the Department of Communication at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), together with two
Increasing heat and drought are putting our forests under stress. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) have used drone imagery to investigate how native tree species are responding to climate change. This measurement method
Researchers in the lab of Asst. Prof. Chibueze Amanchukwu at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) have spent three years looking for failure, scouring the academic literature for tales of battery breakdowns and degraded electrolytes.
A team of scientists announced Tuesday they have developed new deep-sea landers specifically to test their contentious discovery that metallic rocks at the bottom of the ocean are producing "dark oxygen".
A hundred years ago, quantum mechanics was a radical theory that baffled even the brightest minds. Today, it's the backbone of technologies that shape our lives, from lasers and microchips to quantum computers and secure communications.
Political published writing retains an "important and complex role" in the national conversation—despite huge social and technological changes this century, a new book shows.
"A plague is upon us'' may have been a common phrase in ancient Jordan, where countless people perished from a mysterious malady that would shape both a society and an era of civilization.
Challenging long-held assumptions, Aarhus University researchers have demonstrated that the protein building blocks essential for life as we know it can form readily in space. This discovery, appearing in Nature Astronomy, significantly raises the statistical probability of
A neurologist reckons with recent revelations about the celebrated doctor and author The post The Confabulations of Oliver Sacks appeared first on Nautilus .
Huge inequality between inner-city and suburban parks across the world could be threatening well-being globally, suggests a study from King's College London and Nokia Bell Labs.
Cuts in sulfur emissions from oceangoing vessels have been tied to a reduction in lightning stroke density along heavily trafficked shipping routes in the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea, according to new research from the University of Kansas.
Research conducted by an international team of astronomers from Southwest Research Institute, Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences in India and the Max Planck Institute in Germany could help predict upcoming solar cycle activity.
Quantum mechanics is rich with paradoxes and contradictions. It describes a microscopic world in which particles exist in a superposition of states—being in multiple places and configurations all at once, defined mathematically by what physicists call a "wavefunction." But this
An atmospheric scientist at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, has helped uncover a previously unknown chemical pathway that plays a major role in the formation of air pollution particles in environments influenced by both
Humans aren’t the only mammal species with aging populations The post Your Favorite Zoo Animals Are Getting Old appeared first on Nautilus .
Researchers from the South Pole Telescope project team looked deep into the center of the Milky Way, discovering powerful, surprising bursts of light from two accreting white dwarf systems.
Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), in collaboration with the University of the Virgin Islands have discovered that microorganisms in seawater surrounding corals provide a powerful indicator of coral disease, potentially transforming how reef health
Forensics experts gather DNA to understand who was present at a crime scene. But what if the crime occurred in the middle of a lake, where DNA could be carried far and wide by wind and waves? That's the challenge faced by aquatic ecologists who study environmental DNA (eDNA) to
Pharmaceuticals used in health care provide huge health and economic benefits to society, but are now found extensively as pollutants across global waterways.
Solar panels on bodies of water in the northeastern U.S. might generate renewable energy but could also carry risks for birds, especially waterbirds. Now a new study provides a data-informed approach to siting floating solar that could protect waterbirds and others, without
Precise methods for shredding or repairing and replacing specific cancer-causing proteins in a malignant cell, developed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, could have applications beyond cancer to a wide range of immunological diseases, members of the interdisciplinary
New research shows the red planet plays an outsized role in Earth’s climate The post Tiny Mars has a Big Impact on Our Climate appeared first on Nautilus .
Cases of respiratory syncytial virus are increasing, but vaccines and antibody shots can keep young children out of the hospital
New research from the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford, and the University of Kentucky, finds that ChatGPT systematically favors wealthier, Western regions in response to questions ranging from "Where are people more beautiful?" to "Which country is
A Simon Fraser University cosmologist believes his team's new research may bring them a step closer to cracking one of science's biggest questions—the Hubble tension.
Japanese macaques, colloquially referred to as snow monkeys, famously soak in steaming hot springs during winter. It's easy to see that this helps them stay warm in cold temperatures, but a team of researchers at Kyoto University recently discovered that this iconic behavior
Archaeologists working near Skipsea Castle in East Yorkshire say a series of rare discoveries is transforming understanding of life in the centuries before the Norman Conquest.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has zoomed into the Helix Nebula to give an up-close view of the possible eventual fate of our own sun and planetary system. In Webb's high-resolution look, the structure of the gas being shed off by a dying star comes into full focus. The
Humans are using more water than Earth can support, with many water sources already damaged beyond repair, a report from the United Nations found
Sealed surfaces, artificial light and constant noise: What is part of everyday life for humans poses major challenges for other animals. A new international review conducted by researchers from Bielefeld University now reveals just how profoundly cities transform the social
The interstellar object, 3I/ATLAS, was first discovered in July 2025, and made its closest approach to the sun (perihelion) in late October. New observations of 3I/ATLAS were taken in December from the SPHEREx observatory—a near-infrared space observatory used for
In 2023, a team of physicists from Sandia National Laboratories announced a major discovery: a way to steer LED light. If refined, it could mean someday replacing lasers with cheaper, smaller, more energy-efficient LEDs in countless technologies, from UPC scanners and
To ensure our bodies function correctly, the cells that compose them must operate properly. Imagine a cell as a bustling city where tiny parts called organelles move, reorganize, and respond to external stresses. To understand how our bodies stay healthy, or what goes wrong
Countries have spent beyond their sustainable water budgets for so long that critical assets are depleted and the world faces huge economic, social and environmental costs
Amid chronic groundwater depletion, water overallocation, land and soil degradation, deforestation, and pollution, all compounded by global heating, a UN report today declared the dawn of an era of global water bankruptcy, inviting world leaders to facilitate "honest,
An array of animals and plants survive winter in the subnivium, nature’s igloo. But climate change is threatening this hidden seasonal ecosystem.
While Io, the most volcanically active moon in the solar system, appears completely dry and devoid of water ice, its neighbor Europa is thought to harbor a vast global ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust. A new international study co-led by Aix-Marseille University and
CO2 reduction to storable fuels or valuable chemical products provides a carbon-neutral cycle that can mitigate the rapid consumption of fossil fuels and increasing CO2 emissions. Although solar-driven CO2 reduction holds great promise for sustainable energy, the role and
Every few years, you'll hear a familiar refrain: "Opera is dying."
The Sahel, the semi-arid African region stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east, has become the epicenter of global terrorism, given the high number of attacks by armed groups and the resulting fatalities, including those suffered by civilians.
During brain development, neurons extend long processes called axons. Axons link different areas of the brain and carry signals within it and to the rest of the body. Growing axons "wire up" the brain by following precise paths through the tissue. Their navigation depends on
Consistent with the general trend of incorporating artificial intelligence into nearly every field, researchers and politicians are increasingly using AI models trained on scientific data to infer answers to scientific questions. But can AI ultimately replace scientists?
I grew up in rural Colorado, deep in the mountains, and I can still remember the first time I visited Denver in the early 2000s. The city sits on the plain, skyscrapers rising and buildings extending far into the distance. Except, as we drove out of the mountains, I could
A joint research team from NIMS and University of Tsukuba have developed an autonomous AI network technology that allows multiple autonomous AI systems to efficiently discover new materials by spontaneously collaborating with each other and forming a network. The team
Complex sugar-protein molecules that sense external messages to help a cell grow or respond to its environment can now be tracked and analyzed, using a Nobel Prize-winning chemistry technique.
We recently discussed the different types of worlds that the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is expected to find that might have noticeable biosignatures. However, no matter how good the instrumentation on board the observatory is, the data it collects will be useless if
Researchers from the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a new class of high-performance materials for micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) switch chips, achieving an ultra-long fatigue life critical for 5G/6G communications,
Satellite imagery and artificial intelligence can detect with high accuracy two invasive weed species in Australia, posing a new opportunity for defense against these pervasive plants.
