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Hummingbirds speed up pineapple family's evolution

Hummingbirds make bromeliad plants split into new species twice as fast as other pollinators do, scientists at the University of Reading have found. The research team gathered records of which animals pollinate 403 types of bromeliad, which include pineapples and more than

A new net-membrane could clean up some tricky space debris

We've reported on all kinds of wacky ideas for capturing and deorbiting space debris safely. From electric tethers to lasers, engineers and scientists have been trying everything they can think of to deal with the ever-increasing orbital debris problem. But one simple design

Fighting the world's deadliest infection with PAC-MAN and AI

Tuberculosis, caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is the world's deadliest single-agent infection, responsible for 1.23 million deaths in 2024, according to the World Health Organization. The bacterium's unique outer cell membrane is notoriously hard to

Molecular nanostructures can be activated using ultrasound

Researchers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have taken an important step toward developing intelligent molecular materials. The team headed by Dr. Bernd M. Schmidt (Institute of Organic Chemistry and Macromolecular Chemistry) and Professor Dr. Jan Meisner

High levels of forever chemicals found on wastewater filters

As cities across the nation and the globe increasingly turn to advanced water purification systems to expand their drinking water supplies, researchers at Texas A&M University have identified a critical environmental safety consideration. A new study from the Department of

Astronomers spot an extremely rare galaxy mega-merger

Scale in the universe is hard to understand from a purely human perspective. Many times, the math just doesn't sit well with our brains, which evolved to capture and process data about the world around us rather than grok the complexities of stellar dynamics and galaxy mergers.