Plants need nitrogen fertilizers, which are usually ammonia-based. Ammonia is therefore one of the most important chemical products. However, its production is currently extremely energy-intensive. An international team from TU Wien and Soochow University in China has developed
For decades, court-ordered community service has been used as an alternative to incarceration. The intention is to reduce costs, provide restitution to the community and support individual rehabilitation. But does it actually work? A new report from the University of Georgia
Most electronic memory storage devices require the ability to trap large numbers of electrons for each bit of memory. In an ideal world, however, it would take only one electron. This would reduce space requirements and power consumption for devices. Now, a team in China has
As materials become thinner—now reaching the thickness of single atoms—it has become increasingly difficult to create sufficiently large sheets and transfer them without cracking them into tiny flakes. Recent work by a broad Amsterdam-based team of scientists, published in the
Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and Florida State University's Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response Center have identified how hurricane flooding can affect health long after a storm. In research published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, the
Researchers documented behavioral similarities between 11 rehabilitated elephants and their wild counterparts.
Scientists at the Universities of Liverpool and Oxford have developed a promising new way to kill antibiotic-resistant strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium that causes gonorrhea, using a targeted therapy that is activated at the bacterial surface while minimizing
For communities across the Western Cape, cut-off low weather systems are a familiar threat. They can dump torrents of rain in a matter of hours, flooding roads, damaging homes and infrastructure, and, in the worst cases, causing loss of life. What scientists have long wanted to
He tramples things without intending to. He was created by us. He never permanently goes away. In recent years, metaphorical representations of Donald Trump as the Japanese kaiju Godzilla have become common. Now, a paper published in De Gruyter Brill's The Forum argues that the
Why do humans keep pets? A new international study suggests that some of the behavioral foundations of human-animal companionship may have much deeper evolutionary roots than previously thought.
It could go either way, depending on the relationship The post Does Having a Pet Really Improve Our Health? appeared first on Nautilus .
A new study on how rising temperatures will affect rice production in Science Advances compares 214 observations from field-warming experiments with seven crop models, revealing modeled estimates for yield reductions from 1°C of global warming were roughly half those of the
Forest trees growing in air containing higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) radically change the way they "cycle" nitrogen, a key plant nutrient, with implications for forests as a nature-based climate solution.
Scientists from China, Europe and the U.S., including Dr. Stephan Spiekman, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart and the University of Hohenheim, have described a fossil of the long-necked marine reptile Austronaga minuta from China. Although this
Extreme urban flooding is a growing challenge under climate change, threatening residents, infrastructure and urban systems. However, traditional emergency planning often relies on static population data and fixed facilities, failing to capture how people move during disasters.
People described as "problematic" internet users report higher stress, worse mood and greater neglect of other activities than those who surf the web sparingly, according to a study published in PLOS One by Silke M. Müller from the University Hospital Essen, Germany, and
For decades, scientists have largely relied on painstaking trial and error to coax proteins into crystalline forms. Crystallization enables scientists to determine the molecular structures of proteins, which can provide a blueprint for designing drugs, engineering enzymes and
It is a mystery that has puzzled scientists for years. How can the world's only winged mammals carry viruses that cause severe disease while rarely becoming seriously ill themselves?
Ex-captive elephants released into the wild adapt well to wild environments, according to a study published July 29, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Tenisha Roos and Tamara Eggeling of the Elephant Reintegration Trust of South Africa and colleagues.
he extreme conditions of atomic bomb explosions create “uncontrolled microexperiments” that, in Hiroshima, forged a never-before-seen metallic alloy
Extant and ancient cephalopods—including octopuses, squids, extinct ammonites, cuttlefish and nautiluses—have all had to solve the problem of buoyancy, whether they have hard external shells or not.
Wetland restoration is often promoted as a definitive way to support wildlife, improve water quality and help store carbon. However, new research from McGill University suggests the overall climate picture is more complicated. In a study of human-made marshes along the Bay of
As NASA's Curiosity rover recently began climbing a Martian valley nicknamed "Valle Grande," it sent back images that were a familiar sight to mission scientists: honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures, each about 1.5–3 inches (4–8 centimeters) across. The mission
Nepal's tiger population has risen by roughly 20% in the past four years to an estimated 429, officials said Wednesday, a conservation milestone despite challenges from human-wildlife conflict.
Scientists have discovered a previously unknown law of geometry that explains why some growing surfaces, whether in nature or in engineered materials, suddenly stop being able to stay smooth and instead form dimples and folds. Until now, researchers believed they understood the
Hundreds of feet below Earth's surface, rocks and water teem with fungi and support complex ecosystems of tiny organisms, according to a University of Michigan study that finds fungi are far more abundant deep underground than researchers previously thought.
Shoppers would pay more for their weekly groceries if it meant improved welfare for farm animals, according to new research from the University of Reading.
New research hints that school cell phone bans may not be enough The post Even Owning a Cell Phone Is Bad for Kids’ Test Scores appeared first on Nautilus .
Researchers at the Centre for Ecosystem Management (CEM), together with scientists from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Cornell University, Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, have published a paper showing that ecosystems
A multidisciplinary study has uncovered a critical component in the formation of biofilms, the complex structures used by bacteria to colonize surfaces. The research may have implications for future infection treatments, including for people with cystic fibrosis.
Just over half of England has been declared to be in drought after "record-low rainfall and exceptionally high temperatures," the U.K. government said Wednesday.
Scientists have discovered a new way to determine how big an earthquake may become just seconds after it begins. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Cal Poly Humboldt used signals picked up by fiber-optic
Comparing yourself with your partner is more common than you'd think. Psychologists even have a term for it: mate value discrepancy (MVD), which is the gap between how attractive, smart or successful each partner feels compared with the other.
Scientists have long wondered whether loud, human-caused noise interferes with wild animals' cognition—their ability to think and learn—by causing stress, distraction or making it harder for them to focus. The results of a novel study of eastern bluebirds conducted by a team of
Breaking down the famous “Dunning-Kruger effect” with David Dunning himself The post Why We Think We Know More Than We Do appeared first on Nautilus .
Using cargo recovered from one of Australia's most infamous shipwrecks, new Curtin University-led research has revealed how surprisingly sophisticated global supply chains helped source and transport construction materials in the 17th century.
In a world searching for more sustainable ways to manage waste, the promise of turning "trash into treasure" is hard to ignore. Take nitrate pollution, for example. Every year, nitrogen fertilizers help feed billions of people. But not all of that nitrogen stays where it is
The wildfire that engulfed Spain's Ávila region, northwest of the capital, Madrid, is now considered the largest in the country's modern history, with around 50,000 hectares (193 square miles) burned, the government said this week.
For most theories in physics, the order of operations has little impact on the result. When setting a dial to a certain position, for example, it doesn't matter whether it's turned clockwise or counterclockwise—the result will always be the same. Yet for non-Abelian gauge
Feeding wild animals is a popular activity at tourist destinations. While these interactions often appear harmless, scientists are recognizing how supplemental feeding of wild animals can alter ecosystems in unexpected ways.
Winters in Antarctica's Ross Sea have become stormier in recent decades, affecting sea-ice conditions and field operations, new University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka research shows.
Scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Manchester have developed a promising new way to create safer and more effective treatments for life-threatening fungal infections. The research, published today in Nature, describes a new family of antifungal agents
The vast majority of proteins in our bodies contain regions that are in a constant state of wiggling, shape-shifting every few nanoseconds to completely change how they look. Information on how these shape-shifting proteins work is critical to understanding health and disease
Historians have for decades chronicled instances of discriminatory practices under Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration mortgage programs, but the extent of these biases has been unknown. The first national-level analysis of early FHA and VA lending
The octopus is a biological oddity. It can use tools, open jars, and its complex nervous system supports as many neurons as a small primate. Now Harvard biologists have discovered a mysterious distinction in octopuses' core biology: Some octopuses have an unusual adaptation in
Researchers at Duke University School of Medicine have developed an artificial intelligence framework that can redesign proteins on a scale previously seen only in natural evolution. The tool can create shorter, longer and highly modified versions of proteins while preserving
A remarkably preserved fossil from Mongolia's Gobi Desert is reshaping scientists' understanding of mammal evolution during the age of dinosaurs.
Researchers at Colorado State University have developed a process to transform naturally occurring, highly stable carbon dioxide into recyclable, high-performance materials that could replace today's plastics in many situations. Their catalytic process, described in the journal
Many of these structures date to around C.E. 100–300, during the time of the Aquiry civilization, and may have been used for ceremonial purposes
A newly discovered change in ribosomal RNA makes protein production more precise, potentially safeguarding these cephalopods’ complex nervous systems