UMass Amherst engineers have built an artificial neuron powered by bacterial protein nanowires that functions like a real one, but at extremely low voltage. This allows for seamless communication with biological cells and drastically improved energy efficiency. The discovery
Babies born too soon seem to have stronger connections in one of the major brain areas that supports language processing if they regularly heard their mother read them a story while in intensive care
Scientists at Mass General Brigham have created HPV-DeepSeek, a blood test that can detect HPV-linked head and neck cancers nearly a decade before diagnosis. By finding viral DNA in the bloodstream, the test achieved 99% sensitivity and specificity. This breakthrough could lead
A team at Massachusetts General Hospital uncovered that an immune defense protein, Resistin-like molecule gamma, attacks heart cells after a heart attack—literally punching holes in them. This discovery explains why dangerous, fast heart rhythms can strike after an infarction.
With the successful eleventh test flight of its Starship megarocket, SpaceX is on the cusp of a new era in spaceflight
Weather forecasting is a powerful tool. During hurricane season, for instance, meteorologists create computer simulations to forecast how these destructive storms form and where they might travel, which helps prevent damage to coastal communities. When you're trying to forecast
When we hear the word "disaster" we often think of floods, droughts or earthquakes—events caused by nature. But what really turns these events into disasters is how prepared we are to deal with them. A flood becomes a disaster when people do not have safe housing, early
Lead poisoning was once thought to largely be a problem of the past, as the globe gradually weaned itself off leaded gasoline in road vehicles in 2021. But has global lead pollution truly been resolved?
Lack of incentives and low adoption of metadata standards are limiting AI's potential for bioimage analysis—a community initiative proposes solutions.
For billions of years, Earth's continents have remained remarkably stable, forming the foundation for mountains, ecosystems and civilizations. But the secret to their stability has mystified scientists for more than a century. Now, a new study by researchers at Penn State and
Infertility affects about one in six couples, and male factors account for roughly half of all cases—often because sperm don't swim well. Researchers from the University of Osaka have uncovered a key component of the "switch" that keeps the movement signal strong, offering a
Scientists at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) have discovered a way to control sound and vibrations using a concept inspired by "twistronics," a phenomenon originally developed for electronics.
Deep inside caves, water dripping from the ceiling creates one of nature's most iconic formations: stalagmites. These pillars of calcite, ranging from centimeters to many meters in height, rise from the cave floor as drip after drip of mineral-rich water deposits a tiny layer
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the deadly drug-resistant bacteria NDM-CRE found a 70% rise in infections in the U.S. between 2019 and 2023. Also known as "nightmare bacteria," NDM-CRE has few effective treatment options and high mortality
Breakthrough inventions are most likely to emerge when knowledge categories are blurred. Research by Gianluca Carnabuci, professor of organizational behavior at ESMT, and Balázs Kovács, professor at Yale School of Management, shows that patents in low-contrast categories, which
Professor Edmund Lam, Dr. Ni Chen and their research team from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering under the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have developed a novel uncertainty-aware Fourier ptychography (UA-FP) technology that
Hidden beneath farmland in the central tablelands of New South Wales lies one of Australia's most extraordinary fossil sites—McGraths Flat. It dates back between 11 million and 16 million years into the Miocene epoch, a time when many of today's familiar plants and animals
A research team has co-developed a nanomaterial-based 'wireless multi-sensing platform' for the early detection of pressure injuries, which have a high prevalence among individuals with limited mobility, including the elderly and people with disabilities. The team's findings
We are lizard biologists, and to do our work we need to catch lizards—never an easy task with such fast, agile creatures.
Betelgeuse, the brilliant red star marking Orion's shoulder, has long been suspected of harboring a secret. I have to confess, Betelgeuse holds a special place in my heart as the first star I ever looked at through a telescope as a child, so learning that astronomers theorized
When galaxies collide, it's not a gentle affair, but it does take millions of years. Over this time, the two massive star systems slowly merge together, their gravitational pull drawing them closer. At the heart of each galaxy lies a supermassive black hole, an object
A surge in global temperatures has caused widespread coral reef bleaching and death around the world
Humans have about 400 odorant receptors (ORs), but scientists have had trouble finding ligands that match up with most of these ORs in lab settings—leaving them with a murky understanding of how certain smells are recognized in our brains. Only 71 human receptor-ligand
A new update to an influential economic theory called "Doughnut Economics" shows a global economy on a collision course with nature.
Molecular biologists have long believed that the beginning of a gene launched the process of transcription—the process by which a segment of DNA is copied into RNA and then RNA helps make the proteins that cells need to function.
SpaceX is set to attempt the next test flight of its massive Starship rocket on Monday, as concerns grow that Elon Musk has overpromised his company's ability to deliver NASA's lunar projects and fulfill his own Mars ambitions.
Accurately modeling gross primary productivity (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) in terrestrial ecosystems is essential for understanding and predicting the global carbon and water cycles. However, current models face considerable uncertainties and limitations when estimating
Dark matter, the substance that makes up about 27% of the universe, could potentially be detected as a red or blue light "fingerprint," new research shows. The research is published in the journal Physics Letters B.
Peroxidases are enzymes that break down hydrogen peroxide in organisms. Since their discovery in 1998, the electron source of "peroxiredoxin 6-type" peroxidases for this reaction remained unclear. The research group of Professor Marcel Deponte at RPTU has now closed this
Using advanced techniques in biophysical chemistry, a team led by Meredith Jackrel, an associate professor of chemistry, has achieved unprecedented views of a protein that may play a pivotal role in some cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the related disorder
An international research team led by the University of Bremen has investigated what influenced the expansion of the Patagonian ice sheet during the last ice age. The scientists found evidence that the advances and retreats of glaciers in South America over the past 120,000
A comprehensive review of scientific literature has identified nanofiltration (NF) membrane technologies as the most effective method for removing pharmaceutical contaminants from water sources, according to researchers from the University of Sharjah.
Nobel laureate Shimon Sakaguchi reflects on the role of regulatory T cells in peripheral immune tolerance and how the cells could transform treatment for cancer, autoimmune disease and organ transplant rejection
Finasteride, a common hair-loss drug, has long been tied to depression and suicide, but regulators ignored the warnings. Prof. Mayer Brezis’s review exposes global data showing psychiatric harm and a pattern of inaction by Merck and the FDA. Despite its cosmetic use, the drug’s
A research team led by Prof. Xu Pingyong from the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed an innovative approach to visualize and rapidly screen small peptide knockins. The new approach, termed ALFA Nanobody-guided Endogenous Labeling (ANGEL),
Widely used to prevent infection, one of the active ingredients in the ointment, Neosporin, is neomycin. Discovered in the 1940s, neomycin is an effective topical antibiotic; however, if injected into the body to treat systemic infections, it can cause deafness, kidney damage,
With growing concerns over fossil fuel depletion and the environmental impacts of petrochemical production, scientists are actively exploring renewable strategies to produce essential industrial chemicals.
Using 11 years of magnetic field measurements from the European Space Agency's Swarm satellite constellation, scientists have discovered that the weak region in Earth's magnetic field over the South Atlantic—known as the South Atlantic Anomaly—has expanded by an area nearly
A team of international physicists has brought Bayes’ centuries-old probability rule into the quantum world. By applying the “principle of minimum change” — updating beliefs as little as possible while remaining consistent with new data — they derived a quantum version of
New research has found that amino acids, the building blocks of life, may have traveled to Earth on interstellar dust grains, potentially helping kickstart biology as we know it.
Nutrition scientists have unlocked an entirely new way of thinking about why certain foods are good for you and others are harmful. Here’s what to eat to function at your best
Some cells, such as immune cells, are highly mobile—they constantly remodel their shape, migrate toward a wound that needs to be closed or chase down bacteria in the bloodstream. This mobility is provided by the cytoskeleton, a complex network of filaments continuously being
A new study has challenged the long-standing assumption that global warming will inevitably turn humid subtropical forests into carbon sources, revealing these ecosystems may instead continue accumulating soil carbon under moderate temperature rises. The study was published in
While plastics help enable modern standards of living, their accumulation in landfills and the overall environment continues to grow as a global concern.
Asked to list stereotypes they had heard about themselves or other Native Americans, more than 200 middle school-age citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, a federally recognized nation located in rural North Carolina, most often cited cultural activities, financial
Women who undergo C-sections are more likely to experience debilitating pain and sleep disorders in the months after giving birth. Researchers found both qualitative and large-scale data supporting this link, including a 16% increase in sleep disorder diagnoses. Proper pain
It is well documented that women small-scale farmers are hard done by in an environment where they farm without security of tenure, which inhibits their ability to raise finance with which to grow their businesses.
Critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, rare earth elements, and platinum group metals are essential for modern technologies. They are key to industries ranging from electronics and telecommunications to renewable energy, defense, and aerospace systems.
The 2025 Nobel Prize in physics honors three quantum physicists—John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis—for their study of quantum mechanics in a macroscopic electrical circuit.
After centuries of near-extinction, Europe's wolves have made a remarkable comeback. Over the past decade, wolf populations have surged, increasing by nearly 60%. In 2022, more than 21,500 wolves were recorded across the continent.
