The Chesapeake Bay's most popular crustacean has a dark streak. Cannibalism is the No. 1 killer of juvenile blue crabs in mid-salinity waters where they are known to congregate, according to a new study from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) published in the
A thick layer of haze around the ultra-low-density planet Kepler-51d likely obscures not only the strange planet's composition, but also its origin, according to a new study. A team led by Penn State researchers used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to take a deeper
All the essential ingredients to make the DNA and RNA underpinning life on Earth have been discovered in samples collected from the asteroid Ryugu, scientists said Monday.
Discovered in the Pictor II dwarf galaxy, star PicII-503 has an extreme deficiency in iron—less than 1/40,000th of the sun. This signature makes it the clearest example of a star within a primordial system that preserves the chemical enrichment of the universe's first stars.
My fixation on a small, desolate locale in the heart of the Sahara Desert started with a single line buried in a 630-page tome in French about the rocks of the central Sahara: "Dent de Carcharodontosaurus saharicus Depéret," which translates to "tooth of Carcharodontosaurus
From blizzard conditions in the Midwest to a heat wave in the western U.S. to flooding in Hawaii, March has brought wild weather to the country
A metabolic enzyme studied for over seven decades has a hidden second function—it can unwind RNA and promote cell cycle progression, an additional function beyond its role in energy production, according to a new study led by the University of Surrey.
A humpback whale alters the pitch of its song when joined by a neighboring singer, a finding that opens a new chapter in the ongoing effort to understand whale song, some of the most structurally and acoustically complex vocal patterns produced by mammals.
Revolution Wind and Vineyard Wind are two of several wind farm projects that have come under fire from the Trump administration in recent months
Biodegradable plastics could help alleviate the plastic waste crisis that is polluting the environment and harming our health. But how long plastics take to degrade and how environmental bacteria work together to break them down is still largely unknown.
When combined with clinical markers, smartwatch data was able to help detect insulin resistance with nearly 90 percent accuracy.
Science in the modern era is increasingly reliant on enormous datasets and automated analysis. In astronomy, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)—a ten-year survey covering the entire southern sky almost a thousand times over the next
Sandy beaches account for approximately a third of the world's ice-free coastlines. These sandy shorelines are responsible for sediment and water retention, provide a buffer against rising water levels, and offer habitats for shorebirds and sea turtles. The research is
Apollo 11 first landed astronauts on the moon in 1969, but the journey to the lunar surface actually began 43 years before, in snowy Massachusetts.
Every multicellular organism, from tiny worms to humans, elephants, and whales, needs a way for their cells to connect with each other to form tissues, organs, and organize their overall body plan. Cells have a variety of protein receptors on their surfaces that connect with
Tens of thousands of people in the U.K. may be impacted by the outbreak of this disease, which is largely preventable with vaccines
A brain-computer interface allowed two people who had lost the ability to move their limbs to type at speeds of up to 22 words per minute
It's well known that spaceflight causes muscle atrophy and other biological changes in reduced gravity, and especially in near-zero gravity (microgravity) environments. However, the gravity threshold needed to maintain sufficient muscle health in space is still unclear.
University students today face a confusing mix of messages about failure. They hear from a variety of sources, sometimes including educational institutions, that it's a normal part of learning, yet they move through systems where even small mistakes can have serious consequences.
A radical idea that resolves many quantum paradoxes suggests there is no objective view of reality. How can the cosmos be stitched together from interlocking perspectives?
All five of the canonical nucleobases – the underpinnings of DNA, RNA and life on Earth – have been found in samples from the asteroid Ryugu
A global analysis of more than 2,300 seawater samples from more than 20 field studies around the globe indicates that human-made chemicals make up a significant portion of organic matter in coastal oceans. The international study, led by biochemists Jarmo Kalinski and Daniel
Gamma-ray bursts are the most violent explosions in the universe. In a fraction of a second, they can release more energy than the sun will emit across its entire 10-billion-year lifetime. Most are over before you've had time to register them, gone in seconds, minutes at most.
Bats are reservoirs for several zoonotic viruses, such as Ebola and coronaviruses. These pathogens can spread to humans through direct contact with the flying mammals or their bodily fluids, or indirectly through contaminated food and water or through intermediate animal hosts.
Scientists disagree whether human-made climate change or natural fluctuations are mostly to blame for worse-than-expected heat in recent years
A new computational tool infers changes occurring at the ends of the chromosomes housing our DNA. It does so by detecting structural alterations in cells and tissues captured in images taken of routine medical biopsies, according to findings published in Cell Reports Methods.
First Proof is an effort to see whether LLMs can contribute meaningfully to pure mathematics research. The dust has settled on round one, and the results are surprising
It seems improbable that a satellite designed to monitor polar ice sheets and floating sea ice could accurately measure a disturbance in Earth's magnetic field. But that is just what ESA's CryoSat mission did earlier this year. This is a story of unique innovation in satellite
Heat and humidity now severely limit light physical activity for millions of people around the world, with older adults facing the greatest burden.
When floods, coastal erosion or sea-level rise threaten settlements or infrastructure, European countries turn to managed retreat more often than previously assumed. Managed retreat refers to the planned, government-supported relocation of people, homes or infrastructure away
A haunting whale song discovered on decades-old audio equipment could open up a new understanding of how the huge animals communicate, according to researchers who say it's the oldest such recording known.
Using data from the Magellan Clay telescope and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), astronomers have investigated a galactic globular cluster known as NGC 5824. Results of the new study, available in a paper published March 5 on the arXiv pre-print server, suggest that
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is alarmed by the threat to ground-based astronomy posed by proposals put forward by Elon Musk's SpaceX and Reflect Orbital. SpaceX has applied to launch one million satellites to act as data centers to power artificial intelligence, but
The central limit theorem started as a bar trick for 18th-century gamblers. Now scientists rely on it every day. The post The Math That Explains Why Bell Curves Are Everywhere first appeared on Quanta Magazine
With the Trump administration’s attacks on so-called woke AI it is becoming even harder to make the technology we use fairer and more diverse. Leading voices are speaking out, reports Catherine de Lange
A colony of African vervets in Dania Beach raises big questions about how humans can and should manage nonnative species.
Timing is critical in diagnosing diseases such as cancer. Researchers within The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign used a historically underappreciated tiny powerhouse to detect diseases sooner.
Ancient DNA reveals that the Goths of eastern Europe, some of whom would ultimately sack the city of Rome, may have been a mix of peoples from three continents
Patches of the sun's surface often show strong magnetic fields. These fields can emerge within a matter of hours, and can decay slowly or quickly, sometimes over days, weeks, or even months. Thanks to a new study about these long-lived active regions, we now know much more
A clinical trial found that listening to specially designed music with auditory beat stimulation can significantly reduce anxiety. Among several listening lengths tested, a 24-minute session delivered the biggest benefits, easing both mental and physical symptoms of anxiety.
New research shows that sourdough fermentation does more than make bread rise—it transforms wheat fibers in unexpected ways. Scientists found that enzymes already present in wheat, activated by the sourdough’s acidic environment, break down key fibres called arabinoxylans. This
Heat shields are designed to protect the surface and cargo of a spacecraft as it enters an atmosphere. Aerospace engineers in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently observed a violently destructive difference in how heat
The distinctive smell of ancient mummies is helping scientists decode the secrets of Egyptian mummification. By analyzing tiny traces of chemicals in the air around mummy samples, researchers identified dozens of compounds linked to oils, resins, beeswax, and bitumen used
One physicist is on a mission to get scientists to look into Louis de Broglie’s pilot wave theory
Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have uncovered a new way to manipulate unusual magnetic states by exploiting “frustration” inside a crystal’s atomic structure. The team discovered a rare system where two different kinds of frustration—magnetic and electronic bond
A drug to treat Parkinson's disease can be made from waste plastic bottles using a pioneering method, a study shows. The approach harnesses the power of bacteria to transform post-consumer plastic into L-DOPA, a frontline medication for the neurological disorder. It is the
A study led by the University of Oxford has identified a new type of planet beyond our solar system—one that stores large amounts of sulfur deep within a permanent ocean of magma. The findings have been published in Nature Astronomy.
An international research team used multiple global agroeconomic models and found that climate mitigation consistent with the 1.5 °C target could raise global hunger risk in 2050 by 17% (56 million people) compared with a baseline scenario that assumes today's climate and air
From emergency oil reserves to nuclear scrutiny, bigger hail, and research on a connection between the aging gut and the brain
Dimensions beyond the four we’re familiar with could solve a host of problems in physics and cosmology. Columnist Leah Crane explores what a higher-dimensional universe might be like – and how we could find out if we live in one
