Across the United States, the number of people who do not have and do not want to have children is growing. While they are twice as likely to live in California as Louisiana, individual demographic characteristics are the strongest predictors of who is childfree, according to a
There is a question that often comes up at every public talk I do, and I have never had a good answer to it—well, not an entirely confident one. What's inside a black hole? The textbook reply is a singularity. Cross the event horizon, and everything falls inward to a point of
For thousands of years, the Anindilyakwa people have lived in deep connection with the waters surrounding Groote Eylandt, a remote island in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Friendships are integral to human health and well being, yet researchers know very little about how people make friends. A new study investigated what people prioritize for new friendships. The post Is It Better to Have a Lot of Casual Friends or a Few Close Ones? appeared
A 26-kilogram plastic garment, flown on a model human torso on the uncrewed Artemis I mission, may one day protect astronauts from solar storms.
More than 100,000 people are awaiting an organ transplant in the United States, with a new candidate added to the list every 10 minutes. Even if the transplant is carried out successfully, recipients must take immunosuppressive medications, elevating their risk of broader
The decades-old scientific quest to create brand-new proteins has been turbocharged in the era of artificial intelligence.
In 2005, a research team led by University of Zurich economics professor Ernst Fehr published a study in the journal Nature that provided evidence for the first time that intranasally administered oxytocin can increase trusting behavior in humans. Oxytocin is a hormone and
Food and pharmaceutical manufacturers increasingly seek lipids with carefully controlled fatty-acid compositions. However, natural oils usually contain mixtures of closely related fatty acids, and conventional enzymes often cannot distinguish reliably between them.
Students who attended public school pre-K performed better academically through high school than those in family-based child care, according to new research from Florida International University.
Whether it's neurons responding to electrical signals or plants stretching toward light, nature is filled with examples of biological materials that respond to their environment. Now, researchers want to develop new responsive materials for a wide range of applications, such as
Black hole sun, now it’s come The post First Ever “Black Hole Star” Discovered at the Dawn of Time appeared first on Nautilus .
A “fever” of cownose rays revealed by striking drone footage could be a sign of warming oceans
Modern biomedicine increasingly relies on enormous amounts of image data. Although computers can do part of the analysis work, biologists often still need to look through the images themselves. This takes time.
For more than two decades, the quasar PHL 1811 has been considered the prototype of a rare class of "intrinsically X-ray weak" quasars, thought to produce unusually little X-ray radiation. But in 2024, the Einstein Probe spacecraft caught the object in a bright X-ray flare. In
Fourth-year veterinary students matched—and experienced clinicians outperformed—an AI-enabled digital stethoscope in diagnosing heart murmurs and arrhythmias in cats and dogs, according to a new study from North Carolina State University. The study emphasizes the importance of
University of Bristol–led researchers have identified a naturally occurring gut molecule that could strengthen chickens' immune response against a wide range of bacterial infections. This development, published today, Aug. 12, in The Journal of Immunology, offers a major step
Online conflict tends to advance social movements rather than undermine them, according to new research from McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management.
Signals ride on waves of one kind or another: light, sound, radio. But new carriers are needed to relay information in next-generation devices. Disturbances or waves in magnetic materials called magnons could be an efficient option—if scientists can tame them.
This study has been touted by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont as proof of the benefits of a universal, single-payer health care system, but the research hasn’t been peer-reviewed
A new study is offering insights into a crucial period of child development The post Loner Kids May Be Happier Than You Think appeared first on Nautilus .
Place-based decarbonization schemes designed to help communities become more sustainable must involve local people earlier and consider the range of different community responses in their development if they are to be successful and gain fuller community support, researchers
Most people underestimate how much light a pair of sunglasses blocks out. A typical dark pair removes around 80% to 90% of the visible light reaching the eye.
The use of nanoparticles in drug delivery offers key advantages: they can enable targeted drug delivery, protect active ingredients from premature degradation, extend their duration of action in the body and reduce side effects. However, as soon as nanoparticles come into
Before tropical cyclones can significantly strengthen, they generally must first become vertically aligned, with their rotating centers stacked through the atmosphere. New research using nearly three decades of NOAA Hurricane Hunter observations identifies four features that
River and canal ships generate roughly a quarter of the world's shipping carbon dioxide emissions, according to new research published in Nature Climate Change. And that's despite the fact that these bodies of water make up less than 1% of Earth's total navigable waterways.
From the American West to Europe, droughts are drying up rivers, fueling destructive fires and reshaping ecosystems. They are also changing the spread of infectious diseases, leading to surges in illnesses like cholera and West Nile virus around the world.
Tropical forests store enormous amounts of carbon and harbor most of the world's terrestrial biodiversity, but scientists fear that increasingly severe droughts threaten their ability to survive and continue absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. A new study published in Nature
Little red dots have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data from the universe's deep past. Their "powering engines" might resemble a newly discovered phenomenon dubbed a "black hole star"—an early, rapidly growing black hole wrapped
Much like an indecisive single person on a dating app, female treefrogs struggle to pick the most desirable mates when they have too many options to choose from. According to a new study published Aug. 12 in the journal iScience, when female Cope's gray treefrogs gather around
In the lab, female frogs were less likely to choose preferred males as mating calls increased, potentially giving other males a better shot.
A new study of the Helix Nebula shows a never-before-seen detail of how dying stars recycle elements. Researchers found it by accident
There’s a $1-million prize for proving the Riemann hypothesis. Claude couldn’t pull that off, but it made significant progress on a related problem
First glimpsed as “little red dots” in deep-space images from the James Webb Space Telescope, these giant, gas-shrouded black holes are full of surprises
In a rare study of snakes as nest predators, scientists found nesting birds were loath to strike rattlesnakes even though they likely had no previous experience with vipers.
The North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network—known as NDAWN—isn't just measuring precipitation amounts and temperatures across the state. It's also playing a role in developing tools for crop disease management.
Ozempic-like drugs appear to weaken more than hunger—they may also reduce cravings for alcohol and other addictive substances. Scientists are increasingly tracing this effect to the lateral septum, a brain region that helps connect memories and surroundings with rewarding
According to new research, viewers often dismiss, trivialize or even romanticize signs of cat distress during "play" interactions, raising concerns for cat welfare.
Scientists at the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC) and the CECAD Cluster of Excellence on Aging Research have demonstrated in a biomedical study that ribosomes, the protein factories of our cells, face an unusually tough challenge when building large,
The math, which combines chaos, quantum theory, and infinitely complex fractal structures, has been called a “foundational result.” The post Graduate Student Proves a Quantum Uncertainty Principle for Fractals first appeared on Quanta Magazine
In the Arctic, weather plays a key role in determining how much ice covers the ocean. Arctic cyclones are one weather phenomenon with a significant influence, causing unusually warm and stormy conditions that typically lead to significant ice loss. These conditions last
A study involving the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne demonstrates that not only retail investors but also financial professionals often assess potential stock market returns differently from what standard financial economics models
A massive new first-of-its-kind study zooms into the neighborhood level The post There’s No Link Between Crime and Unauthorized Immigration appeared first on Nautilus .
An international team of astronomers led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has identified three actively accreting supermassive black holes in the galaxy J0148-4214. Matter is falling into the black holes from accretion disks surrounding them.
What flashes to mind when you hear the word "whiplash"?
Researchers have found a clever new way to map a part of Earth’s upper atmosphere that is notoriously difficult to observe. Using orbital data from roughly 1,200 Starlink satellites, they reconstructed changes in atmospheric density about 500 kilometers above Earth. The
Scientists have pinpointed a brain network—and its distinctive electrical rhythm—that appears to drive the benefits of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease. The discovery could lead to more precise, personalized stimulation settings and better results for patients.
Quantum advantage refers to the point at which a quantum computer solves a clearly defined task faster or more efficiently than any classical computer—or makes it solvable in the first place. For many practical applications, this has not yet been demonstrated. Research
The Amish, a Christian denomination and a three-century-old ethnic group of German migrants known for its strict lifestyle standards, are one of the fastest-growing minority populations in the U.S. For more than a century, the number of Amish people—whose American lineage
Ancient remains from Vietnam suggest diseases like yaws may have been passed from mother to child thousands of years ago, a form of transmission often assumed to indicate syphilis. The discovery could overturn how scientists interpret ancient infections and complicate the