A distant Sun-like star suddenly went dark for months, stunning astronomers who quickly realized something massive was passing in front of it. Observations revealed a gigantic disk of gas and dust filled with vaporized metals, swirling around an unseen companion object. For the
Soybean farmers around the world face a persistent and costly enemy hidden beneath the soil: soybean cyst nematode (SCN), a microscopic roundworm that attacks plant roots and drains yields. SCN is one of the most damaging pests affecting soybean production globally, resulting
What do Thomas Edison and 2010 Nobel Prize in physics winners Konstantin Novoselov and Andre Geim have in common? According to a recent publication from the lab of Rice University's James Tour in ACS Nano, it could be graphene—an answer that might have confused Edison, who died
Over Christmas, vegetables, bananas and insulation foam washed up on beaches along England's southeast coast. They were from 16 containers spilled by the cargo ship Baltic Klipper in rough seas. In the new year, a further 24 containers fell from two vessels during Storm
Researchers investigating the effectiveness of outdoor ads promoting climate change awareness and action found that a general message of climate emergency awareness received more QR code scans compared to a more-specific campaign focusing on sustainable fashion, according to a
What kinds of marketing messages are effective—and what makes people believe certain political slogans more than others? New research from the University of California San Diego Rady School of Management explores how people constantly evaluate whether messages are true or false
A newly published Perspective article in Nature Nanotechnology details groundbreaking nanoparticle technology to eliminate harmful, disease-causing proteins in the body. The technology marks a transformative leap in the potential to drug "undruggable" proteins, to treat
Life in the ocean runs on light. It fuels photosynthesis, shapes food webs and determines where many marine species can live.
The atmosphere is an important transport medium that carries microplastics to even the most remote parts of the world. These microplastics can be inhaled and pose a health risk to humans and animals. They can also settle out of the atmosphere and contaminate oceans and soils
A study by CUNY SPH researchers suggests that U.S. high school students who are bullied at school have substantially higher odds of attempting suicide than peers who are not bullied, with bullied girls facing the greatest risk.
Plastic pollution is one of those problems everyone can see, yet few know how to tackle it effectively. I grew up walking the beaches around Tramore in County Waterford, Ireland, where plastic debris has always been part of the coastline, including bottles, fragments of fishing
When we think of the world's oldest art, Europe usually comes to mind, with famous cave paintings in France and Spain often seen as evidence this was the birthplace of symbolic human culture. But new evidence from Indonesia dramatically reshapes this picture.
Information that we select for ourselves, such as things we click online, has a stronger impact than passively acquired information on our perception of truth and falsehood.
In the modern workplace, flexible arrangements can be as important as salary for some. For many employees, flexibility is no longer a nice-to-have luxury. It has become a fundamental requirement for staying in the workforce, especially after COVID.
A unique study exploring popular ways to "self‑gift" has found that ordering a takeout meal is a preferred treat regardless of whether people have had a good or a bad day at work.
Chronic inflammation may be quietly reshaping the colon and making it more vulnerable to early-onset colorectal cancer. Scientists found that colon tissue in younger patients was stiffer, even in areas that appeared healthy, suggesting these changes may happen before cancer
Aging immune cells may be sabotaging the body from within. Researchers found that macrophages produce a protein that locks them into a chronic inflammatory state, making infections like sepsis more deadly in older adults. Turning off this signal reduced inflammation and
In a new study Indiana University researchers observed episodic memory in rats to a degree never documented before, suggesting that rats can serve as a model for complex cognitive processes often considered exclusively human. Unlike semantic memory, which involves isolated
A new three-way bond-breaking and making mechanism makes the synthesis of five-membered rings easier than before.
Organic chemistry is packed with rules about structure and reactivity, especially when it comes to making and breaking chemical bonds. The rules governing how these bonds, which hold atoms together in molecules, form and the shapes they give molecules are often thought to be
Skoltech researchers and their colleagues from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany, Nanjing University of China, and the National Institute for Materials Science of Japan have developed a method for depositing organic molecules on a two-dimensional semiconductor in
Ancient pine trees growing in the Iberian mountains of eastern Spain have quietly recorded more than five centuries of Mediterranean weather. Now, by reading the annual growth rings preserved in their wood, scientists have uncovered a striking message: today's storms and
Predicting the duration of a Central Pacific El Niño event has long frustrated climate scientists and forecasters. Now, a new study reveals that Central Pacific El Niños follow two fundamentally different life cycles—and the difference is determined months before they peak.
People with spinal cord injuries often lose movement even though their brains still send the right signals. Researchers tested whether EEG brain scans could capture those signals and reroute them to spinal stimulators. The system can detect when a patient is trying to move,
Graphene has drawn attention as a scientific curiosity owing to its record conductivities, strength and thermal properties. But now, it's starting to make its way into a number of real-world applications, from batteries to concrete, sensors and material composites. Its market
It's Saturday! This week, in an eminently practical analysis of the Boltzmann brain conjecture, physicists put constraints on the idea that memories could arise from random fluctuations in entropy rather than reflecting the actual past of the universe—news you can use!
Locust swarms can wipe out crops across entire regions, threatening food supplies and livelihoods. Now, scientists working with farmers in Senegal have shown that improving soil health can dramatically reduce locust damage. By enriching soil with nitrogen, crops become less
Radio images captured this “cosmic volcano” being reborn at the heart of the galaxy J1007+3540
A large, decades-long study suggests that signs of ADHD in childhood may have consequences that extend well beyond school and behavior. Researchers followed nearly 11,000 people from childhood into midlife and found that those with strong ADHD traits at age 10 were more likely
As deepfakes blur the line between truth and fiction, we’ll need a new class of forensic experts to determine what’s real, what’s fake and what can be proved in court
Americans stripped supermarket shelves Friday ahead of potentially "catastrophic" winter weather that threatened at least 160 million people across the country with transportation chaos, blackouts and life-threatening cold.
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute discusses how scientists are beginning to study animals’ emotions and personalities — from joy to individual temperament.
In one day, 433 people won the Philippine lottery jackpot. What were the chances?
Smartphone weather apps that summarize their forecasts with eye-popping numbers and bright icons may be handy during mild weather, but meteorologists say it's better to listen to human expertise during multi-faceted, dangerous winter storms like the one blowing through the U.S.
From a social sciences perspective, people with radical, extremist, or fundamentalist attitudes are similar in some respects: In most cases, they are younger and less educated men who feel that they are not taken seriously enough. This is one of the key findings of a research
Scientists are finding new ways to replace expensive, scarce platinum catalysts with something far more abundant: tungsten carbide. By carefully controlling how tungsten carbide’s atoms are arranged at extremely high temperatures, researchers discovered a specific form that can
A groundbreaking new radio image reveals the Milky Way in more detail than ever before, using low-frequency radio “colors” to map the galaxy’s hidden structures. The image is sharper, deeper, and wider than anything previously released, uncovering both star-forming regions and
Astronomers have spotted a rare, rule-breaking quasar in the early Universe that appears to be growing its central black hole at an astonishing pace. Observations show the black hole is devouring matter far faster than theory says it should—about 13 times the usual “speed
In the same week that New South Wales experienced four shark attacks, Victorian beachgoers were warned about stinging jellyfish.
Giant kangaroos that lived during the Ice Age may not have been as slow and grounded as once believed. A new study finds their leg bones and tendons were likely strong enough to support hopping, despite their massive size. Rather than traveling this way all the time, these
Chemotherapy’s gut damage turns out to have a surprising upside. By changing nutrient availability in the intestine, it alters gut bacteria and increases levels of a microbial molecule that travels to the bone marrow. This signal reshapes immune cell production, strengthening