Research labs are among the most energy-hungry facilities at universities worldwide. According to both University College London and a Swiss initiative called Green Lab, these labs require anywhere from three to 10 times more power than standard offices of the same size.
Rice is one of the world's most familiar staple foods, but how does a single cell develop into a rice plant with specialized tissues and organs? A new study offers a detailed look at this process through a three-dimensional (3D) spatiotemporal atlas covering 10 organs and 61
Samples spontaneously combusted in the lab The post Deep-Sea Mining Faces Another Hurdle—Exploding Rocks appeared first on Nautilus .
When drugmakers want to improve on compounds they have already created, they can replace a carbon atom with a nitrogen atom. While effective, the techniques they use to perform this chemical swap, known as skeletal editing, have some downsides. For example, older approaches
New research has revealed an unexpected new mechanism through which the killer fungus Candida auris is resisting antifungal drug treatment. A team led by the University of Exeter and City St George's, University of London, discovered that the fungus creates multiple versions of
The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is thought to face a potentially existential threat from climate change. But attempts to model what happens to AMOC as the oceans warm show divergent outcomes, leaving its fate unclear. In a paper published in AGU Advances,
Peatlands in the Alps are mostly small, scattered and difficult to access. As a result, up-to-date information on their extent and condition is often lacking. An international research team, including researchers from the University of Göttingen, has now developed a
Researchers at Gladstone Institutes have uncovered an unusual bacterial immune system that operates in reverse of known defenses. The discovery, published in Molecular Cell, details the mechanics of "type VI retrons"—a counterintuitive class of bacterial defenses. More than
Researchers from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and Semmelweis University have investigated what happens to horse chestnut leaves when they are attacked from within by the horse chestnut leaf miner. Their findings show that the functioning of the leaf changes while the damage
A commercial lander that will be at the forefront of NASA's efforts to establish a moon base, humanity's first lunar outpost, has passed a series of critical tests at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The tests simulated the extreme temperatures and
Cells must produce energy despite changing conditions. But what keeps metabolic enzymes functional during temperature fluctuations? A team led by professor Simon Ebbinghaus and Dr. Harshita Rastogi at Ruhr University Bochum and the Research Center for Chemical Sciences and
There's a paradox that drives the shopping decisions of many Americans: Almost three-quarters say they're feeling stressed out about skyrocketing grocery bills. But they keep discarding large quantities of food that's safe to eat, from crooked carrots to surplus yogurt to "best
RNA therapeutics open up new possibilities for the targeted and precise treatment of diseases. To ensure that RNA molecules remain stable in the body and can reliably exert their effects, they undergo specific chemical modifications. However, such modifications to the RNA
Regardless of their views on politics or climate change, most Americans oppose the development of data centers in their communities.
A new study combining genomic analyses and fossil evidence sheds light on the century-old "Palaeoptera Problem," a longstanding debate over the evolutionary relationships among major groups of winged insects.
The anatomical differences in our vocal tracts could be one of the sources of our Tower of Babel—the vast difference in languages spoken around the world, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Steven Moran and Tiena Danner from the University
There is growing evidence that children today have fewer opportunities for independent, adventurous outdoor play and fewer chances to make decisions and shape their own experiences than previous generations.
The elegant curl of rose petals may be distinct among flowers—and math can explain why
What a stunning world we live in The post Check Out the Natural Beauty of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards appeared first on Nautilus .
Polynyas are patches of open water surrounded by sea ice, where heat and moisture can pass freely between the ocean and atmosphere. In August 2024, a vast polynya opened up in Breid Bay, off the coast of East Antarctica, in the depths of winter. The region had stayed
Declining Colorado River flows and falling water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead are highly visible signs of the Southwestern megadrought.
A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)-led team has developed an improved model for predicting solar events that incorporates activity on the far side of the sun. The team studied near-simultaneous maps of the whole solar surface from 2010 to 2014, combining Earth observations
A story that places us inside the mind of a character who is remorseful about causing harm can inspire forgiveness for that fictional bad act, a new study finds.
University students who are survivors of sexual violence are forced to perform a constant, exhausting "calculus"—weighing risks, safety, stigma, emotional costs, institutional consequences and likelihood of being believed—when deciding whether and how to seek help.
An international research team led by TU Darmstadt Professor Beatrix Süß, working in close collaboration with partners in Germany and Denmark, has elucidated how an RNA switch newly developed at TU Darmstadt recognizes the antibiotic doxycycline and thereby selectively
Turning invisible is a handy superpower in fiction — we don’t see you, Sue Storm! — but the technology to make it work in real life has a way to go.
Rumors that OpenAI’s “Navier-Stokes” solution stole the work of two mathematicians may have been overblown
Under the microscope, mitochondria inside healthy terminal Schwann cells form a web of interconnected branches, with tiny doughnut-shaped loops appearing near where the cells branch and split.
In a perspective article, Sergio Carbajo and colleagues call for a "Discovery Compact" in the face of the recent destabilization of the postwar compact for science, which reliably supported basic research for decades.
MIT engineers have developed a new way to program natural killer (NK) immune cells to target cancerous T cells or T cells that have become autoreactive, leading to diseases such as lymphoma and autoimmune hepatitis.
As temperatures broke records this summer, sales of air-conditioning units soared. But this technology can compound climate change.
Scientists have found a way to make salt taste saltier without increasing its sodium content, a welcome development in the culinary world. Salt is a powerful flavor enhancer, drawing out the subtle flavors of a dish while balancing sweetness and bitterness. Its appeal comes
Women leave academia at higher rates than men, contributing to consistent gender imbalances at senior levels. Interventions often target work-life balance and motherhood.
Humans haven’t always counted time down to the second The post Leap Seconds Have Helped Keep Clocks Synchronized with Earth’s Rotation, But Their Time May Be Over appeared first on Nautilus .
In biology, a group of enzymes called 2-oxoglutarate-dependent oxygenases is responsible for catalyzing a wide range of reactions that play a role in everything from how genetic code is used by cells to the synthesis of antibiotics.
A survey of 15-year-olds around the world suggests that the underperformance of boys in education may be linked to gendered cultural attitudes about whether it is important to try hard at school.
Software developer Ioannis Tsiokos has reported the discovery of a three-dimensional shape, which roughly resembles a chair, that can fill space infinitely without repeating a pattern. The shape follows certain mathematical rules that make it the first of its kind in three
Agriculture depends on a reliable supply of nutrients. Phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium, for example, are indispensable for agricultural crop production. However, natural reserves are limited, vary greatly in regional availability or are very energy-intensive to extract.
Turbulence is ubiquitous and occurs every day, such as when milk is stirred into coffee or in the stormy motions of the ocean and the atmosphere. Media in space and astrophysical systems can also develop turbulence, but the physics is different because the medium is in an
Marine bacteria have evolved to bypass the copper-based coatings applied to ship hulls to stop the growth of barnacles, algae and other marine life. This necessitates new methods for managing biofouling—the unwanted accumulation of marine organisms—on ship hulls.
The old "more is better" mindset in racehorse training is changing. And with no link identified between higher racehorse training workloads and a trainer's success, there's a big opportunity to change things.
Theories that aquatic foraging drove human evolution have a fraught past. But the pair argue it granted stamina that other primates lack.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected a possible supernova in the early universe just days after the star exploded. Called AT 2026abck, the transient lies in a star-forming galaxy at a redshift of 5.017 and was found without the help of gravitational lensing. JWST
Certain health markers seem to “jump” during menopause, according to a new study, but it’s unclear why
Steve Martin’s favorite comic moment of his entire career is the “hamburger” scene from The Pink Panther (2006), he once told People magazine. Martin plays Inspector Clouseau, who has an aggressively exaggerated French accent. In the scene, he is trying to learn how to say, “I
Researchers are using AI as a sounding board throughout their work. But concerns are growing that companies may present users’ ideas as those of their models
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed an ancient galaxy cluster with an unexpectedly dense concentration of dark matter, challenging theories about how the universe developed. The discovery also uncovered a surprising connection between scattered starlight and
Scientists have discovered that the body's cellular recycling system behaves very differently during aging than previously believed, with higher activity sometimes linked to worse physical health. A small study suggests that even gentle exercise could help restore more youthful
Losing your voice can feel like losing part of yourself. Can voice-cloning technology help people find themselves again?
For the first time, scientists managed to turn cloned male mouse embryos into females, giving life to healthy and fertile individuals