The adverse health impacts associated with emissions across the full life cycle of plastics could double by 2040 unless immediate action is taken, new research suggests. The study identified health harms at every stage of the life cycle of the plastics we use: from the
A large French study tracking more than 100,000 people over a decade has found that higher consumption of certain food preservatives—commonly found in processed foods and drinks—is linked to a modestly higher cancer risk. While many preservatives showed no association, several
Carbohydrates don’t just fuel the body—they may also influence how the brain ages. A large long-term study found that diets high in fast-acting carbs that rapidly raise blood sugar were linked to a higher risk of dementia. People who ate more low-glycemic foods like fruit,
It might be less visible than dwindling lion populations or vanishing pandas, but the quiet crisis of small mammal extinction is arguably worse for biodiversity. These species are crucial indicators of environmental health, but they can be very hard to monitor, and many species
Academic freedom is often described as a cornerstone of democratic society. Politicians regularly claim to defend it, universities invoke it in mission statements and most members of the public say they support it in principle.
A few thousand years ago, sugar was unknown in the western world. Sugarcane, a tall grass first domesticated in New Guinea around 6000BC, was initially chewed for its sweet juice rather than crystallized. By around 500BC, methods to boil sugarcane juice into crystals were first
Physicists have discovered that hidden magnetic order plays a key role in the pseudogap, a puzzling state of matter that appears just before certain materials become superconductors. Using an ultra-cold quantum simulator, the team found that even when magnetism seems disrupted,
The search for better oxygen carriers has long centered on one key question: how can we design metal oxides that can reversibly store and release lattice oxygen efficiently at lower temperatures? This reversible behavior underpins clean-energy technologies such as fuel
A new genetic study suggests that obesity and high blood pressure may play a direct role in causing dementia, not just increasing the risk. By analyzing data from large populations in Denmark and the U.K., researchers found strong evidence that higher body weight can damage
Transparent electrodes transmit light while conducting electricity and are increasingly important in bioelectronic and optoelectronic devices. Their combination of high optical transparency, low electrical resistance, and mechanical flexibility makes them well suited for
Last week, Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture (YCNCC) Scientific Leadership Team member and Earth & Planetary Sciences Professor Noah Planavsky co-authored a peer-reviewed comment in npj Climate Action titled "The importance of radical transparency for responsible carbon
As the Dark Energy Survey (DES) releases its final results, we caught up with two physicists who've been involved in the project from its early days. In this Q&A, Josh Frieman, DES co-founder and associate laboratory director for fundamental physics at the Department of
In lush South Florida, trees and bushes grow all year round. And that means yard waste and dead trees never stop piling up. But leaving them in a landfill is a climate-warming issue. Two South Florida governments think they have a new solution—light it on fire, but in a
On Jan. 23, the Trump administration gave its approval for plans to build Sites Reservoir, a vast 13-mile-long off-stream lake north of Sacramento that would provide water to 500,000 acres of Central Valley farmland and 24 million people, including residents of Santa Clara
Some galaxies in the early universe were absolute powerhouses, churning out stars at rates that would dwarf the Milky Way's modest stellar production. These "monster galaxies," buried deep in dust between 10 and 12 billion years ago, are thought to be the ancestors of today's
ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski captured these stunning timelapse videos during his 20-day stay aboard the International Space Station as part of Axiom Mission 4, known as Ignis. Filmed from the Cupola—the Space Station's iconic seven-windowed observation
Water is everywhere, from the snowpack in the mountains to the tap in our kitchens. But while we often think about rainfall and snow as the main drivers of our water supply, it turns out that something we rarely see has just as much influence: the underground structure of the
In 1879, the inventor might have produced graphene, a crucial component of tech more than a century later The post Did Edison Accidentally Create a Vital Superconductor? appeared first on Nautilus .
Accurate measurements of surface currents are crucial for coastal monitoring, rip current detection, and predicting the path of pollutants. Several methods exist to measure surface currents, some of which are costly and time-consuming. In a recent paper, researchers from Texas
Earth's radiation budget is a core process of the Earth-atmosphere system, closely linked to global climate and environmental changes. While current satellite observations have greatly advanced our understanding of Earth's radiation budget, low-Earth orbit and geostationary
Cities are expected to track sustainability progress with data that are often incomplete, outdated, or available only at national level. New research led by IIASA in collaboration with UN-Habitat finds that citizen science could address these gaps and support nearly 70% of
Rising tensions between the US and China are changing how companies design global supply chains in strategic industries such as semiconductors and rare earths. New research shows firms are no longer just reacting to trade rules—they are proactively redesigning supply chains to
Bats demonstrate yet another superpower that robots have yet to master The post Engineers Build “Bat Accelerator” to Crack Mystery of Stealth Navigation appeared first on Nautilus .
When a solar storm strikes Earth, it can disrupt technology that's vital for our daily lives. Solar storms occur when magnetic fields and electrically charged particles collide with Earth's magnetic field. This type of event falls into the category known as "space weather."
Human health risks from direct consumption of toxic nanoplastics are already scary, but researchers have confirmed that nanoplastics in water give rise to an additional threat: They strengthen bacteria.
A research team has proposed a new design principle for QM/MM (quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics) simulations. The approach enables objective and automatic determination of the quantum-mechanical region based on electronic-state changes, addressing a long-standing challenge
Iron (Fe) is a vital micronutrient for plants, which is required for processes such as photosynthesis and enzyme activity. Plants must carefully manage iron levels to maintain health and productivity. They activate iron uptake genes when deficient and suppress them when iron is
Every second, millions of cells in your body divide in two. In the space of an hour, they duplicate their DNA and grow a web of protein fibers around it called a spindle. The spindle extends its many fibers from the chromosomes in the center to the edges of the cell. Then, with
What if a cup of coffee could help treat cancer? Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Institute of Biosciences and Technology believe it's possible. By combining caffeine with the use of CRISPR—a gene-editing tool known as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic
As organisms develop from embryos, groups of cells migrate and reshape themselves to form all manner of complex tissues. There are no anatomical molds shaped like lungs, livers or other tissues for cells to grow into. Rather, these structures form through the coordinated
A new meta-review captures a troubling trend in workplace loneliness The post Workplace Loneliness Is Contagious appeared first on Nautilus .
Unraveling the mysteries of how biological organisms function begins with understanding the molecular interactions within and across large cell populations. A revolutionary new tool, developed at the University of Michigan, acts as a sort of tape recorder produced and
Researchers at the Regional Service for Agri-Food Research and Development (SERIDA) have developed a new large-scale remote sensing model that will enable comprehensive, high-resolution monitoring of fossorial water vole populations in areas where they cause agricultural
Microbes across Earth's coldest regions are becoming more active as glaciers, permafrost and sea ice thaw, accelerating carbon release and potentially amplifying climate change, according to a new international review from McGill University.
Last year, a ten-month-old baby in the US was the first person in the world to have their rare genetic disease effectively cured through the use of CRISPR gene editing technology. But the rollout of CRISPR across a wide range of genetic conditions has been hampered by its
The Arctic is experiencing a steady rise in human-generated underwater noise as melting ice and increasing activity open the region to greater vessel traffic, with major implications for wildlife and local communities. New research from the University of Bath, drawing on data
From computers to smartphones, from smart appliances to the internet itself, the technology we use every day only exists thanks to decades of improvements in the semiconductor industry, that have allowed engineers to keep miniaturizing transistors and fitting more and more of
Two artifacts found at a lake shore in Greece are the oldest wooden tools to be uncovered so far and date back 430,000 years.
Even with regular brushing, teeth can become stained from genetic factors or consuming foods and drinks like tomatoes and coffee. Chemical whiteners can help, but they can also damage teeth in the process. So, researchers reporting in ACS Nano have designed a prototype
The ocean is under increasing pressure. Everyday human activities, from shipping to oil and gas exploration to urban pollution, are affecting the marine environment. Extensive research shows how this combination of stressors represents one of the greatest threats to marine
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have completed a spaceflight biology investigation aboard the International Space Station (ISS) that reveals how microgravity fundamentally alters microbial metabolism, limiting the efficiency of biological manufacturing
Several years ago, scientists discovered that a single microscopic particle could rock back and forth on its own under a steady electric field. The result was curious, but lonely. Now, Northwestern University engineers have discovered what happens when many of those particles
A recent study shows that people judge crime victims with neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., autism spectrum disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome) based on both the type of disability and the type of crime. These factors also influence how strongly people support punishing
The problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has many health experts worried. As disease-causing bacteria adapt to some of our ways to reduce them, especially with antibiotics, it presents an arms race which we appear to be losing. Researchers seek to improve the situation by
Some things are easier to achieve if you're not alone. As researchers from the University of Rostock, Germany have shown, this very human insight also applies to the most fundamental building blocks of nature.
Researchers at Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI) and the Cancer Research Institute at Kanazawa University have uncovered how targeted lung cancer drugs alter the shape and behavior of a key cancer-driving protein—revealing a hidden mechanism that helps explain why some
The new food pyramid defies decades of nutrition research—but one recommendation may align with some newer findings The post The Strange Paradox in the RFK Jr. Diet Guidelines appeared first on Nautilus .
When spider monkeys want to tell others about the best fruit trees in the forest or ones they've missed, they do so by changing their social groups to share what they know, according to a new study published in the journal npj Complexity. It's a neat system that means the whole
Conventional treatments of Alzheimer's disease, one of the most common forms of dementia, have been largely focused on targeting individual pathological features. However, Alzheimer's disease is a multifactorial disorder driven by multiple, tightly interconnected processes,
What happens if liquefied natural gas (LNG) hits the wall of the cargo tanks in a ship? New research from the team of physicist Devaraj van der Meer from the University of Twente, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that much higher pressure
