"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," said Juliet Capulet in William Shakespeare's famous play. And the same is presumably true for mollusks, albeit with different odors. When you think about the scientific names of animals, including our own species, Homo sapiens,
In the quirky quantum world, particles can be affected by forces that they never directly encounter. A classic example is the Aharonov–Bohm (AB) effect, where electrons are affected by a magnetic field, despite not passing through it. Although predicted in 1959, it took more
Running the Boston Marathon is tough enough without having to jostle your way from Hopkinton to Copley Square.
After two centuries of failed attempts, scientists have finally grown dolomite in the lab, cracking a long-standing geological puzzle. They discovered that the mineral’s growth stalls because of tiny defects—but in nature, those flaws get washed away over time. By mimicking
Fashion has always been a bit different to other industries. Consumers do not just buy because they need something. They buy because they are bored, influenced or simply browsing.
Most hospital patients don't brush their teeth regularly, but doing so could cut their risk of developing pneumonia during their stay
Forever chemicals don't break down and don't disappear, but Florida International University scientists have developed a safer, cheaper, and reusable solution that could remove these chemicals. FIU chemistry professor Kevin O'Shea and chemistry Ph.D. candidate Rodrigo Restrepo
Engineers interested in creating artificial cells to deliver drugs to unhealthy parts of the body face a key challenge: for a cell-like system to move, change shape, or divide, it needs a way to generate force on command.
Humans have always been playful. But for much of our history, play has left little trace. Unlike tools or bones, games rarely preserve and the fleeting pleasures they produce are even harder to recover.
In a major advance, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have devised a method to grow high-quality 2D magnetic materials (2D-MMs) over centimeter-scale wafers. Earlier approaches in the field were limited to growing micrometer-sized flakes. This advance paves
I spent last summer wading through seagrass meadows across Northern Ireland, from the sheltered waters of Strangford Lough to the exposed coast at Waterfoot Bay. I was collecting seagrass leaves and testing them for nitrogen pollution. Every meadow I visited sits inside a
Mercury is a small, rocky planet about which researchers know relatively little. Two missions, taking readings as they passed over the planet, have revealed that Mercury is covered by an iron-poor and sulfur-rich crust. It is also reduced, a chemical state in which the
In the heart of the Middle Atlas Mountains in central Morocco, a global team of paleontologists and geologists has discovered new remains of a very unusual dinosaur. It belonged to the group called ankylosaurs, plant eaters whose bodies were covered in bony plates.
Picture two materials sandwiched together. The boundary between them may appear flat, but, in reality, it is full of tiny bumps and dents. Suddenly, the materials are hit with a shockwave. If that wave hits a bump in the material interface, it slows down. If it hits a dent, it
Some lovers try positions that they can't handle—I'm referring to the bones of the wrist, of course. The phrase is a classic mnemonic used to remember the eight carpal (wrist) bones—scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform, trapezium, trapezoid, capitate and hamate—whose initials
Luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs) are among the universe's brightest and fastest explosions but their origin is not completely understood. A new study takes a closer look at the galaxies they occur in, offering two important clues about their nature. A paper
The Perseus Cluster is a massive galaxy cluster located in the constellation Perseus. It is one of the largest structures in the observable universe, comprising more than a thousand galaxies—equivalent to roughly a thousand trillion times the mass of the sun. Hot gases within
The lakes, streams, and ponds you've visited for years are likely looking more brown than they used to. And people who are fishing those waters are likely catching different species and sizes of fish than in the past.
French mathematician Frank Merle, who won a prestigious Breakthrough Prize on Saturday, told AFP that fundamental research must be supported because it is a "foundation stone" for the future.
The world's appetite for propene (propylene) is growing faster than the chemical industry can keep up. This petrochemical product powers the production of acrylonitrile, propylene oxide, high-velocity fuels, and, most importantly, polypropylene plastic—used in everyday food
Have you ever wished to drive microscopic matter along an arbitrarily tailored trajectory instead of just a circle? That's exactly what we set out to achieve.
A paper published in the journal Science Advances is adding to the growing body of research showing that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is weakening. In this new study, instead of relying mainly on computer models, scientists used two decades of direct
Big names from the worlds of film, technology, music and sports gathered on Saturday in Santa Monica, California, for the Breakthrough Prizes, popularly known as the "Oscars of Science."
Blue Origin, the U.S. space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, on Sunday successfully reused and recovered a booster for its New Glenn rocket, confirming its mastery of a technical feat that could boost its launch cadence and expand its rivalry with SpaceX.
On contaminated land that is too dangerous for human life, the world's wildest horses roam free.
A research team led by Lea Lorenz of the RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau and Sven Kachel of the University of Kassel conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis that examined how men react to situations in which their masculinity is called into question. To this end, the team
Protein engineering is a field primed for artificial intelligence research. Each protein is made up of amino acids; to optimize a protein function, researchers modify proteins by switching out one of 20 different amino acids for another. For a protein that is just 50 amino
Human societies didn’t just adapt to the planet—they learned to reshape it. From early fire use to today’s global supply chains, our cultural and social innovations have unlocked extraordinary power to transform Earth and improve human life. But that progress has come with
Researchers in the UC Santa Barbara Materials Department have uncovered the elusive quantum mechanism by which energetic electrons break chemical bonds inside microelectronic devices—a detrimental process that slowly degrades performance over time. The discovery, published as
Scientists have developed a fuel cell that uses microbes in soil to produce electricity. The device can power underground sensors for tasks like monitoring moisture or detecting touch, without needing batteries or solar panels. It works in both dry and wet conditions and even
A surprising breakthrough in physics could reshape the future of computing by tapping into a strange, previously untapped property of matter. Scientists have shown that tiny atomic vibrations—called chiral phonons—can directly transfer motion to electrons, allowing them to
Coastal landscapes are constantly being reshaped by natural forces, and as climate change causes more frequent storms and sea level rise, that change will only intensify. Because these areas are densely populated with homes, tourist destinations, and industries, understanding
Last year, tungsten diselenide (WSe2) had its magic moment. Two independent research groups discovered "magic angles" at which two atom-thin layers of the unique semiconductor, when twisted relative to one another into what's known as a moire pattern, can superconduct
Military strategists use game theory to evaluate possible strategies—but there are limits to what this approach to decision-making can achieve
A dispute over how to divvy up the pot in an interrupted game of chance led early mathematicians to invent modern risk assessment