Honeycombs are famous for their elegant design, but now they may have found a new application: quantum computing. To collect knowledge from subatomic particles, quantum computers require carefully designed materials capable of performing necessary, complex functions. However,
About a billion years ago, Earth started to come into its own. It was past the awkwardness of its younger years full of growing pains and turmoil: comet strikes and slimy water, including the Great Oxidation Event that flipped the world upside down. Roughly a billion years ago,
Australian teens are experiencing high rates of intimate partner violence, one in 10 are relying on the withdrawal method for contraception and many don't know how to access help for their sexual health, according to the country's largest study of adolescents' sexual health and
Every summer, millions of people spray themselves with DEET to keep mosquitoes away. But new research suggests mosquitoes may be able to learn to associate the repellent with food—and even become attracted to it.
Their fur might feel the same, but a mink in the Everglades is not the same as a mink from northern Florida, researchers from the University of Connecticut and Central Connecticut State University report in the April 20 issue of Nature Heredity, which also ran a podcast
Pavlov’s dog, meet Pavlov’s mosquito The post Wearing DEET Might Be Like Ringing the Mosquito Dinner Bell appeared first on Nautilus .
Lab experiments suggest mosquitoes can smell DEET and learn to associate it with food, but it’s unclear whether that happens in the wild.
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a platform that engineers heat-loving microbes for industrial-scale manufacturing in a matter of weeks compared with previous approaches that can take months to years. This biotechnology tool
More than 1,000 years ago, Panama elites were buried together with translucent green stones long suspected to be emeralds. However, scientific analysis confirming the suspicion has never been conducted. Now, scientists have confirmed for the first time that these green gems
On the moon, the lack of atmosphere and accompanying features such as biological activity, oxygen-rich air, flowing water and rain, wind, and most erosion allows the lunar regolith to preserve a long-term record of surface processes in the space environment.
When researchers survey wildlife in a lake, forest, or other habitat, they rarely capture every species present—some are simply too rare or elusive to detect. A new study published in the May issue of Ecological Informatics addresses this longstanding challenge by offering a
Over hundreds of years, increasingly sophisticated instruments have revealed — and continue to reveal — the secrets of our star. The post How We See the Beautiful, Violent Sun first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Scientists have solved the mystery of the Seychelles’ vanished crocodiles using DNA from historic museum specimens. The reptiles were not a unique species after all, but an isolated population of saltwater crocodiles that likely drifted thousands of kilometers across the Indian
Researchers in Spain have discovered that in collectives of moving fire ants, rippling "waves" of density and activity are likely triggered by local regions where ants collectively travel in the same direction as their neighbors.
Tire rubber contains antioxidant chemicals, most notably 6PPD and DPPD, that are released into the air as tiny particles during normal driving. A single compound formed from 6PPD, known as 6PPD-quinone was previously shown to be implicated in the death of coho salmon in urban
Get set for a rare blue micromoon this weekend—a blue moon that's also the most distant and smallest-looking full moon of the year.
Researchers have found surprising links that show that Neanderthal ancestry influences our immune system today in ways more nuanced than previously recognized. Their work is published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution.
Local authority inspectors who issue licenses to dog breeders need clearer guidance and better support so they can more effectively protect animal welfare, a new report says.
Spotted hyenas live in hierarchically organized groups (clans). An individual's dominance over another determines priority access to resources such as food or mating partners, and thus reproductive success. However, the rank within the clan can be calculated using different
AI start-ups with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding are hiring mathematicians and building AI systems that they hope will not only solve mathematics, but also build more intelligent AI
New research published in BMC Biology helps to fill in questions about the so-called "Furongian gap" from about 497 million to 485 million years ago, when paleontologists previously thought there were far fewer fossils than periods before or after it.
The new test may catch active tuberculosis in those with low access to health care or who have trouble making the phlegm needed for traditional tests.
The Arctic Ocean may have crossed a dangerous tipping point. Scientists say the rapid disappearance of sea ice is triggering a hidden chemical shift that is stripping the ocean of nitrate — a nutrient essential for the tiny plankton that support Arctic life. As nitrate levels
Tiny birds on remote Scottish islands are undergoing a dramatic evolutionary transformation. Scientists studying four isolated populations of British Wrens discovered that some island birds have grown astonishingly large — with the biggest St Kilda Wrens weighing more than
Researchers are developing a futuristic alternative to LASIK that reshapes the eye without lasers or incisions. Using mild electrical pulses and platinum contact lenses, they temporarily soften the cornea so it can be molded into a new shape. Early tests on rabbit eyes
The cost of CAR T-cell therapy means that the highly effective cancer treatment is unavailable in many parts of the world. But a new way of making these cells could dramatically drive down the cost
Some things never go out of style The post This “Feathered Dragon” Shook Its Tail Feathers in the Time of Dinosaurs appeared first on Nautilus .
For more than a century, pianists and music teachers have argued over whether a performer’s touch can actually change the tone color of a piano note — and now scientists say the answer is yes. Using a cutting-edge sensor system that tracked piano key movements at 1,000 frames
With the 2026 cotton planting season in full swing, research out of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station provides a fresh reminder of the importance of sufficient potassium for cotton lint yield and quality.
Quantum mechanics is a physics framework that describes how matter and energy behave at an extremely small scale, specifically at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. An effect predicted by the laws of quantum mechanics is superposition, which entails that particles can
Saltmarsh is disappearing from coastlines around the world, and while brushwood fencing can help bring it back, a new study has found it only works if the fences are kept in good repair. Around 46% of the world's saltmarsh has been lost or damaged, and restoring it is not
Helen Phillips, winner of the Climate Fiction prize for her novel Hum, on if stories can make a difference, her anxieties and writing about the climate
A new study of British wrens has provided new insights into the inner workings of "island syndromes," according to research led by the University of Birmingham. The paper, published in the Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean Society, reveals that different subspecies of island
Happy, a Bronx Zoo elephant who gave researchers new insight into the animal's behavior and became the crux of a closely watched animal rights case, has been euthanized at age 55, the zoo said Wednesday.
An irreversible shift in the chemical makeup of the Arctic Ocean driven by climate change is disrupting the region's food chain, a study suggests. Widespread loss of Arctic sea ice has led to a sharp fall in levels of a key nutrient, affecting populations of plankton, fish,
Living cells cool much slower than our current understanding of heat conduction can explain, according to new research from the University of Tokyo. Researchers have used two techniques—high-speed temperature mapping and artificial heating—to observe how heat dissipates from
A team of astronomers, led by University of Warwick in collaboration with researchers at MIT and McMaster, have developed a novel method to use the properties of dust rings around stars to estimate the masses of newborn planets. Published in The Astrophysical Journal, this
A record-setting collection of precisely measured gravitational waves reveals new information about how black holes behave and evolve
SpaceX Starship launches are on hold pending an investigation into last week's test flight.
In the next five years, the Earth is overwhelmingly likely to surge again and again past the international climate threshold set as safe and shatter its hottest-year record along the way, according to new United Nations climate projections.
A casual walk through an Ithaca cemetery led to the discovery of a gigantic hidden bee population — roughly 5.5 million ground-nesting bees packed beneath the soil. Scientists believe it may be one of the largest bee aggregations ever documented and say the insects are crucial
Massive amounts of dust swirl around active nuclei at the centres of galaxies, and these discs could give rise to vast numbers of rocky planets, some even the size of stars
New research reveals that plants have the ability to detect their neighbors' growth rates through aromatic cues called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and subsequently adjust how much energy they invest into their own growth or defense strategies through responsive gene
Urban planning needs to tackle greenhouse gas emissions—and an important way to achieve this is by reducing the number and length of car commutes. This can be achieved primarily by ensuring that homes are located close to city centers and workplaces, so well-targeted building
A newly identified protein called GPNMB may play a major role in helping Parkinson’s disease spread through the brain. Researchers discovered that immune cells release the protein in response to damaged neurons, creating a vicious cycle that speeds up brain cell degeneration.
A new brain imaging study has found no evidence of widespread brain inflammation in patients suffering from prolonged symptoms after COVID-19 infection. Instead, the most severe long COVID symptoms were associated with increased brain activity in regions involved in mood and
A surprising new approach to depression treatment is showing early promise — not by targeting brain chemicals, but by calming the immune system. In a small clinical trial, researchers found that an anti-inflammatory drug normally used for rheumatoid arthritis appeared to ease
When the body runs low on protein, the gut sends powerful signals to the brain that reshape cravings and push animals to seek essential amino acids instead of sugar. Researchers say this newly discovered gut-brain network could transform our understanding of appetite,
Our sun is a loner. It lacks a stellar companion hurtling through interstellar space with it. But we've known for a long time that that's actually relatively rare—most stars have at least one gravitationally bound partner. Understanding how exactly those stars are related to
Internal changes due to the sun's "active biorhythm" have become increasingly "skin-deep" over the past four solar activity cycles, according to a new study.
