Imagine two people standing on a stretchy sheet. When one pulls, the other feels the fabric move and responds with a pull of their own. Each adjustment changes what the other feels. Something similar happens between living cells. They tug on the material around them, sense the
The university experience has changed drastically since artificial intelligence (AI) became widely available four years ago.
Is self-enclosure life’s greatest trick? According to the lipid-first theory, a cell membrane enabled life by giving chemistry a place to gather. The post The Case for a Bubble at Life’s Start first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Theft is almost universally considered an exploitative behavior. The conventional view underlying judicial systems is that the act of taking resources from others without offering compensation stems from moral and personal failings. As a result, these systems rely on the
Most of us spend much of our day staring at organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs, which convert electricity into light to produce the colorful displays on smartphones, computer monitors and televisions. Although metal-free light-emitting materials that produce all colors are
Demand for the MMR vaccine has risen in Pennsylvania as the state’s measles outbreak has grown The post What the Measles Vaccine’s “97% Effective” Rating Means for Pittsburgh Parents appeared first on Nautilus .
The average person might be willing to pay a 10% premium for vehicle tires labeled as "salmon safe," according to a new study led by Washington State University.
Cobalt phosphide (CoP) is a promising alternative to platinum for producing hydrogen from water. However, scientists have struggled to explain why it performs so well. Computer models have suggested that CoP should become unstable under the conditions used to produce hydrogen,
In 2031, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft will arrive at the near-Earth asteroid 1998 KY26: a tiny body that is accelerating in a way that astronomers have struggled to explain. Some studies have suggested that the asteroid is pushed along by water escaping from it as gas, making
As demand grows for safer and more capable rechargeable batteries, scientists are looking beyond the familiar metal-centered chemistry of conventional cathodes. A promising route is to draw additional charge from anions—the negatively charged atoms in a material—rather than
The scale, quality and regional coverage of public cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) data resources have been insufficient, severely limiting data reuse, cross-regional comparisons and the development of automated analysis methods. A new resource aims to help fill that gap,
As neurotechnology aims to restore seamless speech to those who can no longer talk, what’s next for the science, and for the people it promises to help?
Physicists at the ALPS II collaboration have reported the first results from the Any-Light-Particle-Search (ALPS) II experiment: the most sensitive instrument of its kind in the search for hypothetical "axions." Headed by Axel Lindner at the DESY Research Centre in Germany, the
An image so striking, many people thought it was AI The post This Photo of the Night Sky Reveals 14,000 Satellite Trails appeared first on Nautilus .
More than 2,000 years ago, Egyptians offered cats to the gods. Now, a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science suggests that even cats destined for the gods did not necessarily live pampered lives.
An interdisciplinary team of students from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is taking part in iGEM, the international synthetic biology competition in Paris (Nov. 13–16), this fall. Using a clever combination of artificial intelligence, a mechanical trap and protein
Marine mammals living along the Pacific Coast of North America encounter more than the fish, crustaceans, cephalopods and other marine mammals that live around them. Because contaminants such as mercury can move through marine food webs and biomagnify—becoming more concentrated
Colorado wheat—the foundation for flour used in bread, noodles and pastries—has been besieged by the wheat stem sawfly, a native insect that recently developed a preference for wheat over native grasses. This destructive agricultural pest has spread across the state's Eastern
Researchers created a new map of the fruit fly brain. Then the Internet found it
At first glance, the canal near which Ibrahim Yildiz grazes his sheep in the southern Adana province appears idyllic, framed by rows of clementine trees—until the mountains of plastic shavings come into view.
An acrid haze hung over a sprawling dump in Ghana's capital, Accra, as excavators gouged into mounds of smoldering garbage.
Quantum computers could curb the vast energy demands of artificial intelligence data centers with their ability to run complex calculations, one of the tech's pioneers told AFP.
Nearly 200 countries will participate in this year’s climate talks, held in Antalya, Türkiye
In 1974, the University of Melbourne's chemistry professor Richard Robson had the idea of replacing the wooden balls and metal rods used in structural models with molecules and chemical bonds. He began experimenting with copper ions linked by a four-armed organic molecule,
About a century ago, the Anaconda Copper Mine complex near Butte, Montana, was emitting vast amounts of air pollution into the atmosphere. As small particles of arsenic and other heavy metals were carried by winds over the Arctic, storms eventually helped pull them to the
Toxic metals can harm human health. Arctic ice cores trace arsenic, lead and other heavy metals to historic mining and smelting in Montana.
Archaeological excavation uncovers the past but also changes the landscape that has preserved sites for centuries or millennia. These changes influence water flow, soil erosion and the stability of exposed remains. Researchers from Istanbul Technical University and the U.S.
Global carbon pollution dropped this year ever so slightly, but it's more because of oil shocks reverberating from the Iran war than anything the world has done to fight climate change, scientists said in a new study.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming part of everyday life and work. AI can generate information, summarize evidence and perform calculations. However, it does not remove the need for critical thinking and conceptual understanding.
Researchers at the UVSOR Synchrotron Facility (Institute for Molecular Science, Japan) and partner institutions have observed the decay of a xenon 4d core hole, an inner-shell vacancy, directly in the time domain. They used pairs of phase-coherent extreme ultraviolet pulses
Building an accurate model of how atoms interact is a complicated process. Researchers must choose new calculations, test successive models and track the mechanisms behind each interaction. But a newly developed AI agent called MLP Copilot has made this process much easier by
A surprising discovery suggests that some early signs of Alzheimer’s disease may begin outside the brain. Using miniature laboratory systems made from human cells, scientists found that genetic mutations associated with inherited Alzheimer’s can disrupt nerve-to-muscle
A KAIST-led research team has characterized how light propagates through and is absorbed by barium titanate (BTO), a promising material for next-generation optical communication devices. By clarifying optical properties that had been difficult to determine because of the
Dehydrating milk to turn it into powder is, today, an energy-intensive process that subjects the product to high temperatures. Powdered milk is widely used by the food industry and allows the product to be stored and transported in a stable condition for long periods of time
Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels are projected to decrease by 0.4% in 2026—driven by expansion of solar and wind power and the Iran conflict—according to new research by the Global Carbon Project. The 2026 edition (the 21st annual report) is published in the journal
It's not quite a victory for humanity's transition to renewables. The dip is probably driven by high gas prices from the Iran war.
You're walking through the farmers market with a screaming toddler tucked under your arm football style. You're tired, you're leaving without the produce you came for and you're embarrassed.
CERN scientists have finally found evidence of a particle decay so rare that it happens only once in roughly 10 billion decays, ending a search spanning more than 40 years. The breakthrough could help physicists uncover hidden particles and forces that lie beyond the reach of
For more than six decades, local scientists have collected sugar maple leaves from Gatineau Park to measure their radiocarbon levels, creating the longest continuous record of its kind. Now, a study of those leaves led by the André E. Lalonde National Facility for Accelerator
Researchers at the University of Rochester and Technion–Israel Institute of Technology accidentally discovered a new way to rearrange the internal structure of molybdenum—an extremely heat-resistant metal—at room temperature. Molybdenum is typically used to reinforce nuclear
Mount Sinai researchers have identified a single amino acid difference between rodent- and human-derived Andes virus isolates that changes how a key viral protein behaves inside human cells. The findings help explain biological differences between closely related virus isolates.
Every autumn, from city centers to wetlands, starling murmurations attract crowds of spectators. Thousands of birds fill the sky, twisting and turning in extraordinary waves as the sun sets. An entire flock moves as one, creating shapes that shift and dissolve as quickly as
Certain microorganisms (anaerobic methanotrophic archaea, or ANME) consume methane and convert it into electricity, as research conducted four years ago by microbiologist Cornelia Welte of Radboud University revealed. New research by Welte and her colleagues published in Nature
Ten years after 8,000 ancient frog bones were discovered in a single ditch, scientists at Bournemouth University and the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) have finally identified the culprits
Analysis of silver and gold from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria finds that, contrary to popular belief, it did not suffer from a shortage of precious metals, questioning why the kingdom used copper-alloy coins rather than silver like its contemporaries.
Open any news feed from the past few months, and the disasters arrive in a stream: smoke reaching dangerous levels throughout Canada and flash floods in Ottawa, Montréal and Toronto; heat and drought arriving together on every continent.
It visited the ringed planet 46 years ago this month The post A Look Back at the Most Breathtaking Photos of Saturn From Voyager 1 appeared first on Nautilus .
Every time your heart beats, your lungs expand, or your skin stretches, a remarkable protein called elastin helps your body return to its original shape. But what exactly gives this protein its elasticity? For more than 50 years, scientists have debated whether elastin's
Popular media, from computer games to movies, often portray medieval life as being dominated by fighters and farmers. In these depictions, there's little evidence of a world beyond political struggle and simple subsistence.
A hopeful story for the world's largest, critically endangered sea turtle may be playing out along the sandy beaches of Ecuador.
