A new Northwestern Medicine study has uncovered key molecular design principles that could help supramolecular therapeutics cross the blood-brain barrier, a major challenge for this novel approach to treating neurological disorders.
Hundreds of dead birds are now being reported as the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu begins to spread across Australia. Government reports show the virus is circulating in resident birds.
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed banning menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars in 2022, nearly 250,000 public comments flooded in—a record response that led the Biden administration to delay a final decision.
Firefighters have been battling a vast wildfire in the hills above Blaenavon in south Wales, spreading across more than 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres), for three weeks.
A study of 143 piercing tools, from tusks to love darts, finds they trade off piercing ability for durability. And no one shape wins out.
When people shop for a home, they tend to focus on the information listings put front and center: price, floor area, number of bedrooms and location. Rarely do listings show how a home can shape a household's carbon footprint through energy use and commuting.
Why is there sex—or, more precisely, sexual reproduction? If you're an evolutionary biologist, the answer isn't obvious. Sexual reproduction is biologically costly, requiring not only competition for mates but also the creation of entire populations in which only half the
Welcome back to our series on interstellar travel! In our first installment, we examined attempts to realize nuclear propulsion and how the technology could be used to reach the nearest star. In our second, we examined how fusion power has also been considered a means of
A new study from Monash University has delivered the most complete and accurate digital map of Earth's windblown sand dunes to date. The research, published in Nature Communications, answers long-standing questions about why dunes form where they do, unlocking key insights into
Computer scientist Melanie Mitchell discusses why artificial intelligence doesn’t “think” or “reason” like humans, and how we can create better methods for measuring machine cognition. The post Are We Thinking Correctly About AI Intelligence? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Consistent enforcement of rules is more important than the severity of the punishment itself, and children expect adults to treat every member of their group impartially and equally. Moreover, fair punishment brings emotional relief to children, according to research by
A new study from Murdoch University has found that Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) downgrades trigger significantly larger share price losses when they come as a surprise to optimistic investors. The findings are published in the journal International Review of
Dense evergreen plantations in Canada's boreal forest absorb so much winter sunlight that the resulting surface warming can offset 6% to 20% of the climate benefit they are credited with. Canada's current carbon accounting frameworks measure the carbon stored but largely omit
A rare find on a fishing expedition The post No One Knows How Whale Sharks Give Birth—But This Neonatal Shark Discovery Provides Some Clues appeared first on Nautilus .
A groundbreaking study hints at a hazy boundary between “life” and “non-life,” as well as two distinct origins of biology on Earth
An online survey published in the journal Psychology of Music asked 136 women ages 40 and older about their experiences at electronic dance music (EDM) events. Nine in 10 respondents (91%) said clubbing contributes positively to their well-being, with more than six in 10
As competition between the United States and China intensifies over critical minerals, pressure is mounting to begin exploitation of deep-sea minerals before a code to regulate mining of the seabed in areas beyond national jurisdiction is agreed to.
Astronomers have discovered a chemically rich collection of sulfur-bearing molecules surrounding the rare massive star HD 87643. The observations include the first detection of sulfur monoxide and sulfur dioxide around a B[e] supergiant. The paper was published in The
A team of Australian researchers has woven together modern science and Indigenous knowledge to reveal new insights into the evolution, history and future of the southern Great Barrier Reef. The 24-day voyage, led by The University of Queensland, returned to Brisbane today
Archaeological artifacts offer valuable insights into the history of past societies. They reveal not only technological developments but also the changing economic systems, cultural traditions and everyday practices of the people who lived at the time.
It's one of the origins-of-life chicken-or-egg problems: How could RNA have helped give rise to the first cells before there were cells to contain it?
Around 15,000 years ago, the way of life of human communities in the southern Levant underwent a fundamental change. Groups of hunter-gatherers, who until then had been nomadic, reduced their mobility and established small, permanent settlements for the first time.
The country’s latest mission, Chang’e-7, will be the first to ever land directly at the moon’s south pole. Whatever it finds there could radically reshape a new space race
Adelaide University research shows that while higher education (HE) in Australia continues to deliver a substantial wage premium, education, skills and labor-market policy need to align more closely.
Recurring and prolonged periods of drought are worsening worldwide, triggering a dangerous chain reaction for trees, according to a forest health expert at North Carolina State University.
Eugenics is rearing its ugly head again in today’s crucible of politics and culture The post The Return of a Discredited Pseudoscience appeared first on Nautilus .
In fall of 2025, the Trump administration touted the drug leucovorin for autism therapy without new evidence. Dispensing of the drug to kids rose.
For close to a century, physicists have pursued a way to unite gravity with quantum mechanics. Known as quantum gravity, this goal has remained frustratingly out of reach so far. Similarly elusive is the force of dark energy, which is believed to be driving the universe's
UC San Francisco's Industry Documents Library, in partnership with the Minnesota Attorney General's Office, has made public nearly 700 internal documents from a Midwest retailer as part of the state's lawsuit alleging the company ignored an internal warning before selling
Knee osteoarthritis can seriously affect mobility and quality of life, but its progression isn’t completely out of your control. Exercise, stronger leg muscles, a healthier diet, and even modest weight loss can dramatically reduce stress on the knees and help keep pain in check.
Specialized brain scans reveal that schizophrenia is linked to widespread loss of the synapses that connect brain cells, with the left side of the brain hit especially hard. The damage follows a surprisingly organized pattern tied to the brain’s chemistry and wiring.
Global mangrove cover—vegetation vital to tackling climate change—has increased over the past 40 years, despite significant losses in some key regions, according to a new analysis.
To make a good impression at work, it might be better to spend less time polishing your resume and more time honing your communication skills. That's according to a large analysis of more than 200 studies showing that the first impressions people make at work are largely based
Testosterone is a longtime favorite of the bodybuilding crowd, but now the hormone is being touted for perimenopause, “looks maxxing,” and more
The human family tree may be due for a major rewrite. Researchers argue that Australopithecus and Paranthropus should be folded into the genus Homo because new fossils have blurred many of the traits once used to separate them. The proposed shake-up could provide a simpler,
The “Asian Water Tower” is losing roughly 24.2 billion tonnes of groundwater every year, with some of the worst declines hitting densely populated farming regions. Glacier melt may temporarily soften the crisis around the 2060s, but without changes in water use, researchers
Increasingly hot, dry and windy conditions could substantially extend the area affected by wildfires across Europe, according to a new study led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) with contributions from the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research. In a
Extreme experiments have revealed how diamond behaves at crushing pressures beyond those inside Neptune and Uranus, resolving a decades-old conflict between theory and observation. The results could help scientists boost fusion energy output while revealing more about the
Australian wildlife workers have launched an unprecedented effort to vaccinate wild populations of little penguins against the highly contagious H5N1 avian influenza.
The Honduran government on Wednesday placed 80% of the country, including the capital, on drought alert as El Niño scorches harvests and causes livestock to die of thirst.
The mission to save NASA's sinking Swift Observatory was called off Wednesday, dooming the telescope to a fiery reentry later this year.
Eclipses may be wondrous, but nothing beats seeing the northern and southern lights from space.
A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 stage crashed into the Moon on Aug. 5, leaving behind a newly formed crater about 60 feet wide. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured detailed images showing bright and dark streaks of debris blasted across the surrounding surface. The impact
Spain’s total solar eclipse delivered an unexpected sight: a corona glowing gold instead of its usual pearly white. Because the Sun was setting, its light passed through more atmosphere, while smoke from nearby wildfires filtered out even more blue light. The result was a
Letting late-summer weeds grow could help honeybees when they find it most challenging to gather nectar, according to new research published in the journal, Functional Ecology.
More than 1,000 genetic switches behave differently in male and female immune cells, helping explain why women are much more vulnerable to autoimmune diseases such as lupus. Female immune systems appear genetically tuned for stronger inflammatory responses—a powerful defense
The effects of global warming depend on species: The losers are legion, but a lucky few are winners. Now, researchers have shown that baleen whales are taking advantage of a newly opened-up fish bonanza in the Greenland Sea, east of Greenland and reaching to the Arctic Circle
The research team led by materials scientist Ralf Busch from Saarland University is preparing for its first science-in-space mission. If everything goes to plan, from 31 August the researchers will spend one week remotely studying metallic-glass alloys in experiments carried
Researchers at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have discovered that fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) significantly impairs plants' ability to use water efficiently and absorb carbon dioxide.
A patent-pending method developed and tested for multiple applications at Purdue University eliminates sample preparation, a bottleneck that currently dominates a laboratory scientist's time and budget, and enables spatial analysis using liquid chromatography-tandem mass
