Earth's magnetic field acts as a vital shield against radiation arriving from space, but it is not constant. A new international study has examined how a reduction of the magnetic field similar to the Laschamps excursion would affect aviation on routes such as Helsinki–Dubai
According to the authors of a study published in the journal Coral Reefs, fire corals may be undergoing a "silent extinction." Coral bleaching occurs when seawater temperatures rise, causing the zooxanthellae (microalgae that live inside the coral skeleton and provide food for
Levels of toxic "forever chemicals" in New Jersey's public water systems dropped by as much as 55% after the state moved to limit the contaminants in drinking water, according to a Rutgers Health researcher who has analyzed 19 years of monitoring data from throughout the state.
Researchers have used artificial intelligence to develop a new tool for assessing earthquake damage, a leap that could ultimately help first responders in making critical rescue decisions, suggests a new study. The team's AI, called the LoRA-Enhanced Ground-view Generation
Fires are a recurring phenomenon in central South America, often intensified by drought and deforestation. In 2024, wildfire activity reached its highest levels in 20 years, affecting vast areas of the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado—the world's most biodiverse tropical
In a rare occurrence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, twin mountain gorillas were recently born in the Virunga National Park, renowned for its biodiversity but threatened by conflict.
In February 2023, a resident at Kyoto University's Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior—EHUB—treated researchers to a spontaneous musical performance. Ayumu, a 26-year-old male chimpanzee, removed floorboards from a walkway and used them to drum while he let
Analysis of two decades of student data at a large U.S. university suggests that grade inflation exists in graduate education. Researcher Vivien Lee and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, U.S., present these findings in the journal PLOS One.
Climate scientist Kate Marvel talked to Scientific American about her decision to leave NASA amid federal government turmoil and funding challenges
A major defense against everything space throws at us, Earth’s magnetic field may even protect the moon from damaging galactic cosmic rays
It’s got all the ingredients of a healthy, active lifestyle The post Can Home-Cooked Meals Help Stave Off Dementia? appeared first on Nautilus .
A $20 billion plan for a moon base by 2030 and the launch nuclear-propulsion space exploration raises hopes, but caution given deep government cuts.
A federal trial jury found that Meta and YouTube are offering products that are addictive and harmful to young users’ mental health
With almost a third of cacti species threatened with extinction, a new open-access database of cactus ecology and evolution could help scientists and conservationists save species from the brink.
Antibiotics revolutionized health care when they were introduced in the early twentieth century, making many severe and often fatal diseases easily treatable. But bacteria began developing resistance to these drugs, and new medications with different mechanisms of action are
The National Deuteration Facility has developed a capability to use a flow chemistry process to increase efficiency, increase production capacity and reduce decomposition in the synthesis of deuterated molecules.
A duo of drugs that boosts our glympathic system, which clears waste from our brain, also improves the removal of proteins associated with the onset of Alzheimer's disease
A hybrid photocatalyst system from Science Tokyo tackles an overlooked flaw in artificial photosynthesis to dramatically improve CO2-to-formate conversion. Unlike conventional designs where light degrades the molecular catalyst, the new system selectively excites the
A research team from the National Taiwan Normal University has clarified the status of a secretive reptile. Led by Si-Min Lin, the team focused on the Formosan legless lizard, scientifically known as Dopasia formosensis. These lizards are among the most secretive and least
A team of NASA researchers is developing new types of optical masks that could help enable the many orders of magnitude of starlight suppression needed for future space observatories to pick out very faint habitable exoplanets from the far brighter glare of their stellar hosts.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered a new red galaxy at a redshift of approximately 11.45. The newfound galaxy, which received designation EGS-z11-R0, turns out to be the most distant red galaxy detected to date. The discovery was detailed
Scientists at CERN built a container weighing about a ton to transport just 92 subatomic antimatter particles without annihilating them
Large-scale quantum computers are waiting in the wings. One of the main reasons we don't have them yet is because quantum hardware is so noisy. This isn't the type of noise you'd want to shush in a crowded theater. When it comes to computers, noise means errors that crop up
The remains of dogs from more than 14,000 years ago have been found in Turkey and the UK, revealing that domesticated animals were spread across Europe by hunter-gatherers
The same principles that help astronauts stay strong in microgravity can help us all resist the slow collapse of ageing – and it’s not all about hitting the gym more
Three-hundred-million years ago, Earth was very different. The continents had coalesced into Pangea, which was dominated in its equatorial regions by vast coal-swamp forests. With high atmospheric oxygen levels, wildfires were common.
Extreme climate impacts on people and the environment are often associated with very high levels of global warming (3 or 4°C). A new study led by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) shows that this assumption is too simplistic. Even moderate warming of 2°C
When you reach into a bucket of ice, open your front door on a snowy day, or feel the tingle of menthol toothpaste, a protein in your nerve cells called TRPM8 springs into action, opening like a tiny gate to send a "cold" signal to your brain. Now, UC San Francisco researchers
The economic damage yet to come from carbon dioxide emitted decades ago far exceeds the harm it has wrought so far, according to a new Stanford University study. The research, published in Nature, puts a dollar value on the harm done to individual nations and the world by
An international team of researchers led by the Francis Crick Institute, the University of East Anglia and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has found that dogs were domesticated more than 14,000 years ago and that dogs living in pre-agricultural Europe
Two new studies suggest that genetically stable dogs were living among humans in Europe by about 14,000 years ago.
Scientists have finally pinned down the mechanism behind cold- and menthol-sensing proteins
NASA's IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission has taken a new observation of a supernova, RCW 86, helping fill in a fuller picture of what other telescopes have observed.
Soil salinity is a critical concern in agriculture when excessive soluble salts restrict a plant's water uptake, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, hindering crop growth and reducing yields on roughly 30% of U.S. irrigated land. Caused by irrigation, poor drainage
A toxic gas known for its "rotten egg smell" has been transformed into a therapeutic tool. A research team at KAIST has developed a technology to precisely control hydrogen sulfide (H2S) using electrical signals, bringing us one step closer to precision medicine that targets
An interview with James McCommons, author of The Feather Wars , about the past and future of bird conservation The post The Martyrs, Hunters, and Nature Lovers Who Came Together to Save Birds appeared first on Nautilus .
A team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has identified a rare, switchable quantum property in a new type of nickel sulfide material. The discovery could have applications in high-speed transistors, adaptive sensors and other
The quest to make mathematics rigorous has a long and spotty history — one mathematicians can learn from as they push to formalize everything in the computer program Lean. The post In Math, Rigor Is Vital. But Are Digitized Proofs Taking It Too Far? first appeared on Quanta
David E. Dunning explores how mathematical notation is a social, world-building technology. The post How Writing Changes Mathematical Thought first appeared on Quanta Magazine
A scientist who pioneered the modern food processing safety standards used around the world was awarded this year's World Food Prize, the organization announced Wednesday, crediting his work for averting millions of cases of foodborne illness and reducing food waste.
A 20-year study has shown that, like photocopying photocopies, cloning doesn't produce perfect copies – with big implications for farming, conservation and de-extinction
Pulsars are ultra-dense, rapidly spinning, and highly magnetized remnants of dead stars. They act like cosmic lighthouses, sending out regular pulses of radio waves and sometimes gamma rays in beams that sweep across the sky. A special class called millisecond pulsars spins
A major gap in South Korea's prehistoric record has been filled with the discovery of Onggwanoolithus aphaedoensis, the first known bird-type dinosaur eggs from the Cretaceous period of South Korea. The find, which is detailed in a paper published in Palaeogeography,
It may well take years to prove, but a pair of University of Miami astrophysicists could be on the verge of a cosmic breakthrough that will confirm the existence of primordial black holes and the role they play in one of cosmology's greatest mysteries.
Modern polymer materials face a fundamental challenge: they must remain strong and durable during use, yet ideally degrade when they are no longer needed. Designing materials that satisfy both requirements has long been a major challenge in polymer science.
An international research team led by scientists from Skoltech has developed a method to position molecules on the surface of ultrathin materials with unprecedented precision using molecular DNA self-assembly, enabling the creation of quantum light sources. The results,
New measurements from the Blue Ghost lander suggest that thin crust, not just radioactive heating, shaped the moon’s dark lava plains.
Finding high-performing catalysts, which are used to accelerate processes from chemical manufacturing to energy production, can be a slow, expensive process, often relying on years of trial-and-error or massive computational resources. To add to the difficulty, ideal catalyst
Sure, playing video game is fun. But the ability of tiny brain organoids to pick up a skill could provide insight into how healthy brains work.
Researchers have re-analysed a set of elephant bones and a wooden spear found in Germany in 1948, which provide compelling evidence of Neanderthals' big game hunting abilities
