How does light turn into motion within a metal? A team of researchers from European XFEL, the University of Potsdam and other participating institutions has shown that ultrashort optical laser pulses can trigger extremely rapid lattice vibrations in periodically layered metal
A United States Army Lieutenant was the first to forecast the deadly storms in the late 1800s. Then he was told to stop. The post In the Midst of Tornado Season, a Surprisingly Short History of Predicting Twisters appeared first on Nautilus .
Imagine returning to a favorite hiking trail 15 years after your first visit and discovering that many of the plants and animals that once lived there are gone. While these species may still exist elsewhere, these disappearances—known as local extinctions—are among the clearest
Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) have proposed a warning tool that predicts, up to three weeks in advance, when river fish in Switzerland will be at risk from heat. As heat waves become more frequent with climate change,
People living in regions with lower scores on the Human Development Index face a substantially higher risk from climate-related disasters, even when these are not unusually severe. This is the key finding of a new study led by researchers at Leipzig University. The study
A new study of two supernova remnants, the debris left behind after stars explode, suggests the explosions came from stellar siblings that once orbited each other. The first star's detonation sent its binary companion hurtling through space, and then, after traveling for
Mosses are survivors. They can dry into what looks like green dust, only to spring back to life minutes after rain. They can grow on rocks, in deserts, and there's talk of using them to terraform Mars someday. According to new research, mosses have also been hiding something.
Soils that are exposed to prolonged drought often develop desiccation cracks, which impact soil properties and exacerbate moisture loss through evapotranspiration. Now, a study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign examines the evolution of soil cracking and how
Finding life beyond our solar system is a major goal of modern astronomy. NASA's planned Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to take direct images of Earth-sized planets around stars other than our sun. This task, however, is extraordinarily difficult, given that these
Compostable plastics could be part of a solution to the world's plastic waste problem. But currently these materials need industrial composting facilities to break down. In a step toward making a home-compostable plastic, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have
Millions of light-years away, millions of years ago, a star exploded. In this violent process, it ejected incredible amounts of mass, including carbon, nitrogen and oxygen—the building blocks of life. In fact, the star may have produced elements on the periodic table all the
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a galaxy cluster called CL0016+1609, or MACS J0018.5+1626, that is very bright at X-ray wavelengths and is one of the most extensively studied clusters at X-ray and radio wavelengths. X-ray observations of this cluster revealed
A conversation with an expert in geomythology about a wild idea The post Can “Dante’s Inferno” Tell Us Something About Space Rocks? appeared first on Nautilus .
When heat waves hit the Western United States, the risk of wildfires quickly rises. The prolonged heat dries out vegetation, but that's only part of the cause—heat waves also play other roles in spreading wildfires.
Greenland has recently been hit by localized wildfires, a rarity at this time of year that could be explained by global warming, a researcher at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources said Thursday.
Scientists have discovered that the optimal diet for male fruit flies may depend strongly on whether they are reproducing, challenging long-standing assumptions about nutrition and aging. Led by researchers from the University of Liverpool's Department of Evolution, Ecology and
There is a Chinese saying that east or west, Guilin scenery is the best. Guilin and Chongqing, located in western China, are famous for their many mountains and rivers. They also harbor unique flora and fauna, such as the scaly-sided merganser, a globally endangered species
Palaeontologists have found new evidence that the early ancestors of amphibians, reptiles and mammals did not have a larval stage with external gills like modern frogs or salamanders
An extremely unusual tectonic movement took place 15 minutes after the Tohoku earthquake in 2011, causing almost the whole of Japan to move 5 millimetres to the east
Cells have evolved careful checks to ensure DNA is copied only once, but how they switch on replication at the right moment has been the focus of a 30-year research question. New work from the Crick has recorded the missing step.
Researchers at the University of Tsukuba have discovered that rainwater runoff in the highly rugged sedimentary rock mountains of Japan's Southern Alps is governed by two processes: "deep infiltration" and "shallow drainage via landslides." These processes are dictated by the
These ruins, located just five kilometers from Stonehenge, likely laid the groundwork for religious rites celebrating the longest and shortest days of the year
Ultrasound-based irradiation of rock formations has attracted considerable attention as a technique for enhancing heavy-oil (high-viscosity crude oil) recovery from deep underground reservoirs. However, a unified theoretical framework for wave propagation and energy dissipation
Breaking up with a loved one is often a painful life experience, one that is difficult to recover from. Researchers from SWPS University, however, suggest that a simple step can help. Writing down the story of a past relationship increases the effectiveness of thinking about
The RINO project was born from the discovery of unusual marks on rhinoceros teeth recovered from the prehistoric Payre site in France's Rhône Valley. The study of fossil rhinoceros teeth from this Middle Paleolithic site, dating to around 250,000–130,000 years ago, provides
Billions of years ago, environmental conditions on Mars were significantly more hospitable than they are today. Our neighboring planet was likely warm, humid and surrounded by a dense atmosphere. Whether simple microorganisms could have evolved at that time remains an open
Micro- and nanoplastics are now popping up everywhere: in seawater, snow, food and even in our bodies. The very smallest particles, in particular, are difficult to measure, meaning we still know too little about their spread and associated risks. UvA chemist Maria Hayder and
This “extraordinary” event was likely caused by seismic waves bouncing off Earth’s core, researchers found
University of Notre Dame researchers analyzed 42 years of biological records from the Great Lakes, unveiling how per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or "forever chemicals," have moved across the region, contaminating a variety of wildlife.
There is evidence that nonhuman animals perceive the world, and how it unfolds in time, differently from humans and from each other. For example, certain beetles can see flickering in lights up to around 500 Hz, while in humans that flickering appears as a steady light after 60
Life on our planet began in the water. Eventually, one branch of the fish family tree developed legs and came up on land. These early four-legged animals, the tetrapods, were the forebears of today's mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
Next summer, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will start sidling up to several asteroids near Jupiter. On its way there, it has studied another space rock up close
A new look at puma-human encounters in the mountains of California The post How to Dodge a Mountain Lion appeared first on Nautilus .
Three species that lived about 308 million years ago challenge the idea that the first land vertebrates underwent amphibian-like metamorphosis.
The wave's round trip to Earth's core set off a fault slip along Japan's plate boundaries, revealing a seismic hazard scientists hadn't recognized.
A team of LSU researchers has pinpointed a specific type of lung cell that acts as a master switch for the harmful inflammation caused by a dangerous class of air pollutants—a discovery that opens the door to new treatments for asthma and other respiratory diseases. The study,
Can technology really replace human relationships? As philosophy scholars who focus on human happiness and on artificial intelligence (AI), we tackle this question in a recent paper.
Scientists studying lipids—the fatty molecules that store energy, make up cell membranes and act as signals—produce enormous amounts of information. A single experiment can detect thousands of different lipid molecules, generating long lists of measurements. But knowing what
We have built tools that save us hours at work. So why do so many people feel worse for using them? The answer has less to do with AI and more to do with what we have always believed work is supposed to cost us.
The effort to pull some 900 ocean-monitoring buoys and sensors from the water drew backlash from scientists and lawmakers
Heat stress on dairy cows affects more than just the quantity of milk produced—warming temperatures also reduce the fat and protein content of the milk, new research finds.
Ensuring the research that we all rely on—whether for our health, environment or economy—is trustworthy is important for universities, governments and business. Unfortunately, academic misconduct is a growing concern, with researchers breaking the rules, such as making up
In a new study published in Physical Review Letters, a team from the Nägerl group, together with theory collaborator Alvise Bastianello from the CNRS and the Université Paris-Dauphine, demonstrates that highly unusual quantum states known as "fractional Fermi seas" can be
A new study suggests Southern California's major fault system is more stressed than at any point in the last 1,000 years. Researchers found that the Cajon Pass, where the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults meet, could act as an “earthquake gate” that determines whether a future
This partnership marks the latest foray into space exploration for Relativity Space, which aims to build cheap, reusable rockets
In this age of AI anxiety, listen to your heart The post The Inventor of the Thinking Machine Didn’t Worry. Neither Should You appeared first on Nautilus .
Public debates about transgender issues are often framed as disagreements over evidence or safety. In my new article published in the International Journal of Transgender Health, I argue current policy shifts are better understood as part of a recognizable escalation pattern.
Scientists can learn a lot about a quantum material by watching how it responds to light. In magnetic semiconductors, one especially useful messenger is the exciton: a pairing of a negatively charged electron and the positively charged "hole" it leaves behind. Until now,
The identity of a centuries-old shipwreck discovered off the south coast of England, holding 400 gold coins, has finally been identified as the Dutch trading ship "Dom van Keulen," which left Morocco for the Netherlands in the autumn of 1633.
For decades, biologists have known that hermit crabs forced to live in shells that are too small slow their growth. What wasn't clear was how they did it. New research suggests the answer isn't simply that the crabs eat less. Instead, they appear to regulate growth by changing
