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Your next handbag could start with mushrooms

The search for leather alternatives has led researchers somewhere unexpected: fungi. Although traditional leather is durable, producing it requires animal agriculture, which carries negative environmental impacts. Meanwhile, vegan alternatives are typically made from

Sunlight-powered setup generates quantum entanglement

Today's quantum technologies rely on energy-intensive lasers, raising concerns that scaling them up could further increase energy demands. In new work, researchers have demonstrated that quantum entanglement between photons can be generated directly from sunlight, offering a

Space kit for future 'away missions' tested in Scotland

Researchers from the University of Leicester and the University of Aberdeen have carried out a series of field demonstrations in Portsoy to test cutting-edge handheld analytical instruments. Designed for use by astronauts on the moon and, eventually, Mars, these instruments

How Does Touch Lead To Pain Or Pleasure?

Neuroscientist Ishmail Abdus-Saboor discusses efforts to understand how skin contact can be painful or pleasurable, and what touch-obsessed naked mole rats might teach us about human social behavior. The post How Does Touch Lead To Pain Or Pleasure? first appeared on Quanta

NASA's Perseverance captures Phobos and Earth

This composite of seven images from the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover shows Earth, visible as a small bright dot moving from upper left to lower right, passing behind the Martian moon Phobos on July 2, 2026, the 1,907th Martian day, or sol, of the

Songbirds may have developed sharper senses to de-husk seeds

Songbirds, birds belonging to the Passeriformes order, are best known for their ability to produce complex musical sounds. Yet some songbird species also have another remarkable skill: They can easily remove the tough layer covering seeds (i.e., the husk) before swallowing

World’s most-used weedkiller disrupts honeybee brains

Glyphosate was long thought to be safe for honeybees because they lack the enzyme the chemical targets in weeds. However, researchers found that exposed bees foraged 13 percent less after only three days and showed changes in brain chemicals linked to behavior. Across a whole

Improving oats for growers and consumers

Heart-healthy oats are finding their way into a wider variety of products and recipes as consumer demand grows. Although oats are grown on far fewer acres than other U.S. crops, farmers are able to keep up with demand through genetic gains in yield and other important agronomic

Sizing errors can hide true nanoparticle behavior

Nanoscience, which studies small objects, has a big problem. According to a team of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the field confronts a pervasive data analysis error that can give misleading insights into how these tiny objects'

Forget the sperm race: Fertilization may depend on teamwork

Millions of sperm do not always compete alone—some species send them into action as coordinated teams. A sweeping evolutionary study found that this cooperation is widespread among arthropods and has repeatedly emerged and vanished over hundreds of millions of years. The

Dirty air may trigger painful rheumatoid arthritis flares

Tiny pollution particles from smoke, soot, and dust may worsen rheumatoid arthritis and raise the risk of painful flares, particularly after prolonged exposure. The findings suggest that avoiding poor air quality could become an important part of managing the disease.