School cellphone bans might seem like a good way to improve learning for elementary school children, but new research published in Behavioral Sciences shows that simply owning a cellphone correlates with worse reading comprehension. Whether a child brings the phone to school
Strengthening the bond between people and nature—that is the aim of a German–Dutch EU project involving Oldenburg. The reasoning behind this is that people who feel they are part of the environment are more likely to campaign for its preservation.
Cells carry their own growth switches. When enough nutrients—amino acids in particular—are available, cells flip this switch on and begin to grow. Researchers at KAIST and Yonsei University have uncovered the molecular mechanism by which amino acid signals activate this
How do tissues cope with being stretched for hours or even days? A study led by researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has uncovered an unexpected answer: Cells radically reorganize their internal scaffolding and, in the process, release their
Physicists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), the Technical University of Darmstadt, Sapienza University in Rome and the University of Camerino (both in Italy) have calculated the fundamental laws of thermodynamics for a gas composed of spinning particles. In the
We've been covering the journey of the Habitable Worlds Observatory for some time now. Over the past few years, it's gone from a proposal to a relatively fleshed-out plan for how and what the next Great Observatory should do—in this case, look at and characterize potentially
By analyzing 100,000 California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection inspection records from 2013 to 2024, researchers at the University of California, Irvine have identified the key environmental and human factors responsible for the most destructive wildfires, and they
What happens inside a citrus tree long before leaves turn yellow, roots decline, and fruit quality suffers? Researchers from the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center—Diann S. Achor, Camila Ribeiro, Jinyun Li and Nian Wang—have created a detailed
Many of today's electronic devices—from the semiconductors in your cell phone to the photovoltaic cells in your solar panels—are built on thin-film substrates. The thin film is an electrically conductive material, while the substrate is an inert material. Or is it?
Paranthropus boisei footprints offer clues to their size and social dynamics The post Mysterious Human Relative Was Bigger Than Previously Thought appeared first on Nautilus .
Next-generation energy devices like fuel cells and water electrolyzers depend on ion-exchange membranes that allow only water and certain ions to pass through.
That kitchen sponge sitting by your sink is not as innocent as it looks. It could be harboring Salmonella enteritidis, E. coli or Staphylococcus aureus—and there's no way to tell just by looking at it or smelling it.
University of Missouri researchers are turning a unique variety of corn into an effective natural alternative to artificial food dyes.
A simple, low-dose leaf spray could give farmers a practical new tool to keep growing tomatoes on land that salt has rendered increasingly unproductive, according to a study led by a researcher at The University of Texas at El Paso.
A new study using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope finds that star formation in the nearby Andromeda galaxy has undergone a 500-million-year decline, with an even steeper drop in the last 40 million years. Andromeda, a spiral galaxy comparable in size to our Milky Way,
Every ancient language that has ever been deciphered needed an anchor. Usually that's a bilingual text, like the Rosetta Stone, or a known relative to compare it to. Linear A, the writing system of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization on the Greek island of Crete, has neither.
Most of the carbon released during Canada's record-breaking 2023 wildfire season came from burning soil and peat, rather than trees, according to new research from McMaster University.
A new concept from Warwick researchers could help solve one of the biggest challenges to building large-scale quantum computers: enabling communication between vast numbers of quantum bits (qubits) over long distances across a single chip.
Invasive rats on tropical islands are creating winners and losers among the tiny underwater animals near the bottom of the food chain that inhabit surrounding coral reefs. Scientists say the changes to these marine ecosystems can rewire food chains on the reefs.
Fungal diseases are among the leading causes of crop destruction, threatening global food security and agricultural livelihoods. Among phytopathogenic fungi, anthracnose fungi and the rice blast fungus are known to share a common infection strategy. They develop specialized
Scientists at Houston Methodist Research Institute have developed a biodegradable implant designed to deliver cancer-fighting immunotherapy drugs directly into tumors over an extended period, a strategy that could improve treatment effectiveness while reducing side effects.
Mercury was long considered the exception to the rule that magnetic planets have radiation belts similar to Earth's Van Allen belts, but a new study by University of Michigan Engineering and the University of California, Berkeley, suggests otherwise—Mercury occasionally has
Birds are facing a crisis—nearly 3 billion birds have been lost across North America since 1970 as a result of human activities affecting birds and their habitats.
A fleeting photoinduced electronic state and the subsequent formation of a photoinduced hidden state in a metal–organic framework were captured in just 30 femtoseconds by researchers at Science Tokyo, Tohoku University and Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan. By combining
Light typically interacts with a material the same way whether it enters through the front or the back—like polarized sunglasses that work the same from either side. Cornell researchers have demonstrated a simple route to breaking that symmetry, opening new possibilities for
Researchers have found that an arginine vasopressin stimulation (AVP) test offers a reliable way to assess endocrine function in sick foals. The work, published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, could lead to faster identification and treatment, improving survival
For decades, satellites have helped scientists observe Earth's changing landscapes. Now, they could also help answer one of agriculture's most pressing questions: How can the world produce more food while reducing its environmental impact?
Human color vision depends on three types of cone cells in the retina. Although all three contain the same light-absorbing molecule, 11-cis-retinal, differences in the surrounding protein determine sensitivity to red, green or blue light. Understanding how these subtle protein
A new computer model is one of the first artificial intelligence tools to advance scientific discovery in agriculture and biogeochemistry and is 50 times more efficient than its predecessors, according to a study that offers a proof-of-principle for how AI might be used to shed
Encouraging people to contribute to a common good can have a surprising drawback: a risk that rewards become concentrated among a smaller group, putting the rest at a disadvantage. Put more simply, "equality and cooperation are often in conflict," says Joshua Plotkin, Walter H.
Your destressers could actually be stressing you out The post Frequent Cannabis Use Linked to Higher Morning Stress Hormone Levels appeared first on Nautilus .
The United Nations has fast-tracked a vast antelope migration path in South Sudan onto its List of World Heritage in Danger, the young nation's first such listing.
The expansive red bluffs of Western Australia's Yilgarn Craton give the landscape a Martian appearance. It turns out the resemblance is more than superficial: The Yilgarn Craton also shares geological characteristics with lakes in Mars' Terra Sirenum region. T. A. Plattner and
"Dead stars" known as white dwarfs have already shown the potential to help us better understand how planetary systems, including our own solar system, take shape and evolve. Now, research from the University of Michigan and the University of Colorado Boulder suggests that
Quasars, distant cores of galaxies powered by supermassive black holes, are among the most luminous objects in the universe. While not uncommon, their brightness can make it difficult to accurately measure the galaxies they reside in. This means scientists must use
Previous apps for identifying animal calls regularly hit practical limits: Without a stable internet connection, real-time identification in forests or high mountains was impossible.
A new study by the Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research at the University of Oxford reveals that industrial poultry farming has led to a more than 100-fold increase in the movement of Campylobacter, allowing strains that once circulated in wild birds to mix
Roughly 20 million people receive a cancer diagnosis each year, and an estimated 1 in 5 people will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. Cancer cells arise from damage to the cell's instruction manual: DNA.
Ancient footprints preserved along the shores of Kenya's Lake Turkana are reshaping scientists' understanding of one of humanity's extinct relatives. A paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes a set of fossil trackways made by a group of
A study of more than 350,000 students in England has found that teachers predict higher A-Level grades for girls than boys who go on to achieve the same exam results. The findings raise fresh questions about the role of predicted grades in university admissions.
The dangers of antibiotic overuse have become increasingly clear in recent decades. Excessive use accelerates the evolution of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, raising the alarming prospect of infections that no longer respond to existing drugs and pose a serious threat to
Researchers at the University of Bath and The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) suggest that the celebrated Dunning-Kruger effect, often taken to mean the least competent people are the most overconfident, may actually be the wrong way around.
A team of astronomers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has observed an extremely rare "wandering" black hole located tens of thousands of light-years from the center of its galaxy. This finding could reshape scientists' understanding of how massive black holes
The African armyworm is a highly destructive migratory pest that damages maize, sorghum, millet and sugarcane. These caterpillars also cause indirect damage to livestock by destroying grazing lands and pastures.
Integrated photonic devices—tiny circuits that use light instead of electrons—are becoming increasingly important for scalable photonics technologies and high-bandwidth communications. They are particularly valuable for managing low-power, light-based data transfer inside data
Genetics suggest they may be linked to certain forms of intelligence The post Why Do Psychiatric Disorders Persist in Humans? appeared first on Nautilus .
Biomolecular condensates are ubiquitous in living cells, including bacteria, viruses, plants and mammalian systems. These membraneless bodies, or molecular communities made up of DNA, RNA and proteins, are where molecules large and small within the cell come together to
As melting glaciers and shifting climates push mountain ecosystems to the brink, an international team of researchers has outlined a radical new approach aimed at strengthening the resilience, inclusivity and sustainability of mountains and the societies that depend on them.
Gene editing is a highly precise and powerful technology that allows scientists to insert, delete, modify or replace DNA bases in living organisms. It has a variety of uses, including correcting disease-causing mutations and improving crops. Tools like CRISPR act as molecular
In searches for past and present Martian life, some scientists say we’ve been too cautious to see what’s right in front of us