The EU must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040 relative to 1990—of which 5 percentage points can be achieved through climate action elsewhere, according to the 2025 law. A study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) now proposes a novel
Many people do not finish a massive open online course (MOOC). This does not match the goal of large-scale online learning. Learners have different goals and backgrounds. Xiaomei Wei's dissertation research looks at what keeps students engaged and what helps them learn the
According to UNESCO, around 250 million children (16%) globally are out of school, although they are of an age to be at school in their countries. Available evidence suggests that out-of-school numbers are extremely high in conflict-affected countries, though the exact number
Venus' bizarre and extraordinarily slow retrograde rotation on its axis has long puzzled planetary scientists. But in a new paper presented at the recent European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, the authors argue that their models indicate a high-angle,
Coatings are everywhere. A thin protective layer, often barely visible. They keep out moisture, sunlight and rust, helping products last longer. Think of laminate on kitchen cabinets, automotive body coatings or the outer layer of a soda can or chip bag.
Traditional legal systems around the world are increasingly ill-equipped to cope with the fast-moving impact of climate change on communities, new research warns. Courts and authorities that control planning and local services must follow rigid rules that are based on people's
Beneath our feet lie some of the largest living organisms on Earth. Fungi are mostly invisible and largely overlooked, but they help sustain the ecosystems and food systems that we depend on every day.
Children not only enjoy watching movies like Moana, but also learn lessons from them and apply those lessons to their own lives. That is the conclusion reached by communication scientists at Radboud University. For example, a movie can inspire children not to give up, to work
A comparative modeling study of two Brazilian rain catchments suggests that climate change will have contrasting effects on future soil erosion in the Amazon and Cerrado. The findings have implications for land management in both biomes in the coming decades.
A new study finds that plants respond to injury by actively redirecting sugars to damaged tissues, helping fuel the regeneration process. Using a fluorescent sensor to track sugar movement in living plants, researchers have discovered that wounds trigger a localized shift in
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame and collaborators have discovered a key process in how the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria attaches to the cell wall, advancing the understanding of how these bacteria frequently develop resistance to antibiotics.
At first glance, it looks like a simple calculation. The state offers compensation. The climate demands action. Low-lying soils must be restored as wetlands. Yet landowners hesitate. According to anthropologist and Ph.D. student Kasper Krabbe from the Department of Agroecology
Does it seem as though more people are coming out as neurodivergent these days?
In a seismic shift since Kew's inaugural State of the World report 10 years ago, the sixth State of the World's Plants and Fungi report, published June 16, 2026, brings together expertise from more than 400 scientists across 40 countries to explore how new technology is
A new single-protein analysis technique gives researchers an unprecedented ability to study proteins called scramblases, which have critical roles in biology. The development of the new technique, in a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and Ruhr University
Since 2022, Georgia's surrogacy industry has boomed, with oversubscribed clinics now recruiting women from across Central Asia via Instagram and TikTok. New research conducted at the University of Oxford's Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) provides unprecedented
Advances in structural biology have allowed scientists to determine molecular structures with atomic-level detail, sometimes yielding static snapshots that do not reflect the dynamism of proteins. However, these motions are often crucial for biological function. Researchers
A child at a playground tries to climb, jump or negotiate with a peer, and the attempt does not work. They fall, get left out of a game or reach another impasse. Then they try again.
Just 10 viral particles of the H5N1 bird flu that caused hundreds of influenza outbreaks in U.S. dairy cattle can cause infection in cows, a new study shows. The research also hints at why the outbreaks have confounded scientists, farmers and livestock handlers hoping to
The "right to repair" movement is gaining steam as consumers push corporations to offer them more freedom to fix products—from cars to dishwashers to toys.
A new meta-analysis stacks three leading GLP-1 medications against each other The post Is This the King of GLP-1s? appeared first on Nautilus .
University of Mississippi researchers are studying how plants respond to heat at the molecular level, an important consideration for farmers, businesses and policymakers as global temperatures rise.
When stars like our sun age, they puff up into red giants. Their bubbling outer mass gradually escapes into space, and their remaining cores contract into white dwarfs. Since most stars end their lives this way, the universe is teeming with white dwarfs. A new study from
The world has never had more data, more models or more economists. It has rarely felt more out of control. Uncertainty, not risk, has become the defining condition of our era. Central bankers invoke it. Political leaders use it to defer decisions and justify extraordinary ones.
Researchers around the world are racing to develop new quantum-based systems for sensing, communication, computing and control that have the promise of outperforming traditional systems. Creating stable, measurable, distinguishable quantum states—which would be the heart of any
The aftermath of a supernova, a stellar explosion, is usually a slowly fading cloud of hot gas. So when astronomers pointed NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory at the nearby galaxy Messier 83 (M83), they did not expect to find a population of supernova remnants, or the debris from
Oxford's 2024 Word of the Year, "brain rot," refers to the loss of intelligence or critical thinking skills due to the overconsumption of specific types of content, most often in the digital sphere. A Binghamton University doctoral student has published findings that help
The Ontong Java Plateau in the western Pacific Ocean is the largest oceanic plateau on Earth, and its formation mechanism has not been well understood.
New research is shedding light on how comparing ourselves to others affects happiness and life satisfaction. Led by McGill University researchers, the study shows that people who feel worse off financially than their peers are more likely to report signs of languishing, even
The sum is hard to comprehend The post What Is a Trillion, Really? appeared first on Nautilus .
Human skeletal biologists traditionally provide sex estimations as part of establishing biological profiles (skeletal sex, age-at-death, stature, ancestry/population affinity) for skeletonized remains, often using the shapes and sizes of the pelvis, long bones and skull, among
Over 40,000 seamounts—undersea mountains that don't breach the ocean's surface—are scattered across the ocean floor. Some form linear chains, while others occur as dispersed, isolated features that are not part of well-defined volcanic chains.
Change can be hard—especially when you're used to receiving change. Switching from cash-based to digital payment methods can be a difficult sell, particularly in developing economies, poorer neighborhoods and among older people who have gotten used to cash. But digital payments
Caltech researchers have identified a novel chemical reaction that could explain the formation of the building blocks of DNA and RNA, the molecules that encode all of life's functions. The work is an important step toward understanding how life may have emerged on Earth and
The warm Gulf Stream is maintained by coldness. The Barents Sea is a cooling machine. To predict how ocean currents in the Atlantic Ocean may develop, one needs to know what drives them. The hunt for driving forces has led researchers to follow the warm water from the Gulf
More than 2.6 million Canadians work for themselves, and according to an annual RBC poll conducted in 2025, 59% of Canadians aspire to own a business—the highest level since 2017.
Kids who can hold it together until the final bell may be primed for more academic success in life The post Bad Third-Grade Behavior Could be a Preview of Educational Failure appeared first on Nautilus .
Sedimentary basins—depressions in Earth's crust caused by tectonic activity—tend to be flat and are favored places to build cities. But during earthquakes, they can become natural resonance chambers.
Debris is still raining down on Earth more than 100 million years after the giant cosmic explosion that created it. A study published this week in Nature Astronomy by an international team reached this conclusion using measurements of rare isotopes within a slow-growing
"Love makes fools of all of us," wrote 19th-century novelist William Makepeace Thackeray. A moment spent watching the pigeons at your local park suggests he was right: males with puffed-up, shimmering necks hop, pirouette, coo, and bow to capture the attention of unimpressed
A young mother remains in hospital after being bitten by a shark at Coogee Beach in Sydney on Saturday morning. Leah Stewart, 35, was swimming about 30 meters (33 yards) offshore when the shark—believed to be a 3- to 4-meter (10- to 13-foot) great white shark—struck.
A cold blob of water in the North Atlantic points to a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, researchers report.
Imagine you poll your friends on how many minutes per pound to roast a turkey. Five respond with 15 minutes; one answers 33 minutes. The most popular model of conformity, the French-Harary-DeGroot model (or more commonly, DeGroot model), assumes that you would carefully weigh
The CEO of dating app Hinge recently suggested that generation Z, "struggling to have the confidence to put themselves out there," needs AI to help them find love. Apparently, without AI tools, younger people will struggle to express who they really are.
Can a snake in Thailand influence the evolution of a snake in the Philippines even if the two species never cross paths? According to a new study, the answer may be yes. The research suggests that migratory predators can act as evolutionary "messengers," carrying their
What does it take for an insect or worm to live full-time on a glacier?
It's official: El Niño is back. By late fall 2026, forecast models give a 2-in-3 chance of a strong-to-very-strong El Niño affecting the weather, climate and ocean temperatures across the planet.
A team of astronomers, led by Brooke Kotten of the University of Michigan, has shown that TOI-5882—a sunlike star located some 1,300 light-years away—has likely eaten one of its planets.
Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential for everyday technologies such as smartphones, LED lights, wind turbines and many medical applications. At the same time, supply chains are under pressure because of the geographic concentration of production, and electronic waste is
Researchers have developed a new approach using data from NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite to observe the timing and progression of fall colors across landscapes.
