Tropical ecosystems are famous for their teeming, exuberant diversity. In fact, the dramatic increase in biodiversity from the poles to the tropics—known as the latitudinal diversity gradient—is pervasive across branches of the tree of life, and fossil evidence suggests it has
Private retirement savings are an increasingly important topic in public debate. One popular idea is to phrase savings reminders in one of two ways: either you emphasize what someone stands to lose if they don't save, or you emphasize what they stand to gain if they do. To
At a press event on Saturday, the agency’s officials stressed that rovers and other infrastructure will be critical to ensuring human survival on the moon
Armed with dozens of motion-sensing cameras, William Grooms spent this past summer documenting wildlife across Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico. It was his first field season collecting photos for a two-year study to understand how forest structure influences
There are at least 14 million insect species on Earth, and they play highly diverse roles in sustaining the natural world. Insects provide many well-known benefits—what scientists often call "ecosystem services." For example, you can thank a bee or a hoverfly for pollinating
An academic abstract, a blog post and a public outreach article all place different demands on the writer. Readers' prior knowledge varies, as does the purpose of the text and what needs explaining. Mastering one kind of text therefore does not automatically mean being able to
In a new Nature Physics study, researchers demonstrated the Aharonov-Bohm effect in a quantum simulation of a lattice gauge theory using a hybrid trapped-ion quantum computer.
We typically think of the moon as a static, floating object that has remained the same for basically its entire lifetime, with an occasional asteroid impact serving as an exception. That understanding is grounded in physics—the moon should have cooled rapidly after forming when
The Mediterranean Sea still holds species unknown to science. One of them is Copula lucentia, a tiny jellyfish measuring just a few millimeters. Discovered off El Campello, in Alicante, it was formally described in 2024 by a research team at the University of Alicante (UA)
Glaciers are often thought of as unyielding blocks of ice that slowly carve out the landscape as they move downhill by gravity. But sometimes their slow crawl becomes a surge that sees them move orders of magnitude faster than their usual speed.
Now we finally know where it went The post Earth’s Rocks Have a Missing Layer Spanning Up to a Billion Years appeared first on Nautilus .
Medieval health and sanitation efforts involved deliberate interventions; however, some of these measures had the opposite effect, leading to an increased spread of disease in Trondheim.
An alternative model in which the universe is 26.7 billion years old and needs neither dark matter nor dark energy has held up against several major cosmology tests, according to a new University of Ottawa study. The research, titled "A Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Consistency Test
To protect their future harvests, Western Canadian farmers need to manage soil acidity across their entire multiyear rotation rather than crop by crop, long-term research from the University of Alberta suggests.
Part of the art and science of astrophotography is figuring out when certain flying objects in the sky are going to line up for a photo opportunity. And few photographs demonstrate it better than AJ Smadi ’s shot of the International Space Station (ISS) hurtling in front of
The 'Great Unconformity' has puzzled scientists since its discovery in the 1870s
We asked a statistics expert how difficult it would be to find a needle in a haystack—the answer is: just as hard as you think
For people across South Asia, especially in northern India, Diwali celebrations coincide with the return of hazardous winter air, raising concerns about how to celebrate safely.
Quantum researchers show how materials inevitably absorb light
Meteorologists said Friday they were observing an unprecedented early disruption of the polar vortex, raising the risk of cold snaps across the Northern Hemisphere, though there remains significant uncertainty.
A Pakistani astronaut will join the crew of China's Shenzhou 24 spacecraft on a mission that would make him the first foreign national to board Beijing's space station, state media reported Saturday.
It would seem difficult to miss a 15,000-pound (6,804-kilogram) baby, but for months scientists who study rare whales did just that, and now they couldn't be happier.
Panda lovers are expected to line up Friday at Zoo Atlanta to see a new pair of giant pandas make their public debut.
Drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee daily was linked to a dramatically lower risk of dementia and better cognitive functioning in a study spanning up to 43 years. The benefits appeared regardless of genetic risk, but decaffeinated coffee did not show the same
Humans collectively produce more than 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually just by turning food into energy, a 74% increase over three decades largely driven by population growth. Unlike fossil fuel emissions, however, the CO2 we exhale is part of the natural carbon
Scientists have uncovered evidence that Europe was dominated for more than 20 million years by open woodlands, colorful meadows, and large grazing animals, not the dense forests long considered its natural state. The surprising discovery challenges modern reforestation
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has already uncovered two previously unknown companions of the Milky Way using preliminary observations covering just 7% of the night sky. The discoveries include an extremely faint galaxy 355,000 light-years away and a star cluster hidden behind