There are millions of species of bacteria and archaea on Earth, remarkably little is known about most of them. Now, researchers have mined the genomes of thousands of microorganisms preserved at the RIKEN BioResource Research Center (BRC) to find organisms that may be capable
The massive January 2022 eruption of Hunga volcano in the Kingdom of Tonga took the world by surprise.
Along the sandy banks of northern India's Chambal River, crocodile-like gharials glide silently through the water—but if a gharial spots a stranger, the quiet may be punctuated by a series of explosive pops.
A team of Korean researchers has become the first in the world to identify the origin of the "beating" signal that has long been a major obstacle to interpreting quantum signals in topological insulator (TI) nanowires. Their analysis confirmed that the beating arises when two
There is no credible scenario in which expansion at Heathrow can go ahead without blowing a hole in the UK's legally binding climate targets, new modeling published today by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at The University of Manchester reveals.
New research by the University of Wollongong's (UOW) Early Start, commissioned by Barnardos Australia's Communities for Children Shellharbour program and released this week (Thursday, Sept. 3), set out to answer a simple but powerful question: What do young people and families
Climate change continues to threaten the world's coral reefs, which support at least a quarter of all marine life. Though probiotics have been shown to rehabilitate corals in aquarium experiments, demonstrating the efficacy of such microbial therapy in the ocean is difficult.
A multidisciplinary study has answered key questions about how agricultural practices diffused into ancient Gansu from Eurasia, as well as described population movements and burial practices in the Gansu region thousands of years ago.
When researchers at HHMI's Janelia Research Campus set out to create a map of all the neurons in the fruit fly brain in 2008, many in the scientific community thought they were out of their minds.
Scientists knew that sliding along surfaces gives water drops a charge. Those droplets can damage bridges, cars and more over time, new work shows.
The Romans were master engineers, building sprawling road networks, towering aqueducts and arenas across their empire. They were also good at recycling. New research has revealed that they turned the remains of a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age burial mound in Suffolk, England, into
Canada's capital, Ottawa, was bombarded with 167 millimeters (6.6 inches) of rain in five hours earlier this summer in what the city called a 1-in-200-year event. Close to 5,800 reports of basement flooding followed, and the worst of it hit the city's west end, including the
Scientists at UMass Chan Medical School and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole have shown that the four core clock genes responsible for maintaining circadian rhythms in animals—Per, Cry2, Bmal1 and Clk—also regulate circatidal behavior in the crustacean P.
Businesses and local councils around Australia are increasingly imposing their own restrictions on "smart glasses," responding to customers' concerns about being covertly recorded in public places.
Researchers from MIT have designed a new qubit architecture that enables qubits to interact with each other much more quickly while remaining very stable. This advance could someday help scientists build practical quantum computers that can run long, complex algorithms with
Heat, it turns out, has a memory. A cooling cup of coffee may not seem particularly thoughtful. At the scale of a kitchen, heat appears to follow a straightforward rule: it moves from warmer places to cooler ones. Leave the cup unattended long enough, and the disappointing
The summer of 2026 has brought one of the UK's most severe wildfire seasons in recent years, fueled by extreme heat and exceptionally dry conditions. More than 500 fires were recorded across the country in July alone, affecting agricultural land, moorland, heathland and upland
A brisk walk could reduce the cognitive cost of changing gears The post 30 Minutes of Exercise Can Boost Your Task-Switching Efficiency appeared first on Nautilus .
In this special live recording from the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia, July 2026, the central question discussed was what do mathematicians really value about doing mathematics in the first place? The post Live from ICM 2026: What Is Math For in the
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) featured prominently in the news during 2020 as it took the lives of millions of birds across the globe. While the worst seems to be behind us, population-level effects are just now emerging.
There are many ways to say thank you.
Sarah Demers, chair of the physics department at Yale University, sees the potential for large language models to both help and harm her field. The post In an Age of AI, a Physicist Seeks What Endures first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The hidden world of quantum mechanics exists at scales many orders of magnitude smaller than living organisms, yet scientists have long theorized that quantum effects play an important role in biology. Birds' ability to sense magnetic fields during migration is one of the
More than 56 million U.S. adults feed wild birds.
A newly discovered microbe living inside ancient stromatolite communities may offer a rare look at how complex life first emerged. Researchers captured the first direct images of an Asgard archaeon physically connected to a bacterium, with the two microbes appearing to exchange
More than 80% of North American forests could face greater threats from pests and diseases by midcentury, a University of British Columbia-led study finds. If global emissions continue unchecked, rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns could amplify tree pests and
New research shows overqualified employees who prioritize work over family are more likely to let anxiety and fear about their careers spill into their home lives, creating damaging conflict.
A huge 10-sided atmospheric pattern has appeared around Saturn’s south pole, giving the planet a surprising counterpart to its famous northern hexagon. Hubble data suggest the strange decagon only began emerging in the past few years and is still growing stronger. Researchers
As schools contend with rapid developments in artificial intelligence, new research from the University of Toronto Mississauga suggests an AI tutor could help students with math, but only if it holds back answers and coaches them through problems.
Growing up, many of us were taught to drop, cover and hold on during an earthquake. The guidance is straightforward, but how people actually respond when the ground starts shaking can be far more complicated. Now, UC Berkeley researchers are studying what happens in those
Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime created when pairs of black holes spiral into each other and eventually merge. But if this ripple has been warped by another massive object on its way to Earth, a new analysis suggests that these black holes might appear far larger
Every other Wednesday, like clockwork, my salary arrives in my bank account. By Thursday, most of it is gone.
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered an unexpected form of the Hall effect, overturning the long-held assumption that this electrical response only appears when a magnetic field points perpendicular to a material. Beyond expanding a century-old principle of
For generations, the lobster fishery has been central to the cultural and economic identity of Maine and Atlantic Canada. Predicting what the future holds for the species—and the people who depend on it—has long been a priority for scientists and resource managers.
The maritime disaster of 1912 wasn’t fully understood until the shipwreck was rediscovered The post 40 Years Ago, Oceanographers Found the Wreckage of the RMS Titanic appeared first on Nautilus .
Scientists discovered that more than 500 species of vesper bats possess two separate sets of antibody genes, an immune arrangement never before found in mammals. The surprising system could help explain how bats tolerate so many viruses without becoming seriously ill.
Earth may have been pushed deeper into a global deep freeze by something surprisingly ordinary: salt. Around 700 million years ago, Earth entered periods of extreme glaciation known as Snowball Earth, when ice is thought to have spread across much or potentially all of the
From the rock 'n' roll and punk scenes, soda fountains and graduation-week celebrations, surfers, skaters, ravers and the modern-day Eshay, generations of young Australians have been creating culture, but much of it risks disappearing from the historical record.
A new national survey of informal supporters of people with disabilities who have received NDIS-funded behavior support services has identified wide variation in supporters' confidence in practitioners' knowledge and skills, pointing to a need for greater transparency about
People with different political beliefs do not only disagree about how much poverty exists in Britain but they also differ over whether the same material circumstances should be defined as poverty, according to new research from the University of Bath School of Management.
The endangered animals displayed a first in raccoons and their kin
Aging may be partly fueled by immune cells losing their ability to clear away damaged, inflammation-promoting cells. Blocking a single receptor restored that cleanup process in mice, reducing inflammation and helping their organs, muscles, and memory remain remarkably youthful.
Farmers around the world are struggling with the impact of climate change, financial pressures and depleted soil—and industry experts say bringing consumers closer to the people who produce their food could provide a solution.
Chemical reactions at surfaces play a central role in many processes, including catalysis and materials synthesis. It is well known that the outcome of these reactions is influenced by the translational, vibrational and rotational motions of atoms and molecules. Now, a study
Weather forecasts rely on many different kinds of data, including temperature, humidity and wind. For the first time, researchers, including those at the University of Tokyo, have demonstrated that a long-theorized improvement to weather models—adding data on water isotopes in
Technology companies are stepping up their climate commitments but not fast enough to counter rapidly growing energy needs linked to the artificial intelligence boom, a report said Wednesday.
A rare trio of hurricanes were churning through the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, which scientists attributed to waters warmed by a historically strong El Niño phenomenon.
Researchers in Chile have designed an unlikely new garment for injured penguins—snug red vests threaded with copper and zinc that they hope will help the aquatic birds heal faster.
A study provides the first large-scale empirical evidence that seagrass meadows act as a critical safety net for millions of coastal people living in extreme poverty across the Indo-Pacific.
Star formation across the universe has fallen dramatically over the past 4.5 billion years, but astronomers have uncovered a surprising twist: the supply of neutral hydrogen, a key ingredient for making stars, has barely declined. Using China’s FAST radio telescope and data