Imagine a piece of space debris the size of a hockey puck slams into a Starlink satellite at about 10 kilometers per second. The kinetic energy is equivalent to 2 kilograms of TNT, or a fully loaded semitruck traveling at 100 kilometers an hour.
Scientists have engineered a nanoscale switch using DNA "origami." Inspired by macroscale mechanical switches, the device achieves long-term functionality without the continuous forcing mechanism that past versions required while remaining capable of fast switching. The paper
Before a leaf dies, plants recover nutrients that the rest of the plant can reuse for growth and survival. Researchers at Umeå Plant Science Center have now identified a metabolic "point of no return" linked to the amino acid arginine. The study suggests that plants use
The challenges and consequences surrounding children's screen use are a leading concern for UK families.
A Korean research team has developed a new viral vector technology that significantly improves the production efficiency of next-generation cell and gene therapies known as CAR immune cell therapies, which are designed to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
AI-generated impersonations of political figures are judged by members of the public to be more authentic, relevant and coherent than the speakers' actual debate responses, according to a study appearing in PLOS One, written by Steffen Herbold of the University of Passau in
In cancer research, one person's junk is increasingly becoming another person's treasure. Scientists have uncovered new evidence showing how recently evolved "junk DNA" genetic elements can become integrated into ancient cellular pathways that regulate cancer. These findings
Beneath the surface of soybean fields, an invisible threat is costing farmers billions. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri are uncovering how nature itself may hold the key to fighting back. The soybean cyst nematode—a microscopic worm that attacks plant roots and
A new analysis supports the previously overlooked "brain lag" hypothesis—the idea that, in some primate lineages, the evolution of larger body size preceded the evolution of larger brain size—while also building on that hypothesis by suggesting that some lineages' brain sizes
A research group led by Satoshi Ide from the University of Tokyo has demonstrated that classic earthquake generation theory does not hold in areas where the angle at which a tectonic plate dips under another is sufficiently low. The discovery explains why giant earthquakes can
The thermometer reads 95°F (35°C) in Brooklyn, and vulnerable individuals need information to take appropriate action. New York City officials must gather facts quickly to provide updates on cooling centers, power outages and other details that could save lives. Are these
Do the world's religions and contemplative traditions send people to the same place—compassion, bliss, awe, a sense of God, awareness or the universe?
Researchers at The University of Manchester and Hebei University of Technology have identified how a new class of catalyst can break down lignin into useful chemical building blocks, offering a more sustainable route to replace fossil-based materials.
Scientists want to use LLMs to model human emotions and study human mental health The post Does Your Chatbot Need a Therapist? appeared first on Nautilus .
Organic molecular crystals can respond to external stimuli such as heat, light, and mechanical force, making them attractive candidates for next-generation functional materials. However, predicting how multiple intermolecular interactions cooperate or compete to govern crystal
Earthquakes still arrive without warning. That is the hard truth scientists have been forced to accept, despite a decade of advances in artificial intelligence, satellite monitoring and dense seismic networks.
While many of life's mysteries remain unsolved, every biologist can describe the basic processes performed by a living organism, including energy use, reproduction, growth and development. While these characteristics can be replicated in isolation in a lab, the idea of a
The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM-CSIC) have developed a new generation of wireless piezoelectric microdevices capable of electrically stimulating living cells at an individual level. The study, recently
Modern cosmology rests on a simple assumption: If we look on large enough scales, matter should be distributed evenly, with no preferred direction within the cosmos. This is known as the cosmological principle.
Fake, painted decoys suggest immature coloring acts as a social signal, reducing aggression from territorial nesting gulls.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has started a 10-year survey of the changing night sky
A bibliometric analysis of mobile learning research published between 2017 and 2026 shows a sharp expansion in output. There was a big surge between 2020 and 2022 associated with pandemic-driven shifts in higher education. Mobile learning (m-learning), defined as the use of
European brown bears are masters of survival: These animals have weathered Pleistocene climate fluctuations and survived the cycles of ice ages and interglacial periods to the present day. Zoologists have now investigated the origins of this evolutionary flexibility: 3D
Seventy years ago, Earth had only one satellite: the moon. Now it has more than 15,000—about 10,000 of which are owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX. The world's first trillionaire plans to launch 1 million more satellites, each roughly 70 meters (230 feet) long and 20 meters (66 feet)
Australia is home to some of the world's most beautiful reefs. This includes the lush Great Southern Reef, which wraps around Australia's southern coastline, and the world-renowned Great Barrier Reef.
The European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray space telescopes have spotted the aftermath of three bright explosions echoing through the outer spiral arms of our galaxy, the Milky Way. By measuring the distance to these echoes, they found the outer arms to be
An analysis of fossil teeth from mammals that lived in China following the most recent major mass extinction suggests size came before both shape and function as diets diversified.
"I hate you. You're the worst mum in the world!" It's a sentence that can feel heartbreaking to parents. You try to set a boundary with your little one, and they lash out with "I hate you."
A new study by a doctoral researcher at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), part of The University of Alabama System, suggests global dust storms on Mars may organize the Martian atmosphere into regions favorable for electrical activity, increasing the potential for
Saturn's moon Enceladus has become a prime solar system target for astrobiologists. This is because the small moon, which is just over 10% the diameter of Earth's moon, harbors a vast subsurface ocean beneath its icy crust. This subsurface ocean, combined with the geysers at
A new European Southern Observatory (ESO) study has found that current proposals to launch more than 1.7 million satellites into orbit, including extremely bright ones, would have "devastating consequences for astronomy." According to the study, no more than 100,000 faint
A philosopher has put forward an argument for rethinking how particles are defined within the standard model of particle physics
When astronomers discovered a giant planet orbiting a dead star in 2020, they wondered how it survived its star's violent demise. Now, observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may finally explain the planet's unlikely escape from destruction.
The earliest evidence of spiders' fangs has been identified in a 518-million-year-old fossil by scientists at the University of Leicester and Yunnan University.
The reefs scattered throughout the tropics arose only after algae took up full-time residence in coral cells, supplying corals with abundant food and enabling them to build extensive shallow-water communities. But with warming oceans, algae are often abandoning coral—causing
A private rocket mission aims to boost NASA’s Swift telescope before its orbit decays, extending its hunt for gamma-ray bursts.
Astronomers have for the first time observed an atmosphere around a giant planet orbiting a white dwarf
When it comes to drought stress, timing can be the difference between saving a crop and losing it, whether in a greenhouse or in the high-stakes environment of future space missions. In a recent study published in Plant Phenomics, researchers with the University of Florida
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is one of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of substances within a broader universe of organofluorine compounds. PFOA has potential adverse effects on human health and environmental safety because of its toxicity and
In recent years, the frequency of weather-related natural disasters—cyclones, torrential rains, floods—has increased as a consequence of global warming. These disasters cause billions of dollars in damage and losses every year. As a result, there is great interest in weather
Millions of stars. Thousands of hidden worlds. One unprecedented view of our galaxy. Three years since launch, ESA's Euclid space telescope reveals the center of the Milky Way galaxy in extraordinary detail: a mosaic of tens of millions of stars captured in just 26 hours. But
American woodcock, short, plump shorebirds with long, thin beaks, are widely known for their bobbing stride and nasally "peent" calls, but not for being aggressive. Yet one April afternoon, when a deer sniffed around a woodcock hen's ground nest looking for food, the hen lunged
The bionic bugs could be called up for aquatic search and rescue missions, according to the researchers
A form of fibre that boosts the release of the hunger-reducing hormone GLP-1 has been approved as safe by a European regulator, and could be added to foods within a year
Natural historians have many observational techniques in their toolkit for learning about the natural world: tagging animals with tracking devices, recording sounds, analyzing droppings or simply watching and counting. As technology has advanced, these methods have grown far
Scientists built a synthetic cell that combines more lifelike properties than ever before — proof of concept that it’s possible to bring nonliving materials to life, or something close to it, in the lab. The post For the First Time, a Cell Built From Scratch Grows and Divides
Our accents give away more about social class than we think, according to new research led by Lancaster University. The new sociolinguistic study focusing on Mancunian accents, published in the journal, Language Variation and Change, shows that the final vowel in words like
A new decision rules that geofence warrants are Fourth Amendment searches, but it stops short of banning police access to revealing location histories
Drugs in human waste may shape how disease spreads from rats to humans The post Rat Disease Has a New Pick-Me-Up appeared first on Nautilus .
The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the way people work, making remote and work-from-home (WFH) jobs far more common than ever before. Even after social distancing ended, many companies and employees chose to stick with this model because it offers greater flexibility. People can
