Here is a problem that has been quietly gnawing at astronomers for decades. The standard approach to detecting life on other worlds involves scanning exoplanet atmospheres for oxygen, methane, and ozone, whose presence is difficult to explain without biology. It's a clever
Optical frequency combs—laser sources that emit evenly spaced colors of light—are foundational, ubiquitous tools for precision measurement, found in optical clocks, gas-sensing spectrometers, and instruments that detect the light signatures of exoplanets. Traditionally,
Europa is not supposed to look the way it does. Jupiter's icy moon is scarred by a chaotic patchwork of fractured terrain, crisscrossed ridges, and disrupted surface regions that suggest something dynamic is happening beneath its frozen shell. Scientists have long suspected
The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbors—a small, gas-rich galaxy visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere, and bound to our galaxy by gravity, alongside its companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). All three
A new study published in The Lancet Global Health reveals a previously underappreciated tension at the heart of international climate negotiations: policies designed to protect developing countries from bearing an unfair share of the cost of cutting carbon emissions could
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have succeeded in detecting laser-assisted electron scattering (LAES) using circularly polarized light for the first time. The use of circularly polarized light promises valuable insights into how atomic scale "helicity" impacts
Livestock breeders could soon have more tools to improve the health and quality of their animals, thanks to a recent study that sheds new light on regulatory elements in the sheep genome.
Across Europe, education has become one of the biggest dividing lines in politics, and educational qualifications are now one of the best predictors of vote choice in Britain. This is particularly the case for new parties that compete more on cultural issues, including Reform
Winter in Antarctica is long and dark. Temperatures remain well below freezing. In many places, the sun sets in April and does not rise above the horizon again until August. Without sunlight, photosynthetic life such as plants, mosses and algae cannot make energy. But that's
For decades, lab-grown cells have been studied in materials that don't reflect the softness and flexibility of human tissue. Now researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a water-rich, Jell-O-like material that more closely mimics how real tissues move,
An extensive computational study by researchers from Finland's University of Jyväskylä predicts that gold nanoclusters could selectively recognize chiral biomolecules. This property may help in detecting certain diseases directly from a blood sample. The work is published in
Nanobodies—miniature proteins—derived from camel antibodies demonstrated powerful potential to accurately and safely deliver radioisotopes as specialized cancer treatments in a project at ORNL.
Research is actively underway to develop a "dream memory" that can reduce heat generation in smartphones and laptops while delivering faster performance and lower power consumption. Korean researchers propose a new possibility for controlling magnetism using the exchange
Kids love to lie—almost right from the womb The post Babies Learn the Art of Deception Before Their First Birthday appeared first on Nautilus .
Why do widely supported solutions to major problems, such as climate change, so often struggle to gain real traction? A new study suggests that part of the answer lies in understanding why people resist change, and how the combination of their preferences and social networks
The genomes of phages—viruses that infect bacteria—are largely composed of "dark matter": genes that encode proteins whose functions remain unknown. Less than four years ago, a team led by Prof. Rotem Sorek at the Weizmann Institute of Science identified a new type of protein
In the fight against the climate crisis, countries are pinning great hope in reforestation projects. In a new study, ETH Zurich researchers show that the location in which reforestation is taking place is usually more important than the number of trees planted. If forests are
Researchers Gyanendra Singh and Josep Fontcuberta, from the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona, have experimentally confirmed a theory they proposed in 2021 that explains the mechanism by which some metals are transparent. Their findings, published in the journal
Biobots, whose growing line of variants started with xenobots, are fascinating tiny self-powered living robots built exclusively using frog embryonic cells. Originally developed in the laboratories of Wyss Institute Associate Faculty member and Tufts University Professor
Diagnosing some diseases could be as easy as breathing into a tube. MIT engineers have developed a test to detect disease-related compounds in a patient's breath. The new test could provide a faster way to diagnose pneumonia and other lung conditions. Rather than sit for a
Photorespiration is a cellular conversion process in which plants release carbon dioxide and consume oxygen when exposed to light. Until now, it has been considered an especially wasteful by-product of photosynthesis. Yet according to the latest studies by researchers from
Neumark-Nord in northeastern Germany was a lake landscape in the last interglacial period. It is rich in archaeological finds discovered during lignite mining. The area in Saxony-Anhalt is one of the most important European paleontological sites for the European straight-tusked
VUB's Data Analytics Lab has published new results showing that it is possible to develop original mathematical proofs using commercial language models. In a paper posted to the arXiv preprint server, the researchers show that OpenAI's commercial large language model
Scientists have long observed that embryos of different species within a phylum look quite distinct at early and late developmental stages but resemble one another more during mid-embryogenesis, a phenomenon known as developmental hourglass.
A 37-year study in Chesapeake Bay revealed that a major predator of young blue crabs might be their own kind
As four astronauts travel around the moon on NASA's Artemis II mission, they will venture beyond Earth's protective magnetic field. The crew's spacecraft, Orion, will carry and protect them as they journey into deep space and serves as the main protection against the sun's
Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and X, are accessed daily by millions of people worldwide. In the weeks or months leading up to elections, many political parties use social media platforms as part of their campaigns to promote candidates, raise funds, or
A federal judge on Monday issued a stay on the CDC’s move to reduce the number of routinely recommended childhood vaccines
It’s not all in your head The post Depression Linked to Energy Problems in the Brain and Body appeared first on Nautilus .
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a rapid and cost-efficient sequencing method that can identify antibiotic resistance within the same working day. The technique, called s5PSeq, measures how bacterial ribosomes respond within minutes after exposure to an
Approximately 14% of college students across the United States experience period poverty, meaning they cannot afford to purchase or access menstrual products. A new study of 462 college students in the University of Hawai'i school system reveals that period poverty may be
New research reveals that changes following the recent and dramatic decline in Antarctic sea ice could help a low-nutritional species prosper, with major ramifications for food webs and biogeochemical cycles. The findings are published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress
Two parallel experiments in protein self-assembly produced strikingly different results, demonstrating that protein designers should consider incorporating physical forces now missing from even Nobel-prize-winning protein design algorithms. The results, published in Nature
The longest chains of the conductive polymer poly(p-phenylene; PPP) produced to date are just under one micrometer (thousandth of a millimeter) long—almost an order of magnitude longer than previously possible. A research team from the fields of chemistry and physics led by
The Chesapeake Bay's most popular crustacean has a dark streak. Cannibalism is the No. 1 killer of juvenile blue crabs in mid-salinity waters where they are known to congregate, according to a new study from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) published in the
A thick layer of haze around the ultra-low-density planet Kepler-51d likely obscures not only the strange planet's composition, but also its origin, according to a new study. A team led by Penn State researchers used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to take a deeper
All the essential ingredients to make the DNA and RNA underpinning life on Earth have been discovered in samples collected from the asteroid Ryugu, scientists said Monday.
Discovered in the Pictor II dwarf galaxy, star PicII-503 has an extreme deficiency in iron—less than 1/40,000th of the sun. This signature makes it the clearest example of a star within a primordial system that preserves the chemical enrichment of the universe's first stars.
My fixation on a small, desolate locale in the heart of the Sahara Desert started with a single line buried in a 630-page tome in French about the rocks of the central Sahara: "Dent de Carcharodontosaurus saharicus Depéret," which translates to "tooth of Carcharodontosaurus
From blizzard conditions in the Midwest to a heat wave in the western U.S. to flooding in Hawaii, March has brought wild weather to the country
A metabolic enzyme studied for over seven decades has a hidden second function—it can unwind RNA and promote cell cycle progression, an additional function beyond its role in energy production, according to a new study led by the University of Surrey.
Raise a glass to William Sealy Gosset The post How Beer Brewing Revolutionized Modern Statistics appeared first on Nautilus .
A humpback whale alters the pitch of its song when joined by a neighboring singer, a finding that opens a new chapter in the ongoing effort to understand whale song, some of the most structurally and acoustically complex vocal patterns produced by mammals.
Revolution Wind and Vineyard Wind are two of several wind farm projects that have come under fire from the Trump administration in recent months
Biodegradable plastics could help alleviate the plastic waste crisis that is polluting the environment and harming our health. But how long plastics take to degrade and how environmental bacteria work together to break them down is still largely unknown.
When combined with clinical markers, smartwatch data was able to help detect insulin resistance with nearly 90 percent accuracy.
Science in the modern era is increasingly reliant on enormous datasets and automated analysis. In astronomy, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)—a ten-year survey covering the entire southern sky almost a thousand times over the next
Sandy beaches account for approximately a third of the world's ice-free coastlines. These sandy shorelines are responsible for sediment and water retention, provide a buffer against rising water levels, and offer habitats for shorebirds and sea turtles. The research is
Apollo 11 first landed astronauts on the moon in 1969, but the journey to the lunar surface actually began 43 years before, in snowy Massachusetts.
Every multicellular organism, from tiny worms to humans, elephants, and whales, needs a way for their cells to connect with each other to form tissues, organs, and organize their overall body plan. Cells have a variety of protein receptors on their surfaces that connect with
