A whiff of plasma, when combined with a nanosized catalyst, can cause chemical reactions to proceed faster, more selectively, at lower temperatures, or at lower voltages than without plasma—and nobody really knows why. | Continue reading
Russia's space agency says that one of the International Space Station's computers has malfunctioned, but the glitch doesn't pose any risks to the crew. | Continue reading
Senegal on Tuesday inaugurated a cyber-security school to strengthen West Africa's defences against computer hackers and use of the internet for terror funding and propaganda. | Continue reading
To break out of Earth's lower orbit, hypersonic vehicles must reach speeds greater than Mach 5. At these hypersonic speeds, the air particles and gases that flow around the vehicle and interact with the surfaces generate heat and create shock waves that disturb the flow's equilib … | Continue reading
A whistleblower who claimed data consultancy Cambridge Analytica played a role in obtaining data from Facebook users called Tuesday for greater government regulation of social media and online advertising. | Continue reading
A NASA spacecraft has made its first close approach to the sun, just 2 1/2 months after liftoff. | Continue reading
The main trade group for French hotels has sued the home-sharing giant Airbnb, accusing it of unfair competition by "knowingly violating" rules imposed as part of a crackdown in one of the US giant's biggest markets. | Continue reading
Niger is turning to drone technology to help protect a Saharan antelope and other endangered species in Africa's largest terrestrial park. | Continue reading
Asian jumping earthworms are carving out territory all over the U.S. Midwest and East Coast, leaving in their wake changed soils that are just beginning to be studied. | Continue reading
Researchers at the University of Oregon have identified a novel protein secreted by a common gut bacterium in zebrafish that reduces inflammation in the gut and delays death by septic shock. | Continue reading
An observational technique first proposed more than four decades ago to measure the physical parameters of the corona that determine the formation of the solar wind—the source of disturbances in Earth's upper atmosphere—will be demonstrated for the first time next year. These par … | Continue reading
Four out of six South African rhinos that were transferred to a park in southeast Chad in a bid to revive the endangered species have died, but not from poaching, conservationists say. | Continue reading
European Union authorities say they have cleared Disney's acquisition of Fox's entertainment assets, provided Disney sells off some TV channels it controls in Europe to maintain competition. | Continue reading
Tropical Cyclone 03S formed in the Southern Indian Ocean and the NOAA-20 satellite passed overhead and captured a visible image of the storm. | Continue reading
Britain's data commissioner on Tuesday called for tougher rules governing the use of personal data by political campaigns around the world, declaring that recent investigations have shown a disturbing disregard for voters and their privacy. | Continue reading
New York is one of the finalists in Amazon's search to build another headquarters, according to a person familiar with the talks. | Continue reading
Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but icons may be even more powerful in nudging people to disclose more information online, according to an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers. | Continue reading
Lack of varied seasons and temperatures in tropical mountains have led to species that are highly adapted to their narrow niches, creating the right conditions for new species to arise in these areas, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy o … | Continue reading
China unveiled on Tuesday a replica of its first permanently crewed space station, which would replace the international community's orbiting laboratory and symbolises the country's major ambitions beyond Earth. | Continue reading
France said Tuesday it is prepared to delay an EU-wide tax on high-tech giants in order to save a proposal that faces opposition from Ireland and Nordic countries. | Continue reading
Placing a jar of feces on a pedestal next to him, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates made a plea Tuesday for the safe disposal of human waste as he kicked off a "Reinvented Toilet" Expo in China. | Continue reading
IIASA researchers have introduced a new, simple measure for human wellbeing across countries, called the Human Life Indicator (HLI), that takes inequality into account and could replace the commonly used but error-prone Human Development Index (HDI). | Continue reading
Scientists have pinpointed the genetic basis that explains why some thoroughbred racehorses are better equipped to race over sprint distances and others over longer distances. The Irish scientists, from Trinity College Dublin and UCD, have discovered the inner workings of a known … | Continue reading
Rising ocean temperatures are putting fur seal pups at greater risk of death from hookworm infections, according to new findings published in eLife. | Continue reading
When choosing materials to make something, trade-offs need to be made between a host of properties, such as thickness, stiffness and weight. Depending on the application in question, finding just the right balance is the difference between success and failure | Continue reading
A University of Cincinnati geologist is studying one of the lesser-known hazards of life in the West: landslides. | Continue reading
Scientists from ITMO University and Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have proposed a new microwave antenna that creates a uniform magnetic field in large volume. It is capable of uniform, coherent addressing of the electronic spins of an ensemble of n … | Continue reading
A billion light-years from Earth lies one of the universe's most massive structures, a giant elliptical galaxy surrounded by a sprawling cluster of other galaxies known as Abell 2597. At the core of the central galaxy, a supermassive black hole is powering the cosmic equivalent o … | Continue reading
All over the world, countless conservation projects are taking place, attempting to achieve aims from reducing habitat loss, to restoring populations of threatened species. However there is growing awareness that conservationists have not always done a good enough job at evaluati … | Continue reading
When it comes to the search for extra-terrestrial life, scientists have a tendency to be a bit geocentric – i.e. they look for planets that resemble our own. This is understandable, seeing as how Earth is the only planet that we know of that supports life. As result, those search … | Continue reading
Sixty-nine pharmaceutical compounds have been detected in stream insects, some at concentrations that may threaten animals that feed on them, such as trout and platypus. When these insects emerge as flying adults, they can pass drugs to spiders, birds, bats, and other streamside … | Continue reading
A team of scientists designed a device that can induce partial hindlimb regeneration in adult aquatic African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) by "kick-starting" tissue repair at the amputation site. Their findings, appearing November 6 in the journal Cell Reports, introduce a new m … | Continue reading
Sign languages can help reveal hidden aspects of the logical structure of spoken language, but they also highlight its limitations because speech lacks the rich iconic resources that sign language uses on top of its sophisticated grammar. | Continue reading
Pollution in Russia increases along with economic growth, but only until it reaches a certain threshold, from where it starts to decrease, demonstrates a recent study conducted by Prof. Natalya Ketenci, Yeditepe University, Turkey. | Continue reading
To comply with nutrient-reduction goals in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, Pennsylvania may want to consider the establishment of animal agriculture operations in the western part of the state, according to a team of Penn State researchers. | Continue reading
Strap on a diving mask and fins and slip under the crystal-clear water near a coral reef in Indonesia, Papua-New Guinea or the Philippines, and you'll immediately see why divers and snorkelers from across the world flock to the area. Known as the Coral Triangle, the region is fam … | Continue reading
More than 20 million people board cruise ships each year to enjoy a little rest and relaxation. The lucky travelers liberally apply sunscreen before sunning themselves on deck, while the ship's intricate machinery chugs forward, propelling the vessel toward unknown destinations. | Continue reading
Are environmental changes in the Mediterranean region influencing human mobility in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region? That is the question that Bruno Venditto of the Institute of Studies on Mediterranean Societies, at the Italian National Council of Research, in Naple … | Continue reading
In physical, biological and technological systems, the time that a system's components take to influence each other can affect the transition to synchronization, an important finding that improves understanding of how these systems function, according to a study led by Georgia St … | Continue reading
Bad apples may be a thing of the past. Scientists can now improve crops without genetic modification. | Continue reading
In cooperation with French and Greek researchers, scientists from the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI have found a simple way to lower the production costs of nano-electronics through controlled deformation of nanotubes and other tiny objects. Their findings were publi … | Continue reading
A pair of researchers with Queen's University in Canada has found that dominant species of birds in economically advanced cities have higher numbers than weaker species. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Paul Martin and Frances Bonier de … | Continue reading
Egypt says archaeologists working at a dig in Cairo have found several fragments of stone slabs with inscriptions dating back up to 4,000 years. | Continue reading
A new article by a Swansea University researcher has called for a rethink on tropical marine conservation efforts, as people who previously relied on coral reefs for food and income are increasingly looking to alternative habitats which is putting pressure on the animals that inh … | Continue reading
Dust particles in space form the basis for new stars and planets. But what do these particles consist of and how do they behave? Sascha Zeegers studied this. Ph.D. defence 1 November. | Continue reading
In its recently published action plan for batteries which identifies EU sources for the minerals required to produce batteries, the European Commission has highlighted the essential role mineral raw materials will play to transform Europe into a low-carbon and circular economy, w … | Continue reading
The closest place in the universe where extraterrestrial life might exist is Mars, and human beings are poised to attempt to colonize this planetary neighbor within the next decade. Before that happens, we need to recognize that a very real possibility exists that the first human … | Continue reading