One of the most enduring, basic questions of life is: How does it happen? For instance, in human development, how do cells self-organize into skin, muscles or bones? How do they form a brain, a finger, a spine? | Continue reading
Our sun actively produces solar flares that can impact Earth, with the strongest flares having the capacity to cause blackouts and disrupt communications—potentially on a global scale. While solar flares can be powerful, they are insignificant compared to the thousands of "super … | Continue reading
Although volcanoes have been extensively studied, unraveling the mysteries of the underlying magma transport proves to be a challenging pursuit. Grant Block, a graduate student in The University of New Mexico's Department of Physics & Astronomy, recently conducted a thorough stud … | Continue reading
Stressful childhoods can affect an individual's adult years and influence future generations. Scientists at the University of California, Davis, found a similar pattern holds true for red abalone exposed as babies, and again as adults, to the stress of ocean acidification. | Continue reading
The lack of alcohol in nonalcoholic or low-alcohol beer—particularly during manufacturing, storage and pouring—may prompt conditions ripe for foodborne pathogen growth, according to a new Cornell study. | Continue reading
The ocean is a critical life-support system for our planet through its role in global climate regulation. It absorbs most of the carbon emissions and heat trapped in the atmosphere, which result from human activities. Over the years, this has led to ocean warming (OW), ocean acid … | Continue reading
A new study by UCL researchers shows how it's possible to phase out fossil fuels without sacrificing electoral popularity—even in coal mining regions. | Continue reading
A federal agency wants changes in how container ships are anchored off Southern California as well as new safety measures for vessels near offshore pipelines to help prevent or minimize ruptures like the one that spilled 25,000 gallons of crude oil off Huntington Beach. | Continue reading
The field of epigenetics focuses on alterations in gene function that are inherited without changes in the DNA sequence, including histone modifications, post-translational modifications of amino acids, and covalent modifications of DNA bases. These alteration pathways modulate t … | Continue reading
Terrorist attacks and mass shootings are devastating for the people and communities they affect. These events impact our society in many ways, including perhaps unexpectedly, by changing how big companies calculate and report their earnings. | Continue reading
COP28 is approaching the end of the first week and the kings, presidents and prime ministers have flown off. Now, hundreds of seasoned climate diplomats must get down to the tough job of negotiating a text that everyone can agree on. Adnan Amin, who as chief executive officer of … | Continue reading
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to enlist shooters to kill more than 500,000 barred owls over the next 30 years in the Pacific Northwest to preserve habitat for northern spotted owls, a protected species. | Continue reading
In February 2023, researchers from around the country gathered at a NASA-sponsored workshop to discuss the latest developments and a roadmap for a cryobot mission concept to drill through the icy crusts of Europa and Enceladus and search for life. | Continue reading
Scientists exploring the Northern California coast have, for the first time, uncovered a treasure trove of carbon compacted on the seafloor—a discovery that may help unravel the ocean's power to combat climate change. | Continue reading
Northeastern researchers found in 2021 that an estimated 4 million to 10 million tons of plastic carbon enter the ocean each year. Much of it ends up floating in subtropical currents. | Continue reading
Over the next two decades, Los Angeles County will collect billions more gallons in water from local sources, especially storm and reclaimed water, shifting from its reliance on other region's water supplies as the effects of climate change make such efforts less reliable and mor … | Continue reading
It was a summer in Hell. | Continue reading
Switzerland has set itself an ambitious goal: to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. But this will require more than just a massive expansion of renewable energies and saving measures. | Continue reading
Many non-Indigenous Canadians may have a ways to go in shedding negative stereotypes of Indigenous people, according to a recent study by a University of Alberta master's student in psychology. | Continue reading
Students achieve better grades in college science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses when those classrooms have higher numbers of underrepresented racial-minority and first-generation college students, according to new research published in AERA Open. | Continue reading
Upon their arrival in a foreign country, immigrants tend to be healthier than natives, but their advantage erodes with time, despite improvements in earnings and socio-economic status. A new study published in the European Sociological Review by Francesco Billari (a demographer a … | Continue reading
High-energy neutron scattering is a powerful tool in spectroscopy, allowing researchers to probe the physical and chemical properties of many different materials. | Continue reading
Diverse and full of sea life, the Earth's Devonian era—taking place more than 370 million years ago—saw the emergence of the first seed-bearing plants, which spread as large forests across the continents of Gondwana and Laurussia. | Continue reading
Scientists from Stanford University and the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are turning air into fertilizer without leaving a carbon footprint. Their discovery could deliver a much-needed solution to help meet worldwide carbon-neutral goals by 2050. | Continue reading
What do Starbucks, McDonald's, Target and Amazon have in common, other than being some of the biggest corporations in the world? | Continue reading
A team of sustainability scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amhersthave announced in the journal PLOS ONE that they have developed a community-based framework, founded on extensive local and traditional knowledge, to help assess and respond to the kinds of ecological t … | Continue reading
Tropical coral reefs are among our most spectacular ecosystems, yet a rapidly warming planet threatens the future survival of many reefs. However, there may be hope for some tropical reefs in the form of feathered friends. | Continue reading
New research has found that two similar species of birds—both capable of displaying self-control through delayed gratification—behave very differently around their favorite food when they have company. | Continue reading
Baboons were raised in captivity before being mummified in Ancient Egyptian sites, according to a study published December 6, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Wim Van Neer of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium and colleagues. | Continue reading
Lithium (Li) metal anodes, with the highest specific capacity (3,860 mAh g-1) and the lowest redox potential (-3.04 V vs. standard hydrogen electrode), are considered a potential alternative for the next generation high-energy-density lithium batteries. However, the unstable elec … | Continue reading
At nearly 65,000 kilometers long, the mid-ocean ridge system is the longest mountain range in the world. Running beneath the ocean's surface, mid-ocean ridges are formed at divergent plate boundaries, where tectonic plates stretch apart and magma rises to create new crust on the … | Continue reading
When cattle are fighting flies in the summer, they gather in tight bunches, leading them to eat less while experiencing more stress and discomfort. Beef producers have limited options for controlling the flies that pester their cattle. Moreover, existing insecticides are losing t … | Continue reading
Traditional medical adhesives used in surgical applications often have limited bio-absorbability, high toxicity and a lack of customizability, leading to suboptimal surgical outcomes. Recent advances in synthetic biology offer a promising alternative—tailored biocompatible and bi … | Continue reading
Chicken and eggs are among the most popular sources of high-quality protein in the world. With a growing population, making the production of this key food source sustainable is vital. | Continue reading
A study links hostility on Wikipedia to lost productivity on the site. Wikipedia, the largest reference work ever created, is written and edited by tens of thousands of volunteers, known as Wikipedians. Despite the fact that anyone can edit any page, studies show that Wikipedia i … | Continue reading
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is on a roll. In the eight weeks since it left Earth on Oct. 13, the orbiter has performed one successful operation after another, powering on scientific instruments, streaming data toward home, and setting a deep-space record with its electric thrusters. … | Continue reading
Copper (Cu) availability is critical for plant growth and development and for food yield and quality. It is essential for plants to maintain Cu homeostasis. To maintain Cu homeostasis in different tissues and organs, the uptake and transport of Cu must be precisely controlled. IR … | Continue reading
CU Boulder geologist Brian Hynek has helped to document what may be a unique kind of ecosystem on Earth—and a possible window into the earliest stages of life on this planet 3.5 billion years ago, and even life on ancient Mars. | Continue reading
From virtual dance parties and raves to virtual happy hours and potlucks—online gatherings reached new heights during COVID-19, helping individuals stay connected during lockdowns. | Continue reading
People with chronic pain are often dependent on drugs from the class of opioids with sometimes considerable side effects. Accordingly, in recent years the search for safer alternatives has been the focus of new drug discovery. | Continue reading
NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule landed under parachute in the Utah desert on Sept. 24, 2023, and safely delivered a cannister of rocks and dust collected from near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Although the delivery was successful, the landing sequence did not go entirely accordi … | Continue reading
Plastic, made in the traditional petroleum-based method, has served its purpose. The near-perfect packaging material has been instrumental in transforming the world's food supply and can be found in nearly every sector of daily life. | Continue reading
Recruiting participants for a citizen science project produced a more diverse group when people were signed up through partner organizations, such as schools and faith-based organizations, than when they joined on their own. We used this approach to recruit volunteers for Crowd t … | Continue reading
In February 2000, Paul Crutzen rose to speak at the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme in Mexico. And when he spoke, people took notice. He was then one of the world's most cited scientists, a Nobel laureate working on huge-scale problems—the ozone hole, the effects of a … | Continue reading
The government has announced a host of new restrictions aimed at cutting net migration to the UK. Headline announcements include increasing the salary requirements for skilled foreign workers from £26,200 to £38,700, and banning health and care workers from bringing family depend … | Continue reading
On the morning of December 6, 1917, a French cargo ship called SS Mont-Blanc collided with a Norwegian vessel in the harbor of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. The SS Mont-Blanc, which was laden with 3,000 tons of high explosives destined for the battlefields of the first world wa … | Continue reading
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to make a major impact on many sectors of society over the coming decades. Some of these effects may be positive, others less so. | Continue reading
An international team led by researchers at the University of Toronto has uncovered over 100 genes that are common to primate brains but have undergone evolutionary divergence only in humans—and which could be a source of our unique cognitive ability. | Continue reading