We all enjoy watching animals, whether they're our own pets, birds in the garden, or elephants on a safari during our holidays. People take pictures during many of these wildlife encounters, but not all of these photographic episodes are harmless. | Continue reading
Social isolation and loneliness are increasingly being recognized as urgent public health threats, with risks to health and mortality as serious as those from obesity or smoking. Some researchers have cautioned that rural residents could be at greater risk for isolation due to th … | Continue reading
For many years, scientists assumed the aurora seen around the north pole was identical to the aurora seen around the south pole. The poles are connected by magnetic field lines and auroral displays are caused by charged particles streaming along these field lines. Because the cha … | Continue reading
Researchers at Tokai University report in Nano Letters a systematic study on the effects that using different forms of titanium oxide in planar perovskite solar cells has on the performance of the devices. | Continue reading
Physicists from the Higher School of Economics and Space Research Institute have identified a mechanism explaining the appearance of two dusty plasma clouds resulting from a meteoroid that impacted the surface of the moon. The study was published in JETP Letters. | Continue reading
Autralopithecus sediba is not the missing link that connects modern man to its more primitive ancestors. | Continue reading
From the second we are born, humans start to develop social relationships with individuals and groups starting with parents, family and friends. Similarly, mice are social animals just like us. | Continue reading
It may be hard to believe, but solid propellants have been used in rockets since at least the 13th century, beginning with the Chinese. Now, Purdue University researchers are exploring several patented techniques to address two significant challenges with modern solid propellants … | Continue reading
A trio of geoscientists with Pennsylvania State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has published an an update in the journal Science on the state of weather forecasting. In their paper, Richard Alley, Kerry Emanuel and Fuqing Zhang report statistics demonstr … | Continue reading
Researchers at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia created the first soft robot mimicking plant tendrils. It is able to curl and climb using the same physical principles determining water transport in plants. The research team is led by Barbara Mazzolai, and results have been pub … | Continue reading
Should regulations for environmental protection be valid beyond our solar system? Currently, extra-terrestrial forms of life are only deemed worth protecting if they can be scientifically investigated. But what about the numerous, presumably lifeless planets whose oxygen atmosphe … | Continue reading
Russian scientists have developed a new method for synthesizing para-carboxyplenylsiloxanes, a unique class of organosilicon compounds. The resulting compounds are promising for creating self-healing, electrically conductive, heat- and frost-resistant silicones. | Continue reading
There are a variety of reasons people might not like a certain musician. Perhaps they aren't fans of the sound of an artists songs, or the artist has been involved in controversial activity. | Continue reading
A large panel of scientists has published a Public Forum piece in the journal Science calling for the scientific community to provide better access to public genomic datasets. They suggest the current system allows restrictions by researchers to slow or prevent access to such dat … | Continue reading
Rapid urban population growth is driving many cities around the world to reduce their carbon footprints. In Canada, two major policy agendas are designed to achieve this: boosting urban density and promoting low-carbon transportation such as electric vehicles (EVs). | Continue reading
If you think the weather this month has been like Groundhog Day (albeit much hotter), you'd probably be right! Much like a stuck record, weather systems seem to have stalled over most of the country. | Continue reading
In image of a polar bear stranded on a sheet of ice makes for a dramatic impression of the impact of climate change, but for most Americans, it has little resemblance to the effects closer to their homes. In the Midwest, lacking obvious climate indicators like melting glaciers, i … | Continue reading
In findings published overnight in science journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, a sample collected during the 1971 Apollo 14 lunar mission was found to contain traces of minerals with a chemical composition common to Earth and very unusual for the moon. | Continue reading
Artificial intelligence can play chess, drive a car and diagnose medical issues. Examples include Google DeepMind's AlphaGo, Tesla's self-driving vehicles, and IBM's Watson. | Continue reading
A study funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation has found that even young adults who do not yet have children are influenced by traditional concepts of family. At the same time, they have modern views of equality, career engagement and childcare. The result is a dilemma t … | Continue reading
Two-dimensional (2-D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) nanomaterials such as molybdenite (MoS2), which possess a similar structure as graphene, have been donned the materials of the future for their wide range of potential applications in biomedicine, sensors, catalysts, p … | Continue reading
The natural world, with all its diversity, is a popular place for researchers to go looking for new drugs, including those that fight cancer. | Continue reading
In the last week of August 2018, the Australian Government's Productivity Commission released its "Rising inequality? A stocktake of the evidence" research paper. Its conclusion: "Over nearly three decades, inequality has risen slightly in Australia." | Continue reading
Despite a scientific consensus, citizens are divided when it comes to climate change, often along political lines, and scholars want to better understand why. | Continue reading
A new population viability model, with an accompanying web app, is helping scientists to better forecast population changes and extinction risk for imperiled species. The method was developed by ecologists at the University of Georgia River Basin Center with support from NASA and … | Continue reading
Purdue University plant molecular biochemist Natalia Dudareva and colleagues have described a complete second pathway used by plants to produce phenylalanine, a compound important for all living organisms. | Continue reading
Studies have found that women are more skeptical of genetically modified (GM) foods than men, but little research has been done on what's responsible for that gender gap. Conventional wisdom has been that maternal instincts may explain the difference, but research shows that this … | Continue reading
NIMS, the University of Tokyo and Hiroshima University jointly discovered for the first time, through theoretical calculation and experiment, that macroscopic frictions occurring between clay mineral surfaces originate from interatomic electrostatic forces between these surfaces. … | Continue reading
Nucleophilic substitution is a class of chemical reactions encountered throughout organic chemistry, including those used to manufacture common petrochemical and pharmaceutical products. Its underlying mechanism was discovered 82 years ago by the British chemists Edward Hughes an … | Continue reading
In ecology, the diversity of species generally increases as you move toward the warmer latitudes of the tropics. | Continue reading
Passing along your binge-watching favorites just got easier. | Continue reading
It'll soon be getting much easier to pay with your smartphone at Target. The retailer, which had been a major holdout, announced in a blog post Tuesday that it will soon accept Apple Pay, Google Play, Samsung Pay as well as "contactless cards" from Mastercard, Visa, American Expr … | Continue reading
Are you a night owl? Then you likely prefer relaxing, low-intensity music. Same thing if it's wintertime. | Continue reading
For one Northern California family it was a terrifying experience: an emergency warning that came through a Nest surveillance camera of three intercontinental ballistic missiles, apparently from North Korea, headed straight to Los Angeles, Chicago and Ohio. | Continue reading
Researchers have developed a new theory for recording the lowest temperatures ever measured, with the largest accuracy allowed by the laws of Nature. This line of research holds promise to revolutionise low-temperature physics and could find a plethora of applications in emerging … | Continue reading
An aluminum alloy developed in the 1940s has long held promise for use in automobile manufacturing, except for one key obstacle. Although it's nearly as strong as steel and just one-third the weight, it is almost impossible to weld together using the technique commonly used to as … | Continue reading
The remains of a noted Royal Navy explorer who led the first circumnavigation of Australia have been found by archeologists excavating a burial ground where a railway station is planned. | Continue reading
Neanderthals have been imagined as the inferior cousins of modern humans, but a new study by archaeologists at UCL reveals for the first time that they produced weaponry advanced enough to kill at a distance. | Continue reading
A team of chemists from the University of Houston has reported the discovery of a new class of catalyst to produce ultra-high-weight polyethylene, a potential new source of high-strength, abrasion-resistant plastic used for products ranging from bulletproof vests to artificial jo … | Continue reading
Carbon dioxide emissions can be captured and securely stored in underground rocks, even if geological faults are present, research has confirmed. | Continue reading
It was billed as the world's cheapest car and shaped like a jelly bean—but after a bumpy 10-year ride India's Tata Nano is nearing the end of the road. | Continue reading
A lightweight satellite designed by students that can be held in the palm of the hand has been launched by Indian scientists, burnishing the country's credentials in miniature design technology. | Continue reading
Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer on Thursday signed an agreement for the sale of its commercial divison to Boeing—and set the date for a shareholders meeting to approve the tie-up on February 26. | Continue reading
George Toe reflects on the good old days, when catching a couple of sharks helped fill a fisherman's pocket and fed a hungry family. | Continue reading
Renault's appointment of a new leadership duo to replace the detained Carlos Ghosn should ease tensions with Japanese partner Nissan, analysts say, although the French state's close involvement remains a brake on ties. | Continue reading
Seoul on Friday sent aircraft over the Yellow Sea to carry out cloud-seeding experiments in an effort to tackle air pollution many South Koreans blame on China. | Continue reading