A polar vortex that has hit much of the U.S. with ice and snow has dealt a glancing blow to Florida, dropping coastal temperatures and causing the Sunshine State's manatee population, still recovering from a mass starvation event several years ago, to seek warmer waters. | Continue reading
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated two large areas of California as protected national monuments, after the initial ceremony was called off due to wildfires breaking out in Los Angeles. | Continue reading
Elon Musk's SpaceX is gearing up for the seventh orbital flight test of Starship, the colossal prototype rocket the company hopes will help humans colonize Mars. | Continue reading
One rocket, two missions: lunar landers built by US and Japanese companies launched their "rideshare" to the moon on Wednesday, showcasing the private sector's growing role in space exploration. | Continue reading
Hot Jupiters are giant planets initially known to orbit alone close to their star. During their migration towards their star, these planets were thought to accrete or eject any other planets present. However, this paradigm has been overturned by recent observations, and the final … | Continue reading
Nearly a third of people in the U.S. have been exposed to unregulated contaminants in their drinking water that could impact their health, according to a new analysis by scientists at Silent Spring Institute. What's more, Hispanic and Black residents are more likely than other gr … | Continue reading
Quantum computing promises to solve complex problems exponentially faster than a classical computer, by using the principles of quantum mechanics to encode and manipulate information in quantum bits (qubits). | Continue reading
With Uncle Sam running chronic trillion-dollar deficits, one proposal to increase revenue has been to raise it from the wealthiest Americans: through a tax, not on their yearly income, but on their accumulated wealth. | Continue reading
The microscopic soybean cyst nematode (SCN) may be small, but it has a massive impact. This pest latches onto soybean roots, feeding on their nutrients and leaving a trail of destruction that costs farmers billions in yield losses each year. Unfortunately, current methods to comb … | Continue reading
Even the truth can be manipulated to deliberately mislead us. That is the argument put forward in a paper titled "Industrial Distraction." | Continue reading
Anyone who's ever lathered up knows the dilemma. The same qualities that make surfactants—the chemical compounds in soaps, shampoos and detergents that penetrate grease, dissolve stains and make those satisfying suds in the shower—so effective as cleaners can also act as irritant … | Continue reading
At extremely high densities, quarks are expected to form pairs, as electrons do in a superconductor. This high-density quark behavior is called color superconductivity. The strength of pairing inside a color superconductor is difficult to calculate, but scientists have long known … | Continue reading
On April 21, 1972, NASA astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 mission, took a far-ultraviolet photo of Earth with an ultraviolet camera. Young's original black-and-white picture was printed on Agfacontour professional film three times, with each exposure recording o … | Continue reading
Back in the old days—the really old days—the task of designing materials was laborious. Investigators, over the course of 1,000-plus years, tried to make gold by combining things like lead, mercury, and sulfur, mixed in what they hoped would be just the right proportions. Even fa … | Continue reading
DNA sequencing was revolutionized after scientists discovered a new bacterium in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, and today it's a common research technique. | Continue reading
To describe how matter works at infinitesimal scales, researchers designate collective behaviors with single concepts, like calling a group of birds flying in sync a "flock" or "murmuration." Known as quasiparticles, the phenomena these concepts refer to could be the key to next- … | Continue reading
One rocket, two missions: Lunar landers built by US and Japanese companies are poised to "rideshare" to the moon, showcasing the private sector's growing role in space exploration. | Continue reading
Is there a connection between bird flu and microRNA, the tiny bits of RNA which have different tasks in regulating genes and producing the body's building blocks? | Continue reading
A hidden world teeming with life lies below beach sands. New Stanford-led research sheds light on how microbial communities in coastal groundwater respond to infiltrating seawater. | Continue reading
Once upon a time, the core of a massive star collapsed, creating a shockwave that blasted outward, ripping the star apart as it went. When the shockwave reached the star's surface, it punched through, generating a brief, intense pulse of X-rays and ultraviolet light that traveled … | Continue reading
Astronomers have released a set of more than a million simulated images showcasing the cosmos as NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will see it. This preview will help scientists explore Roman's myriad science goals. | Continue reading
The first modeled, historical water level and wave dataset for the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf coasts was released today by NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS). This comprehensive dataset—known as Coastal Ocean Reanalysis (CORA)—advances NOAA's ability to better serve the nation … | Continue reading
A new data brief from the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute and the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge reveals that the Palisades, Hurst and Eaton wildfires have far-reaching effects. They extend beyond evacuation zones to disproportionately impact Latino and other un … | Continue reading
It seems easy to ignore how your workplace's information technology system operates—at least until it acts glitchy and interrupts your routine. That's why companies rely on IT specialists to keep the virtual gears spinning in the right direction. | Continue reading
There is no science to business forecasting, no common set of expectations or tools. Usually, the best you can hope for is to not be outrageously wrong. It's a low bar, and even then business forecasters rarely meet it. Or have you forgotten that recession that just didn't happen … | Continue reading
In the years after the Great Recession, banks chose to keep some $420 billion in their reserves rather than loan it out to American people and businesses. While many tend to blame the banks themselves for that decision, one Wall Streeter-turned-academic is pointing the finger squ … | Continue reading
A deadly bird flu outbreak has wreaked havoc on U.S. chicken farms, claiming the lives of over 20 million egg-laying chickens last quarter, marking the worst impact on America's egg supply since the outbreak began in 2022. | Continue reading
A new study has lifted the lid on five species of root-lesion nematodes living in maize crops across New Zealand—and suggested the existence of a hitherto-unsuspected cryptic species. | Continue reading
Tree crops—for example, apple, cherry, olives, nuts, coffee, and cacao—cover more than 183 million hectares worldwide, yet remain largely overlooked in agricultural policies, despite their critical role in achieving the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). | Continue reading
New discoveries by a UCF researcher and her team at the ancient Mesopotamian site of Kurd Qaburstan, including clay tablets with ancient cuneiform writing, a game board and large structural remains, may provide a wealth of knowledge about this Middle Bronze Age city and shed ligh … | Continue reading
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but for developing neurons, this first step relies on collaboration from multiple signaling pathways. Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital used fluorescent imaging techniques to track the sequence of molecu … | Continue reading
An international team led by McGill University researchers has devised a way to improve the accuracy of climate change models for the Global South by integrating historical records kept by missionaries and other visitors. | Continue reading
Geometry is an important branch of mathematics, which we use to understand the properties of 2D and 3D space such as distance, shape, size and position. We use geometry every day: cutting paper to wrap a present, calculating the area of a room to tile a floor, and interpreting pi … | Continue reading
In order to reproduce, most flowering plants rely on animals to move their pollen. In turn, pollinators rely on flowers for food, including both nectar and pollen. If you're a gardener, you might want to support this partnership by planting flowers. But if you live in an area wit … | Continue reading
When states give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, it affects nondrivers, too—even the littlest ones. Babies born to immigrants from Mexico and Central America are bigger and healthier in states that make that change, our research shows. The longer a law is in effect … | Continue reading
When we set out to study pandemic-related changes in schools, we thought we'd find that learning management systems that rely on technology to improve teaching would make educators' jobs easier. Instead, we found that teachers whose schools were using learning management systems … | Continue reading
Scientists have revealed a parasite's role in boosting male insect appeal by modulating host processes to facilitate female attraction, thereby enhancing the parasite's own transmission and survival. | Continue reading
Glowing mushrooms are often associated with tropical environments, but they can also be found in Switzerland. In fact, Zurich-based artists Heidy Baggenstos and Andreas Rudolf have been working with bioluminescent organisms for more than 10 years. "We want to show that these biol … | Continue reading
When a celebrity dies, there is often an outpouring of grief from their fans. This sense of grief can often be even stronger when the person dies young. In October 2024, there was an outpouring of grief from fans when former One Direction singer Liam Payne died. | Continue reading
Recycling takes place in our cells at all times: in a process called autophagy, cell components that are no longer needed are enclosed by membranes and broken down into their basic building blocks. This vital process prevents the formation of harmful aggregates and makes nutrient … | Continue reading
Around 370 million years ago, Earth gradually descended into the longest lived and probably the most intense ice age witnessed by complex life: the Late Paleozoic ice age. At its peak, huge continental ice sheets spread across much of the globe and the sea level fell by more than … | Continue reading
Spiders have always lived alongside humans, so it's surprising how much we still don't know about them. One long-standing mystery was related to how spiders detect smells. Now, our latest research has finally uncovered the secret. | Continue reading
A new approach for predicting the contents of municipal solid waste can help improve the efficiency of recycling and landfill operations. The new method applies a conventional approach to forecasting how many total tons of solid waste will be generated at the county level and inc … | Continue reading
Imagine starting your workday with an AI assistant that not only helps you write emails but also tracks your productivity, suggests breathing exercises, monitors your mood and stress levels and summarizes meetings. | Continue reading
Galaxies are not islands in the cosmos. While globally the universe expands—driven by the mysterious "dark energy"—locally, galaxies cluster through gravitational interactions, forming the cosmic web held together by dark matter's gravity. For cosmologists, galaxies are test part … | Continue reading
It's the height of summer and many Australians have already experienced heat waves, heavy rains and even significant bushfires over the Christmas and New Year period. But could we be in for something different as summer draws to a close? | Continue reading
Made up of tiny threads known as cellulose microfibrils, plant cell walls are important for regulating a plant's growth and protecting them from pests and pathogens. Previously, only one route for producing these microfibrils was known: a class of enzymes called CESA. | Continue reading
Language does much more than just convey information. It expresses emotions, establishes social connections, and even challenges norms. | Continue reading