By gaining control over shape, size and composition during synthetic molecule assembly, researchers can begin to probe how these factors influence the function of soft materials. Finding these answers could help advance virology, drug delivery development and the creation of new … | Continue reading
Proposals to fight malaria by "driving" genes that slow its spread through mosquitoes is a high-risk, high-reward technology that presents a challenge to science journalists, according to a new report aimed at stimulating a fruitful, realistic public discussion of "post-normal" s … | Continue reading
Antarctica experienced a sixfold increase in yearly ice mass loss between 1979 and 2017, according to a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Glaciologists from the University of California, Irvine, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Neth … | Continue reading
Genome analysis reveals that North African date palms are a hybrid between cultivated date palms from the Middle East and a different, wild species of palm that grows on the island of Crete and in small areas of Southern Turkey. These findings, the result of research at NYU Abu D … | Continue reading
Biologists at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered three new species of groundwater salamander in Central Texas, including one living west of Austin that they say is critically endangered. They also determined that an already known salamander species near Georgetown … | Continue reading
An ocean-dwelling bacterium has provided fresh insights into how cells protect themselves from the toxic effects of metal ions such as iron and copper, in research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA). | Continue reading
Honey bee colonies around the world are at risk from a variety of threats, including pesticides, diseases, poor nutrition and habitat loss. Recent research suggests that one threat stands well above the others: a parasitic mite, Varroa destructor, which specializes in attacking h … | Continue reading
Waves of undulating cilia drive several processes essential to life. They clear debris and mucus from the respiratory tract, move spinal fluid through the brain and transport embryos from the ovaries to the uterus for implantation. According to a new study in mice, however, cilia … | Continue reading
Supermassive black holes weigh millions to billions times more than our sun and lie at the center of most galaxies. A supermassive black hole several million times the mass of the sun is situated in the heart of our very own Milky Way. | Continue reading
Short-lived wild insects "get old—losing some of their physical abilities—before they die, new research shows. | Continue reading
Herpes viral infections use the ancient genetic material found in the human genome to proliferate, mimicking the same process tumors have been found to manipulate, Mount Sinai researchers have shown for the first time. These observations provide further insight about how herpes v … | Continue reading
A set of fortunate circumstances may have prevented the UK from being harder hit by bluetongue in the past but the threat of future outbreaks is only set to increase, new research reveals. | Continue reading
Amid the frenzy of worldwide research on atomically thin materials like graphene, there is one area that has eluded any systematic analysis—even though this information could be crucial to a host of potential applications, including desalination, DNA sequencing, and devices for q … | Continue reading
As cells divide to form tissues and organs in multicell organisms, they move to where they belong, informed by a series of cues that scientists have yet to observe or fully understand. | Continue reading
The world's thirst for fresh water is causing a salty problem. | Continue reading
Topology is an emerging field within many scientific disciplines, even leading to a Nobel Physics Prize in 2016. Leiden physicist Marcello Caio and his colleagues have now discovered the existence of topological currents in analogy to electric currents. Their research is publishe … | Continue reading
Scientists have long dreamed of creating synthetic structures out of the same raw material that nature uses in living systems—proteins—believing such an advance would allow for the development of transformative nanomachines, for example, molecular cages that precisely deliver che … | Continue reading
The people who hold the most extreme views opposing genetically modified (GM) foods think they know most about GM food science, but actually know the least, according to new research. | Continue reading
New research led by an astronomer at the University of Warwick has found the first confirmed example of a double star system that has flipped its surrounding disc to a position that leaps over the orbital plane of those stars. The international team of astronomers used the Atacam … | Continue reading
Differences in the geographic origin of genes may affect the function of human mitochondria—energy-generating organelles inside of cells—according to a new study. Mitochondria have their own genome, separate from the nuclear genome contained in the nucleus of the cell, and both g … | Continue reading
Given the pressures that pollinators face in agricultural land, cities could play an important role in conserving pollinators, according to a new study. The research, carried out by scientists at the Universities of Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds and Reading in collaboration with Card … | Continue reading
Just as the scientific community was reaching a consensus on the dangerous reality of climate change, the partisan divide on climate change began to widen. | Continue reading
Scientists have long speculated that our planet's climate system is intimately linked to the Earth's celestial motions. | Continue reading
People in North and South America, a large part of Europe and Africa may get a glimpse of a total lunar eclipse overnight from January 20 to 21, the last such event until 2022. | Continue reading
German automaker Volkswagen says its factory in Tennessee will be the focus of an $800 million investment in its manufacturing of electric vehicles in North America. | Continue reading
Cells communicate through complex mechanisms that typically involve receptors and ligands that bind to them. Endogenous ligands, produced by the body, have been identified for the vast majority of cellular receptors, helping explain receptor existence and function. But in the cas … | Continue reading
When it comes to wine experts, some are more alike than others. | Continue reading
In recent years an epidemic of Downy Mildew (DM) has caused severe damage to sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) crops all over the world. The cause of the epidemic is a leaf fungus called Peronospora belbahrii. Symptoms of infected plants include deformed leaves, chlorotic lesions on … | Continue reading
University of Toronto Engineering researchers have examined dust from homes in Fort McMurray, Alta., for evidence of harmful toxins left in the aftermath of the devastating 2016 wildfire. Their study reveals normal levels of contaminants that are comparable to homes across Canada … | Continue reading
The fast-rising number of desalination plants worldwide—now almost 16,000, with capacity concentrated in the Middle East and North Africa—quench a growing thirst for freshwater but create a salty dilemma as well: how to deal with all the chemical-laden leftover brine. | Continue reading
Technology companies have been pummeled by revelations about how poorly they protect their customers' personal information, including an in-depth New York Times report detailing the ability of smartphone apps to track users' locations. Some companies, most notably Apple, have beg … | Continue reading
One way to produce clean water is to heat dirty water until it turns into steam. As the steam rises, it leaves behind the heavier contaminants and can be collected and cooled, providing clean water. There are many ways to heat water, one of which is to use light-absorbing materia … | Continue reading
Traffic across the EU's external borders is on the rise, as is the threat posed by illegal immigration. As over 700 million people enter the EU each year, this puts considerable pressure on border agencies that must adhere to strict security protocols while at the same time ensur … | Continue reading
Despite toiling up to 18 hours a day, Rhoda, a Filipina migrant domestic worker in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was given food only once every 24 hours by her employers, who insisted she must finish all her daily chores before eating. | Continue reading
In adults, mesenchymal stems cells (MSCs) are primarily found in bone marrow and they play a vital role in repair of damaged organs. The transformation of a single MSC into complex tissue like cartilage and bone starts with its association with other MSCs in order to form microsc … | Continue reading
Folding a paper crane is a slow, methodical process. So is unfolding an array of solar panels in space. | Continue reading
The first few days of 2019 brought remarkable news from outer space. On January 1 NASA's New Horizons space probe made the most distant planetary flyby ever, and captured images of a small object 4 billion miles away from earth. The following day, China landed its Chang'e 4 rover … | Continue reading
Since the announcement that I won the Nobel Prize in physics for chirped pulse amplification, or CPA, there has been a lot of attention on its practical applications. | Continue reading
Saturn's moon Titan is enveloped in a thick atmosphere, but through the infrared eyes of the international Cassini mission, the moon's myriad surface features are revealed in this exquisite global mosaic. | Continue reading
The absorption of light in semiconductor crystals without inversion symmetry can generate electric currents. Researchers at the Max Born Institute have now generated directed currents at terahertz (THz) frequencies, much higher than the clock rates of current electronics. They sh … | Continue reading
Australia's wildlife is unique and endearing, with many species found nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately, it isn't rare to encounter sick or injured wildlife around your home or by the side of the road. My research, recently published in the Australian Veterinary Journal, e … | Continue reading