A major new study, led jointly by the University of Liverpool and the Natural History Museum, has discovered that termites mitigate against the effects of drought in tropical rain forests. | Continue reading
For the first time, researchers used benzene, a common hydrocarbon, to create a novel kind of molecular nanotube, which could lead to new nanocarbon-based semiconductor applications. | Continue reading
The ancient people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) built their famous ahu monuments near coastal freshwater sources, according to a team of researchers including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York. | Continue reading
The computer security firm Kaspersky Labs helped the US NSA spy agency uncover one of its worst-ever security breaches—one year before the US banned the company's products for government use, US media has reported. | Continue reading
In response to concerns that the use of forensic evidence such as shoe prints, fingerprints, bite marks, fibers or hairs has contributed to wrongful convictions, the American Statistical Association (ASA) has released a document with guidelines for discussing forensic evidence. | Continue reading
Fiat Chrysler agreed to a $515 million US settlement on charges it installed "defeat devices" on cars to evade emissions tests, the US Justice Department announced Thursday. | Continue reading
Austria's postal service said Thursday it would delete data about their customers' assumed political allegiances after privacy campaigners likened the practice to the Facebook data-sharing scandal. | Continue reading
The headwinds buffeting the global auto industry made themselves felt in Europe on Thursday as mass-market carmaker Ford and luxury-focused Jaguar Land Rover announced sweeping restructurings that will cost thousands of jobs. | Continue reading
Lithium-air batteries are poised to become the next revolutionary replacement for currently used lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles, cell phones and computers. | Continue reading
Much has been written about the benefits of collaboration and sharing of ideas and knowledge during the innovation process. Less is known about the intricate skills required to integrate, or synthesise, various raw materials in a way that will maximise creativity, and create inno … | Continue reading
Due to the demands of eco-conscious consumers, manufacturers are making more and more disposable plastic products from compostable polylactic acid. | Continue reading
Thirty years ago, during the 1988 presidential campaign, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush took a boat ride across Boston Harbor and derided the environmental record of his rival, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, calling the polluted waters a "harbor of shame." Bush was rig … | Continue reading
Ultimately, researchers want to engineer bioenergy crops to accumulate large amounts of easy-to-use sugars. Researchers from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center identified a major part of the sugar production process in a model leafy grass. They discovered a transcription f … | Continue reading
An EU initiative has made significant progress in tackling poisonous substances that contaminate crops. | Continue reading
Yeasts are complex organisms that may become the workhorses of biofuel production. To move yeasts into this larger role, scientists need to understand the genetic machinery that leads to the production of complex molecules like the iron-binding molecule pulcherrimin in budding ye … | Continue reading
The annals of science fiction are full of visions of the future. Some are techno-utopian like "Star Trek" in which humanity has joined together in peace to explore the cosmos. Others are dystopian, like the World State in "Brave New World." But many of these stories share one thi … | Continue reading
Researchers of the University of Bern have discovered a new molecular regulatory mechanism in unicellular parasites which has never before been observed. RNA fragments do not act as brakes in the cell apparatus, but on the contrary as "stimulants": they boost protein production a … | Continue reading
A study led by researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), in collaboration with other international institutions, explored the neural and behavioural relationships between sacred values, violent extremi … | Continue reading
Nanotechnology may well be one of the most talked about industries of the last few years. Predicted to value US$173.95 billion globally by 2025, this fast-moving sector is already delivering major sustainability, health and well-being benefits to society. | Continue reading
CERN is synonymous with accelerators, designed to boost particles to close to the speed of light. But what if you want to slow down a particle and hold it in place while you study it? Particle traps are devices that use electromagnetic fields to suspend particles – macroscopic or … | Continue reading
Bringing a long quest to a satisfying conclusion, researchers have mapped the active-state structure of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor, the target of widely prescribed drugs to regulate blood pressure and kidney function. | Continue reading
Researchers have found yet another way in which climate change has been detrimental to migrating birds. As European winters have become warmer, pied flycatchers traveling from Africa over long distances to reach breeding grounds in the Netherlands are arriving to find that reside … | Continue reading
A new bioengineering approach for boosting photosynthesis in rice plants could increase grain yield by up to 27%, according to a study publishing January 10 in the journal Molecular Plant. The approach, called GOC bypass, enriches plant cells with CO2 that would otherwise be lost … | Continue reading
Using a technique called circular permutation, researchers at the University of California Berkeley have created a new suite of Cas9 variants called Cas9-CPs, which will simplify design of Cas9-fusion proteins for diverse applications beyond simple DNA cutting, such as base editi … | Continue reading
A team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas at Austin has applied an unconventional approach that used bacteria to discover human proteins that can lead to DNA damage and promote cancer. Reported in the journal Cell, the study also proposes … | Continue reading
Aging bodies undergo biological changes that cause a decline in the function of cells and tissues. However, most studies attempting to identify molecules involved in age-related dysfunctions have focused only on mechanisms based on mRNA transcription, a very important step in gen … | Continue reading
Chaetognaths, whose name means "bristle-jaw," can be found all over world, swimming in brackish estuaries, tropical seas and above the deep dark ocean floor. Also known as arrow worms, the creatures have been around since the Cambrian Period, but their precise place in evolutiona … | Continue reading
CRISPR-Cas9 is a revolutionary tool in part because of its versatility: created by bacteria to chew up viruses, it works equally well in human cells to do all sorts of genetic tricks, including cutting and pasting DNA, making pinpoint mutations and activating or inactivating a ge … | Continue reading
On 25 December 2003, ESA's Mars Express entered orbit around the Red Planet. The spacecraft began returning the first images from orbit using its High Resolution Stereo Camera just a couple of weeks later, and over the course of its fifteen year history has captured thousands of … | Continue reading
A study led by researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University found fish become anxious and more cautious when water quality is degraded by sediment, an effect that could stunt their growth and damage their health. | Continue reading
Washington State University researchers have developed a novel way to deliver drugs and therapies into cells at the nanoscale without causing toxic effects that have stymied other such efforts. | Continue reading
Spotless surfaces in hospitals can hide bacteria that rarely cause problems for healthy people but pose a serious threat to people with weakened immune systems. Acinetobacter baumannii causes life-threatening lung and bloodstream infections in hospitalized people. Such infections … | Continue reading
Ever since Thomas Malthus issued his dire prediction in 1789 that population growth would always exceed food supply, scientists have worked to prove him wrong. So far, they've helped farmers to keep pace by developing bigger and better varieties of crops and other agricultural in … | Continue reading
A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Japan has found evidence that offers credence to a theory that subducted crust exists at the base of Earth's upper mantle. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes experiments they conducted … | Continue reading
A Japanese research group has identified a giant streak structure among the clouds covering planet Venus based on observation from the spacecraft Akatsuki. The team also revealed the origins of this structure using large-scale climate simulations. The group was led by Project Ass … | Continue reading
Years before the devastating Tohoku earthquake struck the coast of Japan in 2011, the Earth's crust near the site of the quake was starting to stir. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are using computer models to investigate if tiny tremors detected near this site c … | Continue reading
Researchers at the University of Oviedo, in collaboration with the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) have discovered and characterized a planet in the habitability zone of a red dwarf star. It was detected using the method of transits. | Continue reading
Norway's Aker Energy on Thursday said it had discovered oil in commercial quantities off Ghana, which the government welcomed as a potential boost to the economy. | Continue reading
If environmental engineer Daniel Noguera had his way, he would orchestrate a microbiome to pump out higher-value chemical products. | Continue reading
A West Virginia University physics student has created a new machine-learning model that has the potential to make searching for energy and environmental materials more efficient. | Continue reading
You're sweating and feverish and have no idea why. Fortunately, Sandia National Laboratories scientists have a device that can pinpoint what's wrong in less than an hour. | Continue reading
Computer scientists at Queen's University Belfast have designed a new innovative system to reduce delays on smart devices. | Continue reading
Oakland University ecologist Scott Tiegs is the lead author of a new scientific paper examining carbon-cycling rates of river-based ecosystems around the world. | Continue reading
When it comes to buildings and their occupants, USC researchers see a failure to communicate, yet improved dialogue between the two can help smart buildings work better for a sustainable society. | Continue reading
Active users of social media like WhatsApp don't write more poorly at school, although there's a small relation between passively using WhatsApp and poorer writing. This was shown in a study done among young people by linguist Lieke Verheijen, who will receive her Ph.D. on this s … | Continue reading
This year, beautifully wrapped laptops, mobile phones or even new TV sets lay under Christmas trees. They are enthusiastically put into use—and the old electronic devices are disposed of. The e-waste contains resources such as neodymium, indium and gold. What happens to the valua … | Continue reading
It's time to buy a lot of candles. And if we light them with matches, it will only be possible because of the anniversary in question. It's happy 350th birthday to the discovery of phosphorus, an element that is essential for life as we know it. | Continue reading
People who believe light-emitting diodes, or LEDS, are just an efficient upgrade to the ordinary electric light bulb are stuck in their thinking, suggest Sandia National Laboratories researcher Jeff Tsao and colleagues from other institutions in a Nature "Perspectives" article pu … | Continue reading