On Nov. 22, 2014, astronomers spotted a rare event in the night sky: A supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy, nearly 300 million light years from Earth, ripping apart a passing star. The event, known as a tidal disruption flare, for the black hole's massive tidal pull … | Continue reading
Observations from Gemini Observatory identify a key fingerprint of an extremely distant quasar, allowing astronomers to sample light emitted from the dawn of time. Astronomers happened upon this deep glimpse into space and time thanks to an unremarkable foreground galaxy acting a … | Continue reading
Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, fewer galaxies were born than expected—and that could create new questions for galaxy physics, according to a new University of Michigan study. | Continue reading
Fear and anger related to the 2016 presidential election and climate change, one of the campaign's major issues, had different effects on the way conservatives and liberals processed information about the two topics, according to the results of a study by a University at Buffalo … | Continue reading
Women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields are more likely to advance professionally, publish more research and secure postdoctoral and faculty positions if their institutional culture is welcoming and sets clear expectations, according to a study of hundreds of Ph.D. s … | Continue reading
The Chrysler Building, one of the most iconic structures in New York, has been put up for sale by its owners, Emirati investment firm Mubadala and real estate group Tishman Speyer. | Continue reading
During the European Middle Ages, literacy and written texts were largely the province of religious institutions. Richly illustrated manuscripts were created in monasteries for use by members of religious institutions and by the nobility. Some of these illuminated manuscripts were … | Continue reading
The stomach contents of ancient whale Basilosaurus isis suggest it was an apex predator, according to a study published January 9, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Manja Voss from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Germany, and colleagues. | Continue reading
A small percentage of Americans, less than 9 percent, shared links to so-called "fake news" sites on Facebook during the 2016 presidential election campaign, but this behavior was disproportionately common among people over the age of 65, finds a new analysis by researchers at Ne … | Continue reading
Scientists from the University of Liverpool have, for the first time, synthesized a new material that exhibits structural change and triggered chemical activity like a protein. | Continue reading
Astrophysicists have found the first ever evidence of gigantic remains being formed from repeated explosions on the surface of a dead star in the Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light years from Earth. The remains or "super-remnant" measures almost 400 light years across. For compa … | Continue reading
On March 11, an instrument aboard the International Space Station detected an enormous explosion of X-ray light that grew to be six times as bright as the Crab Nebula, nearly 10,000 light years away from Earth. Scientists determined the source was a black hole caught in the midst … | Continue reading
A Canadian-led team of scientists has found the second repeating fast radio burst (FRB) ever recorded. FRBs are short bursts of radio waves coming from far outside our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists believe FRBs emanate from powerful astrophysical phenomena billions of light years … | Continue reading
The human nose can distinguish one trillion different scents—an extraordinary feat that requires 10 million specialized nerve cells, or neurons, in the nose, and a family of more than 400 dedicated genes. But precisely how these genes and neurons work in concert to pick out a par … | Continue reading
The first direct evidence of white dwarf stars solidifying into crystals has been discovered by astronomers at the University of Warwick, and our skies are filled with them. | Continue reading
Two international research teams have identified key regulatory networks controlling how plants grow 'outwards', which could help us to grow trees to be more efficient carbon sinks and increase vegetable crop yields. | Continue reading
The Hubble Space Telescope's premier camera has shut down. | Continue reading
A UK consultancy working on Donald Trump's US election campaign pleaded guilty and was fined by a London court Wednesday over its refusal to release personal data it secretly hoovered off Facebook. | Continue reading
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, rated the world's wealthiest person, announced Wednesday on Twitter that he and his wife MacKenzie Bezos were divorcing after a long separation. | Continue reading
A University of Illinois team of researchers led by chemistry professor M. Christina White has developed a new manganese-based catalyst that can change the structure of druglike molecules to make new drugs, advancing the pace and efficiency of drug development. | Continue reading
An elephant never forgets. This seems to be the case, at least, for elephants roaming about Namibia, looking for food, fresh water, and other resources. | Continue reading
A confounding new disease is killing beech trees in Ohio and elsewhere, and plant scientists are sounding an alarm while looking for an explanation. | Continue reading
The gender pay gap in the United States persists across all demographics and industries, according to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), a leading voice in promoting equity and education for women and girls. | Continue reading
A new study combining data from citizen scientists and weather radar stations is providing detailed insights into spring bird migration along the Gulf of Mexico and how these journeys may be affected by climate change. Findings on the timing, location, and intensity of these bird … | Continue reading
Deploying a new technique for the first time in the region, geoscientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have reconstructed the longest and highest-resolution climate record for the Northeastern United States, which reveals previously undetected past temperature cycle … | Continue reading
On December 29, 2008, staff scientist Sheri Sangji was working on a chemical synthesis in a lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, when one of the reagents ignited. Sangji's clothes caught fire, causing injuries that led to her death on January 16, 2009, at age 23. Now … | Continue reading
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that allows them to assess radiation exposure in about an hour using an insulator material found in most modern electronics. The technique can be used to triage medical cases in the event of a radiolo … | Continue reading
Tesla was sued Tuesday by the family of a passenger killed in a 2018 crash which they allege was due to a defective car battery, attorneys said. | Continue reading
Scientists from the University of Bath (UK) and Northwestern University (USA) have developed a new type of sensor platform using a gold nanoparticle array, which is 100 times more sensitive than current similar sensors. | Continue reading
Although sunscreen is critical for preventing sunburns and skin cancer, some of its ingredients are not so beneficial to ocean-dwelling creatures. In particular, sunscreen chemicals shed by swimmers are thought to contribute to coral reef decline. Now, researchers reporting in AC … | Continue reading
Just a few years ago, virtual reality was poised to take over the world. After decades of near misses, the revolution finally seemed imminent, with slick consumer headsets about to hit the market and industries from gaming and entertainment to social media ready to hop on the ban … | Continue reading
Tropical forests are one of the largest natural sources of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O), and a tiny insect may play a big role in how those emissions are spread out across the landscape. | Continue reading
What is the chance the last tin of tuna you ate was made using slave labour? If it came from Thailand, the odds may be a lot higher than you imagine. | Continue reading
A new analysis of the 2011 census has revealed that social differences among city populations significantly influence how neighbourhoods take shape. Researchers hope that their insights could help councils to make better planning decisions. | Continue reading
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released an alarming report this October about what it would take to cap rising global temperatures at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Hitting this target has motivated countries to start developing and executing plans for d … | Continue reading
James Cook University scientists in Australia have found that trees change their anatomy in response to prolonged drought. | Continue reading
Bloodstream infections are notoriously deadly. Not because they're untreatable, but because they work fast and are hard to diagnose. To figure out what medication to give patients, doctors need to culture the bacteria or fungi causing the infection, which takes several days. | Continue reading
If you've ever seen a field covered in what looks like a layer of white soil, you may not know that that "soil" is actually salt. Over time, salt can build up and create a crust on top of the soil, making it difficult for water to penetrate and grow crops. If salt buildup on top … | Continue reading
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) accomplished a historic feat last week (Thurs. Jan. 3rd) by landing a robotic mission on the "dark side" of the moon. Known as the Chang'e-4 mission, this lander-rover combination will explore the moon's South Pole-Aitken Basin as pa … | Continue reading
Could this be the end of the Opportunity rover? There's been no signal from the rover since last summer, when a massive global dust storm descended on it. But even though the craft has been silent and unreachable for six-and-a-half months, NASA hasn't given up. | Continue reading
A new stellar library has been created by UK and US scientists to, for the first time, give us a window of understanding on to our and other galaxies. | Continue reading
While mechanical and biophysical aspects of insect flight are well studied, the neurobiology and circuitry underlying it remain poorly understood. For insects, while muscles provide the power for flying, the brain coordinates strategic planning. In the case of a hungry fly, this … | Continue reading
Genes contain all the information needed for the functioning of cells, tissues and organs. Gene expression, meaning when and how the genes are read and executed, is thoroughly regulated like an assembly line with several activities happening one after another. | Continue reading
The Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor – ASIM – is performing well outside the European Columbus laboratory module on the International Space Station. | Continue reading
Today, at the 233rd AAS meeting in Seattle, astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) announce that they have developed a new tool to find otherwise-hidden galaxy mergers in data from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey of SDSS. These … | Continue reading
Lia Medeiros, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona, is developing mathematical models that will allow researchers to pit Einstein's Theory of General Relativity against the most powerful monsters of nature: supermassive black holes such as Sgr A*, which lurks at the ce … | Continue reading