This image shows what appears to be a large patch of fresh, untrodden snow – a dream for any lover of the holiday season. However, it's a little too distant for a last-minute winter getaway: this feature, known as Korolev crater, is found on Mars, and is shown here in beautiful d … | Continue reading
While traveling to Europe, Asia, and Africa as a graduate student, Melody Braun saw the effects that climate change was already having on vulnerable communities, and she realized that she wanted to work closely with these communities. Now she is a senior research staff associate … | Continue reading
"Tis the season for seafood. While those in colder parts of the world tuck into turkey and hot dinners, in the southern hemisphere we get festive with prawn cocktails at Christmas and smoked salmon for New Year's. Maybe crayfish and crab. Perhaps oysters and octopus. Or barramund … | Continue reading
Is there life beyond Earth? | Continue reading
Half a century of Christmases ago, the NASA space mission Apollo 8 became the first manned craft to leave low Earth orbit, atop the unprecedentedly powerful Saturn V rocket, and head out to circumnavigate another celestial body, making 11 orbits of the moon before its return. The … | Continue reading
In 2003, scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Center made the first-ever detection of trace amounts of methane in Mars' atmosphere, a find which was confirmed a year later by the ESA's Mars Express orbiter. In December of 2014, the Curiosity rover detected a tenfold spike of meth … | Continue reading
During the conversion of light into electricity, such as in solar cells, a large part of the input light energy is lost. This is due to the behaviour of electrons inside of materials. If light hits a material, it stimulates electrons energetically for a fraction of a second, befo … | Continue reading
What began as a Dalhousie Ph.D. student's investigation into North Atlantic shark populations turned into an eye-opening discovery that shows a number of European Union-designated marine protected areas (MPAs) are falling short of protecting threatened biodiversity. The research … | Continue reading
These days, movies and video games render increasingly realistic 3-D images on 2-D screens, giving viewers the illusion of gazing into another world. For many physicists, though, keeping things flat is far more interesting. | Continue reading
Quantitative models based on nonlinear dynamics and complex systems are frequently used in various areas ranging from climate research to neuroscience to power networks. Such systems, including biological organisms, consist of interacting units with oscillatory elements. For exam … | Continue reading
From the Neolithic to present times, the amount of sunlight we see in a day has had a profound impact on human culture. We are fast approaching the winter solstice for the Northern hemisphere, which takes place on December 21. This is the longest night of the year – once celebrat … | Continue reading
All insects use vision to control their position in the air when they fly, but they also integrate information from other senses. Biologists at Lund University have now shown how hawkmoths use mechanosensors in their antennae to control fast flight manoeuvres. | Continue reading
The age of the water in the world's oceans is critical for understanding ocean circulation, especially for the transport of gases from the atmosphere into the deep ocean. Researchers from Heidelberg University recently used an atomic physics technique they developed to determine … | Continue reading
Worldwide honeybee populations are in peril – and it's a dire situation for humans. Threats from climate change, toxic pesticides, and disease have all contributed to a steep honeybee population decline since 2006. And as a third of the food we eat is a direct result of insect po … | Continue reading
The roast Christmas dinner is a valued tradition for many families in the UK and across the globe. | Continue reading
Ultrafine particles affect both health and climate. In urban areas, road traffic is considered to be the main source of the small particles. However, a long-term measurement campaign of researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) outside of cities has now revealed a so … | Continue reading
There's an oddball in most families, but Rice University physicist Emilia Morosan has discovered an entire clan of eccentric compounds that could help explain the mysterious electronic and magnetic workings of other quantum materials engineers are eying for next-generation comput … | Continue reading
Before moving NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, and to assure that it's kept clean and safe, Webb got a very special wrapping treatment. The wrapping acts as a "mobile clean room," safeguarding the technological marvel from contaminants. | Continue reading
What is the shape of an electron? If you recall pictures from your high school science books, the answer seems quite clear: an electron is a small ball of negative charge that is smaller than an atom. This, however, is quite far from the truth. | Continue reading
An international team of researchers has solved the structure and elucidated the function of photosynthetic complex I. This membrane protein complex plays a major role in dynamically rewiring photosynthesis. The team from the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Osaka Universit … | Continue reading
It was another great year for science, and physics was front and center, as a team at the University of Oxford announced that they may have solved one of the biggest mysteries in modern physics. They came up with a new theory that could explain the missing 95 percent of the cosmo … | Continue reading
Ryan Thigpen, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, has co-authored a paper that describes how river erosion may lead to more earthquakes. | Continue reading
Juha Kantanen, a research professor at the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), has collected a large set of biological materials and data for the study of the genomes of Northern domestic animals, reindeer, cattle and horses during his expeditions in a project called Arct … | Continue reading
A new article published today in the journal Arctic points to major challenges in the ways traditional knowledge is included in the management of Atlantic salmon in Norway and Finland. Comparing different policy and research approaches in the two countries in relation to internat … | Continue reading
Plants absorb the mineral sulfate from groundwater. An international research team led by scientists from Heidelberg University has uncovered how sulfate controls the production of the drought stress hormone ABA in plants and thus contributes to their drought-resistance. These fi … | Continue reading
The mass death of flying foxes in extreme heat in North Queensland last month underscores the importance of University of Queensland wildlife research released today. | Continue reading
Diversifying into new industries is vital to an economy's ability to grow and generate wealth. But to branch out into new industrial activities, a city, region or country must first have a pool of people with the right mix of knowledge and experience to make those pioneering firm … | Continue reading
What's the coldest place you can think of? Temperatures on a winter day in Antarctica dip as low as -120ºF (-85ºC). On the dark side of the Moon, they hit -280ºF (-173ºC). But inside NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory on the International Space Station, scientists are creating something … | Continue reading
A new study has found an unexpected connection between water levels in lakes and toxic mercury levels in fish. When droughts cause water levels to drop, the levels of mercury found in fish also plummet. In wetter weather, water levels rise and levels of mercury in fish increase. | Continue reading
A cutting-edge instrument developed by scientists at the University of Oxford has passed critical tests and gained a powerful adaptive optics system. | Continue reading
Long-term assessment of likely regional and local climate impacts is critical to enabling municipalities, businesses, and regional economies to prepare for potentially damaging and costly effects of climate change—from prolonged droughts to more frequent and intense extreme event … | Continue reading
Modern galaxies show a wide diversity, including dwarf galaxies, irregular galaxies, spiral galaxies, and massive elliptical galaxies. This final type, massive elliptical galaxies, provides astronomers with a puzzle. Although they are the most massive galaxies with the most stars … | Continue reading
A new University of Wyoming bulletin contributes to the growing knowledge base of ecosystem recovery following high-intensity forest fires. | Continue reading
In 1973, Russian physicist A.B. Migdal predicted the phenomenon of pion condensation above a critical, extremely high—several times higher than that for normal matter— nuclear density. Although this condensation has never been observed, it is expected to play a key role in the ra … | Continue reading
A massive stellar flare on a baby star has been spotted by University of Warwick astronomers, shedding light on the origins of potentially habitable exoplanets. | Continue reading
Mass extinction typically conjures a picture of a meteor falling to Earth and decimating the dinosaurs along with everything else. However, this is not exactly what happened. Different groups of living beings were affected differently by the various mass extinctions that have occ … | Continue reading
The steady production of sperm relies on the number of sperm stem cells in the testis remaining constant. Researchers including Assistant Professor Yu Kitadate and Professor Shosei Yoshida (developmental biologists at the National Institute for Basic Biology within the National I … | Continue reading
A technique that enables biologically active enzymes to survive the rigors of inkjet printing presents a promising alternative to routine blood screening finger jabs for diabetic blood sugar levels. The KAUST-led team used this approach to make disposable devices that can measure … | Continue reading
Enzymes—biocatalysts made of proteins—are hugely important molecules that catalyze the reactions and processes in living organisms. Ongoing work to understand their structures and reaction mechanisms is therefore vital to broaden our knowledge and contribute to scientific and med … | Continue reading
Singapore households from different socioeconomic groups vary significantly in their use of water and electricity for heat relief, according to a recent study conducted by Associate Professor Alberto Salvo from the Department of Economics at the National University of Singapore ( … | Continue reading
Species of mammals that live in urban environments produce more young compared to other mammals. But along with this advantage, mammals have other strategies to successfully inhabit cities. This is what Radboud University ecologist Luca Santini and colleagues found in a study tha … | Continue reading
Plant scientists at the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham have unravelled a mechanism that enables flowering plants to sense and 'remember' changes in their environment. | Continue reading
Pollutants from wild fires affect crop and vegetation growth hundreds of kilometres from impact zone, research shows | Continue reading
When hydropower runs low in a drought, western states tend to ramp up power generation—and emissions—from fossil fuels. According to a new study from Stanford University, droughts caused about 10 percent of the average annual carbon dioxide emissions from power generation in Cali … | Continue reading
New research has discovered how plant roots sense the availability of moisture in soil and then adapt their shape to optimise acquisition of water. | Continue reading
Everything around you – your desk, your laptop, your coffee cup – in fact, even you – is made of stardust, the stuff forged in the fiery furnaces of stars that died before our sun was born. Probing the space surrounding a mysterious stellar corpse, scientists at the University of … | Continue reading
It's happened before, and it could happen again. | Continue reading
In a modern democracy, peddling conspiracies for political advantage is perhaps not so different from seeding an epidemic. | Continue reading