The properties of matter are typically the result of complex interactions between electrons. These electrically charged particles are one of the fundamental building blocks of nature. They are well researched, and theoretical physics has determined the electronic structure of the … | Continue reading
Extreme heat over the North China Plain is happening with increasing frequency in recent years, posing a substantial threat to human health and social activities. Thus, the mechanism behind the formation of extreme heat is of broad concern. A collaborative research team from Chin … | Continue reading
An X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) is an X-ray produced by a beam of free electrons that have been accelerated almost to the speed of light. XFELs produce laser beams with exceedingly high peak power intensity, which makes them attractive for applications in fundamental research … | Continue reading
Researchers have discovered an ancient Japanese pottery vessel from the late Jomon period (4500-3300 BP) with an estimated 500 maize weevils incorporated into its design. The vessel was discovered in February 2016 from ruins in Hokkaido, Japan. This extremely rare discovery provi … | Continue reading
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a recipe for a renewable 3-D printing feedstock that could spur a profitable new use for an intractable biorefinery byproduct: lignin. | Continue reading
A deep learning approach originally designed to teach computers how to play video games better than humans could aid in developing personalized medical treatment for sepsis, a disease that causes about 300,000 deaths per year and for which there is no known cure. | Continue reading
Starve or be eaten? For small animals, this challenge must be faced every day. Searching for food is a risky business, and small animals must balance their need to eat as much as possible against the risk of being eaten themselves. New research from Western Sydney University show … | Continue reading
There is no escaping the holidays, even in space. | Continue reading
Early Jurassic predatory dinosaurs are very rare, and mostly small in size. Saltriovenator zanellai, a new genus and species described in the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ - the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences by Italian paleontologists, is the oldest known ceratosaurian … | Continue reading
China said Wednesday it opposed the "weaponisation" of space as it criticised US President Donald Trump's orders to create a new command centre for controlling military space operations. | Continue reading
For decades, ecologists have differed over a longstanding mystery: Will a longer, climate-induced growing season ultimately help coniferous forests to grow or hurt them? A new University of Colorado Boulder study may help researchers find a more definitive answer. | Continue reading
The quest to discover what drove the last, long-term global climate shift on Earth, which took place around a million years ago, has taken a new, revealing twist. | Continue reading
People's interactions with machines, from robots that throw tantrums when they lose a colour-matching game against a human opponent to the bionic limbs that could give us extra abilities, are not just revealing more about how our brains are wired – they are also altering them. | Continue reading
A robust, adaptable robot that responds to its environment on the fly and overcomes obstacles such as a broken leg without human intervention could be used to rescue people from an earthquake zone or clean up sites that are too hazardous for humans. | Continue reading
EU countries and the European Parliament on Wednesday agreed details of a ban on single-use plastics, including plates, cutlery and drinking straws, in a bid to cut marine pollution. | Continue reading
A silent revolution has transformed driving in Norway. | Continue reading
Jorge's putrefied corpse would have been buried in an unmarked grave but for a rehydration technique pioneered in Mexico that allowed him to be identified by his tattoos and given the send-off his family wanted. | Continue reading
If earthquakes struck in slow motion, the results might be visible in a place like the Greek village of Anargyri, a hardscrabble enclave in a black landscape gutted by coal mining. | Continue reading
Known for exceptional mimicry, stick insects have evolved a range of egg-laying techniques to maximize egg survival while maintaining their disguise—including dropping eggs to the ground, skewering them on leaves, and even enlisting ants for egg dispersal. Scientists have now com … | Continue reading
Japanese technology giant SoftBank raised a record amount for its mobile unit in the world's second-biggest ever IPO but the shares plunged in a disappointing debut trading session on Wednesday. | Continue reading
Germany will close its last black coal mine on Friday, turning the page on two centuries of mining history in the Ruhr region that helped fuel the country's post-war "economic miracle". | Continue reading
Six baby seals have been found decapitated in New Zealand in what wildlife rangers on Wednesday branded a "cruel and senseless" act against a protected species. | Continue reading
Authorities in the US state of Pennsylvania have given Uber the green light to resume testing self-driving cars, the ride-sharing giant said Tuesday, after a fatal crash in Arizona prompted a pause. | Continue reading
New Zealand warned Google to "take responsibility" for its news content Wednesday, after the internet giant broke a court order suppressing the name of a man charged with murdering a British backpacker. | Continue reading
After more than 150 years, Germany's last black coal mine will close in the Ruhr region, posing a gigantic geological and environmental challenge to the former industrial heartland. | Continue reading
Although overt expressions of hostility are considered to be ill-mannered and undesirable behaviors, covert discrimination and degradation continue to be directed at individuals, communicating that recipients are less than dominant culture individuals, that they do not belong, an … | Continue reading
A key step in retroviral growth inside a cell, as described by Jamil Saad, Ph.D., and colleagues, is portrayed on the cover of The Journal of Biological Chemistry. It is a visual image, in molecular detail, of their journal article inside that looks at avian sarcoma virus, or ASV … | Continue reading
A University of Wyoming researcher and his team have discovered that separating male and female mice, over time, changes the way they smell. | Continue reading
A new Biological Reviews article considers how fire histories affect animals' movement and shape the distribution of species. | Continue reading
Fragmentation within intact forests has a higher impact on vertebrate biodiversity than equivalent losses in already degraded landscapes, but the relationship between forest 'intactness' and extinction risk has not been quantified. | Continue reading
Scientists at the University of Waterloo have created a powder that can capture CO2 from factories and power plants. | Continue reading
Astronauts in low-earth orbit could use a fresh salad to brighten up all those freeze-dried meals. But the microgravity space environment can affect plant growth in ways we're only beginning to understand. In research presented in a recent issue of Applications in Plant Sciences, … | Continue reading
Of the known alien (non-native) species found in Antarctica, a non-biting species of midge currently presents one of the highest risks to terrestrial ecosystems, researchers have found. | Continue reading
Artificial light at night isn't just a health problem for those of us sitting in bed scrolling through Instagram instead of hitting the sack—it hurts entire outdoor ecosystems. | Continue reading
Tiny, disordered particles of magnesium chromium oxide may hold the key to new magnesium battery energy storage technology, which could possess increased capacity compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries, find UCL and University of Illinois at Chicago researchers. | Continue reading
Thanks to photos and films featuring clouds of stunning orange and black monarch butterflies flying across North America, many people today are familiar with how monarchs migrate. The migration patterns of other insects, however, remain more mysterious, for both the public and sc … | Continue reading
Claims of a 'pause' in observed global temperature warming are comprehensively disproved in a pair of new studies published today. | Continue reading
Micelles are unique biological structures in that they are an assembly of molecules with properties that both attract and repel water. They form around other molecules to help them travel and "push" through wet environments, making micelles a key enabler of cellular function thro … | Continue reading
NASA's InSight lander is due to set its first science instrument on Mars in the coming days. But engineers here on Earth already saw it happen—last week. | Continue reading
Vice President Mike Pence missed seeing a SpaceX rocket soar Tuesday. But he still got to view the company's new crew capsule, designed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station as soon as next year. | Continue reading
Southwest forests may decline in productivity on average as much as 75 percent over the 21st century as climate warms, according to a University of Arizona-led research report published in Nature Communications on Dec. 17. | Continue reading
Nanosized cages may play a big role in reducing energy consumption in science and industry, and machine-learning research at Oregon State University aims to accelerate the deployment of these remarkable molecules. | Continue reading
The launch of a new GPS satellite has been postponed for one day because of an unspecified problem with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will put the satellite in orbit. | Continue reading
A team of researchers at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering and NYU Center for Neural Science has solved a longstanding puzzle of how to build ultra-sensitive, ultra-small electrochemical sensors with homogenous and predictable properties by discovering how to e … | Continue reading
A Texas A&M engineering research team is harnessing the power of machine learning, data science and the domain knowledge of experts to autonomously discover new materials. | Continue reading