In 1969, scientist Michael Cashel was analyzing the compounds produced by starved bacteria when he noticed two spots appearing on his chromatogram as if by magic. Today, we know one of these "magic spots," as researchers call them, as guanosine tetraphosphate, or ppGpp for short. … | Continue reading
The world's first-ever hiking boots to use graphene have been unveiled by The University of Manchester and British brand inov-8. | Continue reading
MIT chemical engineers and neuroscientists have devised a new way to preserve biological tissue, allowing them to visualize proteins, DNA, and other molecules within cells, and to map the connections between neurons. | Continue reading
In order to evaluate a material's ability to withstand the high-radiation environment inside a nuclear reactor, researchers have traditionally used a method known as "cook and look," meaning the material is exposed to high radiation and then removed for a physical examination. Bu … | Continue reading
The results of the U.S. presidential election in 2016 created a unique opportunity for a team of UCLA researchers. | Continue reading
For most of human history, we mere mortals have dreamt of taking to the skies—from the myth of Icarus, to kites in China, to the development of hydrogen-filled balloons in the 8th century, to early experiments with gliders in the 19th. Then, 115 years ago on on December 17, 1903, … | Continue reading
The glass ceiling—the barrier women face in advancing to the top of their professions—has been surprisingly durable. Women are 45 percent of total employees at the biggest U.S. public companies but hold only about 20 percent of board seats and 5 percent of the CEO jobs, reports t … | Continue reading
Car sharing with autonomous vehicles could improve cities in many ways. Singapore is taking a pioneering role, working with ETH researchers to explore the potential of personalised, electrified and automated public transport. | Continue reading
Imagine moving satellites to higher orbits, collecting space debris, and dedicated launches for small satellites. These are the winning entries of ESA's call for ideas on new commercial space transportation services. | Continue reading
Use Europe's satellite navigation system to seek treasure in virtual mazes or 'see' Galileos as they cross the sky above you: two new Android smartphone apps based on Galileo are now available for general download, the results of a competition by ESA trainees. | Continue reading
Warming temperatures in cold places are causing plants to flower earlier, according to a new study. | Continue reading
Many problems in physical and biological sciences as well as engineering rely on our ability to monitor objects or processes at nano-scale, and fluorescence microscopy has been used for decades as one of our most useful information sources, leading to various discoveries about th … | Continue reading
A new study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution presents a novel approach to identify optimal priority areas for restoration, considering multiple criteria such as biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and reduction of costs. In a context of multiple local, n … | Continue reading
Machine-learning research published in two related papers today in Nature Geoscience reports the detection of seismic signals accurately predicting the Cascadia fault's slow slippage, a type of failure observed to precede large earthquakes in other subduction zones. | Continue reading
A team of researchers led by wildlife ecologist Theresa Walter analyzed over 1,100 fox sightings reported by the public as part of the citizen science project StadtWildTiere. The joint team of researchers from the Vetmeduni Vienna and the University of Natural Resources and Life … | Continue reading
Materials scientists from NUST MISIS and the Merzhanov Institute of Structural Macrokinetics & Materials Science have developed a new method for producing bulk MAX-phases—layered materials that combine the properties of metals and ceramics. Via methods of self-propagating high-te … | Continue reading
A relic cloud of gas, orphaned after the Big Bang, has been discovered in the distant universe by astronomers using the world's most powerful optical telescope, the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii. | Continue reading
Dolphins are picky about who they are friends with and shun rival groups, new research has found. | Continue reading
A one-month-old on a remote island in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu became the first child to be immunised in a commercial trial of drone-delivered vaccines, the UN children's fund UNICEF said Tuesday. | Continue reading
Huawei defended its global ambitions and network security on Tuesday in the face of Western fears that the Chinese telecom giant could serve as a Trojan horse for Beijing's security apparatus. | Continue reading
Plant scientists at the University of East Anglia have succeeded in unravelling the complete genome sequence of the common primrose—the plant whose reproductive biology captivated the Victorian naturalist Charles Darwin. | Continue reading
A team of researchers based at The University of Manchester have found a low cost method for producing graphene printed electronics, which significantly speeds up and reduces the cost of conductive graphene inks. | Continue reading
Wild animals are increasingly exploited for entertainment and photo opportunities. A new study highlights that tourists in Morocco object to the use of barbary macaques as photo props, raising concerns about the animal's welfare and risk to human health. The findings are presente … | Continue reading
To counteract the damage hurricanes have caused to their canopies, trees appear to adjust key characteristics of their newly grown leaves, according to a year-long field study presented at the British Ecological Society's annual conference today. | Continue reading
Formal academic credentials play a relatively minor role in the UK labour market, with the majority of employers placing greater emphasis on 'job readiness', according to a new study published in the Journal of Education Policy that analysed more than 21 million UK job adverts, b … | Continue reading
In 2003, the Human Genome Project revealed to the world the three billion chemical units within human DNA. Since that time, scientists have designed many ways to organize and assess this overwhelmingly large amount of information. Now, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory … | Continue reading
The proposed $26-billion merger between wireless operators T-Mobile and Sprint in the US won approval Monday from regulators that vet such deals for national security concerns. | Continue reading
European Union members and the European Parliament on Monday agreed to slash carbon dioxide emissions from new cars by 37.5 percent by 2030, the European Commission announced. | Continue reading
Women may be shouting louder than ever for equal treatment and pay, but a report out Tuesday indicates it will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe. | Continue reading
Five hundred years after the death of Leonardo da Vinci, a silk mill incorporating one of his designs is still shuttling some of the finest threads in the world across its looms. | Continue reading
Silicon Valley is becoming Silicon Nation. | Continue reading
A floating device sent to corral a swirling island of trash between California and Hawaii has not swept up any plastic waste—but the young innovator behind the project said Monday that a fix was in the works. | Continue reading
Scientists have long known that synthetic materials—called metamaterials—can manipulate electromagnetic waves such as visible light to make them behave in ways that cannot be found in nature. That has led to breakthroughs such as super-high resolution imaging. Now, UMass Lowell i … | Continue reading
New research by scientists at the University of Toronto (U of T) offers novel insights into why and how wind-pollinated plants have evolved from insect-pollinated ancestors. | Continue reading
On December 16 and 17, NASA's GPM core observatory satellite and NASA's Aqua satellite, respectively, passed over the Southern Indian Ocean and captured rainfall and temperature data on Tropical Cyclone Kenanga. | Continue reading
A new electronic device can developed at the University of Michigan can directly model the behaviors of a synapse, which is a connection between two neurons. | Continue reading
Tropical Cyclone Owen crossed over Queensland Australia's Cape York Peninsula over the weekend of Dec. 15 and 16 and emerged into the Coral Sea off of Queensland's southeastern coast. NASA's Terra satellite provided an infrared image of the remnants and found two very small areas … | Continue reading
NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Northwestern Indian Ocean and captured a visible image of Tropical Depression Phethai after it made landfall in southeastern India. | Continue reading
Today, sugar has a villainous reputation. And while too much of the sweet stuff should be avoided, all living things need sugar to survive. "The biological universe is coated with sugars," said Samuel M. Levi and Qiuhan Li, graduate students in Harvard University's Department of … | Continue reading
The science is clear that human activities over the last century have contributed to greenhouse-like warming of the Earth's surface. Much of the global conversation around climate change fixates on what individual countries or regions are contributing to the problem, and what the … | Continue reading
The ghosts of harvesting can haunt today's conservation efforts. | Continue reading
Kaleidocycles are found where science, math, and art meet. The objects resemble geometric sculptures that might be found in a modern art museum, but it is the motions they undergo that really capture the imagination. Ring linkages, constructed from hinges and rigid geometric shap … | Continue reading
A Czech cyber-security agency on Monday warned against using the software and hardware of China's Huawei and ZTE companies, saying they posed a threat to state security. | Continue reading
Scientists at Rice University have developed synthetic protein switches to control the flow of electrons. | Continue reading
California regulators have canceled a plan to charge a fee for text messaging on mobile phones. | Continue reading
Google became the latest US tech giant to announce a major expansion plan, unveiling a $1 billion investment Monday to create a new campus that could double its New York City workforce to 14,000. | Continue reading
The Russian troll farm that disrupted the 2016 US presidential election sought particularly to demoralize Africa-Americans and discourage them from voting, according to a comprehensive new report for the Senate. | Continue reading
By studying the social response to India's Right to Information Act, a University of Arizona researcher has uncovered how the world's largest democracy created a culture that demands government transparency and what the rest of the world can learn from it. | Continue reading