For the second time in history, a human-made object has reached the space between the stars. NASA's Voyager 2 probe now has exited the heliosphere – the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun. | Continue reading
What happens when lava and water meet? Explosive experiments with manmade lava are helping to answer this important question. | Continue reading
A Chinese court ordered a ban in the country on iPhone sales in a patent dispute between US chipmaker Qualcomm and Apple, according to a Qualcomm statement Monday. | Continue reading
Min Dong, Ph.D., and his lab are world experts in toxins and how to combat them. They've figured out how Clostridium difficile's most potent toxin gets into cells and zeroed in on the first new botulinum toxin identified since 1969. Now, setting their sights on Shiga and ricin to … | Continue reading
Ozone layer depletion has increased snowfall over Antarctica in recent decades, partially mitigating the ongoing loss of the continent's ice sheet mass, new University of Colorado Boulder research finds. | Continue reading
On a bleak and biting December morning, a team of state-contracted commercial fishermen at Starved Rock Marina slipped into their waders, salted down their johnboats to protect against ice and launched onto the Illinois River. | Continue reading
Fraser River chinook, one of the most important food sources for southern resident killer whales, are in steep decline and should be listed for protection as an endangered species, a Canadian independent science committee said. | Continue reading
Microorganisms living underneath the surface of the earth have a total carbon mass of 15 to 23 billion tons, hundreds of times more than that of humans, according to findings announced by the Deep Carbon Observatory and coauthored by UT Professor of Microbiology Karen Lloyd. | Continue reading
Every other year, retired couple Jorg and Jan journey some 5,000 kilometres in their campervan from Port Fairy in southeastern Australia to Broome in the far northwest for a change of lifestyle and scenery. There they catch up with other couples from across the nation, who often … | Continue reading
On Jan. 2, 2018, Kirstin Blaise Lobato, who was charged and convicted of murder, walked free from a Nevada prison due entirely to forensic entomology. | Continue reading
Numerous studies from countries around the globe have shown that education before primary school is associated with success in school. Despite this, few governments make pre-primary education available on a tuition-free basis for two or more years, according to a new study from t … | Continue reading
Barely living "zombie" bacteria and other forms of life constitute an immense amount of carbon deep within Earth's subsurface—245 to 385 times greater than the carbon mass of all humans on the surface, according to scientists nearing the end of a 10-year international collaborati … | Continue reading
City centres are becoming increasingly congested by traffic, many of which are delivery vehicles. An EU-funded project has developed a solution for delivering packages that reduces traffic and eliminates carbon dioxide (CO2) and other harmful emissions. | Continue reading
Sometimes it's all about perspective. This very convincing image of a conjoined moon masquerading as a snowman is actually two separate Saturnian moons – Dione and Rhea – taken from such an angle by the international Cassini spacecraft that they appear as one. | Continue reading
Invasive species and habitat loss are the biggest threats to Australian biodiversity, according to new research by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub in partnership with The University of Queensland. | Continue reading
Scientists and engineers have long been interested in synthesizing peptides—chains of amino acids responsible for conducting many functions within cells—to both mimic nature and to perform new activities. A designed peptide, for example, could be a functional drug acting in certa … | Continue reading
In reality many of the relatives of prisoners are also subjected to harsh penalties by the State. Innocent people, who do not deserve to be punished, but who nevertheless live in the shadow of a prison. Why have we chosen a penal system which impacts so harshly on families? | Continue reading
In a discovery that could pave the way for new materials and applications, materials scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that oscillating loads at certain frequencies can lead to several-fold increases in the strength of composites with an interface that is … | Continue reading
More than two-thirds of life on Earth died off some 252 million years ago, in the largest mass extinction event in Earth's history. | Continue reading
Several teams of researchers have announced that the skeletal remains of a hominin believed to have lived approximately 3.67 million years ago represent a new species of early human. The researchers report that the specimen, known as "Little Foot," has characteristics that make i … | Continue reading
An international team of researchers has taken a big step closer to creating an optical quantum computer, which has the potential to engineer new drugs and optimise energy-saving methods. | Continue reading
An international research project aiming to update an ancient, sustainable building material has succeeded in bringing it into line with modern thermal standards. | Continue reading
Online platforms have become an important site for political and social engagement. On the one hand they have been praised for their progressive characteristics. This is because they offer great organising potential, enhance political accountability and disrupt old media practice … | Continue reading
Astronomers have conducted spectroscopic observations of the cataclysmic variable ES Ceti, which resulted in uncovering important insights about gas emission from this object. The new findings, presented in a paper published November 29 on the arXiv pre-print server, suggest the … | Continue reading
Inspired by nature, Chinese scientists have produced a synthetic analogue to vulcanized natural rubber. Their material is just as tough and durable as the original. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, they reveal the secret to their success: short protein chains attached to the sid … | Continue reading
Lif-E-Buoy takes advantage of the natural hydrokinetic energy of running water—abundantly available in most river-based urban centres—to generate clean energy for electric vehicles and infrastructure. | Continue reading
Iridescence is responsible for some of the most striking visual displays in the animal kingdom. Now, thanks to a new study of feathers from almost 100 modern bird species, scientists have gained new insights into how this colour diversity evolved. | Continue reading
In 2018, two anniversaries and a crucial decision loom large in the UK. We saw in the 70th anniversary of the NHS in July, while December 10 marks the 70th birthday of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations. On December 11, the UK parliame … | Continue reading
Delta environments are low-lying and highly vulnerable to flooding and erosion by ocean waves. And these hazards are likely to increase as the world's climate changes and sea levels rise. Monitoring these hazards, and their impacts, is very important to develop strategies and pro … | Continue reading
Electron microscopy is one of the main methods used to examine protein structure. Studying these structures is of key importance to elucidate their function feeding fundamental information into a number of fields such as structural biology, cell biology, cancer research, and othe … | Continue reading
The analysis of the world's most complete skeleton of an early human ancestor, conducted by a research collaboration involving the University of Liverpool, offers conclusive evidence that human ancestors became efficient upright walkers while they were still substantially tree dw … | Continue reading
It has long been debated whether the seal predation of fish plays a major role in the fish decline in the Baltic Sea compared to human fishing. The debate has escalated worldwide since conservation efforts to protect seals and fish-eating birds resulted in increased populations. | Continue reading
Dolphins in the northern Adriatic contain high levels of PCBs – highly toxic chemicals banned in the 1970s and 1980s – and are passing the pollutant to their young, according to new research led by a marine scientist at the University of St Andrews. | Continue reading
There are conflicting ideas about the role of the family in wider society. Some, particularly in the US, argue that family units are essential for a strong civil society, and make a big contribution to public life. Others – mostly in Europe – say that families act in self-interes … | Continue reading
Researchers have developed a genomic model to study drought tolerance in perennial grasses using Panicum hallii (Hall's panicgrass), by generating two complete genomes from varieties that diverged over a million years ago. The hallii variety thrives in desert environments, while … | Continue reading
Microbes could become key allies in global efforts to curb carbon emissions and avoid dangerous climate change. A group of microbes called chemolithoautotrophs consume CO2 through their natural metabolism, spitting out small organic molecules as a byproduct. These microbes could … | Continue reading
"No beam for a while. Restart in about 20 months." Early this morning, operators of the ESRF Control room turned off the beam, ending 26 years of successful operation of the European Synchrotron, the world's most powerful synchrotron light source. 2018 is a key year in the histor … | Continue reading
Jasmonic acid gives the plant Jasminum grandiflorum its characteristic odor and is used in the cosmetics and perfume industries. Plants wounded by things like chewing herbivores produce jasmonic acid as a defense signal, as a phytohormone to mount their defense responses—this inc … | Continue reading
There is often a pronounced symmetry when you look at the lattice of crystals: It doesn't matter where you look—the atoms are uniformly arranged in every direction. This behavior would also be expected of a crystal, which physicists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZ … | Continue reading
Studies of ice melt in the Arctic suggest that world may have a fighting chance of preventing huge sea level changes that would result from the dramatic collapse of the vast ice sheets that cover Greenland, but that more work is needed to understand the wider effects. | Continue reading
A large shareholder at Yelp says it's lost patience with the review site and wants to see the company board reshuffled. | Continue reading
Despite the strong presence of women students in university business programs, women leaders are portrayed stereotypically – or not at all – in many business case studies that are a key educational tool in management education. | Continue reading
Western researchers are leading a national push for 15 more weeks of work leave for adoptive parents as an important way to strengthen the bond between parents and their adopted children. | Continue reading
Natural mother-of-pearl, such as mussels, is one of the hardest, most stable and stiff natural materials. Researchers have always been fascinated by it. The structure of mother-of-pearl is exquisite under the electron microscope; it looks like a miniature brick wall, the joints o … | Continue reading
How large can snowflakes get? The answer is: pretty darn big. | Continue reading
Researchers from MIT and the University of Colorado have fabricated a 3-D transistor that's less than half the size of today's smallest commercial models. To do so, they developed a novel microfabrication technique that modifies semiconductor material atom by atom. | Continue reading