East Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to extreme weather and climate events and to variability and change in climate. It is also one of the hardest regions to find good climate data on. Now, thanks to recently published research from UNU-FLORES, decision- … | Continue reading
If there's one line that stands the test of time in Steven Spielberg's 1993 classic Jurassic Park, it's probably Jeff Goldblum's exclamation, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." | Continue reading
News that chocolate, bread and dried fruit all share a common ingredient with household detergents and cosmetics might sound both unlikely and unappetising. | Continue reading
Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) demonstrated for the first time that raw human excrement can potentially be converted to a safe, reusable fuel and a nutrient rich fertilizer, solving two major worldwide issues in advance of World Toilet Day on November 1 … | Continue reading
Killer whales display personality traits similar to those of humans and chimpanzees, such as playfulness, cheerfulness and affection, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. | Continue reading
Chemical substances and nanomaterials are processed on a massive scale in diverse products, while their risks have not been properly assessed. Time and again synthesised substances have been shown to pollute the environment more than lab tests predicted. This is the warning given … | Continue reading
University of Liverpool researchers undertook a study in response to a request from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to assess induced seismicity and the associated traffic light system (TLS) which is used by hydraulic fracturing operations in the … | Continue reading
The Peptides and Proteins lab at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) has published a paper in Chemical Communications describing the use of a peptide derived from chlorotoxin, found in scorpion venom to carry drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). | Continue reading
More than half of the world's poorest people live on small farms in rural areas of developing countries, accounting for over 2 billion people living on around two dollars a day. | Continue reading
Efforts to prevent urban flooding have often resulted in costly and complex systems based on rainfall forecasts which are often inaccurate. A new approach offers more agility, at a fraction of the investment. | Continue reading
When I introduce myself as a Ph.D. student in chemistry, I can often spot fear and incomprehension in people's eyes: chemists are often pictured as crazy scientists, like Dr. Maru in Wonder Woman, doing black magic and explosions. It appears that most of the public fears are base … | Continue reading
From the fossil fuel divestment movement to the Stop Adani campaign, in recent years we've seen a wave of climate activism that directly targets fossil fuels—both the infrastructure used to produce, transport and consume them, and the corporations that finance, own and operate th … | Continue reading
The debate over the place of cars in cities may seem like a recent one, but in fact was raging well before the first automobile even saw the light of day. | Continue reading
Many of us are used to encountering ants scampering across a sidewalk, a trail path or even in our kitchen floor. But in many parts of the world, like the tropical regions of Central America, ants live their lives up in trees and utilize adhesive pads and claws to scurry from the … | Continue reading
A study led by scientists of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Hamburg/Germany presents evidence of the amplification of optical phonons in a solid by intense terahertz laser pulses. These lig … | Continue reading
In the drive to decarbonise Europe's transport sector, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) offer crucial benefits. For one, their fuel – hydrogen – can be generated from a wide variety of local renewable energy sources, limiting reliance on energy imports. The FCEVs themselves pr … | Continue reading
The potential discovery of a planet orbiting Barnard's Star – the second closest stellar system to the sun – was announced by researchers today in Nature. | Continue reading
Mathematics is causing headaches in schools across Canada, Australia and many other parts of the world. Teachers in both Canada and Australia feel neither competent nor confident in math and, frankly, they are the first to admit it. | Continue reading
When a tech company decides to launch a brand new, first-of-its-kind tech product, it can be hard to know how many you need to order. Order too few, and you may have to resort to more expensive manufacturing or shipping options to keep up with demand. Order too many, and you've j … | Continue reading
The influence of having a black teacher can make a monumental difference in a black student's life, and the effect begins early in an education. | Continue reading
A team of researchers at Dalhousie University has found evidence that suggests hemimastigotes represent a major new branch of evolutionary life. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their genetic study of the dirt-dwelling microbe. | Continue reading
ETH material researchers are developing a method with which they can coat droplets with controlled interfacial composition and coverage on demand in an emulsion in order to stabilise them. In doing so they are fulfilling a long-held dream of researchers and industry. | Continue reading
Melissa C. Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the Department of Focused Inquiry in Virginia Commonwealth University's University College, was initially skeptical of the Harry Potter phenomenon, even as her nieces and nephews eagerly ate up the first book in the seri … | Continue reading
A team of researchers from ETH Zürich, Cardiff University, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia and Sapienza-Università di Roma has found evidence that suggests Campi Flegrei could be re-entering a phase of pressure buildup. In their paper published in the journal Scien … | Continue reading
How much is a kilogram? 1,000 grams. 2.20462 pounds. Or 0.0685 slugs based on the old Imperial gravitational system. But where does this amount actually come from and how can everyone be sure they are using the same measurement? | Continue reading
Most of you reading this article probably have a comfortable toilet that you use on a daily basis. As Steve Sugden wrote: "In more developed areas of the world we have forgotten the horrors of using a disgusting toilet and we now take for granted that toilets are comfortable, wel … | Continue reading
Touch, or tactile sensing, is fundamentally important for a range of real-life applications, from robotics to surgical medicine to sports science. Tactile sensors are modeled on the biological sense of touch and can help researchers to understand human perception and motion. Rese … | Continue reading
An antibiotic called thanatin attacks the way the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria is built. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now found that this happens through a previously unknown mechanism. Thanatin, produced naturally by the spined soldier bug, can theref … | Continue reading
It never rains in California, so instead it burns—often—with prime fire conditions likely to persist until rainstorms arrive. | Continue reading
Online shopping platforms have changed the way we shop for everything from household items to holiday gifts. These firms – think Amazon, eBay or Etsy – provide a market space for buyers and sellers, and are the growth engines of the online economy, said Ju-Yeon Lee, an assistant … | Continue reading
Thermoelectric devices are highly versatile, with the ability to convert heat into electricity, and electricity into heat. They are small, lightweight, and extremely durable because they have no moving parts, which is why they have been used to power NASA spacecraft on long-term … | Continue reading
Which Pacific Northwest streams will warm the most in the next 50 years, and where would restoration work make a difference for salmon? Where will wildfires and pests be most aggressive in forests as the Earth warms, and how can better management help? | Continue reading
What do astronauts, Pokémon, wildlife park rangers and surgeons all have in common? | Continue reading
Research led by the University of Bristol has begun to unpick an important mechanism of antibiotic resistance and suggest approaches to block this resistance. | Continue reading
ETH scientists have shown that the immune system's macrophages are regulated not only biochemically, but mechanically as well. This could explain why the cells are less active in healthy body tissue. | Continue reading
Researchers have found that a protein in the cell membranes of sperm plays a key role in how they find their way to eggs. The PMCA protein may also help explain how egg cells only interact with sperm from the same species. PMCA may even be a target of drug discovery. | Continue reading