Chinese citizens who rarely voice open criticism of their government reveal stronger negative views when they can answer questions anonymously, according to a new study published in The China Quarterly. | Continue reading
The Jovian Vortex Hunter project, launched on Zooniverse in June 2022, is out of data as of December 23, 2023. | Continue reading
According to recent data, bird populations in North America have declined by approximately 2.9 billion birds, a loss of more than one in four birds since 1970. Experts say this bird loss will continue to grow unless changes are made in our daily lives. | Continue reading
Parents are often under the impression that the best way to protect their preteens and teens online is to restrict their use: limiting the amount of time they can spend, implementing rules about which apps they're allowed to use, etc. But this kind of restrictive monitoring, thou … | Continue reading
Pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) is a reliable and versatile technique for producing metal nanoparticles (NPs) in solution. Its advantages, including the absence of reducing agents, operational simplicity, high purity without purification steps, and ambient processing condi … | Continue reading
Optical fiber, as the basic carrier of modern high-speed and high-capacity communication, is the key to the interconnection of the world. With the rapid development of the communications industry in recent decades, ordinary single-mode optical fiber can no longer meet the special … | Continue reading
Researchers at the University of Toronto have used an artificial intelligence framework to redesign a crucial protein involved in the delivery of gene therapy. | Continue reading
Wood quality is primarily determined by the properties of its secondary cell wall (SCW). Gaining insight into the molecular processes governing SCW development is crucial for the genetic enhancement of wood quality. Although it's established that a multilayered gene regulatory ne … | Continue reading
Poison ivy ranks among the most medically problematic plants. Up to 50 million people worldwide suffer annually from rashes caused by contact with the plant, a climbing, woody vine native to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, the Western Bahamas and several areas in Asia … | Continue reading
Organic compounds in the field of chemistry range from simple hydrocarbons to complex molecules, with diverse functional groups added to the main carbon backbone. These functional groups impart distinct chemical properties to the compounds and participate in various chemical tran … | Continue reading
Plastic microparticles released into the environment from common road tires should be treated as a "high concern" pollutant that may exceed chronic safety limits in some heavily contaminated environments, new research has shown. | Continue reading
This week, Emiliano Bruner, a paleoneurologist at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), has published a wide-ranging review in the Journal of Comparative Neurology that describes the relationship between fossils and cognition following the tenet … | Continue reading
"Millennials don't really want to work. They're far too focused on avocado toast and chai lattes!" Just one of the many clichés expressed by workers over the age of 50. And those being criticized? Well, they often reply with a bored "OK, Boomer" followed by an eye roll and some i … | Continue reading
All of the saltwater bodies on Earth make up one big ocean. But within it, there is infinite variety—just ask any scuba diver. Some spots have more coral, more sea turtles, more fish, more life. | Continue reading
About 1 out of every 100 students in American public schools has autism. A subset of these students also have academic gifts and talents in a broad range of areas, including math, science, technology, the humanities, and the arts. These students are often referred to as "twice ex … | Continue reading
Underwater surfaces can get grimy as they accumulate dirt, algae and bacteria, a process scientists call "fouling." But furry mammals like beavers and otters that spend most of their lives wet manage to avoid getting their fur slimy. These anti-fouling abilities come, in part, fr … | Continue reading
The US developers of a 300-ft glowing orb, set to be built in the middle of Stratford, east London, and accommodate upwards of 21,500 concert goers, have withdrawn their planning application. | Continue reading
On 30 March 2011, a truly unprecedented event took place at a provincial court in Loja, Equator, located some 270 miles from the capital of Quito. The Vilcabamba River, a plaintiff in a trial there, convinced the tribunal that its own rights were being undermined by a road develo … | Continue reading
Having a child is bad for a woman's earnings. This is not only in the immediate period after the birth, but across her lifetime—as shown in research by recent economics Nobel prize-winner Claudia Goldin. | Continue reading
Heavy rain across southern Britain meant that most rivers in England swelled at the beginning of 2024, prompting widespread flooding. | Continue reading
"Why isn't it a beautiful thing?" a puzzled Sharath Keshava Narayana asked of his AI device masking accents. | Continue reading
An international team of scientists led by researchers from the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) in Barcelona has uncovered the ocean's intricate web of microbial interactions across different depths. The research, which provides crucial insights into the functioning of oc … | Continue reading
A team of astronomers including those from the University of Tokyo have created the first-ever map of magnetic field structures within a spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy. Previous studies on galactic magnetic fields only gave a very general picture, but the new study reveals th … | Continue reading
At the center of most large galaxies lives a supermassive black hole (SMBH). The Milky Way has Sagittarius A*, a mostly dormant SMBH whose mass is around 4.3 million times that of the sun. But if you look deeper into the universe, there are vastly larger SMBHs with masses that ca … | Continue reading
A research group at Nagoya University in Japan has developed a new catalyst that promises to revolutionize the asymmetric synthesis of pharmaceuticals called chiral macrocyclic dilithium(I) salt. It overcomes the lack of reactivity of ketones and the difficulty inducing them to a … | Continue reading
For the first time, a research team has succeeded in stabilizing and directly imaging small clusters of noble gas atoms at room temperature. This achievement opens exciting possibilities for condensed matter physics and applications in quantum information technology. | Continue reading
If you've seen the original Star Wars movie, you might wonder whether the iconic Tie fighter was modeled after the Gabija protein complex, a bacterial defense system. | Continue reading
RIKEN physicists have found an ideal platform for exploring the behavior of electrons in a material as it approaches superconductivity. This could help to develop new superconductors that operate at more convenient temperatures than existing ones. The study is published in the jo … | Continue reading
The repair of damage to genetic material (DNA) in the human body is carried out by highly efficient mechanisms that have not yet been fully researched. A scientific team led by Christian Seiser from MedUni Vienna's Center for Anatomy and Cell Biology has now discovered a previous … | Continue reading
If you've ever taken a car trip through a rural area, you might already know that livestock, including cows and sheep, can be individually tracked using decidedly old-fashioned methods, such as ear tags or even branding marks. By contrast, many tech-savvy pet owners have opted to … | Continue reading
In a system with two known planets, astronomers spotted something new: A small object transiting across the sun-sized star. This turned out to be another planet, which was extra hot and Earth-sized. | Continue reading
The cells in our bodies constantly divide and renew themselves. But if division goes wrong, cancer or other diseases can result. Now, University of Connecticut researchers have profiled two elusive proteins critical for healthy cell division. They report their results in the Dec. … | Continue reading
A group of researchers reports that they have achieved quantum coherence at room temperature, which is the ability of a quantum system to maintain a well-defined state over time without getting affected by surrounding disturbances | Continue reading
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook parts of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan on Thursday, sending panicked residents fleeing from their homes and offices and frightening people in remote villages, Pakistani officials and the U.S. Geological Survey said. | Continue reading
Years of research has led to the development of EGNITE (Engineered Graphene for Neural Interfaces), a novel class of flexible, high-resolution, high-precision graphene-based implantable neurotechnology. | Continue reading
Researchers have taken the first steps toward finding liquid solvents that may someday help extract critical building materials from lunar- and Martian-rock dust, an important part of making long-term space travel possible. | Continue reading
A team of zoologists from the Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science's Museum für Naturkunde, the University of Würzburg, both in Germany and ONG EnviSud Guinée, in Guinea, has found evidence that the gland-like tissue in the lower jaw of saber-toothed frogs may … | Continue reading
Researchers have identified a 3D fragment of fossilized skin that is at least 21 million years than previously described skin fossils. The skin, which belonged to an early species of Paleozoic reptile, has a pebbled surface and most closely resembles crocodile skin. It's the olde … | Continue reading
A new species of tyrannosaur from southern North America that may the closest known relative of Tyrannosaurus rex is described in a study published in Scientific Reports. | Continue reading
To combat viruses, bacteria and other pathogens, synthetic biology offers new technological approaches whose performance is being validated in experiments. Researchers from the Würzburg Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research and the Helmholtz AI Cooperative applied … | Continue reading
On average, bio-based products emit 45% less greenhouse gas emissions than the fossil materials they replace, according to research conducted by Radboud University, published in Nature Communications. At the same time, there is a large variation between individual bio-based produ … | Continue reading
Researchers have been studying the transcription factor, SREBP, a critical regulator of lipid biosynthesis. Precursor SREBP proteins, located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of the cell, are transported through the Golgi apparatus to the nucleus. Here, they promote the transcri … | Continue reading
Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is a compound synthesized by marine phytoplankton for protection against the osmotic pressure of saline water. However, DMSP could also have a role in preventing freezing damage. | Continue reading
Metal-to-insulator transition—a process that turns materials from a conductor to an insulator—has been a crucial process behind microelectronic switches, nonvolatile memory, and neuromorphic computing materials. In many cases, this transition is accompanied by drastic changes in … | Continue reading
Astronomers have made the rare discovery of a small, cold exoplanet and its massive outer companion—shedding light on the formation of planets like Earth. | Continue reading
NIMS and Nihon L'Oréal K.K. have developed a shape memory polymeric material responsive to humidity. This innovative material, when applied to a person's hair and allowed to dry, serves as an exceptionally moisture-resistant hairstyling agent. The research was published in Advanc … | Continue reading
Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have matured to commercial level. Yet, their widespread market adoption is hindered due to high costs and complicated device architecture. Researchers are actively exploring innovative device engineering strategies to circumvent these issues. | Continue reading
In a study published in Nature Biotechnology, Gao Caixia's group from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a series of new prime editors based on the Cas12a protein, further expanding the targeting scope and applicat … | Continue reading