Shortly after officials reported SARS-COV-2—also known the coronavirus—had reached the shores of the United States, an odd thing began to happen. Average Americans, gripped with some combination of fear and powerlessness, began to buy as much toilet paper as would fit into their … | Continue reading
Stars far, far away could appear a lot closer when viewed through our telescopes thanks to new research from The Australian National University (ANU). | Continue reading
The Eastern Pacific leatherback turtle will be lost forever if insufficient conservation action is taken over the next ten years, a new study by conservation scientists has warned. | Continue reading
A collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and three other national laboratories has yielded new insight into the ability of bacteria to break down the hardy part of a plant known as lignin. | Continue reading
Before there were farms in southwest Michigan, there were prairies. For thousands of years, tall grass prairies stood undisturbed until European settlers turned the rich, highly productive soils to agriculture. | Continue reading
Griffith University researchers are aiming to unlock a catalytic process that will enhance the breakdown of water, into hydrogen and oxygen and bring Australia a step closer to creating clean efficient hydrogen fuel. | Continue reading
The pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus is creating all kinds of chaos for human society. But for the dear old Earth, and the humans and creatures that breathe its air, it's a bit of a reprieve. Mirroring what happened in China during lock-down, Europe is now seeing the same … | Continue reading
Now more than ever, South Africans are painfully aware of the inequalities that continue to play out in the country. In people's pre-COVID-19 lives, the realities of living in a country that is among the most unequal in the world were easily overlooked. The pandemic shines a very … | Continue reading
Netflix's new docuseries "Tiger King" takes viewers into the strange world of big cat collectors. Featuring eccentric characters with names like Joe Exotic and Bhagavan "Doc" Antle, the series touches on polygamy, addiction and personality cults, while exploring a mysterious disa … | Continue reading
Carbohydrates are complex molecules, difficult to synthesize in the lab, but doing so is useful in studying beneficial sugars such as those found in human breast milk, or enabling researchers to tailor the chemical structure of drug candidates, vaccines and natural products. | Continue reading
Disaster-prone Nepal's southernmost lowland parts are less resilient to natural disasters than the sparsely-populated hilly and mountain areas, says a new study. | Continue reading
What's your favorite color? If you answered blue, you're in good company. Blue outranks all other color preferences worldwide by a large margin. | Continue reading
The pandemic offers scientists an undesired, albeit unique opportunity to study the relationship between humans and the environment. The ecology research team at Ca' Foscari University of Venice has recently launched a campaign to collect pictures and data on the lagoon, also ask … | Continue reading
The UK government has consistently argued that its approach to the COVID-19 epidemic follows the best scientific knowledge available. To the average person, it sounds reassuring. But it relies on the widespread belief that there is a correct scientific answer to a problem, and th … | Continue reading
Scientists have big dreams for artificial cells. These replicas of biological cells in the laboratory could help understand how living organisms work. While a lot of progress has been made in how to construct artificial cells, the phenomena behind their communication and their be … | Continue reading
ETH researchers analyzed various possibilities for reducing the net CO2 emissions of the chemical industry to zero. Their conclusion? The chemical industry can in fact have a carbon-neutral future. | Continue reading
There's a lot the average person doesn't know about concrete. For example, it's porous; it's the world's most-used material after water; and, perhaps most fundamentally, it's not cement. | Continue reading
Gov. Whitmer's difficult decision to close schools in Michigan for the remainder of the school year is a necessary precaution in our current crisis. We applaud the teachers and administrators who are working with great ingenuity and skill to serve students and families, and we ha … | Continue reading
A significant pillar that has prevented more drastic declines in consumer sentiment has been the widespread belief that the coronavirus crisis will be temporary. Consumers provided dismal assessments of current economic conditions in the latest consumer sentiment survey, but anti … | Continue reading
Genes that time the transition to adulthood are well-studied in the roundworm C. elegans, and at least partially conserved in mammals, where they regulate the onset of puberty. Juvenile worms turn into adults when a protein called LIN-29 accumulates in sufficient amounts. By stud … | Continue reading
Primate experts warn that the global human health emergency of COVID-19 also threatens our closest living relatives—endangered great apes. | Continue reading
Millions of lost jobs, mounting debt woes and plunging remittances are among the economic hardships African countries can expect because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the African Union said in a study published Monday. | Continue reading
The ice giant Uranus' unusual attributes have long puzzled scientists. All of the planets in the solar system revolve around the sun in the same direction and in the same plane, which astronomers believe is a vestige of how our solar system formed from a spinning disc of gas and … | Continue reading
A recent discovery by University of Arkansas physicists could help researchers establish the existence of quantum spin liquids, a new state of matter. They've been a mystery since they were first proposed in the 1970s. If proven to exist, quantum spin liquids would be a step towa … | Continue reading
Those on low incomes are also more likely to have lost jobs or pay, and less able to complete work tasks from home. Researchers warn the COVID-19 downturn is likely to "increase inequality between young and old." | Continue reading
Extreme rainfall has become increasingly common in metropolitan São Paulo, Brazil. The capital of the state of São Paulo is the largest city in the southern hemisphere. The metropolitan area suffered from flooding due to heavy rain in February. Early in the month, no less than 11 … | Continue reading
Materials that combine topological electronic properties and quantum magnetism are of high interest for the quantum many-body physics they exhibit and for possible applications in electronic components. ETH physicists have now established the microscopic mechanism linking magneti … | Continue reading
The Arctic Ocean increasingly resembles the Atlantic in its temperature and the species that live there. However, scientists from the CNRS and Université Laval, Quebec, showed that an unprecedented strengthening of Atlantic currents is playing a major role in this phenomenon call … | Continue reading
In a ground-breaking first University of New England (UNE) researchers have produced the only fully online human skeleton, propelling a traditionally lab-based science into the digital cloud. | Continue reading
When the LSU Department of Chemistry received a call a few weeks ago from someone looking for experts to help prepare hand rub sanitizer, LSU chemistry Ph.D. student Anthony Mai agreed to help. It turns out it was the Louisiana Secretary of State's office asking for help with pre … | Continue reading
A deadly Pacific cyclone intensified as it hit Vanuatu on Monday, threatening a natural disaster that experts fear will undermine the impoverished nation's battle to remain coronavirus-free. | Continue reading
In satellite photos of the Earth, clouds of bright green bloom across the surface of lakes and oceans as algae populations explode in nutrient-rich water. From the air, the algae appear to be the primary players in the ecological drama unfolding below. | Continue reading
Atomic bomb tests conducted during the Cold War have helped scientists for the first time correctly determine the age of whale sharks. | Continue reading
With historically low river flows and reservoirs running dry due to drought, people in central Chile have found themselves particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic. | Continue reading
Poaching and habitat loss have decimated Indonesia's orangutan population, but now coronavirus has emerged as another potential deadly threat to the critically endangered species. | Continue reading
Final assembly and testing of NASA's Perseverance rover continues at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the July launch window approaches. In some of the last steps required prior to stacking the spacecraft components in the configuration they'll be in atop the Atlas V rocket, th … | Continue reading
A delicate remote control operation to remove a tracking collar from a tiger on an epic 13-month trek through India has been carried out to avoid the device choking the animal. | Continue reading
Scientists at Caltech and Occidental College have discovered a methane-fueled symbiosis between worms and bacteria at the bottom of the sea, shedding new light on the ecology of deep-sea environments. | Continue reading
A protein called phytochrome B, which can sense light and temperature, triggers plant growth and controls flowering time. How it does so is not fully understood. | Continue reading
Gabon's government on Friday banned the sale and eating of bats and pangolins, which are suspected of sparking the novel coronavirus in China where they are highly prized in traditional medicine. | Continue reading
By observing electrons that have been accelerated to extremely high energies, scientists are able to unlock clues about the particles that make up our universe. | Continue reading
NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over the Southern Pacific Ocean and provided forecasters with a visible image of newly formed Tropical Cyclone Harold. Harold formed near the Solomon Islands and now threatens Vanuatu, which has already issued some warnings. | Continue reading
As Tropical Cyclone Irondro continues to move through the Southern Indian Ocean, NASA's Terra satellite saw the storm developing an eye as it continued to intensify. | Continue reading
As rural masses migrate to urban areas, populations grow, and people work toward better living standards, global food system sustainability is jeopardized, according to a new analysis spanning low- to high-income countries. The study, which was published April 3 in the scientific … | Continue reading
You might have heard that COVID-19 vaccine trials are underway in Seattle. | Continue reading
Particle chasing—it's a game that so many physicists play. Sometimes the hunt takes place inside large supercolliders, where spectacular collisions are necessary to find hidden particles and new physics. For physicists studying solids, the game occurs in a much different environm … | Continue reading
A previous study has shown that a type of squill growing in Madeira produces a chemical compound that may be useful as a medicinal drug. But a new study from researchers at Uppsala University has shown that this is probably not true: instead, the plant had likely accumulated anti … | Continue reading
The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME), approximately 252 million years ago (Ma), caused a serious marine and terrestrial ecosystem crisis, and about 75% of terrestrial biological species disappeared. How long did it take for terrestrial ecosystems to recover? | Continue reading