Stay informed about scientific discoveries, research developments and new findings from around the world.
CosmoCube will use the far side of the Moon as a shield from Earth’s radio noise to search for a faint signal from the universe before the first stars existed. The suitcase-sized satellite could reveal how the cosmic dark ages ended and how dark matter helped build the first galaxies.
Yellow-morph green sea turtles in the Galápagos surprised scientists by staying remarkably close to home instead of making the long journeys typically associated with sea turtles. Satellite tracking showed that none left the marine reserve during the study, revealing just how important the islands’ coastal habitats may be to their survival.
Japan's population peaked around 2008 and has been steadily declining since. But construction hasn't stopped.
Scientists have discovered a stem cell that appears to serve as a master source for tendon and ligament cells throughout the body. In lumbar spinal stenosis, these cells become unusually active and may drive the ligament overgrowth that squeezes spinal nerves and causes pain, numbness, and difficulty walking. Researchers found that reducing calcium signaling stopped this abnormal growth in mice.
A study based on publication data traces how researchers moved within Ukraine and across borders between 2009 and 2022, with conflict-affected regions losing scholars while others became increasingly important destinations. These shifts were already underway after Russia illegally annexed Crimea and fighting began in the Donbas in 2014, underscoring that scholarly mobility during conflict cannot simply be understood as a matter of free choice.
Scientists have discovered a new tick-borne virus in China that causes flu-like illness and may account for previously unexplained cases of fever, fatigue, digestive problems, and low platelet counts. Most patients with ALTNV alone recovered, but coinfections with another dangerous tick-borne virus were linked to more serious complications.
Many cancers associated with infection are preventable
Not happy with the election result? Don't worry. Election Day is not the only opportunity to influence politics.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro contributed to deforestation through statements opposing forest conservation, according to an international study led by the University of Bonn. The study found that destruction of the Amazon rainforest accelerated when Bolsonaro and his ministers posted messages opposing forest conservation on Twitter. Brazil's environmental authorities were greatly weakened during Bolsonaro's presidency, but the analysis suggests that even a perceived low risk of punishment was a driver of deforestation. The researchers estimate that the statements contributed to the destruction of up to 1,700 square kilometers (660 square miles) of forest—almost double the area of...
In acute, life-threatening infections, rapidly characterizing the microorganisms in a patient sample can help guide diagnosis and treatment. Computational methods known as taxonomic profilers can analyze metagenome sequencing data generated from the microorganisms' genomic information and compare it with reference genomes of individual microorganisms. However, taxonomic profilers are still under development and are not yet in common use. Current methods can produce false-positive results or inaccurate abundance estimates.
The research group at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Pontedera (Pisa), led by Gianni Ciofani, has developed new organic nanoparticles that combine multiple therapeutic functions in a single material for the first time.
Most of the polarization currently roiling Congress comes from political parties rather than individual politicians, a study co-authored by University of Miami Business School associate professor Chad Kendall finds.
Controlling dopant concentration near the silicon surface is increasingly important for ultrashallow junctions and nanoscale devices. Mixed monolayer doping (MMLD) offers a surface-chemistry-based approach in which dopant-containing molecules are mixed with nondopant molecules to tune the amount of dopant available at the silicon surface before thermal diffusion.
Most sensors can measure only one thing at a time, like a thermometer for temperature or a pressure gauge for pressure. Measuring two properties accurately from the same surface at the same moment usually means using two separate instruments—adding cost and complexity to the process.
East Germany's espionage activities in the West boosted the country's economic output by 7.4%. Value added in manufacturing alone increased by 22.3% through industrial espionage, equivalent to 20.2 billion East German marks or approximately 4.1 billion euros at 2020 prices.
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has shown for the first time that it can detect the faint glow of hydrogen gas from deep in the universe's past using only its own data.
Analyzing more than 43,000 English-language newspaper articles, a new study reveals a highly stratified narrative about AI in which the news media allocate authority unequally, reinforcing the technology's prominent role in contemporary life.
The assembly pathway behind refractile-body proteins may have finally been resolved, researchers from Science Tokyo report. Using genetic engineering and several techniques for analyzing protein structure, they investigated how four proteins work together to produce the correct architecture of these complex, pH-responsive protein machines, from the nanoscale to the microscale. The findings could help establish new frameworks for engineering dynamic protein systems as biotechnological tools.
At the southwest tip of Sweden, the Falsterbo Peninsula stretches into the Baltic Sea, creating a natural bottleneck for hundreds of millions of birds traveling south for the winter each year. Falsterbo is particularly known for raptor migration. One autumn morning, I stood with a group of others by the lighthouse, watching birds gather to cross the open sea—a sight to take your breath away.
The quality of European rivers has improved in recent years, but not at the pace required to meet the environmental targets set for 2030. This is one of the main conclusions of a study led by researchers María Pachés Giner and Remedios Martínez from the Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research.
To build the ultrafast computers of the future, scientists are looking beyond the electrical charge of electrons to another property: their spin. While conventional hardware relies on the movement of charge to process data, tapping into this intrinsic quantum property could enable researchers to reinvent how information travels through a circuit.
Researchers at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI) at Kanazawa University have directly visualized how enzymes find and break DNA molecules in real time. Using high-speed atomic force microscopy, the team followed individual enzymes as they moved along DNA and found that they repeatedly returned to vulnerable regions before breaking them apart. The findings reveal how the structure of DNA influences its vulnerability to enzymatic breakdown. The research was led by Richard Wong and his team: Jingge Yang, Yujia Qiu, Keesiang Lim and Toshio Ando. The work is published in Nature Communications.
Evaluating the difficulty of English texts used in educational materials and language assessments is a central concern in English language education. Traditionally, researchers have relied on objective measures of text difficulty based on linguistic features, including characteristics of words and sentences. However, learners can differ substantially in how difficult they perceive the same text to be. To examine the relationship between objective and subjective text difficulty, the researchers investigated the extent to which objective estimates correspond with learners' perceptions. The work is published in the journal Reading and Writing.
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have rewritten a small part of Oklahoma's geologic history with global implications for ancient life. Below the surface of the small town of Ames, Oklahoma, a meteor impact site spans miles. The crater is buried by sedimentary strata in the subsurface, but it remains an important marker of Oklahoma's ancient past and present-day economy; the Ames impact structure is a major oil and gas producer.