Stay informed about scientific discoveries, research developments and new findings from around the world.
The threat of cyberattacks against American agriculture and food systems is growing, and Washington State University researchers are helping to lead a call for a national consortium of land-grant universities to study and combat the threat.
For highly fragile quantum information systems, the ability to store quantum information is vital—but also challenging. Quantum information is transported in particles of light called photons, which often must be temporarily paused (or "stored") while other, slower quantum operations catch up. This storage must be performed on microchips as small as 1 centimeter (0.4 inches)—a distance covered by light in a few trillionths of a second. Storing photons for a microsecond would represent a massive leap forward for the capabilities of quantum chips.
Rocks in the asteroid belt rotating at ultra-fast speeds suggest our understanding of asteroid structure might be wrong
Episodic lava fountaining is a rare volcanic behavior in which repeated, hours-long bursts of molten lava and gas are spewed from volcanic vents, with quiet pauses lasting days to weeks between episodes. These lava fountains have been observed in active volcanoes in places like Hawaii, Iceland and Italy, but researchers still do not fully understand what starts, sustains or stops these individual fountain episodes.
Most covid-19 cases are caused by a particular type of variant, but do we need to worry every time a new one emerges?
Majestic African antelopes known as gemsbok have been roaming the U.S. Southwest since their introduction in the 1960s and 1970s. Brought to New Mexico as a game species for hunting, gemsbok quickly settled in, expanding more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from their introduction point. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers say that's due to their exceptional adaptations to arid conditions, which they predict will dramatically expand under climate change.
U.S. colleges and universities have long struggled to increase the racial diversity of their faculty.
Imagine you're road-tripping across the country 10 years from now. You spend a few minutes charging your electric vehicle and then set off — and your car's solar paint keeps it charged as you drive. Your eyes are on the stunning scenery, taking in the vistas along Route 66 or the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, or you're catching up on messages. Your hands barely touch the wheel, and your foot doesn't push a pedal. Your car communicates with others on the road, so there's no need to brake suddenly or swerve. That's because it knows a vehicle five cars up from you has done so, and all those in between are slowing at exactly the right pace to avoid dramatic changes in trajectory.And when you ...
Parts of Earth's climate system can change abruptly once warming pushes them beyond critical thresholds. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the Amazon rainforest, coral reefs and major ocean currents are all among the systems containing potential climate tipping points.
You have probably noticed it on a hot summer day: A basement feels cool even when the air outside is baking. The ground does not heat up and cool down as fast as the air does. A few hundred feet down, it stays close to the local yearly average all year, which can be around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius).
The rise and fall of a continent-spanning cliff may help explain a mysterious 1-billion-year gap in Earth’s geologic history, a new study suggests.
Two people born on the exact same day can age in totally different ways — one in relative health and the other with chronic disease. Now, scientists have found a key difference in the immune systems of people who are more prone to age-related conditions, and it could help explain why some people remain healthier longer. In young people, the immune system contains many naive T cells, a type of white blood cell. Over time, exposure to pathogens and vaccinations transforms some of these T cells into memory cells, which can respond quickly to defend the body against germs. These memory cells make different types of characteristic proteins, called granzymes, which kill infected cells. They come...
The new tattoo ink is activated under UV light. (Image credit: Matter & Light, Bruns et al.)Researchers have developed a new type of tattoo ink that can be switched on and off with light, allowing colors and images embedded in the skin to be changed and even "erased" without having to go through the painful tattoo-removal process. The system, which is being commercialized under the name PhotoTat, could eventually give people a way to conceal or change permanent body art. It could also have more practical applications, including medical tattoos that are visible only when a doctor needs to see them, researchers reported in a study published Friday (Oct. 9) in the journal Matter & Light. "This ...
A new type of ink could overcome one of the main downsides of tattoos: the inability to make them invisible
The movie is based on the true story of how Facebook employee Frances Haugen blew the whistle on the company’s safety practices
Atherosclerosis, the build-up of fatty plaque in arteries, usually affects people older than 50, but a "meaningful" proportion of younger adults also have the condition
An icy window into the cosmos, a light switch for the brain and solving the mystery of mirror image molecules all took home the top prize.
Dying trees in a ghost forest, South CarolinaPETER FALKNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Millions of trees seem to be dying in the US, both near the coasts and inland near lakes, thanks to rising water levels. The finding may force a re-evaluation of how much carbon is stored in forests, which are important carbon sinks for mitigating the more severe effects of climate change. Rising sea levels and intense storms linked to climate change have driven widespread tree die-offs along the US Atlantic coast, creating armies of skeletal dead trees known as ghost forests. North Carolina, for example, is thought to have lost 21 per cent of its coastal forest between 1985 and 2021 because of waterlogged soil ...
Meta’s and OpenAI’s new agents can streamline your life. Artificial intelligence researchers helped me test how far to trust them
Shown at the New York Film Festival, John Torres’s film The Remotes tells of a mysterious app that seems to be controlling drivers' bodies, causing them to crash. It is challenging but worth it, says Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
A six-month study suggests that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) may offer older adults a powerful advantage: losing body fat while keeping their muscle. Unlike moderate-intensity workouts, which led to a small loss of lean muscle, HIIT preserved it while also improving body composition around the waist.
When compared with similar stars, where does sun fit in?
Scientists have uncovered a hidden world of “in-between” materials that briefly form as chemical ingredients are heated, revealing structures that conventional methods can miss. Among the discoveries is a previously unknown form of bismuth vanadate, a material widely studied for using sunlight to help produce clean hydrogen. The new version has a different atomic structure and interacts with light in a strikingly different way, potentially opening new possibilities for solar fuels, catalysts, and electronics.
A bronze signet ring depicting the Lighthouse of Alexandria, a wonder of the ancient world, has been discovered underwater in the Mediterranean off Alexandria, Egypt.A joint team from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM) and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities found the artifact in the remains of a palace on the now-submerged island of Antirhodos, marking the first time a signet ring featuring the image of the lighthouse has been found, the IEASM team said in a statement. The image on the ring is similar to depictions of the lighthouse that have been previously found on coins dating to the second century, representatives of IEASM said. "The discovery of the ...