Three-hundred-million years ago, Earth was very different. The continents had coalesced into Pangea, which was dominated in its equatorial regions by vast coal-swamp forests. With high atmospheric oxygen levels, wildfires were common. [...]
Extreme climate impacts on people and the environment are often associated with very high levels of global warming (3 or 4°C). A new study led by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) shows that this assumption is too simplistic. Even moderate warming of 2°C could pose considerable climate risks for sectors that are particularly important for society and ecosystems. These include densely populated regions facing heavy rainfall, key agricultural areas affected by droughts, and forests exposed to extreme fire weather conditions. This underlines the urgency of rapid climate mitigation measures to limit these risks. The study is published in Nature. [...]
When you reach into a bucket of ice, open your front door on a snowy day, or feel the tingle of menthol toothpaste, a protein in your nerve cells called TRPM8 springs into action, opening like a tiny gate to send a "cold" signal to your brain. Now, UC San Francisco researchers have discovered how TRPM8 changes its shape when exposed to cool temperatures. The work, published in Nature, could one day be used to help treat pain that is triggered by cold. It also answers a long-standing question about why birds—which also have TRPM8 in their nerve cells—are far less cold sensitive than mammals. [...]
The economic damage yet to come from carbon dioxide emitted decades ago far exceeds the harm it has wrought so far, according to a new Stanford University study. The research, published in Nature, puts a dollar value on the harm done to individual nations and the world by carbon dioxide emitted over time by countries and major companies. [...]
An international team of researchers led by the Francis Crick Institute, the University of East Anglia and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has found that dogs were domesticated more than 14,000 years ago and that dogs living in pre-agricultural Europe contributed substantially to the genetics of dogs living after agriculture and in the present day. The findings appear in Nature. [...]
NASA's IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission has taken a new observation of a supernova, RCW 86, helping fill in a fuller picture of what other telescopes have observed. [...]
Soil salinity is a critical concern in agriculture when excessive soluble salts restrict a plant's water uptake, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, hindering crop growth and reducing yields on roughly 30% of U.S. irrigated land. Caused by irrigation, poor drainage or saltwater intrusion, soil salinity impacts soil structure, reduces fertility and causes economic losses. To help growers identify and mitigate salt stress, in a proof-of-concept study, a team led by Penn State researchers built a low-cost sensor system that detects signals released by plants in trouble. [...]
A toxic gas known for its "rotten egg smell" has been transformed into a therapeutic tool. A research team at KAIST has developed a technology to precisely control hydrogen sulfide (H2S) using electrical signals, bringing us one step closer to precision medicine that targets only the desired areas while minimizing side effects. The work is published in the journal Science Advances. [...]
A team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has identified a rare, switchable quantum property in a new type of nickel sulfide material. The discovery could have applications in high-speed transistors, adaptive sensors and other devices that require a material's electronic structure to be controlled on the fly. The research is published in the journal Matter. [...]
A scientist who pioneered the modern food processing safety standards used around the world was awarded this year's World Food Prize, the organization announced Wednesday, crediting his work for averting millions of cases of foodborne illness and reducing food waste. [...]
Pulsars are ultra-dense, rapidly spinning, and highly magnetized remnants of dead stars. They act like cosmic lighthouses, sending out regular pulses of radio waves and sometimes gamma rays in beams that sweep across the sky. A special class called millisecond pulsars spins hundreds of times per second and is among the most precise clocks in the universe. For decades, astronomers believed that a pulsar's radio signals are only produced close to the star's surface, near its magnetic poles. [...]
A major gap in South Korea's prehistoric record has been filled with the discovery of Onggwanoolithus aphaedoensis, the first known bird-type dinosaur eggs from the Cretaceous period of South Korea. The find, which is detailed in a paper published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, is a significant milestone because it is the first physical evidence of the bird-like dinosaurs thought to have left behind many of the region's fossil footprints. [...]
It may well take years to prove, but a pair of University of Miami astrophysicists could be on the verge of a cosmic breakthrough that will confirm the existence of primordial black holes and the role they play in one of cosmology's greatest mysteries. [...]
Modern polymer materials face a fundamental challenge: they must remain strong and durable during use, yet ideally degrade when they are no longer needed. Designing materials that satisfy both requirements has long been a major challenge in polymer science. [...]
An international research team led by scientists from Skoltech has developed a method to position molecules on the surface of ultrathin materials with unprecedented precision using molecular DNA self-assembly, enabling the creation of quantum light sources. The results, published in the journal Light: Science & Applications, pave the way for the production of compact and efficient components for future quantum computers and secure communication networks. [...]
Finding high-performing catalysts, which are used to accelerate processes from chemical manufacturing to energy production, can be a slow, expensive process, often relying on years of trial-and-error or massive computational resources. To add to the difficulty, ideal catalyst candidates are rare. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a new machine learning framework that can accelerate the search for better catalysts—the materials that speed up chemical reactions—and offer more reliable results. [...]
Across much of the Rocky Mountain West, a winter of record-breaking high temperatures and historically low snowfall has forced people to think about having less water this spring. But it could also mean more severe wildfires this summer, according to new research from Western Colorado University. In a paper published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, researchers from Western's Clark School of Environment and Sustainability found that declining snowpack not only extends the fire season but also increases the severity of forest fires. [...]
To protect the vulnerable biodiversity of the Arctic, researchers from the University of Alberta and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA) have identified a new conservation strategy in western Hudson Bay: using polar bears as an "umbrella species" to guide where protection is needed most. [...]
NASA's Artemis 2 lunar mission is set to be the first crewed flyby of the moon in more than half a century, and could launch as soon as April 1. [...]
Scientists have created the first microlasers capable of detecting individual molecules and even single atomic ions, a breakthrough that could significantly advance early disease diagnosis and molecular-scale medical testing. Researchers at the University of Exeter's Living Systems Institute have published their work in Nature Photonics. The paper opens up new possibilities for microlaser biosensing technology, including "lab-on-a-chip" technology capable of instant medical testing and diagnosis. [...]
The first large-scale genetic study of E. coli's protective armor has identified the five capsule types that are responsible for 70% of all multidrug-resistant bloodstream infections in Europe. Researchers, including those at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Oslo, and their collaborators, analyzed over 18,000 bacterial genomes from samples across all continents to investigate E. coli's armor and find new ways to penetrate it. [...]
The four astronauts selected for the Artemis 2 moon mission will be the first to travel there in more than five decades. [...]
Billions of dirty diapers end up buried or burned every year in Japan—more from seniors than babies—but a recycling breakthrough has given them a new lease on life, one hot mess at a time. [...]
More than half a century after the groundbreaking Apollo program's last crewed flight to the moon, three men and one woman are preparing for a lunar journey set to turn a new page in American space exploration. [...]
Jason Jenkins was driving to work before dawn when a bright green streak beamed across the sky. [...]
Britain's hazel dormice are getting lighter in spring but fatter in autumn as our climate changes, suggests new research in Scientific Reports. The study, titled "The effects of climate and land cover on hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) body mass over space and time," used 30 years of data on the weight of dormice at different times of year. [...]
Biodiesel is a renewable fuel and offers a sustainable and potentially carbon-neutral alternative to petroleum products. Yet production costs remain a hurdle to its widespread use. Now, researchers have developed an inexpensive way to make biodiesel from materials found along the banks of their Louisiana bayou: algae and oyster shells. The researchers will present their results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS Spring 2026), held in Atlanta from March 22 to 26. [...]
A study published in Contemporary Economic Policy investigated the extent to which a company's political investments influence their success in the competition for federal contracts. [...]
The ability to sense environmental temperature, which helps animals move away from suboptimal locations and find those with ideal temperatures, involves various channels on sensory neurons that open at specific temperature ranges. [...]
A study published in The Journal of Wildlife Management found varying risks to species due to mercury pollution across the United States' National Wildlife Refuge System, the world's largest network of lands and waters conserved specifically for fish, wildlife, and their habitats. [...]