On the Great Plains of North America, bison were hunted for thousands of years before populations collapsed to near extinction due to overexploitation in the late 1800s. But long before then, bison hunters used various strategies and different types of sites, sometimes switching between sites. [...]
Alongside traditional estates, we now leave behind digital remains after we die, from social media accounts and emails to AI-generated recreations of ourselves. Our digital legacies are creating new and potentially troubling questions about autonomy and dignity after death. Dr. Edina Harbinja, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Birmingham, is spearheading a pioneering initiative to modernize European law to respond to novel questions about access, inheritance and privacy. The new model laws Dr. Harbinja is creating will be the first of their kind and will set the standard for how digital succession is regulated around the world. [...]
Every crystal's shape is a mirror of the internal arrangement of its molecules, but the molecules in photoswitchable crystals can expand, twist and change properties—from their color to their electronic conductivity—with a simple flash of light. This has made them highly sought-after for applications like pharmaceuticals and data servers. But scientists have very little control over the shape that crystals take. [...]
Smooth everyday services, a safe environment, and small, friendly encounters with locals are key factors that increase the happiness of international students in Finland. This is shown by a recent study conducted at the University of Oulu Business School, Finland, which followed the well-being of international exchange students over several months. [...]
Input. Output. Targets met. Value created. Performance delivered. Strip work down to its essentials and for many people, this is what remains: a machine-like focus on producing, performing and optimizing. [...]
The application of modulated UV-C light to guavas—emitted in pulses or cycles rather than continuously—combated anthracnose. This fungal disease is caused by microorganisms belonging to the Colletotrichum gloeosporioides complex and triggers dark lesions on the fruit after harvest, reducing its shelf life. An article on the technique was published in the journal Horticulturae. [...]
Americans love dogs. Nearly half of U.S. households have one, and practically all owners see pets as part of the family—51% say pets belong "as much as a human member." The pet industry keeps generating more and more jobs, from vets to trainers, to influencers. Schools cannot keep up with the demand for veterinarians. [...]
Beyond societal concerns relating to the environment, animal welfare and human health, several consumer surveys indicate that the decline in beef consumption in France is also linked to its relatively high price, which does not always reflect its eating quality. [...]
We humans have long viewed ourselves as the pinnacle of evolution. People label other species as "primitive" or "ancient" and use terms like "higher" and "lower" animals. [...]
Artificial intelligence has attained an impressive series of feats—solving problems from the International Math Olympiad, conducting encyclopedic surveys of academic literature, and even finding solutions to some longstanding research questions. Yet these systems largely remain unable to match top experts in the conceptual frontiers of research math. Have reports of AI replacing mathematicians been greatly exaggerated? [...]
Professor Darren Evans and Madeleine Fabusova from the School of Natural and Environmental Science have published new research that shows that typical levels of artificial light at night can simultaneously suppress early-night activity and disrupt navigation cues in nocturnal insects and spiders. These findings identify twilight as a disproportionately sensitive period, raising questions about how street lighting and other mitigation strategies should be targeted. [...]
A possible alternative to active debris removal (ADR) by laser is ablative propulsion by a remotely transmitted electron beam (e-beam). The e-beam ablation has been widely used in industries, and it might provide higher overall energy efficiency of an ADR system and a higher momentum-coupling coefficient than laser ablation. However, transmitting an e-beam efficiently through the ionosphere plasma over a long distance (10 m–100 km) and focusing it to enhance its intensity above the ablation threshold of debris materials are new technical challenges that require novel methods of external actions to support the beam transmission. [...]
A scientific breakthrough not only promises faster testing for antimicrobial resistance, but also an ethical solution to the controversial issue of using rodents in research. University of Exeter scientists have created the world's first genetically engineered wax moths—a development which could both accelerate the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and significantly reduce the need for mice and rats in infection research. [...]
Since the beginning of January, an unusually long period of easterly winds has caused the average water level in the Baltic Sea to fall to a historic low. Measurements at the Swedish Landsort-Norra gauge show values that are the lowest since records began in 1886. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) are currently monitoring this development very closely, as it represents a rare oceanographic situation that could lead to a large inflow of saltwater from the North Sea into the Baltic Sea. An inflow of this kind could significantly affect the physical and chemical conditions in the deep basins of the central Baltic Sea. [...]
Constructed with tubulin heterodimers connected into a hollow cylinder, the microtubule, an essential component of the cytoskeleton, plays a vital role in various intracellular processes. In a recent study, a cross-disciplinary research team led by Professor Yuan Lin from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, and Professor Jeff Ti from the School of Biomedical Sciences in the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), has revealed how the biological function of microtubules is achieved through mechanical regulation at the tubulin level. [...]
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed software that reduces the time needed for a key task in the development of custom microbes from a week to just hours. The new tool cracks a key defense mechanism of microorganisms, expediting the creation of microbes with desired traits for the production of new biofuels and other valuable products for the bioeconomy. [...]
A psychological assessment test often used to evaluate psychopathy in Canadian criminal cases is unreliable and prone to unconscious bias on the part of expert witnesses, according to research from the University of Toronto Mississauga. [...]
This Feb. 4, 2026, image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captures a strong solar flare erupting from the star. Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy that can, along with other types of solar eruptions, impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. The flare pictured was classified as an X4.2 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. [...]
Harbor porpoises "buzz" less when boats and ships are nearby—suggesting a drop in feeding and socializing, new research shows. The paper, published in the journal Marine Mammal Science, is titled "Seasonal and diurnal patterns of harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) behavior and the disruptive effects of vessel presence in a high-traffic coastal habitat." [...]
Polymer micelles are tiny, self-assembled particles that are revolutionizing the landscape of drug delivery and nanomedicine. They form when polymer chains containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments organize into nanoscale spheres in liquid solutions; these structures can trap and hold drugs that are otherwise difficult to dissolve. [...]
They say that love is a two-way street, but that may only hold true to a point. It turns out that couples who obsess over equal give-and-take may be sabotaging their relationship, suggests a study involving University of Toronto Mississauga researchers. The findings are contained in a Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin paper authored by Impett, former UTM graduate student Haeyoung Gideon Park and two other researchers from the University of Alberta and the University of Michigan. [...]
In her 1962 book, "Silent Spring," American biologist Rachel Carson revealed that DDT, a widely used pesticide at the time, was responsible for the mass death of birds, including the iconic bald eagle. One reason was that the pesticide made eggshells thinner, causing mothers to break them when sitting on them to incubate. Silent Spring is considered the founding work of the modern environmental movement. [...]
Using the skin of an Amazonian fish known as tambatinga as the raw material, researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) and EMBRAPA Pecuária Sudeste—a decentralized unit of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) located in São Carlos, São Paulo state—have developed a biofilm that can be used in food packaging. [...]
Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have uncovered how fertilized rice seeds begin to divide and establish their "body axis." Using a new imaging method, they discovered that while the first cell divides in an asymmetric way initially, this is followed by random growth and the apparently "collective" determination of a body axis. This is a significant break with known pathways, a rare glimpse into the birth and growth of plant embryos. [...]
In terms of area, forest is the most important means of avalanche protection. It is also the most cost-effective and is naturally renewable. This insight hit home after the winter of 1951, when over 1,000 avalanches caused immense damage. The SLF began researching how protection forests could be sustainably developed. [...]
Under the leadership of the University of Bonn, a research team led by Prof. Dr. Pavel Kroupa from the Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics has discovered that galaxy clusters are about twice as heavy as previously assumed. The additional mass comes mainly from neutron stars and stellar black holes and also explains the observed quantities of heavy elements. [...]
Despite a barren start to Colorado's ski season, Winter Park Resort opened on Halloween and served up holiday powder. The ski area's secret is a contraption a few miles upwind of the chairlifts that looks like a meat smoker strapped to the top of a ladder. When weather conditions are just right, a Winter Park contractor fires up the machine, burning a fine dust of silver iodide into the sky—a process known as cloud seeding. Ideally, the particles disappear into a cloud that is cold enough and wet enough to produce snow, but may need a nudge. [...]
Can we use nothing more than sunlight and inexpensive materials to produce clean hydrogen fuel while also removing toxic pollutants from water? That question shaped our recent work with γ-In2S3, a semiconductor that has intrigued researchers for years but still holds untapped potential. By making subtle changes at the atomic scale, we discovered that we could significantly enhance its performance under visible light without adding noble metals or forming complex heterojunctions. [...]
As carbon emissions continue to be pumped into the atmosphere at record levels, it will be critical to recapture and sequester as much of these warming gases as possible. While technological approaches face many barriers before they can be scaled up, efforts to capture carbon can rely on proven, natural interventions, like blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs). UConn researcher Mojtaba Fakhraee makes the argument in a Nature Sustainability paper that strategic placement of BCEs can not only sequester carbon, but have the added benefit of helping with the restoration of another vital ecosystem—coral reefs. [...]
Cornell researchers have discovered a new way cells regulate how they respond to stress, identifying an interaction between two proteins that helps keep a critical cellular recycling system in balance. The findings show that a protein called SHKBP1 regulates another protein, p62, which plays a key role in clearing damaged cell components and activating antioxidant defenses. By helping maintain this balance, SHKBP1 allows cells to respond appropriately to stress—a process that can break down in diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. [...]
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