In the same week that New South Wales experienced four shark attacks, Victorian beachgoers were warned about stinging jellyfish. [...]
An animal ecologist researching large marine animals such as whales and dolphins, Assistant Professor Iwata Takashi of the Graduate School of Maritime Sciences has performed surveys in oceans across the world. By using a method known as "biologging," which involves attaching various recording instruments to animals in order to collect data, Iwata is working to elucidate the activity and surrounding environment of mysterious marine life. [...]
When we assign work or chores in social units like our workplaces and households, feelings of unfairness are inevitable. While we hope to keep things fair, this can sometimes be difficult to achieve, and we often find ourselves caught in terrible dilemmas. [...]
With western states deadlocked in negotiations over how to cut water use along the Colorado River, the Trump administration has called in the governors of seven states to Washington to try to hash out a consensus. [...]
There's growing concern about the rise of harmful and aggressive forms of masculinity, whether at home, in schools or in public spaces. [...]
CO2 that has been absorbed and accumulated in fresh water areas like lakes and reservoirs—is receiving attention for its potential contributions to achieving a carbon neutral society. Kobe University is a hub for freshwater carbon research, with Graduate School of Engineering Professor Nakayama Keisuke, an expert in aquatic and environmental engineering, at the forefront. [...]
Researchers have identified a new physicochemical principle governing liquid–liquid phase separation in polymer solutions. Their research demonstrates that during the separation of a polymer mixture into two fluid phases, coexisting ions are unequally distributed between the phases. The paper is published in the journal ACS Macro Letters. The team includes Miho Yanagisawa, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo; Hiroki Sakuta, a project assistant professor; Arash Nikoubashman, a Heisenberg Professor at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden; and their colleagues. [...]
An international research team led by Prof. Dr. Sedat Nizamoğlu from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Koç University has developed a next-generation, safe, and wireless stimulation technology for retinal degenerative diseases that cause vision loss. [...]
Researchers announced that they have achieved the world's first elucidation of how hydrogen produces free electrons through the interaction with certain defects in silicon. The achievement has the potential to improve how insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are designed and manufactured, making them more efficient and reducing their power loss. It is also expected to open up possibilities for future devices using ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) materials. [...]
Catalysts are the invisible engines of hydrogen energy, governing both hydrogen production and electricity generation. Conventional catalysts are typically fabricated in granular particle form, which is easy to synthesize but suffers from inefficient use of precious metals and limited durability. [...]
A study led by University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography alumnus Jarod Snook, Ph.D., identified a long-term source of PFAS, or "forever chemicals," entering the Pawcatuck River from two historically contaminated textile mill waste retention ponds located in Bradford and Westerly, Rhode Island. [...]
When pistachio hulls split before the nuts are harvested, insects and fungi can get inside, damaging the nut, costing farmers money and contaminating the nuts. About 4% of the overall crop experiences hull split, but some cultivars can split as much as 40% under certain conditions. Now, for the first time, scientists at the University of California, Davis, are seeking solutions for California's $2-billion-a-year pistachio industry. [...]
A growing niche space, the manosphere, has been taking shape in today's online forums and social media, preaching an aggressive definition of what it means to be a man. It promotes traits such as misogyny, dominance, and opposition to feminism—behavior generally considered toxic—as the epitome of masculinity. [...]
In a study published in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, scientists from the UF Health Cancer Institute have found a way to make treatment for a notoriously aggressive breast cancer more effective. Using a delivery system that relies on extracellular vesicles (small, lipid nanoparticles secreted from a myriad of cell types), the team was able to circumvent two common difficulties associated with a targeted treatment for triple negative breast cancer: access to tumor sites and stable and effective transport in the body. [...]
Slippery, drippy goop makes Ralstonia bacteria devastating killers of plants, causing rapid wilting in tomato, potato, and a wide range of other crops, according to new research. The work, published Jan. 22 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, comes from an unusual collaboration between plant pathologists and engineers at the University of California, Davis. [...]
Biological processes that govern our lives are many, intertwined, and often difficult to understand. They involve countless interactions happening at once—molecules recognizing each other, signals being transmitted, and matter being transported with precise timing—making the underlying physical rules complex and hard to disentangle. [...]
Monarch butterflies have always been remarkably resilient. Every fall, these delicate orange-and-black travelers set out on a journey so improbable it borders on myth, flying some three thousand kilometers from Canadian fields all the way to Mexico's mountain forests, their overwintering grounds. They've been weathering habitat loss, extreme weather and pesticides, but new research from the University of Ottawa suggests a new snag in their epic trek. The culprit? Nectar. Turns out, their main food source isn't what it used to be. [...]
Researchers from the University of Seville have participated in research to identify the molecular details of the regulation of an enzyme essential for sugar metabolism and closely linked to cell proliferation and growth: pyruvate kinase. Their results, the fruit of an extensive collaboration between the team led by Professor Irene Díaz Moreno of the University of Seville and that of Professor Eyal Arbely of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, have recently been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [...]
Researchers at Kyushu University have shown that careful engineering of materials interfaces can unlock new applications for nanoscale magnetic spins, overcoming the limits of conventional electronics. Their findings, published in APL Materials, open up a promising path for tackling a key challenge in the field and ushering in a new era of next-generation information devices. [...]
Quantum computers, systems that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, are expected to outperform classical computers on some complex tasks. Over the past few decades, many physicists and quantum engineers have tried to demonstrate the advantages of quantum systems over their classical counterparts on specific types of computations. [...]
A new study refines radiocarbon dating of marine remains and significantly improves the precision with which the human past of the Magdalenian period in the Cantabrian region of Spain can be reconstructed, a key phase of European prehistory dating to around 18,000 years ago. The international study led by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) published in the journal Radiocarbon provides new correction values for the radiocarbon dating of marine remains—such as shells—recovered from archaeological sites in the northern Iberian Peninsula. [...]
Plastic pollution is everywhere—including where you would least expect it, especially when it's in tiny particle form. Today, scientists are working to measure the consequences of this contamination. There's the pollution you can see—on the beach, on the roadside and in open-air landfills. And then there's the pollution you can't—on the peak of Mount Everest, deep inside the Mariana Trench, in clouds, in buildings, and in our water supply, food, blood and brain. [...]
As temperatures rise and water supplies drop, public policy could bolster municipal water provisions under pressure. But one policy prescription—pushing conservation—will likely be insufficient as a standalone fix to sustain some reservoirs, according to research led by scientists at Penn State. [...]
Drug-resistant bacteria are one of the most urgent health challenges of our time, affecting people, animals, and the environments they share. The University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) is addressing this evolving challenge with comprehensive infection prevention and control measures, as well as biosecurity strategies, to protect the animals, people, and communities served by its hospitals and facilities. [...]
A vaccine developed to tackle Streptococcus suis, an economically damaging disease endemic in the global pig population, has outperformed a leading commercially available vaccine in a challenge trial. The trial showed the vaccine candidate—developed by an international consortium including The Vaccine Group (TVG), the University of Plymouth and Moredun Scientific Limited—to be effective against a heterologous serotype of the disease. [...]
A research team affiliated with UNIST has reported a novel synthesis strategy that enables the direct intercalation of a wide range of metal cations into the interlayer spaces of layered titanate (LT) structures. This approach opens new possibilities for designing highly tailored catalysts and energy storage materials for specific industrial applications. [...]
Sleep is a universal biological state that allows all animals, from mammals to amphibians, fish and even insects, to restore their energy and consolidate knowledge that can contribute to their survival. Neuroscientists and zoologists have been investigating the biological underpinnings of sleep and its vital functions for centuries, more recently by measuring the brain activity of animals or people while they are asleep. [...]
When California neighborhoods increased their number of zero-emissions vehicles (ZEV) between 2019 and 2023, they also experienced a reduction in air pollution. For every 200 vehicles added, nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) levels dropped 1.1%. The results, obtained from a new analysis based on statewide satellite data, are among the first to confirm the environmental health benefits of ZEVs, which include fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars, in the real world. The study is published in The Lancet Planetary Health. [...]
Researchers at Leipzig University and TU Dresden have succeeded in developing biological switches that can selectively turn ion channels on and off using light pulses. Initial applications show that it is possible, for example, to stimulate nerve cells in the brain or to control the release of adrenaline from cells of the adrenal gland and the movement of the small intestine using light stimuli. [...]
More than 3.5 billion years ago, the Earth was not the hospitable world we know today. The atmosphere lacked oxygen, the seas were acidic and rich in iron, and volcanic activity roared across a barren landscape. Yet, in this alien world, something extraordinary happened—life emerged. The earliest life forms left behind no bones or shells, but they did leave other clues about their biology and impact on early Earth environments. [...]