Long before modern pharmaceuticals, our ancestors turned to plants to find cures for ailments from infections to parasites to fevers. A new study by Harvard researchers reveals the deep roots of that relationship: Several hot spots of medicinal plant diversity correspond to regions with long histories of human occupation and ancient medicinal traditions. [...]
A research team from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) has analyzed the zooplankton communities in the White Nile and Blue Nile in Khartoum. It is the first study of plankton in the Sudan Nile since the 1980s and provides an important baseline for monitoring of the river's biodiversity in the face of ongoing hydropower dam construction. [...]
When the Trump administration began freezing federal funding for climate and ecosystem research, one of the programs hit hard was ours: the U.S. Geological Survey's Climate Adaptation Science Centers. [...]
Although advertising revenue largely sustained the news media in the 20th century, it's been harder to come by in the digital age. News media outlets just aren't as important these days for advertisers when they can reach potential customers in so many other ways, including through social media. [...]
Every year, companies and space agencies launch hundreds of rockets into space—and that number is set to grow dramatically with ambitious missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. But these dreams hinge on one critical challenge: propulsion—the methods used to push rockets and spacecraft forward. [...]
Like many mushroom harvesters, I got interested in foraging for fungi during the COVID-19 pandemic. [...]
It's a common scene on public transport. A parent holds a mobile phone showing noisy cartoons to their young child. The pair is looking at the screen together, laughing. Yet parent and child rarely exchange a gaze or look out across the landscape. [...]
In 1791, the British naval vessel HMS Pandora sank on the Great Barrier Reef while pursuing the mutineers from the HMS Bounty. The mutineers, led by Christian Fletcher, staged an uprising against their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, in 1789, forcing Bligh and his supporters out to sea in a launch. [...]
A recent spill of bio-beads—small plastic pellets used by some wastewater treatment facilities since the 1990s—has brought renewed attention to a problem that has been quietly accumulating in coastal waters for years. [...]
A new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison provides the first empirical evidence connecting the chromosomal location of genes to natural selection, indicating the arrangement of genes can influence how quickly populations can adapt to rapid environmental change. [...]
Social isolation kills. It increases your risk of death by 30%—roughly the same as smoking cigarettes and much worse than factors such as obesity and sedentary living. [...]
Benchmarking the representation of women and Black leaders in the hotel industry, the Penn State School of Hospitality Management has released the 2025 Representation in Hotel Leadership research report. [...]
US legislation making strangulation a serious criminal offense has been linked to reduced intimate partner homicide rates, with 14% fewer women killed and 27% fewer male victims in the 18-49 age group. [...]
A hallmark of cancerous cells is an abnormal number of chromosomes or chromosome arms, known as aneuploidy. While aneuploidy is detrimental to regular cells, it occurs in as many as 90% of tumors. How cancer cells tolerate this chromosomal imbalance has remained unclear. [...]
Research led by polar scientists from Northumbria University has revealed new hope in natural environmental systems found in East Antarctica which could help mitigate the overall rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over long timescales. [...]
A program that puts caseworkers in schools where students struggle to regularly attend is apparently working in Michigan: The chronic absenteeism rate dropped by 8%. [...]
Most modern semiconductors are fabricated of or on silicon (Si), but as devices get smaller and denser, they dissipate more power and, as a result, are reaching their physical limits. Germanium (Ge)—once used in the first transistors of the 1950s—is now making a comeback as researchers find new ways to harness its superior properties while keeping the benefits of silicon's established manufacturing technologies. [...]
Nowhere in the ocean is now left untouched by a type of "forever chemicals" called "per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances," known simply as PFAS. [...]
Students are more likely to attain their degree when they report a stronger sense of belonging in their first year of college, according to a new study by Wake Forest University psychology professor Shannon Brady. [...]
New York City's most aggressive housing quality enforcement programs reduced hazardous housing violations in targeted buildings but did not lead to measurable changes in short-run health care utilization, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The findings are published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. [...]
Scientists have engineered a nanowire platform that mimics brain tissue to study astrocytes, the star-shaped cells critical for brain health, for the first time in their natural state. [...]
Tiny particles of space dust could be vital for creating the complex molecules needed for life more quickly, scientists say. [...]
A map of badger roadkill hotspots in the UK has been generated by a team from Cardiff University to help prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions in the future. [...]
Social robots can be a non-threatening way for children to improve their reading skills, researchers say. [...]
Miniaturization ranks as the driving force behind the semiconductor industry. The tremendous gains in computer performance since the 1950s are largely due to the fact that ever smaller structures can be manufactured on silicon chips. [...]
Given the escalating scale of inequality in the world, shouldn't countries be banding together to set up an international panel on the issue, along the same lines as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body set up to assess the science related to climate change? The idea of setting up an international panel on inequality has been recommended by the G20 Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality. [...]
In June 1967, the world's first "automated teller machine" or "ATM" was unveiled at a branch of Barclays Bank in north London in a grand ceremony. [...]
When the results of Canada's national honey bee colony loss survey were published in July 2025, they came as no surprise. According to the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists, an estimated 36% of Canada's 830,000 honey bee colonies had perished over the winter. [...]
Ten years ago the world's leaders placed a historic bet. The 2015 Paris agreement aimed to put humanity on a path to avert dangerous climate change. A decade on, with the latest climate conference ending in Belém, Brazil, without decisive action, we can definitively say humanity has lost this bet. [...]
As the artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing industries explode, trained STEM professionals are in high demand. Mathematics is foundational to these fields. [...]
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