Four astronauts will blast off to re-staff the International Space Station (ISS) next week, NASA said Friday, after an emergency medical evacuation of the previous crew. [...]
A soft layer of white snow blankets the grounds of the Chicago Botanic Garden. The air is chilly, the sky gray. [...]
Just four months ago, Timor-Leste formally became a member of the Association of Southeast Asian States (ASEAN). This week, the tiny country took an unprecedented step: its judicial authorities appointed a prosecutor to examine the Myanmar military's responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity. It's believed to be the first time an ASEAN state has taken such an action against another member. [...]
With the departure of the research vessel Polarstern from Punta Arenas (Chile) scheduled for this weekend, the "Summer Weddell Sea Outflow Study" (SWOS) international expedition will commence. Up to early April, a multidisciplinary international research team will investigate the northwestern region of the Weddell Sea—an area of central importance for the global climate and ocean system, but one that can only be explored on site by research icebreakers such as Polarstern due to challenging sea ice conditions. [...]
When and how quickly can ecosystems "tip" and how will they develop in the future? Researchers from the University of Potsdam, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and the Technical University of Munich have developed a new method for measuring how close an ecosystem is to a catastrophic tipping point. They are applying their findings to predict glacier surges, as well as rapid changes in other ecosystems. They have now published their study in Nature Communications. [...]
Sometimes we humans get ahead of ourselves. We embark on grand engineering experiments without really understanding what the long-term implications of such projects are. Climate change itself is a perfect example of that—no one in the early industrial revolution realized that, more than 100 years later, the emissions from their combustion engines would increase the overall global temperature and risk millions of people's lives and livelihoods, let alone the impact it would have on the species we share the world with. According to a new release from the Salata Institute at Harvard, we seem to be going down the same blind path with a different engineering challenge in this century—satellite megaconstellations. [...]
It hadn't been a successful morning for the Great Lakes Eagle Health team. Traveling by boat, truck, and foot, the team was searching for active eagle nests along the Wisconsin River in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. Tree one was a dud, and tree two, a heartbreaker. Dan Goltz, one of the team's climbers and a wildlife biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, scaled a 70-foot tree only to be met with a gentle breeze blowing through an empty nest. [...]
In early January, authorities from South Australia's Department of Primary Industries took to the streets of Adelaide on the hunt for a suspicious individual. [...]
Technological advances over the past four decades have turned mobile devices and computers into the world's largest library, where information is just a tap away. Phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches—they're a part of everyday life, simplifying access to entertainment, information, and each other. Ongoing advancements in generative artificial intelligence are giving these technologies even more of an edge. Whether someone asks their device where dinosaurs lived or how accelerated their pulse is, AI can get the information quicker than technology has ever been able to do. Accuracy, on the other hand, is still in question. [...]
Antibiotic resistance (AR) has steadily accelerated in recent years to become a global health crisis. As deadly bacteria evolve new ways to elude drug treatments for a variety of illnesses, a growing number of "superbugs" have emerged, ramping up estimates of more than 10 million worldwide deaths per year by 2050. [...]
Rising sea levels along coastlines not only threaten populations, but also pose a danger to agricultural crops, which may be damaged by surging amounts of saltwater. Researchers have, in response, sought to improve salt-tolerance in plants. [...]
Invisible light beyond the range of human vision plays a vital role in communication technologies, medical diagnostics, and optical sensing. Ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths are routinely used in these fields, yet detecting them directly often requires complex instrumentation. [...]
Two-dimensional (2D) materials, in general, allow the realization of unique quantum phenomena unattainable in the common three-dimensional (3D) world. A prime example is graphene. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have a similar structure. Both can be stacked to form van der Waals heterostructures or can be exfoliated into single layers. But TMDs have an extra variety of excellent properties, including strong spin-orbit coupling and superconductivity. [...]
Concerns that quantum computers may start easily hacking into previously secure communications has motivated researchers to work on innovative new ways to encrypt information. One such method is quantum key distribution (QKD), a secure, quantum-based method in which eavesdropping attempts disrupt the quantum state, making unauthorized interception immediately detectable. [...]
Documented for 200 years, the Iguanodontia group is expanding with the discovery of a brand-new species, the first known to bear spikes with properties never before observed in dinosaurs. Scientists from the CNRS1 and their internationalpartners have uncovered in China the fossilized skin of an exceptionally well preserved juvenile iguanodon. [...]
Teachers supervising students in school-sponsored work sites tend to prioritize emotional and social well-being in the workplace, according to research from Rutgers Health. The study, published in Occupational Health, examined how educators approach student wellness and the factors they prioritize when preparing students to enter the workforce. [...]
The properties of a quantum material are driven by links between its electrons known as quantum correlations. A RIKEN researcher has shown mathematically that, at non-zero temperatures, these connections can only exist over very short distances when more than two particles are involved. This finding, now published in Physical Review X, sets a fundamental limit on just how "exotic" a quantum material can be under realistic, finite-temperature conditions. [...]
Among the many trillions of microorganisms in the human gut is Blautia luti. Like many gut bacteria, it metabolizes indigestible dietary components, such as fiber in the form of carbohydrates. This process produces, among other things, acetic acid (acetate), an important energy source for our intestinal cells and a signaling molecule that can even influence our well-being via the gut-brain axis. [...]
Plant-based food as an alternative to meat is high on the agenda today, and mycoprotein (fungal protein) in particular has come into focus in recent years. A new doctoral thesis from the University of Borås in Sweden, has investigated how mycoprotein and its minerals are digested in the body. [...]
Archaeology offers an unparalleled material record of urban dynamics, spanning thousands of years and operating in varied environmental and cultural contexts. The diverse perspectives provided by the archaeological record can yield new insights into our global urban future, providing insights into urban responses to external and internal shocks and similarities or differences in urban form, population densities, socioeconomic organization, and spatial layouts between different traditions. [...]
Researchers in Australia have unveiled the largest quantum simulation platform built to date, opening a new route to exploring the complex behavior of quantum materials at unprecedented scales. [...]
Research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) sheds new light on how mountain birds adapt to changes in climate. Scientists know that species diversity changes as you go up a mountain, but it is not clearly understood why this is the case. One theory is that it is mostly because of long-term evolution, and the climate niches species have adapted to over millions of years. Another—the "energy efficiency" hypothesis—suggests it is about how species today manage their energy budgets and compete for available resources that vary in space and time. [...]
Iridium oxide is one of the most important—and most problematic—materials in the global push toward clean energy. It is currently the most reliable catalyst used in the conversion of energy to chemicals by electrolysis, a process that uses electricity to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen. [...]
A new theoretical study led by researchers at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory has identified the microscopic mechanisms by which diamond surfaces affect the quantum coherence of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers—defects in diamond that underpin some of today's most sensitive quantum sensors. The study has appeared in Physical Review Materials and was selected to be an Editors' Suggestion paper. [...]
Oxygen is a vital and constant presence on Earth today. But that hasn't always been the case. It wasn't until around 2.3 billion years ago that oxygen became a permanent fixture in the atmosphere, during a pivotal period known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), which set the evolutionary course for oxygen-breathing life as we know it today. A new study by MIT researchers suggests some early forms of life may have evolved the ability to use oxygen hundreds of millions of years before the GOE. The findings may represent some of the earliest evidence of aerobic respiration on Earth. [...]
A team of archaeologists from the Universitat Jaume I, the University of Barcelona, and the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) has developed a new methodology that allows for a much more detailed, precise, and objective analysis of Late Paleolithic portable art pieces. Thanks to this study, the research team was able to review several previously published pieces from Matutano Cave (Vilafamés), a reference site in the Iberian Mediterranean, with greater accuracy and demonstrate that some of the marks previously interpreted as artistic motifs are not anthropic engravings but natural surface reliefs. [...]
A UT San Antonio-led international research team has identified chitin, the primary organic component of modern crab shells and insect exoskeletons, in trilobite fossils more than 500 million years old, marking the first confirmed detection of the molecule in this extinct group. [...]
For decades, scientists assumed that order drives efficiency. Yet in the bustling machinery of mitochondria—the organelles that crank out adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the universal "energy currency" of cells—one of the most enigmatic components is a protein that appears anything but orderly. [...]
Proteins are the building blocks of life. These biomolecules comprise chains of amino acids that fold into precise shapes to perform specific jobs in nature. But these elegant structures form only under narrow pH and temperature conditions, a property dictated by billions of years of evolution that has limited efforts to develop synthetic, protein-based advanced materials. [...]
Artificial light is one of the most ingrained features of modern life. For humans, light after dark offers convenience and a sense of safety. For wildlife, it's a growing environmental disturbance. "When humans introduce artificial light at night, they are fundamentally altering an aspect of the environment that many species depend on for processes like foraging, navigation, and risk-avoidance," says Christopher Hickling, a Ph.D. student in natural resources science at the University of Rhode Island. "Species also depend on light to maintain their natural rhythms and cycles." [...]
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