Four sperm whales that stranded separately on southeastern U.S. coastlines between 2020–22 were emaciated and malnourished, with ingested fishing gear and marine debris found in two of them, according to a new study that compared the four cases. The investigations, intended to better understand the causes behind whale deaths and to inform future marine mammal management decisions, were reported in a study published in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms. [...]
Deadly heat wave events are occurring at temperatures and humidity levels previously thought to be survivable, according to a new paper by a team of international researchers, including from The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Sydney. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications. [...]
A University of Houston researcher and his collaborators have developed a mathematical model that helps identify whether a competitive environment is healthy, stagnant or skewed. Published in the journal npj Complexity, the study led by UH Computer Science Professor Ioannis Pavlidis presents a general, falsifiable framework for assessing competition quality and fairness. The model works by analyzing the statistical pattern of repeated success and reverse-engineering the kind of competitive system that produced it. [...]
Scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, World Forest ID, University of Sheffield and international collaborators have developed a new technique that can identify where soybeans—the third largest driver of tropical deforestation—are grown to within roughly 200 kilometers, a breakthrough that could transform efforts to stop deforestation linked to global food supply chains. [...]
Insecticide-treated bed nets remain one of the most effective tools in malaria prevention, acting both as a physical barrier and as an insecticidal surface that kills or disables mosquitoes before they can transmit disease. New research by a multidisciplinary research team from the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) uses surface science to assess how well malaria nets perform. [...]
After successfully completing their mission to the moon, the Artemis II crew are about to return to Earth. [...]
For more than 1 million years, early humans in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean used a range of heavy tools, such as massive handaxes and stone balls, for important tasks, including processing animal carcasses. But then, approximately 200,000 years ago, heavy tools disappeared almost entirely from the fossil record, while the number of lighter tools increased. These included blades, flakes, and specialized scrapers. [...]
A new study, published in the British Journal of Management, examines the high-profile cases of Theranos, Purdue Pharma, Enron, and Wirecard, and claims that the desire to pin the blame on individuals has allowed the systemic environment enabling each collapse to be overlooked. [...]
In the clonal raider ant (Ooceraea biroi), workers in a colony alternate between caring for larvae and laying eggs in a coordinated cycle. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena have discovered a brood pheromone released by larvae of clonal raider ants that temporarily suppresses egg-laying in adult ants. [...]
The closest planet to our sun, Mercury, experiences extreme temperature variations. Since the planet has no atmosphere to speak of, it is in a constant cycle where one side is extremely hot and the other extremely cold. On the sun-facing side, temperatures reach a scorching 427°C (800°F), enough to melt tin and lead, and the surface is exposed to extremely lethal levels of radiation. On the night side, temperatures plunge to a chilling −173°C (-279.4°F), cold enough to freeze most liquids, including those used in battery manufacturing. [...]
New research from the University of Portsmouth has found that great apes exhibit exactness in mimicking one another's facial expressions in social contexts. The study, published in Scientific Reports, explored how orangutans and chimpanzees mirror expressions during social interactions, particularly laugh faces, drawing comparisons with human behaviors such as the Duchenne smile—a genuine smile that engages both the mouth and eyes. [...]
Twin control rooms at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are actively supporting real-time mission operations in lunar orbit as part of the agency's Artemis II mission, helping ensure astronaut safety and mission success as the crew prepares to return to Earth Friday, April 10. [...]
In science, ethical guidelines ensure that research takes place in a way that respects public trust and is conducted responsibly. Traditional ethics approval procedures work well for projects following established practices, but they offer little flexibility when unexpected challenges, novel approaches, unanticipated research directions, or unforeseen results arise. For research exploring uncharted ethical ground, such as studies with human stem-cell-based embryo models (hSCBEMs), conventional ethical approval approaches are therefore no longer suitable. [...]
Seasonal monsoon rains in India turn crops lush and fill essential water reservoirs. They can also cause roads to flood and bring train travel to a standstill, impacting the economic heartbeat of cities and towns. [...]
When tectonic plates move, they rarely do so smoothly. Sometimes they slide almost imperceptibly; at other times, stress is suddenly released—resulting in an earthquake. What exactly governs this behavior remains one of the key open questions in earthquake research. [...]
Svalbard reindeer live in a place so remote they have actually evolved to become a subspecies. But that remoteness isn't enough to protect them from contaminants from the industrial world. [...]
Johannesburg's air quality has never really been measured systematically. Like many other cities across the globe, scientists have battled to develop cost-effective monitoring systems that provide accurate real-time data on air pollution. This is all about to change, thanks to some home-grown tech and the power of AI. [...]
As climate change intensifies harmful algal blooms worldwide, an international team led by Hiroshima University has developed a hybrid modeling approach that combines algal movement simulations, AI, and long-term monitoring data to sharpen forecasts of these bloom events—linked to environmental damage, mass fish die-offs, economic losses, and risks to human health. [...]
Data is growing at a staggering pace, pushing charge-based microelectronics, such as smartphones and laptops, to their physical limits. Spintronics—technology that uses electron spin rather than charge—avoids the limits of conventional electronics by switching information with very little energy, holding states without power and enabling extremely dense data storage. [...]
Stromatolites—and their close relatives, microbial mats—could be mistaken for what seems like a bunch of old dark rocks. But instead, they are dense, layered communities of microbes. Long before complex life such as animals or plants existed, stromatolites breathed the first molecules of oxygen into Earth's atmosphere. Now, in a study published in Current Biology, researchers say they may also hold insights into how complex life began. [...]
The emperor penguin has been declared an endangered species as climate change pushes the icon of Antarctica a step closer to extinction, the global authority on threatened wildlife announced on Thursday. [...]
As geopolitical tensions rise globally, a new study published in Critical Studies on Security warns that the shadow of the "mushroom cloud" is weighing heavily on the next generation. The research paper, titled "Mushrooms, cranes, and the fear of planetary destruction," provides a rare and sobering look into children's imaginaries regarding war and nuclear weapons. [...]
New research led by the University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, in close partnership with mana whenua, is shedding new light on Māori diet and burial practices in Aotearoa New Zealand prior to European colonization. The study, conducted with the approval and guidance of Waikato hapū and iwi—Ngāti Maahanga, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Koroki Kahukura and Ngāti Hauā—provides the first direct scientific evidence that some Māori ate predominantly plant-based diets before Pākehā (European) arrival. [...]
Sometimes, different organisms can evolve the same ability independently, a process called parallel evolution. A new study from Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU) has found that dragonflies sense red light similarly to mammals, including humans. The findings were published in Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. [...]
A new study by researchers at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa revealed that the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO), a large-scale tropical disturbance that travels eastward through the tropics every 30–60 days, significantly influences climate conditions in Hawai'i. Their research, published recently in the Journal of Hydrometeorology, showed that during active MJO phases, rainfall increases across the islands, especially on windward slopes. In contrast, suppressed MJO phases tend to produce drier conditions. [...]
Researchers have developed a new imaging technique that captures more information about ultrafast processes in the microscopic world than was previously possible. The technique offers scientists a powerful new tool to observe and analyze a wide range of ultrafast phenomena—which can happen in hundreds of femtoseconds—with unprecedented detail and speed. Writing in Optica, the researchers describe their new ultrafast imaging technique, called compressed spectral-temporal coherent modulation femtosecond imaging (CST-CMFI). [...]
The Paranal solar ESPRESSO Telescope (PoET), installed at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Paranal site in Chile, has made its first observations. The telescope will work with ESO's ESPRESSO instrument to study the sun in detail. Described as a solar telescope for planet hunters, PoET aims to understand how the variation in the light from stars like the sun can mask the presence of planets orbiting them, helping us in our search for worlds outside the solar system. [...]
A global study by the University of Basel, Switzerland, reveals a surprising picture: While 42% of treelines worldwide are shifting upslope, 25% are retreating. This seemingly contradictory trend involves more than just warming. Climate change and human land use are interacting. [...]
New research out of the University of New Hampshire reveals that the majority of New Hampshire ski industry professionals are concerned about the effects of global warming on the ski industry, which generates close to $278.8 million each season in the Granite State, and believe more should be done. The study released by UNH's Carsey School of Public Policy shows that this shared unease suggests a readiness to adopt sustainable practices and advocate for industry-wide adaptations. [...]
David J. Silvester, a mathematics professor at the University of Manchester, has developed a novel machine-learning method to detect sudden changes in fluid behavior, improving speed and the cost of identifying these instabilities and overcoming one of the major obstacles faced when using machine learning to simulate physical systems. The findings are published in the Journal of Computational Physics. [...]