Naked mole rats keep kingdoms underground. One queen bears all the children, while others maintain complex subterranean tunnels, forage for food, take care of newborns, and perform other necessary upkeep. This society hinges on the central pillar of a singular queen. What happens when her fertility declines or is impaired? [...]
In an analysis of a video-assisted, pitch-side review of soccer (UK football) referee calls in the English Premier League, referees overturned their original call 95% of the time. However, these decisions had no statistical link to crowd size, the score or quarter when the call was made, or whether the call was regarding the home versus away team. [...]
Astronomers at The University of New Mexico have published new research confirming three bodies orbiting the dynamic exoplanet system TOI-201. They include a super-Earth (TOI-201 d), a warm Jupiter (TOI-201 b), and a brown dwarf (TOI-201 c). [...]
In 1902, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott spotted a large group of large black and white birds at Ross Island, Antarctica. This was among the many milestones of Scott's famous Discovery expedition: the first breeding colony of emperor penguins. [...]
Computer chips that cram billions of electronic devices into a few square inches have powered the digital economy and transformed the world. Scientists may be on the cusp of launching a similar technological revolution—this time using light. [...]
SN 2025mkn is a Type II supernova and it wasn't supposed to be visible at all. The violent death of a massive star that had exhausted its nuclear fuel and collapsed under its own gravity sits at a redshift of 1.371. That places it roughly 9 billion light years away. At that distance, an ordinary stellar explosion simply doesn't produce enough light to study in any useful detail. Yet astronomers can see this one with extraordinary clarity and we have gravity to thank. [...]
A critically endangered Borneo orangutan has been born at Madrid's zoo, described by keepers as strong and developing normally. [...]
In a quiet space secluded from the throngs of daily visitors to Madrid's Prado art museum, a team of experts perpetuate an ancient tradition of restoring centuries-old European cultural treasures. [...]
The lunar south pole looks chaotic from orbit. Craters heaped upon craters, ancient basins, scarps and slopes tumbling in every direction, it is without doubt, one of the most geologically complicated terrains in the inner solar system. That aside, it's exactly where we intend to send people, since understanding what lies beneath that battered surface isn't just scientific curiosity. It's the essential groundwork for everything that follows. [...]
Because methane has around 80 times the warming potential of CO2 over a 20-year period, it has been a major focus for climate action groups. The Global Methane Pledge, launched at COP26 in November 2021, aims to cut human-caused methane emissions by 30% by 2030. [...]
Cancer cells excel at evading detection, but subtle chemical differences set them apart from healthy cells. Now, a team of scientists from Wageningen University & Research and Van Andel Institute has identified a way to exploit this distinction. Using a variant of CRISPR, a modern tool for editing DNA, they distinguished tumor DNA from healthy DNA and selectively cut only the former. [...]
Researchers have identified more than 600,000 microbial proteins capable of breaking down natural and synthetic plastics, revealing a far broader biodegradation potential across microbes than previously known. [...]
A viral TikTok recipe shows how social media, aspiration, and fear of missing out are reshaping what Australians buy. [...]
A simple test developed at Washington State University could eventually allow astronauts and others in round-the-clock occupations to monitor their biological rhythms in just minutes using a drop of blood, a paper test strip, and a smartphone-based reader. An interdisciplinary team of WSU researchers created an inexpensive, 15-minute test using fluorescent nanoparticles to measure melatonin levels, which rise and fall along with a person's internal biological clock. [...]
When Glenn Carroll talks to managers about the culture at their organization, about 80% of them say it needs to change. Yet they're often unsure how to influence culture, so they fall back on a small set of change mechanisms like aligning leaders around values and using culture-related training and communications. [...]
Latino-owned businesses in the U.S. continue to overcome funding challenges to pursue expansion and innovation—through strategies such as scaling internationally, acquisitions, and investing in artificial intelligence. Between 2017 and 2023, they grew at a faster rate than white-owned businesses overall—and in California and Florida, they accounted for more than 55% of all net new firms. [...]
An international team of scientists from Queen Mary University of London, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences and other institutions has uncovered surprising new behavior in the tropical forests of Malaysian Borneo. In a study published in PeerJ, the researchers report that predatory wasps are increasingly taking over the hollow stems of the tropical plant Macaranga pearsonii—structures the tree has evolved specifically to house protective ant colonies. [...]
Adelaide University and Kangaroo Island Research Station researchers have developed a simple, low-cost way to help wildlife survive in the critical days and weeks after bushfires, by delivering artificial nectar to animals struggling to find food. The study, published in the Australian Journal of Zoology, provides a proof of concept showing that a wide range of native animals will readily use specially designed nectar feeders following a bushfire. [...]
For over 100 years, the National Museum has housed a large collection of inscribed tablets from the earliest civilizations of the Middle East—many over 4,000 years old and written in languages that are now extinct. The tablets have led a quiet existence, but now researchers have deciphered them and discovered fascinating texts about magic, kings and good old-fashioned bureaucracy. [...]
Have you ever been stuck in a traffic jam with music blasting through the radio, and found your mind drifting off in a daydream? There might be a reason. A new study from Murdoch University, in collaboration with The Sydney Music, Mind, and Body Lab, at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music at The University of Sydney, has found that both music and traffic noise can make people's imagination more vivid. [...]
A new study led by Dr. Andrea Nini at The University of Manchester has found that a grammar-based approach to language analysis can match or outperform advanced AI systems in identifying who wrote a text. The method, called LambdaG, uses patterns in grammar and sentence construction rather than large-scale AI models, offering comparable accuracy with greater transparency and lower computational cost. [...]
In the summer, many people turn to mosquito repellents to reduce the insects' buzzing and bites. One solution that has become increasingly popular in recent years is the Thermacell device, which releases vaporized, pyrethroid-based insecticide prallethrin into the air. There has been much discussion in recent years about the effects of this substance on nature and pollinators in particular, but research data has been limited. [...]
In 2023, about 85% of the roughly five million articles indexed in major global databases covering the natural, medical and social sciences were written in English. In 1990, the proportion was considerably higher: 94%. [...]
A massive study of ancient DNA from nearly 16,000 people across more than 10,000 years in West Eurasia reveals that natural selection has shaped modern human genomes far more than previously thought. [...]
A new study from a University of Iowa researcher, published in Personnel Psychology, provides management lessons that can help newly public businesses survive long-term. For starters, have an HR exec. [...]
Sperm whales produce powerful clicks to communicate. To our ears, they sound nothing more than a series of repetitive, mechanical taps. But we could be a step closer to understanding some of their complex communication, as scientists have discovered that the large marine mammals organize their sounds in patterns similar to those of human speech. [...]
Organic soils cover less than 9% of Norway's land area, and about 65,000 hectares are currently used as agricultural land. Emissions from these areas are presently estimated at more than 2 million tons of CO₂ equivalents per year. This is equivalent to the emissions from 400,000 fossil-fueled cars. [...]
An interdisciplinary research team led by Dr. Elisha Krieg at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (IPF) has successfully synthesized and characterized Olympic gels, a long-theorized class of soft materials. Unlike conventional gels, which are held together by chemical crosslinks, Olympic gels derive their structural stability from the mechanical interlocking of ring-shaped molecules, similar to chain mail. [...]
Using observations gathered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers have revealed that one supermassive black hole in the early universe must have formed before a galaxy developed around it. Publishing their results in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a team led by Roberto Maiolino at the University of Cambridge hope their results could lead to a better understanding of the origins of these immense objects. [...]
A study published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology combined zooarchaeology with multi-isotopic analysis to reveal the diverse life histories of ancient dogs in the Wari Empire (ca. 600–1050 CE). Not only has this study broadened our understanding of the role of dogs during the Wari Empire, but it has also identified the first empirical evidence of Peruvian Hairless Dogs from that period, which were likely treated differently from other dogs. [...]