A research team led by Prof. Boseok Kang at Sungkyunkwan University has uncovered the origin of polarity inversion, a long-standing phenomenon in polymer semiconductors that occurs only in certain materials. The team, in collaboration with Prof. Yun-Hi Kim (Gyeongsang National University) and Prof. Han-Sol Lee (Gachon University), has published their results in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. [...]
Digital Planet, the research center at the forefront of researching the AI transformation at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, today released the American AI Jobs Risk Index. It is a first-of-its-kind data-driven framework that maps the potential of AI-driven job vulnerability across every major occupation, industry, metropolitan area, and state in the United States. Drawing on 15 years of labor market data and the most current AI adoption research, the Index goes beyond prior studies by measuring actual vulnerability to job loss—not merely exposure—and connecting that vulnerability directly to projected income loss and geography. [...]
A new study from the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), in collaboration with Uppsala University (Sweden) and AstraZeneca, shows how computational chemistry and supercomputers can help scientists better understand the fundamental mechanisms of life, specifically those of human cells. This research was conducted by the Molecular Modeling and Drug Discovery Unit, led by Marco De Vivo at IIT in Genoa, and was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [...]
Households with high incomes are the main beneficiaries of subsidy programs supporting the clean energy transition. A team of researchers from the University of Freiburg, Stanford University, Indiana University and the University of Pennsylvania has analyzed why this is the case and how energy policy can be made more equitable. The results have now been published in the journal Nature Reviews Clean Technology. [...]
The bond between humans and dogs is one of nature's most enduring partnerships, but exactly when it began has long been a mystery. Now, a new study has turned back the clock. The study, titled "Dogs were widely distributed in Western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic," is published in the journal Nature. [...]
Billed as the first comprehensive report on the state of U.S. lands, water, and wildlife, the Nature Record National Assessment includes the decline of butterfly populations and other species to the remarkable comeback of the bald eagle. [...]
Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi have discovered new large-scale waves moving deep inside the sun, driven by magnetic fields far below the surface. These waves provide a window into parts of the sun that are otherwise inaccessible, giving scientists a new tool to study how its magnetic field is formed and evolves over time. [...]
New LiDAR analysis suggests Raknehaugen may have been built in response to a devastating landslide, not to honor a high-status individual. The study by Dr. Lars Gustavsen, published in the European Journal of Archaeology, challenges the long-held assumption that Scandinavia's largest prehistoric mound was built as a burial mound for a high-status individual. [...]
Imagine a man wants to buy a new shirt for work that he plans to wear once a week for at least the next five years. When browsing for options, he finds one shirt from a lower-quality brand priced at £20 and one shirt from a high-quality brand for £50. Which one should he buy? [...]
A recent study published in Physical Review Letters reveals that many widely used signatures of criticality in brain data may be statistical artifacts. They propose a more robust framework that, when applied to whole-brain fMRI data, confirms the brain operates near, but not exactly at, a critical point. [...]
A history of job changes could be a red flag on a résumé, or it could signal a job candidate with an important "mobility benefit" that will help them begin a new job, says new research from Rebecca Kehoe, professor of Human Resources Studies in Cornell's ILR School. [...]
WEHI researchers have led a major global effort to create the first authoritative atlas for a class of enzymes that regulate almost every cellular process in the human body. Published in Cell, the study establishes the first gold-standard reference for all human E3 ligases, resolving nearly two decades of inconsistencies within the field. [...]
Many countries have adopted ambitious climate protection targets, typically measuring progress through emissions reductions and the expansion of renewable energy. But according to a research team led by Germán Bersalli of the Research Institute for Sustainability, such indicators offer only limited insight. In Current Research in Environmental Sustainability, the researchers introduce a method designed to better capture the underlying drivers of change and apply it to four European countries. Their findings reveal a consistent pattern: despite measurable advances, none of the countries has yet achieved the comprehensive, system-wide transformation required for a fully CO₂-free energy system. [...]
With a new lab-based experiment, researchers in the UK and France have recreated the characteristic cascades of energy and angular momentum that underpin key features of Earth's atmosphere. Reporting in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Peter Read at the University of Oxford has gained fresh insights into how energy fluctuations in turbulent flows are linked to their size, while also uncovering behaviors that current atmospheric models can't yet explain. [...]
Suspicion and affection. Apprehension and excitement. Most people have mixed feelings about AI English, whether or not they always recognize it. When reading text generated by AI, people feel it sounds off, or fake. When reading English by a human, people are more likely to feel it has a characteristic voice or a personal touch. [...]
Offshore wind farms are an important pillar of the European Union's strategy for renewable energy—by 2050, the EU aims to increase capacity in the North Sea more than tenfold. A new study by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon shows that the expansion of wind farms can alter the natural transport and deposition of sediments on a large scale and over the long term. The German Bight is particularly affected. The researchers have published their findings in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment. [...]
Through new improvements to existing AI models, researchers in China have created a framework that can methodically identify useful new forms of solid carbon. With their approach, Zhibin Gao and colleagues at Xi'an Jiaotong University hope that numerous new materials could be discovered, exhibiting combinations of exotic properties that are inaccessible via conventional search methods. [...]
Ever woken up to find that a crafty raccoon has overturned your garbage bin and spread the discarded contents of your life across the street? Raccoons—sometimes referred to as "trash pandas"—are renowned as excellent innovators and problem-solvers who can often find their way through the trickiest barriers in their search for food. [...]
Evidence of some of the earliest dogs has been identified at two University of Liverpool/British Institute at Ankara archaeological excavation projects in central Anatolia, Turkey. Shedding new light on the development and spread of early domestic dogs, the findings are documented in two papers published in Nature. [...]
Chemists at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and Utrecht University have developed a new method to produce a promising chemical building block from biomass. This compound can serve as a precursor for useful products such as plastics, pharmaceuticals, and flavor and fragrance ingredients. Conventionally, its production requires hazardous chemicals. The Dutch research team now demonstrates that the process can instead be driven by electricity, using a simple setup and without the addition of dangerous chemicals. They published the results in ChemSusChem. [...]
In their landmark 1961 paper on the lac operon, Nobel laureates François Jacob and Jacques Monod speculated that RNA might control gene activity in bacteria through base-pairing interactions. But once protein transcription factors were discovered, the idea was tossed aside. Sixty years later, a multi-institutional team of biologists shows that Jacob and Monod were on to something. Some species of bacteria, reports the team in Nature, have evolved an RNA-guided gene activating system by transforming a copy of a CRISPR-Cas gene-cutting system. [...]
When we think of asteroids, we almost immediately think of giant rocks bouncing around like the iconic chase scene in "The Empire Strikes Back," and we often hear how they are remnants from the birth of the solar system. While the asteroids that comprise the Main Asteroid Belt of our solar system are not only spread far apart from one another, they are also not all made of rock. One asteroid approximately the size of the state of Massachusetts called 16 Psyche is made of metal, which planetary scientists hypothesize could be the remnants of a protoplanet's core that didn't build into a full-fledged planet. But how did such a unique asteroid form? [...]
Debates about generative AI in higher education have been informed by studies of completed student papers, or self-reported survey data. Research shows that artificial intelligence tools can support learning, but has also raised concerns, including students' overreliance, cheating, and the potential degradation of critical thinking and engagement. [...]
Sea ice is sticking to Alaska's northern coast for less time each year, according to 27 years of data analyzed by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists. Such landfast ice, which stays attached to the shoreline instead of drifting with winds and currents, also has covered less total area in recent winters. [...]
This week, we learned that across the animal kingdom, sperm cells have a short shelf life. A study implicated autoantibodies in the development of long COVID. And among its other drawbacks, the weedkiller glyphosate may foster the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria. [...]
As the demand for cybersecurity professionals continues to rise, new research from the University of South Florida identified a growing interest among higher education institutions to incorporate work-based learning in cybersecurity programs to help close the gap between academic preparation and the skills employers are seeking. [...]
In a development that could shift our basic understanding of fluid mechanics, researchers from Drexel University have reported that, given the right circumstances, it is possible to induce a simple liquid to fracture like a solid object. Recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the research shows how viscous liquids can suddenly break if stretched with enough force. [...]
A new Stanford University study has helped solve a mystery about dramatic swings in sea ice extent around Antarctica. [...]
The astronauts set to become the first lunar visitors in more than half a century arrived at their launch site Friday, joining the towering rocket that stands poised to blast off next week and send them around the moon. [...]
Today's nearly $70 billion U.S. biofuels economy is powered by two technology toolboxes. Biochemical technologies—used to produce around 17 billion gallons of ethanol annually—leverage microorganisms to convert plant biomass sugars into alcohols, other biofuels, or chemicals. Chemical technologies, the second toolbox, use catalysts to turn biomass and wastes into similar target products. [...]