Transparent electrodes transmit light while conducting electricity and are increasingly important in bioelectronic and optoelectronic devices. Their combination of high optical transparency, low electrical resistance, and mechanical flexibility makes them well suited for applications such as displays, solar cells, and wearable or implantable technologies. [...]
Last week, Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture (YCNCC) Scientific Leadership Team member and Earth & Planetary Sciences Professor Noah Planavsky co-authored a peer-reviewed comment in npj Climate Action titled "The importance of radical transparency for responsible carbon dioxide removal." YCNCC News spoke with Planavsky about why greater transparency is necessary, and how transparency is an important theme across the Center's work to advance carbon dioxide removal (CDR). [...]
As the Dark Energy Survey (DES) releases its final results, we caught up with two physicists who've been involved in the project from its early days. In this Q&A, Josh Frieman, DES co-founder and associate laboratory director for fundamental physics at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and Risa Wechsler, director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, discuss what the decade-long effort taught us and how it prepares us for the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory's 10-year mission to explore some of the universe's biggest mysteries. [...]
In lush South Florida, trees and bushes grow all year round. And that means yard waste and dead trees never stop piling up. But leaving them in a landfill is a climate-warming issue. Two South Florida governments think they have a new solution—light it on fire, but in a planet-friendly way. [...]
On Jan. 23, the Trump administration gave its approval for plans to build Sites Reservoir, a vast 13-mile-long off-stream lake north of Sacramento that would provide water to 500,000 acres of Central Valley farmland and 24 million people, including residents of Santa Clara County, parts of the East Bay and Los Angeles. [...]
Some galaxies in the early universe were absolute powerhouses, churning out stars at rates that would dwarf the Milky Way's modest stellar production. These "monster galaxies," buried deep in dust between 10 and 12 billion years ago, are thought to be the ancestors of today's giant elliptical galaxies. But what drove them to grow so violently has remained frustratingly unclear. [...]
ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski captured these stunning timelapse videos during his 20-day stay aboard the International Space Station as part of Axiom Mission 4, known as Ignis. Filmed from the Cupola—the Space Station's iconic seven-windowed observation module—the footage showcases breathtaking views of Earth and the moon from orbit. [...]
Water is everywhere, from the snowpack in the mountains to the tap in our kitchens. But while we often think about rainfall and snow as the main drivers of our water supply, it turns out that something we rarely see has just as much influence: the underground structure of the landscape itself. [...]
Accurate measurements of surface currents are crucial for coastal monitoring, rip current detection, and predicting the path of pollutants. Several methods exist to measure surface currents, some of which are costly and time-consuming. In a recent paper, researchers from Texas A&M University have compared three methods for measuring surface currents over large areas, identifying an ideal method that uses drones and wave-based current mapping. [...]
Earth's radiation budget is a core process of the Earth-atmosphere system, closely linked to global climate and environmental changes. While current satellite observations have greatly advanced our understanding of Earth's radiation budget, low-Earth orbit and geostationary satellites struggle to achieve both temporal continuity and spatial consistency. Accurately capturing the laws of Earth's outgoing radiation is key to studying this budget. [...]
Cities are expected to track sustainability progress with data that are often incomplete, outdated, or available only at national level. New research led by IIASA in collaboration with UN-Habitat finds that citizen science could address these gaps and support nearly 70% of global sustainability indicators, yet is currently used in only 4% of cases. [...]
Rising tensions between the US and China are changing how companies design global supply chains in strategic industries such as semiconductors and rare earths. New research shows firms are no longer just reacting to trade rules—they are proactively redesigning supply chains to reduce political risk and secure access to critical technologies. The work is published in the journal Production Planning & Control. [...]
When a solar storm strikes Earth, it can disrupt technology that's vital for our daily lives. Solar storms occur when magnetic fields and electrically charged particles collide with Earth's magnetic field. This type of event falls into the category known as "space weather." [...]
Human health risks from direct consumption of toxic nanoplastics are already scary, but researchers have confirmed that nanoplastics in water give rise to an additional threat: They strengthen bacteria. [...]
A research team has proposed a new design principle for QM/MM (quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics) simulations. The approach enables objective and automatic determination of the quantum-mechanical region based on electronic-state changes, addressing a long-standing challenge in multiscale molecular simulations. [...]
Iron (Fe) is a vital micronutrient for plants, which is required for processes such as photosynthesis and enzyme activity. Plants must carefully manage iron levels to maintain health and productivity. They activate iron uptake genes when deficient and suppress them when iron is excessive to prevent toxicity. This careful balance is known as iron homeostasis. [...]
Every second, millions of cells in your body divide in two. In the space of an hour, they duplicate their DNA and grow a web of protein fibers around it called a spindle. The spindle extends its many fibers from the chromosomes in the center to the edges of the cell. Then, with extraordinary force, it pulls the chromosomes apart. [...]
What if a cup of coffee could help treat cancer? Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Institute of Biosciences and Technology believe it's possible. By combining caffeine with the use of CRISPR—a gene-editing tool known as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats—scientists are unlocking new treatments for long-term diseases, like cancer and diabetes, using a strategy known as chemogenetics. [...]
As organisms develop from embryos, groups of cells migrate and reshape themselves to form all manner of complex tissues. There are no anatomical molds shaped like lungs, livers or other tissues for cells to grow into. Rather, these structures form through the coordinated activity of different types of cells as they move and multiply. [...]
Unraveling the mysteries of how biological organisms function begins with understanding the molecular interactions within and across large cell populations. A revolutionary new tool, developed at the University of Michigan, acts as a sort of tape recorder produced and maintained by the cell itself, enabling scientists to rewind back in time and view interactions on a large scale and over long periods of time. [...]
Researchers at the Regional Service for Agri-Food Research and Development (SERIDA) have developed a new large-scale remote sensing model that will enable comprehensive, high-resolution monitoring of fossorial water vole populations in areas where they cause agricultural damage. The system combines data collected in the field with satellite-derived information, facilitating detailed and continuous control of the appearance and spread of these rodents across extensive agricultural areas. [...]
Microbes across Earth's coldest regions are becoming more active as glaciers, permafrost and sea ice thaw, accelerating carbon release and potentially amplifying climate change, according to a new international review from McGill University. [...]
Last year, a ten-month-old baby in the US was the first person in the world to have their rare genetic disease effectively cured through the use of CRISPR gene editing technology. But the rollout of CRISPR across a wide range of genetic conditions has been hampered by its inconsistency, and its potential to cause harm to healthy genes. Now a team of Melbourne scientists have used AI to develop a fast and accurate way to keep CRISPR in line. [...]
The Arctic is experiencing a steady rise in human-generated underwater noise as melting ice and increasing activity open the region to greater vessel traffic, with major implications for wildlife and local communities. New research from the University of Bath, drawing on data collected over more than a decade, sets out a clear and effective approach to monitoring underwater noise in Arctic waters. [...]
From computers to smartphones, from smart appliances to the internet itself, the technology we use every day only exists thanks to decades of improvements in the semiconductor industry, that have allowed engineers to keep miniaturizing transistors and fitting more and more of them onto integrated circuits, or microchips. It's the famous Moore's scaling law, the observation—rather than an actual law—that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit tends to double roughly every two years. [...]
Two artifacts found at a lake shore in Greece are the oldest wooden tools to be uncovered so far and date back 430,000 years. [...]
Even with regular brushing, teeth can become stained from genetic factors or consuming foods and drinks like tomatoes and coffee. Chemical whiteners can help, but they can also damage teeth in the process. So, researchers reporting in ACS Nano have designed a prototype teeth-whitening powder that is activated by the vibrations from an electric toothbrush. The system both brightened and protected teeth in lab demonstrations. [...]
The ocean is under increasing pressure. Everyday human activities, from shipping to oil and gas exploration to urban pollution, are affecting the marine environment. Extensive research shows how this combination of stressors represents one of the greatest threats to marine wildlife, potentially affecting biodiversity on a global scale. [...]
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have completed a spaceflight biology investigation aboard the International Space Station (ISS) that reveals how microgravity fundamentally alters microbial metabolism, limiting the efficiency of biological manufacturing processes critical to future long-duration space missions. The findings were recently published in the journal npj Microgravity. [...]
Several years ago, scientists discovered that a single microscopic particle could rock back and forth on its own under a steady electric field. The result was curious, but lonely. Now, Northwestern University engineers have discovered what happens when many of those particles come together. The answer looks less like ordinary physics and more like mystifying, flawlessly timed choreography. [...]