Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have already leveraged the vast troves of geolocation data from vessel-tracking systems to pinpoint where whales and other large marine species are endangered by ship traffic and industrial fishing. [...]
Black holes are notorious for gobbling up everything that comes their way, but astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered that even supermassive black holes can be picky eaters, and this can have a significant impact on their growth. [...]
2025 has been a year of setbacks for Canada's climate policy. In November, the federal and Alberta governments signed a memorandum of understanding to remove strict climate policies in the province and to support the construction of a new pipeline from Alberta to northern British Columbia. [...]
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have successfully traced the mechanism behind how an industrially important "superbase" catalyst is synthesized in a faster, microwave-assisted reaction. They took measurements using X-rays while the reaction occurred, uncovering how small precursor molecules were formed first before they clustered to create the final product. [...]
Although it also performs some functions in men, estrogen, the main female sex hormone, is involved in a myriad of processes, which is why the body changes so much during menopause. This is because estrogens regulate hundreds of genes. [...]
A research team affiliated with UNIST has made a advancement in controlling spin-based signals within a new magnetic material, paving the way for next-generation electronic devices. Their work demonstrates a method to reversibly switch the direction of spin-to-charge conversion, a key step toward ultra-fast, energy-efficient spintronic semiconductors that do not require complex setups or strong magnetic fields. [...]
Engineers need good data to build lasting things. Even the designers of the Great Pyramids knew the limestone they used to build these massive structures would be steady when stacked on top of one another, even if they didn't have tables of the compressive strength of those stones. [...]
No longer a technological novelty, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has become a common tool for everyday academic tasks among the university community. In view of this, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) has carried out a research project to establish the extent to which GenAI-specific training can help ensure more responsible and critical use by students. [...]
Over half of Americans believe tech companies should take action to restrict extremely violent content on their platforms, according to Pew data, yet even trained content moderators consistently disagree in their decisions about how to classify hate speech and offensive images. [...]
A study led by researchers at the Department of Civil Engineering at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has uncovered alarming evidence that soil worldwide is emerging as a significant reservoir and amplifier of high-risk antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), which enable bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics, and that their threat to public health has continued to increase over the past decade or so. [...]
One of the most detailed 3D maps of how the human chromosomes are organized and folded within a cell's nucleus is published in Nature. [...]
In the past year, two separate experiments in two different materials captured the same confounding scenario: the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism. Scientists had assumed that these two quantum states are mutually exclusive; the presence of one should inherently destroy the other. [...]
The basics of photosynthesis are something that every student learns in school: carbon dioxide, water and light in; oxygen and sugar for growth out. In a world where atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising, it is plausible to think that trees and other plant life growth will rise in lockstep. [...]
Right now, the debate about consciousness often feels frozen between two entrenched positions. On one side sits computational functionalism, which treats cognition as something you can fully explain in terms of abstract information processing: get the right functional organization (regardless of the material it runs on) and you get consciousness. [...]
The textbook version of the "Out of Africa" hypothesis holds that the first human species to leave the continent around 1.8 million years ago was Homo erectus. But in recent years, a debate has emerged suggesting it wasn't a single species, but several. New research published in the journal PLOS One now hopes to settle the matter once and for all. [...]
A new University of British Columbia study published in Urban Climate finds that people waiting at bus stops they find visually pleasant are more likely to feel thermally comfortable during hot weather, even when physical heat levels are high. [...]
The low-latitude highlands region of southwestern China experienced two major climate events in recent years: a severe drought in 2009–2010 and an extreme heat wave in 2019. Though both sprang from similar large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, the events produced different responses, raising questions about how multiple stressors can push ecosystems toward contrasting outcomes. [...]
A sideways spiral galaxy shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. Located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (the Maiden), NGC 4388 is a resident of the Virgo galaxy cluster. This enormous cluster of galaxies contains more than a thousand members and is the nearest large galaxy cluster to the Milky Way. [...]
Professor Woong-bae Zee of the College of Liberal Studies at Sejong University has revealed that a galaxy does not possess only a single evolutionary pathway; instead, depending on the nature of its neighboring galaxy, it can exhibit two entirely different "faces of evolution." The work is published in The Astrophysical Journal. [...]
The simulation hypothesis—the idea that our universe might be an artificial construct running on some advanced alien computer—has long captured the public imagination. Yet most arguments about it rest on intuition rather than clear definitions, and few attempts have been made to formally spell out what "simulation" even means. [...]
From land-borne pathogens to high-speed vessel strikes, Pacific whales and dolphins are caught in a "perfect storm" where human-caused trauma and infectious diseases were found in more than 65% of investigated strandings. [...]
Authors of a new study are calling for stronger protection of insects in wildlife law, after the conviction of four men in Kenya for smuggling rare ants out of the country highlighted the need for more effective deterrents for criminals. [...]
Plastics are not inert: they gradually break into fragments over time, forming micro- and then nanoplastics (i.e., particles [...]
AI has successfully been applied in many areas of science, advancing technologies like weather prediction and protein folding. However, there have been limitations for the world of scientific discovery involving more curiosity-driven research. But that may soon change, thanks to Kolmogorov-Arnold networks (KANs). [...]
For the first time, researchers have been able to show how a cell closes the door to free radicals—small oxygen molecules that are sometimes needed, but that can also damage our cells. The study is published in Nature Communications and was led by Lund University. [...]
In the iconic "Sound of Music" score, "My Favorite Things," a young Julie Andrews lists snowflakes as objects that bring her joy. While some people would rather avoid snowflakes and the slippery roads that accompany them, no one can deny the beauty and intricacy captured within these ephemeral shards of ice. [...]
Ribosomes—the tiny factories that build proteins in our cells—don't all work with the same efficiency. Researchers from Japan have discovered that ribosomes actually compete with one another, and those that perform poorly are selectively broken down when more efficient ones are present. This built-in "survival of the fittest" mechanism keeps protein synthesis accurate and efficient, shedding new light on how cells maintain quality control and prevent ribosome-related diseases. [...]
Though ice sheet melting is widely talked of and debated, there is limited knowledge about what happens after the period of melting. Researchers dig into this "after" period and see how it relates to previous patterns. [...]
Rats and other rodents and pests can make great archivists. [...]
Great apes are humans' closest relatives in the animal kingdom. As much as 98.8% of their DNA is shared, but while the number of humans living on Earth is increasing fast, other great apes are in decline. Five out of the seven species are now critically endangered. [...]
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