Heat waves are becoming commonplace, and so too is high humidity, which can strain the electrical grid, hurt the economy, and endanger human health. But the global prevalence of record-breaking humidity events, some of which approach the physiological limit of what humans can safely handle—and all of which go beyond local expectations and adaptations—has not been widely studied. [...]
A quantum trick based on interferometric measurements allows a team of researchers at LMU to detect even the smallest movements of a laser beam with extreme sensitivity. [...]
Using a blend of computer modeling, structural and cell-based studies, scientists at The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute have designed a group of potential diabetes drugs that reprogram insulin-resistant cells into a healthier state while limiting side effect risks of older medications. [...]
Mars, often depicted as a barren red planet, is far from lifeless. With its thin atmosphere and dusty surface, it is an energetic and electrically charged environment where dust storms and dust devils continually reshape the landscape, creating dynamic processes that have intrigued scientists. [...]
A large-scale register-based study conducted at the University of Oulu, Finland, shows that the propensity of top corporate executives to engage in financial misconduct is strongly associated with the financial crime history of their parents, spouses, and their childhood living environment. [...]
Severe winds, snow and freezing temperatures buffeted Europe with the arrival of Storm Goretti on Thursday, prompting forecasters from Britain to Germany to issue weather warnings. [...]
An endangered mountain gorilla has given birth to twins in the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, whose remarkable biodiversity has long been threatened by the region's litany of conflicts. [...]
A recent study provides answers to three seemingly disparate yet pressing cosmic dawn puzzles. Specifically, the authors show how dark stars could help explain the unexpected discovery of "blue monster" galaxies, the numerous early overmassive black hole galaxies, and the "little red dots" in images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). [...]
Astronomers using W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island have uncovered the largest and most extended stream of super-heated gas ever observed flowing from a nearby galaxy, providing the clearest evidence yet that a supermassive black hole can dramatically reshape its host galaxy far beyond its core. [...]
A new study led by Yale anthropologist Catherine Panter-Brick examines how stakeholders in socially diverse, conflict-affected societies conceptualize everyday peace, drawing on a comparative analysis across different groups of people. The findings offer insights that can inform peacebuilding policies and strategies across the globe. [...]
In addition to providing energy, lipids are also essential building blocks of our cell membranes. However, despite their importance, they remain poorly understood. [...]
For the first time, scientists have answered a longstanding question in cell biology about a partnership of proteins called the "KICSTOR–GATOR1 complex" which operates as a control system inside our cells, telling them when to grow and when to stop based on nutrient availability (especially amino acids). [...]
A team from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) has led the development of a new sensor capable of quickly and easily detecting scopolamine, one of the substances most commonly used in crimes of chemical submission, especially in sexual assaults. The sensor detects the presence of this drug in less than five minutes with high sensitivity. The research is published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. [...]
A Northwestern Medicine study has revealed a previously unknown connection between two fundamental cellular processes, offering fresh insight into how human cells build and maintain chromatin, according to findings published in Molecular Cell. [...]
The conservation of genome regulatory elements over long periods of evolution is not limited to vertebrates, as previously thought, but also in echinoderms (invertebrates). This is one of the most notable conclusions of a study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, which expands our knowledge of the mechanisms governing genomic regulation and biological evolution. [...]
Early detection of declining forest health is critical for the timely intervention and treatment of droughted and diseased flora, especially in areas prone to wildfires. Obtaining a reliable measure of whole-ecosystem health before it is too late, however, is an ongoing challenge for forest ecologists. [...]
Extreme weather events have become significantly more common in the Arctic over recent decades, posing a threat to vital polar ecosystems, according to new research by an international team of scientists. [...]
Superionic water—the hot, black and strangely conductive form of ice that exists in the center of distant planets—was predicted in the 1980s and first recreated in a laboratory in 2018. With each closer look, it continues to surprise researchers. [...]
Researchers at UConn and the University of Minnesota have discovered that there may be more to the "summer slide" phenomenon following a break in schooling than just forgetting material. In fact, the researchers found reliable patterns of seasonal variation in performance on laboratory tests assessing more general cognitive abilities like executive functioning, with lowest scores consistently found in the summer months. [...]
Pathogens can create sticky situations. When microbes invade the body to cause an infection, often one of their first lines of attack is to cling tenaciously to the surfaces of targeted human cells. [...]
Controlling light is an important technological challenge—not just at the large scale of optics in microscopes and telescopes, but also at the nanometer scale. Recently, physicists at the University of Amsterdam published a clever quantum trick that allows them to make a nanoscale mirror that can be turned on and off at will. [...]
Seattle Public Library (SPL) is the only U.S. library system that makes its anonymized, granular checkout data public. Want to find out how many times people borrowed the e-book version of Toni Morrison's "Beloved" in May 2018? That data is available. [...]
A natural, superabsorbent material developed at the University of Waterloo could dramatically reduce the environmental impact of personal hygiene products like diapers, menstrual pads and tampons. [...]
In recent years, two-dimensional (2D) single-crystalline metal nanosheets have emerged as a promising next-generation platform for self-powered electronics. However, their potential for triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs)—a promising energy-harvesting technology—remains largely untapped, mainly due to their low current output and limited durability. [...]
Australian researchers have discovered a hidden climate superpower of trees. Their bark harbors trillions of microbes that help scrub the air of greenhouse and toxic gases. [...]
A group of scientists, including Sergey Frolov, professor of physics at the University of Pittsburgh, and co-authors from Minnesota and Grenoble have undertaken several replication studies centered around topological effects in nanoscale superconducting or semiconducting devices. This field is important because it can bring about topological quantum computing, a hypothetical way of storing and manipulating quantum information while protecting it against errors. [...]
Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have uncovered previously unobserved oscillation states—so-called Floquet states—in tiny magnetic vortices. Unlike earlier experiments, which required energy-intensive laser pulses to create such states, the team in Dresden discovered that a subtle excitation with magnetic waves is sufficient. [...]
"Honey, will you take Luna to the P-A-R-K?" Both parents and dog owners know that some words should not be spoken, but only spelled, to prevent small ears from eavesdropping on the conversation. At the age of 1.5 years, toddlers can already learn new words by overhearing other people. Now, a study published in Science reveals that a special group of dogs are also able to learn names for objects by overhearing their owners' interactions. [...]
The concept of "hard work v privilege," and what either one says about someone's social status, is an important one. [...]
In Earth's fossil record, soft-bodied organisms like jellyfish rarely stand the test of time. What's more, it's hard for any animal to get preserved with exceptional detail in sandstones, which are made of large grains, are porous, and commonly form in environments swept by rough storms and waves. But about 570 million years ago, in a geologic time interval called the Ediacaran period, strange-looking, soft-bodied organisms died on the seafloor, were buried in sand, and fossilized in incredible detail. [...]