The findings of a new paper show governance and preparedness rather than hazard magnitude determine whether avalanches become mass-casualty events. With large ice-rock avalanches growing in frequency as steep slopes in the Himalaya become unstable due to rapid glacier retreat, extreme precipitation and permafrost degradation, scientists believe saving lives, protecting infrastructure and reducing long-term economic losse s in some of the world's most hazard-exposed regions could be achieved through several practical steps. [...]
The future of one of Antarctica's most iconic glaciers could be far more dramatic than scientists previously thought. Using satellite calibrated ice sheet models, a team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh found that the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica could be shedding 180–200 gigatonnes of ice per year by 2067—a rate roughly comparable to the entire Antarctic ice sheet's current mass loss. That would represent a stunning acceleration in ice loss from a single glacier and underlines urgent concerns about future contributions to sea level rise. [...]
We're starting to see just how exceptional our own solar system and its history is, as more exoplanets are discovered. A fourth exoplanet discovery in the LHS 1903 system made by ESA's CHEOPS mission places a rocky world right where it shouldn't be. This "inside-out system" could challenge our current understanding of planetary formation. [...]
Researchers from the Texas Center for Superconductivity (TcSUH) and the department of physics at the University of Houston have broken the temperature record for superconductivity at ambient pressure—a breakthrough that could eventually lead to more efficient ways to generate, transmit, and store energy. [...]
Billions of mussels scorched and baby birds dropping from sweltering nests: North America's 2021 heat wave caused a cascade of ecological damage, some of it catastrophic, some unexpected, a new study showed Wednesday. [...]
Using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have discovered a new super-Earth exoplanet orbiting a star located about 83 light years away. The newfound alien world is slightly larger than Earth and encircles its host in less than four days. The finding was reported in a paper published Feb. 28 on the arXiv pre-print server. [...]
Neutrinos are extremely lightweight and electrically neutral particles that rarely interact with ordinary matter. Due to these rare interactions, neutrinos can travel across space almost entirely unaffected, carrying information about highly energetic cosmological events, such as exploding stars or supermassive black holes. [...]
During the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 5, 2026, Paula White-Cain, senior adviser to the White House Office of Faith, introduced President Donald Trump as "the greatest champion of faith that we have ever had in the executive branch." Taking the podium after her, Trump declared, "I've done more for religion than any other president." [...]
Astronomers have employed the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to investigate a peculiar pulsar wind nebula known as Vela X. Results of the new observations, published March 2 on the arXiv pre-print server, provide more hints about the properties and nature of this nebula. [...]
Since the 1970s, the U.S. has lost billions of birds. We now know that those losses aren't just growing—they are accelerating in places with intensive human activity, particularly where agriculture and expanding communities are changing the landscape. [...]
Lithium dendrites, i.e. tiny crystalline thorns that grow off of lithium-ion battery anodes during charging, have been a persistent challenge for the world's most widely used form of energy storage. "Dendrites can penetrate the battery's separator, causing catastrophic short circuits and safety hazards," said Qing Ai, a former research scientist at Rice University who is a first author on a new study published in Science that reports for the first time exactly how these tricky structures behave inside batteries. "Despite decades of study, the fundamental nanomechanical properties of lithium dendrites remained a mystery—until now." [...]
In biology and paleontology (the study of extinct organisms) there are a few ways to estimate the age of an animal's skeleton. One is the extent of fusion of sutures in the skeleton—how much the plates of bone have joined together as the animal matured. Another is the texture of the bone surfaces. Then there are growth marks recorded in the microscopic structure of bone. [...]
Peroxiredoxins are among the most abundant enzymes involved in managing oxidative stress. They control the levels of peroxides such as hydrogen peroxide, relay redox signals, and help protect other proteins during stress. For decades, scientists assumed that these enzymes assemble exclusively into complexes composed of 10 identical subunits arranged in a donut-like ring. A new study challenges this view. [...]
Plastic is one of the most durable materials humans have ever made. That durability has made it indispensable in medicine, food packaging and transport. But it's also created one of the defining environmental problems we have faced. [...]
A collaborative research team has uncovered a previously unknown mechanism of action of yaku'amide B, a structurally complex peptidic natural product derived from deep-sea sponge found in the waters near Yakushima Island, Japan. Natural products often exhibit multifaceted biological activities due to their structural complexity, interacting transiently with multiple biomolecules. Yaku'amide B was previously shown to inhibit ATP synthase, an essential enzyme for cellular energy production. However, this alone could not fully explain its unique anticancer properties. [...]
Every summer, people living near the Mendenhall River in Juneau, Alaska, keep a close eye on the water level. When the river level begins to rise rapidly, it's a sign that Suicide Basin, a small glacier-dammed lake 5 miles up the mountains, has broken through the glacier again and a glacial lake outburst flood is underway. [...]
The 2025 Eaton fire's smoke did more than darken the sky: It generated a carbon monoxide and particulate matter surge that far exceeded Los Angeles County's average daily human-caused emissions, according to a new study led by researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. The findings are published in the journal ACS ES&T Air. [...]
Cerebral blood flow is essential for normal brain function and often perturbed in neurological disease. If one shines a source of coherent light on perfused tissue, the detected speckles, or "grains" of light fluctuate, or "dance," at a rate proportional to blood flow in the volume sampled by the light. In brain tissue, this concept can be harnessed to measure the cerebral blood flow index (CBFi). [...]
An international team of astronomers has employed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a complex planetary nebula known as NGC 6302. The observations, detailed in a paper published Feb. 25 on the arXiv pre-print server, resulted in the discovery of dry (carbon dioxide) ice in this nebula. This is the first time dry ice has been detected in a planetary nebula. [...]
The Mediterranean Sea is widely perceived as having a low tsunami risk. History and recent modeling technology have demonstrated that destructive waves have already hit the French coast and could do so again. The results of a project carried out in Nice and along the French Riviera show why anticipation and preventive evacuation measures remain the only truly effective means of saving lives. [...]
Photoreceptors are specialized cells in the eye that convert light energy into neural signals. Several diseases that cause irreversible vision loss, including age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and retinal detachment, are associated with dying photoreceptors. While there are many molecular pathways that result in cell death, there are also many that try to keep the cell alive. [...]
Monoclonal antibodies are widely used to treat diseases ranging from cancer to autoimmune disorders. The safety and efficacy of these biologic drugs depend on maintaining their correct three-dimensional organization, known as their higher-order structure (HOS). [...]
The More You Know: This week, researchers successfully reconstructed videos from the brain activity of mice. According to a new study, female birds are more likely to sing when their extended families help with childcare. And mathematicians have disproven a decades-old classical geometry rule by constructing two compact, self-contained torus objects that have the same metric and mean curvature but are structurally different on a global scale. So that's neat. [...]
A team of US researchers has gained new insights into how large protein molecules consistently fold themselves into useful shapes. Using a new approach to fluorescence microscopy, Hoi Sung Chung and colleagues at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases have shown that the process likely occurs through the coordinated folding of many different parts of each biomolecule. Their results are published in Physical Review Letters. [...]
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have documented the farthest trek of a young female fisher (Pekania pennanti) moving 118 kilometers (over 73 miles) from Durham to the outskirts of Lincoln, a small town in New Hampshire's White Mountains. This trip marks the longest known recorded dispersal for the species. [...]
New research co-led by Liu-Qin Yang, a professor of psychology at Portland State University (PSU), suggests that the true damage of a toxic boss goes far deeper than a bad mood—it fundamentally alters how employees perceive their own humanity. Published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, the study identifies "organizational dehumanization" as the primary mechanism that strips employees of their agency, leading to severe burnout and a collapse in workplace collaboration. [...]
Microbial bioelectronic sensors use living bacteria that can create an electrical signal in response to the presence of a target substance, or analyte. These types of sensors offer many advantages over other types of biosensors based on proteins and enzymes: The bacteria can perform multiple functions, survive in a variety of environments and even grow and regenerate for potential long-term use. [...]
In 2000, a group of STRI botanists collected samples of all the plants from the genus Clusia they could find in Panama to find out how the different species in this group are related. [...]
Math nerds and dessert enthusiasts unite to celebrate Pi Day every March 14, the date that represents the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi. [...]
A global database documenting the location of critical habitats for sharks, rays, and chimeras has recently expanded to include Australia, with years of extensive research by Charles Darwin University (CDU) contributing to this crucial digital record. [...]