Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the most recognizable names of the dinosaur world, a hulking and terrifying meat-eating behemoth. While fossil remains have been extensively studied, not much is known about its family history and where it came from. That could be about to change with the discovery of a massive tyrannosaur tibia in New Mexico. [...]
As the saying goes, there are plenty more fish in the sea—but climate change is rapidly challenging that notion, with fish stocks around the world under threat. New modeling from Monash University predicts how climate change will alter fishing yields in many regions, threatening food security, livelihoods and the future of marine life as a sustainable food source. [...]
The presence of small plastic pellets on the beaches of Donostia and Orio has drawn attention to a little-studied source of pollution: leakage of industrial microplastics that reach the sea through stormwater drainage networks. Researchers in the Materials + Technologies Group at the EHU have identified two control parameters that would enable early detection of these losses to be made, and have proposed containment measures that can be easily incorporated into discharge regulations. [...]
One of the most widely accepted models for how cells remember their identity may be incorrect. This is shown in a new study by two research groups at Umeå University. In Science Advances, they present results that overturn a fundamental idea about how the Polycomb system maintains cellular memory. [...]
A new Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) study has found that while regenerative agriculture practices can improve soil health and reduce emissions on sheep farms, farmers often face trade-offs between environmental and economic goals. The article, "Regenerative agriculture improves productivity and profitability while reducing greenhouse gas emissions on Australian sheep farms," has been published in Nature Food. [...]
It's a familiar sight at schools across the country: a line of slow-moving vehicles pulling up to the curb before a child jumps out. A similar scene plays out in the afternoons, only with children hopping into cars waiting to pick them up. [...]
For over 150 years, a rule of thumb dating back to the French mathematician Pierre Ossian Bonnet has been accepted in surface theory: If the metric and mean curvature of a compact surface are known at every point, then the surface can be uniquely determined. However, a team of three mathematicians from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Technical University of Berlin and North Carolina State University have now managed to disprove this recognized rule. [...]
By the time Kim Ring arrived at her neighbors' yard that spring afternoon in 2022, their chicken coop was a flattened pile of lumber surrounded by feathers. The poultry had been raided by a bear. At the neighbor's request, Ring and her husband headed into the woods abutting their home in the rural Massachusetts town of Ware, in the hopes of finding any fluffy survivors. What they encountered instead was a bear with her two cubs in a tree—the mother bear downing one of their neighbor's chickens. [...]
Most of us have heard the phrase "it takes a village" when it comes to childcare. This age-old saying holds true for some songbirds, and a new study has found that this "village" has evolutionary consequences for their songs. [...]
By placing single-atom-thick adlayers of p-block metals on commonly employed gold electrodes (d-block), a research team at National Taiwan University has successfully quantified the "interfacial hopping integral" between molecules and electrodes. This new model establishes a universal descriptor to predict conductance trends in single-molecule junctions, resolving long-standing variations in molecular measurements. [...]
Every animal carries a microscopic community of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes that play a critical role in health. These gut microbes help regulate the immune system, support digestion, and even influence how animals respond to stress. In birds, stress triggers the hormone corticosterone, which helps individuals cope with challenges. But when stress is prolonged or repeated, it can disrupt the balance of microbes in the gut, potentially affecting health in ways that aren't immediately visible. [...]
After years of research, international experts have confirmed the discovery of a new chemical reaction, launching new opportunities for rapid advances in a range of fields—from recycled plastics to pharmaceuticals. In the article, "Spontaneous Trisulfide Metathesis in Polar Aprotic Solvents" in Nature Chemistry, the interdisciplinary team explore how sulfur-sulfur bonds can be formed and broken rapidly and cleanly at room temperature, opening new avenues for drug development, biotech and protein science, and chemical and material science. [...]
Governments' attempts to achieve climate goals are falling short, in large part because wealthy economies are continuing to pursue economic growth. As these economies ramp up production and consumption, they make climate mitigation more difficult to achieve. As a result, the Paris Agreement is slipping out of reach, putting nature and human societies in jeopardy. [...]
Nearly every part of the United States is getting walloped by wild weather or just about to be. [...]
Ice cores taken from glaciers reveal the air pollution of the past, using atmospheric particles incorporated in snow that fell on the glacier and became ice. Now, scientists have extracted a record of thousands of years' worth of air pollution from 9.5 meters of ice at the Weißseespitze glacier, close to the border between Austria and Italy. But this ice is under threat from global warming, and scientists warn that it is now a race against time to capture critical climate information locked in these glaciers before it's gone forever. [...]
As we move through the world, we leave behind invisible traces of ourselves encased in the hair, skin, and other bodily matter we shed. These tiny pieces of DNA—known as environmental DNA or eDNA—have major conservation potential. Now, West Australian research hopes to push the boundaries of the technique. [...]
Social media influencers (SMIs) can perpetuate the flow of misinformation online because of the unique relationship they have with their followers, research led by Cardiff Business School finds. For an article published in the journal Psychology & Marketing, academics analyzed brand-related misinformation and associated user comments spanning 47 brands across nine industries over a three-year period. It is the first study to measure the extent and types of toxicity generated by influencers versus regular users. [...]
Research led by the University of Cambridge and the RSPB shows that farming wetland-adapted crops on wetter peat—known as paludiculture—can support richer and more diverse bird communities than drained grassland. [...]
From coral reefs and kelp forests to the open ocean and deep-sea zones, nutrients that support phytoplankton growth and marine productivity form the foundation of oceanic ecosystems. When levels of key nutrients—such as nitrate and phosphate—get too high or too low, these ecosystems may face major disruption. However, at a global scale, long-term trends in marine nitrate and phosphate levels have been unclear. [...]
Three striking new species of rock-dwelling monitor lizards have been formally described from the savannas of northeastern Queensland, revealing a previously unrecognized evolutionary lineage. The discovery, led by researchers from The Australian National University (ANU), identified the rainbow rock monitor (Varanus iridis), the orange-headed rock monitor (Varanus umbra) and the yellow-headed rock monitor (Varanus phosphoros). [...]
New research from the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) shows why widely used algorithms for measuring economic complexity produce trustworthy results and how these tools may benefit diverse areas such as ecology, social science, and agentic AI. The paper is published in the journal Physical Review E. [...]
Specialist resource centers (a form of "Inclusion Base") within mainstream secondary schools may be linked to stronger academic progress, improved attendance, and a greater sense of belonging for autistic pupils, according to a new three-year study from the University of Surrey, published in the journal Autism. [...]
Researchers at the University of Michigan have revealed that cells use a previously unknown feat of molecular craftsmanship to help protect their larger host organisms. The building blocks required for this work are found across the tree of life, meaning this finding could help better understand and support plant resilience and human immune response, the researchers said. [...]
In a study published in Analytical Chemistry, researchers from the University of Amsterdam's Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS) reveal a sobering reality regarding nontargeted chemical analysis. Although widely used for screening the environment for chemicals, this concept isn't nearly as broad as its name suggests, leaving massive blind spots in the data. [...]
Several years ago, my linguistic research team and I began developing a computational tool we call "Read-y Grammarian." Our goal was to reconstruct the highly fragmentary text of the Singapore Stone, a relic from the 10th to 14th centuries that features an undeciphered script similar to Kawi. [...]
Researchers at University of Tsukuba have developed a noncontact vibration measurement method using an event camera, a sensing technology inspired by biological vision. By applying geometric analysis to event-stream data, the team succeeded in reconstructing vibrations—an achievement that had posed substantial challenges using an event camera. [...]
Biologists at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have uncovered how the protein NuSAP safeguards tiny structures inside cells called centrioles, revealing a mechanism linked to developmental disorders such as microcephaly and mosaic variegated aneuploidy (MVA) syndrome. [...]
Alzheimer's disease affects millions of people around the world. To study this condition, researchers must peer inside the distinctive environment of the human brain. but for scientists to get the most accurate picture of the proteins that drive this disease, they must extract them without altering their environment. [...]
In areas where freshwater is scarce, farmers often turn to treated wastewater to irrigate crops. And many regulators and consumers worry about exposing food to compounds routinely found in wastewater, including many psychoactive medications that treat mental disorders. But new research from Johns Hopkins University has found that certain crops—tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce—store those chemicals in their leaves. This may be good news for tomato and carrot lovers who eat the fruit and roots of those vegetables, respectively. [...]
Light-based quantum technologies, such as quantum communication and photonic quantum computing, require reliable sources of individual photons and, ideally, pairs of entangled photons. Semiconductor quantum dots are promising candidates for this purpose. These nanostructures have electrical conductivity between that of insulators and conductors and are capable of confining electrons and holes. This property causes them to emit light at well-defined frequencies when excited by a laser. [...]