Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) could be contributing far more pollution to England's rivers than previously recognized, according to new research involving scientists from Imperial College London and Brunel University London. The study, published in Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, was led by Professor Nick Voulvoulis from Imperial's Centre for Environmental Policy. Bringing together expertise in environmental policy and water systems, the research provides the first national assessment of the pollution loads released during sewage overflow events, and the risks they pose to England's waterbodies. [...]
The Hawaiian bobtail squid, a small, multi-colored native of coastal waters in Hawai'i, uses bioluminescence to camouflage itself and evade predators. However, the costume change is only possible through an exclusive symbiotic relationship with a bacterial partner, Vibrio fischeri, which the squid recruits from the ocean environment. A new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, led by researchers at the University of Hawai'i (UH) at Mānoa revealed that the benefit of the partnership extends far beyond light-production: the bacteria were found to play a vital role in the healthy development of the squid. [...]
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," goes the old adage, which Rice University professor James Chappell completely ignored in a recent Nature Communications publication. In the study, Chappell describes an innovation in plasmids, circular pieces of DNA that have been a workhorse of molecular biology research since the 1970s. [...]
The nature of quantum particles has long puzzled scientists. While single-particle interference suggests that a photon can behave like a spread-out wave, a whole photon is only ever detected in one specific place. Traditional interpretations of quantum mechanics often address this by suggesting the particle is in a superposition of being here and there at the same time. However, this tells us only where the particle is when it is measured, not where the particle physically is when no detector is present. [...]
Police violence is judged differently depending on who is affected. When people with an immigrant background are targeted, abusive police actions are perceived as less serious. This is the conclusion of a new international study published in Harvard Dataverse. [...]
Nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA play a central role in gene therapies and vaccines. They store and transmit biological information. In order for them to work in the body, they must enter the cells using chemical carrier systems. Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon are now proposing a new strategy for developing such systems: instead of using the same carrier material for different nucleic acids, the carrier should be individually adapted to the respective payload. This could improve the effectiveness of vaccines, for example. [...]
CRISPR is a powerful DNA-editing tool that has underpinned huge advancements in human health care in the last decade. It is a precision tool, but is not perfect, and misplaced DNA edits can compromise safety and efficacy, costing billions each year. Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS), Imperial College London and the University of Sheffield have published research in Nature showing that the physical twisting of DNA plays an important role in these mistakes. Using a newly developed platform of tiny (nanometer-sized) DNA circles, called DNA minicircles, the team captured never-before-seen interactions between CRISPR and DNA, providing insights that could help eradicate errors altogether. [...]
Beavers should be embraced as key allies in the fight against biodiversity loss according to scientists at the University of Stirling, after new research revealed the significant ecological benefits the animals bring to wetland habitats. Beaver populations across Europe and North America are recovering from historically low levels after being hunted to near extinction. [...]
The Phlegraean Fields volcanic complex, located beneath the metropolitan area of Naples—a city of 900,000 inhabitants in Italy—has been rising increasingly since 2005, accompanied by a growing number of small earthquakes. This development has been attracting increasing attention in the densely populated region for years. Although such phases of uplift and subsidence have occurred there for over a thousand years, the relationship between ground uplift and seismic activity is complex and not yet fully understood. [...]
Studying and designing novel materials is a central application of quantum mechanics. Chemists, materials scientists, and physicists focus on subtle interactions in quantum materials and to uncover them they rely on sophisticated computational and experimental techniques. Computer simulations that connect microscopic quantum interactions to measurable material properties complement experimental data to connect structure to function—but classical computers can struggle to simulate those properties. Fortunately, scientists today have a new tool in their toolbox: quantum computers. [...]
Quantum computing promises to transform our world in rapid, radical and revolutionary ways: solving in seconds problems that would take classical computers years, accelerating the discovery of new medicines, creating sustainable materials, optimizing complex systems, and strengthening cybersecurity. It does so using qubits, the quantum counterparts of classical bits, which can occupy multiple states simultaneously and enable a fundamentally new kind of computation. [...]
The structure of the plant communities that grow on the thawing permafrost in the Arctic is changing, with grasses displacing slower-growing shrubs. Although these grasses bind more carbon dioxide than previous plant communities, they lead to far more methane emissions over the course of the year. Methane is a greenhouse gas that accelerates the global temperature rise much faster than carbon dioxide. [...]
Heart to the left. Liver to the right. That's where you'll find these organs in a healthy human body, but surprisingly, in some people, the heart is on the right and the liver on the left. This normal or abnormal asymmetry can be traced back to your embryonic stage. In the early days of your development, a small fluid-filled cavity known as an embryonic node forms in your embryo. Inside, tiny micro-hairs known as cilia create a flow pattern that steers where organs grow in your body. However, the science behind this flow process has remained a mystery until now. [...]
For the second consecutive year, winter sea ice in the Arctic reached a level that matches the lowest peak observed since satellite monitoring began in 1979. On March 15, Arctic sea ice extent reached 5.52 million square miles (14.29 million square kilometers), very close to the 2025 peak of 5.53 million square miles (14.31 million square kilometers). Scientists with NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, note that the two years are statistically tied. [...]
Employee referrals can aid hiring but carry hidden downsides. New research by Rellie Derfler-Rozin at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business and Teodora Tomova Shakur of Texas Christian University finds that staff often see referred hires as less meritorious and offer less support, even when the referred employees demonstrate high performance. Their study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, recommends clear communication about hiring rigor and employee involvement to counter these biased perceptions. [...]
A research team led by the University of Bern has decoded a mechanism by which an inconspicuous succulent regulates the uptake of carbon dioxide via the leaf surface so finely that it receives enough for photosynthesis without losing too much water—and can therefore conserve water efficiently. The findings might be translated to crops to induce higher drought resistance and ensure yields during heat and drought. [...]
Arctic sea ice reached its lowest level ever recorded, statistically tying last year's record, a leading US climate observatory for this geopolitically significant region said on Thursday. [...]
As the war in the Middle East is currently reminding us once again, many countries around the world are heavily reliant on oil and gas. Lax climate policy and limited options for removing CO₂ from the atmosphere could cement this dependence for future generations. Scientists at the University of Graz highlight this danger in a study published in the journal Global Environmental Change. They find that rights to carbon dioxide removal should be distributed across countries just as fairly as emission budgets in order to halt global warming. [...]
For decades, the massive stone circles of Rujm el-Hiri in the Golan Heights were considered a singular, mysterious anomaly—often dubbed "Israel's Stonehenge." However, new research led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) is rewriting that narrative. Using advanced satellite imagery and remote sensing technology, researchers have discovered that this iconic monument is actually the centerpiece of a much larger, previously hidden phenomenon. [...]
Everybody acts differently while they are being watched, especially by those with authority. Whether it's your boss sitting in the next cubicle next door or a cop car driving behind you, observation leads to behavioral changes. A new paper from Bret Johnson, associate professor of accounting at Costello College of Business George Mason University, finds that large corporate entities are also susceptible to the so-called "regulatory observer effect." Recently published in Review of Accounting Studies, the paper uncovers how being under SEC investigation likely impacts a company's behavior, whether or not action is taken against it. [...]
Particle accelerators reveal the heart of nuclear matter by smashing together atoms at close to the speed of light. The high-energy collisions produce a shower of subatomic fragments that scientists can then study to reconstruct the core building blocks of matter. [...]
A Korean research team, led by Dr. Young Kyu Hwang, Dr. Kyung-Ryul Oh, and Dr. Jihoon Kim at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) has developed a circular low-carbon catalytic process that co-produces gluconic acid—a key ingredient in detergents and pharmaceuticals—and sorbitol, widely used in sweeteners and cosmetics, using only glucose. [...]
Different forms of motivation affect how pupils perform in upper secondary school, a recent NTNU study shows. Pupils who believe they can improve through practice enjoy their subjects more and achieve better academic outcomes. The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Education. [...]
PathogenFinder2 is a new AI tool developed by researchers at DTU in Denmark, in collaboration with international partners, to determine whether an unfamiliar bacterium possesses genetic characteristics associated with the ability to cause disease. The research has been published in Bioinformatics, one of the world's leading journals in bioinformatics and computational biology. The research could significantly strengthen pandemic preparedness. [...]
The words on this page mean something because they are assembled in a particular order and follow the complex rules of grammar and syntax. Creating new chemical polymers follows a similar kind of structure, with rules about what elements and groups of atoms go together and how to assemble them to make sense. Thinking about polymers in that way has led Georgia Tech materials scientists to create new generative artificial intelligence tools that are like Claude or ChatGPT for new materials. [...]
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that the spinning of a small comet slowed and then reversed its direction of rotation, offering a dramatic example of how volatile activity can affect the spin and physical evolution of small bodies in the solar system. This is the first time researchers have observed evidence of a comet reversing its spin. [...]
Picture a cockpit crew of two who met just minutes before takeoff, now descending through a turbulent midnight sky. They aren't looking at each other—their eyes scan the instruments in the cockpit and the horizon outside—and yet they move in perfect sync. This isn't just professional courtesy. It's a high-speed psychological "meshing" that keeps flights safe. [...]
Around the world, in nearly every delta, people can adapt to rising sea levels using today's technological capabilities, materials, and space, according to researchers from Utrecht University and Deltares. In their new study—the first global assessment of the physical solution space of global deltas—they analyzed nearly 800 deltas, representing ~96% of the global delta land area and home to roughly 350 million people, to determine their opportunities for sea-level rise adaptation. [...]
Venus is increasingly becoming a touch point for our studies of exoplanets, as missions like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) begin to characterize rocky exoplanets around other stars. Understanding the difference between the evolutions of Venus and Earth, which ended up with such different results, is a key to understanding whether we might be looking at an Earth-analog or a hellish landscape like Venus. A new paper by Rodolfo Garcia of the University of Washington and his colleagues, which is available on the arXiv preprint server, simulates Venus' 4.5 billion year evolution as part of the solar system to try to understand some of those differences. [...]
High-energy particles called galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) bombard unprotected objects in space, often causing damage. Earth, however, is protected by its magnetic field, which creates a protective shell around the planet that can deflect dangerous charged particles, like GCRs. [...]