We like to think that animals follow the crowd. If most of the group does something, surely the individual will copy. But what if the story is more complicated? What if the deciding factor isn't just what the majority is doing, but how strongly you already feel about it? That's the question we set out to test in zebra finches. [...]
Researchers from North Carolina State University have used laser ablation to create ultra-stretchable, superomniphobic materials without the use of harsh chemical solvents. The materials—which are useful in applications ranging from soft robotics to artificial skin patches—retain their superomniphobic (i.e., super-repellent) properties when stretched up to five times their initial length and at over 5,000 stretch cycles. [...]
A new pilot study examining how immigrant residents engage with city services and government processes in Long Beach suggests that heightened federal immigration enforcement is undermining democratic participation, even among U.S. citizens who fear for undocumented family members. [...]
At high densities, white-tailed deer inhibit growth of trees but increase the overall diversity of smaller plant and weed species, according to a long-term study published recently. The work is published in the journal PLOS One. [...]
A research team led by UAB researcher David Reverter has discovered the molecular mechanism that describes in detail the process regulating cell division in bacteria, based on the binding of the MraZ protein to the dcw gene cluster. The research has been published in Nature Communications. [...]
In the eastern Utah desert, carbon-dioxide-saturated water bubbles, sprays and foams from the ground. These cold-water geysers, sometimes called soda pop geysers, are a new and reliable Earth-based analog for scientists studying plume eruptions of ocean worlds in the outer solar system, according to new research led by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Morgan Cable and published in Astrobiology. [...]
As governments and companies race to meet climate pledges, from net-zero goals to near-term emissions cuts, Cornell researchers have developed a blockchain-based platform to improve how those commitments are recorded and verified. Carbon registries serve as repositories for documenting emissions reductions, third-party verification and the issuance of carbon credits that can be bought and sold. But according to Cornell researchers, flaws in how most registries operate can lead to weak verification standards, double counting and misleading claims about how environmentally friendly a product or service is. [...]
The Amazon rainforest is of crucial importance to the Earth's ecosystem, given its capacity to store substantial amounts of carbon in its vegetation. In 2023, the region experienced unusually high temperatures, reaching 1.5°C above the 1991–2020 average, accompanied by unusual levels of atmospheric dryness from September to November. These conditions were caused by warmer water temperatures in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that resulted in diminished moisture transport from the Atlantic to South America, and led to drought in the second half of 2023. An international research team, led by Santiago Botia at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, studied how these extreme conditions affected the Amazon rainforest's ability to absorb and store carbon. [...]
Creatures that can change from one form to another are a staple of science fiction: Think werewolves and Transformers. Nature, too, has its shapeshifters, such as dimorphic fungi. While scientists have known for some time that they can reversibly transition between yeast and mycelium forms, a paper recently published in the journal Nature Communications explains how. [...]
Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University have studied how fruit flies tune their development in response to environmental changes (diapause). Studying fruit fly strains from different latitudes across Japan, they showed that the sensitivity to starting reproductive diapause varies smoothly with local conditions. [...]
Quantum computers are alternative computing devices that process information, leveraging quantum mechanical effects, such as entanglement between different particles. Entanglement establishes a link between particles that allows them to share states in such a way that measuring one particle instantly affects the others, irrespective of the distance between them. [...]
Many technological applications, such as sensors and batteries, greatly rely on electrochemical reactions. Improving these technologies depends on understanding how electrochemical reactions work. However, most current methods cannot look at electrochemical reactions in detail. [...]
An injured seabird sought help by pecking at the door of an emergency room at a hospital in Germany until medical staff noticed it and called firefighters to help with its rescue. [...]
Most bacteria, including many bacterial pathogens, are surrounded by an outer protective layer of sugar molecules, known as a capsule. This primarily protects the bacteria from environmental influences, but also serves as a kind of cloak of invisibility, enabling them to evade the phagocytes of our immune system. Structural biologists at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) have now used cryo-electron microscopy to visualize the central Wza-Wzc protein complex, with which sugar molecules pass from the interior of the bacterial cell to the outside, in three dimensions at the atomic level for the first time. [...]
A new national monitoring program provides, for the first time, area-representative knowledge of semi-natural grasslands in Norway. The results show that this habitat covers a larger area than previously mapped, but that most grasslands are abandoned and in the process of becoming encroached upon. [...]
Researchers at The University of Manchester have developed a new way to design Earth-observation satellite missions that could help protect the space environment while continuing to deliver vital data for tackling global challenges, such as climate change, food production, supply chain vulnerabilities and environmental degradation. [...]
The Doñana National Park, considered one of Europe's most valuable wetlands, is expected to lose its marshland in 61 years, according to calculations from a major water-resource monitoring study carried out by the University of Seville. The study has developed an innovative algorithm, based on machine learning, capable of detecting the presence of surface water with high precision using images from the Sentinel-2 satellite. [...]
Haoyu Cheng, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical informatics and data science at Yale School of Medicine, has developed a new algorithm capable of building complete human genomes using standard laboratory technology. His tool, called hifiasm (ONT), eliminates the need for costly DNA sequencing that requires 40 times more genetic material and often cannot be performed on patient samples. [...]
A new study published in Conservation Biology shows that geotagged social media photos can significantly improve biodiversity datasets, especially in regions underrepresented in global monitoring efforts. Led by scientists from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, and Monash University, the team integrated Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) occurrence records with public images of the tawny coster butterfly (Acraea terpsicore) from Flickr and Facebook, and saw a 35% increase in total observations. [...]
It's time for the Winter Olympics, and people across the globe will sit in front of their TVs with the hope that their country brings home lots of medals. But why does this make us happy? Why do we get so excited when the person we support is doing well in sports? After all, we're not the ones who are actually winning anything. [...]
There aren't any native lion or tiger populations living in Japan today, but this was not always the case. Fossil evidence indicates that at least one species of large cat roamed the archipelago during the Late Pleistocene—a period lasting from approximately 129,000 to 11,700 years ago. While researchers initially thought the fossils came from ancient tigers, new DNA evidence, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that the fossils actually came from an ancient species of lion. [...]
By 2050, offshore wind power capacity in the North Sea is set to increase more than tenfold. Researchers at the Helmholtz Center Hereon have analyzed the long-term overall impact of this large number of wind farms on the hydrodynamics of the North Sea for the first time. They found that the current pattern could change on a large scale. The study highlights approaches for minimizing potential risks to the environment at an early stage. The work was recently published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. [...]
It's one of the latest technologies for sequestering carbon: crush silicate rocks, add to crop soil, and let the rock dust naturally react with carbon dioxide. The reactions bind carbon into stable mineral forms that can persist for millennia, while also enriching the soil with nutrients, boosting crop yields and increasing farmer profits. [...]
New research by the University of Portsmouth reveals that during the Great Plague of 1665, Londoners used published death figures to make daily, life or death decisions, reshaping how governments managed public health and personal freedom for the first time. The study is published in the journal Accounting History. [...]
Deforestation in the Amazon is causing significant regional changes in climate compared to areas with forest cover above 80%. The loss of vegetation leads to an increase in surface temperature, a decrease in evapotranspiration, and a reduction in precipitation during the dry season and in the number of rainy days. [...]
The Baltic Sea has been under pressure for decades: Although phosphorus and nitrogen river loads, the main cause for its eutrophication, have been significantly reduced, adverse effects such as algal blooms and oxygen depletion still massively occur, leading to further ecological problems. Scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) have now published a comprehensive review showing how nutrient pollution, internal matter cycles and global warming interact, thereby delaying the impact of protective measures. They also identify potential approaches for effective Baltic Sea management. The study was recently published in the Annual Review of Marine Science. [...]
Far from the common assumption of a strictly binary division of labor, the roles of women and men in Neolithic Europe were both clearly differentiated and flexible, according to a new study conducted by CNRS researchers and an international team. These findings were published in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology on February 16, 2026. [...]
The fragility and laws of quantum physics generally make the characterization of quantum systems time‑consuming. Furthermore, when a quantum system is measured, it is destroyed in the process. A breakthrough by researchers at the University of Vienna demonstrates a novel method for quantum state certification that efficiently verifies entangled quantum states in real time without destroying all available states—a decisive step forward in the development of robust quantum computers and quantum networks. [...]
Aluminum's journey has been remarkable, going from being more expensive than gold to one of the most widely used materials, from beverage cans to window frames and car parts. Scientists from the Southern University of Science and Technology have added a new feather in aluminum's cap by expanding its use beyond the metallic form. They created a new aluminum-based redox catalyst—carbazolylaluminylene—that can flip back and forth between two oxidation states: Al(I) and Al(III). This catalyst drove chemical transformations long considered exclusive to transition metals. [...]
Gravity feels reliable—stable and consistent enough to count on. But reality is far stranger than our intuition. In truth, the strength of gravity varies over Earth's surface. And it is weakest beneath the frozen continent of Antarctica after accounting for Earth's rotation. [...]