Mining critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt fuels the "green" energy and digital transitions essential to meeting climate goals. But building the technologies that enable a sustainable future is generating severe, hidden environmental and health crises that the world is failing to track or address, warns a new report by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), known as the UN's Think Tank on Water. [...]
As the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February, the social media posts by some US national security agencies took a particular turn. [...]
Researchers at Kyushu University and Institute of Science Tokyo have developed a new computational model that can simulate the transport of oxygen by red blood cells (RBCs) through tiny blood vessels—or capillaries—and their delivery to surrounding tissues. Published in the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer on April 27, 2026, the study reveals that RBCs can naturally adjust the amount of oxygen released based on local requirements and help maintain a stable level of oxygen throughout the body. [...]
Pollinating insects are important for agriculture and ecological flourishing, but they are difficult to monitor, as identification is tricky, labor-intensive, and typically requires killing some insects. Publishing in PNAS Nexus, Adam Narbudowicz and colleagues use machine learning to identify insects by the changes in their radar reflection, caused by the flapping of their wings. The machine learning model extracted more than 70 harmonic, spectral, and temporal features from the Doppler radar signatures. [...]
In addition to habitat loss and illegal hunting, the jaguar (Panthera onca) faces another threat that increases its risk of extinction in the South American Atlantic Forest: food scarcity. A study by Brazilian researchers has found that the availability of jaguar prey is reduced, even in the protected areas of the biome, which covers approximately 15% of Brazil and extends across 17 states in the South, Southeast, and Northeast regions, as well as parts of Argentina and Paraguay. The paper is published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation. [...]
Why are there so many species of coral reef fish? According to a new study, it's because about 50 million years ago, some fish figured out how to bite food from hard surfaces. [...]
Researchers at Skoltech have developed an ultra-compact electro-optic modulator based on silicon photonics and plasmonics that enables high-efficiency optical signal control within a small device footprint. The development could find applications in optical communication systems, analog-to-digital conversion, as well as in devices for generating and processing ultra-high-frequency signals based on photonic technologies. [...]
Scorpions wield some of the natural world's most formidable built-in weapons, from crushing pincers to venomous stingers. Scientists have long known that these structures contain trace metals that strengthen them, but only a small fraction of the roughly 3,000 scorpions have ever been examined for this trait. [...]
Having a religious affiliation doesn't stop people from betting on sports in the United States, according to a new study. Results showed that people who infrequently attend religious services are more likely to gamble on sports than people who attend services at least weekly or who never worship publicly. The work appears in the Sociology of Sport Journal. [...]
Researchers from the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Nagoya City University, and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science in Japan have identified the first animal ion channel molecules that open and close in response to extracellular potassium ions (K⁺). The paper is published in the journal Nature Communications. [...]
After nearly four decades, the world's longest-running soil warming experiment is revealing a surprising result: even "stable" carbon in forest soils can break down as temperatures rise, releasing more CO₂ into the atmosphere. The findings are published in the journal Science of The Total Environment. [...]
How do photosynthetic organisms harvest light so efficiently? To help answer this question, researchers have developed an ultrafast transient absorption microscope with sensitivity approaching the single-molecule level. [...]
The idea that information should flow freely is deeply embedded in the design of social media. The assumption is that the more information is produced and shared, the better. However, simulations by a team of scientists including University of Groningen Professor of Artificial Intelligence Davide Grossi show that such an unrestricted flow of information can amplify incorrect ideas among like-minded people. The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [...]
Shielding materials are essential in key modern industrial settings—such as spacecraft, nuclear power plants, semiconductor equipment, and advanced medical devices—to protect both equipment and personnel from electromagnetic waves and radiation. In particular, as space exploration gains momentum—such as with the successful launch of Artemis 2 on the 2nd—the importance of next-generation shielding technology capable of withstanding extreme environments is growing. [...]
The first study to measure the full economic value of bottom trawling in Europe's waters calculates that the destructive fishing practice imposes up to €16 billion annually in net costs to society. The research is published in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management. [...]
Scientists at the University of East Anglia have uncovered a hidden property of light that allows it to twist, spin and behave differently—without mirrors, materials or special lenses. In a breakthrough that could transform medical testing, data transmission and future quantum technologies, researchers from the UK and South Africa have shown that light can be "programmed" simply by exploiting its natural geometry. [...]
An international team of researchers have made the surprising discovery that urban birds—such as great tits, house sparrows and blackbirds—flee sooner when approached by women compared to men. But they don't understand why. Conducted across five European countries, the study involved male and female participants (matched for height and clothing) walking in a straight line towards birds in urban parks and green spaces. [...]
Anyone who has ever used a microscope knows that it takes time to bring a sample into sharp focus. Each time you move the slide, the image blurs, and you have to stop and carefully turn a knob to bring everything back into clear view. For scientists and clinicians, even if the motion is semi-automated, that time quickly adds up as they work with dozens or hundreds of samples. [...]
Eggs and poultry provide important sources of protein globally, driving a major industry with large economic impacts. Challenges to hatchery operations include embryo mortality, fertility, sex determination, and eggshell characteristics. These features have a substantial impact on production, but they are difficult and time-consuming to estimate. [...]
Natural rubber, tapped from trees as latex, is the world's most widely used bio-elastomer. Comprising long molecular chains that make it pliable and stretchy yet highly resistant to cracking and strain, natural rubber is foundational to countless products, including the heavy-duty tires in trucks, buses, and airplanes. [...]
Nanographenes are organic semiconductor materials used in smartphones, OLED displays, and solar cells. At the molecular level, they are composed of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are a network of connected benzene rings (hexagon-shaped carbon molecules). Chemists can modify the electronic properties of PAHs by adding more benzene rings to them, changing their size and shape. As such, there is high demand for methods that can selectively extend specific sites of PAH molecules to allow greater versatility in technological applications. [...]
Chocolate is one of the world's most widely consumed foods. It is made from cacao beans grown by millions of smallholder farmers globally. High-quality cacao beans require optimal growing conditions, which are essential for producing good-quality chocolates. However, growing climate variability such as rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, and prolonged dry spells, are making it harder to maintain healthy crops and stable yields. [...]
Recent research led by the University of Trento reveals that fundamental atomic vibrations remain unchanged also in ultra-stable glasses. This discovery advances the decade-long debate on the physics of disorder and opens the way to new applications, from electronics to pharmaceuticals. The research work was carried out by the Department of Physics in collaboration with other European research institutions and published in Physical Review X. [...]
A study conducted in the Brazilian state of Amazonas has demonstrated that small amounts of Amazonian dark earth (ADE)—an anthropogenic soil created by ancient Amazonian populations—can increase the height and diameter of the pink trumpet tree (Handroanthus avellanedae) by up to 55% and 88%, respectively. This tree also occurs in the Atlantic Forest. The research is published in the journal BMC Ecology and Evolution. [...]
Regulators often move in and out of revolving doors between government and the industries they oversee. They can bring valuable expertise. But their ties also can raise questions about whose interests their knowledge ultimately serves. In one recent case, staffers at the U.S. Treasury Department—who previously worked at Big Four accounting firms—helped draft tax regulations that benefited their former clients. The officials later returned to those firms with promotions and higher pay. [...]
A technology that could propel crewed missions to Mars and robotic spacecraft throughout the solar system was recently put to the test at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. On Feb. 24, for the first time in years and at power levels exceeding any previous test in the United States, a team fired up an electromagnetic thruster that runs on lithium metal vapor. [...]
Zinc is an essential trace element that controls myriad biological processes. The delicate balance of its concentration in the body is critical; both deficiency and excess are linked to severe pathological states such as impaired immunity, delayed wound healing, and sensory dysfunctions. However, it remains unclear how zinc dysregulation leads to these cellular defects at the molecular level. [...]
Climate change has become entangled in partisan politics. In Canada, as in other countries, climate concern and support for climate policy are often coded as left-leaning positions. Meanwhile, climate change skepticism or denial is more likely to be espoused by those on the political right. [...]
The genes that could help the world's crops survive drought, heat, and disease probably already exist. But much of this genetic diversity remains hidden within ancient plant varieties and forgotten seed collections, among millions of DNA differences that are difficult to spot. Now, a new way of reading crop genomes is helping scientists uncover these variations. [...]
Artificial light at night not only alters the landscape, but also profoundly disrupts natural ecosystems. A recent study by the RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau shows that light pollution can significantly disrupt the exchange of energy and nutrients between bodies of water and their surrounding habitats—sometimes even more than non-native species. Thus, lighting along riverbanks or streams can have far-reaching ecological consequences. These results are published in Functional Ecology. [...]