The well-being of a supervisor is reflected through supervisor-subordinate relationships in employee motivation and performance, and consequently, in the company's competitiveness. In his doctoral research at the University of Vaasa, Project Researcher Jussi Tanskanen demonstrates that an exhausted leader lacks the resources to maintain high-quality relationships with subordinates, leading to a collapse in employee dedication. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced in today's intensive work environment and remote work settings. [...]
Lipid research investigates the structure, function and metabolism of fats, covering their roles in industrial processes, the environment and health. Emerging research areas include nutrient regulation, cardiovascular health, lipidomics and biomarker discovery to understand, prevent or treat malfunction in diverse settings. An initiative led by Flinders University is building links between researchers, clinicians and industry professionals working across the diverse and rapidly evolving field of lipid science. [...]
An unusually mild winter followed by a wet spring made last year one of the worst in a decade for Pennsylvania soybean growers. It wasn't the soybeans that were the problem; it was the slugs. The pests survived the warm winter to lay a second round of eggs, and twice as many slugs hatched in the spring of 2024 as the year before. The slugs ate so many seedlings that some growers had to replant three times. [...]
Isolated on a Taiwanese fishing vessel, eight days from the nearest landmass, 22-year-old Indonesian fisherman Sugiama was found dead in his bunk in 2019. His death followed an 18-hour shift and an assault the night before, when he was hit across the head for not working fast enough. [...]
Rising living costs, energy insecurity, widening inequality, and escalating climate impacts are fueling discussions on fairness and justice in climate policy. Yet, assumptions in global emission scenarios that determine who benefits and who bears the costs are often only made implicitly. A new IIASA-led study addresses this gap by offering a practical way to assess and design emission scenarios that explicitly account for distributive justice. The research is published in the journal npj Climate Action. [...]
Tiny organisms on the ground—bacteria and fungi—have a "superpower" that allows them to reach up into the atmosphere and pull down the rain, according to a recent study. [...]
In a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of chemists has unveiled a radically simple way to attach a highly sought-after "molecular handle," known as the dichloromethyl group, onto complex compounds. Instead of relying on the aggressive, heavy-metal or radiation-heavy techniques of the past, the team used a common, naturally occurring amino acid called proline to gently choreograph the assembly. [...]
Enzymes are nature's tiny powerhouses, helping with everything from digesting food to making it quicker and safer to produce medicines, food and renewable fuels. While they can enhance chemical reactions, their fragile nature makes it difficult to use them in typical industrial processes. [...]
In a paper just out in Nature Synthesis, researchers led by Prof. Timothy Noël of the University of Amsterdam's Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences presented a breakthrough in autonomous laboratory systems for synthesis optimization. With an estimated cost of a mere $5,000, a versatile, modular design and the option for "human in the loop" analytics, RoboChem Flex caters to all synthesis laboratories, large or small. The paper provides all the information to build their own system. [...]
University of British Columbia researchers have developed a natural, biodegradable wash that removed up to 96% of pesticide residue from fruit and slowed browning and moisture loss. This could mean safer apples, grapes and other fruit that also stays fresh and crisp for days longer. With rising food prices and nearly half of all fresh produce wasted worldwide each year, finding a way to cut pesticide exposure and reduce spoilage could have a big impact. The findings are published in ACS Nano. [...]
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is opening the door for more researchers to conduct consumer studies than ever before. But that same accessibility may push the field toward increasingly generic results—and ultimately disconnected from real human behavior. [...]
A research team has discovered an enhanced CRISPR gene-editing system that could enable targeted delivery inside the human body—a key step toward broader clinical use. Researchers identified a naturally occurring enzyme, Al3Cas12f, that is small enough to fit into adeno-associated virus vectors, a leading targeted delivery method for gene therapies. They then engineered an enhanced version that dramatically improved gene-editing performance in human cells. [...]
Cells can be thought of as cities, with factories, a transport system, and lots of building activity. An international team led by scientists at the University of Groningen studied cells growing under different conditions and measured the speed of molecule transport. They found that some conditions led to changes in the mobility inside the cells, caused by the clustering of proteins that produce the building materials for growth. It could be that clustering enables the proteins to produce those building blocks more efficiently. The research is published in the journal Molecular Cell. [...]
A new study finds that the most intense and destructive rainstorms in Portugal, particularly those fueled by atmospheric rivers, are not the most chaotic but are among the most predictable. These events form within large, well-organized atmospheric systems that strengthen winds and channel moisture efficiently, producing significantly heavier rainfall while also creating clearer, more coherent signals in the atmosphere. As a result, the very storms that pose the greatest risk to infrastructure and public safety may also offer the best opportunity for earlier and more reliable forecasts. [...]
Archaeologists have investigated genetic relationships between individuals buried in Neolithic chambered tombs in northern Scotland, suggesting monumental tombs may have been physical embodiments of prehistoric kinship, tracing lineages over centuries. [...]
A study led by UC Riverside physicist Hai-Bo Yu suggests that a new type of dark matter could explain three astrophysical puzzles across vastly different environments. Published in Physical Review Letters, the study proposes that dense clumps of self-interacting dark matter (SIDM)—each about a million times the mass of the sun—can account for unusual gravitational effects observed in gravitational lenses, stellar streams, and satellite galaxies. [...]
Urban emissions of methane—a potent greenhouse gas—are rising faster than bottom-up accounting estimates anticipated, according to a study led by University of Michigan Engineering. The discrepancy was found with satellite measurements of methane over 92 major cities around the world. For 72 of the cities, there were sufficient data to track changes in methane emissions between 2019 and 2023. Overall, global urban methane emissions in 2023 were 6% higher than 2019 levels and 10% higher than 2020 levels, although they tended to decrease in European cities. [...]
Researchers from National Taiwan University and Chulalongkorn University developed a copper-based catalyst system that improves low-temperature methanol synthesis from carbon dioxide hydrogenation by balancing two key steps in the reaction. [...]
Scientists at the VIB–VUB Center for Structural Biology have uncovered a counterintuitive principle that could reshape how membrane proteins are designed from scratch: Sometimes, making a protein less stable helps it fold correctly. In their study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers demonstrate that introducing carefully placed "imperfections," a strategy known as negative design, enables synthetic membrane proteins to fold and assemble efficiently in artificial membranes. [...]
Materials that emit and manipulate light are at the heart of technologies ranging from solar energy to advanced imaging systems. But even in well-studied materials, some fundamental behaviors remain unexplained. Researchers at Rice University have now solved a long-standing mystery in a widely used organic semiconductor, revealing how tiny structural imperfections can actually improve how these materials work. [...]
An electrochemical sensor developed at Oregon State University holds promise for making food quality testing faster, more accurate, more environmentally friendly, and less expensive. The novel sensor, which also has potential applications in health care and environmental monitoring, is based on the design principle of engineered interfacial chemistry. The sensor requires tiny sample amounts, can be built into portable testing devices, and is fast and highly sensitive. [...]
Light has long been known to regulate plant growth. New research from Osaka Metropolitan University has discovered a new mechanism behind this regulation. A team led by Professor Kouichi Soga of the Graduate School of Science used a unique method to measure adhesion between the epidermal (the outermost layer) and inner tissues in young pea stems. They found that those grown in light exhibit enhanced adhesion. The research is published in Physiologia Plantarum. [...]
A key factor for the performance of sensors is the speed at which the system returns to its initial state after a disturbance or measurement, similar to the taring of a balance. In the quantum sensor under investigation, this corresponds to the transition of electrons from an energetically excited state to the ground state. However, the electrons remain in a kind of metastable intermediate state for a short time. A team of physicists from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) has now directly measured this waiting time in a two-dimensional material: It lasts exactly 24 billionths of a second. [...]
The mechanics of the onset of cancer or neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease or ALS remain a mystery. Scientists associate these diseases with an increase in unstable molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells, but they don't fully know why they form or why these molecules might pose a problem. They also are beginning to determine which parts of cells are to blame for producing ROS. [...]
Two unrelated groups of nectar eaters, hummingbirds and sunbirds, have evolved different techniques to slurp the sweet liquid from flowers. The tongue suctioning employed by sunbirds is unique among vertebrates, according to recent research appearing in Current Biology. [...]
At this point in NASA's human spaceflight story, researchers have a substantial amount of material—documents, artifacts and images—with which to tell the stories of past flights to space. But with NASA's Artemis II mission around the moon now in the books, we're getting a refreshed look at space. [...]
A new study by scientists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) shows that when a pressure disturbance moves across an ultrasoft elastic material, such as a gel or a biological tissue, it generates a V-shaped wake that's strikingly similar to the waves that travel behind a boat. [...]
How can a drug be released or activated exactly where and when it is needed in the body? For many treatments, particularly in cancer therapy, the active compound should ideally act only at a specific site. Yet in practice, drugs are distributed throughout the entire body: the disease is local, but the therapy is systemic, with little spatial or temporal control. [...]
Quantum computers stand to revolutionize research by helping investigators solve certain problems exponentially faster than with conventional computers. Current quantum computers encounter a challenge where they lose stored information in a process known as quantum scrambling. However, scientists at the University of California, Irvine have discovered a method to enable computers to preserve the data that would otherwise be lost during the scrambling process. The research is published in the journal Physical Review Letters. [...]
At least six gray whales have died in San Francisco Bay from mid-March to early April 2026. These deaths follow a pattern over the past few years, and they are raising concerns among marine biologists like us that 2026 is becoming another dangerous year for a struggling population. [...]