EPFL professor Robert West and invited professor Ágnes Horvát discuss how the rise of AI is transforming the dissemination and production of scientific knowledge. [...]
Moths move significantly less when exposed to artificial nighttime light, new research shows. Moths' attraction to artificial light, such as streetlights, is common knowledge and has been much studied. But, as many people will have observed, moths may also remain still if they land near a light, apparently "trapped." [...]
Snow has returned to the Philadelphia region, and along with it the white residues on streets and sidewalks that result from the over-application of deicers such as sodium chloride, or rock salt, as well as more modern salt alternatives. [...]
Researchers at the University of Kansas have shown the National Severe Storms Laboratory's Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS) has potential to help weather forecasters issue warnings to emergency managers and the general public well before tornado formation. Their study appears in the peer-reviewed journal Weather and Forecasting. [...]
Lately we've been reporting about a series of studies on the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), NASA's flagship telescope mission for the 2040s. These studies have looked at the type of data they need to collect, and what the types of worlds they would expect to find would look like. [...]
Digital payments, online banking, investment apps, and automated credit assessments have become routine parts of our everyday financial lives. A study in the International Journal of Business Information Systems argues that, because of this, the money management skills we need have changed fundamentally. [...]
An international team of researchers including scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) have developed a way to reveal the smallest of malfunctions in the biochemical machinery that makes proteins in our bodies. According to the researchers, these malfunctions, however small, can trigger neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, as well as cancer and developmental disorders. [...]
Over the past 20 years, green hydrogen produced using sunlight has gained considerable attention as a promising pathway toward a low-carbon future. Among the various solar-driven methods for H2 production, the photocatalytic process stands out for its simplicity, low cost, and suitability for scaling up. [...]
Quantum technology has the potential to transform society. But how can you effectively inform the public about such complex and enigmatic science and technology? Ph.D. candidate Aletta Meinsma explored this. [...]
The architecture of the body is not encoded as a formal blueprint; rather, it's the tightly orchestrated activation and deactivation of genes that coordinate body development. Many of these processes are not fully understood, but RIKEN researchers have made important headway toward reconstructing how critical building blocks within a vertebrate embryo take shape. [...]
In its natural state, peatland is one of the largest carbon stores in nature. This is because the soil is so waterlogged and low in oxygen that dead plant material breaks down very slowly. The plants do not fully decompose but instead accumulate over thousands of years, forming thick layers of peat. When a peatland is drained for agricultural use, the water level drops and oxygen enters the peat layer. Microorganisms can then break down the old plant material much faster, releasing carbon that has been stored for many years as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂). [...]
Chromosomes are masters of organization. These long strings of DNA fold down into an ensemble of compact structures that keep needed parts of the genome accessible while tucking away those that aren't used as often. Understanding the complexity of these structures has been challenging; chromosomes are large systems, and deciphering the structure and dynamics requires a combination of experimental data and theoretical approaches. [...]
Astronomers use the term dark energy to refer to energy in the universe that is unaccounted for by ordinary matter but necessary to explain cosmology. Astronomy, however, isn't the only field with missing energy. Rice University professor Peter Wolynes and postdoctoral researcher Carlos Bueno, along with Universidad de Buenos Aires collaborators Ezequiel Gaplern, Ignacio Sánchez and Diego Ferreiro, recently published a paper describing the "dark energy" found in the structural protein universe. This missing energy comes from the tension between the form of a protein and its function. [...]
Scientists at Oregon State University have developed a new nanomaterial that triggers a pair of chemical reactions inside cancer cells, killing the cells via oxidative stress while leaving healthy tissues alone. The study led by Oleh and Olena Taratula and Chao Wang of the OSU College of Pharmacy appears in Advanced Functional Materials. [...]
If you have had strep throat or an ear infection, there's a good chance you received amoxicillin or penicillin to effectively kill the troublesome bacteria. These drugs, which belong to a broad group of antibiotics called beta-lactams, are commonly used to treat various bacterial infections, from urinary tract infections to pneumonia and sepsis. [...]
Data from NASA's Juno mission has provided new insights into the thickness and subsurface structure of the icy shell encasing Jupiter's moon Europa. Using the spacecraft's Microwave Radiometer (MWR), mission scientists determined that the shell averages about 18 miles (29 kilometers) thick in the region observed during Juno's 2022 flyby of Europa. The Juno measurement is the first to discriminate between thin and thick shell models that have suggested the ice shell is anywhere from less than half a mile to tens of miles thick. [...]
Roughly 5,500–6,000 years ago, the area including present-day Finland was inhabited by hunter-fisher-gatherers living in small village-like clusters. Traveling via waterways, these people established permanent fishing systems, and at times, even cleared forests for small-scale farming. [...]
University of Liverpool researchers have discovered a way to host some of the most significant properties of graphene in a three-dimensional (3D) material, potentially removing the hurdles for these properties to be used at scale in green computing. The work is published in the journal Matter. [...]
Seeing chemistry unfold inside living cells is one of the biggest challenges of modern bioimaging. Raman microscopy offers a powerful way to meet this challenge by reading the unique vibrational signatures of molecules. However, cells are extraordinarily complex environments filled with thousands of biomolecules. [...]
A new tool developed by Washington State University researchers could someday provide daily or weekly forecasts of water availability in the mountains similar to a weather forecast that agencies could use for important water management decisions. [...]
Estimates of unlicensed online gambling in the Nordic countries vary widely and are often based on non-transparent data sources. This is shown by a new scoping review published in PLOS ONE. Led by researchers from, among others, Karolinska Institutet, the study reviews 32 reports and finds that figures describing the "black market" are frequently used as political arguments, despite unclear underlying methodologies. [...]
New cutting-edge research, led by Academy Professor Otso Ovaskainen of the University of Jyväskylä and David Dunson at Duke University, combines citizen bird observations with artificial intelligence and the computing power of supercomputers at CSC—IT Center for Science. The international and multidisciplinary research team has developed the world's most accurate prediction model, capable of anticipating even small shifts in bird occurrence almost in real time. [...]
A deep freeze is gripping large swaths of the United States after a monster storm killed dozens of people from the Northeast to the Deep South, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and sent air travel into chaos. [...]
How many tiny pieces of plastic are currently inside your body? A series of headline-grabbing studies in the last few years have claimed to have found microplastics throughout human bodies—inside blood, organs and even brains. [...]
Earth is closer than it's ever been to destruction as Russia, China, the U.S. and other countries become "increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic," a science-oriented advocacy group said Tuesday and advanced its "Doomsday Clock" to 85 seconds till midnight. [...]
A young mountain lion spotted roaming the streets of San Francisco has been located near a park where wildlife officials are trying to capture it, authorities said Tuesday. [...]
Quantum computing represents a potential breakthrough technology that could far surpass the technical limitations of modern-day computing systems for some tasks. However, putting together practical, large-scale quantum computers remains challenging, particularly because of the complex and delicate techniques involved. [...]
Researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), have uncovered how a high-risk class of genetic vectors can efficiently spread antibiotic resistance within the gut, enabling even highly virulent bacteria to acquire drug resistance under real-world conditions. [...]
The field of nanomaterials is witnessing a transformative shift at the intersection of organic chemistry and molecular engineering. Among the most promising molecular structures are carbon nanohoops, of which [n]cycloparaphenylenes ([n]CPPs) are a representative example. [...]
Computer simulations carried out by astronomers from the University of Groningen in collaboration with researchers from Germany, France and Sweden show that most of the (dark) matter beyond the Local Group of galaxies (which includes the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy) must be organized in an extended plane. Above and below this plane are large voids. The observed motions of nearby galaxies and the joint masses of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy can only be properly explained with this "flat" mass distribution. The research, led by Ph.D. graduate Ewoud Wempe and Professor Amina Helmi, is published in Nature Astronomy. [...]
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