For many years, I lived in the Indian city of Chennai, where the summer temperatures can reach up to 44° C. With a population of 4.5 million, this coastal city is humid and hot.
Sometimes to truly study something up close, you have to take a step back. That's what Andrea Donnellan does. An expert in Earth sciences and seismology, she gets much of her data from a bird's-eye view, studying the planet's surface from the air and space, using the data to make discoveries and deepen understanding about earthquakes and other geological processes.
The Indonesian Throughflow carries both warm water and fresh water from the Pacific into the Indian Ocean. As the only low-latitude current that connects the two bodies of water, it plays a key role in ocean circulation and sea surface temperature worldwide.
Analysis of 218.1 million notes from 1.6 million patients' electronic health records revealed growing use of emojis.
According to a recent study by researchers at the University of the Basque Country (EHU), raising social awareness is essential to improving the well-being of celiac individuals.
Fluorophores are chemical compounds or molecules that absorb light energy at one wavelength and re-emit it as light at a longer, lower-energy wavelength, acting as glowing tags or markers. The absorption process is known as excitation, and the re-emission is visible as fluorescent light, which makes these molecules crucial for biological imaging, diagnostics, and tracing cellular molecules like proteins or lipids under normal or various infectious conditions.
Genetic disorders occur due to alterations in the primary genetic material—deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)—of an organism.
Researchers at Kumamoto University have discovered that a purely inorganic crystal grown from water solution can emit circularly polarized light, a special form of light whose "handedness" distinguishes left from right.
When energy researchers talk about the future of the grid, they often focus on individual pieces: solar panels, batteries, nuclear plants, or new transmission lines. But in a recent study, urban systems researcher Anton Rozhkov takes a different approach—treating the energy system itself as a complex, evolving organism shaped as much by policy and human behavior as by technology.
When the four-member crew of Axiom-2 launched into space in May 2023, their 10-day mission was chock full of experiments aimed at understanding human physiology. Results from some of those experiments, now online at Aging Cell, highlight spaceflight as a unique model for studying aging as well as cellular resilience. The research sets the stage for testing potential anti-aging interventions for those of us who have no plans to travel in space.
When you think of tools for studying substance use and addiction, a social media site like Reddit, TikTok or YouTube probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. Yet the stories shared on social media platforms are offering unprecedented insights into the world of substance use.
A mouse scurries up to six chestnuts. Three look healthy. Three have exit holes where moth larvae ate the insides before they left. What does the mouse do?
In numerous scientific fields, high-throughput experimentation methods combined with artificial intelligence (AI) show great promise to accelerate innovation and scientific discovery.
Light-emitting semiconductors are used throughout everyday life in TVs, smartphones, and lighting. However, many technical barriers remain in developing environmentally friendly semiconductor materials.
Researchers from Kyushu University discovered a previously unrecognized synaptic "hotspot" that forms during adolescence, challenging the long-held view that adolescent brain development was dominated by synaptic pruning. This hotspot fails to form in mice carrying a schizophrenia-associated gene, pointing to a potential link between adolescent synaptic formation and psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia.
Scientists have identified a promising target for treatment of a devastating autoimmune disease affecting the brain.
Teeth provide a wealth of information about the lives of Iron Age Italians, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by Roberto Germano of Sapienza University of Rome, Italy and colleagues.
A new study suggests that with low to moderate levels of global greenhouse emissions in coming decades, more of India could become suitable for growing avocadoes. However, with high enough emissions, growing zones could shrink and destabilize by 2070.
A research team led by Associate Professor Hirofumi Nishizono and graduate student Masaki Kato from the Research Support Center at the Medical Research Institute of Kanazawa Medical University has identified eleven novel factors essential for the development of fertilized eggs. This achievement was made possible through the integration of one-cell embryo cryopreservation technology, an inhibitor library screening, RNA-seq analysis, and CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing.
Plants make substances called alkaloids to protect themselves, and humans have long taken advantage of these chemicals, using them in painkillers, treatments for disease and household products such as caffeine and nicotine.
As with humans, the maternal bond in nature is important for animals to find their way in the world. In mammals, a mother does not just provide milk; she also teaches her offspring survival skills and how to play well with others. But according to new research into domestic horses published in the journal Nature Communications, staying with mom fundamentally changes the developing brain and body of foals.
What exists beneath the surface of Jupiter's icy moon, Callisto? This is what a recent study accepted by The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the subsurface composition of Callisto, which is Jupiter's outermost Galilean satellite. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the interior composition of Callisto, which is hypothesized to possess a subsurface liquid water ocean, and develop new techniques for exploring planetary subsurface environments.
New Swinburne-led research has found that the use of mobile devices by primary school-aged children for gaming, social media and streaming significantly increases the risk of internet addiction—and parents are the main influence.
Researchers led by Rice University's Guido Pagano used a specialized quantum device to simulate a vibrating molecule and track how energy moves within it. The work, published Dec. 5 in Nature Communications, could improve understanding of basic mechanisms behind phenomena such as photosynthesis and solar energy conversion.
This year's Values Report from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS) at UCLA has revealed that despite navigating extreme weather events, global geopolitical conflicts and economic strain, today's young people remain remarkably grounded, with their values reflecting core human needs more than fleeting wants.
The Menga dolmen in Antequera, Spain, is a Neolithic monument and part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. The monument, built in the fourth millennium BCE, has seen continued use for burials and rituals through the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Antiquity, and medieval times.
A research team led by Zhiping Weng, Ph.D., and Jill Moore, Ph.D."18, at UMass Chan Medical School, has nearly tripled the known number of potential regulatory elements in the genome to 2.37 million, creating the most comprehensive map to date of the DNA sequences that control when and where genes are turned on and off in human cells, as published in Nature.
The Dodge Charger won the 2026 North American Car of the Year award, while the Ford Maverick Lobo took the crown for the truck honors, and the Hyundai Palisade won the utility award.
Since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) went into operation, red dots in its images have puzzled researchers around the world. Now, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have explained these enigmatic findings, revealing the most violent forces in the universe concealed in a cocoon of ionized gas. The discovery is published in Nature.
Underwater robots face many challenges before they can truly master the deep, such as stability in choppy currents. A new paper published in the journal npj Robotics provides a comprehensive update of where the technology stands today, including significant progress inspired by the movement of rays.
How much fresh water is in the United States? It's a tough question, since most of the water is underground, accessible at varying depths. In previous decades, it's been answered indirectly from data on rainfall and evaporation. Knowing how much groundwater is available at specific locations is critical to meeting the challenges of water scarcity and contamination.
Australia's iconic red landscapes have been home to Aboriginal culture and recorded in songlines for tens of thousands of years. But further clues to just how ancient this landscape is come from far beyond Earth: cosmic rays that leave telltale fingerprints inside minerals at Earth's surface.
Approximately 20% to 30% of all people who suffer from psoriasis also develop painful inflammation in their joints over time. If left untreated, this condition known as psoriatic arthritis can lead to permanent damage to bones and joints. Until now, it was a mystery why the disease progressed this way in some patients and not in others.
If trucks ran on hydrogen instead of fossil fuels, carbon dioxide emissions from heavy-duty road transport could be significantly reduced. At the same time, a new study from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden shows that differences in how the gas is produced, distributed and used greatly affect its climate benefits.
Converting the vibrations generated by water currents in contact with an object into energy. This is the basis of the new system designed by Francisco Huera, a researcher in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV). The device harnesses the energy of water currents from the vibrations that occur when water passes around a cylinder and creates vortices behind it. This method has a very simple structure: a submerged cylindrical tube hanging from an axis that oscillates like a pendulum when the water current makes it vibrate.
With an estimated 5 million Americans battling opioid use disorder—resulting in tens of thousands of deaths each year—a new study by the University of Texas at Arlington examines how updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines can help nurse practitioners reduce misuse and protect patients.
A new single-cell profiling technique has mapped pre-malignant gene mutations and their effects in solid tissues for the first time, in a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and the New York Genome Center.
Jaw pain shouldn't be a mystery, yet for one in 15 people living with Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD), care can be fragmented, confusing, and at times outdated.
A toxin secreted by cholera bacteria can inhibit the growth of colorectal cancer without causing any measurable damage to the body. This is shown by a new study by researchers at Umeå University, Sweden. Systemic administration of the purified bacterial substance changes the immune microenvironment in tumors, and the results may open the way for research into a new type of cancer treatment.
A team of engineers has made major strides in generating the tiniest earthquakes imaginable. The team's device, known as a surface acoustic wave phonon laser, could one day help scientists make more sophisticated versions of chips in cellphones and other wireless devices—potentially making those tools smaller, faster and more efficient.
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among adolescents, yet many teens do not receive timely mental health care.
A wider public conversation has arisen over whether it's time for a shift in how we think about categories of autism, amid rising interest in the disorder across the country.
A team led by investigators at the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute has discovered that a particular marker on tumor cells circulating in the blood indicates whether a patient with lung cancer will experience a lasting response to a newly approved immunotherapy called tarlatamab.
After the summer break, you're ready to get back into exercise. You put on your shoes, pop on your headphones and head out the door on your first run of the new year.
Researchers have created a self-healing composite that is tougher than materials currently used in aircraft wings, turbine blades and other applications—and can repair itself more than 1,000 times. The researchers estimate their self-healing strategy can extend the lifetime of conventional fiber-reinforced composite materials by centuries compared to the current decades-long design-life.
The world's first dataset aimed at improving the quality of English-to-Malayalam machine translation—a long-overlooked language spoken by more than 38 million people in India—has been developed by researchers at the University of Surrey.
UC Riverside chemical engineering researchers have completed construction of a multi-kilogram-scale biomass processing facility that transforms forestry and agricultural biomass waste into pulp that can be made into many fiber and textile consumer products.
If you use consumer AI systems, you have likely experienced something like AI "brain fog": You are well into a conversation when suddenly the AI seems to lose track of the different ideas you have been talking about and how they fit together.
On Jan. 13, Apple Inc. announced a new subscription bundle of creative apps called Creator Studio, an attempt to give its photo- and video-editing software fresh momentum in the face of intensifying competition.
In March 1976, Apple cofounders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak both signed a $500 check weeks before the official creation of a California company that would transform personal computing and become a global powerhouse.
A research team led by Professor Su-Il In of the Department of Energy Science & Engineering at DGIST has achieved a breakthrough improvement in the performance of the radiation absorber, a key component of perovskite-based betavoltaic batteries, by applying additive engineering and antisolvent process control techniques.
In its current form, the nation's electric grid largely doesn't store energy. The vast majority of electricity generated by fossil fuels, hydropower, and other sources flows into the grid and is immediately used by consumers. But as battery energy storage becomes cheaper and more powerful, researchers have been investigating new ways to use it to support the power grid.
Driverless vehicles haven't yet taken to Canadian roads, but they've already rolled out in some other countries. Proponents say the technology will mean fewer accidents, while others have raised concerns about safety, liability and public acceptance, among other issues.
Environmentally friendly buildings are highly attractive for sustainable development and efficient energy consumption. Recently, scientists have made significant strides toward the development of energy-efficient smart windows—with features such as optical modulation, high transparency, low thermal conductivity, and ultraviolet (UV) blocking and heat shielding capabilities—to replace traditional glass windows. Smart windows are a lucrative technology to protect household items as well as human health from the adverse effects of UV radiation.
Microsoft said Tuesday it will shoulder the full electricity costs of its US data centers to prevent American households from facing higher power bills driven by surging AI energy demand.
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