Science
A blue laser for underwater communication and sensing
Researchers at EPFL have developed a chip-scale blue laser that combines stable light emission with rapid frequency control, opening possibilities for underwater communication, en…
Built to take the blast: Students test prototype landing pad to make moon landings safer
As NASA works toward a sustained human presence on the moon, researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, are helping …
Famed oceanographer calls for ending krill catch near Antarctica as governments debate fishing quota
Renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle is calling for an end to krill fishing near Antarctica as officials from the U.S., China, Russia and 24 other governments negotiate a possible …
Nighttime songs could reveal when endangered pygmy blue whales feed off Western Australia
Listening to the songs of endangered pygmy blue whales could help researchers identify when the animals are feeding off Western Australia's coast, improving scientists' ability to…
NASA-funded Study Details One of Oldest Mars Meteorites Ever Found
When a rose-colored meteorite was found in the Sahara Desert in 2022, no one knew how old it was or where it came from. Not until NASA-funded scientists age-dated its minerals did…
Researchers create first whole-body single-cell atlas of an adult vertebrate
Viewed from above, Danionella cerebrum offers a rare sight in a vertebrate: its brain, visible through the top of its head. Since the species was adopted for neuroscience research…
Birds and humans share fundamental song and speech patterns, study finds
McGill University researchers have identified "universal" vocal patterns across hundreds of bird species and found that many of the same patterns also appear in human song and spe…
Long-distance flights can throw seabirds' internal clocks out of sync, causing navigation errors
A study led by Oxford University has found that seabirds flying long distances across the Atlantic can experience a mismatch between their internal body clocks and local time (the…
NASA Names Troy Asher Armstrong Flight Research Center Director
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has named Troy Asher director of the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Asher, a veteran test pilot and aerospace …
Why jet lag throws even foraging seabirds off course
Oxford study shows Manx shearwaters lose direction when their body clocks get out of syncSeabirds returning from foraging trips can be thrown hundreds of miles off course by a for…
Global maps reveal farming, dams and agricultural runoff as leading threats to freshwater species
Farming, dams and agricultural runoff are the biggest threats to freshwater biodiversity globally, with Europe and Northwest Africa the hardest-hit regions, McGill researchers hav…
One molecule, many atoms: Platinum bonds respond to surface features up to 10 nanometers away
Many chemical processes that sustain modern society depend on molecules binding to metal surfaces. The production of synthetic fertilizer, for example, relies on heterogeneous cat…
Cosmic graveyard of zombie planets offers a grisly warning about our own solar system's fate
Two zombie exoplanets that rose from the grave to shuffle through the gory remains of their fellow planets may just agree with these immortal words from horror maestro Stephen Kin…
NIH–NASA QuSAFE Challenge
The Quantum-Enabled Predictive Preclinical NAMs for Toxicity and Safety (QuSAFE) Challenge, a collaboration between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NASA, advances quan…
Unusual whale sightings around Australia may signal changing ocean conditions
Whales never cease to amaze me. After nearly two decades of studying these majestic mammals, I've learned every whale season is slightly different. Each migration along Australia'…
Newly characterized Streptomyces strain yields previously unknown natural products
In a collaboration, researchers from the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures and the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) have di…
Shrinking bat populations can weaken ecosystem benefits even while species remain widespread
Bats promote the health of ecosystems in many ways. Insect-eating species help regulate insect populations, including agricultural and forest pests. In tropical and subtropical re…
Werewolf mice, ghostly frogs and cockroach zombies: The animal versions of our Halloween horrors
Around this time of year, elaborate decorations featuring ghosts, vampires, zombies, witches and werewolves adorn front doors, gardens and store windows across the country. But yo…
New catalyst builds proton highways to tackle a long-standing hurdle in green ammonia synthesis
Over a century ago, the Haber-Bosch process, a two-step reaction for the synthesis of ammonia (NH₃), an irreplaceable chemical for the fertilizer industry, prevented the world fro…
Rubin observatory reveals two hidden companions of the Milky Way
Preview data from the recently completed NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile point to a wave of discoveries that may complete the census of the Milky Way's neighboring gala…
‘My hands are shaking’ - what it’s like to be an expert witness - video
As one of the world’s leading forensic anthropologists, Dame Sue Black has acted as an expert witness in a myriad of high-profile criminal cases. Her work has taken her from the l…
Heat-evolved algae offer clues to helping corals withstand warming seas
A research team led by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) has found that heat-evolved algae maintain more stable biomolecular profiles under elevated temperatures t…
Cosmic microwave background offers evidence of gas flowing in galaxy clusters
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a faint glow in the universe dating back to roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang, long before stars or galaxies emerged. Detecting thi…
Capturing our closest archaeal relatives offers clues to the origin of eukaryotes
A collaborative research team led by Hiroyuki Imachi and Masaru K. Nobu of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and Satoshi Nakagawa of Kyoto Univers…