Science
The High-Stakes Governor’s Races That Could Reshape America’s Energy Future
The right governor can put a state on a dramatically different energy and environmental path—and next week’s election could set the stage for major policy shifts across the countr…
Counteranion captures reactants to boost light-driven chemistry in dilute solutions
Researchers at Kyushu University have developed a photocatalytic system that can selectively capture reacting molecules and hold them close to the active sites that absorb energy …
Double debris disk orbiting a dead star hints at our solar system's future
Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) have found a rare disk of debris around a dead star that provides a glimpse of what may happ…
Bottom trawlers do huge damage to life on undersea mountains. Could an end finally be in sight?
Tens of thousands of underwater mountains dot the ocean floor around the world. A few break the surface, such as the Hawaiian island chain. The rest are seamounts, peaks and pinna…
New cacao variety could help protect global chocolate supply from disease
Chocolate lovers may not realize it, but the future of one of the world's most popular foods is increasingly under pressure. Diseases, shifting weather patterns and other environm…
Rare Nanotyrannus skeleton sells for $47.3m at New York auction
Sale makes ‘Jodi’, a smaller relative of T rex, the ‘second most valuable dinosaur ever sold at auction’, Sotheby’s saysA rare skeleton of a Nanotyrannus, a smaller relative of th…
Scientists uncover new way to control magnetism and topology using light in atomically thin materials
Envision a material whose magnetic properties and electronic topology can be toggled by exposure to light, paving the way for future electronic devices that do not rely on traditi…
Potential antimalarial compound discovered in institute's microbe collection
Scientists hunting for a new malaria treatment may have found a solution within a historical natural compound collection housed at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Bi…
Light-controlled brake makes random molecular motion 300,000 times slower
Molecules are never still. Driven by thermal energy, they are constantly moving through space, while their individual parts also rotate relative to one another. Scientists at IOCB…
A brief-ish history of METI. Part I: Early ideas and experiments
Long before modern astronomy, humans looked to the stars and were astounded by what they saw. Even by the most ancient reckoning, the night sky offered enough to inspire awe and w…
Tiny droplets use pressure to unlock new routes to degradable plastics
Using a new technique, a research group led by Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU) has substantially increased the range of plastics that can be degraded naturally. The study is p…
How 'spacewalking' underwater made me feel like I was really in space
Analog Astronaut Commander and Aquanaut Michaela Musilova led underwater simulated “spacewalks” in low visibility to test astronaut safety and communication protocols during simul…
Rice plants can fight off devastating disease after gene editing with AI-designed tool
University of Missouri researchers have created rice plants that resist bacterial blight, a devastating disease that threatens one of the world's most important food crops. The ad…
What makes us human? Researchers compare brain development in humans and great apes
How did the human brain become so much larger than that of our closest evolutionary relatives? Part of the answer lies not in new genes, but in how humans and non-human apes use t…
Autonomous rendezvous system overcomes simulated spacecraft failures in lab tests
There is a problem in low Earth orbit, and it's growing. According to the European Space Agency, there are about 19,440 satellites on orbit, 3,540 of which are nonfunctioning and/…
Cooperation in fish: Study reveals a social complexity seen mainly in birds, mammals
In some group-living animals, individuals other than the parents help care for offspring. This breeding system, known as cooperative breeding, is thought to have evolved from mono…
Same species, different climate risks: Why plant conservation needs regional strategies
A study analyzing the effects of climate change on vascular plants in the United States finds that the fate of individual plant species tends to be a regional phenomenon.
Reusable palladium catalyst enables more direct chemical synthesis
Making complex molecules often means joining smaller chemical building blocks together, a process facilitated by catalysts, compounds that make such reactions possible or speed th…
How native stingless bees are helping to combat antimicrobial resistance
New research from the University of Sydney expands the potential medicinal benefits of honey and propolis (the plant resin and beeswax mixture bees use to build their nests) produ…
NASA Invites Media to Crew Completion of Yearlong Mars Simulation
The four volunteers who lived and worked in a simulated NASA Mars mission for more than a year will exit their habitat on Saturday, Oct. 31, after 378 days of isolation in a facil…
New biodiversity framework estimates what landscapes could support, not just what lives there
A flower strip is established along the edge of a field. A wetland is restored. More seminatural habitats are created. The expectation is simple: give nature more space, and biodi…
GenoBridge streamlines plant trait prediction with a simplified genomic analysis pipeline
The rapid increase in the availability of genomic data has transformed plant breeding by enabling the prediction of complex traits directly from DNA markers. Genomic prediction pr…
SPINE: A machine-learning program is on the trail of ghost particles
Neutrinos are among the most abundant particles in the universe, but they are also among the most elusive. Nearly massless, they are produced by nuclear reactions in the sun, expl…
Data Centers, Power Bills, Hurricanes: What’s at Stake for the Environment in Florida’s Senate Race
When asked to choose, Florida’s likely voters have picked protecting the environment over economic growth by more than 2 to 1, a margin that surprised even the pollster who asked …