Science
Scientific discoveries and research
A robot that reads bacteria by touch, without staining or chemical labels
Fast identification of bacteria is important in health care, food safety, environmental monitoring and infection control. One of the most common first steps is...
World's largest whale graveyard discovered by Chinese sub
The world's largest whale graveyard has been discovered at the bottom of the Indian Ocean by Chinese scientists, who found that the vast expanse of both new and...
Tiny worms reveal backup circuits that keep survival reflexes from failing
A research team led by Professor Chaogu Zheng from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), in collaboration with scientists from...
Could permanent magnets protect astronauts from solar storms?
Shielding astronauts from the deadly radiation they face is a central challenge for any designer of a deep-space crewed mission. Even relatively low levels of e...
X-ray tracking reveals uneven expansion in young supernova remnant G292.0+1.8
By analyzing data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Dutch astronomers have investigated a young, oxygen-rich supernova remnant known as G292.0+1.8. Results...
'Their story is our story': Pigeons and humans, 3,500 years together
They have been our meat and our messengers, a source of fertilizer and a religious symbol: while pigeons are now mostly reviled as dirty city pests, they long p...
Cast away: Tracing the voyage of a plastic bottle cap and its hitchhiking marine species
Researchers have traced the journey of a plastic bottle cap recovered near the waters of southern Japan by combining data from the label, chemical clues in tiny...
The 'safe third country' concept turns out to be an empty shell
In her recently completed research, Dr. Gaia Romeo exposes the reality behind the EU's 'safe third country' policy. She focuses on the only case in which that p...
Saturday Citations: Blue zone longevity; soft tissue find predates dinosaurs; black hole collisions simplified
This week, researchers reported finding nanoplastics in Antarctic soils for the first time, suggesting they were delivered via long-range atmospheric transport....
Grasses provide most of the world's calories—but we're only now starting to learn how they grow
If we want to dismiss something as irrelevant, we'd say that it's "as boring as watching the grass grow." And yet grasses—including corn, wheat and rice—make up...
Intricate molecular mechanisms help bacteria evade immune detection
Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a novel mechanism used by the bacteria responsible for gonorrhea to evade immune detection and achieve widespre...
Brutal heat wave forecast for western US this weekend
A "widespread and significant" heat wave is predicted to bring oppressive temperatures to drought-hit western U.S. states over the weekend, with all-time record...