Science
Scientific discoveries and research
Earthquakes can be destructive for distant cities built on top of basins—now we know why
Sedimentary basins—depressions in Earth's crust caused by tectonic activity—tend to be flat and are favored places to build cities. But during earthquakes, they...
Deep-sea crust uncovers steady plutonium rain from ancient kilonova debris
Debris is still raining down on Earth more than 100 million years after the giant cosmic explosion that created it. A study published this week in Nature Astron...
A waltz over evolutionary timescales: Why it's so hard for animals to invent a new mating dance
"Love makes fools of all of us," wrote 19th-century novelist William Makepeace Thackeray. A moment spent watching the pigeons at your local park suggests he was...
Do shark culls keep people safe in the ocean? Here's what the science says
A young mother remains in hospital after being bitten by a shark at Coogee Beach in Sydney on Saturday morning. Leah Stewart, 35, was swimming about 30 meters (...
Redefined conformity model beats averaging in five real-world tests of opinion dynamics
Imagine you poll your friends on how many minutes per pound to roast a turkey. Five respond with 15 minutes; one answers 33 minutes. The most popular model of c...
As AI plays a bigger role in relationships, true intimacy is getting lost
The CEO of dating app Hinge recently suggested that generation Z, "struggling to have the confidence to put themselves out there," needs AI to help them find lo...
Predators on the move may link the evolution of species thousands of kilometers apart
Can a snake in Thailand influence the evolution of a snake in the Philippines even if the two species never cross paths? According to a new study, the answer ma...
New hybrid materials separate rare earths without harsh chemicals
Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential for everyday technologies such as smartphones, LED lights, wind turbines and many medical applications. At the same tim...
New study assesses Titan's resources and their potential uses
Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is a unique environment in our solar system. It is the only moon (or body beyond Earth) to have a dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere,...
Ultrafast laser pulses reveal a material's hidden state of matter
What would it take to instantly transform a material from an electrical insulator into a conductive state without ever touching it? Using ultrafast laser pulses...
Newfound rice gene shifts flowering by 1.5 hours to dodge heat damage
With El Niño-driven heat and prolonged dry spells threatening rice production, scientists from Japan's National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO...
Efforts to combat climate change often exclude Indigenous people—and they may not have any recourse
Imagine living in the same forest as your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and all your ancestors as far back in time as stories can tell, and dependin...