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Earthquakes may be unpredictable, but their impacts are not entirely mysterious. New modeling techniques are offering a clearer view beneath the surface....
A new study investigates how cortisol, a stress-related hormone, helps the brain build emotional memories. Stress influences what we learn and remember. The hormone cortisol, which is released during stressful situations, can make emotional memories in particular stronger. But how exactly does corti...
Titan s hidden ocean may have been a mirage. Careful reanalysis of data collected more than a decade ago suggests that Saturn s largest moon does not host a vast, global ocean beneath its icy shell, as scientists once believed. Instead, descending below Titan s frozen surface may lead not to open wa...
Exclusive: DNA advances show Roman-era skeleton, once hailed as first black Briton, came from southern England Beachy Head Woman, a Roman-era skeleton once hailed as the earliest known black Briton and who scientists later speculated could be of Cypriot descent, has now been shown to have originated...
A long-standing physics mystery has been solved with the discovery of emergent photon-like behavior inside a strange quantum material. The finding confirms a true 3D quantum spin liquid and unlocks a new way to study deeply entangled matter....
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Researchers have solved a major battery mystery that has led to capacity degradation, shortened lifespan, and, in some cases, fire. New research from Argonne National Laboratory and the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) uncovered some of the root causes – and ways to m...
Omar Yaghi was a quiet child, diligent, unlikely to roughhouse with his nine siblings. So when he was old enough, his parents tasked him with one of the family’s most vital chores: fetching water. Like most homes in his Palestinian neighborhood in Amman, Jordan, the Yaghis’ had no electricity or run...
Researchers at Duke University have created a new artificial intelligence framework designed to uncover straightforward, easy-to-understand rules that sit underneath some of the most complicated dynamics seen in nature and technology. The system is inspired by the way famous “dynamicists” – scien...
A planet that shouldn t exist is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about worlds beyond our solar system. Using NASA s James Webb Space Telescope, researchers have spotted an exoplanet with an atmosphere unlike anything previously observed, one so strange it blurs the line between planet an...
Data collected using multiple NSF NOIRLab facilities reveal a gamma-ray burst that lasted more than seven hours and originated in a massive, extremely dust-rich galaxy. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) rank among the most extreme explosions known in the Universe, surpassed only by the Big Bang itself. Mos...
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A new microscopy technique allows scientists to see single-atom-thick boron nitride by making it glow under infrared light. Researchers from the Physical Chemistry and Theory departments at the Fritz Haber Institute have developed a new way to visualize boron nitride layers that are just one atom...
Over 8,000 years ago, early farming communities in northern Mesopotamia were already thinking mathematically—long before numbers were written down. By closely studying Halafian pottery, researchers uncovered floral and plant designs arranged with precise symmetry and numerical patterns, revealing a ...
Bees are frequently associated with large queen-serving colonies featuring hundreds if not thousands of insects. In actuality, that’s usually not the case.“Most bees are solitary. They lay their eggs in small cavities, and they leave pollen for the larvae to eat,” explained paleontologist Lazasro Vi...
Why cells grow to just the right size has long baffled scientists. Too small or too large, and cells can trigger serious diseases, but the genetic switch behind this balance has remained elusive. Now, researchers say they have found it. A team at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) has identif...
2 min readHow Small Is Too Small? Volunteers Help NASA Test Lake Monitoring From Space Jen Oden, Snohomish County Water Quality Specialist, and Megan Lane, LOCSS team member, report a lake height measurement at Flowing Lake, Snohomish County, Washington. Visit locss.org to contact the team or to get...
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A mouse study reveals that losing a small but critical segment of myelin can disrupt how the brain encodes and transmits information. Nerve cells are wrapped in a protective coating called (myelin), which enables electrical signals to travel rapidly through the brain. Scientists have long known t...
As reported by the Guardian on December 14, one of the world’s most famous hominin fossils may be a previously unidentified species of human ancestor. Nicknamed “Little Foot,” the skeleton was discovered between 1994 and 1998 in the Sterkfontein cave system in South Africa. It is the most complete s...
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) officially went into service above the Red Planet in November 2006. The spacecraft has since spent nearly 20 years circling Earth’s closest neighbor, studying its geology and identifying icy evidence of a once watery world. After already sending back more tha...
The first planet ever found orbiting another star was detected in 1995, and it belonged to a class now known as a “hot Jupiter.” These exoplanets are comparable in mass to Jupiter but circle their stars in just a few days. Scientists now believe that hot Jupiters originally formed far from their sta...
Cells may generate their own electrical signals through microscopic membrane motions. Researchers show that active molecular processes can create voltage spikes similar to those used by neurons. These signals could help drive ion transport and explain key biological functions. The work may also guid...
