Science news

Magnetic confinement fusion devices are technologies that can attain controlled nuclear fusion reactions, using magnetic fields to confine hot plasmas. These devices could contribute to the ongoing transition towards more .

Nanostructures enable on-chip lightwave-electronic frequency mixer

Imagine how a phone call works: Your voice is converted into electronic signals, shifted up to higher frequencies, transmitted over long distances, and then shifted back down so it can be heard clearly on the other end. The .

Soil pollution surpasses climate change as top threat to underground biodiversity, study finds

Earthworms, insects and mites are all at risk from soil pollution, and scientists are worried that we know very little about the damage it's causing.

Researcher helps develop new technique to explore oceanic microbes

When Southern Methodist University (SMU) researcher Alexander Chase was a young boy, the sheer diversity of plants in Earth's tropical rainforests fascinated him. He found himself wondering what new species were out there, .

Fetching in cats is more common than previously thought, researchers find

Although it is more common in dogs, 4 in 10 pet cats also choose to play fetch with their owners, report Mikel Delgado from Purdue University, US, and colleagues in PLOS ONE.

Will humans accept robots that can lie? Scientists find it depends on the lie

Honesty is the best policy… most of the time. Social norms help humans understand when we need to tell the truth and when we shouldn't, to spare someone's feelings or avoid harm. But how do these norms apply to robots, .

Seeing like a butterfly: Optical invention enhances camera capabilities

Butterflies can see more of the world than humans, including more colors and the field oscillation direction, or polarization, of light. This special ability enables them to navigate with precision, forage for food and communicate .

Study: People facing life-or-death choice put too much trust in AI

In simulated life-or-death decisions, about two-thirds of people in a UC Merced study allowed a robot to change their minds when it disagreed with them—an alarming display of excessive trust in artificial intelligence, .

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Radiant cooling device uses significantly less energy than traditional air conditioning

Experiment shows dogs are able to remember toy names for up to two years

H5N1 avian influenza virus found in multiple bird species in Antarctica

Measuring the gamma-ray-to-neutron branching ratio in the deuterium-tritium reaction

Astronomers investigate the nature of a bright low-mass X-ray binary system

Medical Xpress

Study solves testosterone's paradoxical effects in prostate cancer

Tired muscles can indeed be a pain in the neck, spine movement study shows

Immune pathways can prevent lung healing after viral infection, study shows

Researchers find pet owners do not have better mental health

Newly discovered gene may influence longevity in humans

AI-guided feedback outperforms human instructors in neurosurgical training study

Air pollution linked to higher risk of infertility in men

Music can reveal which areas of the brain are affected by aging

ChatGPT-like model can diagnose cancer, guide treatment choice, predict survival across multiple cancer types

No link between cellphone use, brain cancer, major report finds

Researchers identify mechanism underlying allergic itching, and show it can be blocked

Insulin and metformin combo aids diabetic foot ulcer healing, new study finds

Brain scanning approach shows wiring of depression

Mouse model shows how epigenetic changes reprogram astrocytes into brain stem cells

Sex hormones modulate the immune system to influence disease risk differently, research reveals

Researchers discover a mechanism that impairs synaptic plasticity in the brains of schizophrenia patients

Menstrual cycle found to influence the spread of mutant cells in mammary tissue

AI platform demonstrates promising results in effectively treating a patient with a rare cancer

Investigational mpox mRNA vaccine more effectively reduces disease severity in primates compared to available vaccines

Researchers show novel drug rescues memory loss in Alzheimer's mouse model

High cholesterol levels at a young age found to be a significant risk factor for atherosclerosis

Engineered immune cell therapy protects damaged neurons, mouse study shows

Researchers advocate for tissue-engineering approach for arthritis relief

Neurological symptoms are common—and similar—in severely ill children with different conditions, finds study

Optimizing electrical stimulation therapies with machine learning

Most states have increasing child, adolescent firearm mortality rates, study finds

Do genetic 'parasites' help the immune system develop and function?

Flexible tentacle electrodes precisely record brain activity

Breaking the link between obesity and atrial fibrillation with a new cellular target

New combination therapy may offer a safer, more effective treatment for colorectal cancer

Tech Xplore

Will humans accept robots that can lie? Scientists find it depends on the lie

Seeing like a butterfly: Optical invention enhances camera capabilities

Study: People facing life-or-death choice put too much trust in AI

Radiant cooling device uses significantly less energy than traditional air conditioning

Chip that steers terahertz beams sets stage for ultrafast internet of the future

New engineering approach could lead to widespread adoption of photonic chips in consumer electronics

Traditional infrastructure design often makes extreme flooding events worse, researchers find

Charging stations for electric vehicles boost spending at nearby businesses, study finds

Nuclear power plants: A scintillating aerogel for monitoring radioactive gas emissions

Achieving a supercapacitor through the 'molecular coating' approach

Multispectral smart window: A step toward healthier indoor environments

Preventing car battery fires with help from machine learning

Revolutionizing 3D printing through microwave technology

Researchers discover surprising spin offs of slowing down wind turbines

Q&A: Can a centuries-old technology like hydropower meet AI's rising energy demands?

Paying with your face: What will convince consumers to use facial recognition payment technology?

Researchers develop reconfigurable MIMO-based self-powered battery-less light communication system

Wind turbines target power shortages in rural Nigeria

Aurora borealis can light up the sky and shut down the grid

How AI features in smartphones are reducing their dependence on the cloud

UK competition watchdog clears Microsoft's hiring of AI startup's core staff

X vows to end harvesting of EU users' personal data to train its AI

Opinion: If Australia wants to fast-track 100% renewables, it must learn from Europe's risky path

South Korea makes advancements in drive system technology for machine tools

German car sales plunge in August as EV slump worsens

Yelp vs. Google: An antitrust court fight plays out in San Francisco

Meta oversight board clears use of 'From the River to the Sea'

VW bosses defend possible plant closures at stormy meeting

Coal generates less than 50% of Australian electricity for first time

Nvidia says it plays fair in AI chip market

Dozens of viruses detected in Chinese fur farm animals

Dozens of viruses have been detected mixing in animals at fur farms in China, some of which are new and have the potential to spill over into humans, researchers said Wednesday.

Optoelectronic diamond device reveals an unexpected phenomenon reminiscent of lightning in slow motion

Diamond is in many ways the ultimate material. Besides its enduring aesthetic value, diamond is also a highly versatile industrial material. While its claim as the hardest substance known to science has been usurped by ultra-rare .

Boeing will fly its empty capsule back to Earth soon. Two NASA astronauts will stay behind

Boeing will attempt to return its problem-plagued capsule from the International Space Station later this week—with empty seats.

Study solves testosterone's paradoxical effects in prostate cancer

A treatment paradox has recently come to light in prostate cancer: Blocking testosterone production halts tumor growth in early disease, while elevating the hormone can delay disease progression in patients whose disease .

Scientists uncover hidden source of snow melt: Dark brown carbon

Wildfires leave potent climate heaters behind in their wake, particles that enhance the absorption of sunlight and warm the atmosphere. Dropped on snow like a wool poncho, these aerosols darken and decrease the surface reflectance .

Providing blooms all season long may be key to attracting pollinators, no matter what landscape is near your garden

A diverse and abundant flower planting that provides flowers in bloom all season may be more important to bees and other pollinators than whatever is surrounding the flower garden, according to a study published September .

Entangled photon pairs enable hidden image encoding

Researchers at the Paris Institute of Nanoscience at Sorbonne University have developed a new method to encode images into the quantum correlations of photon pairs, making it invisible to conventional imaging techniques. .

RNA editing plays critical role in fruit flies' sense of smell and social interactions

Imagine your DNA as a set of instructions or a recipe book that tells your body how to make everything it needs to function, from proteins to cells. Every time the body needs to build something, it reads these instructions. .

Tired muscles can indeed be a pain in the neck, spine movement study shows

Learning new languages, sending emails, attending a virtual class, or speaking to loved ones halfway around the world are just some of the tasks accomplished by touching a button on a smartphone. Unfortunately, the ease and .

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Temperature fluctuations significantly affect dragonfly perception, study shows

University of Adelaide researchers and collaborators from Lund University in Sweden have made a breakthrough in understanding how dragonflies' brains work.

Tackling food insecurity requires more than charity—governments must also act, say researchers

As more households in Canada experience food insecurity, food banks and other organizations are struggling to meet demand for their services. In 2023 alone, around 23% of Canadian households experienced some form of food .

Moderna mRNA mpox vaccine shows promise in animal study

An experimental Moderna mRNA vaccine for mpox has demonstrated greater effectiveness than current shots in reducing disease symptoms and duration, according to an animal study published in the journal Cell on Wednesday.

Researchers: J.D. Vance got 'single cat women' all wrong—our study shows they wouldn't vote for him anyway

The Trump/Vance ticket seems to have a problem attracting the support of women voters. In fact, recent polling shows women in the battleground states report 17 points less support for the Trump/Vance ticket than men.

Disinformation thrives on division in our cities

In extraordinary times of rapid information production and sharing, distrust and disruption, disinformation is having an increasing impact on cities. And cities are on the front line of disinformation response strategies.

The ecological impact of herbivore dung on plant communities

Xingzhao Sun of the research group Wildness, biodiversity and ecosystems under change of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) explored the complex ecological interactions between herbivore dung and plant communities, providing .

Heat waves and droughts cause billions of dollars in global economic losses, research finds

Severe weather costs the global economy billions of dollars a year, highlighting the costs of climate change and the value of mitigating extreme weather, according to a new analysis of weather and economic data.

Last voyage of an ocean drilling ship? Here's why scientists don't want to see the JOIDES Resolution mothballed

My favorite place in the world isn't a fixed location. It's the JOIDES Resolution, an internationally funded research ship that has spent its service life constantly on the move, from deep in the Antarctic to high in the .

New method captures the stochastic dynamics in coherent X-ray imaging at the nanoscale

Coherent X-ray imaging has emerged as a powerful tool for studying both nanoscale structures and dynamics in condensed matter and biological systems. The nanometric resolution together with chemical sensitivity and spectral .

Poor people are business owners, too—but myths around poverty and entrepreneurship hold them back, says researcher

Nearly 1 in 5 people in the world lives in poverty. Even in many developed countries such as the U.S., poverty rates exceed 12%. In an age of breathtaking technological progress and dynamic social change, poverty remains .

Viewpoint: In the face of DEI backlash, belonging plays a key role to future success

Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have become increasingly visible in U.S. workplaces, especially over the past five years. However, DEI has recently come under attack, with companies scaling back their DEI plans.

Climate scientist: Broken temperature records are alarming, but it is not too late to limit global warming

July 22, 2024 was the hottest day in recorded human history, with a global average temperature of 17.16 C.

DNA may be a powerful predictor of educational success, new research suggests

Researchers at the University of York are calling for further exploration of the role DNA could play in predicting educational outcomes. The work is published in the journal Educational Psychology Review.

Plankton mark seasons in the sea, just like leaves and flowers on land

Britain's seas are rich in wildlife, but many of its species can only be seen with a microscope. These are the plankton—tiny algae and animals found throughout the ocean that are the foundation of the entire marine food .

Schools urged to teach children how to spot conspiracies and fake news

Young people are as engaged and interested in current affairs as ever, but social media is siloing their opinions and making fake news hard to spot, and schools are the places to tackle this, according to a conspiracy theory .

Biochar doesn't just store carbon—it stores water and boosts farmers' drought resilience

As the climate changes, large parts of southern Australia are projected to get drier. Extreme rains are also becoming more common.

A 'river of experience': How many ways of knowing inform a course on the climate crisis and actions

How can we educate about the climate crisis in a way that gives students the tools they need to move towards hopeful visions for the future?

Scientists demonstrate octave-spanning soliton frequency combs on thin-film lithium niobate

The invention of optical frequency combs revolutionized frequency metrology and time-keeping. Miniaturization of such combs onto photonic chips, primarily leveraging the microresonator Kerr soliton frequency comb, expands .

Beyond point-to-point triangulation: Dynamic 3D imaging under global illumination

As the "eyes of industry," 3D measurement technology provides comprehensive, accurate, and reliable 3D information for high-end precision manufacturing. Optical measurement methods, such as structured light projection, have .

Long-range-interacting topological photonic lattices breaking channel-bandwidth limit

Topological physics, which focuses on physical quantities that remain invariant under deformations, has garnered widespread interest in different areas of physics—photonics, quantum computing, solid-state physics, acoustics, .

What's up with high food prices? Economists assess factors causing food prices to fluctuate

The latest consumer inflation report indicates that grocery prices have stabilized, yet the perception of high food costs lingers for many.