Science & Technology

Jupiter-sized planets can be stolen or captured by massive stars in the densely populated stellar nurseries where most stars are born, a new study has found.

Healthy young people with just a mild COVID infection can sometimes suffer temporary post-infection consequences such as tiredness, loss of smell and taste or reduced fertility. These symptoms usually improve with time. But a new conducted with Swiss A…

Due to the uncertainty of the timing of vaccine approval at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers struggled to find the best mitigation measures. In a new study, researchers analyzed how the expectation of a vaccine influences optimal lo…

After a 60-minute walk in nature, activity in brain regions involved in stress processing decreases.

A team of physicists and chemists presents an organic thin-film sensor that describes a completely new way of identifying the wavelength of light and achieves a spectral resolution below one nanometer. As integrated components, the thin-film sensors co…

Physicists have succeeded in coupling different types of electron-hole pairs (excitons) in the van der Waals material molybdenum disulfide. This successful coupling allows them to utilize and control the different properties of the two types of electro…

Electron orbitals show where and how electrons move around atomic nuclei and molecules. In modern chemistry and physics, they have proven to be a useful model for quantum mechanical description and prediction of chemical reactions. Only if the orbitals…

Honeybees rely heavily on flower patterns — not just colors — when searching for food, new research shows.

A woman’s mercury level during pregnancy is unlikely to have an adverse effect on the development of the child provided that the mother eats fish, according to a new study.

The Gunflint Formation, which straddles Lake Superior’s northwestern shore, contains a treasure trove of geological clues about the evolution of life. After a recent geological reassessment of this area, a research team has unearthed new types of micro…

Researchers test the efficacy of a soft, bioresorbable, implantable device to block pain signals from sciatic nerves of rat models.

Solar cells manufactured from materials known as ‘perovskites’ are catching up with the efficiency of traditional silicon-based solar cells. At the same time, they have advantages of low cost and short energy payback time. However, such solar cells hav…

Many developing countries have made their nationally determined climate contributions submitted under the Paris Agreement conditional on receiving climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity-building support. However, developed countries have so…

Physicists and astronomers have studied gamma rays caused by the Sagittarius Dwarf, a small neighboring galaxy of our Milky Way. They showed that all the observed gamma radiation can be explained by millisecond pulsars, and can therefore not be interpr…

Unprecedented and societally disruptive extreme weather events, including heat waves, droughts, dust storms and torrential rains, will soon become a reality unless immediate, ambitious, and transboundary climate action is taken, according to a new repo…

Typically, the faster the two surfaces slide past each other, the greater the wear. But at extremely high speeds, comparable to the muzzle velocity of a firearm, this can be reversed: Above a certain speed, the wear decreases again. This surprising and…

Typically, the faster the two surfaces slide past each other, the greater the wear. But at extremely high speeds, comparable to the muzzle velocity of a firearm, this can be reversed: Above a certain speed, the wear decreases again. This surprising and…

The 2019/20 wildfires in Australia transported more smoke into the atmosphere than observed ever before anywhere in the world. In the so-called Black Summer, three times as many particles reached high air layers as in the previous record wildfires in C…

The 2019/20 wildfires in Australia transported more smoke into the atmosphere than observed ever before anywhere in the world. In the so-called Black Summer, three times as many particles reached high air layers as in the previous record wildfires in C…

Scientists have developed a novel approach for dynamic difficulty adjustment where the players’ emotions are estimated using in-game data, and the difficulty level is tweaked accordingly to maximize player satisfaction. Their efforts could contribute t…