Science & Technology

Scientists have redesigned a key component of a widely used CRISPR-based gene-editing tool, called Cas9, to be thousands of times less likely to target the wrong stretch of DNA while remaining just as efficient as the original version, making it potent…

As of today, there is no vaccine against hepatitis C. To improve the search for it, researchers are looking for a so-called surrogate model: an animal that can also suffer from viral hepatitis and whose course of infection allows conclusions about the …

There is no other place where so many Neolithic pile dwellings have been uncovered as around the Alps. It is a mystery, however, how this ‘building boom’ came to be. Researchers have now uncovered new clues, and say that settlers at Lake Varese in nort…

A new study proposes a framework featuring a more holistic picture of the cybersecurity landscape, along with a model that explicitly represents multiple dimensions of the potential impacts of successful cyberattacks.

Impressive athleticism was on display during the Winter Olympics, but being at the top of one’s game doesn’t necessarily protect against digestive distress resulting from exercise. Surprisingly, some people are adding cocoa to their diets to reduce the…

Early in the pandemic, many people fastidiously disinfected surfaces because laboratory studies predicted that SARS-CoV-2 could be easily transmitted in this way. Now, researchers have found a possible explanation for why the predictions didn’t pan out…

Researchers were able to observe stress changes before and during an earthquake induced by hydraulic fracturing in Alberta, Canada, with the help of a phenomenon called seismic anisotropy.

Researchers already knew that insects are an excellent source of protein for humans, but they didn’t expect to learn that they have such a positive impact on plants. Researchers discuss the benefits of using the waste from insect-as-food-and-feed produ…

When did populations of Homo sapiens first arrive in China and what happened when they encountered the Denisovans or Neanderthals who lived there? A new study opens a window into hunter-gatherer lifestyles 40,000 years ago. Archaeological excavations a…

Black holes and neutron stars are some of the most extreme objects in the Universe, ripping up neighboring stars. But they are messy eaters and much of they take in gets flung back into space. Scientists have now observed a neutron star blasting out wa…

Scientists have demonstrated at the FLASHForward experiment that in principle it is possible to operate plasma accelerators at the repetition rates desired by particle physicists and photon scientists. This opens the opportunity to utilize such high-gr…

Female chimpanzees are less likely than males to go near villages and farmland used by humans, new research shows.

Transmission of respiratory viruses depends partly on the rate of close social contacts in a population. A study suggests that during the most restrictive period of lockdown in the United Kingdom, the number of reported contacts decreased by 75 percent…

Many coronal loops — ropey strands of plasma that scientists have long thought existed in the sun’s atmosphere — may actually be optical illusions, according to a new paper that challenges prevailing assumptions of what we know, and don’t know, about…

Many people impacted by COVID-19 experienced changes in their sense of smell, taste, hearing, balance and in some cases, tinnitus, ‘ringing’ in the ears. Among the various causes of tinnitus is stress. What’s unclear, however, is whether the psychologi…

Researchers have shown for the first time how to design the basic elements needed for logic operations using a kind of material called a liquid crystal — paving the way for a completely novel way of performing computations.

A study into tooth wear in a group of wild Japanese macaques has significant implications for the study of human evolution, a new study has shown.

A rare spectroscopy technique directly quantifies the energy required to bind two excitons together. The experiment harnessed interactions between real and virtual states to ‘switch’ the electronic state of an atomically-thin (2D) material. As well as …

The molecular evolution of placental protein NRK and its function in regulating placental growth has finally been clarified. They elucidated that eutherian NRK regulates placental development by a novel mechanism, modulating the CK2-PTEN-AKT pathway. T…

A team of researchers has developed a simple lab-based system for growing human muscle cells that are capable of vigorously contracting.