Science & Technology

We like some foods, and dislike others. Of course, the way food tastes is important, but mouthfeel, and even the sound that food makes when we bite it, also determine whether we enjoy the eating experience. Is it possible to design edible materials tha…

An international research team samples seawater from around the world to reveal which tropical reef fish occur where. To identify species and families, they successfully used the residual DNA shed by the animals present in the water. But not all fish c…

Plate tectonics may be unique to Earth and may be an essential characteristic of habitable planets. Estimates for its onset range from over 4 billion years ago to just 800 million years ago. A new study reports evidence of a transition in multiple loca…

Human-related extinctions of the largest herbivores and carnivores are disrupting what appears to be a fundamental feature of past and present ecosystems, says a new study.

A new study asks: What are the unique chemical and geological processes at Aix-en-Provence that preserve spiders from the Oligocene Period so exquisitely?

Engineers have just demonstrated a promising new family of materials for storing flammable gases such as acetylene. These materials are nanoporous and flexible and can be modified to improve the adsorption of small molecules at the temperature and pres…

When a large ice sheet begins to melt, global-mean sea level rises, but local sea level near the ice sheet may in fact drop. A researcher illustrates this effect through a series of calculations, beginning with a simple, analytically tractable model an…

Despite the good care, a shelter can be a stressful environment for dogs. Researchers investigated if the amount of the hormone cortisol in hair indicates the levels of stress that dogs experience before, during and after their stay in the shelter.

In a novel set of experiments with mice trained to do a sequence of movements and ‘change course’ at the spur of the moment, scientists report they have identified areas of the animals’ brains that interact to control the ability to perform complex, se…

The development of new, more efficient electrochemical cells could provide a good option for carbon-free hydrogen and chemical production along with large-scale electricity generation and storage. But first, scientists must overcome several challenges,…

Physicists have managed to propel micrometer-sized drones precisely using light only. Their microdrones are significantly smaller than red blood cells.

With a comprehensive map of the wiring, researchers can now discern what information flows into the circuit to enable a key brain function.

New research shows that a treatment for retinal vein occlusion yields long-lasting vision gains, with visual acuity remaining significantly above baseline at five years. However, many patients require ongoing treatment.

A new study of a southwestern Washington floodplain finds that most native species adapt well to the invaders by shifting their food sources and feeding strategies.

Dentures may have a potentially negative impact on a person’s overall nutrition, according to new research. The research team leveraged electronic dental and health records of 10,000+ patients to gain a better understanding of how oral health treatment…

The process of ‘translation’ in protein synthesis involves formation of a peptide bond between two amino acids that are attached to two distinct transfer RNAs (tRNAs). For long, scientists have been puzzled as to how these tRNAs evolutionarily lie so c…

Researchers describe a new measurement and imaging approach that can resolve nanostructures smaller than the diffraction limit of light without requiring any dyes or labels. The work is a modification of laser scanning microscopy. It represents an impo…

The animal collections housed at zoos and natural history museums — living specimens in the first case, preserved in the other — constitute an exhaustive trove of information about Earth’s biodiversity. A new paper lays out a pathway to increasing co…

Oxford University researchers have developed a sensor made of sapphire fibre that can tolerate extreme temperatures, with the potential to enable significant improvements in efficiency and emission reduction in aerospace and power generation.

Scientists report that a protein known as estrogen-related receptor gamma is critical for preventing pancreatic auto-digestion in mice. Moreover, they discovered that people with pancreatitis have lower levels of this protein in cells affected by this …