Science & Technology

Radiocarbon records are critical to understanding the history of Earth’s climate, magnetic field, and the Sun’s activity, say researchers.

What can sponges tell us about the evolution of the brain? Sponges have the genes involved in neuronal function in higher animals. But if sponges don’t have brains, what is the role of these? Scientists imaged the sponge digestive chamber to find out.

Female zebra finches are choosy but flexible when it comes to finding a mate, allowing them to avoid the fitness costs of being too selective when competition for males is high, researchers report.

Tackling pollution from the emission of nitrogen compounds, particularly ammonia, could reduce many of the 23.3 million years of life that were lost prematurely across the world in 2013 due to nitrogen-related air pollution, an international study has …

The drop in estrogen levels that occurs with menopause brings declines in the volumes of ‘gray matter,’ the cellular matter of the brain, in key brain regions that are also affected in Alzheimer’s disease. But a new study suggests that greater cumulati…

Computer scientists have developed an extremely secure identity verification method based on the fundamental principle that information cannot travel faster than the speed of light. The breakthrough has the potential to greatly improve the security of …

Invasive species cause biodiversity loss and about $120 billion in annual damages in the U.S. alone. Now, thanks to a new collaborative study, there is greater insight into how invasive species progressively affect native food webs in mountain lakes.

Researchers worked to determine whether vibration training — an intervention used to improve physical function for people with multiple sclerosis — could also improve patients’ cognitive function and quality of life.

An enormous jet of particles emitted by the giant galaxy M87 can be observed astronomically in various wavelengths. Scientists have developed a theoretical model of the morphology of this jet using complex supercomputer calculations. The images from th…

Different countries face different risks and opportunities as the world switches from fossil fuels to renewable energy, researchers say.

A new discovery is shedding light on how fluorine — an element found in our bones and teeth as fluoride — is forged in the Universe. Astronomers have detected this element in a galaxy that is so far away its light has taken over 12 billion years to r…

Researchers have created a new type of carbon fiber reinforced material that is as strong and light as traditionally used materials, but can be repeatedly healed with heat, reversing any fatigue damage. This also provides a way to break it down and rec…

In dynamical systems research, a ‘basin of attraction’ is the set of all the starting points — usually close to one another — that arrive at the same final state as the system evolves through time. The researchers describe a simple argument showing w…

Whole Genome Sequencing from a single blood test picks up 31% more cases of rare genetic disorders than standard tests, shortening the ‘diagnostic odyssey’ affected families experience and providing huge opportunities for future research.

Depending on the outcome of social conflicts, ants of the species Harpegnathos saltator do something unusual: they can switch from a worker to a queen-like status known as gamergate. Now, researchers have made the surprising discovery that a single pro…

New evidence suggests that adding the targeted therapy ibrutinib (Imbruvica) to a standard chemotherapy regimen can improve how long some younger people with a specific form of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) live.

Researchers have revealed that most coralline algae experience negative effects from ocean acidification. Analysis of previous studies showed that changes in ocean chemistry can lead to declines in calcification rates, abundance, growth, and recruitmen…

Imaging practice leaders should carefully consider efforts to match interpretation of subspecialty examinations with radiologists’ fellowship training in the acute community setting, experts urge.

Researchers investigated the long-term contamination of Lake Onuma in Japan resulting from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. They devised a formula based on a framework known as the fractional diffusion model to predict the radioactive conta…

Researchers have pinpointed the likely origin of a group of meteorites ejected from Mars, using a machine learning algorithm that analyses high-resolution planetary images.