Science & Technology

Physicists have used ultrashort laser pulses to probe the dynamics of photoelectron emission in tungsten crystals.

A long-term passive rewilding study has shown that natural woodland regeneration could make a significant contribution to meeting the UK’s ambitious tree planting targets – potentially at no cost and within relatively short timescales. The research fou…

Researchers studying prions — misfolded proteins that cause lethal incurable diseases — have identified the surface features of human prions responsible for their replication in the brain.

The yellow fever mosquito spreads multiple untreatable viruses in humans and is primarily controlled using a pesticide called permethrin. However, many mosquitoes are evolving resistance to the pesticide. A new study identifies mutations linked to diff…

When animals are hot, they eat less. This potentially fatal phenomenon has been largely overlooked in wild animals, explain researchers.

Weddell seals, the southernmost born mammal, are known as champion divers. But they don’t begin life that way. Researchers examined the development of diving behavior in Weddell seal pups and found that they time their dives with their mother but likel…

Once thought to be extinct, lobe-finned coelacanths are enormous fish that live deep in the ocean. Now, researchers have evidence that, in addition to their impressive size, coelacanths also can live for an impressively long time — perhaps nearly a ce…

Many diseases caused by a dysregulated immune system, such as allergies, asthma and autoimmunity, can be traced back to events in the first few months after birth. To date, the mechanisms behind the development of the immune system have not been fully …

To the human eye, most stationary objects appear to be just that — still, and completely at rest. Yet if we were handed a quantum lens, allowing us to see objects at the scale of individual atoms, what was an apple sitting idly on our desk would appea…

A new treatment approach focused on fixing cell damage, rather than fighting the virus directly, is effective against SARS-CoV-2 in lab models. If found safe for human use, this anti-viral treatment would make COVID-19 symptoms milder and speed up reco…

The glaciers of Nanga Parbat – one of the highest mountains in the world – have been shrinking slightly but continually since the 1930s. This loss in surface area is evidenced by a long-term study. The geographers combined historical photographs, surve…

DNA analysis has revealed the presence of ‘Yersinia Pestis’ – the pathogen that causes plague – in skeletal remains from individual burials in medieval Cambridgeshire, confirming for the first time that not all plague victims were buried in mass graves…

Chemical engineers have answered longstanding questions about the underlying processes that determine the life cycle of liquid foams. The breakthrough could help improve the commercial production and application of foams in a broad range of industries.

A faster method for collecting pure malaria parasites from infected mosquitos could accelerate the development of new, more potent malaria vaccines.

Nitrogen from agriculture, vehicle emissions and industry is endangering butterflies in Switzerland. The element is deposited in the soil via the air and has an impact on vegetation — to the detriment of the butterflies, as researchers have discovered.

Researchers demonstrate highly chirped pulses created by a using a spectral filter in a Kerr resonator, enabling them to widen a laser pulse wavefront by separating the beam’s colors. The chirped pulses remain stable even with more than 90% energy loss.

Chronic stress could be one reason why some animal orphans have shorter lives and less offspring. Researchers assessed if, as orphan humans, orphan chimpanzees are exposed to chronic stress. They found that maternal loss is stressful but orphans experi…

Peatlands are an important ecosystem that contribute to the regulation of the atmospheric carbon cycle. A multidisciplinary group of researchers investigated the climate response of a permafrost peatland located in Russia during the past 3,000 years. U…

Outside the breeding season many parrots live in dynamic social systems in which individuals travel and forage. These flocks are characterized by frequent changes in composition and their dynamic nature entails a unique set of challenges, such as poten…

A destructive pest beetle is edging closer to Australia as biological controls fail, destroying home gardens, plantations and biodiversity as they surge through nearby Pacific islands.