Science & Technology

A new study showing that computers can predict what paintings people will like offers insight into how our brains make aesthetic judgments.

Magnetic-spin interactions that allow spin-manipulation by electrical control allow potential applications in energy-efficient spintronic devices. Researchers now describe the induction of such interactions in a layered material tantalum-sulfide by add…

Researchers found industrial chemicals in the organs of fetuses conceived decades after many countries had banned the substances. The researchers urge decision makers to consider the combined impact of the mix of chemicals that accumulate in people and…

Climate modelers have found evidence that massive icebergs from roughly 31,000 years ago drifted more than 5,000km (> 3,000 miles) along the eastern United States coast from Northeast Canada all the way to southern Florida.

A recreation of three common types of Paleolithic lighting systems (torches, grease lamps, and fireplaces) illuminates how Paleolithic cave dwellers might have traveled, lived, and created in the depths of their caves, according to a new study.

Goodbye, bulky components and connectors: A team of scientists has now found a new way to exploit the principles of spiders’ joints to create lightweight robots.

When someone bumps their elbow against a wall, they not only feel pain but also might experience bruising. Robots and prosthetic limbs don’t have these warning signs, which could lead to further injury. Now, researchers have developed an artificial ski…

A new CF treatment strategy involves small, nucleic acid molecules called oligonucleotides that can correct some of the gene defects that underlie CF but are not addressed by existing modulator therapies. The researchers used a new delivery method that…

Some of the world’s most vulnerable cities suffer disproportionate economic losses because of the health consequences of in-car air pollution, finds a new study.

Limited data on the uptake of contraception prior to and during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic could mean unforeseen issues for sexual and reproductive health services, new research concludes.

A new study found that between 51-60% of the 64 million kilometres of rivers and streams on Earth that they investigated stop flowing periodically, or run dry for part of the year. It is the first-ever empirically grounded effort to quantify the global…

When Betelgeuse, a bright orange star in the constellation of Orion, lost more than two-thirds of its brightness in late 2019 and early 2020, astronomers were puzzled.

Small modeling errors may accumulate faster than previously expected when physicists combine multiple gravitational wave events (such as colliding black holes) to test Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, suggest researchers.

A team has found that babies twitch during a sleep stage called quiet sleep, not just during REM sleep. The results may show there’s more communication between snoozing infants’ brains and motor systems than previously known.

A ball of 4,000-year-old hair frozen in time tangled around a whalebone comb led to the first ever reconstruction of an ancient human genome a decade ago. The hair, which was preserved in arctic permafrost in Greenland, was collected in the 1980s. It w…

Quantum computers could outperform classical computers at many tasks, but only if the errors that are an inevitable part of computational tasks are isolated rather than widespread events. Now, researchers have found evidence that errors are correlated …

New findings show that the gut microbiome impacts stroke severity and functional impairment following stroke. The results lay the groundwork for potential new interventions to help treat or prevent stroke.

A group of researchers were part of an expedition to French Guiana to study tropical frogs in the Amazon. Various amphibian species of this region use ephemeral pools of water as their nurseries, and display unique preferences for specific physical and…

The accumulation of micro- and nanoplastics in the environment continues at an alarming rate. A radiolabeling technique made it possible to monitor the movement and accumulation of plastics in the mouse body, as well as their elimination from it.

An international team has developed spherical colloidal particles for the visualization of rotational dynamics. The two-color fluorescent particles have an off-center core that allows tracking of dense suspensions using microscopy. The researchers obse…