Science & Technology

Nearly a third of the world’s mine tailings are stored within or near protected conservation areas, new research has found.

Whether infants at five months of age look mostly at faces or non-social objects such as cars or mobile phones is largely determined by genes. The findings suggest that there is a biological basis for how infants create their unique visual experiences …

Scientists have made a surprising discovery that sheds new light on the role that oceanic deoxygenation (anoxia) played in one of the most devastating extinction events in Earth’s history. Their finding has implications for current day ecosystems — an…

Hospital MRI scanners, using 3 Tesla magnets, provide poor spatial resolution in brain imaging. More recent 7T MRIs are better but used mainly in the rare research lab. Scientists have now supercharged the standard 7T scanner to improve the resolution …

Carbon capture is essential to reduce the impact of human carbon dioxide emissions on our climate. Researchers have developed a method to confirm whether carbon in concrete originates from the raw materials, or from carbon in the air which has been tra…

The national park of Koli in eastern Finland is home to a famous, 34-metre-long crevice cave known as Pirunkirkko, or Devil’s Church in English. A new study investigates the acoustics of the Devil’s Church and explores whether the acoustic properties o…

New research has shown that extra practice in blending printed letter sounds can help struggling beginner readers (age 4-5) learn to read.

Physicists have demonstrated that, combining specific materials, heat in technical devices can be used in computing. Their discovery is based on extensive calculations and simulations. The new approach demonstrates how heat signals can be steered and a…

The Mediterranean spawning grounds of Bluefin tuna — the largest tuna and one of the most powerful fish in the sea — are under threat, due to rising sea temperatures. A pioneering research method to decode bluefin ‘otoliths’ (a stony tissue found in …

Wondering whether whether Dark Matter particles actually are produced inside a jet of standard model particles, led researchers to explore a new detector signature known as semi-visible jets, which scientists never looked at before.

An international team of researchers has developed a method that combines advanced high-throughput microfluidics and gene editing technology to source new treatments that could potentially help people with autoimmune conditions and cancer. In validatin…

Scientists have simulated conditions that allow hazy skies to form in water-rich exoplanets, a crucial step in determining how haziness muddles important telescope observations for the search of habitable worlds beyond the solar system.

Researchers have analyzed the antibody Immunoglobulin M in rainbow trout to shed some light on why these proteins may have evolved over time.

A new article predicts that vampire bats — currently only found in Mexico and Central and South America — are on the move, with the United States being a viable home in 27 years.  

A new technique enables an AI agent to be guided by data crowdsourced asynchronously from nonexpert human users as it learns to complete a task through reinforcement learning. The method trains the robot faster and better than other approaches.

Cell and gene therapies hold promise for treating various diseases, but technology to deliver targeted medicines to specific cells is lacking. Engineered cells produce multifunctional particles, designed to carry cargo and target specific cell types. I…

An innovative stem cell-based treatment for Type 1 diabetes can meaningfully regulate blood glucose levels and reduce dependence on daily insulin injections, according to new clinical trial results. The therapy aims to replace the insulin-producing bet…

A new form of wave devouring propulsion (WDP) could power ships and help to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the maritime industry.

The Fens of eastern England, a low-lying, extremely flat landscape dominated by agricultural fields, was once a vast woodland filled with huge yew trees, according to new research. Scientists have studied hundreds of tree trunks, dug up by Fenland farm…