Science & Technology

Oceanic islands provide useful models for ecology, biogeography and evolutionary research. Many ground-breaking findings — including Darwin’s theory of evolution — have emerged from the study of species on islands and their interplay with their livin…

Mechanical engineering and materials science advancements could revolutionize safety equipment for athletes and more.

Monitoring dairy calves with precision technologies based on the ‘internet of things,’ or IoT, leads to the earlier diagnosis of calf-killing bovine respiratory disease, according to a new study. The novel approach — a result of crosscutting — will o…

Aerobic glycolysis, the process by which cells transform glucose into lactate, is key for eye development in mammals, according to a new study.

Plant diversity in nature is generally highest in tropical regions around the equator, with decreasing diversity closer to the poles. Researchers now show that the plant specimens housed in herbaria in Europe and North America are more comprehensive an…

Many landscapes in the tropics consist of a mosaic of different types of land use. How people make use of these different ecosystems, with their particular plant communities, was unclear until now. Researchers, many of them from Madagascar, have now in…

Scientists have discovered that the genes required for learning, memory, aggression and other complex behaviors originated around 650 million years ago.

Soft robotic grippers could greatly increase productivity in many fields. However, currently existing designs are overly complex and expensive. A research team has developed ROSE, a novel embracing soft gripper inspired by the blooming and closing of r…

Soft robotic grippers could greatly increase productivity in many fields. However, currently existing designs are overly complex and expensive. A research team has developed ROSE, a novel embracing soft gripper inspired by the blooming and closing of r…

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a monster in the making in this observation of the exceptional galaxy cluster eMACS J1353.7+4329, which lies about eight billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. This collectio…

Promising results in a trial of ketamine for severe depression could lead to treatment becoming more affordable.

New observations have distinguished the sites of star formation and a possible site of star death from the surrounding nebula in a galaxy 13.2 billion light-years away. This is the farthest that such structures have been observed.