Science & Technology

When the first interstellar comet ever seen in our solar system was discovered in 2017, one characteristic — an unexplained acceleration away from the sun — sparked wild speculation, including that it was an alien spacecraft. An astrochemist found a …

Researchers describe why SARS-CoV-2 subvariants spread more rapidly than the original virus strain, and how an early treatment might have made people more susceptible to future infections.

A model system created by stacking a pair of monolayer semiconductors is giving physicists a simpler way to study confounding quantum behavior, from heavy fermions to exotic quantum phase transitions.

In a new study, an international team of researchers warn that the Arctic Sea ice may soon be a thing of the past in the summer months. This may have consequences for both the climate and ecosystems. Ten thousand years ago, the ice melted at temperatur…

A global treaty called the Minamata Convention requires gold-mining countries to regularly report the amount of toxic mercury that miners are using to find and extract gold, designed to help nations gauge success toward at least minimizing a practice t…

Physicists have built a new technology on a microchip by combining two Nobel Prize-winning techniques. This microchip could measure distances in materials at high precision, for example underwater or for medical imaging. Because the technology uses sou…

Researchers behind the UK’s first pilot public health surveillance system based on analysis of wastewater say that routine monitoring at sewage treatment works could provide a powerful early warning system for the next flu or norovirus epidemic, alerti…

An oxygen-ion-battery has been invented, based on ceramic materials. If it degrades, it can be regenerated, therefore it potentially has an extremely long lifespan. Also, it does not require any rare elements and it is incombustible. For large energy s…

New method to study the movement, behaviour, and environmental context of group-living animals using drones and computer vision.

New research finds that simply anticipating stress related to political elections causes adverse physical health effects. However, the study also finds there is something people can do to mitigate those negative health effects.

A mosquito known only by its scientific name, Culex lactator, is the latest to establish in the Sunshine State, according to a new study.

Language that is easier to process encourages continued reading, as does language that evokes anxious, exciting, and hopeful emotions.

Conditions mapped for the first time of polaron characteristics in 2D materials. TACC’s Frontera supercomputer generated quantum mechanical calculations on hexagonal boron nitride system of 30,000 atoms.

Physicists have detected neutrinos created by a particle collider. The discovery promises to deepen scientists’ understanding of the subatomic particles, which were first spotted in 1956 and play a key role in the process that makes stars burn.

Moderate levels of artificial light at night — like the fixture illuminating your backyard — bring more caterpillar predators and reduce the chance that these lepidoptera larvae grow up to become moths and serve as food for larger prey.

Deleting a gene that promotes magnesium transport into mitochondria (which are cells’ power plants) resulted in more efficient metabolism of sugar and fat in the energy centers. The result: skinny, healthy mice. Now the research team, has developed a s…

Collaborative research across the country has shown that strengthening the relationship between the student and advisor can increase retention rates in engineering doctoral studies.

While listening to a favorite song is a known mood booster, researchers have discovered that music-listening interventions also can make medicines more effective.

There is a relative increase of 20% to 30% in breast cancer risk associated with both combined and progesterone-only contraceptives, whatever the mode of delivery, though with five years of use, the 15-year absolute excess incidence is at most 265 case…

Beetles are champions at surviving in extremely dry environments. In part, this property is due to their ability to suck water from the air with their rear ends. A new study explains just how. Beyond helping to explain how beetles thrive in environment…