For The Better

Researchers working to improve the performance of superconducting qubits, the foundation of quantum computers, have been experimenting using different base materials in an effort to increase the coherent lifetimes of qubits. The coherence time is a mea…

There are many effects of climate change. Perhaps the most broadly known is global warming, which is caused by heat building up in various parts of the Earth system, such as the atmosphere, the ocean, the cryosphere and the land. 89 percent of this exc…

Researchers demonstrated that it’s possible to make carbon dioxide capture filters using 3D printing.

Some people live longer than others — possibly due to a unique combination of bacteria in their intestines, new research concludes.

The overfishing of codfish spanning the second half of the 20th century indicates that human action can force evolutionary changes more quickly than widely believed, according to a new study.

Young babies make many squeals, vowel-like sounds, growls, and short word-like sounds such as ‘ba’ or ‘aga.’ Those precursors to speech or ‘protophones’ are later replaced with early words and, eventually, whole phrases and sentences. While some infant…

Researchers report that in the absence of visible landmarks, desert ants increase the likelihood that foraging nest mates will find their way home quickly and safely by elevating their nest entrance. Ant colonies whose nests are found deep in the Tunis…

A team of researchers has created a new class of titanium alloys that are strong and not brittle under tension, by integrating alloy and 3D-printing process designs. They say they embedded circular economy thinking in their design, creating great promi…

Rare earth elements, like neodymium and dysprosium, are a critical component to almost all modern technologies, from smartphones to hard drives, but they are notoriously hard to separate from the Earth’s crust and from one another. Scientists have disc…

Researchers have partnered to create a first-of-its-kind open-source, reproducible analysis platform for pediatric brain tumors. With the help of thousands of genomically sequenced samples, researchers have used this platform to identify initial findin…

Scientists have taken the world’s first X-ray SIGNAL (or SIGNATURE) of just one atom. This groundbreaking achievement could revolutionize the way scientists detect the materials.

According to new research, the amount of oxygen in one of 10 breaths was made possible thanks to a newly identified cellular mechanism that promotes photosynthesis in marine phytoplankton. The new study identifies how a proton pumping enzyme (known as …

Chess grandmasters are often held up as the epitome of thinking far ahead. But can others, with a modest amount of practice, learn to think further ahead? In addressing this question, a team of cognitive scientists has created a computational model tha…

Links have been reported between schizophrenia and proteins produced by the immune system that can act against one’s own body, known as autoantibodies. Researchers have now identified autoantibodies that target a ‘synaptic adhesion protein’ in a subset…

Optical probes have led to numerous breakthroughs in applications like optical memory, nanopatterning, and bioimaging, but existing options have limited lifespans and will eventually ‘photobleach.’ New work demonstrates a promising, longer-lasting alte…

There’s an intriguing exoplanet out there — 400 light-years out there — that is so tantalizing that astronomers have been studying it since its discovery in 2009. One orbit for WASP-18 b around its star that is slightly larger than our Sun takes just…

About two-thirds of the risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is thought to arise from genetic influences, but about a third could be influenced by environment and lifestyle, opening the door for behavioral interventions that could delay or prevent pathoph…

Research using the world’s most energetic laser has shed light on the properties of highly compressed matter — essential to understanding the structure of giant planets and stars, and to develop controlled nuclear fusion, a process that could harvest …

Geneticists have unearthed a major event in the ancient history of sturgeons and paddlefish that has significant implications for the way we understand evolution. They have pinpointed a previously hidden ‘whole genome duplication’ (WGD) in the common a…

Chemists add another powerful tool to their ‘molecular editing’ toolkit for crafting pharmaceuticals and other valuable compounds.