For The Better

Dried snack foods such as apple chips are a convenient alternative to fresh fruit, providing longer shelf life and easier storage. Consumers increasingly demand product variety, so companies coat such snack foods with fruit and vegetable powders to enh…

A simple RNA molecule jumpstarts the immune system’s ‘first responders’ to viral infection and can even eradicate the SARS-CoV-2 virus in mice with chronic cases of COVID-19, a new study finds.

Engineers have successfully transferred digitally encoded information wirelessly using nuclear radiation instead of conventional technology. The researchers measured the spontaneous emission of fast neutrons from californium-252, a radioactive isotope …

A new method has allowed scientists to quickly detect a transiting planet with two suns.

Researchers have discovered how drugs can affect various membrane-spanning proteins in addition to their intended target, potentially causing unwanted side effects. The results illuminate one of the central problems of drug discovery and point to new s…

Medical science is a key step closer to the cryopreservation of brain slices used in neurological research, pancreatic cells for the treatment of diabetes and even whole organs thanks to a new computer model that predicts how tissue’s size will change …

Net zero carbon is within reach for a major Australian city through comprehensive adoption of photovoltaics in built environment, new modelling has shown.

Worldwide, millions of people follow vegan and vegetarian diets for religious, ethical, environmental or economic reasons. While these diets have purported health benefits, they can also lack essential nutrients, such as vitamins B12 and D3, if not wel…

Eukaryotic plankton are an essential and highly diverse component of marine ecosystems. A research team has established their global geographic distribution using DNA data and a probabilistic model. The study highlights large variations in geographic s…

Strange ‘eggshell planets’ are among the rich variety of exoplanets possible, according to a study. These rocky worlds have an ultra-thin outer brittle layer and little to no topography. Such worlds are unlikely to have plate tectonics, raising questio…

Researchers have found that fast evolution can lead to nowhere.

The thickness of growth marks in primary (or ‘baby’) teeth may help identify children at risk for depression and other mental health disorders later in life, according to a ground-breaking investigation.

Scientists have revealed why a mutation in the UTX gene disrupts cells’ ability to suppress tumors.

The amount and types of proteins our cells produce tell us important details about our health. Researchers have shown that it is possible to identify individual proteins with single-amino acid resolution and nearly 100% accuracy. Their method uses nano…

In a new study, biologists laid to rest a century-old debate by confirming that a single species of frog, out of the more than 7,000 living today, has true teeth on its lower jaw.

Researchers have found that common household noises may be making dogs anxious. Owners may be underestimating their dog’s stress.

New research suggests free-roaming cats are likely to blame in the spread of the potentially deadly Toxoplasma gondii parasite to wildlife in densely populated urban areas.

Using data gathered by the Large Area Telescope onboard NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and a stacking technique combining signals too weak to be observed on their own, researchers detected gamma rays from UFOs — ultra-fast outflows — in sever…