For The Better

Footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico confirm human presence over at least two millennia, with the oldest tracks dating back 23,000 years.

While the range of colors your eyes may perceive extends beyond the words language provides, languages around the globe are remarkably similar in how they partition the space of colors into a vocabulary. Yet differences exist. In a study examining 130 …

Vampire bats that form bonds in captivity and continue those ‘friendships’ in the wild also hunt together, meeting up over a meal after independent departures from the roost, according to a new study.

Researchers can predict what syllables a bird will sing — and when it will sing them — by reading electrical signals in its brain, reports a new study. The work is an early step toward building vocal prostheses for humans who have lost the ability to…

The global decline of pollinators threatens the reproductive success of 90 per cent of all wild plants globally and the yield of 85 per cent of the world’s most important crops. Pollinators — mainly bees and other insects — contribute to 35 per cent …

Engineers are developing new ways to convert greenhouse gases to fuel to address climate change and get astronauts home from Mars.

Cancer cells proliferate despite a myriad of stresses — from oxygen deprivation to chemotherapy — that would kill any ordinary cell. Now, researchers have gained insight into how they may be doing this through the downstream activity of a powerful es…

Plants adapt to their nutritional needs by modifying the permeability of their roots through the production or degradation of a cork-like layer called suberin. By studying the regulation of this protective layer in Arabidopsis thaliana, an internationa…

Engineers have come up with a revolutionary new method for tackling plastic pollution by harnessing the inner workings of proteins. The result? A whole new way of looking at plastic recycling.

A new study finds that that some large whale species (humpback, fin and minke whales) use the waters off New York and New Jersey as a supplemental feeding area feasting on two different types of prey species.

The master regulator behind the development of antibody-producing cells has been identified in a new study. The findings provide new insight into the inner workings of the immune system and may help understand how tissues develop and how certain cancer…

Particle accelerators are essential tools in research areas such as biology, materials science and particle physics. Researchers are always looking for more powerful ways of accelerating particles to improve existing equipment and increase capacities f…

Among the traditional five human senses, touch is perhaps the least studied. Yet, it is solicited everywhere, all the time, and even more so in recent years with the widespread daily use of electronic devices that emit vibrations. Indeed, any moving ob…

A research team proposes an efficient experimental platform for non-Hermitian physics research.

New research reveals not only that the coastal Northeast — from Maine to Delaware — is heating faster than most regions of North America, but that this heating is linked to drastic alterations in the ocean and atmospheric conditions over the North At…

A research team has provided what may be the most definitive view to date of the biological process leading to necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a dangerous inflammatory disease that can destroy a premature infant’s intestinal lining and causes death in…