As local news organizations continue to disappear across the United States, George Washington University researchers are linking shrinking access to community-based journalism to stronger feelings of isolation and loneliness.
Rydberg atoms are considered promising building blocks for quantum computers and their precursors, quantum simulators. Researchers at the 5th Institute of Physics of the University of Stuttgart have achieved record values for the lifetime, size, and storage time of circular Rydberg atoms, a special form of Rydberg atom in which electrons move in a stable circular orbit around the nucleus. The findings were published in Nature Communications.
University of Georgia researchers recently located the mammal equivalent of a needle in a haystack: weasels. Weasels are extremely difficult to find, so not much is known about their preferred habitats and overall population health in the Southeast.
Chimpanzee and bonobo mothers sometimes continue to carry their infants after they have died, a behavior known as infant corpse carrying (ICC). It is widely documented, and many explanations have been proposed, but few have been quantitatively tested.
Spain and Portugal are two of the world's most popular wine-growing countries, with regions such as Rioja and the Douro Valley producing millions of bottles every year. This winemaking tradition dates back thousands of years, but its exact origins remain a mystery. To understand how it all started, scientists led by Carolina Royo of the Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino in Spain took a step back into the past and studied ancient grape seeds.
Whether on a windowpane at home or during the industrial cleaning of computer chips: droplets sliding over solid surfaces become electrically charged. Yet the physical mechanism behind this charging remains a subject of debate. This charging is usually attributed to the exchange of charged particles (ions) at the interface between the droplet and the surface.
It must be tough being a judge for the world's most prestigious environmental prize: Imagine having to choose between an ingenious machine that removes microplastics from a river in Europe or a company in East Africa that sells clean cookstoves through affordable weekly installments.
When we tell a dog "no" and it resists temptation, what happens in its brain? New research from the Department of Ethology at ELTE and the HUN-REN Research Centre of Natural Sciences suggests that dogs may do more than respond automatically: When they restrain their behavior, their brains show a pattern of activity resembling the human neural signature of self-control. The study is published in the journal Animal Cognition.
Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have gleaned new insights into ancient water management in the French region around Nîmes by analyzing carbonate deposits within the Roman aqueduct that features the famous Pont du Gard bridge. Among other findings, the aqueduct—built around 50 A.D.—was expanded to include an additional water source after 11 years of operation; this event coincided with a historically documented dry spell. A century after the aqueduct's construction, the water supply to the city was deliberately throttled; it is likely that some of the water was diverted to agricultural land in the surrounding area instead.
Stretching across much of eastern England, the Fens produce a third of the country's vegetables and support tens of thousands of jobs. Yet around 33% of the region lies below average sea level, while 87% is below the highest spring tides.
Bipedalism, or walking on two legs, is one of the key features that distinguishes humans from other apes. But when and why our ancestors transitioned from a life often spent in trees to a life spent almost exclusively on the ground remains a subject of debate.
Allowing petty offenders in South Africa to remain in the community may reduce their risk of committing serious crimes compared with imprisonment, according to a study published in PLOS One by Farai Nyabadza of the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Republicans and conservatives are more likely than Democrats or liberals to justify political violence in 17 surveyed situations, according to a study published in PLOS One by Garen J. Wintemute of the University of California, Davis, and colleagues.
When picturing a scaled, toothy Tyrannosaurus rex stomping across North America, building nests and eating other dinosaurs, it's easy to forget that scientists have gleaned everything we know about T. rex from clues left more than 60 million years ago. While the presence of fossils in Alaska suggested that this prehistoric ancestor of birds was already on the evolutionary path from cold-blooded reptile to warm-blooded avian, there wasn't a way to take T. rex's temperature—until now.
It's no secret that plastic and other human trash are a problem for marine life, but our understanding has long focused on the ocean's surface. As described in a study published in PLOS One, a more complete picture is coming into focus, revealing that even some of our planet's greatest depths have become home to our debris.
By evaluating the health of waterways across the U.S., researchers have identified a network encompassing about one-third of rivers and streams that, if conserved and restored, could sustain the nation's freshwater biodiversity in the face of habitat degradation and climate change. Mark Anderson of The Nature Conservancy, U.S., led the new study, published Sept. 16, 2026, in the journal PLOS One.
Right whales forage near the water's surface at night, putting them at greater risk of potentially fatal collisions with boats, Jay Kirkham at Dalhousie University, Canada, and colleagues report Sept. 16, 2026, in the journal PLOS ONE.
X-ray technology and artificial intelligence—along with the discovery of lead in the ink of fragments from a collection of ancient Roman scrolls—could soon help scientists read long-lost texts buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, according to a study published Sept. 16, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Douglas Seiler, an affiliate of the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.; Jacob Michael LaManna of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S.; David Kreimer of the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.; and colleagues.
Washington State University researchers have discovered how a group of coronaviruses circulating in hedgehogs invades host cells, a key to understanding their potential to jump between species and their risk of causing a pandemic in humans.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope hasn't yet reached its Sun–Earth L2 orbit, and it already has some good news. NASA has announced that the mission has enough fuel to potentially double its mission length. Though initially scheduled for five years of observations, followed by a five-year extended mission, the entire mission could now reach 22 years.