Within the next five years, global warming is set to breach the 1.5°C threshold at the heart of the 2015 Paris Agreement. This will have dire consequences, from rapidly melting ice sheets to ghostly white coral reefs.
When JWST's first science results started rolling in, it was a triumph for scientific vision and persistence. For years, the fate of the powerful space telescope was uncertain. It went way over budget, and for 25 years, troubling conversations accompanied its ongoing development. Several times, it seemed like it would be canceled, and in 2011, Congress came close to ending the program.
Choosing an orbit for a satellite always comes with trade-offs. Very low Earth orbit (VLEO), between 100–450 km (62–280 miles), has distinct advantages. Remote-sensing cameras can take better pictures, communications and radar require less power, and atmospheric drag automatically cleans up dead satellites.
Monitoring marine life helps scientists track ecosystem health, improve conservation and manage fisheries. A promising approach is environmental DNA (eDNA), which refers to trace genetic material naturally released into the water by organisms, such as skin cells, mucus and excreta.
A new recycling technique could help tackle a major challenge: breaking down some of the toughest plastics without generating large amounts of waste.
A team of researchers from University of Toronto Engineering has created a new type of dye-sensitized nanoparticle that can detect target chemicals at very low concentrations while also distinguishing between molecules with very similar shapes.
Have you ever wondered what Earth observation satellites see when they look down at the deep ocean or a dense tropical forest during the dead of night? The answer, for the most part, is nothing. Standard optical sensors require a steady stream of light to function, and in these photon-limited regions, they hit a hard physical boundary. But what if we could rewrite the rules of optical imaging? By borrowing techniques from quantum photonics, we can push beyond these classical limits and unlock a fundamentally new way to observe the darkest and most hidden environments on our planet.
Artificial intelligence is transforming how information is generated, processed and stored, but its rapid expansion is also driving unprecedented demand for computing power and electricity. Developing hardware that can process information more efficiently is therefore becoming one of the major technological challenges of the AI era.
Picture yourself in a manufactured colony that orbits between Earth and the moon. It might sound like science fiction, but it's part of a 2019 presentation made by Jeff Bezos, founder of the space technology company Blue Origin, to an audience of journalists, space industry executives and policymakers.
In a study of monk parakeets, researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Duke University found that sex has little to no impact on who initiates fights, who is targeted or who rises in the dominance hierarchy.
With the rise in popularity of the digital assets known as cryptocurrencies over the last decade, the idea of a decentralized financial system that operates outside traditional markets is gaining mainstream appeal. A new analysis from a Penn State researcher, however, suggests that traditional and decentralized markets are more connected than they might seem.
Emotional mechanisms are frequently used to inspire good environmental behavior. But how effective are they at inspiring actual sustainable change? Perhaps not as much as previously believed, according to a new study that challenged participants to put their money where their mouths are.
The Kinsey Institute released new data from its annual Singles in America survey, the nation's most comprehensive and longest-running annual study of single adults. Now in its 15th edition, Singles in America has surveyed more than 80,000 people across the United States, creating one of the richest data sets available for understanding shifting relationship patterns, population demographics and social trends.
Metabotropic glutamate receptors, which are important but difficult drug targets, interact in surprisingly varied ways with their principal regulatory proteins, according to two new studies led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings represent a major step forward in understanding these receptors and how they can be targeted effectively to potentially treat conditions such as epilepsy, depression and anxiety disorders.
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have identified how certain dangerous bacteria spread. They studied chain-like adherence pattern (CLAP) varieties of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), finding that single bacteria attach to a surface and elongate before dividing, producing chains without ever separating.
How can we predict the way a real material, such as a polymer, responds mechanically over timescales ranging from the ultrafast motion of atoms to the slow deformations measured in a laboratory? This is a deceptively difficult problem.
Our cells' membranes have many functions. They not only provide mechanical protection but also precisely control which substances enter or leave cells. If they fail to perform these tasks, disease can result. Their structure is correspondingly complex: The outer cell membrane, for example, often features bottle-shaped invaginations called caveolae. Among other functions, they protect blood vessel cells, which are frequently exposed to strong mechanical forces. In addition, caveolae serve as signaling centers that help regulate blood pressure. Cells also absorb nutrients—especially fatty acids—via caveolae.
Access to clean water depends not only on preventing pollution but also on being able to detect contaminants quickly and reliably. Among the pollutants of concern are metal ions such as mercury, lead and zinc, which can enter aquatic environments through industrial and other human activities.
Researchers at Stanford Medicine have developed two new artificial intelligence models of the biological cell. The first, called universal cell embedding, paved the way for a second-generation model called TranscriptFormer, which has been trained on data from 112 million cells representing 12 species, ranging from single-celled yeast to humans.
Laboratory animals are anesthetized to avoid pain during invasive procedures. Anesthesia is necessary for these animals' welfare, but it is not always without problems: Substandard anesthesia can cause suffering, distort experimental results and force researchers to repeat tests on more animals.