Science
Scientific discoveries and research
To read 2,000-year-old burned scrolls, scientists burn their own
Douglas Seiler painstakingly sourced papyrus and reed pens from Egypt and traditional lampblack ink from Japan, then paid some high school students to inscribe...
Power breeds suspicion: In cases of wrongdoing, people point to leaders more quickly
People with power are more quickly singled out as the culprit when something goes wrong but it is unclear who made the mistake. That is shown by a series of stu...
Amino acids and a bone mineral may help control magnesium implant breakdown, three student papers suggest
Seeing a bachelor's thesis published in a scientific journal is relatively uncommon. For three theses linked to the same research group to result in scientific...
Physicists extend the search for quantum black holes at the LHC
Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have extended the search for evidence of microscopic black holes produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Orga...
New thermal insulator outperforms any material found in nature
Researchers have engineered a new material that is an extreme thermal insulator, is exceptionally stiff and can be printed as a thin film at large scales. The m...
Q&A: Economist explores how to balance environmental protection with economic growth
As a kid growing up in North Carolina, Prakash Mishra was interested in planets. "My parents got me a telescope when I turned 6 or 7, and that was my personalit...
Giving students a voice in how they learn could transform the classroom experience
Research from Queen Mary University of London explores how combining learner autonomy with student-led inquiry can create a more engaging and collaborative expe...
Laser experiments recreate solar flare physics and reveal consistent magnetic reconnection rates
Magnetic reconnection is a process that occurs when the magnetic fields of a conductive plasma quickly rearrange and release massive amounts of stored magnetic...
Greenland's Qaanaaq Ice Cap has lost enough ice to produce a layer of water about 8 meters deep
Each summer, researchers from Hokkaido University returned to the Qaanaaq Ice Cap in northwestern Greenland to measure changes in the ice surface using aluminum...
Discovery of CRISPR's long lost ancestor may expand gene-editing toolkit
CRISPR may be a powerful technology for gene editing, but the system existed in bacteria long before scientists began using it. For billions of years, CRISPR ha...
Hemp waste cellulose unlocks tougher biodegradable plastics
Korean researchers have developed a method to strengthen biodegradable plastics using hemp hurd, an agricultural byproduct. The approach is expected to be appli...
Background hums and buzzes affect human behavior, researcher finds
Have you ever stopped and listened to the background sounds in a room you are in? The hum of the ventilation? The buzz of electricity? While most of the time we...