Science
Scientific discoveries and research
Early snakes explored life underground, on land and at sea
Snakes are highly modified lizards, with more than 4,000 living species today. The origin of snakes has long been one of evolutionary biology's most debated que...
New catalyst with 75% less platinum promises to reduce the cost of hydrogen fuel cells
The high cost of platinum is one of the main barriers to the wider adoption of hydrogen fuel cells. Now, researchers at IMDEA Materials Institute have developed...
Tiny particles defy action-reaction symmetry to stay in motion
From schools of fish and flocks of birds to microscopic synthetic particles, many systems in nature and the laboratory consist of individual units or agents tha...
Cosmic filaments help set first limits on dark matter's decay into gravitons
Composing some 85% of the universe's total mass, dark matter betrays its presence only through gravity, unlike ordinary matter. Yet through new research publish...
Rare Mars meteorite preserves 1.27-billion-year-old clues to planet's deep interior
Boston College scientists have determined that a newly discovered meteorite from Mars is 1.27 billion years old and derived from a previously unsampled, pristin...
Oldest known giant rock scallop bead suggests California coastal trade began millennia earlier
Archaeologists have discovered two giant rock scallop beads that push back the clock on the first appearance of these high-status ornaments. The discovery shows...
Charge-based strategy improves controlled delivery of therapeutic peptides from gelatin-based materials
Rice University engineers have developed a new strategy for controlling how therapeutic peptides are released from gelatin-based materials, a step that could ma...
The asteroid that may be three worlds
What shape is an asteroid? For (44) Nysa, the honest answer until now has been that nobody knew. It is one of the brightest and largest E-type asteroids in the...
'Flying focus' laser overcomes key limitation in plasma-based particle accelerators
In a new Nature Physics study, researchers accelerated electrons to more than twice the energy predicted by the traditional dephasing limit for laser-plasma acc...
Butterfly ranges shift worldwide amid climate change, with most species expanding their reach
A global analysis of range-shift records for 1,758 butterfly species—10% of known butterfly species—found that 80% had expanded their range and that 79% of all...
Pulsed radiofrequency magnetic fields may disorient migratory birds, experiments suggest
Every year, millions of migratory birds travel between different geographical regions on Earth to find food, escape cold weather or reach safe environments to r...
Dodo birds more clever than we thought
The Mauritian dodo—a global symbol of human-caused extinction and one of the world's largest pigeons—may not have deserved its reputation as a silly simpleton a...