Science
Scientific discoveries and research
Why being born helpless may be one of humanity's greatest strengths
Babies start out life helpless and stay that way for a long time. They cannot walk, feed themselves or survive without an adult's continued care. Our dependency...
Scattered Roman bones point to potential fourth-century purge at Brading Villa
Disarticulated bones found scattered across a luxurious Roman villa on England's Isle of Wight may be evidence of a massacre carried out during a brutal politic...
SpaceX aims to use rockets to quickly transport cargo across the Earth and into orbit
You might think of rockets as powerful vehicles that blast astronaut crews and robotic missions into space. But what if they could be used to send cargo from on...
Cell-inspired synthetic fibers reveal a reversible route to self-protecting smart materials
Researchers at the University of Bayreuth, together with colleagues from Freie Universität Berlin and the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, have de...
Restoring the silenced Friedreich's ataxia gene through unconventional means
Cells can switch off genes by tightly packaging DNA around proteins called histones. However, scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have discovere...
Is hemp a thirsty crop? New research measures just how much water cannabis farming can use
In South Africa, it's been legal for several years for people to grow hemp (a type of Cannabis sativa with very low levels of the psychoactive compound THC) for...
New molecule class creates hardy, drought tolerant plants
As climate change causes water scarcity and temperatures to rise, crops around the world are feeling the heat. How can we prevent severe crop losses in these re...
SpaceX rocket stage believed to have slammed into the moon
A piece of a SpaceX rocket weighing four tonnes (4.4 tons) was believed to have unintentionally crashed into the moon on Wednesday, a collision that posed no da...
Human activity more than doubles Arctic fire occurrence, satellite analysis suggests
Fires in the Arctic are not solely a regional issue, as shown by the hazy skies in Switzerland last summer despite otherwise sunny weather. Smoke from major fir...
Avalanche cracks may appear globally supersonic while remaining locally subsonic
Can a crack be supersonic? Can the fracture that triggers an avalanche propagate faster than the limiting velocity predicted by classical fracture mechanics? Th...
Pumas make roads safer for drivers by changing prey behavior patterns
Living among large predatory carnivores could actually make you safer. A study published in the journal Current Biology found that pumas—wild cats also known as...
Turning one of the world's most difficult plastics into premium lubricant
Virginia Tech chemist and chemical engineer Guoliang "Greg" Liu and his lab have developed a process that converts the plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into pol...