Science
Scientific discoveries and research
Could we actually terraform Mars? A new scientific roadmap lays out the blueprint—and the risks
Reading the "Mars Trilogy" by Kim Stanley Robinson brings the benefits and pitfalls of efforts to terraform the red planet into sharp relief. Since the 1970s, w...
How an internal plant 'thermostat' guides root growth in unpredictable temperatures
Plants can't move to escape the heat like humans can; they are forced to adapt. As temperatures fluctuate, one key survival strategy is the ability of roots to...
Designing cities: Should we build from scratch or keep history alive?
Cities are often described as living archives of human memory. Walk through an old neighborhood in an Islamic city like Fez in Morocco or Cairo in Egypt, and yo...
Outside academia, people aren't well informed about Ph.D. research, and that's a problem
Around 1% of the global population has a Ph.D. It's the highest academic qualification, the result of years spent on original research. But—and this is a questi...
Carbon nanotube fiber sensors achieve record measurement error below 0.1%
Skoltech scientists, in collaboration with colleagues from China and Iran, have taken a major step toward creating highly precise carbon nanotube fiber (CNTF)-b...
Liquid-like histone H1 'glues' nucleosomes, reshaping how DNA compacts
DNA inside the nucleus is not packed as a rigid regular fiber—linker histone H1 dynamically binds and loosely "glues" nucleosomes together, creating a dynamic,...
It's OK to love all the bees (the honey bees, too)
North America's bee populations are in trouble, but don't blame the honey bees. While some people argue that an overabundance of managed honey bees—those raised...
Hydroxyl radicals in UV-exposed water reveal surprising reaction pathway
How do radicals form in aqueous solutions when exposed to UV light? This question is important for health research and environmental protection. For example, wi...
How AI's language barrier limits climate disaster responses
A message appears online during heavy flooding: "This rain no be small o, everywhere don red." Someone unfamiliar with the phrasing might hesitate. But for peop...
Study of Tommy Robinson's social media reveals how online influencers mobilize supporters without direct calls to action
New research from the University of Bath reveals that online influencers can mobilize followers and legitimize harmful behaviors without ever issuing explicit i...
A smarter way to build vaccines: Scientists harness AI to target emerging alphaviruses
A team of scientists at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), led by Nikos Vasilakis, Ph.D., and Peter McCaffrey, MD, has developed a new computational...
Study rethinks the dropout-crime connection
Dropping out of high school has been linked to higher rates of delinquency and lower socioeconomic status, but thinking of high school dropouts collectively, as...