Science
Scientific discoveries and research
Letting children play can support development
Preschool-age children are most engaged in pretend play 10–15 minutes after playing begins. In addition, girls exhibit higher organizational skills, according t...
Birds change altitude to survive epic journeys across deserts and seas
Every year, billions of birds undertake extraordinary migrations, crossing vast deserts and open seas with no place to stop, feed, or rest. A new international...
Social media advertising suppresses voting in targeted communities, research shows
Messages intended to suppress votes can be precisely delivered to particularly vulnerable and consequential groups of people via social media and keep millions...
Neutron scattering helps clarify magnetic behavior in altermagnetic material
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have identified the true source of a magnetic effect seen in the material ruthenium dioxide (RuO₂), helpi...
New generation of climate models sheds first light on long-standing Pacific puzzle
Researchers have long been puzzled by the observed cooling of the eastern tropical Pacific and the Southern Ocean accompanying global warming. Existing climate...
Blood marker from dementia research could help track aging across the animal world
A protein called neurofilament light chain (NfL)—studied in humans in the context of neurodegenerative diseases and aging—is also detectable in the blood of num...
Scientists home in on Acinetobacter baumannii's resistance evolution
Acinetobacter baumannii is a bacteria which can become a virulent killer in health-care settings among severely ill patients. The germ has rapidly developed dru...
Symbiotic bacteria in planthoppers break record for smallest non-organelle genome ever found
Many insects rely on heritable bacterial endosymbionts for essential nutrients that they cannot get through their diet. A new study, published in Nature Communi...
Flexible force fields can protect our return to the moon
Lunar dust remains one of the biggest challenges for a long-term human presence on the moon. Its jagged, clingy nature makes it naturally stick to everything fr...
How massive lava fields formed in the Pacific Northwest
Volcanic eruptions are significant geologic hazards. Underwater volcanoes are challenging to study, yet they play an integral role in marine geology and may cau...
A new way to judge how the economy performs in booms and busts
When the economy grows or shrinks, we often focus on how long the phase lasts or how deep it goes. A new paper asks a sharper question: How does actual growth c...
Robot clean-up crews tackle litter on Europe's seabed
EU researchers are developing AI-guided robot fleets to take over the dangerous, dirty work of finding and removing marine litter from the sea floor. A ship wit...