Science
Scientific discoveries and research
When neighborhoods burn, the smoke carries more than soot
When fire tore through Los Angeles County in January 2025, westerly winds blew most of the smoke and ash over the Pacific, keeping the main measure of air quali...
Complexity isn't subjective—the right amount results in new material properties
Complexity may seem subjective, but a quantitative measure of the complexity of nanomaterials was recently developed by a team of researchers from the Universit...
Gaze into the Crystal Ball Nebula and see the light emitted by a dying star 1,500 years ago
The 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope, located on the summit of Maunakea in Hawai'i, has captured NGC 1514, nicknamed the Crystal Ball Nebula, in awe-inspiring d...
Evolutionary arms race stretches hawkmoths and flowers to extremes
Long before his days of research, Christian Couch was just a kid marveling at the butterflies in the Florida Museum of Natural History's Butterfly Rainforest. Y...
Particle-by-particle tracking reveals uneven nanoparticle drug release
Precision medicine aims to transport therapeutic agents, such as molecules, proteins or RNA, to the exact place where they need to act within the body. One of t...
Widespread AI misuse forces higher education to rethink assessment
Large numbers of college students are now using artificial intelligence to complete—and cheat on—their assignments, suggesting that colleges and universities ne...
A new light-based sensor could help make ultrasensitive disease testing more portable
When we think about highly sensitive medical testing, we often imagine a hospital laboratory filled with large instruments, trained technicians, and carefully c...
Why promising CO₂-to-fuel catalysts keep falling short of copper
Technology that converts carbon dioxide (CO₂) into fuels and plastic feedstocks using electricity is gaining attention as a core technology in the era of carbon...
Macrocyclic host molecules observed working together on a surface
A collaborative research team from Kanazawa University and Kyoto University reports the successful visualization of how densely assembled macrocyclic host molec...
Some democracies are struggling to ensure safe drinking water
About two billion people—just under a quarter of the world's population—lack regular access to clean drinking water, and roughly 800,000 people annually die fro...
Multiplexed method reveals protein energy landscapes across 10 domain families
Northwestern Medicine scientists have developed a new experimental method to analyze conformational fluctuations in protein domains on a uniquely large scale, w...
Extreme Lunar conditions need an extreme test rig
When people eventually head to the moon for long-term exploration and habitation, they'll need equipment and spacesuits made of well-tested materials. That's wh...