Science
Scientific discoveries and research
Atomic step–terrace ordering enables unprecedented precision in mechanical testing
As modern technologies shrink to the nanoscale, surfaces increasingly dictate how materials deform, yield, and fail. Yet probing this regime has long been hinde...
A hidden lubricant in creeping faults? Uncovering the mysteries of aseismic slip
Geological faults hold many secrets that may help us answer important questions about the nature of our planet and what really happens deep underground. One of...
Gold nanoparticles that behave like a liquid open path to adaptive materials
When inorganic nanoparticles come together, their optical, electronic, and magnetic properties depend strongly on how they are arranged. Being able to reorganiz...
How the world's missing beetles could save the rainforest
Describing new species can take decades. But scientists are working to identify new ways to speed up our understanding of this hidden biodiversity. By looking a...
Molecular grappling hooks improve cancer drug targeting and effectiveness
Medications are designed to treat diseased tissues while sparing healthy ones, often by attaching the drug to something that helps guide it directly to its targ...
Strange 500-million-year-old marine fossils reveal a feeding strategy that still shapes oceans today
More than 500 million years ago, during what is known as the Cambrian period, the seas and oceans on Earth were filled with a myriad of marine animals, many of...
Atomic bands in two transition metal dichalcogenides hint at long-theorized quantum state
Insulators are materials in which electrons cannot move freely. Past theoretical studies predicted the existence of an unusual insulating state dubbed obstructe...
Amazon's carbon clock is speeding up, and violent storms may be only part of why
Tropical forests store more than 60% of the world's vegetation biomass and are among the most important ecosystems for regulating the global carbon cycle and cl...
After winter storms, fires now threaten Portugal's forests
In a forest of pine and eucalyptus trees in central Portugal, chainsaws and diggers hum away clearing paths blocked by trees uprooted in winter storms, but the...
Ten years on, the Nagoya Protocol on sharing genetic resources is still confusing scientists—guidance now available
More than a decade after the Nagoya Protocol, which aims to fairly share the benefits of utilizing genetic resources, became law, microbiologists and other scie...
The cinema effect: Turning films into a gateway to science
The sci-fi film Project Hail Mary, currently in theaters, is capturing the attention of both audiences and the scientific community for its science-based conten...
Image: Australia's cloudy beauty
It's autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, which means it's fog season in the Victorian Alps. NASA's Terra satellite captured this view of morning fog filling vall...