Science
Scientific discoveries and research
Southern Alaska killer whales eat a remarkably diverse diet, observations reveal
Fish-eating killer whales in southern Alaska have a diverse, seasonally changing diet featuring salmon and groundfish, according to a published study in the jou...
Kelp: The planet's other forest crisis
The decline of California's kelp forests since the marine heat wave of 2013–17 has seen only minor recovery despite heroic efforts at restoration carried out by...
Southern California air board rejected pollution rules after AI-generated flood of comments
The opposition appeared overwhelming: Tens of thousands of emails poured into Southern California's top air pollution authority as its board weighed a June prop...
Fast-paced lives demand faster vision: Ecology shapes how 'quickly' animals see time
Animals don't just see the world differently from one another, they experience time itself at dramatically different speeds. That is according to a new study th...
Global warming and heat stress risk close in on the Tour de France
The progressive rise in temperatures poses a growing threat to the staging of summer sporting events in Europe and, more specifically, to the Tour de France, du...
How bacteria can reclaim lost energy, nutrients and clean water from wastewater
Wastewater contains untapped resources that, if reclaimed, could power agriculture, global sanitation, and its own treatment to help us meet UN SDG goals, accor...
New technology reveals hidden DNA scaffolding built before life 'switches on'
For decades, scientists viewed the genome of a newly fertilized egg as a structural "blank slate"—a disordered tangle of DNA waiting for the embryo to wake up a...
For Northeast blizzard, everything was just right to roll up a monster snowfall
The nor'easter smacking much of the Northeast with nearly 3 feet of snow in places is as classic and powerful a blizzard as you can get, the strongest in a deca...
Image: Curiosity rover surveys boxwork region of Mars
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this panorama of boxwork formations—the low ridges seen here with hollows in between them—using its Mastcam on Sept. 26, 20...
Probability underlies much of the modern world—an engineering professor explains how it actually works
Probability underpins AI, cryptography and statistics. However, as the philosopher Bertrand Russell said, "Probability is the most important concept in modern s...
Staple crops are a major contributor to global deforestation, says study
Rice, maize, and cassava crops cumulatively account for approximately 11% of total global deforestation—exceeding that of cocoa, coffee, and rubber—according to...
Sunlight-powered process turns plastic waste into acetic acid without added emissions
Researchers at the University of Waterloo have discovered a way to turn plastic waste into acetic acid, the main ingredient of vinegar, using sunlight. The brea...