The wild horses roaming North Carolina's Outer Banks are known for being unpredictable and even dangerous—and this reputation only adds to the mystery why they're often seen patiently giving rides to big, gawky birds.

Northern hemisphere summers will deliver dangerously longer heatwaves, droughts and bouts of rain even if humanity manages to cap global warming at two degrees Celsius, scientists said Monday.

Every day, people are exposed to myriad chemicals, both natural and synthetic. Some of these compounds may affect human physical development, but testing them directly on people would be grossly unethical.

Recognizing a gap in care for law enforcement K-9s injured on the job, a team of veterinarians, emergency medical services experts and canine handlers has developed protocols for emergency medical service personnel who may be called upon to help treat and transport the injured dogs.

While marriage equality continues to be a big win for the LGBTQ movement since its passage in the U.S. in 2015, many activists are concerned about what's next.

Many companies are working on materials that would be as light and resistant as plastic but at the same time fully biodegradable. What if they could be made from... rubbish? A modern, ecological (waste-free—the conversion of raw material to product reaches 100%) and economical (does not require high temperatures or expensive catalysts) method of obtaining organic monomers is coming into being at...

Researchers at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering have discovered a new way to identify the state of individual cells by bringing principles of mechanical engineering and physics to bear on processes that are now well understood at the macro level, but not yet at the cellular level: how stressors such as injury and disease force an organism into a new level of equilibrium—a biological process...

About 1 in 1,000 black men and boys in America can expect to die at the hands of police, according to a new analysis of deaths involving law enforcement officers. That makes them 2.5 times more likely than white men and boys to die during an encounter with cops.

All species mark their DNA with methyl groups. This is done to regulate gene expression, distinguish indigenous DNA from foreign DNA, or to mark old DNA strands during replication. Methylation is carried out by certain enzymes called methyltransferases, which decorate DNA with methyl groups in certain patterns to create an epigenetic layer on top of DNA.

Twin beds—the end of an era in a marriage or a hygienic 'mod-con"?

If you've ever tried to swat a fly, you know that insects react to movement extremely quickly. A newly created biologically inspired compound eye is helping scientists understand how insects use their compound eyes to sense an object and its trajectory with such speed. The compound eye could also be used with a camera to create 3-D location systems for robots, self-driving cars and unmanned aerial...

Two South Carolina researchers have discovered a species of prehistoric shark, along with dozens of other fossils from prehistoric sea creatures.

Our love for steaks and burgers is contributing to rapidly exploding climate change and ironically setting up the planet to one day not have enough to eat.

Lithium fluoride crystals have recently been used to register the tracks of nuclear particles. Physicists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow have just demonstrated that these crystals are also ideal for detecting tracks of high-energy ions of elements even as heavy as iron.

Burning invasive western juniper increases the time—post-fire—that native mountain sagebrush will remain the dominant woody vegetation in the plant community by at least 44 percent compared to cutting juniper back, according to a new study in Ecology and Evolution by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their collaborators.

A new study reveals why the magma chambers that feed recurrent and often explosive volcanic eruptions tend to reside in a very narrow depth range within the Earth's crust. The findings, published in Nature Geoscience, could help scientists to better understand volcanic processes the world over.

Researchers at Columbia University have developed a way to harness more power from singlet fission to increase the efficiency of solar cells, providing a tool to help push forward the development of next-generation devices.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool are leading a new international project to investigate the curious phenomenon of 'male-killing' microbes in insects.

A new case study demonstrates the steps being taken by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) to make it easier for small businesses and entrepreneurs to understand its needs and do business with it. The detailed case study, which provides insights on the design, results, and lessons learned from these efforts, is published in New Space: The Journal of Space Entrepreneurship and...

Three Southwest Research Institute scientists contributed their groundwater management expertise to a new book about the Edwards Aquifer, the primary water source for the San Antonio area and surrounding communities. The 27-chapter memoir, titled "The Edwards Aquifer: The Past, Present and Future of a Vital Water Resource" and published by the Geological Society of America (GSA), compiles research...

A laser-driven programmable non-contact transfer printing technique via an active elastomeric micro-structured stamp, which offers continuously thermal-controlled tunable adhesion with a large switchability of more than 103 at a temperature increase below 100 °C, is developed. This innovative technique creates engineering opportunities in a wide range of applications such as flexible electronics,...

For all the advances technology has made throughout our lives, in many cases it stands behind what nature can do. Ants can carry 5000 times their weight, and spider webs are five times stronger than steel. Fuel efficiency is no different. In a new stud in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST) report new details on the proton...

After 16 years of dedicated planning and engineering, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have completed a 3.2 gigapixel sensor array for the camera that will be used in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a massive telescope that will observe the universe like never before.

National or other emissions inventories of greenhouse gases that are used to develop strategies and track progress in terms of emissions reductions for climate mitigation contain a certain amount of uncertainty, which inevitably has an impact on the decisions they inform. IIASA researchers contributed to several studies in a recently published volume that aims to enhance understanding of...