A multidisciplinary group of engineers and scientists has discovered a new method for water filtration that could have implications for a variety of technologies, such as desalination plants, breathable and protective fabrics, and carbon capture in gas separations. The research team, led by Manish Kumar in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, published their...

Dozens of people in Houston potentially were exposed to the toxic metal mercury after it was spilled outside a Walmart, a Sonic Drive-In and a gas station, officials said. Federal and local investigators were trying to determine if the spills were intentional. Fire Chief Sam Pena said up to 60 people were asked to take decontamination showers and a pregnant woman was taken to a hospital as a...

Exposure to underwater pile driving noise, which can be associated with the construction of docks, piers, and offshore wind farms, causes squid to exhibit strong alarm behaviors, according to a study by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) researchers published Dec. 16, 2019, in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.

NOAA-NASA's Suomi NPP satellite flew over the New South Wales fires in Australia on December 16, 2019 and found devastation from the ongoing fires. The New South Wales Rural Fire Service is reporting 96 fires are burning and to date the size of the area burned is 1.5 times the size of the state of Connecticut (approximately 5.3 million acres of land). These fires are largely the result of an...

A University of Minnesota research team recently developed new methods that will make it significantly faster to produce gene-edited plants. They hope to alleviate a long-standing bottleneck in gene editing and, in the process, make it easier and faster to develop and test new crop varieties with two new approaches described in a paper recently published in Nature Biotechnology.

The river may rage or gently roll, but in the end the sand and silt will have their way.

Northwestern University synthetic biologists developed a simple, inexpensive new test that can detect dangerous levels of fluoride in drinking water.

An Oregon State University chemistry researcher who made history a decade ago with the accidental discovery of the first new blue inorganic pigment in more than two centuries is again pushing forward the science of color.

There's a galaxy of gifts out there for space nerds. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin may have just the thing to set your present apart: a model of Jezero Crater, the landing site of NASA's upcoming Mars 2020 Rover mission, that you can 3-D print yourself.

A new MIT study examines the opposing roles of natural gas in the battle against climate change—as a bridge toward a lower-emissions future, but also a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

As carriers for diseases like dengue and Zika, mosquitoes kill more than 1 million people each year and sicken hundreds of millions more. But a better understanding of mosquito reproduction can help humans combat outbreaks of these diseases, which are worsening as the climate warms.

Gold nanoparticles, which are supposed to be stable in biological environments, can be degraded inside cells. This research, conducted by teams from the CNRS, l'Université de Paris, Sorbonne Université, and l'Université de Strasbourg, will be published in PNAS on December 16, 2019, and reveals the ability of cells to metabolize gold, which is not essential for their functioning. This study...

Research published this week by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists shows how bacteria can degrade solid bedrock, jump-starting a long process of alteration that creates the mineral portion of soil.

Killer whales prefer to eat only the biggest, juiciest Chinook salmon they can find. The larger the fish, the more energy a whale can get for its meal.

During a chemical reaction, the molecules involved in the reaction gain energy until they reach a "point of no return" known as a transition state.

Research on global biodiversity has long assumed that present-day biodiversity patterns reflect present-day factors, namely contemporary climate and human activities. A new study shows that climate changes and human impacts over the last 100,000 years continue to shape patterns of tropical and subtropical mammal biodiversity today—a surprising finding.

Researchers led by the University of Manchester have designed a catalyst that converts biomass into fuel sources with remarkably high efficiency and offers new possibilities for manufacturing advanced renewable materials.

Hydrogels for healing, synthesized from the molecules up by Rice University bioengineers, are a few steps closer to the clinic.

Artificial Intelligence may be just the thing to accelerate spray-on solar cell technology, which could revolutionize how consumers use energy.

New research co-written by a University of Illinois expert in consumer behavior and global marketing explores why certain segments of consumers prefer national or global brands over their less-pricey private-label equivalents, and the managerial and marketing implications of those choices.

In an article published in Physical Review Letters, Bristol scientists have answered the fundamental question: "Is it possible to move without exerting force on the environment?", by describing the tractionless self-propulsion of active matter.

Electrons with 'colleagues'—other leptons—are one of many products of collisions observed in the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. According to theorists, some of these particles may be created in processes that extend beyond standard physics. The latest analysis verifies these predictions.

At first glance, Garra surinbinnani looks like a stout, brown minnow with the face of a boxer who's gone one too many rounds. But the deep gash in its forehead studded with blue spikes is a natural feature whose function remains a mystery.

A team of scientists from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) studied the evolutionary ages of human genes and identified a new class of them expressed in tumors—tumor specifically expressed, evolutionarily novel (TSEEN) genes. This confirms the team's earlier theory about the evolutionary role of neoplasms.