Every school child learns about the water cycle -- evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection. But what if there were a deep Earth component of this process happening on geologic timescales that makes our planet ideal for sustaining life as we know it?

Scientists have developed a new gene-therapy technique by transforming human cells into mass producers of tiny nano-sized particles full of genetic material that has the potential to reverse disease processes.

Exposure to antidepressants during pregnancy and the first weeks of life can alter sensory processing well into adulthood, according to research in mice.

Why do children develop cancer? An international team of researchers, led by Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, now reveal that mysterious rings of DNA known as extrachromosomal circular DNA can contribute to cancer development in children. Producing the first detailed map of circular DNA, the scientists have shed new unanticipated...

Contrary to common belief, blue light may not be as disruptive to our sleep patterns as originally thought -- according to scientists. According to the team, using dim, cooler, lights in the evening and bright warmer lights in the day may be more beneficial to our health.

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

A new survey of the activity of nearly 60,000 neurons in the mouse visual system reveals how far we have to go to understand how the brain computes. The analysis reveals that more than 90% of neurons in the visual cortex, the part of the brain that process our visual world, don't work the way scientists thought -- and it's not yet clear how they do work.

In what the authors believe is one of the first studies to examine climate change impact on the timing of bird migration on a continental scale, researchers report that spring migrants were likely to pass certain stops earlier now than they would have 20 years ago. Also, temperature and migration timing were closely aligned, with the greatest changes in migration timing occurring in the regions...

The results of the investigators' randomized controlled trial with more patients strengthens the evidence, showing that home hospital care reduced cost, utilization, and readmissions while increasing physical activity compared with usual hospital care.

In the first study of its kind, researchers have discovered that events from 20,000 years ago or more are still impacting the diversity and distribution of mammal species worldwide.

November 2019 was the second-hottest November for the planet in the 140-year global climate record, according to scientists at NOAA.

It's been long been believed that different personalities align better with different jobs. Large-scale evidence now exists of the distinctive personality profiles that occur across occupations and how, using social media, they can be matched to an individual for the near-perfect fit.

One of the potentially life-altering side effects that patients experience after cranial radiotherapy for brain cancer is cognitive impairment. Researchers now believe that they have pinpointed why this occurs and these findings could point the way for new therapies to protect the brain from the damage caused by radiation.

Researchers have demonstrated how kirigami-inspired techniques allow them to design thin sheets of material that automatically reconfigure into new two-dimensional (2D) shapes and three-dimensional (3D) structures in response to environmental stimuli. The researchers created a variety of robotic devices as a proof of concept for the approach.

Large, old Chinook salmon have mostly disappeared from the West Coast. A new study points to the recent rise of resident killer whales, and their insatiable appetite for large Chinook salmon, as the main driver behind the decline of the big fish.

Scientists show how bacteria can degrade solid bedrock, jump-starting a long process of alteration that creates the mineral portion of soil.

Researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind model to control traffic and intersections in order to increase autonomous car capacity on urban streets of the future, reduce congestion and minimize accidents.

A 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.

For decades, an ancient Egyptian known as Merit Ptah has been celebrated as the first female physician and a role model for women entering medicine. Yet a researcher now says she never existed and is an example of how misconceptions can spread.

A new 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.

Axons are the long thread-like extensions of neurons that send electrical signals to other brain cells. Thanks to axonal connectivity, our brains and bodies can do all necessary tasks. Even before we're born, we need axons to grow in tracts throughout gray matter and connect properly as our brains develop. Researchers have now found a key reason why connectivity goes awry and leads to rare but...

New research has shed light on the origins of spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) and demonstrates effective new therapeutic pathways for SCA7 and the more than 40 other types of spinocerebellar ataxia.

Researchers create a polymer thermal regulator that can quickly transform from a conductor to an insulator, and back again. This control of heat flow at the nanoscale opens up new possibilities in developing switchable thermal devices, solid-state refrigeration, waste heat scavenging, thermal circuits, and computing. This is the first time that this work has been demonstrated experimentally.

Transgressing one planetary boundary can amplify human impacts on another one. For the first time, an international team of scientists now quantified some of the planetary-scale interactions in the Earth system. These biophysical interactions have in fact almost doubled direct human impacts on the nine planetary boundaries, from climate change to freshwater use. This insight can now be applied in...