Russia's capital Moscow, which for the past months has largely been deprived of its traditional seasonal covering of snow, has seen its warmest winter since records began, the state weather service said on Saturday.

Consumerist mecca New York targets its throwaway culture this weekend with a ban on single-use plastic bags that has been years in the making and is still rare in America.

A study out of Mississippi State University evaluated the impact insect pest management strategies have on the economic return of small-scale tomato production. The results of this evaluation are published in the article "Economic Effect of Insect Pest Management Strategies on Small-scale Tomato Production in Mississippi" in the open access online journal HortTechnology.

Turbulence is everywhere—it rattles our planes and makes tiny whirlpools in our bathtubs—but it is one of the least understood phenomena in classical physics.

If new and promising semiconductor materials are to make it into our phones, computers, and other increasingly capable electronics, researchers must obtain greater control over how those materials function.

Betelgeuse has been the center of significant media attention lately. The red supergiant is nearing the end of its life, and when a star over 10 times the mass of the Sun dies, it goes out in spectacular fashion. With its brightness recently dipping to the lowest point in the last hundred years, many space enthusiasts are excited that Betelgeuse may soon go supernova, exploding in a dazzling...

Humans began developing a complex culture as early as the Stone Age. This development was brought about by social interactions between various groups of hunters and gatherers, a UZH study has now confirmed. The researchers mapped the social networks of present-day hunter-gatherers in the Philippines and simulated the discovery of a medicinal plant product.

Ultrafast, multidimensional spectroscopy unlocks macroscopic-scale effects of quantum electronic correlations.

Far-flung Uranus and Neptune—the ice giants of our solar system—are as mysterious as they are distant. Soon after its launch in 2021, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will change that by unlocking secrets of the atmospheres of both planets.

The all-optical switch is a kind of device that controls light with light, which is the fundamental building block of modern optical communications and information processing. Creating an efficient, ultrafast, and compact all-optical switch has been recognized as the key step for the developments of next-generation optical and quantum computing. In principle, photons don't interact with one...

Coherent light sources are one of the most crucial foundations in both scientific disciplines and advanced applications. As a prominent platform, ultrahigh-Q whispering-gallery mode (WGM) microcavities have witnessed significant developments of novel light sources. However, the intrinsic chiral symmetry of WGM microcavity geometry and the resulting equivalence between the two directions of laser...

Using microscopic video analysis, a research group from Kumamoto University, Japan has provided deeper insight into the mechanics of plant cell division. The video reveals that the shape of phragmoplasts—cell structures that create the partition between two dividing plant cells—is controlled by actin filaments.

The study, led by the University of York, found evidence for a period of enhanced pre-industrial sea-level rise of about two to three millimetres per year in three locations: Nova Scotia, Maine and Connecticut.

The spatial arrangement of genetic material within the cell nucleus plays an important role in the development of an organism. A research team from the University of Basel, in collaboration with scientists from Harvard University, has developed a method to trace the chromosomes in individual cells. Using this method, they have now been able to demonstrate that chromosomes reorganize during...

A 475-km-long dam between the north of Scotland and the west of Norway and another one of 160 km between the west point of France and the southwest of England could protect more than 25 million Europeans against the consequences of an expected sea level rise of several metres over the next few centuries. The costs, 250-500 billion euros, are 'merely' 0.1% of the gross national product, annually...

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg, the RWTH Aachen University (both in Germany) and the Flatiron institute in the U.S. have revealed that the possibilities created by stacking two sheets of atomically thin material atop each other at a twist are even greater than expected.

Biofuel is often touted as a clean fuel, but the fact that it is made using food sources is a major drawback. To address this issue, there has been continuous research on the development of second-generation biofuels using lignocellulosic biomass.

Proteins denature, or "cook" in heat, irreversibly changing their structure, like how an egg boils or a slab of sirloin turns to steak. This prevents proteins from being used in applications where they would need to withstand heat. Scientists have had high expectations for proteins to be used in nanotechnology and synthetic biology. A new hyperstable artificial protein constructed at Shinshu...

Methane is a gas that deserves more attention in the climate debate as it contributes to almost half of human-made global warming in the short-term. A new IIASA study shows that it is possible to significantly contribute to reduced global warming through the implementation of available technology that limits methane release to the atmosphere.

A research team has uncovered a genetic signature that enables cells to adapt their protein production according to their state. The researchers of the University of Basel's Biozentrum report in Genome Biology that this newly discovered mechanism plays a role in the regulation of protein production during cell division.

Engineers from Far Eastern Federal University Military Training Center (FEFU, Vladivostok, Russia) together with colleagues from RUDN University have developed a concrete mixture with nano additives for monolithic construction up to ten stories high. The concrete casting is possible within a very humid climate and negative temperature down to minus 5-degrees centigrade. Given that, the constructed...

Researchers have discovered how a notorious pathogen may have hijacked one of nature's most enduring mutual relationships.

Cells can both survive and multiply under more stress than previously thought, shows research from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

Itokawa would normally be a fairly average near-Earth asteroid—a rocky mass measuring only a few hundred metres in diameter, which orbits the sun amid countless other celestial bodies and repeatedly crosses the orbit of the Earth. But there is one fact that sets Itokawa apart: in 2005 it hosted a visit from Earth. The Japanese space agency JAXA sent the Hayabusa probe to Itokawa, which collected...