Permanent magnets akin to those used on refrigerators could speed the development of fusion energy—the same energy produced by the sun and stars.

Conserving natural habitat around strawberry fields can help protect growers' yields, their bottom line and the environment with no detectable threat to food safety, indicates a study led by the University of California, Davis.

Researchers in the Schroeder and Moore groups at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have published a new study that illustrates how changes in the polymer sequence affect charge transport properties. This work required the ability to build and study chain molecules with high levels of precision.

Scientists agree that sea levels will continue to rise this century, but projections beyond 2050 are much more uncertain regarding exactly how much higher ocean levels will be by 2100. While actions to protect against 2050 sea-level rise have a secure scientific basis, this range in late-century estimates makes it difficult for coastal communities to plan their long-term adaptation strategies.

Using data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), researchers have found more than 300 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), minor planets located in the far reaches of the solar system, including more than 100 new discoveries. Published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, the study also describes a new approach for finding similar types of objects and could aid future searches for the...

Just as there is a mysterious dark matter that accounts for 85 percent of our universe, there is a "dark" portion of the human genome that has perplexed scientists for decades. A study published March 9, 2020, in Genome Research identifies new portions of the fruit fly genome that, until now, have been hidden in these dark, silent areas.

When it comes to feeding on pollen, honeybees and bumblebees are generalists. They like a buffet of choices—except when it comes to pollen from flowers of the genus Cucurbita, including squash and pumpkin, which they avoid.

The techniques Theodore Biewer and his colleagues are using to measure whether plasma has the right conditions to create fusion have been around awhile.

Finding a method for large scale, inexpensive transformation of methane into methanol is like turning lead into gold, according to Tom Cundari, a Regents Professor of chemistry at the University of North Texas.

Just over 15 years since a couple of researchers in the U.K. used adhesive tape to isolate single atomic layers of carbon, known as graphene, from a chunk of graphite, their Nobel Prize-winning discovery has fueled a revolution in ultrathin materials R&D.

A new Simon Fraser University-led study looking at the effects that glacier retreat will have on western North American Pacific salmon predicts that while some salmon populations may struggle, others may benefit.

A team from the Research Group in Mediterranean Social Archaeology (ASOME) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has led an international study to reconstruct the diet of the El Argar society of the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula (2220-1550 BCE) and distinguish the subsistence strategies of the populations of this archaeological complex. Published in PLOS ONE, the study was conducted...

Researchers at the University of Bristol are pioneering the use of virtual reality (VR) as a tool to design the next generation of drug treatments.

During the Middle Jurassic Period, the Isle of Skye in Scotland was home to a thriving community of dinosaurs that stomped across the ancient coastline, according to a study published March 11, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Paige dePolo and Stephen Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and colleagues.

In the kelp forests of Tierra del Fuego, at the southernmost tip of South America, the relative abundance of kelp, sea urchins, and sea stars has not changed significantly since 1973. Alan Friedlander of the National Geographic Society's Pristine Seas project and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on March 11, 2020.

Researchers at Louisiana State University have discovered a new species of shrew, which they have named the hairy-tailed shrew, or Crocidura caudipilosa.

One bayou meanders toward downtown Houston. The other runs in parallel to the south, much of it through a concrete channel.

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over the Southern Indian Ocean and provided forecasters with a visible image of newly formed Tropical Storm 21S.

Physicists have been trying to observe the Kondo cloud quantum phenomenon for many decades. An international research team including a scientist from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has recently developed a novel device that successfully measures the length of the Kondo cloud and even allows for controlling it. The findings can be regarded as a milestone in condensed matter physics, and may...

The discovery of a small, bird-like skull, described in an article published in Nature, reveals a new species, Oculudentavis khaungraae, that could represent the smallest known Mesozoic dinosaur in the fossil record.

Researchers using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) have observed an extreme planet where they suspect it rains iron. The ultra-hot giant exoplanet has a day side where temperatures climb above 2400 degrees Celsius, high enough to vaporise metals. Strong winds carry iron vapour to the cooler night side where it condenses into iron droplets.

Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reveal how microorganisms could survive in rocks nestled thousands of feet beneath the ocean floor in the lower oceanic crust, in a study published on March 11 in Nature. The first analysis of messenger RNA—genetic material containing instructions for making different proteins—from this remote region of Earth, coupled with measurements of...

A happy accident in the laboratory has led to a breakthrough discovery that not only solved a problem that stood for more than half a century, but has major implications for the development of quantum computers and sensors.In a study published today in Nature, a team of engineers at UNSW Sydney has done what a celebrated scientist first suggested in 1961 was possible, but has eluded everyone...

Changes to the vegetation cover of land surfaces constitutes the biggest cause of increasing carbon dioxide emissions after the use of fossil fuels. Particularly in Africa, forests and bushland are continuously cleared for the requirements of farming and food security. The climate effects of forest loss have been extensively investigated, but now new information on the significance of bushlands in...