Many quantum materials have been nearly impossible to simulate mathematically because the computing time required is too long. Now engineers have demonstrated a way to considerably reduce the computing time. This could accelerate the development of materials for energy-efficient IT technologies of the future.

Two different types of detectable antibody responses in SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) tell very different stories and may indicate ways to enhance public health efforts against the disease, according to researchers.

Computer scientists have shown that existing compilers, which tell quantum computers how to use their circuits to execute quantum programs, inhibit the computers' ability to achieve optimal performance. Specifically, their research has revealed that improving quantum compilation design could help achieve computation speeds up to 45 times faster than currently demonstrated.

Nature's blueprint for the human limb is a carefully layered structure with stiff bone wrapped in layers of different soft tissue, like muscle and skin, all bound to each other perfectly. Achieving this kind of sophistication using synthetic materials to build biologically inspired robotic parts or multicomponent, complex machines has been an engineering challenge.

Children with autism born to mothers who had immune conditions during their pregnancy are more likely to have behavioral and emotional problems, a new study has found. Offspring sex may also interact with maternal immune conditions to influence outcomes, particularly in terms of a child's cognition.

Researchers have developed artificial intelligence software for powder bed 3D printers that assesses the quality of parts in real time, without the need for expensive characterization equipment.

If you could dive down to the ocean floor nearly 540 million years ago just past the point where waves begin to break, you would find an explosion of life -- scores of worm-like animals and other sea creatures tunneling complex holes and structures in the mud and sand -- where before the environment had been mostly barren.

A new design for light-emitting diodes achieves a dramatic increase in brightness as well as the ability to create laser light -- characteristics that could make it valuable in a range of applications. The device shows an increase in brightness of 100 to 1,000 times over conventional submicron-sized LED designs.

A new study challenges a decades-old hypothesis on adaptation, a key feature in how sensory cells of the inner ear (hair cells) detect sound.

Almost all life on Earth, e.g. our food and health, depend on metabolism in plants. To understand how these metabolic processes function, researchers are studying key mechanisms in the regulation of energy metabolism. A new method of in vivo biosensor technology has enabled them to monitor in real time what effects environmental changes have on the central metabolism of the model plant Arabidopsis...

Volcanic eruptions in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest over the last 2.6 million years are more numerous and closely connected to subsurface signatures of currently active magma than commonly thought, according to newly publish research.

Research has determined that locusts can smell explosives and determine where the smells originated -- an important step in engineering cyborg bomb-sniffing locusts.

Bird biodiversity is rapidly declining in the US. The overall bird population decreased by 29% since 1970, while grassland birds declined by an alarming 53%. A new study points to increased use of neonicotinoid insecticides as a major factor in the decline.

While many programs and initiatives have been implemented to address the prevalence of substance abuse among homeless youth in the United States, they don't always include data-driven insights about environmental and psychological factors that could contribute to an individual's likelihood of developing a substance use disorder. Now, an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm could help predict...

Pregnant women from sub-Saharan Africa with malaria and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have a higher prevalence of anemia than pregnant women without infections, according to researchers. The findings may have implications for reducing the risk of death in pregnant women and preventing low birth weights and neurocognitive impairment in their children as a result of anemia.

Researchers using a high-speed camera have captured the moments a fluid reacts like a solid, through a new method of fluid observation under pressurized conditions. They examined fluids that have a solid-like response to stress, a phenomenon called Discontinuous Shear Thickening (DST). This is when liquid abruptly thickens and becomes solid when disturbed. DST is being researched for engineering...

Fungal spores responsible for bitter rot disease, a common and devastating infection in fruit, do not encounter their host plants by chance. Turns out, they have a symbiotic association with the plant, often living inside its leaves. The new way of looking at the fungal pathogen, Colletotrichum fioriniae, as a leaf endophyte -- bacterial or fungal microorganisms that colonize healthy plant tissue...

Researchers have identified a set of modifiable factors from a field of over 100 that could represent valuable targets for preventing depression in adults. The team named social connection as the strongest protective factor for depression, and suggested that reducing sedentary activities such as TV watching and daytime napping could also help lower the risk of depression.

A special type of aurora, draped east-west across the night sky like a glowing pearl necklace, is helping scientists better understand the science of auroras and their powerful drivers out in space.

Researchers found that image-processing circuits in the primary visual cortex not only are more active when animals move freely, but that they receive signals from a movement-controlling region of the brain that is independent from the region that processes what the animal is looking at.

Researchers present analysis of the highest quality ancient Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome to date, suggesting the pathogen is much younger than previously believed.

Researchers in South Africa's Border Cave have found evidence that people have been using grass bedding to create comfortable areas for sleeping and working on at least 200,000 years ago.

New research delineates how two relatively common variations in a gene called KIF3A are responsible for an impaired skin barrier that allows increased water loss from the skin, promoting the development of atopic dermatitis, commonly known as eczema. This finding could lead to genetic tests that empower parents and physicians to take steps to potentially protect vulnerable infants from developing...

A new study finds that changes in weight between young adulthood and midlife may have important consequences for a person's risk of early death.