NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is ready to perform an early stow on Tuesday, Oct. 27, of the large sample it collected last week from the surface of the asteroid Bennu to protect and return as much of the sample as possible.

An international multi-institution team of scientists has synthesized graphene nanoribbons—ultrathin strips of carbon atoms—on a titanium dioxide surface using an atomically precise method that removes a barrier for custom-designed carbon nanostructures required for quantum information sciences.

Boulder, Colo., U.S.: Floating gardens sound so idyllic. Now, a study proves that they are more than just a pretty place. The study, by researchers at Illinois State University, demonstrates that such constructed gardens can have a measurable, positive impact on water quality.

University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science researcher Shane Elipot proposes a new approach to monitoring global sea-level rise. Using the existing NOAA Global Drifter Program array of roughly 1,200 buoys that drift freely with ocean currents, Elipot suggests adding additional instruments to record their height, or the "level of the sea" they ride on, to collect...

The designers of solar cells know their creations must contend with a wide range of temperatures and all sorts of weather conditions—conditions that can impact their efficiency and useful lifetime.

A new study on genetic pathways in the common liverwort could have future implications for crop manipulation.

Introduced to the United States over 60 years ago, soybean cyst nematode (SCN) has spread broadly throughout the Midwest and eastern parts of the country. After penetrating the root tissue, SCN take nutrients away from the soybean plant and reduce plant growth and yield. These nematodes are the leading cause of soybean losses in the United States—in 2014, SCN resulted in the loss of 3.5 million...

To see wildlife in the Triangle, sometimes you need go no further than your own backyard. A new study helps explain why some animals are sometimes more often found in suburban areas than wild ones: because people are feeding them—sometimes accidentally—and to a lesser degree, providing them with shelter.

Microplastics (plastics

The San Andreas fault, which runs along the western coast of North America and crosses dense population centers like Los Angeles, California, is one of the most-studied faults in North America because of its significant hazard risk. Based on its roughly 150-year recurrence interval for magnitude 7.5 earthquakes and the fact that it's been over 300 years since that's happened, the southern San...

An international team of astronomers has gained new insights into the physical conditions prevailing in the gas tail of so-called jellyfish galaxies. They are particularly interested in the parameters that lead to the formation of new stars in the tail outside the galaxy disk. They analyzed, for example, the strength and orientation of the magnetic fields in the galaxy JO206.

Scientists led by the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, have discovered the composition of red and black inks in ancient Egyptian papyri from circa 100-200 AD, leading to a number of hypotheses about writing practices. The analysis, based on synchrotron techniques, shows that lead was probably used as a dryer rather than as a pigment,...

Caring for people's health is a prescription for protecting rainforests, slowing climate change and creating significant monetary value, according to a new Stanford-led study.

Simulations from Columbia University researchers show a slight bias toward Trump but less of a tilt than in the 2016 election.

Where are small marine animals most vulnerable to getting eaten? The answer has big consequences for coastal ecosystems, where most of the world's fishing takes place, since predators can radically change underwater communities. In a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Oct. 26, an international team of scientists sketched the first global "BiteMap" showing where...

With the tropical storm season in the Atlantic Ocean underway and already well into the Greek alphabet for naming, better storm track prediction has allowed timely evacuations and preparations. However, the formation and intensification of these storms remains challenging to predict, according to an international team of researchers who are studying the origin of tropical cyclones.

In the summer of 2018, Rob Mooney, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Limnology, set out on an epic road trip around Lake Michigan. Mooney was no stranger to the drive. In fact, he had already completed eight circuits of the lake over the previous two years as he monitored seasonal changes in dozens of rivers and streams flowing into the lake.

Bats act as reservoirs of numerous zoonotic viruses, including SARS-CoV, MERS CoV, Ebola virus and—most likely—SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen behind the ongoing pandemic. However, the molecular mechanisms bats deploy to tolerate pathogenic viruses has remained unclear.

A new study authored by Southwest Research Institute planetary scientist Dr. Tracy Becker discusses several new views of the asteroid 16 Psyche, including the first ultraviolet observations. The study, which was published today in The Planetary Science Journal and presented at the virtual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences, paints a clearer view of the...

A fast-moving wildfire forced evacuations for 60,000 people in Southern California on Monday as powerful winds across the state prompted power to be cut to hundreds of thousands to prevent utility equipment from sparking new blazes.

Scientists removed 98 so-called murder hornets from a nest discovered near the Canadian border in Washington state over the weekend, including 13 that were captured live in a net, the state Department of Agriculture said Monday.

NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.

Nanomechanics at Rice University and the University of Houston are getting ready to rev their engines for the second international Nanocar Race.

In a new study published in Politics & Policy, Deserai Crow, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of Colorado Denver in the School of Public Affairs, found significant differences in rhetoric between both party affiliation and gender. Narratives from both Republican and Democratic candidates in 48 U.S. House campaigns from the 2018 midterm election were analyzed in this study.