Responding to artificial intelligence's exploding demands on computer networks, researchers in recent years have radically increased the speed and slashed the energy use of specialized AI systems. Now, the researchers have moved their innovation closer to widespread use by creating co-designed hardware and software that will allow designers to blend these new types of systems into their...

The Arctic Ocean's Beaufort Sea has increased its freshwater content by 40% over the past two decades. When conditions change this freshwater will travel to the Labrador Sea off Canada, rather than through the wider marine passageways that connect to seas in Northern Europe. This has implications for local marine environments and global ocean circulation.

A new strain of the coronavirus in Southern California is rapidly spreading across the country and around the world as travelers apparently carry the virus with them to a growing list of global destinations, according to new research. The strain now accounts for nearly half of current COVID-19 cases in Southern California.

People who have had evidence of a prior infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, appear to be well protected against being reinfected with the virus, at least for a few months, according to a new study. This finding may explain why reinfection appears to be relatively rare, and it could have important public health implications.

When the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum runs out of food, sulfur limitation drives its development from a unicellular to a multicellular organism. Researchers now present the nutrient signaling pathways in this early eukaryote in great detail. Their results show how metabolism may have played a crucial role in the origins of multicellularity. Moreover, the findings also have therapeutic...

The formation of a brain is one of nature's most staggeringly complex accomplishments. The intricate intermingling of neurons and a labyrinth of connections also make it a particularly difficult feat for scientists to study. Now researchers have devised a strategy that allows them to see this previously impenetrable process unfold in a living animal -- the worm Caenorhabditis elegans.

Scientists have identified the specialized environment, known as a niche, in the bone marrow where new bone and immune cells are produced. The study also shows that movement-induced stimulation is required for the maintenance of this niche, as well as the bone and immune-forming cells that it contains. Together, these findings identify a new way that exercise strengthens bones and immune function....

In the absence of effective treatments for COVID-19, many countries have approved the therapeutic use of blood plasma from recovering patients because it contains antibodies against the coronavirus. But not every type of antibody can neutralize the virus and render it noninfectious. New research explores variation in virus neutralization capabilities, which can vary widely by type of antibody.

Researchers believe they have closed the case of what killed the dinosaurs, definitively linking their extinction with an asteroid that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago by finding a key piece of evidence: asteroid dust inside the impact crater.

The results of a new experiment could shift research of the proton by reviving previously discarded theories of its inner workings.

Politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic had a powerful influence over adherence to social distancing guidelines in the United States and why people did, or did not, comply during the lockdown days, a new study has found.

One of the most important phenomena in quantum physics is entanglement - used for quantum krypography, quantum computers and many other applications. While it is easy to create pairs of entangled photons, it is much harder to create entangled atoms in a well-defined way. This has now been made possible using an experimental setup.

A new study suggests that, while atheists and theists share moral values related to protecting vulnerable individuals, atheists are less likely to endorse values that promote group cohesion and more inclined to judge the morality of actions based on their consequences.

Scientists have made a pivotal breakthrough in the quest to understand how single-cell green algae are able to keep track of the light as they swim.

A study of spatial learning in mice shows that exposure to new experiences dampens established representations in the brain's hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, allowing the mice to learn new navigation strategies.

A new study uses different techniques to improve the investigation of fossilized dog feces.

A scientist examined 11 Mars years of image data to understand the seasonal processes that create linear gullies on the slopes of the megadune in the Russell crater on Mars.

A digital twin of our planet is being designed to simulate Earth's climate system reaching into the future. It is a tool to support policy-?makers in taking appropriate measures to better prepare for extreme events.

Researchers are using stem cell-derived organoids to study how SARS-CoV-2 interacts with various organ systems. Their findings may help explain the wide variety in COVID-19 symptoms and aid the search for therapies.

As people get older, their neural stem cells lose the ability to proliferate and produce new neurons, leading to a decline in memory function. Researchers have now discovered a mechanism linked to stem cell aging - and how the production of neurons can be reactivated.

Plants and animals can rapidly respond to changes in their environment, such as a Venus flytrap snapping shut when a fly touches it. However, replicating similar actions in soft robots requires complex mechanics and sensors. Now, researchers reporting have printed liquid metal circuits onto a single piece of soft polymer, creating an intelligent material that curls under pressure or mechanical...

In the process of developing language, the melody patterns that emerge in infants' vocalizations are a very important first step. A new study has shown that the complexity of these patterns rapidly increases in the first months.

A new fossil discovery is central to primate ancestry and adds to our understanding of how life on land recovered after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago that wiped out all dinosaurs, except for birds.

A new theoretical study has proposed a novel mechanism for the creation of supermassive black holes from dark matter. The international team find that rather than the conventional formation scenarios involving 'normal' matter, supermassive black holes could instead form directly from dark matter in high density regions in the centres of galaxies. The result has key implications for cosmology in...