Engineering researchers report that they developed a new, efficient way to modulate and enhance an important type of nonlinear optical process: optical second harmonic generation -- where two input photons are combined in the material to produce one photon with twice the energy -- from hexagonal boron nitride through micromechanical rotation and multilayer stacking. Their work is the first to...

An international team of bioethicists and scientists contends it may be justified to go beyond the standing 14-day limit that restricts how long researchers can study human embryos in a dish. Going beyond this policy limit could lead to potential health and fertility benefits, and the authors provide a process for doing so.

We don't intuitively understand how to think enjoyable thoughts. But when researchers provided participants with a list of examples that were pleasant and meaningful, they enjoyed thinking 50% more than when they were instructed to think about whatever they wanted.

Volcanic eruptions, not natural variability, were the cause of an apparent 'Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation,' a purported cycle of warming thought to have occurred on a timescale of 40 to 60 years during the pre-industrial era, according to a team of climate scientists who looked at a large array of climate modeling experiments.

Researchers have recently shown superior performance of a new oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloy they developed for use in both fission and fusion reactors.

Urban Tanzanians have a more activated immune system compared to their rural counterparts. The difference in diet appears to explain this difference: in the cities, people eat a more western style diet, while in rural areas a traditional diet is more common. A team of researchers believe that this increased activity of the immune system contributes to the rapid increase in non-communicable...

With the help of about 200 human puzzle-takers, a computer model and functional MRI images, researchers have learned more about the processes of reasoning and decision making, pinpointing the brain pathway that springs into action when problem-solving goes south.

A rocky planet discovered in the Virgo constellation could change how we look for life in the universe.

Researchers took their studies of wind-turbine icing out of the lab and into the field to learn how and where ice accumulates on rotating blades. They learned ice on the blades can reduce power production by up to 80%. The field experiments also validated their experimental findings, theories and predictions.

In recent years, researchers have begun using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) not just to better understand the neural bases of psychiatric illness, but also for experimental treatment of depression, ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, substance use disorder, and schizophrenia with real-time fMRI neurofeedback. But how well does it work?

Observations of galactic rotation curves give one of the strongest lines of evidence pointing towards the existence of dark matter, a non-baryonic form of matter that makes up an estimated 85% of the matter in the observable Universe. Current assessments of galactic rotation curves are based upon a framework of Newtonian accounts of gravity, a new article suggests that if this is substituted with...

New research shows that the more animals know about each other, the more they may be able to optimize their aggression.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine show that analysis of the proteomics, or all the protein data, from aggressive human cancers is a useful approach to identify potential novel therapeutic targets.

A new study has found people who adopt unique rituals to make everyday tasks more meaningful might feel less lonely.

To succeed in mating, many male frogs sit in one place and call to their potential mates. But how do females pinpoint a perfect mate among all the background noise of other frogs? Now, researchers have found that they do it thanks to a set of lungs that reduce their eardrum's sensitivity to environmental noise, making it easier to zero in on the calls of males.

Cells called astrocytes derived from the induced pluripotent stem cells of patients with bipolar disorder offer suboptimal support for neuronal activity. This malfunction can be traced to an inflammation-promoting molecule called interleukin-6 (IL-6), which is secreted by astrocytes. The results highlight the potential role of astrocyte-mediated inflammatory signaling in the psychiatric disease,...

New research may have people heading to their backyard instead of the store at the outset of this year's mosquito season.

Western butterfly populations are declining at an estimated rate of 1.6% per year, according to a new report. The report looks at more than 450 butterfly species, including the western monarch, whose latest population count revealed a 99.9% decline since the 1980s.

As light as possible and as strong as possible at the same time. These are the requirements for modern lightweight materials, such as those used in aircraft construction and the automotive industry. A research team has now developed a new materials' design approach for future ultralight materials: Nanometer-sized metal struts that form nested networks on separate hierarchical levels provide...

Woolly mammoths may have walked the landscape at the same time as the earliest humans in what is now New England, according to a new study. Through the radiocarbon dating of a rib fragment from the Mount Holly mammoth from Mount Holly, Vt., the researchers learned that this mammoth existed approximately 12,800 years ago. This date may overlap with the arrival of the first humans in the Northeast,...

Researchers reconstructed the evolutionary history of cancer cells in two patients, tracing the timeline of the mutation that causes the disease to a cell of origin. In a 63-year-old patient, it occurred at around age 19; in a 34-year-old patient, at around age 9.

A mutation that replaces a single amino acid in a potent tumor-suppressing protein makes it prone to nucleating amyloid fibrils implicated in many cancers as well as neurological diseases.

New computer simulation forecasts a surprisingly optimistic heat load for future fusion facilities designed to harvest on Earth the fusion that powers the sun and stars to generate electricity.

Researchers examined the role and economic impacts of recommender systems, and how they affect consumers' decisions.