For the first time ever, a research team has peered inside a human cell to view Mediator-bound pre-initiation complex, a multi-subunit machine responsible for regulating gene expression.

Using the same principles that make polarized sunglasses possible, a team of researchers at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico have developed a technique that will help better defend against asteroids on a collision course with Earth. A new study in The Planetary Science Journal found a better way to interpret radar signals bounced off asteroids' surfaces.

Breast cancer is harmful enough on its own, but when cancer cells start to metastasize -- or spread into the body from their original location -- the disease becomes even more fatal and difficult to treat.

Grass pollen is a major outdoor allergen, responsible for widespread and costly respiratory conditions including allergic asthma and hay fever (rhinitis). Now, researchers suggest that environmental DNA could help to better understand which grasses are the worst offenders.

A new study demonstrates that machine-learning strategies can be applied to routinely collected physiological data, such as heart rate and blood pressure, to provide clues about pain levels in people with sickle cell disease.

Every year, a new growth layer is added to the narwhal's spiralled tusk. The individual layers act as an archive of data that reveals what and where the animal has eaten, providing a glimpse of how the ice and environmental conditions have changed over its long life span (up to 50 years).

Insights into how bacterial proteins work as a network to take control of our cells could help predict infection outcomes and develop new treatments.

Adding the triglyceride-lowering medication icosapent ethyl cut the risk of a first stroke by an additional 36% in patients already taking statin medications to treat high cholesterol. In previous research, icosapent ethyl reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events. The prescription medication is a highly purified form of an omega-3 fatty acid. The study's results do not apply to supplements...

Mexican wolves in the American Southwest disappeared more quickly during periods of relaxed legal protections, almost certainly succumbing to poaching, according to new research.

Fossil sites sometimes resemble a living room table on which half a dozen different jigsaw puzzles have been dumped: It is often difficult to say which bone belongs to which animal. Researchers have now presented a method that allows a more certain answer to this question.

An enzyme called MARK2 has been identified as a key stress-response switch in cells in a new study.

A new solvent captures carbon dioxide from power plants for as little as $47.10 per metric ton, marking a significant milestone in the journey to lower the cost of carbon capture.

After solving the elusive 'Diophantine equation' for 42, mathematicians have discovered a new solution for 3.

By binding borophene with atomic hydrogen, researchers have created borophane -- a version of atomically thin boron that is stable at standard temperatures and air pressures.

A new study finds that although human and non-human primate vocalizations facilitate core cognitive processes in very young human infants, birdsong does not.

Engineers describe the creation of a new class of mechanical metamaterials that delocalize deformations to prevent failure. They did so by turning to tensegrity, a century-old design principle in which isolated rigid bars are integrated into a flexible mesh of tethers to produce very lightweight, self-tensioning truss structures.

How do you turn 'dumb' headphones into smart ones? Engineers have invented a cheap and easy way by transforming headphones into sensors that can be plugged into smartphones, identify their users, monitor their heart rates and perform other services. Their invention, called HeadFi, is based on a small plug-in headphone adapter that turns a regular headphone into a sensing device.

New nanoprobes tested in zebrafish could help detect cancer more accurately and might aid diagnosis and therapy in the future.

Electric stimulation may be able to help blood vessels carry white blood cells and oxygen to wounds, speeding healing, a new study suggests.

The weathering of silicate rocks plays an important role to keep the climate on Earth clement. Scientists investigated the general principles of this process. Their results could influence how we interpret the signals from distant worlds - including such that may hint towards life.

These findings clearly demonstrate how the cooperative areas of the brain responsible for reading skill are also at work during apparently unrelated activities, such as multiplication, suggest that reading, writing and arithmetic, the foundational skills informally identified as the three Rs, might actually overlap in ways not previously imagined, let alone experimentally validated.

New research could help lay the groundwork for future quantum communication networks and large-scale quantum computers.

Millions of people die prematurely every year from diseases and cancer caused by air pollution. The first line of defence against this carnage is ambient air quality standards. Yet, according to new research, over half of the world's population lives without the protection of adequate air quality standards.

Does a warmer climate mean more dry land? For years, researchers projected that drylands -- including deserts, savannas and shrublands -- will expand as the planet warms, but new research challenges those prevailing views.