V404 Cygni: Huge rings around a black hole
This image features a spectacular set of rings around a black hole, captured using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. The X-ray images of the giant rings reveal information about dust located in our galaxy, using a similar principle to the X-rays performed in doctor's offices and airports.
'Critical situation' as fires rage in Greece
"It's a very sad moment," said a villager in Evia who had to evacuate as a violent fire ravages the Greek island, one of dozens of blazes that have torn through the country this week in the worst heatwave in over three decades.
Family values outweigh politics in US Latinos' climate beliefs
For many in the U.S., human-caused climate change is a political tug-of-war between the left and the right. But for Latinos in this country, the issue hits much closer to home.
Decades of research bring quantum dots to brink of widespread use
A new article in Science magazine gives an overview of almost three decades of research into colloidal quantum dots, assesses the technological progress for these nanometer-sized specs of semiconductor matter, and weighs the remaining challenges on the path to widespread commercialization for this promising technology with applications in everything from TVs to highly efficient sunlight...
Control of the US Senate: What does history tell us about how much it affects legislative policymaking?
With the U.S. Senate evenly split between the Republican and Democratic caucuses—something that's only happened three other times—two political science scholars at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences were inspired to study one of those periods. Their research regarding the Senate during the 1953–54 session of Congress, published in the American Political Science Review,...
Doctoral candidate helps guide research to support future coral conservation
Serena Hackerott is giving coral researchers a much-needed beacon of hope for the future of coral restoration and conservation.
Research illuminates language of fireflies
A small flickering at dusk near the trees, a pinprick of light rising from the ground—fireflies bring an air of magic and wonder to long summer evenings. The twinkling conversation between beetles is commonly associated with mating patterns; and new data explains how swarms are able to achieve this communication.
Survey suggests climate change has reduced the presence of invasive Argentine ants
In 1993, Stanford University biology professor Deborah Gordon and her first graduate student, Katy Human, began a survey of ants at Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Nearly 30 years, four more graduate students and scores of volunteers later, that survey continues on—and has recently yielded a surprising result.
Massive ancient lake across prairies emptied quickly enough to set off an ice age, study suggests
A flood of epic proportions drained at a rate of more than 800 Olympic swimming pools per second from a glacial lake that spanned the Prairie provinces more than 12,000 years ago, according to a University of Alberta-led study.
Now how did that get up there? New study sheds light on development and evolution of dolphin, whale blowholes
Modern cetaceans—which include dolphins, whales and porpoises—are well adapted for aquatic life. They have blubber to insulate and fins to propel and steer. Today's cetaceans also sport a unique type of nasal passage: It rises at an angle relative to the roof of the mouth—or palate—and exits at the top of the head as a blowhole.
Venom has contributed to the species diversity of insects and fishes, new study reveals
The extraordinary diversity of insects and fishes, the most species-rich invertebrate and vertebrate groups in the animal kingdom, is partly due to the origin of venom, a new study of their evolution has revealed.
This quantum crystal could be a new dark matter sensor
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have linked together, or "entangled," the mechanical motion and electronic properties of a tiny blue crystal, giving it a quantum edge in measuring electric fields with record sensitivity that may enhance understanding of the universe.
Leaping squirrels! Parkour is one of their many feats of agility
Videos of squirrels leaping from bendy branches across impossibly large gaps, parkouring off walls, scrambling to recover from tricky landings.
Corn's genetic diversity on display in new genome study
The newly assembled genomes of 26 different genetic lines of corn illustrate the crop's rich genetic diversity and could pave the way for a better understanding of what genetic mechanisms account for crop traits prized by farmers.
New process yields more, purer RNA at a fraction of the cost
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently unveiled their discovery of a new process for making RNA. The resulting RNA is purer, more copious and likely to be more cost-effective than any previous process could manage. This new technique removes the largest stumbling block on the path to next-generation RNA therapeutic drugs.
Far out: Why political parties go to extremes
The established view is that in a two-party representative democracy, political parties should target the average voter if they want to be re-elected. So why do some political systems become polarized, rather than remain in the center?
Helping India's smallholder farmers
To help smallholder farmers in India—farmers who own farms less than five acres in size—simply planting more crops is not enough, on its own, to provide year-round nutrition and the necessary food security.
Dryer, warmer night air is making some Western wildfires more active at night
Firefighters have reported that Western wildfires are starting earlier in the morning and dying down later at night, hampering their ability to recover and regroup before the next day's flareup.
Lidar network has potential to track wildfire pollutants across the continent
Residents of London are more than a thousand kilometers from raging wildfires in northwestern Ontario and Manitoba—but the fires' impact on air quality was evident.
How to preserve firm value during mergers and acquisitions
Researchers from San Diego State University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and University of Georgia published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that shows that customer dissatisfaction with M&As can negate any gains in synergy and efficiency.
Need to change careers? This AI tool can help
Car manufacturing workers, long haul airline pilots, coal workers, shop assistants—many employees are forced to undertake the difficult and sometimes distressing challenge of finding a new occupation quickly due to technological and economic change, or crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
A major challenge to harvesting fusion energy on Earth
A key challenge for scientists striving to produce on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars is preventing what are called runaway electrons, particles unleashed in disrupted fusion experiments that can bore holes in tokamaks, the doughnut-shaped machines that house the experiments. Scientists led by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics...
Wildfire levels historic California town as residents flee blaze
The largest wildfire in California has razed a small town in the state's parched northeast, warping street lights and destroying historic buildings hours after residents were ordered to flee.
Women, early-career academics more likely to feel like 'impostors' in disciplines that prize brilliance
The more an academic discipline is perceived to require raw talent or "brilliance" for success, the more both women and early-career academics feel professionally inadequate—like "impostors"—finds a new study of U.S. academics by a team of psychology researchers.
Privacy and security perceptions of online education proctoring services
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions have had to quickly transition to remote learning and exam taking. This has led to an increase in the use of online proctoring services to curb student cheating, including restricted browser modes, video/screen monitoring, local network traffic analysis and eye tracking.