Mushballs—giant, slushy hailstones made from a mixture of ammonia and water—may be responsible for an atmospheric anomaly on Neptune and Uranus that has been puzzling scientists. A study presented by Tristan Guillot at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2021 shows that mushballs could be highly effective at carrying ammonia deep into the ice giants' atmospheres, hiding the gas from...

For some diseases, exposure to just a single airborne particle containing virus, bacteria or fungi can be infectious. When this happens, understanding and predicting airborne disease spread can be a whole lot easier.

New research led by the University of Kent and University of Reading has found that fruit and vegetable consumption and exercise can increase levels of happiness.

Fish can drown. While it may not seem like it, fish do require oxygen to breathe; it's just that they get what they need from the oxygen dissolved in water rather than in the air. Too little oxygen spells trouble for our finned friends, which have to move or else suffer ill effects.

Data sets that are biased by having too many genomes from people with European ancestry can still be applied to other ancestry groups to predict their risk of developing breast and prostate cancer, researchers report.

A new study finds that pancreatic cells display an adaptive response to repeated inflammation that initially protects against tissue damage but can promote tumor formation in the presence of mutant KRAS.

Inspired by a kind of tree leaf, scientists discovered that the spreading direction of different liquids deposited on the same surface can be steered, solving a challenge that has remained for over two centuries. This breakthrough could ignite a new wave of using 3D surface structures for intelligent liquid manipulation with profound implications for various scientific and industrial applications,...

In a surprising new finding in mice, researchers have discovered that many genes linked to human cancer block the body's natural defense against malignancies.

In a new article, researchers describe investigations into an enigmatic group of coral-infecting microbes.

A new method for quantifying plant evolution reveals that after the onset of early seed plants, complexity halted for 250 million years until the diversification of flowering plants about 100 million years ago.

A team of engineers and chemists has taken a major step forward in the development of microbial fuel cells -- a technology that utilizes natural bacteria to extract electrons from organic matter in wastewater to generate electrical currents.

At a time when many municipalities are seeking to control urban stormwater by investing heavily in green infrastructure -- such as water-quality ponds, infiltration basins, porous pavement and riparian plantings -- a new study suggests that these expensive efforts may not have much of an impact.

You can learn a lot about animals by simply watching them. But some secrets can only be revealed in the dark ... with an ultraviolet flashlight.

A team of researchers has developed a theory to explain how hydrodynamic electron flow could occur in 3D materials and observed it for the first time using a new imaging technique.

Scientists have reported new clues to solving a cosmic conundrum: How the quark-gluon plasma -- nature's perfect fluid -- evolved into the building blocks of matter during the birth of the early universe.

Scientists have researched the stability and development of landscapes in the Wendland region of Hanover during the past Eemian Interglacial (warm period) around 120,000 years ago. The Eemian is climatically comparable to predictions for the later 21st century. The basic research therefore serves to understand how landscapes respond to climate changes under natural conditions -- without additional...

In agriculture, large quantities of nano- and microplastics end up in the soil through compost, sewage sludge and the use of mulching foils. The plastic particles always carry various pollutants with them. However, they do not transport them into the groundwater, as is often assumed. Environmental geoscientists have now determined that the plastic particles release the pollutants in the upper soil...

In metal alloys, behavior at the atomic scale affects the material's properties. However, the number of possible alloys is astronomical. Scientists developed a theoretical model that allows him to rapidly determine the strength of millions of different alloys at high temperatures.

A Stanford-led study reveals that rather than evolving gradually over hundreds of millions of years, land plants underwent major diversification in two dramatic bursts, 250 million years apart. The first occurred early in plant history, giving rise to the development of seeds, and the second took place during the diversification of flowering plants.

In a Pearls article publishing September 16th in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens, Patrick Keeling and colleagues at the University of British Columbia in Canada describe investigations into an enigmatic group of coral-infecting microbes.

Inspired by a kind of tree leaf, scientists at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) discovered that the spreading direction of different liquids deposited on the same surface can be steered, solving a challenge that has remained for over two centuries. This breakthrough could ignite a new wave of using 3D surface structures for intelligent liquid manipulation with profound implications for various...

University promotion and tenure criteria and processes should be broadened and made more inclusive to value innovation, entrepreneurship and other forms of scholarly impact, a collaboration led by Oregon State University asserts today in a paper published in Science.

A UCLA-led team of engineers and chemists has taken a major step forward in the development of microbial fuel cells—a technology that utilizes natural bacteria to extract electrons from organic matter in wastewater to generate electrical currents. A study detailing the breakthrough was recently published in Science.