A lidar mapping study using a cutting-edge aerial mapping technology shows ancient residents of Teotihuacan moved astonishing quantities of soil and bedrock for construction and reshaped the landscape in a way that continues to influence the contours of modern activities in this part of Mexico. The work is published in the open-access journal, PLOS One.

New research from the Cornell College of Engineering aims to ease the process of chemical recycling—an emerging industry that could turn waste products back into natural resources by physically breaking plastic down into the smaller molecules it was originally produced from.

Archeological finds show that people in the Arctic regions of Northwestern Siberia had already established long-range trading links with Eurasian populations some 2000 years ago. The initiation of trading relationships was one of a series of significant social changes that took place during this period. Moreover, these changes even had an impact on the genomes of Siberian dogs, as an international...

When it comes time for NASA's Psyche spacecraft to power itself through deep space, it'll be more brain than brawn that does the work. Once the stuff of science fiction, the efficient and quiet power of electric propulsion will provide the force that propels the Psyche spacecraft all the way to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The orbiter's target: A metal-rich asteroid also called...

Researchers at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research have discovered a bacterial enzyme that they say could expand scientists' CRISPR toolkit, making it easy to cut and edit RNA with the kind of precision that, until now, has only been available for DNA editing. The enzyme, called Cas7-11, modifies RNA targets without harming cells, suggesting that in addition to being a valuable research...

Coral reefs all over the world, already threatened by rising temperatures brought about by climate change, also face serious challenges from the possibility of fish species extinctions. According to a paper out today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the networks of predator fish and their prey found on coral reefs all over the world are remarkably similar, and those predator...

With lower barriers to entry and no traditional gatekeepers, online platforms offer a promise of broader participation by and equity for female scientists, with the potential to serve as an equalizer for researchers who encounter bias throughout the publishing process and at every stage of their careers.

Water is essential for life on Earth and other planets, and scientists have found ample evidence of water in Mars' early history. But Mars has no liquid water on its surface today. New research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests a fundamental reason: Mars may be just too small to hold onto large amounts of water.

Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse, complex and productive ecosystems on the planet. Most of coral reef biodiversity consists of tiny organisms living deep within the three-dimensional reef matrix. Although largely unseen, this diversity is essential to the survival and function of coral reef ecosystems, and many have worried that climate change will lead to dramatic loss of this...

A team of physicists at CU Boulder has solved the mystery behind a perplexing phenomenon in the nano realm: why some ultra-small heat sources cool down faster if you pack them closer together. The findings, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could one day help the tech industry design faster electronic devices that overheat less.

Hot on the heels of proving an 87-year-old prediction that matter can be generated directly from light, Rice University physicists and their colleagues have detailed how that process may impact future studies of primordial plasma and physics beyond the Standard Model.

Finding the right team is critical for a startup's success and most aren't taking the right approach, finds new Maryland Smith research. With the right strategy—a mix that has founders both liking each other due to shared values and experiences, and having the proper complementary skills and capabilities—startups can foster better team dynamics and have more success raising funds, being...

Microorganism resistance to antibiotics, in particular, is a major problem in everyday medicine. This has seen the number of resistant microbes increase exponentially. As a result, infections that appeared to already have been eradicated using modern drugs now once again pose a potentially fatal threat to humans. The situation is further complicated by the fact that more and more germs are...

The Biden administration is moving to protect workers and communities from extreme heat after a dangerously hot summer that spurred an onslaught of drought-worsened wildfires and caused hundreds of deaths from the Pacific Northwest to hurricane-ravaged Louisiana.

Four famous giant sequoias were not harmed by a wildfire that reached the edge of Giant Forest in California's Sequoia National Park, authorities said.

A surge of lava destroyed around 100 homes on Spain's Canary Islands a day after a volcano erupted, forcing 5,500 people to leave the area, local authorities said on Monday.

Most often, communications delays between the International Space Station crew and ground are nearly unnoticeable as they are routed from one Tracking and Data Relay Satellite to another as the station orbits about 250 miles above Earth. As NASA prepares to explore the Moon, about 240,000 miles away, and eventually Mars, which averages about 245 million miles away, NASA is developing tools to...

Being able to deliver drugs directly to diseased cells would improve options for treating diseases. Some radioactive isotopes are already approved to target cancers. When these isotopes change from one isotope to another during the treatment process (for example, through radioactive decay), they emit large amounts of energy. This makes it hard to keep them in place near diseased cells or other...

In the Middle Bronze Age (about 3,600 years ago or roughly 1650 BCE), the city of Tall el-Hammam was ascendant. Located on high ground in the southern Jordan Valley, northeast of the Dead Sea, the settlement in its time had become the largest continuously occupied Bronze Age city in the southern Levant, having hosted early civilization for a few thousand years. At that time, it was 10 times larger...

Young people who have a good relationship with their teacher in childhood are less likely to engage in anti-social behavior in adolescence, a study says.

Preserved penguin poop may be the key to connecting past Antarctic Ocean conditions and penguin populations, shedding light on how the birds and the region's ecosystem might fare as the climate changes.  

Gadolinium-based contrast agents, the gold standard in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine the health of a patient, can be improved, according to Rice University engineers who are refining models they first used to enhance oil and gas recovery.

Fast-paced technological change in the form of robotization, automation and digitalization is transforming labor markets around the globe. This large-scale change massively impacts employees' workplaces, transforming the everyday working experience for many and threatening the livelihoods of some.

Bacterial blight leads to browning and sometimes the death of important crops. Most famously, late blight of potato resulted in the Great Irish Famine. Blight continues today, affecting crops around the world. One form of bacterial blight (caused by Pseudomonas cannabina pv. alisalensis or Pcal) affects cruciferous plants, such as cabbage, as well as green manure crops like oats.