Their legs may get more attention, but a new study says a crab's eyes have much to offer, too—at least scientifically.

The frequency of thunderstorms in some fast-growing African coastal cities has doubled over the past 30 years, with much of this increase linked to the impact of deforestation on the local climate, a study has found.

For driving in the rain, it's preferable that the raindrops roll or bounce off the windshield instead of coating it or even freezing. A team of engineers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has found that conduction of heat plays a larger role than previously thought in the dynamics of droplets on smooth surfaces that repel water.

Many companies today use experiments to gather the data that drives their strategies. That's how Facebook knows whether a newsfeed change increased user engagement, or how a bank knows whether its new promotional strategy increased deposits.

The cells of female mammals have a dosage problem, because they have twice as many X chromosomes as are needed in the body. Consequently, one of them is randomly selected and switched off already during early embryonic development. The Xist gene awakens and produces hundreds of RNA molecules, encasing one X chromosome and making it shrink into a small lump.

Focusing on a specific vineyard in the Chateauneuf-du-Pape region in the Southern part of France, plant pathologists spent 8 years monitoring more than 60 plants for signs of Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV). Contrary to previous observations in Italy, they observed an explosive propagation of the virus, with more than 75 percent of tested plants becoming infected between 2014 and 2015....

As some of the world's largest companies begin to embrace transparency in sharing information about their carbon footprint, new research is yielding valuable insights into the impact these environmental disclosures can have for companies, their investors and our changing climate.

A new software tool can accelerate materials science research by cutting out tedious background research on material properties. Penn State and Sandia National Laboratories researchers recently debuted propSym, an open-source software on the programming platform MATLAB, to calculate the fundamental constants needed to describe the physical properties of solids, such as metals, ceramics or...

Over the past decade, the CRISPR genome-editing system has revolutionized molecular biology, giving scientists the ability to alter genes inside living cells for research or medical applications. Now, researchers at Gladstone Institutes have fine-tuned an additional system for more efficient gene editing, using molecules called retrons.

Standard chemotherapies may efficiently kill cancer cells, but they also pose significant risks to healthy cells, resulting in secondary illness and a diminished quality of life for patients. To prevent the previously unavoidable damage, researchers, led by Penn State, have developed a new class of nanomaterials engineered to capture chemotherapy drugs before they interact with healthy tissue.

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have developed a color-coded test that quickly signals whether newly developed nanoparticles—ultra small compartments designed to ferry medicines, vaccines and other therapies—deliver their cargo into target cells. Historically, nanoparticles have a very low delivery rate to the cytosol, the inside compartment of cells, releasing only about 1%–2% of their...

Dairy farmers in the Northeast—facing a warming climate that exacerbates nutrient pollution but lengthens the growing season—can reduce the environmental impact of their operations and maximize revenues by double cropping and injecting manure into the soil, rather than broadcasting it.

Understanding the surges and retreats of Alaska's Malaspina Glacier is key if climate change models are to be applied to the glacier with confidence. Work by graduate student Victor Devaux-Chupin at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute is providing some answers.

Evidence arguing for a "whiff of oxygen" before the Earth's Great Oxygenation Event 2.3 billion years ago are chemical signatures that were probably introduced at a much later time, according to research published in Science Advances.

Very few proteins in the body have adaptations that make them unique compared to the corresponding proteins in Neanderthals and apes. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now studied one such protein, glutathione reductase, which protects against oxidative stress. They show that the risk for inflammatory bowel...

Yet another earthquake has struck near South Carolina's capital city, the ninth in a series of rumblings that have caused geologists to wonder how long the convulsions might last.

Concerns over foodborne risk from birds may not be as severe as once thought by produce farmers, according to research from the University of California, Davis, that found low instances of E. coli and Salmonella prevalence.

A new way to evaluate the quality of kidneys before transplantation could one day help increase the number of usable donor kidneys. The method uses highly sensitive spectroscopy analysis to detect biomarkers related to kidney injury, which could also be useful for diagnosing kidney problems in patients.

Studies suggest that religion can help prisoners cope with prison life and that it may affect the likelihood of recidivism. A new longitudinal study examined how male prisoners' religious beliefs affected their reentry into the community. The study found that men with stable or increasing religious beliefs did not have better reentry-related outcomes than men with decreasing religious beliefs.

The world we experience is governed by classical physics. How we move, where we are, and how fast we're going are all determined by the classical assumption that we can only exist in one place at any one moment in time.

The slide into the new year can often be measured by the disappearance of string lights on roofs, a resurgence in gym memberships and perhaps most noticeable—colder winter weather. January holds the title as the chilliest month of the year for most states in the U.S., and now, Iowa State University researchers have discovered an unexpected link between drops in Fahrenheit and immigrant...

Growing algae in wastewater has been a hot topic in research for years. News reports for decades have touted the latest research as bringing us within reach of new sources of fertilizer or environmentally friendlier biofuel.

Monarch butterflies possess a potent chemical armor. As caterpillars, they eat plants filled with toxic cardenolides that build up in their bodies and make them unpalatable to most—but not all—predators. In central Mexico, where the largest winter monarch aggregations occur, scientists observed that rodents attack monarchs that fall to the ground. In particular, the black-eared mouse...

Green infrastructure has been embraced as a tool to help cities achieve sustainability and resilience goals while improving the lives of urban residents. How green infrastructure is defined guides the types of projects that cities implement, with enduring impacts to people and the urban environment.