A 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck western Guatemala early Wednesday caused damage affecting nearly 25,000 people, and caused one person to suffer a fatal heart attack, authorities said.

EPFL's Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) has decades of experience in plasma physics and plasma control methods. DeepMind is a scientific discovery company acquired by Google in 2014 that's committed to "solving intelligence to advance science and humanity." Together, they have developed a new magnetic control method for plasmas based on deep reinforcement learning, and applied it to a real-world plasma...

Migration in the United States has been on a downward trend since the 1960s, according to new research from Rice University.

Cocaine, opioids, and other drugs of abuse disrupt the brain's reward system, often shifting users' priorities to obtaining more drug above all else. For people battling addiction, this persistent craving is notoriously difficult to overcome—but new research from scientists at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research and collaborators points toward a therapeutic strategy that could help.

Engineers at Caltech have developed an approach for quantum storage that could help pave the way for the development of large-scale optical quantum networks.

New Cornell University research finds journalistic fact checks are a more effective counter to COVID-19 misinformation than the false news tags commonly used by social media outlets.

The collective activity of life—all of the microbes, plants, and animals—have changed planet Earth.

For many people, warm summer days feature spending time swimming in a lake. Lakes are important for more than just recreation and serve as a major global source of freshwater. But as temperatures continue to get warmer, so will lakes. As global average temperatures rise, lake evaporation is projected to increase at double the rate of ocean evaporation.

New research conducted at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) analyzes three-dimensional particle-laden, isotropic turbulence to develop an understanding of inertial particle dynamics from a kinetic energy perspective.

They may not have lungs like we do, but the soil and trees are breathing in and out all of the time. Trees take in carbon dioxide (CO2), release oxygen by way of photosynthesis, and store carbon in their trunks. And when the leaves land on the ground, soil microbes work to decompose the leaves and other organic matter, which releases carbon dioxide.

Using powerful tools and techniques developed in the field of structural biology, researchers at the University of Washington and The Scripps Research Institute have discovered new details about the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV. The findings bring into focus the basic architecture of the virus just above and below its surface and may help in the design and development of a vaccine that can...

Satellite mapping, bolstered by algorithmic assessment, provides an indispensable view of Earth's canopy covering. The fraction of ground covered by tree crowns serves as a critical parameter for measuring forest ecosystems and potential carbon sinks. The maps are typically assessed by visually reviewing the satellite images or by cross-examining overlapping views but are rarely confirmed via...

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the largest marine oil spill in United States history. The disaster was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, taking 11 lives and releasing nearly 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Twelve years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, scientists are still working to understand where all this oil ended up, a...

A 12-year analysis of the companies BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell has revealed that their discourse and pledges related to transitioning to clean energy do not align with their business actions and investments. Mei Li of Tohoku University, Japan, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on February 16, 2022.

Untrained, captive orangutans can complete two major steps in the sequence of stone tool use: striking rocks together and cutting using a sharp stone, according to a study by Alba Motes-Rodrigo at the University of Tübingen in Germany and colleagues, publishing February 16 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

Proteins are the "workhorses" in every living cell and constitute the chemical basis of life. These little machines are required to turn food into energy, to manage motion and brain activities and to fight off bacteria and viruses. The function of proteins is tightly controlled in response to changing conditions, when for instance an organism encounters stress and needs to adapt. Researchers at...

Astronomers have been waiting decades for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which promises to peer farther into space than ever before. But if humans want to actually reach our nearest stellar neighbor, they will need to wait quite a bit longer: a probe sent to Alpha Centauri with a rocket would need roughly 80,000 years to make the trip.

A team of researchers led by Dr. Kourosh Ebrahimi from the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences, investigate the role of iron-sulfur ([FeS]) clusters and proteins in the immune response to viral infections.

If the UN Sustainable Development Goal to lift over one billion people out of poverty were to be reached in 2030, the impact on global carbon emissions would be minimal. That sounds good; however, the main reason for this is the huge inequality in the carbon footprint of rich and poor nations. This conclusion was drawn by scientists from the Energy and Sustainability Research Institute of the...

A scientist at Osaka City University has discovered skyrmions with half-integer topological numbers in a ferromagnetic superfluid.

Over the last 30 years, the scientific community has been working to develop a synthetic alternative to bone grafts for repairing diseased or damaged bone. McGill University researchers used the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan to advance a novel method for growing synthetic bone tissue.

A study based on a new varanid fossil species from China shows that the transition from the ancient Varaniformes to Varanus occurred in Asia and supports the Asian origin of Varanidae.

You won't see them move no matter how closely you watch.

The reason most structures fail isn't due to shoddy material or violent impact. It's something far simpler, smaller and even dull: prolonged, low-amplitude fatigue.