Batten down the hatches for another nasty hurricane season.

Early development is like a carefully choreographed dance, with uniform swaths of cells arranging themselves into elaborate patterns—a first step toward the formation of functional organs. A flat layer of skin cells, for instance, must transition into one studded with neat arrays of hair cells and sweat glands.

Last year, researchers at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research discovered and characterized Cas7-11, the first CRISPR enzyme capable of making precise, guided cuts to strands of RNA without harming cells in the process. Now, working with collaborators at the University of Tokyo, the same team has revealed that Cas7-11 can be shrunk to a more compact version, making it an even more viable...

Space, the final frontier. The starship Enterprise pursues its mission to explore the galaxy, when all communication channels are suddenly cut off by an impenetrable nebula. In many episodes of the iconic TV series, the valiant crew must "tech the tech" and "science the science" within just 45 minutes of airtime in order to facilitate their escape from this or a similar predicament before the end...

Nanosheets are finely structured two-dimensional materials and have great potential for innovation. They are fixed on top of each other in layered crystals, and must first be separated from each other so that they can be used, for example, to filter gas mixtures or for efficient gas barriers. A research team at the University of Bayreuth has now developed a gentle, environmentally-friendly process...

Women directors on Fortune 500 boards skillfully use tactics that enable them to display warmth, competence or both, allowing them to avoid backlash and meet specific aims, according to new Cornell University ILR School research.

When faced with terminal illness in their pets, some owners would do anything to prolong their lives.

A team of researchers has identified the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate selective autophagy in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. While the function of these processes is increasingly understood in mammals this is one of the first studies in insects. The study of autophagy -- the recycling and repair process within cells -- has huge potential to aid in fighting the ageing...

Researchers have identified an alternative to lithium-based battery technology by developing sodium glassy electrodes capable of supporting long-duration, grid-scale energy storage.

Inducing Type 1 diabetes in mice significantly reduced enamel and dentin microhardness.

The nuclease Cas13b associated with CRISPR defense systems—also known as genetic scissors—has the potential to be used in the future in hereditary diseases to silence adverse genes. In the fight against infections, it is also being researched as an antiviral agent, as Cas13b can target the genome of viruses and render them harmless. Despite these promising features, researchers are looking for...

Contrary to popular belief, well-intentioned calls for women to invest in women-owned businesses might be doing more harm than good in resolving the gender gap in venture financing. New research found in the INFORMS journal Organization Science finds that female-owned startups that get funding from female venture capitalists are two times less likely to get additional financing compared to those...

The study of autophagy—the recycling and repair process within cells—has huge potential to aid in fighting the aging process, bacterial and viral infections and diseases including cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Synthesis of organic compounds and polymers is at the core of many manufacturing industries. The new "electrifying synthesis" methods that can combine conventional synthetic chemistry with electrochemistry are a step closer to a sustainable tomorrow. These reactions don't require potentially harmful chemical reagents. They achieve organic synthesis by simply using electrons from an electric power...

Natural selection has produced mammals that age at dramatically different rates. Take, for example, naked mole rats and mice; the former can live up to 41 years, nearly ten times as long as similar-size rodents such as mice.

A new study identifies sex-specific circuits of muscle signaling to other tissues and that the organs and processes muscle impacts are markedly different between males and females. This new discovery provides insight into how muscle functions, such as exercise, promote healthy longevity, metabolism and improve cognition.

Children whose mothers experience rising levels of depression from prepregnancy until the months just after giving birth are at greater risk of developing emotional, social and academic problems, psychology researchers report. Their seven-year study, which tracked mothers and their offspring from preconception until the children were 5 years old, is the first to demonstrate how changes in mothers'...

Thanks to a unique combination of biology and ecology, the guppies have provided researchers with insights into evolution for decades. Evans and Fitzpatrick have pushed those insights a step further, showing the guppies' potential to help probe big questions about how microbes living in host organisms contribute to health, survival and quality of life.

Scientists have shed new light on the effects that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) has on human skeletal muscle, according to a new study in men.

We hear a lot about how climate change will change the land, sea, and ice. But how will it affect clouds?

Watching the skies for large asteroids that could pose a hazard to Earth is a global endeavor. So, to test their operational readiness, the international planetary defense community will sometimes use a real asteroid's close approach as a mock encounter with a "new" potentially hazardous asteroid. The lessons learned could limit, or even prevent, global devastation should the scenario play out for...

A key UN summit this year must give biodiversity the same priority as climate change and press ahead with putting a financial value on natural resources, Gabon's environment minister says.