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.

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.

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.

The population of endangered Saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan is now over 1.3 million, the ecology ministry said Tuesday, in the latest boost to a species threatened by poaching and disease.

A new technique developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) uses artificial intelligence to efficiently update the vegetation maps that are relied on by wildfire computer models to accurately predict fire behavior and spread.

Marine oil spills are one of the most direct, and harmful, examples of the toll that the extraction of fossil fuels can take on the environment. One of the few tools to mitigate that damage are chemical dispersants that break down oil in the water. However, scientists do not fully understand how well they work. A new study led by Bigelow Laboratory validated their efficacy under real-world...

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Italy and one in the U.S. has found that a unique Bronze Age cremation site in modern Italy holds the remains of up to 172 people who were left to the elements. In their paper published on the open-access site PLOS ONE, the group describes their study of the bones and teeth they found at the cremation site and what they learned from...

China's dams along the Upper Mekong, or Lancang, are often blamed as the main cause of recent droughts in the downstream regions. Yet, it is challenging to corroborate these claims, since China has not been releasing detailed data on how its big dams in the Lancang are operated. Using data from satellite images and high-resolution hydrological models, researchers have finally solved the enigma.

Reading to little ones builds bonds with their caregivers and boosts their language and literacy skills, but story time also benefits older kids, a new study reports.

Examining a city's magnetic footprint can be used to monitor the health of that city, including a possible early warning system for trouble with pollution and as a tool for optimizing energy conservation.

The science academies of the G7 states are calling for urgent international action to protect the ocean and polar regions and to accelerate decarbonization. In the healthcare sector, scientists demand increased global pandemic preparedness and the implementation of a One Health approach, which considers the health of humans, animals, plants and the wider environment as closely linked and...

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is referred to as the "water tower" of Asia for being home to the headwaters of many major rivers in Asia, including the Yangtze, Yellow, Ganges, and Indus. Therefore, TP precipitation is important for not only local, but regional water resources too. On the other hand, the TP can strongly modulate the Asian climate through dynamic and thermal processes. Previous studies...