In states with bans on affirmative action programs, the proportion of students from underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups in U.S. public medical schools fell by more than one-third by five years after those bans went into effect, according to a new study.

Precipitation more than temperature influenced the distribution of herbivorous dinosaurs in what is now Alaska, according to new research. The finding discusses the distribution of hadrosaurids and ceratopsids -- the megaherbivores of the Late Cretaceous Period, 100.5 million to 66 million years ago.

New research in mice raises the prospects for development of post-concussion therapies that could ward off cognitive decline and depression, two common conditions among people who have experienced a moderate traumatic brain injury.

Scientists achieve a novel biocatalytic reaction by repurposing natural enzymes with light, which could lead to valuable new chemical compounds.

Although photosynthesis by algae is a key part of the symbiotic relationship it is not required to initiate symbiosis. The discovery adds to the little-understood relationship between cnidarians and algae at the molecular level and offers insight into how to jump start the symbiotic relationship between the two organisms after a bleaching event. It could also lead to strategies that might prevent...

Engineers have developed a high-performance nanowire catalyst that pulls ammonia and solid ammonia (fertilizer) from nitrate, a common contaminant in industrial wastewater and polluted groundwater.

Researchers are yielding new insights into how chemical reactions can be understood and guided.

Scientists reveal that different corals and environments influence the likelihood of their survival when ocean temperatures rise. The findings also demonstrate that advanced remote sensing technologies provide an opportunity to scale-up reef monitoring like never before.

A new study describes a period of rapid global climate change in an ice-capped world much like the present -- but 304 million years ago. Within about 300,000 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels doubled, oceans became anoxic, and biodiversity dropped on land and at sea.

For the last decade, biologists have documented a worrying decline in insect abundance, which some fear may prelude an arthropod apocalypse. These studies, however, are primarily carried out in temperature regions while the tropics, which harbor the vast majority of insect species, largely remains a black box. In a new study, biologists turn to the aid of park rangers in Ecuador's Yasuní National...

Tree-ring, ice core and volcano experts teamed up to identify one of the most climatically impactful volcanic eruptions in 4,000 years -- Aniakchak II. In the process, they narrowed down potential dates for the Thera volcano eruption.

A new study has found that older adults are no more likely to fall for fake news than younger adults, with age-related susceptibility to deceptive news evident only among those categorized as the 'oldest old.'

Geophysicists have developed a method that allows them to investigate the composition of the Earth with better results.

Scientists have tested a technology to make temporary genetic modifications in mosquitoes. The modifications self-delete over time.

By quantifying the seed production of more than 700 trees species worldwide and how each species' productivity can vary by location, two new studies can help boost the success of efforts to replant and restore forests after devastating wildfires, droughts or other disturbances. The studies, which synthesize data on species from the tropics to subarctic regions, are the first to quantify global...

Scientists use lab-grown human brain tissue to identify neural abnormalities in Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome and show gene therapy tools can rescue neural structure and function.

DNA-to-protein mapping could help researchers understand some health disparities.

The absence of large herbivores after the extinction of the dinosaurs changed the evolution of plants. The 25 million years of large herbivore absence slowed down the evolution of new plant species. Defensive features such as spines regressed and fruit sizes increased. The research has demonstrated this using palm trees as a model system.

Astronomers discovered eight new echoing black hole binaries in our galaxy, enabling them to piece together a general picture of how a black hole evolves during an outburst. The findings will help scientists trace a black hole's evolution as it feeds on stellar material.

Researchers have reported a fundamentally new approach to the structural investigation of RNA molecules. ROCK, as it is called, uses an RNA nanotechnological technique that allows it to assemble multiple identical RNA molecules into a highly organized structure, which significantly reduces the flexibility of individual RNA molecules and multiplies their molecular weight. The team showed that their...

Scientists have developed a tracking system that can be attached to monarch butterflies and transmit data about their location all throughout their three-month migratory journey south.

Atrial fibrillation, the most common cardiac rhythm abnormality, has been linked to one-third of ischemic strokes, the most common type of stroke. But atrial fibrillation is underdiagnosed, partly because many patients are asymptomatic.

Researchers have shown that ablation therapy, often used to correct an abnormally beating heart, could be used to correct disorders of the stomach.

A group of rare diseases called ciliopathies -- polycystic kidney disease notable among them -- emerge from defects in cilia. These are the tiny hairlike structures on the surface of almost every cell type. Scientists experimentally 'knocked out,' or genetically deleted, the cilia in a population of otherwise normal human pluripotent stem cells. Subsequently, human tissues and mini-organ...