A shapeshifting robotic microswarm may one day act as a toothbrush, rinse, and dental floss in one. The technology, developed by a multidisciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania, is poised to offer a new and automated way to perform the mundane but critical daily tasks of brushing and flossing. It's a system that could be particularly valuable for those who lack the manual dexterity to...

An international team of researchers has discovered 1.2-billion-year-old groundwater deep in a gold- and uranium-producing mine in Moab Khotsong, South Africa, shedding more light on how life is sustained below the Earth's surface and how it may thrive on other planets.

HIV researchers have long been trying to identify the specific cells that the virus prefers to infect and hide in. They know that HIV favors a special type of immune cells called memory CD4 T cells. But these cells come in many flavors, and it has been difficult to ascertain exactly what makes one type of memory CD4 T cell more attractive to HIV than another.

The physics lab that's home to the world's largest atom smasher announced on Tuesday the observation of three new "exotic particles" that could provide clues about the force that binds subatomic particles together.

NASA said Tuesday it has lost contact with a $32.7 million spacecraft headed to the moon to test out a lopsided lunar orbit, but agency engineers are hopeful they can fix the problem.

Due to the possibility that bird flu viruses could mutate and gain the ability to spread easily between people, avian influenza poses a significant pandemic threat to birds and humans alike. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been monitoring for illness among humans exposed to infected birds since outbreaks were detected in poultry and wild bird populations in late...

Millions of liters of blood are donated around the world every year, but there's still not enough for everyone who needs it.

A new analysis of observed temperatures shows the Arctic is heating up more than four times faster than the rate of global warming. The trend has stepped upward steeply twice in the last 50 years, a finding missed by all but four of 39 climate models.

A new academic article, published in Frontiers in Political Science, analyzes how the Settlement Act is applied in Sweden's municipalities. Housing is an important prerequisite for the socioeconomic integration of refugees. The Settlement Act was implemented in 2016 and entails that municipalities are obliged to receive refugees according to quotas.

How does preterm birth affect children's school grades? Using Swedish registers for children born 1982–1994, a new study, published in Population Studies, investigates how prematurely born pupils perform in school at age 16.

The right temperature matters—whether in technical processes, for the quality of food and medicines, or the lifetime of electronic components and batteries. For this purpose, temperature indicators record (un)desired temperature increases that can be read out later. Researchers in the group led by Prof. Dr. Karl Mandel, professor of inorganic chemistry at FAU, have succeeded in developing a...

Environmental awareness in society is changing household laundry habits, where the use of less bleach and lower temperatures during washing machine cycles is encouraged. In this context, disinfectants added to detergents have become an essential factor to compensate for these new habits and to prevent the transmission of bacteria, fungi and viruses in the house, as well as to control the level of...

New research by a scientist at the Milner Center for Evolution at the University of Bath suggests that "selfish chromosomes" explain why most human embryos die very early on. The study, published in PLoS Biology, explaining why fish embryos are fine but sadly humans' embryos often don't survive, has implications for the treatment of infertility.

The United States Government has declared that it will no longer be performing tests of anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons. In a public statement during a visit to the Vandenberg Space Force Base, Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed that this policy has the primary purpose of setting an example to other countries. It represents an important step in the direction of establishing "space norms" for all...

It's nice to have a feel-good story every once in a while, so here's one to hold off the existential dread: the Earth isn't likely to get flung off into deep space for at least 100,000 years. In fact, all of the solar system's planets are safe for that time frame, so there is good news all around, for you and your favorite planetary body.

For the first time, scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) analyzed a long-term sample series on microplastic pollution in the Northeast Atlantic from 2000 m water depth with respect to number, size, mass, material and possible origin of the particles. Samples were collected between 2003–2015 in the Madeira Basin by a sediment trap. Plastic type and...

Carbon dioxide pollution continues to change the global climate. Researchers know how to pinpoint such pollution, even on a regional and near-real-time basis. As part of a solution to carbon dioxide pollution, many studies focus on how to convert this pollutant into a fuel, such as methanol. Copper-based catalysts are a tool for such conversions. Understanding the corresponding step-by-step...

Co-occurrences of wind extremes and precipitation extremes, known as compound wind and precipitation extremes (CWPEs), can disrupt and endanger shipment and shipping logistics. The associated winds and floods may cause severe socio-economic impacts in coastal and inland areas.

Exosomes are lipid-bilayer nanoscale membrane particles (typically

In a university swimming pool, scientists and their underwater cameras watch carefully as a coiled shell is released from a pair of metal tongs. The shell begins to move under its own power, giving the researchers a glimpse into what the oceans might have looked like millions of years ago when they were full of these ubiquitous animals.

With morning and nighttime routines alone, people spend plenty of time looking in the mirror, but did you know the history of this everyday item dates to 4000 B.C.?

Ever since their development in the late 19th century, Schiff bases have been a popular group of organic compounds, owing to their wide variety of desirable properties. The presence of both nitrogen and oxygen in their structure makes them versatile molecules with an array of applications, ranging from dyes and catalysts to environmental sensors and raw materials for chemical synthesis.

Nearly everyone can identify a pond, but what, exactly, distinguishes it from a lake or a wetland? A new study co-led by Cornell offers the first data-driven, functional definition of a pond and evidence of ponds' distinct ecological function, which could have broad implications for science and policy.

Scientists from the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and the University of Stuttgart (Germany) have managed to synthesize and extensively characterize a series of cobalt molecules that exhibit the properties of molecular magnets, an encouraging result for the future of quantum-scale computing.