Engineers working to miniaturize optical systems for modern electronics have seen great success when it comes to the most familiar components, the lenses and optical sensors. It's been more challenging to reduce the size of the third component of an optical system, the free space between the lens and the sensor needed for light waves to achieve focus.

At the heart of energy conversion, electrons and protons move in an intricate, coordinated dance. Chemists at Yale and in Sweden say they may have learned the steps to a new, photo-chemical rhumba.

A team of researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the University of Michigan has found that the rate of cooling in reactions dramatically affects the type of uranium molecules that form.

Videos of shark attacks are popular—some of Discovery's "Shark Week" videos of sharks attacking cages or people have attracted millions of views online. But according to a new study from North Carolina State University, positive videos of sharks could help change people's attitudes in the predators' favor.

The sea surface temperature in the North Atlantic Ocean can be a predictor up to three months in advance of extreme climate events involving reduced rainfall and intense drought in the Northeast region of Brazil. This is one of the main findings of a study by researchers in Brazil, China, Australia and Germany, according to an article published in Geophysical Research Letters.

The German government estimates the total losses resulting from the disastrous floods in July 2021 at 32 billion euros. In two studies, one of which is currently available in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have investigated how precipitation, evaporation processes, water flow, and runoff led to this flooding. To improve future...

Virtually all marine life—fish, turtles, sharks, whales and more—depend on the marine food web for survival. The foundation of this immense flow of energy, however, rests on the shoulders of the microscopic but mighty phytoplankton.

Urban agriculture is booming, but there's often a hidden danger lurking in city soils: lead. A recent University of Illinois study showed universally elevated lead levels in soils across Chicago, an urban ag hotspot.

A University of Massachusetts Amherst undergraduate student has contributed significant work regarding the growth of stars and black holes, providing key insight into how they are linked. This new information will allow the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to more efficiently untangle how, exactly, galaxies work.

A new global study from AIP Publishing, the American Physical Society (APS), IOP Publishing (IOPP) and Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA) indicates that the majority of early career researchers (ECRs) want to publish open access (OA) but they need grants from funding agencies to do so.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, remains the leading cause of infectious disease worldwide, affecting approximately a quarter of the globe's population. Treatment of infections is problematic due to the emergence of drug-resistant strains; however, University of Oklahoma professor Helen Zgurskaya, an expert in antibiotic resistance, is leading research on new...

Using nanoparticles to deliver cancer drugs offers a way to hit tumors with large doses of drugs while avoiding the harmful side effects that often come with chemotherapy. However, so far, only a handful of nanoparticle-based cancer drugs have been FDA-approved.

Young women's and girls' time spent in unpaid household work contributes to the gender pay gap, according to new research from the Universities of East Anglia (UEA), Birmingham and Brunel.

As the BA.5 omicron variant continues to spread, health experts are increasingly preparing for a future in which such COVID-19 variants emerge, surge and recede, similar to seasonal flu. An important part of staying on top of these changes will be the ability to quickly monitor the virus at a "population scale," an effort that will require accurate and ultra-fast testing.

A new "resilience sensing system" can identify ecosystems that are in danger of collapse, research shows. The system uses satellites to spot areas of concern—including those at risk of "tipping points"—and can also measure the success of conservation and restoration efforts.

The fires that have torched through Europe are on course to make 2022 a record year for forest loss on the continent, as scientists warn climate change is already contributing to ever fiercer blazes.

The surface of the moon and rocky planets—Mars in particular—are of huge interest to anyone trying to explore our solar system. The surface must be known in as much detail as possible, for missions to land safely, or for any robotic vessel to drive across the surface. But until now, the methods to analyze images from orbiting spacecraft have entailed a huge work load and immense computer...

Within a given tissue or organ, cells may appear very similar or even identical. But at the molecular level, these cells can have small differences that lead to wide variations in their functions.

Researchers have developed a new method for flexibly creating various needle-shaped laser beams. These long, narrow beams can be used to improve optical coherence tomography (OCT), a noninvasive and versatile imaging tool that is used for scientific research and various types of clinical diagnoses.

The ancient North American city of Cahokia had as its focal point a feature now known as Monks Mound, a giant earthwork surrounded on its north, south, east and west by large rectangular open areas. These flat zones, called plazas by archaeologists since the early 1960s, were thought to serve as communal areas that served the many mounds and structures of the city.

Temperature affects nearly every part of an animal's day-to-day existence. Biologists have, for good reason, spent a huge amount of time trying to understand how animals can survive in the climates in which they live. They have learned a lot about the strategies that animals use to keep themselves from overheating or freezing to death.

A new study helps reveal why tropical mountain birds occupy such narrow elevation ranges, a mystery that has puzzled scientists for centuries. While many assumed temperature was responsible for these limited distributions, the latest research suggests competition from other species plays a bigger role in shaping bird ranges.

The past few decades have witnessed a great amount of research in the field of two-dimensional (2D) materials. As the name implies, these thin film-like materials are composed of layers that are only a few atoms thick. Many of the chemical and physical properties of 2D materials can be fine-tuned, leading to promising applications in many fields, including optoelectronics, catalysis, renewable...

A new report has identified the 10 financial actors with the most influence on the fossil fuel economy and outlines the decisive role they can play in helping de-carbonize our future.