Europa is more than just one of Jupiter's many moons -- it's also one of most promising places in the solar system to look for extraterrestrial life. Under 10 kilometers of ice is a liquid water ocean that could sustain life. But with surface temperatures at -180 Celsius and with extreme levels of radiation, it's also one of the most inhospitable places in the solar system. Exploring Europa could...

Higher levels of a key inflammatory marker were related to older breast cancer survivors reporting cognitive problems, researchers found in one of the first long-term efforts to examine the potential link between chronic inflammation and cognition in older breast cancer survivors.

Drawn from more than 20 years of observations at Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo, researchers documented lasting social ties between individual chimpanzees and gorillas that persisted over years and across different contexts.

Two of NASA's Great Observatories, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, have captured views of a unique NASA experiment designed to intentionally smash a spacecraft into a small asteroid in the world's first-ever in-space test for planetary defense. These observations of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact mark the first time that Webb and Hubble...

The place of artificial intelligence, AI, in our everyday life is increasing and many researchers believe that what we have seen so far is only the beginning. However, AI must be trustworthy in all situations. A new project has drawn up a research-based roadmap intended to guide research funding bodies and decision-makers towards the trustworthy AI of the future.

Researchers have shown that a common ant species undergoes physiological and behavioral changes in unnatural settings.

Neurons in an area of the brain responsible for memory were significantly larger in SuperAgers compared to cognitively average peers, individuals with early-stage Alzheimer's disease and even individuals 20 to 30 years younger than SuperAgers -- who are aged 80 years and older, reports a new study. The study of was the first to show that these individuals carry a unique biological signature that...

For an adequate immune response, it is essential that T lymphocytes recognize infected or degenerated cells. They do so by means of antigenic peptides, which these cells present with the help of specialized surface molecules (MHC I molecules). Using X-ray structure analysis, a research team has now been able to show how the MHC I molecules are loaded with peptides and how suitable peptides are...

An obscure family of viruses, already endemic in wild African primates and known to cause fatal Ebola-like symptoms in some monkeys, is 'poised for spillover' to humans, according to new research.

An international team of climate and lake scientists has demonstrated that crossing frozen lakes with heavy trucks may soon be a thing of the past.

Certain gut bacteria -- including one that is essential for a healthy gut microbiome -- differ between people who go on to acquire HIV infection compared to those who have not become infected.

Existing ways of calculating biodiversity dynamics are not very effective in detecting wholesale species community change due to the effects of ocean acidification.

Reindeer herding has a long history in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland. It has shaped the Fennoscandian mountain landscape, and is also seen as means to mitigate climate change effects on vegetation. Yet a new study shows that the majority of this grazing land is exposed to cumulative pressures, threatened by the expansion of human activities towards the north.

Research performed on human blastoids, a research model of an early embryo built out of stem cells, may allow scientists to understand better what causes birth defects and lost pregnancies, and so prevent them. But such research is also ethically fraught, warn bioethicists, due to differing beliefs on whether the blastoid possesses sentience or has the potential to do so.

A new study involving more than 879,000 participants published this week challenges the assumption that liking an outgroup means disliking your ingroup. It sheds light on a 1940s study in which Black girls preferred white dolls over Black dolls.

Helping children become more 'digitally resilient' needs to be a collective effort if they are to learn how to 'thrive online', according to new research. Digital resilience is the capability to learn how to recognize, manage and recover from online risks -- such as bullying and inappropriate content -- and has the potential to buffer how these experiences may impact young people's wellbeing.

Rewilding landscapes using elements of farming practice can help to restore ecosystems and produce high-welfare, high-quality food, researchers say.

A new study has found that ultrafine particle concentration decreased by 48 percent during the COVID-19 state-of-emergency period, which corresponded with aircraft and road traffic reductions of 74 percent and 51 percent, respectively.

Is it ethical to test possible HIV cures by having subjects stop taking antiretroviral therapy and then giving them placebos rather than the experimental treatment? The answer is often yes, according to a new paper.

Researchers followed the birth and death of tens of thousands of nematode worms using the 'Lifespan Machine', which collects lifespan data at unprecedented statistical resolution. They found that worms have at least two distinct 'biological ages', and that these have consistent correlations between each other, suggesting the existence of an invisible hierarchical structure that regulates the...

A new study shows how certain cancers neutralize T cells to subvert the immune system and help tumors grow.

Polyethylene plastics -- single-use bags and general-purpose bottles -- are indestructable forever plastics. That also makes them hard to recycle. Chemists have found a way to break down the polymer -- a chain of about a thousand ethylene molecules -- into three-carbon molecules, propylene, which are in high demand for making another plastic, polypropylene. The process could turn waste plastic...

Scientists have created a new type of nanomembrane that presents a less energy intensive way to fractionate hydrocarbons from crude oil. The global production of crude oil is currently around 80 million barrels per day. Hydrocarbons extracted from crude oil are the main ingredients for manufacturing fossil fuels, plastics, and polymers. The process by which they are extracted is extremely energy...

Scientists have managed to track down one of the 'mystery genes' -- the gene that ensures that the final form of the protein actin is created, a main component of our cell skeleton.