Like the Roadrunner outwitting Wile E. Coyote, SARS-CoV-2 (the infectious virus responsible for COVID-19) keeps mutating, generating new variants that can slip from the grip of a well-trained immune system or a well-aimed drug or vaccine.

Maser emissions, "cosmic lasers" from interstellar and circumstellar medium, are produced by the amplification of stimulated emissions. Bright and compact maser sources are good targets for high-accuracy astrometry in the kinematic study of the Milky Way.

How animals are able to interpret natural light sources to adjust their physiology and behavior is poorly understood. The labs of Kristin Tessmar-Raible (Max Perutz Labs Vienna, Alfred Wegener Institut, University of Oldenburg) and Eva Wolf (Johannes Gutenberg University and Institute of Molecular Biology Mainz) have now revealed that a molecule called L-cryptochrome (L-Cry) has the biochemical...

For the first time, scientists at the University of Oxford have been able to demonstrate a network of two entangled optical atomic clocks and show how the entanglement between the remote clocks can be used to improve their measurement precision, according to research published this week by Nature.

Coral reef islands and their reefs—found across in the Indo-Pacific—naturally grow and shrink due to complex biological and physical processes that have yet to be fully understood. Now, climate change is disrupting them further, leading to new uncertainties for legal maritime zones and small island states.

Black holes are astronomical objects with extremely strong gravitational pulls from which not even light can escape. While the idea of bodies that would trap light has been around since the 18th century, the first direct observation of black holes took place in 2015.

Researchers at Princeton Chemistry have discovered a biosynthetic pathway that incorporates selenium into microbial small molecules, marking the first time such atoms have been uncovered in natural products, and opening new avenues in selenobiology.

An international team of researchers has found evidence indicating that despite the hostile environmental conditions on Mars, the equipment used by rovers on its surface should be capable of detecting evidence of life if it ever existed there. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes how they subjected sample materials to Mars-like conditions and then tested...

A crucial outcome of Australia's jobs summit last week was the commitment to review programs aimed at boosting the number of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers.

As a child swimming off the coast of south Devon in the 1960s, I believed the warm water passing through my legs was the Gulf Stream current. Now, as an adult, I realize it was actually raw sewage being discharged into the ocean.

After their discovery 25 years ago, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) quickly gained the aura of a "miracle material" due to their particular properties: their large inner surfaces and tuneable pore sizes facilitate improved applications, for example, in materials separation and gas storage.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II has prompted public displays of grief around the world—from public gatherings at Buckingham Palace in London, and condolences from world leaders, to individuals reflecting on social media about what she meant to them.

Researchers at the Rudolf Virchow Center of the University of Würzburg have unveiled the crystal structures of UBA6 in complex with either ATP or the ubiquitin-like protein FAT10. These results provide the foundation to study the individual roles of UBA6 towards the attachment of either ubiquitin or FAT10 to target proteins and the downstream cellular pathways with possible implications for the...

Women and men share most of the same risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), a large international study has found -- the first such study to include people not only from high income countries, but also from low- and middle-income countries where the burden of CVD is the greatest. The global study assessed risk factors, including metabolic (such as high blood pressure, obesity and...

A new simulation conducted on the world's most powerful supercomputer dedicated to astronomy has produced a testable scenario to explain the appearance of the bar of the Milky Way. Comparing this scenario to data from current and future space telescopes will help clarify the evolution of our home Galaxy.

In a multidisciplinary study that combines molecular biology with neuroscience, researchers have found that Tob gene plays an important role in reducing depression, fear, and anxiety.

Researchers report that strain caused by just a 2% reduction in the distance between atoms when deposited on a surface leads to a whopping 99.999% decrease in the speed at which the materials conduct hydrogen ions, greatly reducing the performance of solid oxide fuel cells. Developing methods to reduce this strain will help bring high-performance fuel cells for clean energy production to a wider...

Of all known planets, Earth is as friendly to life as any planet could possibly be -- or is it? If Jupiter's orbit changes, a new study shows Earth could be more hospitable than it is today.

Scientists have known that sex-determination in vertebrates happens in the germ cells, a body's reproductive cells, and the somatic cells, the cells that are not reproductive cells. Yet they have not fully understood the mechanisms by which it happens. To better grasp the process of the germ cell's sex determination, a research team has analyzed germ cells in chickens using RNA-sequencing to...

Using a powerful microscope, researchers at The University of Alabama have shown a method that can provide strong data in determining the origin of life on Earth and whether life existed on other planets.

A team of researchers have observed and reported for the first time the unique microstructure of a novel ferroelectric material, enabling the development of lead-free piezoelectric materials for electronics, sensors, and energy storage that are safer for human use. This work was led by the Alem Group at Penn State and in collaboration with research teams at Rutgers University and the University of...

A research group led by Prof. Wu Kaifeng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Dr. Peter C. Sercel from the Center for Hybrid Organic Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy, recently reported the utilization of lattice distortion in lead halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs) to control their exciton fine structure.

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have developed a plastic film that can kill viruses that land on its surface with room light. The self-sterilizing film is the first of its kind—it is low cost to produce, can be readily scaled and could be used for disposable aprons, tablecloths, and curtains in hospitals. It is coated with a thin layer of particles that absorb UV light and produce...

A new simulation conducted on the world's most powerful supercomputer dedicated to astronomy has produced a testable scenario to explain the appearance of the bar of the Milky Way. Comparing this scenario to data from current and future space telescopes will help clarify the evolution of our home galaxy.