Mark McCaughrean has been moving his online home in steps. McCaughrean, an astronomer at the European Space Agency, has had a profile on Twitter for many years. In spring, when Elon Musk first suggested buying the social media platform used by nearly 240 million worldwide, many were concerned that such a purchase would increase the nastiness of Twitter and allow misinformation to drown...

Fecal microbial transplants have been given to alter a recipient's metabolism to reduce obesity or alter immunity to fight cancer, and in those transplants recipients are not given suppressive antibiotics to eliminate the microbial community prior to the transplant. Researchers now report there is a lack of predictability for fecal microbial transplants to change the gut microbial community to...

Changing the wording about expiration dates on perishable food items -- which is currently unregulated and widely variable -- could help reduce food waste, according to a new study.

A new study from the University of Central Florida has found strong support that the outgassing of molecules from comets could be the result of the composition from the beginning of our solar system.

Miscanthus is one of the most promising perennial crops for bioenergy production since it is able to produce high yields with a small environmental footprint. This versatile grass has great potential to perform even better, as much less effort has been put into improving it through breeding relative to established commodity crops such as maize or soybean.

As its name implies, the Devil's Hole pupfish lives in a truly hellish environment.

Weeks after Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico, floodwaters have mostly receded in the hard-hit town of Loíza, but mud, debris and collapsed roofs remain. Power has been restored in some areas but is still unstable.

Combining two light-mediated functions in a single molecule is quite challenging. Scientists have now succeeded in doing just that, in two different ways.

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) moon rocket has been in development for more than 18 years and has never flown so much as an inch. But that might change on Nov. 14 at 12:07 a.m. ET, when the massive 32-story machine blasts off for a 25-day mission around the moon. That mission, known as Artemis 1, will be preparatory to a similar crewed mission that could be flown as early as 2024. Twice...

There’s a lot that China would like you to pay attention to when it comes to its just completed Tiangong (“Palace in the Sky”) space station—and there’s one thing the country would very much like you to ignore. On the upside, there’s the thousand or more scientific studies that crew members hope to carry out over the decade or so the station will be in...

Lucy Ward on the roles played by Edward Jenner and Thomas Dimsdale in the development of inoculation against diseaseYour article on challenge trials raises fascinating questions, as the world seeks to address the risk of new pandemics (Should we give people diseases in order to learn how to cure them?, 31 October). It refers to Edward Jenner, who did indeed “challenge” his patient James...

Rotary molecular motors were first created in 1999, in the laboratory of Ben Feringa, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Groningen. These motors are driven by light. For many reasons, it would be good to be able to make these motor molecules visible. The best way to do this is to make them fluoresce. However, combining two light-mediated functions in a single molecule is quite...

In the last few weeks climate change activists have perpetrated various acts of reversible vandalism against famous works of art in public galleries.

Backpackers on working holiday maker visas have been a crucial source of farm labor for decades, alongside smaller numbers of temporary migrants from the Pacific Islands, international students, and Australians.

A new book by Stephanie Sodero of the HCRI explores the intersection between fossil fuel-powered mobility and climate change and how communities and mobility need to be revolutionized in Sodero's homeland of Canada and beyond in the context of climate change.

An Australasian university collaboration has shed new light on marine heatwaves in New Zealand's coastal waters, utilizing the two longest running daily in situ ocean temperature records in the Southern Hemisphere.

A new study comparing the biodiversity of wild mammals in Europe 8,000 years ago with the present has found that more species have been gained than lost on the continent.

The path to peace usually leads through a ceasefire. In an international project, ETH Zurich researchers have shown the conditions under which parties to civil wars are willing to stop fighting—and why they decide to do so.

Night owls may be looking forward to falling back into autumn standard time but a new study has found Daylight Saving Time may also suit morning types just fine.

A research team found higher death rates among people in prisons without air conditioning compared to those in climate-controlled institutions.

A team of researchers from Singapore has reported the development of a skin-mimicking scaffold by parallelly aligning nanofibers made up of a mixture of polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin that enhances wound healing. Their research has recently been published in Advanced Fiber Materials.