In a breakthrough for environmentally friendly chemical production, researchers have developed an economical way to make succinic acid, an important industrial chemical, from sugarcane. The team has created a cost-effective, end-to-end pipeline for this valuable organic acid by engineering a tough, acid-tolerant yeast as the fermenting agent, avoiding costly steps in downstream processing....

Agriculture in Syria started with a bang 12,800 years ago as a fragmented comet slammed into the Earth’s atmosphere. The explosion and subsequent environmental changes forced hunter-gatherers in the prehistoric settlement of Abu Hureyra to adopt agricultural practices to boost their chances for survival.

As the internet quickly fills with viral videos of futuristic robots darting and racing around like the animals they’re built to mimic, researchers say that there’s an element of their movement’s programming that should not be overlooked: rhythm.

The increasingly urgent climate crisis has led to a boom in commercial tree plantations in an attempt to offset excess carbon emissions. However, authors argue that these carbon-offset plantations might come with costs for biodiversity and other ecosystem functions. Instead, the authors say we should prioritize conserving and restoring intact ecosystems.

Scientists have developed a device smaller than a toddler's shoebox -- called Lattice --that can simulate any human disease in up to eight organs (cell cultures from a human organ) or test new drugs without ever entering -- or harming -- the body. It is a major advancement from current in vitro systems, which can only study two cell cultures simultaneously.

A new compound potentially could offer an alternative to injections for the millions of people who suffer from an eye condition that causes blindness.

Even as the world slowly begins to decarbonize industrial processes, achieving lower concentrations of atmospheric carbon requires technologies that remove existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere — rather than just prevent the creation of it.

Researchers developed the first AI to date that can intelligently design robots from scratch by compressing billions of years of evolution into mere seconds. It's not only fast but also runs on a lightweight computer and designs wholly novel structures from scratch — without human-labeled, bias-filled datasets.

Cancer-related fatigue is a debilitating yet all-too-common condition, which can severely affect quality of life for patients undergoing treatment. For those struggling with CRF, there have been no effective pharmaceutical treatments for the constellation of symptoms that together define the syndrome. Researchers found that a metabolism-targeting drug called dichloroacetate (DCA) helped alleviate...

As chronic wasting disease (CWD) ravaged deer populations across the country in recent years, studies have primarily focused on how CWD can jump from farmed herds to wild deer, with little attention given to how transmission may occur from wild deer to those living on farms.

In a new PNAS study co-authored by Boston University biomedical engineer Dr. Chris Chen, researchers say they're getting closer to understanding the mysteries of lymphedema—a condition characterized by the buildup of fluid in the body due to a malfunctioning lymphatic system. Until now, the reasons behind this disorder have remained elusive.

In a breakthrough for environmentally friendly chemical production, researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) have developed an economical way to make succinic acid, an important industrial chemical, from sugarcane.

A small and once-prominent species of turtle, endangered by invasive bullfrogs, human development and climate change, might soon see a boost in efforts to rebuild its populations throughout the West.

In an unusual reversal, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has decided North America’s monarch butterfly is not “endangered.” Instead, the insect is only “vulnerable” to extinction, the group said last week—adding that it could lower the alarm still further, changing the listing to “near threatened” if an upcoming census suggests the population is...

Barack Obama. Meghan Markle. Trevor Noah. Depending on your race, you might consider these and other Multiracial people as Black, White, or somewhere in-between, according to new research by psychologists at Duke University and the University of Chicago.

Dr. Weihsueh Chiu, a professor at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, helped create a new tool that provides communities and policymakers with actionable data about long-term vulnerabilities tied to climate change.

Diseases are among the major causes of tree mortality in both forests and urban areas. New diseases are continually being introduced, and pathogens are continually jumping to new hosts, threatening more and more tree species. When exposed to novel hosts, emerging diseases can cause mortality previously unseen in the native range.

While on a recent visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden, Ann Harness spotted a creature she'd never seen before. The tall brown bird with a long bill looked like a cross between a rail and a heron.

The University of Cincinnati's Jiajie Diao and Yujie Sun have a simple approach to research: Keep an open mind, and follow the data wherever it leads.