Science
How an unassuming wildflower thrives in salt-laden air that kills other plants
On the windswept coasts of Oregon and California lives an unassuming little plant that can withstand salty blasts that kill its inland counterparts. It's called the yellow monkeyf…
Warming seas could shrink most mollusks by 2100, but some may grow
Research led by scientists at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette challenges a long-held assumption about the effects of climate change on marine life: Warmer oceans won't si…
Built to last or break down: Ring size tunes biodegradable plastic lifetimes
Biodegradable plastics should be tough enough for use yet able to break down at an appropriate rate afterward. Researchers at the University of Osaka show that changing the size o…
Microbes—dead or alive—can be early indicators of soil health under regenerative farming
Researchers have demonstrated a series of biological tests that could serve as "proxies" for measuring how different regenerative agriculture practices could improve soil carbon—y…
Predictive tools can confuse rare mutations with dangerous ones
When a patient's DNA is read, it is compared with a reference version of the human genome. This allows geneticists and rare disease experts to look at a list of places where the p…
'Green thumb' molecule helps leaf stalks grow in crowded conditions
Potassium (K) is one of the three essential nutrients for plants. It plays a critical role in a wide range of processes, including cell growth, photosynthesis and regulation of wa…
A molecular brake that keeps muscle architecture in check
Every movement we make, from blinking to sprinting, depends on the ability of muscle fibers to contract in a rapid and coordinated way. Achieving this precision requires an intric…
How a plant's refusal to self-pollinate could help India grow more of its own cooking oil
Most people assume plants reproduce through whatever pollen happens to land on them. This is not true. A collaborative research initiative involving the Indian Institute of Techno…
Hot subdwarfs come into focus as AI scans thousands of stars in Gaia data
There are myriad ways of "being a star," and scientists spend years trying to uncover and understand them. One unusual type is the so-called hot subdwarf—small stars that burn mys…
Perseverance rover watches Earth vanish behind Martian moon
Earth and the Martian moon Phobos dance together in a series of images recently acquired by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. Earth appears as a point of light in the Martian sky, d…
'Power of disorder' tames CF₄, a semiconductor greenhouse gas that can persist for 50,000 years
Among the gases used in semiconductor manufacturing, tetrafluoromethane (CF₄) is a greenhouse gas more than 6,000 times as potent as carbon dioxide.
Early mammals weren't all loners—some may have lived in pairs alongside the dinosaurs
About 200 million years ago, furry, little egg-laying creatures evolved the ability to feed their offspring with a secretion from special glands: milk. Their evolutionary journey …
'Alien: Isolation 2': Facing a ruthless and evolved Xenomorph in our Gamescom hands-on preview
Sega and Creative Assembly's long-awaited survival horror sequel hits the ground running with a new cast of characters and a fast-paced prologue.
Minister tells Brits to stock up on days of supplies after ‘supersize’ El Niño warning
Exclusive: Angela Eagle urges people to be ‘a bit more resilient’ as she tells UK citizens to plan for national emergenciesBritish people have been urged to have enough food and w…
Court Stalls EPA Plan to Override California’s Vehicle Pollution Standards
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from challenging California’s longstanding authority to set vehicle pollution stan tdadards stricter th…
Photo: NASA's Hubble spies superbubble scene
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a sprawling cosmic vista in the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC, the largest of the small galaxies that orbit our Milky Way gala…
Chimpanzees have accents too, study finds
A study has found that young chimpanzees develop distinct population-specific vocal patterns as they mature (ontogeny), challenging the long-held assumption that their calls are i…
Newly discovered 1666 manuscript may trace four-lens telescope experiments to Galileo
A potentially history-altering finding by a University of Limerick researcher may provide the most detailed technical analysis of a telescope demonstrably made by the famous astro…
Wrinkled or smooth? Cell growth mechanics determine shape of plant organs
When inner and outer cell layers of sepals—the leaf-like plant organs that cover and protect the flower bud before it opens—all grow upward, the organs stay smooth and uniformly s…
Satellite images show how penguins' diets are changing in response to Antarctic climate change
The color of penguin poop, as seen from space, is offering a new window into how Antarctica's ecology and environment are changing over time.
Scottish 'pregnant grandmother' microbe bursts open after growing offspring within
Scientists have revealed a bizarre microscopic creature that reproduces in a way reminiscent of the horror film" Alien." The microbe grows one or more new cells inside its own bod…
Rising species numbers on Europe's mountaintops may mask increasing losses of high-elevation plant specialists
Decades of warming have relaxed cold-temperature constraints on mountain plant distribution and increased species numbers on mountaintops. An international research team led by sc…
BESIII sets world's most stringent direct limit on Lambda hyperon electric dipole moment
The BESIII Collaboration, led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has achieved the world's most precise measurement of the electric dipole …
Pigment found in beets linked to plants' adaptation to harsh environments
The pigments that give beets their red color may have helped a major group of flowering plants repeatedly adapt to dry environments, setting the stage for the evolution of traits …