The strange case of the shrinking star
Betelgeuse, the bright red supergiant star in the constellation Orion, has shrunk by more than 15 percent over the past…
Genetic regions linked to animal tameness identified
A team of scientists from Germany, Russia and Sweden have identified the regions of genetic code that are responsible for…
Parasite puzzle: scientists mull coextinction conundrum
Most of us feel anguish over the loss of endangered species like the panda or the polar bear. But what…
Did population density create modern humans?
A controversial new study in the journal Science argues that increasing population density, rather than growth in the power of…
Biologically inspired, ultra-broadband chip could enable “cognitive” radio
Inspired by nature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers have designed and built a fast, ultra-broadband, low-power radio chip that…
Ethanol production degrading soil productivity
Crop residues are viewed as a low cost and readily available source of material for ethanol production. But these residues…
Incandescent light bulbs: not quite down and out
An ultra-powerful femtosecond laser flash can make regular incandescent light bulbs as cost-effective as their fluorescent cousins, say optics researchers…
Breakthrough in controlling superposition quantum states
UC Santa Barbara researchers have demonstrated a significant breakthrough in the quantum control of photons. Reported in Nature, their findings…
Tantalizing glimpse of macroscopic quantum effects
The weird laws of quantum mechanics govern how molecules, atoms and smaller particles behave, but quantum phenomena sometimes “leak up”…
Dire outlook for shellfish in a high CO2 world
Shellfish living in the world’s temperate coastal ecosystems are under threat from increasing ocean acidification, says Smithsonian scientist Whitman Miller.…
Earth to get hotter sooner
New modeling on the likelihood of how much hotter the Earth’s climate will get this century shows that without rapid…
Marriages fixed with oxytocin
Relationships are hard work and most of us have probably felt at some point that communicating positively with our significant…
Cloud-seeding microorganisms go under the microscope
A new study is the first to yield direct data on how bacteria, fungal spores and plant material influence cloud…
Melting threat from ice sheet overestimated?
The total or partial collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would not raise global sea levels as high as…
Back to the drawing board for North Atlantic circulation
The conveyor belt paradigm that is used to describe the North Atlantic ocean’s circulation has it that the Gulf Stream-warmed…
Superbugs thriving in wastewater treatment plants
In the first study of its kind, University of Michigan researchers have established that wastewater treatment plants are providing a…
Men and women equal? Not when it comes to the immune system
Men may not have been dealt an equal hand when it comes to immunity. Dr. Maya Saleh, of the Research…
Entanglement of single photon detected across four locations
California Institute of Technology scientists have demonstrated how entanglement in the form of beams of light simultaneously propagating along four…
Modified Newtonian dynamic could do away with dark matter
As modern cosmology comes to rely more and more on “dark matter” to explain otherwise inexplicable observations, there continues to…
Laissez faire use of DDT concerns experts
DDT’s use to combat malaria was endorsed in 2006 by the World Health Organization and the organochlorine pesticide is now…
Mechanism behind caffeine withdrawal revealed
Ever miss your daily cup of coffee and subsequently get a headache and feelings of fatigue? Now, thanks to researchers…
Novel method to induce immunity to chlamydia
Researchers at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have designed…
Constructal law seeks to unify animate and inanimate designs of nature
Earth’s living creatures and inanimate phenomena may have more in common than previously thought. At least that is the view…
Lost world… found?
New evidence suggests that dinosaur bones found in the San Juan Basin date from after the supposed dino-doomsday, and that…
Nano-mechanical sensors “wired” using photonics
Yale researchers have demonstrated silicon-based nano-cantilevers, smaller than the wavelength of light, that operate on photonic principles eliminating the need…
Scientists mull polarized light detection from alien life-forms
Like life on Earth, extraterrestrial life should create an environment with a large amount of molecules that favor one kind…
Fires account for 20% of CO2 emissions
Fires are a significant – up to one-fifth – contributor to climate change, according to a report published in the…
Beer-goggles put to the test
A fascinating new study has demonstrated that consuming alcohol does not affect how men judge the age of women. The…
Male impotence drugs beneficial for some women with sexual dysfunction
The main drugs used to treat male impotence appear to also benefit around 40 percent of women who report sexual…
New nucleotide could revolutionize field of epigenetics
Adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine – the A,T,G and C that make up the DNA code. But these 4 letters…