Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.
Understanding the migration pathways of sharks and rays is key to conserving some of the world's most endangered marine species, according to new University of Queensland research.
A new report by the International Bar Association (IBA) has found a significant gap between the importance legal professionals attach to fundamental rule of law principles and their assessment of how effectively those principles are implemented in practice.
A study in Pollino National Park shows that large trees, complex canopies and deadwood diversity play a major role in shaping vascular plant communities, highlighting the ecological value of one of Italy's most remarkable old-growth forest landscapes.
Large-scale oyster reef restoration in the Chesapeake Bay is successfully creating three-dimensional habitats that support larger, more diverse fish communities, according to new research from scientists at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The study, published in Ecosphere, provides compelling evidence that restoration efforts are shifting underwater ecosystems from communities dominated by small, transient schooling fish to those supporting larger, resident species.
Biofilms are complex microbial communities that adhere to a surface and encase themselves in a viscous matrix they produce. This structure protects bacteria from antibiotics and the immune system far more effectively than if they lived in a free-floating state, making biofilms one of the most common causes of hard-to-treat chronic infections—such as respiratory infections in people with cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic wounds, or infections associated with catheters and prosthetic devices. Added to this is the global rise in antibiotic resistance, which makes it increasingly urgent to have tools capable of predicting which treatment will work in each ...
When a material heats up, its electrical resistance often rises. The harder question is what, exactly, is getting in the way. The electrons carrying the current may be scattered by vibrations of the material's atomic lattice, known as phonons. They may also collide with one another. Frustratingly, a conventional temperature test warms the electrons and the lattice together, so the effects arrive tangled in the same resistance measurement.
Forty-four years ago, Nadrian Seeman published his groundbreaking ideas on using DNA as a structural material, expanding DNA's significance far beyond its role as a carrier of genetic information. Since then, the steadily growing field of DNA nanotechnology has seen numerous innovations. One was the DNA origami technique, which enables researchers to fold a single long strand of DNA into a desired 2D or 3D shape.
What factors influence students' decisions about whether they will continue to use ChatGPT for learning in the future? This was the question addressed by a new study from ELTE's Faculty of Informatics, which used an interpretable machine learning framework to identify the factors that most strongly influence the use of generative artificial intelligence in higher education.
A square peg doesn't fit a round hole. But what if the peg could change the shape of the hole? A newly developed drug molecule can do something surprisingly similar when binding to its target protein, according to a University at Buffalo-led study published Tuesday (Sept. 15) in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
Sir John Gage, a key figure in Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, saved a dangerous Catholic book from likely destruction, a new study suggests. The identification of six lost pages of a medieval bestseller—illicitly prized by Catholics in the Reformation—as belonging to Gage, exposes the split loyalties of one of Tudor England's great survivors.
The pages come from a copy of Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ that once belonged to John Gage, an enforcer in Henry VIII’s court and a key figure in the historical dissolution of the monasteries
Rainwater connects the biogeochemical cycles of land and the atmosphere. It's effectively a chemical conveyor belt that delivers compounds to the ground during a process called wet deposition.
Archaeologists have analyzed insect remains preserved in the 7th to 9th centuries AD funerary cave of Cruz de la Esquina, Gran Canaria, and found that it was used by the island's Indigenous people for food storage before being adapted into a burial site. The findings have been published in the journal Antiquity.
The ocean's aphotic zone—the dark, high-pressure region below the surface, where sunlight cannot reach—is home to a vast wealth of microbial life. Yet scientists know relatively little about the genetic makeup, growth and function of many of these enigmatic organisms.
Sexual reproduction usually reshuffles genetic information, creating offspring that differ from their parents. But one small plant takes an unexpected route. In a new study published in Nature, an international team led by André Marques at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne has shown that the Brazilian beak-sedge Rhynchospora tenuis reproduces sexually—producing pollen, fertilizing its egg cells and setting seeds—but has completely lost the reshuffling of DNA between chromosomes from each parent. The offspring retained the same genetic makeup as their mothers, effectively mimicking clonal reproduction.
A rare Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) on Kangaroo Island has been confirmed to have died from highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu. The sea lion had recently been attacked by a shark, weakening it. Testing revealed that the virus caused its death. Another dead sea lion is being tested.
In March 2026, scientists succeeded in transporting antiprotons by road for the first time in a purpose-built trap loaded on a truck. The BASE collaboration, which realized this experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva under the lead of Professor Dr Stefan Ulmer and Dr Christian Smorra from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), now presents its findings and experiences from this pioneering experiment in the journal Nature. Among other things, they report that it was possible to store antiprotons in a mobile transport vessel for more than a month for the first time ever.
Eastern oyster larvae are only 100–300 micrometers long, but their dense calcium carbonate shells make them substantially heavier than the surrounding seawater. A new study led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) shows that this excess weight allows gravity to drive the feeding currents the larvae use to bring food to their mouths, a finding that reveals a critical role for gravity in how these tiny animals feed and survive.
Election officials can build public trust in procedures and results—even among suspicious voters who fear partisan manipulation—by creating videos that factually explain their security safeguards in simple terms. These are the findings of studies co-authored by a UC Riverside scholar, offering strategies for election officials to respond to false claims and conspiracy theories about election fraud and security, as well as suspicions that arise when mail-in ballot counting delays results.
New research led by the ARC Center of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) at the University of Melbourne demonstrates a new way to make invisible infrared light visible without relying on the expensive detector technology used in today's infrared cameras.