Science, engineering, and discovery — the research and breakthroughs that matter.

A large-scale study of nearly 700 species reveals the evolutionary relationships and history of Neogastropoda, a diverse group of marine snails. The findings provide new evidence for their single origin, identify four new families and reveal a previously undetected burst of diver

What happens during a wildfire? The short answer is: much more than we know. As wildfires burn through trees, grasses and other vegetation, heat from the flames sets off thousands of chemical reactions at once. Molecules break apart, recombine and transform into new compounds, re

My students and I encountered a mystery. We were partnering with the Missouri Department of Conservation to monitor for fish presence and abundance in the Missouri Ozarks. We visited half a dozen rivers and streams across the region and collected a few cups of water from each.

South Africa can produce enough food for its population, according to official statistics. But millions face hunger, partly because food is lost and wasted in the value chain. An estimated 10.3 million metric tons of food is wasted annually in the country, 19% of it fresh produce

Bacteria, too, depend on good neighborly relations: A new study by the Osnabrück University, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Cambridge in England, shows that soil bacteria live in beneficial communities and frequently exchange nutrients with one another.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's 16-year rule ended in the spring, when voters replaced him with Péter Magyar, who has pledged to undo Orbán-led initiatives that, in the eyes of critics, isolated and politicized science.

The future of Maine's lobster industry may depend on a creature the size of a sesame seed. Researchers at the University of Maine have discovered that planktonic baby lobsters, or larvae, preferentially feed on Calanus finmarchicus, a tiny, calorie-rich zooplankton species, durin

New research from Cardiff University and the University of Melbourne has investigated whether GenAI could mimic human marking when evaluating written student work. The results have been published in the journal Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.

Common medications may reshape the gut microbiome long after the last dose is taken. In a study of more than 2,500 people, researchers found lasting microbial changes linked not only to antibiotics, but also to antidepressants, beta-blockers, acid-reducing drugs, and benzodiazepi

Australia is one of the world's great ocean nations. It is home to more marine species than any other country, with ocean ecosystems spanning all five of the world's climate zones, from the coral-rich tropics to the icy shores of Antarctica.

Both too little and too much sleep may be linked to faster aging throughout the body. Researchers analyzing 23 biological aging clocks found the lowest aging levels among people sleeping about 6.4 to 7.8 hours per day. Short or long sleep was also associated with numerous conditi

Humans develop at a slower rate than other mammalian species, like mice, but scientists are still trying to understand the molecular basis of these differences. Now, researchers from the Ebisuya Group at EMBL Barcelona and PoL-TU Dresden and from the Savitski Team at EMBL Heidelb

What happens during a wildfire? The short answer is: much more than we know. As wildfires burn through trees, grasses and other vegetation, heat from the flames sets off thousands of chemical reactions at once. Molecules break apart, recombine and transform into new compounds, re

My students and I encountered a mystery. We were partnering with the Missouri Department of Conservation to monitor for fish presence and abundance in the Missouri Ozarks. We visited half a dozen rivers and streams across the region and collected a few cups of water from each.

A programmable microfluidic device developed at the Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, combines deterministic lateral displacement, a microfluidic technique used to separate particles according to size, with temperature-responsive polymer micropillars to dynamically change separa

When I first arrived in Peru's Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve in 2005, a local youth surprised me with an offer to sell me a live owl, despite the fact that we were in a protected area where commercial hunting was prohibited. We set the owl free together, but this turned out

Washington State University researchers used artificial intelligence to find a more efficient, less expensive way to 3D-print a high-performance metal alloy, saving researchers from needing to painstakingly test more than 100 million options.

A research team from Singapore, led by Associate Professor Dawn Tan of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Dr. Luo Xianshu, head of the Silicon Photonics Department at the A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics (A*STAR IME), has developed a low-loss silicon

In the journal npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, researchers from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) and the University of São Paulo (USP) describe the role of three bacteria in suppressing a soil-borne wheat pathogen that causes root rot. The study paves the w

Researchers from the Skoltech Materials Center have proposed a new approach to modeling the mechanical properties of heterogeneous materials, combining machine learning with active learning on local chemical configurations. The method enables calculations of large systems contain

Under global warming, scientists have widely expected tropical cyclones (including typhoons and hurricanes) to bring more intense and frequent rainfall. The underlying physics seems intuitive: Rising temperatures allow the atmosphere to hold more moisture, which, combined with in

Green and blue spaces, such as woodlands and riversides, could provide a vital line of defense for cities facing increasingly hot summers, according to new research from the University of Surrey.

What happens to a space rock as it falls through Earth's atmosphere and becomes a meteorite? By studying 75 meteorite falls captured on video and in photographs, researchers identified seven distinct phases in the journey from space rock to meteorite. Their findings show that mel

In a study published in Nature on Aug. 19, a research team has enhanced superconductivity through vacuum fluctuations for the first time. The achievement marks a significant advance in controlling quantum states of matter.