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

When I explain topology to students, I start with a knot in a rope. You can stretch it, twist it or shake it, but the knot stays until you cut the rope. Physicists have found that some materials and devices carry similar "knots" in how waves move through them. These are topologic

Why do some students become ever better at mathematics, while others plateau? Many people may think that mathematics is primarily about cognitive skills. A new study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) provides a more nuanced view. The paper is publishe

When it came to religious education in ancient Babylonia, in what is now Iraq, students had a lot to learn, ranging from the names of gods to their divine characteristics. A new study published in the journal Iraq has taken a deep dive into ancient texts and surviving clay tablet

Software created by University of Queensland scientists could help AI platforms overcome a blind spot limiting their value in plant research. UQ Ph.D. student Tianqi Wei said even advanced vision-language models (VLMs) had difficulty interpreting images of microscopic plant detai

University of Massachusetts Amherst's Jeff Podos and his former graduate student João C.T. Menezes have identified two contenders for the title of world's loudest bird: the bare-throated bellbird and the red-legged seriema. Their findings also help explain why some birds are so m

Student discipline, staffing problems, frustrated parents—school principals spend their days moving from one problem to the next.

A research team from The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) and East China Normal University (ECNU) has published a meta-analysis demonstrating the impact of digital textbooks (DTs) on student motivation. Synthesizing 27 experimental and quasi-experimental studies conducte

BotChallenge.com adds daily bots and robots quiz rounds and challenges and more — today's student signal.

After taking a pill, the drugs it contains are distributed throughout the body, reaching the tissues and cells affected by disease and performing their intended function. However, they also enter healthy cells, where they often cause more harm than good.

Cities trying to cool sweltering streets often set broad tree canopy targets. But those targets can overlook the reality that not all shade is equally useful, and not every neighborhood has room for more trees.

One of the unresolved mysteries about the history of the Americas is when the first people arrived. Despite extensive debate centering on genetic, archaeological and environmental evidence, there is still no consensus or conclusive proof. Did they enter before, during or after th

Studying microorganisms requires instruments with extremely high precision. Such instruments are expensive and take a long time to manufacture using traditional methods, which has slowed progress in the field. It has also been difficult for the biologists who use these instrument

Like Earth, most planetary bodies circle their star in stable, detached orbits. These companionable systems can suddenly change when a planet comes too close to its star. In such a close encounter, a star can pull the planet in and swallow it whole.

Although digital platforms make it possible to sell the same product globally, prices often vary across countries because of differences in purchasing power, currencies, taxation and other market conditions. At the same time, the transparency of online prices enables consumers to

A new app is designed to help teachers stay healthy in their day-to-day work. The digital tool is the result of a three-year collaborative project between the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and health insurance provider AOK Bayern.

The bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE), a photoelectric effect that generates photocurrent without a p–n junction, can persist even when a material's average crystal structure remains centrosymmetric, a study from Institute of Science Tokyo has found. Researchers demonstrated this i

Even the most chaotic quantum systems keep a permanent mark of their own past—a "quantum birthmark"—that never fades. Researchers from Tampere University, Harvard University and TU Dresden discovered the feature in their recent study. Their findings shed new light on the elusive

Municipalities are increasingly mowing dikes and verges in stages, so that insects can make longer use of the plants growing there. Mowing is essential to keep a dike strong, explains ecologist Constant Swinkels of Radboud University. "If you don't mow, trees or sturdy shrubs suc

For more than 70 years, fusion energy researchers have used a particular equation to judge whether a plasma would stay hot and dense enough—for long enough—to reach a point where it could sustain itself without any more external power added. While that equation marks the finish l

CSI may have spawned innumerable spinoffs, but it turns out you can't trust TV—or sniffer dogs. New research is questioning the scientific basis for the dogs' use by police, as well as aspects of bloodstain pattern analysis and ballistics evidence routinely used in courts.

Disease and heat pose a deadly combination for coral reefs, according to a new University of Georgia study published in the journal Coral Reefs.

A year or so after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the city of Murmansk in Russia's Arctic northwest marked its annual regional day with a celebration for children. Alongside the sons and daughters of Russian soldiers stood children taken from the occupied Prymorskyi district