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

Researchers at CERN have created microscopic versions of the early Universe by colliding surprisingly small atomic nuclei at nearly the speed of light. The collisions produced quark-gluon plasma, the ultra-hot matter believed to have filled the cosmos shortly after the Big Bang.

Black holes keep tearing these stars apart, but they survive and more — today's student signal.

Astronomers have found stars that repeatedly skim past supermassive black holes, surviving each encounter while producing a new burst of light. In some systems, those flares mysteriously fade with every return. Researchers now think the key may be stars that were already spinning

Europe saw at least 30,000 excess deaths across a blistering summer of back-to-back heat waves and drought that scientists have blamed on man-made climate change, according to provisional figures.

A simple yeast-based food supplement may help restore the immune system’s ability to fight cancer, according to new research in mice. Scientists found that yeast beta-glucan reprogrammed early immune cells in the bone marrow, leading to stronger, longer-lasting cancer-fighting re

Soccer ticket crackdowns and price hikes are excluding traditional fans and more — today's student signal.

The new season of the English Premier League is almost ready to kick off, and with it comes another annual cycle of the national game. Each August brings hope and expectation for supporters, with an opportunity to start anew. But rather than excited anticipation, frustration, ang

Long polymer chains are everywhere: in synthetic materials, soft matter, biological systems such as chromosomes, and mathematical models of filaments and knots. When many such chains are densely packed, they form what physicists call a polymer melt. In this crowded environment, e

Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon are California's most endangered salmon, with a single surviving population and an average of a few thousand returning fish in recent decades. Shasta Dam blocks their original habitat in cold mountain rivers draining Mount Shasta, leavin

Many people are aware that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN smashes tiny subatomic particles together at nearly the speed of light to test foundational laws of physics and discover new fundamental particles, but some experiments also help scientists better visualize the ac

Women are more likely to form close-knit friendship groups at work, a Durham University Business School study suggests. The findings are published in the journal Social Networks.

Young Bewick's swans only survive their first spring migration if they stay with their parents long enough. If they lose their parents in winter, they leave later and are unable to keep up with the rest of the population. As a result, there is a greater chance that they will die

As school districts continue searching for ways to recruit and retain teachers, new research from UNC-Chapel Hill suggests one promising pipeline may already be in classrooms: teaching assistants.

The closer two people grow, the more alike their brains work—or so the assumption goes. Two ETH Zurich studies challenge this idea by examining the brain activity of younger and older adults who drew together over several weeks. Despite growing closer, the similarity of their bra

Peppercorn-sized clumps of human brain cells grown in a lab for a record seven years aged similarly to those inside our heads, suggesting they "recorded the passage of time," scientists said Wednesday.

Researchers have uncovered a possible reason why the Alzheimer’s risk gene APOE4 can disrupt the brain long before memory problems begin. In mice, APOE4 increased a protein called Nell2, shrinking neurons and making memory circuits unusually active. That early hyperactivity predi

Of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, Callisto is the one that gets the least attention. Io is constantly being resurfaced by volcanoes. Europa has a giant liquid water ocean. And Ganymede has its own magnetic field that interacts with its parent planet in weird ways. Callisto, by co

Blue morpho butterflies have captivated the human eye for centuries. We even have one as an emoji on our phones. In a recent experiment, researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) documented for the first time that hot temperatures during development can re

China said on Sunday it was postponing its planned ambitious Chang'e-7 lunar mission, which was set to carry out explorations including searching for water ice on the moon.

Superconductors are materials that carry electrical current with zero resistance below a specific critical temperature. In conventional superconductors, the transition to superconductivity generally occurs at very low temperatures.

Researchers at CERN have created microscopic versions of the early Universe by colliding surprisingly small atomic nuclei at nearly the speed of light. The collisions produced quark-gluon plasma, the ultra-hot matter believed to have filled the cosmos shortly after the Big Bang.

Electron microscopes are used wherever particularly small details need to be imaged. But from a strictly physical point of view, every electron in a conventional electron microscope represents a missed opportunity: If all you do is count electrons, any additional quantum informat

Researchers have used AI to uncover the DNA signature of a key genetic “switch” involved in turning genes on. After analyzing about 500,000 DNA sequences, the model identified the initiator in roughly 60% of human genes. The breakthrough could help predict the effects of harmful

A decades-old compound may point to a new way of treating obesity by making the body burn more energy rather than simply reducing appetite. In mice, TOFA increased energy use by as much as 18%, reduced body fat without significant muscle loss, and improved blood sugar, triglyceri