Many cat owners are familiar with torn cushions, carpets, and couches. The feline instinct to scratch is innate, but is often perceived as a behavioral problem by cat owners, and sometimes leads to interventions that are not cat-friendly.
Two new species of psychoactive mushrooms in the genus Psilocybe have been described from southern Africa, bringing the list to six known species indigenous to Africa. Psilocybe species are among the most well-known and well-studied…
In a recent study, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine suggest that the cell's messenger RNA (mRNA)—the major translator and regulator of genetic material—along with a critical protein called ZAK—spurs the cell's initial response to UV…
Researchers have developed a new two-photon polymerization technique that uses two lasers to 3D print complex high-resolution structures. The advance could make this 3D printing process less expensive, helping it find wider use in a…
Luminescence refers to the result of a process in which an object absorbs light at one wavelength and then re-emits it at another wavelength. Through light absorption, electrons in the ground state of the material are excited to a higher…
A team of astrophysicists led by Caltech has managed for the first time to simulate the journey of primordial gas dating from the early universe to the stage at which it becomes swept up in a disk of material fueling a single supermassive…
As the climate warms, many species are on the move, raising new challenges for policy-makers around the world. Shifts in the ranges of mosquitoes and disease-bearing ticks and bats are introducing illnesses such as malaria and Lyme disease…
For nearly 50 years, physicists have dreamed of the secrets they could unlock by raising the energy state of an atom's nucleus using a laser. The achievement would allow today's atomic clocks to be replaced with a nuclear clock that would…
A common infection-causing bacteria was much less likely to evolve antibiotic resistance when treated with a mixture of antimicrobial peptides rather than a single peptide, making these mixtures a viable strategy for developing new…
As Independence Day approaches, Utahns are preparing to celebrate the nation's birth with dazzling displays of light and color. However, a new BYU study published in Applied Geochemistry warns that these festivities come with an often…
Researchers at Arizona State University have made a significant advance in understanding how genes are controlled in living organisms. The new study, published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, focuses on critical snippets of RNA in…
In an ongoing game of cosmic hide and seek, scientists have a new tool that may give them an edge. Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a computer program…
Surface mapping technology such as GPS, radar and laser scanning have long been used to measure features on the Earth's surface. Now, a new computational technique developed at The University of Texas at Austin is allowing scientists to…
Scientists have made a significant breakthrough in creating a new method for transmitting quantum information using particles of light called qudits. These qudits promise a future quantum internet that is both secure and powerful. The…
Plants have long been known to release chemicals to respond to stress and relay information to their neighbors. A team of scientists from Bigelow Laboratory have shown that glaucophytes, a small group of single-celled algae distantly…
Organizations using AI to monitor employees' behavior and productivity can expect them to complain more, be less productive and want to quit more—unless the technology can be framed as supporting their development, Cornell research finds.
Invasive brown widow spiders across three continents were highly infected with a single strain of Rhabdochlamydia, a bacterium that is related to major pathogens of humans and animals, including chlamydia. A bite from these spiders,…
The cosmos seems to come alive with a crackling explosion of pyrotechnics in this new image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Taken with Webb's MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), this fiery hourglass marks the scene of a very young…
The remarkable aurora in early May this year demonstrated the power that solar storms can emit as radiation, but occasionally the sun does something far more destructive. Known as "solar particle events," these blasts of protons directly…
We unconsciously form prejudice toward groups when we see biased people interact with members of a group. That is according to new research by psychologists of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), who show for the first time that…
A new microscopy method has allowed researchers to detect tiny changes in the atomic-level architecture of crystalline materials—like advanced steels for ship hulls and custom silicon for electronics. The technique could advance our…
Three-dimensional (3D) imaging of organs and tissues is vital as it can provide important structural information at the cellular level. 3D imaging enables the accurate visualization of tissues and also helps in the identification of…
The EU Emissions Trading System is not only good for reducing CO2 and for the climate. It also results in considerable health benefits due to reduced air pollution and saves hundreds of billions of euros, according to a recently released…
In new research, physicists have wielded the power of chess to design a group of intricate mazes, which could ultimately be used to tackle some of the world's most pressing challenges.
New research provides the clearest evidence yet that the Cambrian explosion—a rapid burst of evolution 540 million years ago, could have been triggered by only a small increase in oxygen levels in Earth's atmosphere and shallow ocean…
Biomolecular condensates are membraneless hubs of condensed proteins and nucleic acids within cells, which researchers are realizing are tied to an increasing number of cellular processes and diseases. Studies of biomolecular condensate…
Versatile molecular frameworks called discrete supramolecular structures act like microscopic building blocks customizable for a wide variety of applications. The structures can serve in drug delivery, provide unique environments for…
The more we discover about the natural world, the more we find that nature is the greatest engineer. Past research believed that liquids can only be transported in fixed direction in species with specific liquid communication properties,…