Top Science News

Apr. 29, 2025 — Scientists believe they have found a way to improve warning systems for vulnerable communities threatened by humid heatwaves, which are on the rise due to climate change and can be damaging and even fatal to human health. The study analysed how patterns of recent rainfall can interact with dry or moist land conditions to influence the risk of extreme humid heat in the global tropics and ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — In the past 20 years, the average rate of obesity among adults in the United States has risen by approximately 30 percent, but the rate of those with the most severe forms of obesity, or those with a body mass index, or BMI, of more than 60 kg/m2, increased by 210 percent. Researchers analyzed national health data from 2001 through 2023, and ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered why vaccines can elicit a stronger immune response if they are administered in the same ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — Crystals -- from sugar and table salt to snowflakes and diamonds -- don't always grow in a straightforward way. Researchers have now captured this journey from amorphous blob to orderly structures. In exploring how crystals form, the researchers also came across an unusual, rod-shaped crystal that hadn't been identified before, naming it 'Zangenite' for the graduate student who discovered ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — The NASA New Horizons spacecraft's extensive observations of Lyman-alpha emissions have resulted in the first-ever map from the galaxy at this important ultraviolet wavelength, providing a new look at the galactic region surrounding our solar ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — Researchers have created a light-powered soft robot that can carry loads through the air along established tracks, similar to cable cars or aerial trams. The soft robot operates autonomously, can climb slopes at angles of up to 80 degrees, and can carry loads up to 12 times its ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — With more than 181.5 billion tons of wood produced globally each year, a new method could revolutionize how we build sustainably. By infusing red oak with ferrihydrite using a simple, low-cost process, researchers strengthened the wood at the cellular level without adding weight or altering flexibility -- offering a durable, eco-friendly alternative to steel and concrete. The treated wood retains ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — Scientists have collaborated to analyze the inner workings of Bolivia's 'zombie' volcano, Uturuncu. By combining seismology, physics models and analysis of rock composition, researchers identify the causes of Uturuncu's unrest, alleviating fears of an imminent ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — Forget fleeting friendships the social secrets of the long-tailed tit has revealed an extraordinary level of family commitment even during migratory journeys. Birds that babysit: scientists reveal long-tailed tits' remarkable family ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — Climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires in many regions of the world. This is due partly to specific weather conditions -- known as fire weather -- that facilitate the spread of wildfires. Researchers have found that fire weather seasons are increasingly overlapping between eastern Australia and western North America. The research team examined the causes of this shift and its ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — Researchers have developed a new catalyst design capable of pushing the projected fuel cell catalyst lifespans to 200,000 hours. The research marks a significant step toward the widespread adoption of fuel cell technology in heavy-duty vehicles, such as long-haul tractor trailers. While platinum-alloy catalysts have historically delivered superior ...

Apr. 29, 2025 — An automated machine learning program has been able to identify potential cardiovascular incidents or fall and fracture risks based on bone density scans taken during routine clinical ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — A lab develops brain wave decoder that may help in spinal cord injury ...

Apr. 23, 2025 — Researchers have discovered that expansion of mutant blood cells, a phenomenon linked to aging, can be found in cancerous tumors, and this is associated with worse outcomes for ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — Why do some people do more for the community than others? A new study now shows that personality traits such as extraversion and agreeableness correlate with volunteering and charitable ...

Apr. 22, 2025 — In face-to-face conversations, speakers use hand movements to signal meaning. But do listeners actually use these gestures to predict what someone might say next? In a study using virtual avatars, scientists show that listeners used the avatar's gestures to predict upcoming speech. Both behavioral and EEG data indicated that hand gestures facilitate language processing, illustrating the ...

Apr. 22, 2025 — Researchers found that a brief episode of anxiety may have a bigger influence on a person's ability to learn what is safe and what is not. A new study used a virtual reality game that involved picking flowers with bees in some of the blossoms that would 'sting' the participant, simulated by a mild electrical stimulation on the hand. Researchers discovered that temporary feelings of anxiety had ...

Apr. 25, 2025 — A team of researchers designed and tested a new digital toolkit that helps consumers make healthier grocery choices online -- an innovation that could play a major role in the global fight against chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke and ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — Through intensive breeding, humans have pushed breeds such as pug dogs and Persian cats to evolve with very similar skulls and 'smushed' faces, so they're more similar to each other than they are to other dogs or ...

Apr. 23, 2025 — Study finds a 18.5% reduction in sick leave following LEZ implementation in Greater London compared to areas in England without low emission ...

Apr. 25, 2025 — A landmark study reveals that a single oral dose of baloxavir marboxil (baloxavir) significantly reduces the transmission of influenza within households, marking a major advancement in influenza management. The trial provides robust evidence that an antiviral treatment can curb the spread of influenza to close ...

Apr. 24, 2025 — A database about monkey behavior reveals how science is evolving towards a more open, collaborative ...

Apr. 25, 2025 — Researchers found a strategy to create catalysts that make the production of hydrogen for clean fuel more efficient and ...

Apr. 25, 2025 — Historically, small molecule drugs have been precisely designed down to the atomic scale. Considering their relatively large complex structures, nanomedicines have lagged behind. Researchers argue this precise control should be applied to optimize new ...

Apr. 25, 2025 — Researchers have developed a new therapy that can be injected intravenously right after a heart attack to promote healing and prevent heart failure. The therapy both prompts the immune system to encourage tissue repair and promotes survival of heart muscle cells after a heart attack. Researchers tested the therapy in rats and showed that it is effective up to five weeks after ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — For decades, scientists believed Vesta, one of the largest objects in our solar system's asteroid belt, wasn't just an asteroid and eventually concluded it was more like a planet with a crust, mantle and core. Now, new research flips this notion on its head. Astronomers reveals Vesta doesn't have a core. These findings startled researchers who, until that point, assumed Vesta was a protoplanet ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — New research has revealed that a massive meteorite struck northwestern Scotland about 200 million years later than previously thought, in a discovery that not only rewrites Scotland's geological history but alters our understanding of the evolution of non-marine life on ...

Apr. 18, 2025 — Researchers use the sophisticated technology on NASA's Perseverance rover to analyze volcanic rocks in Mars' Jezero Crater. Their findings show that some of the same volcanic processes that led to life on Earth happened long ago on Mars, a stunning step toward finding signs of ancient life on the Red ...

Apr. 24, 2025 — The world's largest solar telescope has reached an important milestone. The data published now were obtained during the technical commissioning of the ...

Apr. 25, 2025 — An interdisciplinary research team has unveiled the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) model designed to classify both the cancer stage and risk category of thyroid cancer, achieving impressive accuracy exceeding 90%. This innovative AI model promises to significantly cut frontline clinicians' pre-consultation preparation time by ...

Apr. 25, 2025 — As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance, researchers have identified a breakthrough that could make AI technologies faster and more ...

Apr. 25, 2025 — A recent global survey of 156 institutions reveals strong interest in VR-haptic technology for dental training, yet significant barriers impede widespread ...

Apr. 25, 2025 — Many products in the modern world are in some way fabricated using computer numerical control (CNC) machines, which use computers to automate machine operations in manufacturing. While simple in concept, the ways to instruct these machines is in reality often complex. A team of researchers has devised a system to demonstrate how to mitigate some of this ...

Apr. 25, 2025 — The less intensively you manage the soil, the better the soil can function. Such as not plowing as often or using more grass-clover mixtures as cover crops. Surprisingly, it applies to both conventional and organic ...

Apr. 24, 2025 — Pioneering research has repurposed a gene editing tool to help shed light on the true biodiversity present in natural ...

Apr. 23, 2025 — Scientists have discovered a surprising new connection between gut health and blood cancer risk one that could transform how we think about aging, inflammation, and the early stages of ...

Apr. 28, 2025 — On Jan. 1, 2024, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in Japan, resulting in extensive damage in the region caused by uplift, when the land rises due to shifting tectonic plates. The observed uplift, however, varied significantly, with some areas experiencing as much as a 5-meter rise of the ground surface. To better understand how the characteristics of the affected fault lines ...

Apr. 23, 2025 — When a seismologist visited the site of the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes two days after the event, he noticed something strange. Pebble- to boulder-sized rocks clearly had been moved by the earthquakes -- but there were no signs of dragging or shearing on the desert ...

Apr. 22, 2025 — Some species that breed over large geographic areas can still be adapted to a fairly narrow range of climates, making them more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought. Also, species with larger brains (relative to their body size) tend to be adapted to narrower climate niches, which suggests they too could also be more vulnerable than once ...

Apr. 25, 2025 — A new study has found worrying signs that climate change may be undermining the capacity of Arctic fjords to serve as effective carbon sinks. The findings suggest that the capacity of polar oceans to remove carbon from the atmosphere may be reduced as the world continues to heat ...

Apr. 23, 2025 — A new study found that some rattlesnakes are producing simpler venoms containing fewer and more focused toxin families than complex venoms -- a surprising discovery that challenges long-held ideas about how living alongside a variety of other species influences evolution in a world increasingly shaped by human ...

Apr. 23, 2025 — Ancient DNA analysis challenges our understanding of the ancient Phoenician-Punic civilization. An international team of researchers analyzing genome-wide data from 210 ancient individuals has found that Levantine Phoenician towns contributed little genetically to Punic populations in the central and western Mediterranean despite their deep cultural, economic, and linguistic ...

Apr. 21, 2025 — An international collaboration has published groundbreaking research, shedding light on the most significant increase in complexity in the history of life's evolution on Earth: the origin of the eukaryotic ...

Apr. 21, 2025 — What roils beneath the Earth's surface may feel a world away, but the activity can help forge land masses that dictate ocean circulation, climate patterns, and even animal activity and evolution. In fact, scientists believe that a plume of hot rocks that burst from the Earth's mantle millions of years ago could be an important part in the story of ...

Apr. 24, 2025 — Could the seismic signal of an underground nuclear test explosion be 'hidden' by the signal generated by a natural ...

Apr. 24, 2025 — Humans are better than current AI models at interpreting social interactions and understanding social dynamics in moving scenes. Researchers believe this is because AI neural networks were inspired by the infrastructure of the part of the brain that processes static images, which is different from the area of the brain that processes dynamic social ...

Apr. 24, 2025 — A new study finds that presenting the same continuous climate data, such as incremental changes in temperature, in binary form -- such as whether a lake did or did not freeze in the winter -- significantly increases people's ability to see the impact of climate ...

Apr. 24, 2025 — Mind blanking is a common experience with a wide variety of definitions ranging from feeling 'drowsy' to 'a complete absence of conscious awareness.' Neuroscientists and philosophers compile what we know about mind blanking, including insights from their own work observing people's brain ...

Apr. 23, 2025 — A new study by developmental scientists offers the first evidence that infants as young as 15 months can identify an object they have learned about from listening to language -- even if the object remains ...

Apr. 22, 2025 — With the assumption that students are going to use artificial intelligence and large language models such as ChatGPT to do their homework, researchers set out to learn how well the free version of ChatGPT would compare with human students in a semester-long undergraduate control systems ...

Apr. 22, 2025 — Adolescents who sleep for longer -- and from an earlier bedtime -- than their peers tend to have improved brain function and perform better at cognitive tests, researchers have shown. But the study of adolescents in the US also showed that even those with better sleeping habits were not reaching the amount of sleep recommended for their age ...

Apr. 11, 2025 — The UK government needs to go beyond offering subsidies for low-carbon technologies (LCTs) like electric cars and solar panels for energy and heating, if it is to meet its net-zero targets by 2050, a report ...

Apr. 10, 2025 — DECOTA transforms open-ended survey responses into clear themes -- helping policymakers make better use of underutilised public ...

Apr. 14, 2025 — Researchers have developed a new forecasting model that helps companies more accurately estimate how many customers are interested in a product -- even when key data is missing. The study introduces a mathematical modeling method that enables businesses to estimate customer interest beyond just completed transactions and traditional forecasting techniques. The approach offers a more precise way ...

Apr. 9, 2025 — In a new article, researchers explored whether a worker can create a psychological contract with a non-human agent in the form of an algorithm that mediates their relationship with an ...