Some of the world’s most threatened sharks and rays—ancient, cartilaginous fish species under severe pressure globally from over-fishing – need protection by CITES, which is meeting this week in Bangkok
Cornell and Rutgers researchers report in the March issue of Oceanography that the severe loss of summertime Arctic sea ice – attributed to greenhouse warming – appears to increase the frequency of atmospheric blocking events like the one that steered Hurricane Sandy into the US Northeast.
University of Adelaide researchers have found the answer to one of natural history’s most intriguing puzzles – the origins of the now extinct Falkland Islands wolf and how it came to be the only land-based mammal on the isolated islands – 460km from the nearest land, Argentina.
UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists report the first successful blocking of tumor development in a genetic mouse model of an incurable human cancer.
The gravitational field surrounding this massive cluster of galaxies, Abell 68, acts as a natural lens in space to brighten and magnify the light coming from very distant background galaxies. In this Hubble photo, the image of a spiral galaxy at upper left has been stretched and mirrored into a shape similar to that of a simulated alien from the classic 1970s computer game Space Invaders!
Back in 2010, the ideas behind a squid’s sticky tendrils and Spiderman’s super-strong webbing were combined to create a prototype for the first remote device able to stop vehicles in their tracks. It worked, but that technology just got better.
Scientist Joshua Pearce became a 3D printing fanatic when he found he could save thousands by making his own lab equipment. Now he's looking at even bigger savings through using old milk jugs as raw material.
University of Chicago physicists have succeeding in creating a vortex knot—a feat akin to tying a smoke ring into a knot. Linked and knotted vortex loops have existed in theory for more than a century, but creating them in the laboratory had previously eluded scientists.
MIT and Brookhaven Lab physicists measured fleeting electron waves to uncover the elusive mechanism behind high-temperature superconductivity.
Physicists make the first direct measurements of the polarization states of light. Using a recently developed technique, their work both overcomes some important challenges of Heisenberg’s famous Uncertainty Principle and also is applicable to qubits, the building blocks of quantum information theory.
There is growing evidence that several million years ago the center of the Milky Way galaxy was site of all manner of celestial fireworks and a pair of astronomers from Vanderbilt and Georgia Institute of Technology propose that a single event -- a black hole collision -- can explain all the “forensic” clues.
The world’s shark populations are experiencing significant declines with perhaps 100 million – or more - sharks being lost every year, according to a study published this week in Marine Policy.
World-renowned primatologist Patricia Wright co-authors a study that will be published online in the February 28 issue of Behavioral Ecology.
Nova Southeastern U. Professor Jim Thomas leads international expedition in Papua New Guinea that finds new species of sea slugs, feather stars and amphipods, a shrimp-like animal.
Scientists have a new view of the cellular machinery that assembles directly on DNA and readies it for transcription into RNA, the first step in protein production.
Using new technology at the telescope and in laboratories, researchers have discovered an important pair of prebiotic molecules in interstellar space. The discoveries indicate that some basic chemicals that are key steps on the way to life may have formed on dusty ice grains floating between the stars.
Novel discovery brings a close to a 17-year-old scientific debate about the impact of mechanical stretching on the structure of DNA.
Researchers have demonstrated the use of a technique known as small angle neutron scattering (SANS) to study the effects of ions moving into nanoscale pores. The study is believed to be the first application of the SANS technique for studying ion surface adsorption in-situ.
As a bird sings, some neurons in its brain prepare to make the next sounds while others are synchronized with the current notes—a coordination of physical actions and brain activity that is needed to produce complex movements. The finding that may lead to new ways of understanding human speech production.
International team led by UAB finds 78 percent drop in leatherback turtle nests at primary nesting site; largest marine turtle in world may vanish.
Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology are testing the power of holography to artificially stimulate cells in the eye, with hopes of developing a new strategy for bionic vision restoration.
Running cockroaches start to recover from being shoved sideways before their dawdling nervous system kicks in to tell their legs what to do, researchers have found. These new insights on how biological systems stabilize could one day help engineers design steadier robots and improve doctors' understanding of human gait abnormalities.
The smallest astronomical satellite ever built will launch shortly after 07:20 a.m. EST on Monday, 25 February 2013 as part of a mission to prove that even a very small telescope can push the boundaries of astronomy.
Scientists at Amherst College and The University of Texas at Austin have established new limits on “long-range spin-spin interactions” between atomic particles. To make the study possible, the team created the first map of electron polarization within Earth induced by the planet’s geomagnetic field.
Peering deep into the vast stellar halo that envelops our Milky Way galaxy, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered tantalizing evidence for the possible existence of a shell of stars that are a relic of cannibalism by our Milky Way.
University of Adelaide researchers have provided new evidence on the long-debated authorship of two famous texts – the US Federalist Papers and the Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament.
As the nations of the world prepare to vote on measures to restrict international trade in endangered sharks in early March, a team of researchers has found that one of these species – the oceanic whitetip shark – regularly crosses international boundaries.
Astronomers have discovered a planet beyond our solar system that's about the size of the Earth's moon -- the first time they've found a planet smaller than any of the planets orbiting our sun. The findings were published online by the journal Nature.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are exploring an alternate theory for the origin of RNA: they think the RNA bases may have evolved from a pair of molecules distinct from the bases we have today. This theory looks increasingly attractive, as the Georgia Tech group was able to achieve efficient, highly ordered self-assembly in water with small molecules that are similar to the bases of RNA.
Species facing widespread and rapid environmental changes can sometimes evolve quickly enough to dodge the extinction bullet. University of Washington scientists consider the genetic underpinnings of such "evolutionary rescue."
University of Utah researchers ran computer simulations to show that the snow-producing “lake effect” isn’t always enough to cause heavy snowfall, but that mountains or other surrounding topography sometimes are necessary too.
A new Columbia Engineering study finds that the infant brain does not control its blood flow the same way as the adult brain, that the control of brain blood flow develops with age. These findings could change the way researchers study brain development in infants and children.
When it comes to forming the droplets that make up clouds, a little oily and viscous organic material apparently doesn’t matter that much. And that’s good news for reducing the uncertainty of climate model predictions.
Armed with new tools, University of Chicago astronomers search for worlds like Earth
Traces of water have been detected within the crystalline structure of mineral samples from the lunar highland upper crust obtained during the Apollo missions, according to a University of Michigan researcher and his colleagues.
DNA preserved in calcified bacteria on the teeth of ancient human skeletons has shed light on the health consequences of the evolving diet and behaviour from the Stone Age to the modern day.
An Ohio State University statistician says that the natural human difficulty with grasping probabilities is preventing Americans from dealing with climate change.
A search for long-lived balancing selection has found at least six regions of the genome where humans and chimpanzees share a combination of genetic variants. These human genetic variation dates back to a common ancestor with chimpanzees millions of years ago, before the species split.
Scientists have known for nearly a century that cold-blooded animals, such as worms, flies and fish all live longer in cold environments, but have not known exactly why.
Researchers have discovered how the tongue detects high concentrations of salt, the first step in a salt-avoiding behavior common to most mammals. The findings could serve as a springboard for the development of taste modulators to help control the appetite for a high-salt diet and reduce the ill effects of too much sodium. The findings were published today online in Nature.
You may want to ramp up your romance this year by sharing a candlelight dinner, a walk on the beach, or even the scent of a perfume, but will that help you find your perfect mate? For one wasp species, it only takes a whiff of his special love potion to know whether he’s “Mr. Right.”
New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest a highly distorted supernova remnant may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. The remnant appears to be the product of a rare explosion in which matter is ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star.
A new study from engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of California, Berkeley, pairs light and genetics to give researchers a powerful new tool for manipulating cells. Results of the study, published in the journal Nature Methods, show how blue light can be used as a switch to prompt targeted proteins to accumulate into large clusters.
Ancient carbon trapped in Arctic permafrost is extremely sensitive to sunlight and, if exposed to the surface when long-frozen soils melt and collapse, can release climate-warming carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere much faster than previously thought.
Fishing communities living on the islands of Indonesia’s Karimunjawa National Park have found an important balance, improving their social well-being while reducing their reliance on marine biodiversity, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Western Australia.
By identifying two genes required for transforming inorganic into organic mercury, which is far more toxic, scientists today have taken a significant step toward protecting human health.
Scientists build new tree of life for placentals using ‘phylophenomics,’ visualize common ancestor.
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have teamed up to uncover a mysterious infant star that behaves like a strobe light.
So why are students’ perceptions of the T. rex stalled in the early 1900s, when the dinosaurs were depicted as upright, somewhat slow-moving tail draggers? A Cornell University research team sought answers after years of anecdotally observing students drawing the T. rex incorrectly.
A University of Utah seismologist analyzed seismic waves that bombarded Earth’s core, and believes he got a look at the earliest roots of Earth’s most cataclysmic kind of volcanic eruption. But don’t worry. He says it won’t happen for perhaps 200 million years.
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