Ecology
Filamentous algae blooms alter river ecosystems without disrupting overall function
Algae is a ubiquitous feature in waterways throughout the globe, including western North America. Slippery, green epilithic algae is a familiar sight on river rocks. Toxic blue-green algae—cyanobacteria—is a visually ...
4 hours ago
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Chess960's random setups still favor white, new study reveals
Chess is a relatively simple game to learn but a very difficult one to master. Because the starting positions of the pieces are fixed, top players have relied on memorizing the "best" opening moves, which can sometimes result ...
Evidence of upright walking found in 7-million-year-old Sahelanthropus fossils
In recent decades, scientists have debated whether a seven-million-year-old fossil was bipedal—a trait that would make it the oldest human ancestor. A new analysis by a team of anthropologists offers powerful evidence that ...
Evolution
Jan 2, 2026
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479
How juvenile lobsters fall into a deadly natural trap in the Florida Keys
In the shallow waters of the Florida Keys, juvenile Caribbean spiny lobsters are unwittingly meeting their doom by stumbling into naturally occurring ecological traps, according to a new study published in the Proceedings ...
Sudden breakups of monogamous quantum couples surprise researchers
Quantum particles have a social life, of a sort. They interact and form relationships with each other, and one of the most important features of a quantum particle is whether it is an introvert—a fermion—or an extrovert—a ...
Condensed Matter
Jan 2, 2026
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150
Self-driving cars could prevent over 1 million road injuries across the US by 2035
Autonomous vehicles could dramatically reduce traffic accidents and injuries on U.S. roads. Drawing on historical data and current trends, a recent JAMA Surgery study projected that self-driving cars could prevent more than ...
On-demand hydrogen fuel production goes dark-mode
Hydrogen, the lightest element on the periodic table, is a master of escaping almost any container it's stored in. Its extremely small size allows it to squeeze through atomic-scale gaps in the storage materials, which is ...
High-dose risankizumab trial tests staying power against psoriasis
Oregon Medical Research Center in Portland, Oregon, has led a phase 2 trial in moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis that paired higher-than-approved doses of risankizumab with extended follow-up and found high early skin clearance ...
Reinforcement learning accelerates model-free training of optical AI systems
Optical computing has emerged as a powerful approach for high-speed and energy-efficient information processing. Diffractive optical networks, in particular, enable large-scale parallel computation through the use of passive ...
Hardware
Jan 3, 2026
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52
The Future is Interdisciplinary
Find out how ACS can accelerate your research to keep up with the discoveries that are pushing us into science’s next frontier
Medical Xpress
Tangled scar tissue may set stage for dangerous placenta condition
Creating cells that help the brain keep its cool
Costs pose hurdle for promising new hepatitis C lab test
Short, intensive workouts can help fight bowel cancer
Top tips for getting through winter months—and they're not what you think
Pregnant women hospitalized for COVID-19, and their newborns, have higher complication risk
Why procrastination isn't laziness—it's rigid thinking that your brain can unlearn
What color should I repaint my home? Ask a psychologist
Why New Year's resolutions might feel harder this year—and what could help
One in four Norwegian mothers skip postnatal check-ups despite free service, study finds
First breathing 'lung-on-chip' developed using genetically identical cells
Tech Xplore
Focus apps claim to improve your productivity. Do they actually work?
On-demand hydrogen fuel production goes dark-mode
Peering inside perovskite: 3D imaging reveals how passivation boosts solar cell efficiency
UK sees record-high electricity from renewables in 2025: Study
Norway closes in on objective of 100% electric car sales
TSMC says started mass production of 'most advanced' 2nm chips
Tiny tech, big AI power: What are 2-nanometer chips?
Southern California's unlikely AI mecca is this very industrial city
New sensor measures strain, strain rate and temperature with single material layer
Analyzer delivers real-time insights for US power grid
Nanoparticle therapy reprograms tumor immune cells to attack cancer from within
Within tumors in the human body, there are immune cells (macrophages) capable of fighting cancer, but they have been unable to perform their roles properly due to suppression by the tumor. A KAIST research team led by Professor ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 2, 2026
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127
First ancient herpesvirus genomes document their deep history with humans
For the first time, scientists have reconstructed the ancient genomes of human betaherpesvirus 6A and 6B (HHV-6A/B) from archaeological human remains more than two millennia old. The study, led by the University of Vienna ...
Archaeology
Jan 2, 2026
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101
Two white-blooded fish, two paths: Icefish and noodlefish independently lose red blood cell function
Antarctic icefish are famous for living without red blood cells, but they are not alone. A species of needle-shaped, warm-water fish called the Asian noodlefish also lacks hemoglobin and red blood cells. Like icefish, its ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 2, 2026
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96
Origins of THC, CBD and CBC in cannabis revealed
Where do the well-known cannabis compounds THC, CBD and CBC come from? Researchers at Wageningen University & Research have experimentally demonstrated for the first time how cannabis acquired the ability to produce these ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 2, 2026
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198
Wood-derived chemicals offer safer alternative for thermal receipt paper coatings
Every day, millions of people use thermal paper without thinking about it. Receipts, shipping labels, tickets, and medical records all rely on heat‑sensitive coatings to make text appear. More specifically, heat triggers ...
Materials Science
Jan 2, 2026
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21
How a single 2003 heat wave triggered lasting upheaval in the North Atlantic
The ecology of the North Atlantic is constantly changing. Sometimes it changes abruptly. Extreme events are one driver of such sudden changes. A team of researchers has discovered that a single, large-scale heat wave has ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 2, 2026
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118
Flowering plant origins: Dosage-sensitive genes suggest no whole-genome duplications in ancestral angiosperm
Angiosperms, also known as flowering plants, represent the most diverse group of seed plants, and their origin and evolution have long been a central question in plant evolutionary biology. Whole-genome duplication (WGD), ...
Evolution
Jan 2, 2026
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52
Bacteria reveal second 'shutdown mode' for surviving antibiotic treatment
A new study reveals that bacteria can survive antibiotic treatment through two fundamentally different "shutdown modes," not just the classic idea of dormancy. The paper is published in the journal Science Advances.
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 2, 2026
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52
How the 'guardian of the genome' impacts blood vessel growth
The protein p53, best known as the "guardian of the genome" for its role in preventing cancer, can affect blood vessels in different ways. However, it has not been clear how p53 can slow blood vessel growth in some cases ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 2, 2026
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43
Quantum spins team up to create stable, long-lived microwave signals
When quantum particles work together, they can produce signals far stronger than any one particle could generate alone. This collective phenomenon, called superradiance, is a powerful example of cooperation at the quantum ...
General Physics
Jan 2, 2026
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146
2025 was UK's hottest and sunniest year on record
Last year was Britain's hottest and sunniest on record, the national weather service confirmed on Friday, calling it a "clear demonstration" of the impacts of climate change.
Qaidam Basin fossils suggest Pleistocene establishment of East Asian migratory flyway
A research team led by Associate Professor Wang Yaqiong from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), in collaboration with colleagues from multiple domestic and international ...
Inside scoop: The 2,500-year history of ice-cream
We all scream for ice-cream, especially as temperatures soar in the summer. Ancient civilizations had the same desire for a cold, sweet treat to cope with heat waves.
What makes mountain birds sing at dawn—and why are they sometimes quiet? Ecologists explain
Three species of the melodic African warbler bird refuse to get up early and sing their customary daybreak songs when the weather is cold. This new discovery was made recently by a team of soundscape ecologists in South Africa's ...
Taste buds: From flavor explosions to muted meals—why our taste changes as we age
Ever bitten into a hot pie, yelped "Hothothot!" then had your taste buds go on strike for the next week? Taste buds are a sensitive bunch.
Opinion: Is world peace even possible? I study war and peace, and here's where I'd start
By any measure, 2025 was not a good year for world peace.
The interstellar comet that's spilling its secrets
When 3I/ATLAS swept past the sun in late October 2025, it became only the third confirmed visitor from interstellar space ever detected. Unlike the mysterious 'Oumuamua, which revealed almost nothing about itself during its ...
Ancient African bedrock reveals the violent beginnings of life on our blue planet
You have probably seen the images of the surface of Mars, beamed back by NASA's rovers. What if there were a time machine capable of roaming Earth during its remote geological past, perhaps even going right back to its beginnings, ...
What were books like in ancient Greece and Rome?
If you were to visit a bookshop in the ancient world, what would it be like?
Why central bankers look to the 'stars' when setting interest rates
When the topic of central banks and the outlook for interest rates comes up, economists often turn to the so-called "star" variables to help with their predictions.
Curiosity sends holiday postcard from Mars
Team members working with NASA's Curiosity Mars rover created this "postcard" by commanding the rover to take images at two times of day on Nov. 18, 2025, spanning periods that occurred on both the 4,722nd and 4,723rd Martian ...
When stars fail to explode
Many stars die spectacularly when they explode as supernovae. During these violent explosions, they leave behind thick, chaotic clouds of debris shaped like cauliflowers. But supernova remnant Pa 30 looks nothing like that.
Space mice come home and start families
Four mice went to space as astronauts. One came back and became a mother. And that simple fact might matter more than you'd think for humanity's future beyond Earth.
Could TRAPPIST-1's seven worlds host moons?
Forty light-years away, seven Earth-sized planets orbit around a dim red dwarf star in one of the most tightly packed planetary systems ever discovered. The TRAPPIST-1 system has captivated astronomers since 2017, with three ...
A zero-shot learning framework for maize cob phenotyping
A new study presents a zero-shot learning (ZSL) framework for maize cob phenotyping, enabling the extraction of geometric traits and estimation of yields in both laboratory and field settings without the need for model retraining.
Real-life experiment shows Niels Bohr was right in a theoretical debate with Einstein
Scientists in China have performed an experiment first proposed by Albert Einstein almost a century ago when he sought to disprove the quantum mechanical principle of complementarity put forth by Niels Bohr and his school ...
Wind-battered Lick Observatory rushes to shield historic telescope after dome damage
Winds exceeding 110 mph that tore across the top of Mount Hamilton early Christmas morning blasted a massive steel protective door off the iconic white dome at Lick Observatory.
One of the rarest animal adaptations in the world happens in the winter in Colorado
Winter is hard, and for wildlife in Colorado, it's even harder. To survive, many species have developed adaptations over hundreds of thousands of years that allow them to weather the storms, including hibernation, thicker ...
Can beavers help heal burn scars after wildfires? Researchers build their own dams to find out
High in the mountains west of Fort Collins, teams of scientists and engineers are pretending to be beavers.
Regional temperature records broken across the world in 2025
Central Asia, the Sahel region and northern Europe experienced their hottest year on record in 2025, according to AFP analysis based on data from the European Copernicus program.
