Evolution

Mammal ancestors laid eggs—and this 250-million-year-old fossil proves it

A remarkable new discovery is shedding light on one of the greatest survival stories in Earth's history, and answering a decades-old scientific mystery. Lystrosaurus, a hardy, plant-eating mammal ancestor, rose to prominence ...

Plants & Animals

Chimpanzee empire falls apart in rare instance of division and deadly violence

The largest group of wild chimpanzees known to scientists has permanently split in two. In a study published in Science, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and other institutions report the first clearly documented ...

Without the right tests, the best medicines make no difference

A new analysis from UC San Francisco argues that diagnostics—medical tests that match patients to the appropriate treatment—are being overlooked both in the United States and around the world. This is slowing progress against ...

Electrofluidic fiber muscles could enable silent robotic systems

Muscles are remarkably effective systems for generating controlled force, and engineers developing hardware for robots or prosthetics have long struggled to create analogs that can approach their unique combination of strength, ...

How an overactive immune system can drive cancer

The immune system is designed to protect us against viruses and bacteria. In autoimmune diseases, however, the immune system instead attacks the body's own cells. Conditions such as systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus) and ...

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Medical Xpress

Tech Xplore

How surface chemistry impacts the performance of malaria nets

Insecticide-treated bed nets remain one of the most effective tools in malaria prevention, acting both as a physical barrier and as an insecticidal surface that kills or disables mosquitoes before they can transmit disease. ...

Ant larvae control parental care by using odor signals

In the clonal raider ant (Ooceraea biroi), workers in a colony alternate between caring for larvae and laying eggs in a coordinated cycle. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena have discovered ...

Examining embryo model ethics beyond box-checking

In science, ethical guidelines ensure that research takes place in a way that respects public trust and is conducted responsibly. Traditional ethics approval procedures work well for projects following established practices, ...

What if dark matter came in two states?

The absence of a signal could itself be a signal. This is the idea behind a new study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, which aims to redefine how we search for dark matter, showing that it ...

This giant virus just gave up its atomic blueprint

A research group has successfully determined, for the first time in the world, the capsid (outer shell) structure of Melbournevirus—a member of the giant virus family—at a resolution of 4.4 Å using cryo-electron microscopy ...

Twin NASA control rooms support Artemis safety, success

Twin control rooms at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are actively supporting real-time mission operations in lunar orbit as part of the agency's Artemis II mission, helping ensure astronaut safety ...

Emperor penguins listed as endangered species: IUCN

The emperor penguin has been declared an endangered species as climate change pushes the icon of Antarctica a step closer to extinction, the global authority on threatened wildlife announced on Thursday.

New study reveals the depth of children's nuclear anxiety

As geopolitical tensions rise globally, a new study published in Critical Studies on Security warns that the shadow of the "mushroom cloud" is weighing heavily on the next generation. The research paper, titled "Mushrooms, ...

New Hampshire ski industry concerned about climate change

New research out of the University of New Hampshire reveals that the majority of New Hampshire ski industry professionals are concerned about the effects of global warming on the ski industry, which generates close to $278.8 ...

Global warming may be a boon for this aggressive prairie plant

Climate change may reduce yields of crops like corn and soybeans, but it can also give some plants an edge. That's one of the takeaways of a recent study of tall goldenrod, a common wildflower that runs rampant in fields ...

Pigeons tend to respond 'at the edge of chaos,' study finds

If you were rewarded for following a particular pattern of behavior, wouldn't you keep doing it? The answer turns out to be more nuanced than you might think. In a new study, University of Iowa researchers report that pigeons ...

Origins of Earth's most powerful ocean current revealed

It transports far more than 100 times as much water as all of the Earth's rivers combined: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current rushes around the southern continent unhindered by land masses and is therefore a fundamental component ...

Mutant clownfish reveals how nature draws boundaries

In 1999, a clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) hatched in the aquarium of a tropical fish hobbyist in the UK. These clownfish are prized by aquarists for their unique pattern of three straight white bars bordered by a thin black ...

Water-repelling surfaces reveal surprising charging effects

Materials that repel water are used in countless applications, including industrial separation processes, routine laboratory pipetting, and medical devices. When water touches these surfaces, the interface where they meet ...

Hera aces a massive engine burn on its way to Didymos

In September 2022, humanity crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid—on purpose. The objective of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was to see if we could intentionally modify the orbit of Dimorphos, the small moonlet ...

AI tools are widely used by federal judges, study finds

A new Northwestern study surveying federal judges across the U.S. on their use and outlook on artificial intelligence in and outside of the courtroom found that more than 60% of judges who responded reported using at least ...

New Henrietta spectrograph to probe alien atmospheres

Finding life beyond our solar system goes beyond measuring an exoplanet's size, as rocky, Earth-sized worlds might not have the conditions for life as we know it. While exoplanets can be directly imaged by blocking their ...