Archaeology

Centuries of child labor left lasting spinal damage in Dutch children, study finds

Children in the postmedieval Dutch workforce worked so hard that their spines became worn and deformed, with some children affected before they even had a chance to lose their baby teeth, a new study published in the International ...

General Physics

How plastic welds retain a molecular 'memory' of their former surfaces to strengthen pipe joints

Welding plastic is a critically important part of everyday engineering—especially for preventing leaks in underground water and gas pipes. For decades, engineers have understood that a properly welded joint in polyethylene ...

Light-powered soft robots that can keep jumping forever

Researchers from North Carolina State University have created teardrop-shaped soft robots that leap upward or forward when exposed to infrared light—and will keep jumping as long as the light is present. The work demonstrates ...

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Tech Xplore

New transistor brings high voltage to microchip scale

Inside every electronic device, the flow of electricity is controlled by a switch called a transistor. For decades, these switches were made from silicon. More recently, engineers have turned to a material called gallium ...

JWST reveals a race against time for forming planets

Planets form from disks of gas and dust around young stars, but the gas needed for growth does not last forever. New observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) now offer a new view of how this gas escapes ...

A near extinct plant in Galápagos is now recovering

A 30-year conservation effort has helped the critically endangered Galápagos snapdragon (Galvezia leucantha subsp. leucantha) recover from just six individuals to a small, carefully tended wild population. Following tireless ...

Scientists unlock 'ancestral code' of banana family

Scientists have recently reconstructed the ancestral karyotype of the banana family, revealing how chromosome numbers decreased stepwise from 17 to 9–11 over evolutionary time.

Racing to build a radio telescope on the moon

Remember the "Wow!" signal? That high-energy radio signature occurred in 1977, when Earth was much "quieter" in the radio band. If it happened today, it probably wouldn't even move the needle on the background noise of human ...

Sustainability commitments have serious consequences

Amid increasingly stiff competition for capital, one way for a business to stand out is to make strong social impact pledges. For example, companies can voluntarily commit to environmental impact goals in hopes of attracting ...

Kyoto's gardens provide habitats for local amphibians

Where they could once hop and amble freely, urbanization is diminishing amphibians' habitats. Yet small-scale water bodies managed by people—such as those found in the gardens of Japan's temples, shrines and schools—remain ...

Solar panels can cool crops—and workers

Photovoltaic technology, most commonly seen as bulky solar panels used on solar farms, is expected to become a dominant energy source by 2050. But these panels are often installed on land that might otherwise be used to grow ...

Why apples react differently to climate change than wheat

Although climate change is already having a negative impact on crops, declines in yields have so far been offset by technological advances in agriculture. For field crops that do not rely on pollinators, however, this trend ...