Science News
Has gentle parenting gone too far?
To be or not to be a gentle parent? That is the question. There is so much controversy these days about gentle parenting. What is it, and what is it not?
Science News
Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.
Science News
Ultra-cold quantum sensors cut X-ray uncertainty, improving nuclear material assessments
To monitor the amount and type of nuclear material at power plants and weapons facilities, scientists look for a special signal—the unique pattern of gamma rays emitted by specific radioactive elements. However, some of these elements also emit X-rays in the same energy range as the gamma-ray emissions, masking the signal and making nuclear stockpiles harder to assess.
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Q&A: The overlooked networks of heat resilience within communities
As extreme heat becomes more frequent and severe, many people are turning to informal adaptation strategies—rigging up plastic sheeting overhead for shade, sharing water at a community tap and creating neighborhood cooling areas.
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Under pressure: How a deep-sea protein adapts to an extreme environment
Life in the deep sea is under immense pressure—literally. Such extreme conditions can disrupt the delicate structures of proteins essential to life. Yet somehow, the proteins in deep-sea creatures remain functional. This raises an intriguing question: how?
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25 years after 9/11, research traces changing landscape of religious bias
A quarter-century after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, religious bias in America has not disappeared, but the forces shaping it have changed.
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Future catastrophic weather could be 'far worse' than history suggests
Historical records of the deadliest storms and heat waves may be a poor indicator of the scale and impact future weather disasters could have, scientists at King's College London warn.
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How to help your garden recover from a heat wave
UK gardens took a battering this summer as a heat dome settled over western Europe, and much of the green and pleasant land turned a dusty beige.
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Cell wall transport disruption exposes weakness in antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Even highly antibiotic-resistant bacteria become more vulnerable when their cell wall transport system is disrupted, according to a new study from Umeå University. The discovery reveals a previously overlooked weakness that could help researchers develop new strategies to combat antibiotic resistance.
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Psychologist wins Ig Nobel for proving rich drivers are the worst
Paul K. Piff, UC Irvine associate professor of psychology, has officially been recognized for what millions of frustrated commuters have long suspected: The fancier the car, the worse the driver.
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Fully recyclable hydrogel begins healing itself within minutes
Imagine this. You pick up a contact lens from its container and—yikes!—it falls on the bathroom floor. Before you know it, your cat pounces, claws out. By the time you wrestle it back, the lens looks like a tiny chew toy. And then, just like that—the scratches fade away and the ripped edge seals itself up.
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Learning without a brain—how bacteria store memories and remember the past like artificial neural networks
Learning is often thought to require a brain. But learning is a broad concept that does not necessarily depend on neurons.
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Himalayan glacial lakes are growing—and so is the downstream flood risk
Dozens of glacial lakes have formed across northern India in the last three decades, while existing lakes have expanded rapidly, highlighting the need to monitor a landscape reshaped by climate change.
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'CRISPR-Combo' system speeds regeneration of hard-to-breed perennial crops
Editing a plant's genes is only half the battle. Before a new, improved trait can ever reach a farmer's field, scientists must be able to grow a whole plant from just a few edited cells—a process that can be slow, unreliable and, for some plant species, impossible.
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Portland report maps complex journeys through homelessness
A new report from Portland State University's Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative (HRAC) and the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health offers an in-depth examination of how individuals navigate, survive and attempt to exit homelessness in Multnomah County. Titled "Without a Map: A Lived Experience Study of the Paths People Create Through Homelessness," the publication serves as the second and final part of the Pathways study.
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New genomic tool for clams boosts sustainable aquaculture
An international team of researchers, including CIIMAR, has developed a new tool that could help produce clams that are more resistant to disease and climate change while also strengthening the conservation of these species' genetic diversity. The study, published in the journal Aquaculture, represents a significant step forward for sustainable aquaculture and the management of two of the most economically important clam species: the Japanese clam (Ruditapes philippinarum) and the good clam (Ruditapes decussatus).
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Global study reveals hidden nutritional value of shellfish and other aquatic invertebrates
The nutritional value of aquatic invertebrates such as oysters, mussels and crabs has been significantly overlooked, according to a new study led by researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The findings provide one of the most comprehensive assessments to date of the nutritional contribution of aquatic invertebrates, along with new evidence to better understand their role in human nutrition and help inform more sustainable fisheries, aquaculture and food-system planning.
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Unveiling how nanoparticles create iridescence in ancient ceramics
Scientists led by the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona and the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, have revealed the chemical reactions in nanoparticles that created a unique, shimmering effect in the painting on ninth-century Islamic ceramics. The results are published in Science Advances.
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How sex with multiple mates can help save species from extinction
Allowing females to mate with multiple males, rather than just one, could help make species more resistant to extinction, University of East Anglia research shows. A new study reveals that when females have multiple males to mate with, their offspring inherit significantly fewer harmful genetic mutations. This, in turn, makes the entire population healthier and less likely to die out.
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Supercomputer simulations reveal how the molecular motor kinesin steers itself along tracks
Kinesin is a molecular motor responsible for hauling essential cargoes within cells by walking step by step along filamentous tracks known as microtubules. To move efficiently and avoid falling off, the motor's two feet must coordinate their stepping in a precise direction. Scientists have known that a connecting segment called the neck region is crucial for coordinating this motion. However, its exact three-dimensional structure and how it physically interacts with the microtubule track have remained a mystery because of the limitations of current imaging techniques.
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Water isotopes reveal early drought signals in Central Amazon rainfall
The historic droughts of 2023 and 2024 in the Amazon reduced river flows and altered the region's rainfall composition. Daily monitoring in Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, revealed these changes through the use of isotopes, which act as a kind of water "fingerprint." This method demonstrated how El Niño and warming in the North Atlantic affected the origin of moisture and precipitation dynamics.