Stay informed about scientific discoveries, research developments and new findings from around the world.
More than 30 years after the direct connection was established between the molecular machinery controlling cell division and cancer, a new paper traces the evolution of cyclin-dependent kinase research and outlines the next generation of CDK-targeted therapies.
About 2 billion metric tons of metal are produced worldwide every year to meet the demands of industry, infrastructure and the energy sector. Much of this production still relies on primary raw materials, contributing to an estimated 40% of industrial greenhouse gas emissions and 10% of global energy consumption. Increasing the use of recycled metals could significantly reduce the environmental impact of metal production while also lowering dependence on imports of scarce and strategically critical raw materials.
On Oct. 17, 1346, the Battle of Neville's Cross was fought outside Durham in the northeast of England. It was a decisive moment in Anglo-Scottish history that led to the capture of King David II of Scotland. Yet few have heard of it.
While working on his land in a village in northern Egypt, a man made an astonishing discovery: the remains of two massive statues of Ramesses II.The man, Khaled el-Shahat, immediately notified the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which sent a team to the village of Behbeit El Hagar to excavate and study the statues, the ministry said in a translated statement.Ramesses II had one of the longest reigns in Egypt's history, ruling from around 1279 to 1213 B.C. During his 66 years in power, Egypt controlled an empire that stretched as far northeast as modern-day Syria. He initiated many building projects throughout the empire, and numerous Ramesses II statues have been found througho...
When a marine heat wave strikes, scientists often turn to satellites to see how the ocean is responding. From space, changes in ocean color can reveal shifts in phytoplankton, microscopic organisms that form the foundation of marine food webs and play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. But satellites have a fundamental limitation: they can only see the ocean's surface.
Employers must do more to remove the barriers preventing women with disability from progressing into leadership, according to a new report from People with Disability Australia (PWDA), the national disability rights and advocacy organization. Researchers identify six lessons to help drive change.
Computer models suggest that unrealistically cold oceans would be insufficient to stop Thwaites glacier retreating, although a neighbouring glacier might begin to grow
Limbs evolved as a means of locomotion. From the primitive rotating flagella of bacteria to the wings of flies and even our own legs, animals use these appendages to travel to find food or mates or escape predators. But in countless species across the animal kingdom, limbs are repurposed to create elaborate social displays: Birds of paradise fan out their wings and hop around in courtship dances, while crabs wave their claws to communicate to potential mating partners. As humans, we use our limbs to dance, gesture while talking, wield tools and conduct a remarkable diversity of behaviors. How does the brain control and coordinate its body parts for such distinct purposes?
The Earth got its moon when a small planet collided with our planet more than 4 billion years ago. This impact hurled molten rock into space, which eventually coalesced to form the satellite we can see every night from across our planet.
A brush with low doses of the herbicide dicamba spurs oxalis, a weed commonly known as wood sorrel, to produce more flowers, University of Michigan researchers have discovered. The finding suggests that farmers and homeowners are inadvertently making weeds growing around the perimeter of their fields or lawns stronger, the researchers say. The study results are published in the journal New Phytologist.
When corals are stressed by pollution, high water temperatures or other environmental changes, they can lose the microscopic algae living inside them and on which they depend for food. As a result, they turn white, a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. They will not die straight away, but it will be game over if the stress continues long enough for them to starve.
The coastline near the southern tip of Africa looked vastly different between about 400,000 years ago and 70,000 years ago, compared with today. At times it lay as much as 100km (62 miles) south of its present location, exposing the vast Palaeo-Agulhas Plain, which contained an extensive habitat for large mammals. At other times the sea level was briefly as much as 13 meters (43 feet) higher than today's mean level.
Starting in January, students attending Skyview High School in Virginia will learn about the building blocks and principles underlying quantum computers by working with one directly
The cliff face of Thrym glacier in Skjoldungen fjord, Greenland, in August 2025Caroline Needell The world’s thickest glaciers may “calve” icebergs up to three times faster than previously predicted. However, such rapid retreat may not be sustained over long periods. Instead, the large bodies of ice – which include Antarctica’s Thwaites glacier – may collapse in bursts, with intervening periods of stability. The behaviour of tall ice cliffs is one of the biggest sources of uncertainty in predicting future sea level rise. Several of the world’s largest glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica extend out to sea, with their bases resting on the sea floor. Their coastal edges can form ice cliffs loom...
The Willow quantum computerGoogle Quantum AI Making quantum computers error-proof is one of the biggest challenges currently facing the technology. Researchers at Google Quantum AI have now demonstrated one way to do so more efficiently. Their work suggests the smaller quantum computers that will be available in the next few years could be more impactful than expected. Quantum computers can run mathematical operations, analogous to addition or multiplication, that conventional computers cannot. This makes them suitable for solving some problems that had previously been considered unsolvable, such as those that underpin cryptography. Most important among the quantum operations the computers r...
The work could help improve quantum computers’ accuracy in complex calculations
With the proliferation of fancy salts and changing dietary habits, there are signs people aren’t getting enough of the crucial mineral iodine.
In 2024, a collaborative Penn venture introduced a more objective way for people to examine how different outlets cover the same events and ultimately decide how they perceive and use information shared in the media. The Media Bias Detector, conceived in Penn's Computational Social Science (CSS) Lab, a joint venture of Penn Engineering, the Annenberg School for Communication and the Wharton School, uses artificial intelligence to analyze news articles for characteristics including topic, tone, political lean, and the facts and people included in coverage.
It was perhaps fitting, in a twisted, only-in-America way.
The year is 2050, and as the sun sets, the night's first constellations emerge in perfect rows. But these amber-glowing arrays aren't stars at all; they're satellite clusters, harvesting the day's last rays before beaming their power back to Earth.If it reads like science fiction, that's because it started that way. Called space-based solar power (SBSP), the concept featured prominently in the techno-utopian imaginations of 20th-century visionaries and writers. But for decades, it was dismissed — a pie in the sky proposal.Now, as a new space race heats up, governments and private companies in China, the U.S., the U.K. and Japan are developing several projects to reassess the idea's feasibili...
Fireworks are an integral part of many celebrations and cultural events. With their pretty colors, spectacular sights and big bangs, fireworks are a popular attraction for many people.
When light hits a tiny defect embedded in a solid material like diamond or silicon carbide, it can kick the defect's electrons into an excited state. These spin defects have the potential to be used as stable, readable qubits for quantum technologies, for example, quantum sensing. But modeling the full physics of their energetics over time—a key step in developing spin defects into new technologies—is a challenging task.
They can't fly or swim, so why do their closest relatives appear on different continents? Grey Gustafson, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, discovered through DNA sequencing that the ancestors of some of today's tiger beetles existed in South America and Africa before the two continents separated. What's more, North America's largest tiger beetles are related to these ancestral South American giant tiger beetles.
Where researchers go, their knowledge goes. And that shapes where innovation happens. "Recruiting researchers is one way institutions gain new knowledge and steer their research in particular directions," explains Vito D. P. Servedio, senior scientist at CSH.