Explore the latest scientific discoveries, science news, breakthroughs and developments from around the world.
Researchers from the LIMNO laboratory at EPFL have uncovered how different halides modify the surface chemistry of organic semiconductor nanoparticle photocatalysts. By controlling these phenomena, they have significantly improved the solar hydrogen production efficiency of these materials.
America is a nation of local laws—millions of them. From noise ordinances and construction codes to rules about fishing licenses and roadside mango peddling, every town, city and county has its own set of regulations and unique way of doing things.
Nearly every morning when she was a doctoral student in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), Nicole Nakata, Ph.D. '23 (biology), would cross the street from the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB) in Charleston, Ore., to the high-tide line of the Pacific Ocean. Her job was to catch microscopic brittle star plankton larvae from the incoming tidal current and bring them back to OIMB's labs to analyze under a microscope.
Roadsides may not look like wildlife habitat, but a few simple changes to how they are maintained could turn them into much better places for pollinators. A new uOttawa-led study found that reducing mowing and herbicide use along rural roadsides led to a 45% jump in pollinator numbers and a 23% increase in the number of species found there.
Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with no resistance and expel magnetic fields when cooled to ultralow temperatures. And depending on their quantum structure, they can also showcase strange properties like magnetic levitation. But now things are getting a little weirder.
Cape Cod is known for its lobsters and its growing great white shark population, but now the holiday hotspot has another extraordinary animal to showcase: A rare two-headed diamondback terrapin that is surviving against the odds.The baby turtle, which weighed just 0.18 ounces (5.2 grams), was brought to the Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable, Massachusetts, on Sept. 17, according to a Facebook post from the wildlife center. It was originally found by representatives of the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at a protected nesting site in the town of Wellfleet.The turtle's condition, known as bicephaly, is a rare developmental disorder that's typically caused by the incomplete spli...
A core assumption in any democracy is that citizens with access to information will make reasoned decisions on political candidates and policy issues. But a new study by UC Berkeley social scientists finds that Americans usually don't consider the full scope of difficult issues, instead basing their opinions on mental shortcuts that sidestep complexity.
This year's exceptionally strong El Niño has brought a rare gift to Chile's Atacama Desert: rain. In one of the driest places on Earth, that rare moisture has awakened millions of seeds and bulbs that can remain dormant underground for years, transforming the landscape into a spectacular carpet of color. Known locally as "desierto florido," or "flowering desert," the phenomenon is one of nature's most remarkable transformations. Patches of purple, pink, white, red and yellow now spread across hillsides and plains that for much of the year appear almost completely lifeless. "It is a unique phenomenon; there are more than 200 plant species," Jorge Carabantes, head of the Protected Areas Depart...
A study led by scientists at the Holden Arboretum has found evidence that beech leaf disease (BLD) symptom development is genetically controlled, providing the first evidence that some American beech trees may have genetic resistance. This finding supports further investigation and development of breeding populations for BLD resistance. Nearly a third of beech trees near BLD's epicenter in northeastern Ohio, the majority of which were smaller trees, have died since the disease was discovered in 2012.
In a study published in npj Clean Water, researchers from EPFL investigated how Escherichia coli responds to different concentrations of plasma-activated water (PAW) under nutrient-rich conditions. The team combined conventional colony-forming unit (CFU) counting with nanomotion sensing, a technique that detects nanoscale oscillations produced by metabolically active bacteria.
Azobenzene is one of the best-known molecules that can be switched between two forms by light. However, the question of how the molecule moves in the first few picoseconds (trillionths of a second) after it absorbs light has remained unresolved for nearly 50 years.
The toxin NheABC, produced by Bacillus cereus, is particularly active in the pH conditions found in open wounds. Researchers at Umeå University found that the toxin damages both cell membranes and mitochondria and helps the bacterium establish infection in wounded tissue.