Explore the latest scientific discoveries, science news, breakthroughs and developments from around the world.
Scientists have discovered that some forest soils are becoming surprisingly better at removing methane from the atmosphere as temperatures rise and rainfall declines. A study spanning up to 24 years found methane absorption increasing by an average of 3% annually, challenging previous predictions about climate change's effects on forests.
New research from Michigan State University finds that popular music has gradually become less explicit about emotion and relationships—both across generations of artists and within artists' careers.
The strong El Niño currently under way in the Pacific Ocean raises the specter of marine heat waves and coral bleaching once again threatening Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef. And now new research has revealed the complex interplay of atmospheric patterns and weather systems thousands of kilometers apart that can combine in a recipe potentially fatal for coral reefs.
Recent research challenges a long-standing idea about how the brain develops: Rather than arising from a single source, the brain may emerge from two distinct populations of cells, the study finds."The brain appears as one organ," said study co-author Kyle Loh, an associate professor of developmental biology at Stanford University. "However, we discovered that the front part of the brain and the back part of the brain come from different sources, which are pushed together to create the appearance of a single organ," Loh told Live Science in an email.The findings, published in September in the journal Nature Neuroscience, not only challenge established models of how the brain forms but may al...
A new discovery reveals how plants protect themselves from microbes in rotting material
Sometimes, it takes a great struggle to build towering peaks. And what more thunderous event is there than the clashing of continental plates? Geological pileups have birthed some of the largest and tallest mountains on the planet, including Mount Everest and its Himalayan neighbors. But has there ever been a peak taller than Mount Everest, which stands 29,032 feet (8,849 meters) above sea level? The answer is still a mystery, but there are some geological clues about where the tallest peaks would have been in the ancient past, experts told Live Science. Earth's lost mountainsGeologists don't have the level of detail required to pinpoint an exact highest peak hundreds of millions of years ag...
A new 4,300-mile (7,000-kilometer) undersea fiber cable will shuttle data between the U.S. and France at breakneck speeds of up to 1 million gigabits per second (Gbps) — enough to move around 125 terabytes of data every second, or roughly 25,000 HD movies, each 5 gigabytes large. The cable, called Petal, will be funded and operated by Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta.When it comes online in 2029, the ocean-spanning cable will be the first to deliver petabit capacity — double the capacity of existing subsea cables of this length — across transoceanic distances, Meta representatives said in a statement. That's enough to allow 75% of the world's population to stream music at once.Peta...
Alzheimer's disease is best known for its effects on memory and cognition, but the disease also involves changes in how brain cells produce and use energy. Mitochondria, the structures that supply much of a cell's energy, can become dysfunctional in Alzheimer's disease. At the same time, changes in blood flow and oxygen availability may place additional demands on brain tissue. Understanding how these processes interact could help researchers characterize metabolic changes that accompany the disease.
Scientists have discovered a surprising two-way relationship between sleep and growth hormone, revealing how the brain carefully balances physical recovery with wakefulness. The findings could help explain why poor sleep harms metabolism and brain health, potentially opening the door to new treatments for sleep and neurological disorders.
Naming a chicken and describing its favorite habits is enough to make preschoolers choose poultry less often. This effect translates into verbal declarations and actual meal choices, but food preferences still most often win over empathy, according to a new paper by researchers from SWPS University.
In 1960, scientists predicted that runaway population growth would bring humanity to the brink of destruction on November 13, 2026, and their mathematical forecasts remained surprisingly accurate for decades. But as birth rates declined and population growth slowed, the terrifying prediction unraveled, revealing how even convincing scientific models can fail when human behavior changes.
Stanford scientists have developed a revolutionary microscope that reveals the hidden inner workings of living cells in real time, without the fluorescent labels that can interfere with observations. The breakthrough could provide new insights into cancer, infectious diseases, and how drugs interact with cells.