Snow falling around infant solar system
Astronomers using the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have taken the first-ever image of a snow line in an infant solar system. This frosty landmark is thought to play...
View ArticleResearchers help show new way to study and improve catalytic reactions
Catalysts are everywhere. They make chemical reactions that normally occur at extremely high temperatures and pressures possible within factories, cars and the comparatively balmy conditions within the...
View ArticleMicrobes can influence evolution of their hosts
You are not just yourself. You are also the thousands of microbes that you carry. In fact, they represent an invisible majority that may be more you than you realize.
View ArticleStars' orbital dance reveals a generation gap
UBC astronomers have used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to track the orbital motion of 33,000 stars in one of the Galaxy's oldest globular clusters, offering new insights into the formation of the...
View ArticleChimpanzees and orangutans remember distant past events (w/ Video)
We humans can remember events in our lives that happened years ago, with those memories often surfacing unexpectedly in response to sensory triggers: perhaps a unique flavor or scent. Now, researchers...
View ArticleFirst atlas on oceanic plankton
In an international collaborative project, scientists have recorded the times, places and concentrations of oceanic plankton occurrences worldwide. Their data has been collected in a global atlas that...
View ArticleHow Mars' atmosphere got so thin: New insights from Curiosity
(Phys.org) —New findings from NASA's Curiosity rover provide clues to how Mars lost its original atmosphere, which scientists believe was much thicker than the one left today.
View ArticleComputer system automatically generates TCP congestion-control algorithms
TCP, the transmission control protocol, is one of the core protocols governing the Internet: If counted as a computer program, it's the most widely used program in the world.
View ArticleAnother beautiful helix for biology, this time reminiscent of a parking garage
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the protein-making factory within cells consisting of tightly stacked sheets of membrane studded with the molecules that make proteins. In a study published July 18th...
View ArticleGraphene 'onion rings' have delicious potential
Concentric hexagons of graphene grown in a furnace at Rice University represent the first time anyone has synthesized graphene nanoribbons on metal from the bottom up—atom by atom.
View ArticleScientists break record for thinnest light-absorber
Stanford University scientists have created the thinnest, most efficient absorber of visible light on record. The nanosize structure, thousands of times thinner than an ordinary sheet of paper, could...
View ArticleBearing witness to the phenomenon of symmetric cell division
Writing in his journal about the scientists of his era, Henry David Thoreau bemoaned their blindness to significant phenomena: "The question is not what you look at, but what you see." More than 150...
View ArticleAn easier way to make a topological insulator for advanced electronics
Physicists at the University of Michigan say they have devised a more elegant way to fine-tune the behavior of topological insulators—peculiar, two-faced materials whose electrical properties differ...
View ArticleWarfare was uncommon among hunter-gatherers: study
Warfare was uncommon among hunter-gatherers, and killings among nomadic groups were often due to competition for women or interpersonal disputes, researchers in Finland said Thursday.
View ArticleHuge viruses may open 'Pandora's' box: French study
These viruses are so big they might just be your ancestors.
View ArticleShorebirds prefer a good body to a large brain
In many animal species, males and females differ in terms of their brain size. The most common explanation is that these differences stem from sexual selection. But predictions are not always certain....
View ArticleResearchers make droplets dance (w/ Video)
(Phys.org) —Researchers from Aalto University and Paris Tech have placed water droplets containing magnetic nanoparticles on strong water repellent surfaces and have made them align in various static...
View ArticleA warmer planetary haven around cool stars, as ice warms rather than cools
(Phys.org) —In a bit of cosmic irony, planets orbiting cooler stars may be more likely to remain ice-free than planets around hotter stars. This is due to the interaction of a star's light with ice and...
View ArticleFirst Persian leopard cubs born in Russia for 50 years
For the first time in 50 years two Persian leopard cubs have been born in a Russian national park in a major effort to reintroduce the endangered species back to the wild.
View ArticleArchaeology uncovers amazing finds in West Sussex
Bronze Age settlements and Neolithic pottery are some of the finds made by UCL archaeologists during the construction of major new sea defences inland at Medmerry between Selsey and Bracklesham in West...
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