Science, engineering, and discovery — the research and breakthroughs that matter.

Scientists have discovered how to use flashes of laser light to organize tiny electrical regions inside a crystal, solving a decades-old mystery about how the material behaves. The laser-induced alignment lasts just a trillionth of a second, but the breakthrough could open the do

Thanks to the gravitational lensing caused by a massive galaxy cluster and high-resolution images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers discovered an exploding star when the universe was 4.9 billion years old. The discovery paper, posted to the arXiv preprint se

In his Alaskan community, fisherman Bob Candopoulos has long welcomed tourists to his business that's showcased by a sign featuring a king salmon.

Unstable plasma heats itself with waves it generates, experiments reveal and more — today's news signal.

Fusion power is expected to be a sustainable energy source that emits no carbon dioxide during electricity generation. To achieve this, research is underway worldwide to confine high-temperature plasma using magnetic fields. To initiate a fusion reaction, high-energy particles or

Researchers at University of Tsukuba and collaborating institutions have identified short antimicrobial peptides derived from Nemuri, a sleep-inducing protein in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Surface rocks can reveal records of regions they occupied millions of years ago, even if those areas were kilometers below ground. On Türkiye's Marmara Sea's southern shores and islands, granitic rocks that are now exposed originated as molten material deep in Earth's crust.

Scientists from the Institute of Metal Research (IMR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with researchers from Peking University and Chongqing University, have demonstrated how the geometry and electronic properties of subnanometer rhodium (Rh) active sites shap

Acting now to counter the devastating effects of the El Niño phenomenon will cost half as much as waiting, the head of the U.N. Development Programme told AFP Friday.

Bioprinting uses living cells and molecular signals to produce biological tissues and even whole organs, building them layer by layer in the lab. To keep the bioink, or blend of cells and materials that power this printing, correctly aligned to grow a target tissue, researchers u

Why do some volcanoes erupt with spectacular lava fountains while others release lava more quietly? Scientists have discovered that a hidden effect of extreme heat inside magma may help explain the difference. Experiments revealed that superheated magma can delay crystal formatio

Children are not colorblind: Why early conversations about race are essential and more — today's news signal.

Johns Hopkins scientists have uncovered hidden warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease that may appear up to a decade before memory loss begins. Brain scans revealed that two regions involved in memory and emotion start shrinking before the hippocampus, the area doctors typically ex

A groundbreaking drone survey has revealed a startling split in the fate of New Zealand's endangered Erect-crested penguins. While one population has remained stable for decades, another has declined by more than 40%, apparently due to a combination of predators, worsening storms

Dinosaurs may have been snacking on seaweed and other ocean foods more than 100 million years ago, according to surprising new evidence hidden in their fossilized teeth. Researchers discovered chemical signatures suggesting that coastal dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals rel

Scientists have discovered how to use flashes of laser light to organize tiny electrical regions inside a crystal, solving a decades-old mystery about how the material behaves. The laser-induced alignment lasts just a trillionth of a second, but the breakthrough could open the do

ESA’s Euclid space telescope has discovered 31 ancient quasars, including two record-breaking objects that shone with the brightness of a trillion Suns when the Universe was just 670 million years old. Powered by supermassive black holes, these extraordinary cosmic beacons reveal

On April 10, 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration revealed the first picture of a black hole. The object is at the center of a galaxy known as M87, about 55 million light-years away.

The advance of urbanization in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area in Brazil is causing the collapse of food webs in local streams. A study published in August in the journal Nature Cities reveals that the impact of the metropolis goes far beyond a simple reduction in species. Degrad

Since 2022, astronomers have been puzzling over a new kind of cosmic object called long-period radio transients. These are objects that emit bright flashes of radio waves into space every few minutes to every few hours. Some have been traced back to binary systems consisting of a

Today, Old Dongola is an abandoned settlement on the banks of the Nile in northern Sudan. Hundreds of years ago, however, this place looked very different.

NASA's Voyager 1 is about to become humanity's first object to reach one light-day from Earth as it pushes ever deeper into interstellar space.

Thanks to the gravitational lensing caused by a massive galaxy cluster and high-resolution images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers discovered an exploding star when the universe was 4.9 billion years old. The discovery paper, posted to the arXiv preprint se

Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, according to estimates. However, rocks dating back to the planet's earliest days are extremely rare. Hence the excitement over the discovery in northern China of some of the oldest known rocks on Earth, dating back 3.95 billion years.