Chinese researchers have developed a new way to improve sodium–sulfur battery performance by changing the atomic structure of a catalyst. Led by professors Wang Hui and Zheng Fangcai from the High Magnetic Field Laboratory at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the study is published in Angewandte Chemie.
A new evolutionary theory suggests changes in body size, rather than competition for food and habitat, may drive the earliest physical differences between species.
Have you ever felt like you know exactly what you want to say, but just can't get the words out? Having a word on the tip of your tongue can be frustrating at the best of times, but for people with communication difficulties, it can be a constant struggle to find the right words, make sentences and connect with others.
About 300,000 years ago, the emergence of the first Homo sapiens in Africa was accompanied by major cultural and technological changes, marking the beginning of a new archaeological period, the Middle Stone Age. At that time, African landscapes were also undergoing profound transformations. To understand how the earliest members of our species lived and adapted, it is therefore essential to…
Finding a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization takes more than just pointing a telescope in the right direction. We may also need to listen at exactly the right time.
Autumn walks in Britain are glorious, as the foliage changes color and cool, crisp air begins to bite. However, some of these European trees hide a much darker secret. For example, the yew tree's lovely red arils—the cup-shaped coverings around the seeds—carry toxins that may have been used to poison arrow tips in the past.
Two recent review articles in the journals Trends in Ecology & Evolution and Fish and Fisheries, to which researchers from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) contributed, focus on the influence of humans on the diversity of fish behavior and on how management can help preserve this diversity.
Researchers from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, the Military University of Technology (Poland), IBM Research Zurich and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) have observed a new quantum state of matter known as a supersolid in an exciton-polariton Bose-Einstein condensate. Remarkably, the phenomenon occurs not at temperatures close to absolute zero, but at…
The more than 100 bacterial species of the genus Vibrio are important in marine ecosystems because they contribute to the carbon cycle and other ecological processes, but they can also be significant pathogens for both humans (they can cause cholera) and animals (they can drastically reduce productivity in fish and crustacean farms [e.g., prawns] or cause coral bleaching). Identifying and…
Researchers have recently developed a standardized workflow for analyzing DNA methylation in individual cells. The protocol combines an improved laboratory procedure with an automated data analysis tool, making it easier to study differences between cells. Published in Nature Protocols, the study was led by researchers from the Institute of Health and Medical Technology at the Hefei Institutes of…
For a comprehensive understanding of the content of millions of Arabic manuscripts held in libraries around the world, it is crucial for scholars to first examine what their marginalia reveal, according to a new study published in the Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization.
To guard proprietary know-how, many firms separate their inventors into independent groups so that no single employee sees too much of the organization's knowledge. New research published in Strategic Management Journal finds that when U.S. states strengthened trade secret law, high-tech firms relied less on this kind of compartmentalization and connected their inventors more broadly—and the…
Researchers from ICMAB-CSIC, the Politecnico di Milano and Université de Liège have adapted a direct laser writing technique that allows them to "draw" superconducting properties in a material. The result is a new way to locally program the behavior of a superconductor, tuning it from a fully superconducting state to an insulating one with extraordinary precision.
Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are known as "forever chemicals" because of the impact they make on the environment and human bodies. Much of modern manufacturing relies on these substances for safe packaging, fire protection and waterproof coatings.
NASA astronaut Anil Menon demonstrated on social media how he cast his ballot for Harris County in Texas, from space.
Faculty and university staff members report being bullied in two ways: by their colleagues and supervisors, and by their students over grades, according to an international study I conducted with colleagues Zahra Moradi and Deborah Circo.
Dialing up the power on electricity-driven chemical reactions doesn't guarantee that they'll be more efficient, suggests a new study, a finding that gets researchers closer to creating the ideal conditions for sustainable chemical manufacturing.
An in-space construction first could be an enabler for the space data centers of the future.
Researchers at the University of Regensburg and their international partners have found a way to significantly reduce errors in quantum bits. In an experiment, they demonstrated that a single additional measurement before a series of quantum operations can cut the error rate by more than half. The results have been published in Applied Physics Reviews.
Human-induced global change has reached an unprecedented scale and intensity. Through intensive land use and the associated loss of species, humans are permanently altering the habitats and communities of wild animals. "How do predators manage to find their way in landscapes heavily shaped by humans and establish their niche? It is precisely this question that interested us," says Kathi Kasper, a…
It's getting harder and harder to figure out what to eat. A scroll through social media raises many questions. Why is food so expensive? Am I getting enough protein? What about fiber? Do I need supplements? Should I be making all my bread at home? What foods were recalled this week?