The secret drivers of tree growth
Most trees live in symbiosis with fungi. ETH Zurich researchers show just how important this partnership is for tree growth through the first-ever comprehensive data analysis compiled for European forests on a massive scale. ⌘ Read more

Why superb fairy-wren societies may be as complex as our own
One mystery many biologists want to solve is how complexity develops in nature. And among the many social systems in the natural world, multilevel societies stand out for their complexity. Individuals first organize into families, which are members of bands, which are organized into clans. ⌘ Read more

Pheasants lose their cool after fighting
Pheasants’ heads cool rapidly as they prepare to fight—then heat up afterwards, new research shows. ⌘ Read more

Dirty city air killed more than 1.8 million people globally in 2019
Cities worldwide are shrouded with air pollution – and it’s killing people. ⌘ Read more

Space telescope’s ‘golden eye’ opens, last major hurdle
NASA’s new space telescope opened its huge, gold-plated, flower-shaped mirror Saturday, the final step in the observatory’s dramatic unfurling. ⌘ Read more

Strong earthquake shakes remote area in western China
A strong overnight earthquake shook a sparsely populated area in western China early Saturday and forced the suspension of high-speed rail service because of tunnel damage, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. ⌘ Read more

Current marsh pollution has dramatic, negative effects on sea anemone’s survival
Stationary marine organisms that don’t ply the ocean, but spend their lives rooted in one spot, have evolved impressive ways to capture prey. The sea anemone Nematostella, for instance, burrows into salt marsh sediments and stays there for life. But it has specialized ‘stinging cells’ that hurl toxins into passing prey, immobilizing the morsel so the anemone can snatch it with its tentacles. ⌘ Read more

Winter storm snarls travel, gives some schools the day off
A winter storm that had already blanketed parts of the South in snow moved into the Northeast on Friday, snarling air travel, crushing morning commutes and giving hundreds of school districts struggling to keep kids in the classroom during a wave of new coronavirus cases an excuse to shut down for a one-day respite. ⌘ Read more

Several asteroids are heading towards Earth: How we deal with threats
Don’t look now—but we are currently experiencing a rash of stories about a forthcoming global catastrophe. But in a change from reports of pandemics and climate change, this global catastrophe is produced by the impact of a giant asteroid. Or comet. Or both. This may feel extra ominous given the events in the recent Netflix film “Don’t Look Up”, in which the Earth is threatened by a “planet killer” asteroid. ⌘ Read more

Virginia preps for more bad weather amid storm of questions
With more bad weather looming, Virginia officials sought to reassure the public Thursday as they reacted to harsh criticism of their response to a snowstorm earlier this week that left hundreds of motorists stranded on Interstate 95 in frigid temperatures. ⌘ Read more

Japan tycoon Maezawa returns from space with business dreams
“Space now,” was what Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa wanted to tweet for years. He finally really did it, from the International Space Station. ⌘ Read more

Billionaire’s looted art still on display at Israel Museum
One of the Israel Museum’s biggest patrons, American billionaire Michael Steinhardt, approached the flagship Israeli art institution in 2007 with an artifact he had recently bought: a 2,200-year-old Greek text carved into limestone. ⌘ Read more

Vaccines for animals, based on viruses that spread on their own, are being developed in Europe and the U.S.
Since the first lab-modified virus capable of replication was generated in 1974, an evidence-based consensus has emerged that many changes introduced into viral genomes are likely to prove unstable if released into the environment. On this basis, many virologists would question the release of genetically modified viruses that retain the capacity to spread between individual vertebrate ho … ⌘ Read more

Does checking your credit score help or hurt?
January is filled with resolutions to start the new year off right, from exercise and diet to financial health. One area that may often be overlooked is checking your credit score, and according to new research, there may be a reason for that. ⌘ Read more

Purple-crowned fairy wrens exhibiting unusual breeding behaviour
What gets birds in the mood to knock feathers? It’s the unexpected question ecologists and researchers in central Kimberley have been faced with after witnessing an increase in purple-crowned fairy wrens breeding outside of their traditional season. ⌘ Read more

Bacterial genome is regulated by an ancient molecule
We are all collections of cells, each cell containing the instructions—our DNA—to become any other cell. What differentiates a heart cell from a skin cell from a brain cell is the expression—or silencing—of genes. ⌘ Read more

Synthetic gene circuits that improve stem cell quality
Because iPS cells can be made into just about any cell type in the body, they have great promise for cell therapies. One major problem, however, is that not all reprogramming cells successfully become iPS cells, resulting in an unwanted cell mixture. Further, when differentiating iPS cells, some cells are only partially differentiated, again leaving an unwanted cell mixture. To extract the desired cell types, CiRA researchers report in Science … ⌘ Read more

Study: More education needed on impact of sexting
Nearly 40 percent of young people across a sample of just over 6,000 participants spanning 11 countries have engaged in sexting, according to new research out of Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Huddersfield. ⌘ Read more

A single molecule makes a big splash in the understanding of the two types of water
It plays a fundamental role in human existence and is a major component of our universe, yet there are still things we don’t understand about water. To address the knowledge gaps, a collaborative team of Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, and Tohoku University investigated electron transport through a single water molecule in a C60 cage. Their findings are published in Nano Letters. ⌘ Read more

Astronomers find the biggest structure in the Milky Way: A filament of hydrogen 3,900 light-years long
Roughly 13.8 billion years ago, our universe was born in a massive explosion that gave rise to the first subatomic particles and the laws of physics as we know them. About 370,000 years later, hydrogen had formed, the building block of stars, which fuse hydrogen and helium in their interiors to create all the heavier elements. While hydrogen remains the most pervasive element in the uni … ⌘ Read more

Indigenous communities face a higher risk of socioeconomic vulnerability due to flooding
Indigenous communities are at higher risk of hardship from climate-change-caused flooding because of pre-existing socioeconomic vulnerability, a new study shows. ⌘ Read more

Engineers develop new software tool to aid material modeling research
A new software tool can accelerate materials science research by cutting out tedious background research on material properties. Penn State and Sandia National Laboratories researchers recently debuted propSym, an open-source software on the programming platform MATLAB, to calculate the fundamental constants needed to describe the physical properties of solids, such as metals, ceramics or composites. ⌘ Read more

Researchers pioneer new method to edit genes in human cells
Over the past decade, the CRISPR genome-editing system has revolutionized molecular biology, giving scientists the ability to alter genes inside living cells for research or medical applications. Now, researchers at Gladstone Institutes have fine-tuned an additional system for more efficient gene editing, using molecules called retrons. ⌘ Read more

Engineered nanomaterial captures off-target cancer drug to prevent tissue damage
Standard chemotherapies may efficiently kill cancer cells, but they also pose significant risks to healthy cells, resulting in secondary illness and a diminished quality of life for patients. To prevent the previously unavoidable damage, researchers, led by Penn State, have developed a new class of nanomaterials engineered to capture chemotherapy drugs before they interact with healthy tissue. ⌘ Read more

New color-coded test quickly reveals whether medical nanoparticles have successfully delivered their payload
Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have developed a color-coded test that quickly signals whether newly developed nanoparticles—ultra small compartments designed to ferry medicines, vaccines and other therapies—deliver their cargo into target cells. Historically, nanoparticles have a very low delivery rate to the cytosol, the inside compartment of cells, releasing only a … ⌘ Read more