Science

Even in their dark isolation from the atmosphere above, caves can hold a rich archive of local climate conditions and how they’ve shifted over the eons. Formed over tens of thousands of years, speleothems — rock formations unique to caves better known as stalagmites and stalactites — hold secrets to the ancient environments in which … Read more

“Forever chemicals” are everywhere — water, soil, crops, animals, the blood of 97% of Americans — and researchers at Drexel University are trying to figure out how they got there. Their U.S. National Science Foundation-supported findings suggest that the microbes that help break down biodegradable materials and other waste are likely complicit in the release … Read more

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a series of five reports authored by federal agencies, including the U.S. National Science Foundation, outlining bold research and development goals for the U.S. bioeconomy. The NSF-led report lays out the research and infrastructure investments needed to harness the potential of recent developments in biotechnology, much … Read more

Traditionally, it has been assumed that cultivating food leads to a loss of biodiversity and negative impacts on an ecosystem. A new study from researchers at multiple universities, including The University of Texas at Austin, defies this assumption, showing that community gardens and urban farms positively affect biodiversity, local ecosystems and the well-being of humans … Read more

Precious metals in catalytic converters such as platinum, palladium and rhodium attract thieves, but University of Central Florida researchers are working to reduce the amount of precious metals the converters need — down to single atoms — while still maximizing their effectiveness. Catalytic converters, widely introduced in American vehicles in the 1970s, use precious metals … Read more

An array of 350 radio telescopes in the Karoo desert of South Africa is getting closer to detecting “cosmic dawn,” the era after the Big Bang when stars first ignited and galaxies began to bloom. In a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array, or HERA, team reports that it … Read more

Since the discovery 50 years ago of subglacial lakes in Antarctica — some of the least accessible geological features on Earth — scientists have attempted to extract lake bed sediment to learn about the formation, movement and past conditions of the ice sheet. Now, a team of researchers with the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded project … Read more

Populations of various species of aquatic insects and other invertebrates respond to flooding and waterway drying in different ways that can be anticipated, according to a new Penn State-led study that employed a novel method to assess the stability of stream ecosystem communities. As the frequency and magnitude of floods and droughts increase due to … Read more

Efforts to fight disease-causing bacteria by harnessing their natural predators could be undermined when multiple species occupy the same space, according to a study by Dartmouth College researchers. When growing in mixed colonies, some harmful bacteria may be able to withstand attacks from the bacteria and viruses that target them by finding protection inside groups … Read more

In the future, self-driving cars’ computational needs may fuel a large increase in global carbon emissions. The energy needed to run the powerful computers onboard a global fleet of autonomous vehicles could generate as much greenhouse gas emissions as what all global data centers combined currently emit. That’s one key finding of a new study … Read more