New Study Breaks Down Nanomaterial Health & Environmental Risks
From nanoscale silver to titanium dioxide for air purification, the use of nanomaterials of high commercial relevance proves to have clear benefits as it attracts…
Science News
Archaeologists Discover Fossilized Domestic Goat Hair Dating Back to the Neolithic
This is the first concrete evidence found in Finland of a goat dated back to the Neolithic Corded Ware period (in Finland ca. 2800-2300 BCE)….
Scientists Reveal the Complex Story Behind the Beaker Phenomenon
In the largest study of ancient DNA ever conducted, an international team of scientists has revealed the complex story behind one of the defining periods…
Researchers Develop Metasurface to Manipulate Infrared Light
Optical waves propagating away from a point source typically exhibit circular (convex) wavefronts. “Like waves on a water surface when a stone is dropped,” explains…
Anthropologists Shed New Light on Prehistoric Human Migration
Two University of Wyoming researchers contributed to a new study in which DNA of ancient skeletal remains of people from southeastern Europe were used to…
New Study Links Ancient Cave Art Drawings and the Emergence of Language
When and where did humans develop language? To find out, look deep inside caves, suggests an MIT professor. More precisely, some specific features of cave…
Engineers Discover Inexpensive Material to Make High Color Quality LEDs
A team led by engineers at the University of California San Diego has used data mining and computational tools to discover a new phosphor material…
Scientists Discover Hidden Details in Picasso Blue Period Painting
An international partnership of the Northwestern University/Art Institute of Chicago Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts (NU-ACCESS), the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and…
Scientists Identify a Mineral Signature for Finding Burgess Shale-Type Fossils
Scientists have identified a mineral signature for sites that are more likely to contain rare fossils that preserve evidence of soft tissue — essential information…
Paleontologists Discover Never-Before-Seen Ancient Fish Species
Paleontologists from the University of Alberta have discovered a never-before-seen species of fish in South America, with the help of a curious tourist. The fossil,…
Creating Predictable Patterns from Unpredictable Carbon Nanotubes
Integrating nanoscale fibers such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into commercial applications, from coatings for aircraft wings to heat sinks for mobile computing, requires them to…
New Chip Reduces Neural Networks’ Power Consumption by 95 Percent
Most recent advances in artificial-intelligence systems such as speech- or face-recognition programs have come courtesy of neural networks, densely interconnected meshes of simple information processors…
MIT Engineers Develop Special-Purpose Computer Chip for Encryption
Most sensitive web transactions are protected by public-key cryptography, a type of encryption that lets computers share information securely without first agreeing on a secret…
Astronomers Unlock the Mysteries of Super-Earths
A star about 100 light years away in the Pisces constellation, GJ 9827, hosts what may be one of the most massive and dense super-Earth…
Rice Scientists Make Polymers with Light-Triggered Nanoparticles
Rice University scientists plan to employ the power of the sun to build functional synthetic polymers using photosensitive quantum dots — microscopic semiconducting particles —…
MIT Engineers Show How Hairy Tongues Help Bats Drink
Animals have evolved all manner of adaptations to get the nutrients they need. For nectar-feeding bats, long snouts and tongues let them dip in and…
Volcanic Ash Reduces the Energy Required to Manufacture Concrete
MIT engineers working with scientists in Kuwait have found that volcanic rocks, when pulverized into a fine ash, can be used as a sustainable additive…
Engineers Develop Automated Process for Discovering Optimal Structure for Metamaterials
For decades, materials scientists have taken inspiration from the natural world. They’ll identify a biological material that has some desirable trait — such as the…