Science News

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research has selected the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) to lead a multidisciplinary effort that will merge research in classical and quantum physics and acce...

An experimental pulse of water sent down the Colorado River has filled dry riverbeds in Mexico. A satellite image comparison shows how the water infusion has altered the river near the city of San Luis Río Colorado.

In light of recent results from the "world's longest experiment", spanning more than 90 years, at the University of Queensland, a group of researchers from Trinity College Dublin explain the background behind their own p...

(Phys.org) --Physicists in the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University have made several important discoveries regarding the basic structure of mesons--subatomic particles long thought to be composed of one q...

Twenty years ago, Philip Platzman and Allen Mills, Jr. at Bell Laboratories proposed that a gamma-ray laser could be made from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of positronium, the simplest atom made of both matter and an...

Wind and dust conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa can help predict a meningitis epidemic.

There's been lots of coverage of a trio of dead blue whales near the town of Trout River in Newfoundland. As the whales decay, they're expanding more and more as their internal cavities fill with noxious gases. Image fro...

A theoretical physicist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) has developed a mathematical model for trapping light -- even at room temperature.

Concentrated solar power is no longer confined to the desert: soon it might be on your roof, heating your bathwater

Forget symmetry, it's asymmetry that could be the key to life, the universe and almost everything, says physicist Frank Close (full text available to subscribers)

The ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids may have been able to move massive stone blocks across the desert by wetting the sand in front of a contraption built to pull the heavy objects, according to a new study.

A new computer simulation lets viewers watch the 1964 earthquake roll through southern Alaska. The magnitude-9.2 earthquake was the 2nd-largest quake recorded in modern times.

Crocodile tears may be drinks for thirsty butterflies and bees, scientists find. The insects likely rely on croc tears for salt, researchers added. This isn't the first time a butterfly has been caught lapping up another...

African fork-tailed drongos can mimic the calls of dozens of species, tricking their targets into dropping food so the drongo can grab an easy meal. New research finds that drongos are also adept at switching up their ca...

This new technique could help shed light on the behavior of the human brain at its most fundamental level, yielding insights on disorders such as addiction, scientists added. Right now the technique has been tested only ...

Collaborating German and Japanese scientists have studied mice lacking a gene that plays a central role in energy metabolism. The result? The mice maintain their normal weight, despite consuming foods high in fats. “We...

After last week's flight of an electric-only plane, how long before we start flying in hybrid passenger jets?

A Julia butterfly (Dryas iulia) and a solitary bee (Centris sp.) quenched their thirst on a spectacled caiman's (Caiman crocodilus) tears in Río Puerto Viejo in northeastern Costa Rica in December 2013. The tears carry ...

A genetic triple-whammy disguises transplanted organs to keep pig hearts alive in baboons for 600 days, and could work for other organs too

Antimicrobial agents incorporated into edible films applied to foods to seal in flavor, freshness and color can improve the microbiological safety of meats, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultura...

The blue-footed booby's mating dance is an amazing image of avian romance, but populations levels are still on the decline

How hard can it be to make a wheel rotate in a machine? Very hard actually, when the wheel sits in one of those nano-small molecular machines that are predicted to be running our future machines. But before the molecular...