Astronomers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have helped uncover new clues about the longest-lasting cosmic explosion ever observed, a gamma-ray burst that lasted nearly seven hours. The event, known as GRB 250702B, challenges decades of understanding about how and why these bursts occur.  Gamma-ray bursts are intense flashes of high-energy light produced by catastrophic cosmic events, usually lasting just a few seconds or minutes. But GRB 250702B broke all known records. After its initial detection by space-based observatories, researchers used some of the world’s largest ground-based telescopes ...

Climate change—including high temperatures and heat waves—has been shown to pose serious risks to the environment, food systems, and human health, but new research finds that it may also lead to delays in early childhood development. Published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, the study found that children exposed to higher-than-usual temperatures—specifically, average maximum temperatures above 86 °F (30 °C)—were less likely to meet developmental milestones for literacy and numeracy, relative to children living in areas with lower temperatures. “While heat exposure has been linked to negative physical and mental ...

Quanta Books is delighted to announce two new upcoming books by mathematician Terence Tao and theoretical physicist David Tong. Six Math Essentials will be Tao’s first math book written for a popular audience. In the book, Tao — a recipient of the Fields Medal and one of the world’s top mathematicians — will explore six ideas that have guided mathematicians throughout history. This short and friendly volume is for all readers, Tao says, because he believes that “mathematics has become unnecessarily intimidating and abstruse to the general public while being more essential than ever in the modern world.” Six Math Essentials will ...

Two new research projects will bring new instruments to established astronomical observatories, expanding the capabilities of mid-sized telescopes and advancing studies of planet and star formation. The projects are the first to be supported under the Instrumentation for Astrophysics program, an initiative supported by The Kavli Foundation, the WoodNext Foundation, and philanthropist Kevin Wells. The awards total $4.8 million in philanthropic support. By pairing new technology with proven observatories, the program ...

As global temperatures rise, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) scientists work to grow stronger, more resilient crops. Yet, this process is challenging. Plants often have several related genes that control desirable traits, such as size or drought resistance. Finding genes with overlapping functions, or “redundant genes,” is a near-impossible scavenger hunt. “Most of the time, there are major limitations in the pathway to crop improvement,” said Iacopo Gentile, a postdoc in CSHL’s Zachary ...

Soil salinity is a key abiotic stress factor. Salt stress substantially impairs plant growth, development, and productivity, significantly reducing crop yields worldwide. It induces various kinds of stress in plant organs, including toxic ion accumulation, oxidative stress, and osmotic stress. Notably, high sodium ion (Na⁺) levels affect protein synthesis, photosynthetic efficiency, nutrient homeostasis, and enzyme activities, causing long-term damage to plants. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying salt tolerance. Recently, scientists have implicated myosin XI, a motor protein that primarily facilitates intracellular trafficking and organelle ...

Indoor air quality has become an urgent concern in recent times, as we spend a considerable amount of time inside our home. Advances in measurement technologies have revealed that small, otherwise invisible ultrafine particles (UFPs) pose a significant threat to indoor air quality. While there are outdoor sources of this particulate air pollutants, the most common source lies indoor. The UFPs emitted by small home appliances equipped with electric heating coils and brushed DC motors can reach to the users as they are deployed close to the users without any preventive shield. In a new study published from Pusan National University (PNU), a group of researchers led by Professor ...

Indigenous communities will be empowered to renew and rebuild their own legal systems with support from Next Steps: Rebuilding Indigenous Law, the new research initiative from the University of Victoria (UVic) Faculty of Law.  “UVic is in the forefront of a profound shift in how education and research can be done—with Indigenous Peoples as co-creators and leaders,” says Qwul’sih’yah’maht, Robina Thomas, acting president and vice-chancellor of the University of Victoria. “Next Steps not only represents a model ...

Acoustic waves are best known as the invisible delivery agents bringing voices, car horns, or our favorite song to our ears. But the waves can also move physical objects, like an item vibrating atop a concert speaker — offering the power to turn sound into a tool.  Since receiving a 2024 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Zhenhua Tian and his team have explored how to use acoustic waves as invisible grabbers to manipulate fluid flows and tiny particles on electronic chips. ...

A subtle change in how climate risk is communicated—mentioning a person’s local area—can significantly increase attention to disaster preparedness messages, according to a new study by researchers at the Stockholm School of Economics and Harvard University, published in Nature Human Behaviour. The findings offer a practical, low-cost strategy for governments, insurers and local authorities seeking to boost climate resilience in vulnerable communities. In a large field experiment involving nearly 13,000 homeowners in wildfire-prone areas ...

An international research team led by Professor Marc-Emmanuel Dumas at Imperial College London & CNRS together with Prof. Patrice Cani (Imperial & University of Louvain, UCLouvain), Dr. Dominique Gauguier (Imperial & INSERM, Paris) and Prof. Peter Liu (University of Ottawa Heart Institute) has uncovered a surprising ally in the fight against insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes: a microbial metabolite called trimethylamine (TMA). Published in Nature Metabolism, the study reveals that ...

A new brain implant stands to transform human-computer interaction and expand treatment possibilities for neurological conditions such as epilepsy, spinal cord injury, ALS, stroke, and blindness – helping to manage seizures and restore motor, speech, and visual function. This is done by providing a minimally invasive, high-throughput information link directly to and from the brain. The transformational potential of this new system lies in its small size and ability to transfer data at high rates. Developed by researchers at Columbia University, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania, this brain-computer interface (BCI) relies ...

Getting enough sleep and staying active are two of the most important things we can do for our health, but new research shows that most people struggle to achieve both, and that sleep may hold the key to moving more. A study led by Flinders University analysed more than 28 million days of real-world health data from over 70,000 people across the globe and found that fewer than 13% consistently meet recommended sleep and physical activity targets. The findings suggest that improving sleep quality could be an effective way to boost daily activity. The research team examined data collected over three ...

Highly reactive organometallic reagents, like organolithiums (molecules with a carbon–lithium bond) are essential reagents in organic synthesis because of their applications from polymer synthesis to pharmaceuticals, and more. Lithium resources, however, are difficult to access because concentrated deposits are geographically restricted and modern extraction methods are burdened with environmental costs. Replacing lithium with sodium would be a significant contribution towards environmentally friendly organic synthesis because it is >1000 times more abundant and its extraction from seawater is sustainable ...

In a new leap for neurobiology and bioelectronics, Northwestern University scientists have developed a wireless device that uses light to send information directly to the brain — bypassing the body’s natural sensory pathways. The soft, flexible device sits under the scalp but on top of the skull, where it delivers precise patterns of light through the bone to activate neurons across the cortex. In experiments, scientists used the device’s tiny, patterned bursts of light to activate specific populations of neurons deep inside the brains of mouse models. (These neurons are genetically modified to respond to light.) The mice quickly learned ...

Rising greenhouse gas emissions could see the size of extreme floods in the Central Himalayas increase by between as much as 73% and 84% by the end of this century. Geographers at Durham University, UK, simulated the risk of increased flooding on the Karnali River, which spans Nepal and China and has the potential to impact communities in Nepal and India. They found that extreme floods – those with a 1% chance of happening within a year – could increase in size by 22% and 26% between 2020 and 2059, compared to flooding seen in the region between 1975 and 2014. This increase ...

Clues about how galaxies like our Milky Way form and evolve and why their stars show surprising chemical patterns have been revealed by a new study. The research, published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, explores the origins of a puzzling feature in the Milky Way: the presence of two distinct groups of stars with different chemical compositions, known as the "chemical bimodality". When scientists study stars near the Sun, they find two main types based on their chemical makeup, specifically, the amounts of iron (Fe) and magnesium (Mg) they contain. These two groups form ...

Receiving anticancer immunotherapy earlier in the day may help individuals with cancer live longer. That’s according to a study published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. An internal clock, or circadian rhythm, affects when different physiological processes (including immune reactions) in the body are active. This might explain why various medications appear to be more effective when taken at certain times of day. Researchers investigated this phenomenon in 397 patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer who received the immunotherapy drugs atezolizumab or durvalumab plus chemotherapy at the ...

A joint research team led by Dr. Gyujin Song of the Korea Institute of Energy Research (President: Yi, Chang-Keun, hereafter “KIER”), Dr. Kwon-Hyung Lee of the University of Cambridge, and Professor Tae-Hee Kim of the University of Ulsan has successfully developed a new dry-process manufacturing technology for secondary battery electrodes that overcomes the limitations of conventional electrode fabrication processes. The technology developed by the research team is a dry manufacturing process that forms ...

Children who spend a significant amount of time on social media tend to experience a gradual decline in their ability to concentrate. This is according to a comprehensive study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Pediatrics Open Science, where researchers followed more than 8,000 children from around age 10 through age 14. The use of screens and digital media has risen sharply in the past 15 years, coinciding with an increase in ADHD diagnoses in Sweden and elsewhere. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Oregon Health ...

In a special 11 December event for science journalists, the Science Press Package team will revisit the topic recognized as Science’s Breakthrough of the year in 2023: the development of GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity and their efficacy in blunting obesity-associated health problems. The Mani L. Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award that the American Association for the Advancement of Science, publisher of Science, gave to researchers whose work best underpinned ...

According to a new study, lower doses of approved immunotherapy for malignant melanoma can give better results against tumours, while reducing side effects. This is reported by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “The results are highly interesting in oncology, as we show that a lower dose of an immunotherapy drug, in addition to causing significantly fewer side effects, actually gives better results against tumours and longer survival,” says last author Hildur Helgadottir, a researcher at the Department of Oncology-Pathology at Karolinska Institutet, who led the study. The traditional ...

Road crossings need to slow down to allow people with mobility issues and older pedestrians enough time to use them, research has indicated.  The time interval of crossings in the UK is more than two seconds shorter than people with reduced mobility need, according to a new study by researchers at the Universities of Bath, Birmingham and Exeter.   Led by Dr Max Western from the University of Bath Centre for Motivation and Behaviour Change, the study found that just 1.5% of older adults with ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (EMBARGOED UNTIL DEC. 7, 2025, AT 6:00 P.M. EST) – Patients undergoing treatment for lymphoma often experience adverse side effects that can be so severe that they stop or slow treatment. But a new study shows that a virtual program focusing on diet and exercise is a feasible strategy for minimizing the side effects of cancer therapies and increasing treatment retention.   Early findings from the LIFE-L study will be presented on behalf of the multidisciplinary team by Melissa Lopez, Ph.D., RDN, at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in Orlando. Lopez is a postdoctoral ...

Insect pupae hiss like snakes for defense. A Kobe University team now reveals the mechanisms, opening the door to further studies involving predator reactions to defensive sounds. Just as you would shout or make noise to drive off a perceived threat, some insects have been known to produce defensive sounds. Some moths, for example, have been observed producing sounds to ward off predators at multiple developmental stages; pupal sound production has so far been attributed mainly to physical friction between body parts. “We became interested in this topic when ...