Science

Venus and Jupiter passed close to one another, setting the stage for a captivating planetary photoshoot.

Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service on Wednesday said global forecasters were increasingly confident that a very strong El Niño warming weather pattern could form later this year.

The nanoscale world appears to have a new ball to kick around. Researchers from Brown University have shown the first experimental evidence for a "buckyball" molecule made from 80 boron atoms. The new structure is the cousin of the carbon buckyball, known formally as Buckminsterfullerene—a soccer ball-shaped molecule made from 60 carbon atoms that helped launch the nanotechnology revolution when it was discovered just over 40 years ago.

The comedian of the stage and big screen thrilled millions of Americans without ever speaking a word, leaving many to wonder what his voice sounded like

A woman’s 2,000-year-old skeleton also shows signs of limb sharpening. The post Brain removal likely used in Iron Age Scottish burial appeared first on Popular Science.

As the school year winds down and families start planning summer activities, possibly anticipating those inevitable rainy days, I have found myself returning to a simple but powerful joy: sharing museum experiences with young children.

From melodic morning choruses to territorial songs that echo through forests and grasslands, birds rely on vocalizations to communicate, attract mates and defend valuable habitat. For songbirds, these vocal displays are not simply inherited instincts. Like human language, many bird songs are learned through a complex process of listening, imitation and practice.

New research reveals the microscopic machinery that helps giant kelp turn sunlight into energy, providing inspiration for innovative climate solutions. The study, published in Nature Communications, mapped one of the tiny antenna-like structures kelp uses for photosynthesis. Their unique architecture may hold the key to why kelp are the most efficient ocean organisms at capturing light and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Researchers propose that tiny mineral nanoparticles may have been the hidden engines that transformed Earth’s early chemistry into the first building blocks of life. By acting as natural catalysts and energy processors, these “nanozymes” could help explain how lifeless matter gradually became living systems.

New findings, published in Nature, help answer the riddle of how vertebrates evolved the diverse array of brain cells that distinguishes them from other animals. It appears that a dramatic expansion of the genetic toolkit more than 450 million years ago enabled the emergence of different kinds of brain cells. These cellular innovations are shared across vertebrates—from primitive fish to mammals—and form the basis of the sophisticated brains seen today.

RNA therapeutics have emerged as one of the most promising new classes of medicines. Eight small interfering RNA (siRNA) drugs have already been approved worldwide for the treatment of genetic diseases, yet scientists have not fully understood one of the most fundamental steps underlying their function: how Argonaute, the core protein responsible for gene silencing, becomes activated.

The number of icebergs in the Arctic has increased sharply since the 2000s. This is due to the destabilization of large glaciers in northeast Greenland and parts of the Russian Arctic, as well as the increasing mobility of sea ice. The result: Stones rain down from the melting icebergs, forming new hard-substrate habitats for marine life on the soft seafloor.

Whale falls form when whale carcasses sink to the seafloor, creating localized concentrations of biodiversity in the deep ocean. Besides playing a role in long-term carbon sequestration, whale falls help scientists understand the evolution and dispersal of deep-sea life, as well as provide an unprecedented fossil record of whales and deep-sea ecosystems.

The deep sea is a unique "evolutionary engine," with one of the richest and most unexplored sources of genetic diversity on Earth, according to a major new study that assessed its potential to transform biotechnology and DNA sequencing technologies.

We checked out Gears of War E-Day and chatted to the devs at Summer Games Fest, to find out more about the latest chapter in the Gears saga.