Some have dreamt of the perfect cloak to make buildings impervious to stress waves caused by bombs, earthquakes or other calamities. Sorry, researchers are now dashing the dream. But there's still hope. They also say it's possible to make imperfect, real-world cloaks that will actually do some good by adding significant partial protection against some common earthquake waves.
Why did a giant hole appear in the sea ice off Antarctica in 2016 and 2017, after decades of more typical sea ice cover? Years of Southern Ocean data have explained the phenomenon, helping oceanographers to better predict these features and study their role in global ocean cycles.
CI Tau b is a paradoxical planet, but new research about its mass, brightness and the carbon monoxide in its atmosphere is starting to answer questions about how a planet so large could have formed around a star that's only 2 million years old.
The shield-like tail segment, or telson, of the smasher mantis shrimp is a multiscale structure with ridges on the outside and a structure shaped like a spiral staircase on the inside. It's inspiring a new class of lightweight, impact-resistant materials for helmets, cars, and more
Researchers have isolated a cluster of neurons in a mouse's brain that are crucial to making the squeaky, ultrasonic 'songs' a male mouse produces when courting a potential mate.
New research suggests how to get large numbers of people engaged in participating during a live performance like a concert -- or a lecture -- and channel that energy for a sustained time period.
Without being aware of it, people sometimes wrongly perceive tactile sensations. A new study shows how healthy people can sometimes mis-attribute touch to the wrong side of their body, or even to a completely wrong part of the body.
An artificial nose developed in Finland helps neurosurgeons to identify cancerous tissue during surgery and enables the more precise excision of tumors.
New chemistry research demonstrates how 'hidden' phases of matter can be activated by extremely fast pulses of light. This fundamental scientific breakthrough paves the way for creating materials that can be imbued with new properties, such as conducting electricity or making it magnetic.
Using a new approach, researchers detected the elusive Majorana quasiparticle, notable for being its own antiparticle and for its potential as the basis for a robust quantum computing system, in a device built from a superconductor, small magnetic elements, and a topological insulator.
Free fingers have many obvious advantages on land, such as in locomotion and grasping, while webbed fingers are typical of aquatic or gliding animals. But both amphibians and amniotes -- which include mammals, reptiles, and birds -- can have webbed digits. Scientists now show that during embryo development, some animal species detect the presence of atmospheric oxygen, which triggers removal of interdigital webbing.
Using advanced technologies to explore the inner workings of bacteria, biologists have provided the first example of cargo within bacteriophage cells transiting along treadmill-like structures. The discovery demonstrates that bacteria have common with sophisticated human cells than previously believed.
The single-celled parasite Leishmania can reproduce sexually, according to new research. The finding could pave the way towards finding genes that help the parasite cause disease.
When scientists subjected two-toned pygmy squid and bigfin reef squid to carbon dioxide levels projected for the end of the century, they received some surprising results.
The use of Bitcoin causes around 22 megatons in carbon dioxide emissions annually -- comparable to the total emissions of cities such as Las Vegas or Hamburg.
New research indicates that zebras' stripes are used to control body temperature after all -- and reveals for the first time a new mechanism for how this may be achieved.
Human body communication (HBC) uses the human body to transmit power and data, much like the internet. Because it's a smaller and closed network, it has the benefit of being more secure and power efficient. In a recent study, a group of Japanese researchers used an equivalent circuit model to examine how different parameters affect HBC transmission characteristics.
A chemical residue study of incense burners from ancient burials at high elevations in western China has revealed psychoactive cannabinoids. The finding provides some of the earliest evidence for the use of cannabis for its psychoactive compounds.
