Production of energy from the difference between salt water and fresh water is most convenient near the oceans, but now, using an ammonium bicarbonate salt solution, researchers can combine bacterial
The floor of the world’s oldest forest has been unearthed. Scientists are now piecing together a view of this ancient site, dating back about 385 million years ago, which could shed new ligh
A rare and endangered monkey in an African equatorial rainforest is providing a look into our climatic future through its DNA. Its genes show that wild drills, already an overhunted species, may see a
Researchers have developed a method for inducing magnetic sensitivity in an organism that is not naturally magnetic -- yeast. Their technology could potentially be used to magnetize a variety of diffe
A new study is the first of its kind to systematically investigate the use of different land cover types for tiger habitat.
After 35 years, a giant fossil penguin has finally been completely reconstructed, giving researchers new insights into prehistoric penguin diversity.
By training birds to ‘get rhythm’, scientists uncover evidence that our capacity to move in time with music may be connected with our ability to learn speech.
Neither births nor deaths stop the flocking of organisms. They just keep moving, says a theoretical physicist. The notion, he says, has implications in biology and eventually could point to new cancer
As scientists continue developing climate change projection models, paleontologists studying an extreme short-term global warming event have discovered direct evidence about how mammals respond to ris
Birds in eastern North America are picking up the pace along their yearly migratory paths. The reason, according to researchers, is rising temperatures due to climate change.
Superconductivity is a rare physical state in which matter is able to conduct electricity -- maintain a flow of electrons -- without any resistance. This phenomenon can only be found in certain materi
As scientists warn that the Earth is on the brink of a period of mass extinctions, they are struggling to identify ecosystem responses to environmental change. But to truly understand these responses,
Sparrows, blackbirds and the great tit are all birds known to sing at a higher pitch in urban environments. It was previously believed that these birds sang at higher frequencies in order to escape th
Astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have, for the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space. Prior to this discovery, the microscopic carbon spheres had been fo
Pompeii-like, a 300-million-year-old tropical forest was preserved in ash when a volcano erupted in what is today northern China. Paleobotanists have reconstructed this fossilized forest, lending insi
Cuttlefish have the most acute polarization vision yet found in any animal, researchers have discovered by showing them movies on a modified LCD computer screen to test their eyesight.
Global warming has driven Yosemite's alpine chipmunks to higher ground, prompting a startling decline in the species' genetic diversity, according to a new study. The genetic erosion occurred in the r
Climate change spells trouble for many tropical birds -- especially those living in mountains, coastal forests and relatively small areas -- and the damage will be compounded by other threats like hab
Many fossilized dinosaurs have been found in a twisted posture. Scientists have long interpreted this as a sign of death spasms. Researchers have now come to the conclusion that these bizarre deformat
Four new species of miniaturized lizards have been identified in Madagascar. These lizards, just tens of millimeters from head to tail and in some cases small enough to stand on the head of a match, r
Bumblebees can use cues from their rivals the honeybees to learn where the best food resources are, according to new research. In a new study, researchers trained a colony of bumblebees (Bombus terres
Over their 3.8 billion years of evolution, living organisms have developed countless strategies for monitoring their surroundings. Chemists have adapted some of these strategies to improve the perform
The American West has seen a recent increase in large wildfires due to droughts, the build-up of combustible fuel, or biomass, in forests, a spread of fire-prone species and increased tree mortality f
The innermost secrets of champagne bubbles are about to be unveiled by a scientist tackling champagne bubbles from both a physics and a chemistry perspective. To understand what appears to be a harmle
A study of the evolutionary history of Antarctic fish and their "anti-freeze" proteins illustrates how tens of millions of years ago a lineage of fish adapted to newly formed polar condition
Scientists are reporting development of a new form of buckypaper, which eliminates a major drawback of these sheets of carbon nanotubes -- 50,000 times thinner than a human hair, 10 times lighter than
Scientists have found an iron-based superconductor that operates at the highest known temperature for a material in its class. The discovery inches iron-based superconductors closer to being useful in
It's big, it's old and it lives under the sea -- and now an international research collaboration has confirmed that an ancient seagrass holds the secrets of the oldest living organism on Earth. Ancien
New research reveals how the arrival of the first plants 470 million years ago triggered a series of ice ages. The research reveals the effects that the first land plants had on the climate during the
Blooms, or proliferation, of jellyfish have shown a substantial, visible impact on coastal populations -- clogged nets for fishermen, stinging waters for tourists, even choked intake lines for power p
Spotted salamanders exposed to contaminated roadside ponds are adapting to their toxic environments, according to new research. The study provides the first documented evidence that a vertebrate has a
New research reveals how the arrival of the first plants 470 million years ago triggered a series of ice ages. The research reveals the effects that the first land plants had on the climate during the
Thirty-thousand-year-old bison bones discovered in permafrost at a Canadian goldmine are helping scientists unravel the mystery about how animals adapt to rapid environmental change.
Precipitous declines in formerly common mammals in Everglades National Park in Florida have been linked to the presence of invasive Burmese pythons, according to new research. The study, the first to
Another attractive theory falls foul of the facts. A census of trees in rainforests on three continents has confirmed that competition plays a central role in structuring communities. This contradicts
Wonder material graphene has revealed another of its extraordinary properties Scientists have now found that it is superpermeable with respect to water. Graphene is one of the wonders of the science w
Wonder material graphene has revealed another of its extraordinary properties Scientists have now found that it is superpermeable with respect to water. Graphene is one of the wonders of the science w
Earth is alive, asserts a revolutionary scientific theory of life. The trans-disciplinary theory demonstrates that purportedly inanimate, non-living objects -- for example, planets, water, proteins, a
Carbon dioxide emissions have been increasing over the past decades, causing Earth to get hotter and hotter. There are concerns that a continuation of these trends could have catastrophic effects. Thi
The iconic, winged dinosaur Archaeopteryx was dressed for flight, an international team of researchers has concluded. The group identified the color of the raven-sized creature's fossilized wing feath
Scientists have developed a soap, composed of iron rich salts dissolved in water, that responds to a magnetic field when placed in solution. The soap’s magnetic properties were shown to resu
A 33,000-year-old dog skull unearthed in a Siberian mountain cave presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication and indicates that modern dogs may be descended from multiple ancestor
Engineers have designed a biological device that can measure glucose concentrations in human saliva. The technique could eliminate the need for diabetics to draw blood to check their glucose levels. T
Graphene is the thinnest material known to science. The nanomaterial is so thin, in fact, water often doesn’t even know it’s there. Engineering researchers coated pieces of gold, c
More than half of the 19,232 species newly known to science in 2009, the most recent calendar year of compilation, were insects – 9,738 or 50.6 percent – according to the 2011 Stat
Similar to the way pavement, softened by a hot sun, will slow down a car, graphene slows down an object sliding across its surface. But stack the sheets and graphene gets more slippery, say theorists
Preserving diverse plant life will be crucial to buffer the negative effects of climate change and desertification in in the world's drylands, according to a new landmark study.
Using several massive supercomputers, a team of physicists has split a simulated electron perfectly in half. The results are another example of how tabletop experiments on ultra-cold atoms and other c
Biologists just discovered two new species of frogs in New Guinea, one of which is now the world's tiniest known vertebrate, averaging only 7.7 millimeters in size -- less than one-third of an inch. I
Why are the faces of primates so dramatically different from one another? Biologists serving as "evolutionary detectives" studied the faces of 129 adult male primates from Central and South