New research from the University of California shows how the ability to detect light could have evolved before anything like an eye. As published today (March 5) in the journal BMC Biology, the research is based on the stinging mechanism in the tiny, brainless and eyeless freshwater polyp Hydra m...
Women who have eggs that cannot mature will not become pregnant, and they cannot be helped by in vitro fertilization (IVF). Now researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have identified a molecule called Cdk1 that has an important function for mammalian egg maturation. In the future this ...
The increasing use of large breakwaters and other hard structures to reduce erosion in "living shorelines" along coastal estuaries may be no better for the environment than the ecologically harmful bulkheads they were designed to replace, according to a report this week by scientists at Duke and Wes...
The droplet goes in a flexible sandwich of the substance polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS. The sensor acts as a variable electrical capacitor. When the sensor is pressed down, the sensing droplet is squeezed over conductive electrodes, increasing its capacitance. "There's a huge need for flexible se...
Climate change has been studied extensively, but a new body of research guided by a San Francisco State University hydrologist looks beneath the surface of the phenomenon and finds that climate change will put particular strain on one of our most important natural resources: groundwater. SF State...
Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists and an international research team have announced discovery of molecular oxygen ions (O2+) in the upper-most atmosphere of Dione, one of the 62 known moons orbiting the ringed planet. The research appeared recently in Geophysical Research Letters and was mad...
An international team of materials researchers including Drexel University's Dr. Yury Gogotsi has given the engineering world a better look at the inner functions of the electrodes of supercapacitors – the low-cost, lightweight energy storage devices used in many electronics, transportation a...
Xinwei Wang had a hunch that spider webs were worth a much closer look. So he ordered eight spiders – Nephila clavipes, golden silk orbweavers – and put them to work eating crickets and spinning webs in the cages he set up in an Iowa State University greenhouse.
In March 2012, the Southern Research Station (SRS) published the Southern Research Station Global Change Research Strategy, 2011-2019, a Science Update that outlines SRS research priorities over the next decade in relation to climate change. Southern forests are invaluable, providing essential go...
Without looking down, Kira runs her index finger across the screen of an Android tablet that she is holding in her lap. For the occasion, she has painted her fingernails bright pink. When her finger touches a line drawn on the screen, the tablet vibrates quietly. Scanning her finger back and forth a...
Men like to know when their wife or girlfriend is happy while women really want the man in their life to know when they are upset, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association. The study involved a diverse sample of couples and found that men's and women's percepti...
The Fukushima disaster happened one year ago – the impacts are not over yet, neither in Japan nor in Germany. Immediately after the reactor accident became known, KIT established working groups that are still processing scientific findings for the public. Meanwhile, the KIT Energy Center is s...
