All five nucleobases of RNA and DNA have been discovered in meteorites for the first time. These chemicals are essential ingredients for life on Earth and several purines and also two pyrimidines – thymine and cytosine – not previously detected in meteorites were found. The findings come from an analysis of three carbonaceous meteorites, known […]

Chris Case, chief technology officer at Oxford PV, firmly believes that solar needs to be 50% of the global energy mix by 2050 if we are going to have a chance to save this planet. ‘There is no real logical reason to expand energy infrastructure other than solar,’ says Case. ‘There is no better energy […]

During the Covid-19 lockdowns, an increase in people taking an interest in birdwatching revealed our deep need to connect with nature and community during stressful times. It demonstrated the link between engagement with the natural world and social activism. In the 18th century, birdwatching (or ornithology) was mostly an activity for privileged country gentlemen and […]

At least 800 research studies published in crystallography and exotic-chemistry journals originate from a paper mill, a new study suggests. The preprint identified around 800 research studies published between 2015 and 2022 that recycle images, contain oddities in the methods section and references that cite papers of no relevance. The study suggests that one main […]

It is probably true that no period in European history had been so misconceived, misconstrued, misrepresented, as the Middle Ages. Alone the fact that a period of history that is often considered to have lasted a thousand years from 500 to 1500 CE is perceived as somehow being a single, monolithic entity is at best […]

Reducing the use of fossil fuels will have unintended consequences for the power-generation industry and beyond. For example, many industrial chemical processes use fossil-fuel byproducts as precursors to things like asphalt, glycerine, and other important chemicals. One solution to reduce the impact of the loss of fossil fuels on industrial chemical processes is to store […]

Bloodworms are known for their unusual fang-like jaws, which are made of protein, melanin, and concentrations of copper not found elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Scientists have observed how these worms use copper harvested from marine sediments to form their jaws, and the process, described in research publishing in the journal Matter on April 25, may be […]

A new approach to solving the Travelling Salesperson Problem – one of the most difficult questions in computer science – significantly outperforms current approaches. A notorious theoretical question that has puzzled researchers for 90 years, the Travelling Salesperson Problem also has real relevance to industry today. Essentially a question about how best to combine a set […]

Federal funding for biomedical research has a “ripple effect” of stimulating new studies even beyond the original purposes of a grant and may provide unexpected benefits, a new study suggests. Researchers used a unique dataset to get a never-before-seen view of how science funding is spent and the results it produces. The findings, published today […]

Saturn’s moon Titan looks very much like Earth from space, with rivers, lakes, and seas filled by rain tumbling through a thick atmosphere. While these landscapes may look familiar, they are composed of materials that are undoubtedly different – liquid methane streams streak Titan’s icy surface and nitrogen winds build hydrocarbon sand dunes. The presence […]