Timing is everything for the mutualistic relationship between ants and acacias
In the 1960s, Penn biologist Dan Janzen, as part of earning his Ph.D., re-described what has become a classic example of biological mutualism: the...
Avian malaria behind drastic decline of London’s iconic sparrow?
London's house sparrows (Passer domesticus) have plummeted by 71% since 1995, with new research suggesting avian malaria could be to blame.
Once ubiquitous across the...
Forces behind growing political polarization in congress revealed in new model
For much of the 20th century, political polarization within the United States House of Representatives tended to decrease over the course of a two-year...
Limitation exposed in promising quantum computing material
Quantum computers promise to perform operations of great importance believed to be impossible for our technology today. Current computers process information via transistors carrying...
Research shows black plastics could create renewable energy
Research from Swansea University has found how plastics commonly found in food packaging can be recycled to create new materials like wires for electricity—and...
Australian ants prepared for ‘Insect Armageddon’
Researchers studied ants in the Simpson Desert for 22 years and found that local changes in climate, such as long-term increases in rainfall, combined...
Researchers build transistor-like gate for quantum information processing – with qudits
Quantum information processing promises to be much faster and more secure than what today's supercomputers can achieve, but doesn't exist yet because its building...
Supernova observation first of its kind using NASA satellite
When NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite launched into space in April 2018, it did so with a specific goal: to search the universe for...
Breakthrough material could lead to cheaper, more widespread solar panels and electronics
Imagine printing electronic devices using a simple inkjet printer—or even painting a solar panel onto the wall of a building.
Such technology would slash the...
Megadrought caused mega biodiversity loss
Researchers at CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, have painstakingly reconstructed the nation's 'once in a century drought' in the early 1900s, revealing that it...
Small fragments of carbon-rich asteroids too fragile to survive atmospheric entry
Ryugu and other asteroids of the common "C-class" consist of more porous material than was previously thought. Small fragments of their material are therefore...
