ScienceDaily: Featured - October 01, 2023
Featured research news
Why are killer whales harassing and killing porpoises without eating them?
For decades, fish-eating killer whales in the Pacific Northwest have been observed harassing and even killing porpoises without consuming them —- a perplexing behavior that has long intrigued scientists.
Tory Kallman/shutterstock.com
Strength is in this glass's DNA
Scientists were able to fabricate a pure form of glass and coat specialized pieces of DNA with it to create a material that was not only stronger than steel, but incredibly lightweight.
Down goes antimatter! Gravity's effect on matter's elusive twin is revealed
For the first time, in a unique laboratory experiment at CERN, researchers have observed individual atoms of antihydrogen fall under the effects of gravity. In confirming antimatter and regular matter are gravitationally attracted, the finding rules out gravitational repulsion as the reason why antimatter is largely missing from the observable universe.
Decreasing biodiversity may promote spread of viruses
How are environmental changes, loss of biodiversity, and the spread of pathogens connected? The answer is a puzzle. Researchers have now described one piece of that puzzle, showing that the destruction of tropical rainforests harms the diversity of mosquito species. At the same time, more resilient species of mosquitoes become more prevalent -- which also means the viruses they carry are more abundant. If there are many individuals of a given species, those viruses can spread quickly.
Study sheds new light on strange lava worlds
In a new study, scientists have shown that sweeping molten oceans have a large influence on the observed properties of hot rocky Super-Earths, such as their size and evolutionary path.
New insights into the atmosphere and star of an exoplanet
A new study of the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 exoplanetary system has demonstrated the complex interaction between the activity of the system's star and its planetary features.
Did life exist on Mars? Other planets? With AI's help, we may know soon
Scientists have discovered a simple and reliable test for signs of past or present life on other planets -- 'the holy grail of astrobiology.' Researchers report that, with 90% accuracy, their artificial intelligence-based method distinguished modern and ancient biological samples from those of abiotic origin.
Hidden supermassive black holes reveal their secrets through radio signals
Astronomers have found a striking link between the amount of dust surrounding a supermassive black hole and the strength of the radio emission produced in extremely bright galaxies.
The Gulf Stream transport of water through the Florida Strait has slowed by 4% over the past four decades, with a 99% certainty that this weakening is more than expected from random chance, according to a new study.
A new study appearing in Science Advances compares Pleistocene vegetation communities around Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, to the oldest archeological traces of Homo sapiens in the region. The researchers use the 'remarkable evidence' to tell a compelling story from 45,000-50,000 years ago with new detail: how the first humans migrated across Europe and Asia.