World leaders meeting at the annual U.N. climate summit in November 2026 are wrestling with a persistent challenge: how to get countries to follow through on their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet.
Biomaterials engineers have created a "superstructure" hydrogel that could be an eco-friendly tool used in medical technologies and as a recovery aid for surgical procedures. The research is published in the journal Macromolecular Rapid Communications.
Reptiles are captivating creatures—so captivating that people keep them as pets, or wear clothes and carry handbags fashioned from their patterned skins.
Scientists led by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History have restored the physical reference of one of the most historically significant names in biology. In a paper published in Taxonomy, researchers designated a new type specimen, or neotype, for Araneus angulatus, the first animal species described using binomial nomenclature, the two-part naming system that scientists use today to identify and classify living organisms. The designation reconnects the name to a physical specimen decades after the original name-bearing spiders disappeared.
Simple psychological interventions are often enough to encourage people to change their behavior—and this is also true when it comes to saving electricity. A new study by Mannheim-based consumer psychologist Dr. Yavor Paunov and colleagues shows that comparing one's own electricity consumption with that of others as well as practical energy-saving tips can help reduce energy consumption.
Researchers at Texas A&M University have cracked a problem that has limited biological imaging for years: seeing fine cellular detail while looking deep inside living tissue. The new microscopy technique resolves structures smaller than 100 nanometers, roughly a thousand times thinner than a human hair, without giving up the ability to image deep into intact samples.
Water is not usually thought of as a magnetic material. But a new study led by researchers at Tohoku University's Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, in collaboration with National Taipei University of Technology (Taipei Tech), has found that tiny shifts in the orientation of water molecules can flip on magnetic partnerships between metal ions that are not even directly bonded to each other.
A shoebox-sized color detection device could enable precise measurements at record resolution, according to new research led by Adelaide University. An international team exploited an integrating sphere—a highly reflective hollow cavity that causes light to bounce around inside many times before exiting—to demonstrate a device that can measure the color (wavelength) composition of light with extreme precision at a resolution of just 6 femtometers.
Whether an individual reoffends after their release from prison or is successfully rehabilitated depends on several factors. When assessing the risk of recidivism, all of these are taken into account—both by human experts and by machine learning models. If several equally reliable computational models produce different risk ratings, the lowest value should be used for the individual concerned, suggest Ashwin Singh (TU Wien) and Carlos Castillo (ICREA/Universitat Pompeu Fabra).
The pressure to maintain an atmosphere of fun and escapism can make it harder for festival organizations to acknowledge and respond to harm, while frontline workers are left dealing with its consequences, a new study finds.
