Toxic evolution: How wasps and frogs mimic pain molecules to deter predators

Certain species of wasps and frogs share a pain and inflammation peptide similar to one found in vertebrates to help defend against predators—a discovery that contributes to a shifting view of how ...

Soybeans recruit beneficial soil microbes to defend against a major pest

Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is among the most damaging pests affecting soybean crops around the world, with current ...

Plant cell structure could hold key to cancer therapies and improved crops

Can the bend of a banana give us insight into cancer? What does the shape of a rice grain have to do with infertility? The ...

AI-designed diffractive optical processors pave the way for low-power structural health monitoring

A team of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has introduced a novel framework for monitoring ...

Amazon fish contaminated with toxic metals threaten riverine communities' health

For riverside communities along the Amazon, fish is not a menu choice—it is a lifeline. Millions of people in the Brazilian ...

Making mini-lightning in a block of plastic

Lightning formation and the conditions triggering it have long been shrouded in a cloud of mystery, but new research led by Penn State scientists is lifting the fog. Using mathematical calculations, ...

Toward practical laser-driven light sails using photonic crystals

Most space missions rely on chemical rockets for propulsion. Rockets must carry fuel, which increases spacecraft mass and limits their speed and travel distance. For decades, researchers have explored ...

Researchers create a never-before-seen molecule and prove its exotic nature with quantum computing

An international team of scientists from IBM, The University of Manchester, Oxford University, ETH Zurich, EPFL and the University of Regensburg have created and characterized a molecule unlike any ...

NASA now officially has no plans to use new mobile launcher for Artemis

When NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the revamped approach to the Artemis moon program, it was unclear whether the new mobile launcher that has been constructed over the last two years at ...

Chemically tuning nanographene into topological spin chains and why the ends matter

When most people hear "polymer," they think of plastics. In our group, polymerization is a way to line up identical molecules like beads on a string and let quantum mechanics take over. Put magnetic ...

Marine biologists a family history of San Diego's giant kelp over more than four decades

The growth form of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is composed of shoots known as stipes instead of branches. From one ...

Why Large Hadron Collider predictions can miss the mark, and a new way to fix it

Estimating things that exist is generally easy, but when it comes to estimating things that do not exist, it's more difficult. This is something physicists from Poland and the UK are well aware of. To ...