Phys.org

A biological methane filter on the seafloor can form much faster than scientists previously believed. An international research team including a University of Bremen researcher observed this over six years at a newly formed methane seep in the deep sea. Earlier models assumed this process would take several decades. The study appears in National Science Review.

The enzymes found in modern organisms are complex proteins, often with multiple folded substructures and specialized catalytic sites. Proteins are encoded by genes. Tracing the history of enzymes across all living organisms through gene comparisons leads to the last universal common ancestor (LUCA), a hypothetical organism that existed around 4 billion years ago and is believed to be the ancestor of life forms on Earth.

A broken rib from Scotty, the largest T. rex skeleton discovered, is helping scientists uncover new information about life on Earth 66 million years ago. Scotty's rib preserves something rarely seen in the fossil record: a healing injury frozen in time.

Generative artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming integral to how retail investors research companies, with nearly half of those surveyed saying they have used it to process financial information or inform investment decisions.

Venus is one of the solar system's most unusual planets. It may sometimes be called "Earth's twin" because of its similar size and density, but it rotates on its axis in the opposite direction of most planets, has surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead and lacks a moon.

Researchers at Nagoya University have built a graphene nanoribbon that can switch the direction of its twist using a natural solvent. Graphene nanoribbons are thin, ribbon-shaped structures made of fused carbon rings. Twisted or helical versions of these ribbons show promise for advanced light and electronic devices. However, until now, no graphene nanoribbon could switch its twist on demand.

A University of Stirling study could pave the way for more efficient study of the secretions that salmon lice use to avoid fish defenses, potentially enabling the development of new strategies to protect salmon from infestations.

Sulfur-reducing bacteria of the phylum Desulfobacterota play a crucial role in the global biogeochemical sulfur cycle. Species such as Geobacter sulfurreducens use elemental sulfur as a terminal electron acceptor during anaerobic respiration, producing sulfide that participates in the global sulfur cycle.

El Niño is forecast to be the strongest since comparable records began four decades ago, the United Nations' climate agency warned Thursday, with the UN chief saying the world was in the "danger zone of extreme weather."

A new study led by surfing scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego revealed the physical relationships underlying a pattern familiar to generations of surfers.

Two Mercury-bound spacecraft left their mother ship behind on Thursday and headed down the home stretch of their nearly decade-long voyage to the solar system's smallest and closest-to-the-sun planet.

Japanese scientist Hideki Shirakawa, co-winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering and developing conductive polymers, has died. He was 90.

Research means asking questions of the universe. For centuries, clever minds have advanced science by devising ingenious experiments designed so their results reveal something about the laws of nature as clearly and unambiguously as possible.

For insurers and operators alike, what grows under a solar array is almost as important as what sits on top of it. Grass height, moisture and biomass all influence how a site is insured, maintained and grazed.

Cells synthesize proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and these proteins are transported to the Golgi apparatus for distribution to their ultimate destinations inside and outside the cell. The structures that transport proteins from the ER to the Golgi apparatus are called COPII vesicles; the processes that regulate the formation of COPII vesicles are only partially understood.

A research team led by Professor Yong Taik Lim at the SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University, have developed an engineered nanoplatform named t-SMC (trained immunity-mediated splenic myelopoiesis converter), which precisely targets the spleen to reverse splenic myelopoiesis toward an antitumoral immune phenotype. The research is published in the journal Advanced Materials.

A study published today by the Geological Society and led by the University of Aberdeen concludes that the Viking South gas field has the geological suitability, proven containment integrity and operational readiness needed to become one of the UK's most advanced and reliable offshore carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage sites.

There are millions of species of bacteria and archaea on Earth, remarkably little is known about most of them. Now, researchers have mined the genomes of thousands of microorganisms preserved at the RIKEN BioResource Research Center (BRC) to find organisms that may be capable of capturing CO2. BRC, located in Tsukuba—one of Japan's largest centers of scientific research—is a unique, world-class research facility.

The massive January 2022 eruption of Hunga volcano in the Kingdom of Tonga took the world by surprise.

Along the sandy banks of northern India's Chambal River, crocodile-like gharials glide silently through the water—but if a gharial spots a stranger, the quiet may be punctuated by a series of explosive pops.