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Scientists have long been fascinated by two promising classes of antibiotics that disable RNA polymerase (RNAP). They knew that these drugs could grind gene expression to a halt in several pathogens, including the bacterium behind tuberculosis, by binding to specific locations in RNAP. But despite decades of study, a key question remained: What process are the drugs actually targeting?
Washington State University horticulturist Jeffrey Wall partnered with members of the Mi
Transporting molecules across biological membranes is essential for life. In nature, this can occur through passive transport, known as diffusion.
When certain atoms are irradiated with laser light, they can produce a very different kind of laser light: laser pulses with extremely high frequencies in the X-ray range. These laser pulses, which helped achieve record-breaking results at TU Wien in the 1990s, were the subject of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics.
While parks, playgrounds and hiking trails are generally thought of as
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) is a partner, have captured the first direct, high-resolution images of a magnetic field wrapped tightly around the outflow of gas streaming away from a forming star
While the link between financial stability and mental health is well-established, a new University College Dublin (UCD) study reveals a major blind spot in current research: an overreliance on self-reported surveys rather than objective financial data. The joint review published in Frontiers in Public Health by UCD School of Computer Science and UCD School of Psychology evaluated 43 studies on financial habits and mental illness, uncovering significant gaps.
The scramble for protective glasses has reached fever pitch across Europe ahead of Wednesday
Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered that dust and water can form and survive surprisingly close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The observations reveal that the evolved star IRS 3 continues to enrich its surroundings with newly formed material despite the intense radiation environment around Sagittarius A*.
Economic losses from natural catastrophes worldwide are estimated to have reached $100 billion in the first half of this year, reinsurance group Swiss Re said Tuesday, a sharp decline from the same period last year.
There are increasing calls for tighter legislation and restrictions on social media use, particularly for children and young people. Evidence shows potential harms coexist on social media platforms alongside opportunities for crisis support and connection.
After multiple severe heat waves in a single summer, French residents are increasingly factoring high temperatures into their home hunts, realtors say, bumping up features such as shutters, air conditioning and indirect sunlight on their priority lists.
A new document attempting to resuscitate a floundering global plastics treaty suggests that negotiations are trending in a less ambitious direction, a leading scientific expert told AFP on Tuesday.
Every morning, groups of birds start singing and chirping around the same time, typically when the sun starts rising. While zoologists have been studying this collective bird behavior, called the dawn chorus, for decades, the factors driving it remain poorly understood.
The good news is that the majority of Australian students have again reached proficiency standards in reading and writing literacy
A joint research team
Platypuses rescued during a severe drought quickly returned to their old routines after being released back into the wild, suggesting emergency rescues can help protect vulnerable populations.
From spears and the invention of the wheel to smartphones and robots, human societies have been building and using tools from the beginning. Human tool use has helped conquer new environments, increase communication and ultimately alter the course of human evolution.
Locals and officials in Colombia have begun a massive search and rescue effort to find survivors of a powerful earthquake that struck near San Jos
Toxoplasma gondii, or Toxoplasma, is a parasite that infects hundreds of millions of people around the world. Although cases are often mild, it can cause severe symptoms in people with weakened immune systems and developing fetuses. It can also persist for years by forming long-lived cysts in tissues, allowing infection to become chronic.
Adolescence is a key stage of development, characterized by heightened emotional vulnerability. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in seven young people ages 10
Scientists exploring seamounts off the coast of Costa Rica have discovered a new coral so genetically and morphologically distinct that it required the creation of an entirely new family for its classification. Bright yellow and tree-like, the coral was found growing some 360 to 529 meters (1,180 to 1,735 feet) beneath the surface of the Pacific. The discovery is described in the open-access journal ZooKeys.
As protesters rally against data center construction in dozens of states and New York and Texas pause the issuance of permits for large data centers, a new nationally representative survey finds that Americans
Every day, billions of people scroll through social media posts, online reviews and news feeds filled with emotional content
Humans trust dogs to help find missing people, and bees to pollinate their crops. But scientists still don
Most current space activities operate close to Earth in what is called near
Research has long shown that exercise benefits both physical and mental health. Now, a new study from researchers at BYU suggests that it may also strengthen marriages, especially when couples exercise together.
Barramundi farmers will soon be able to improve stock genetics by placing more emphasis on the sex of their breeding fish. University of Queensland Ph.D. candidate Jessica Hintzsche has produced the most detailed genetic map ever created for barramundi, showing how traits can be passed between generations.
The genetic diversity of the largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis), a critically endangered ray, has plummeted over the past century and a half, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The species once lived in tropical waters worldwide but has disappeared from much of its former range.
The widespread use of conversational platforms such as ChatGPT and Gemini is raising important new ethical, anthropological and legal questions regarding the potential risks, misuses and shortcomings of artificial intelligence (AI). In discussing their personal experiences, some people have shared that they formed emotional attachments to AI agents or even felt that they had formed romantic relationships with them.
For more than two decades, Charis E. Kubrin has followed the data wherever it leads. As UC Irvine Chancellor
Every living cell, from the simplest bacterium to a human neuron, relies on the same basic machinery to read, interpret, and use its DNA. This molecular machinery is so fundamental that life as we know it cannot exist without it. And because it is so essential, it has long been a target for drugs; it shuts down a bacterium
In the coastal forests of a tropical Japanese island near Okinawa grows an inconspicuous plant that is easy to mistake for a mushroom. It is a non-green parasite that feeds on the roots of other plants and produces up to 1 million tiny seeds, each covered in a minuscule, dry fruit. The seeds, in particular, present a mystery to scientists: How do they get dispersed?
Communities living in Colombia thousands of years ago achieved an engineering wonder of the world based on cooperation among family groups without top-down government, a new study shows. Archaeologists argue that policymakers in Colombia should now adopt a similar strategy to solve the country
Researchers at the University of Basel and the Technical University of Munich have developed a new method to reveal the collective motion of electrons in one of the most elusive states of matter: the Wigner crystal. Using light, the physicists were able to uncover previously inaccessible properties of this fragile quantum state.
Plastic pollution is not only a marine litter issue; it is also closely linked to resource circulation and chemical management. Plastic products contain a wide range of additives, including antioxidants, plasticizers, ultraviolet stabilizers and flame retardants. Some of these chemicals are regulated or managed because of concerns about their effects on human health and ecosystems.
From genome editing to quantum computing, scientific progress is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, yet public faith in science is collapsing. Our species has mapped the human genome, created powerful computers that sit in the palms of our hands and extended human life spans beyond what our ancestors could have imagined
Combining drone data and machine learning can help cover more ground in monitoring forest soil health, University of Alberta research shows. The findings are published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management. Using both tools to map and monitor soil fungal diversity
Social cohesion is the glue that holds society together. Now, those bonds are breaking, and polarization has been growing for years. Educational programs aimed at strengthening social cohesion by promoting greater tolerance often focus on social differences, such as ethnicity, religion or nationality. Yet are such programs effective? A German
July 2026 marked the hottest month on record for the contiguous United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday, continuing a recent trend driven by human-caused climate change.
Researchers from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, including Dr. Zachary Birch-Price and professor Anthony Green, have developed a new family of engineered enzymes that can create several different types of chemical bonds used to build complex molecules. This work demonstrates how artificial enzymes can be adapted to carry out a broad range of carbon-carbon (C-C) and carbon-nitrogen (C-N) bond-forming reactions with high selectivity, offering new possibilities for biocatalysis.
Photosynthetic microorganisms can use light energy to convert carbon dioxide into useful compounds under mild, environmentally compatible conditions. However, many current photosynthetic production systems rely on cells growing freely in large volumes of liquid. This creates a substantial demand for water and requires extensive mixing to keep the cells evenly distributed and exposed to light, increasing the resource and energy requirements of the process.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Aug. 5, the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket crashed into the moon in an uncontrolled collision.
The ability to change focus instantly is something most people take for granted. Every day, our eyes effortlessly switch between reading a book, recognizing a face across the room or watching a bird fly overhead. Replicating that remarkable technological flexibility, however, has proved far more difficult.