SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
Under the leadership of astrophysicist Kathrin Altwegg, Bernese researchers have found an explanation for why very little nitrogen could previously be accounted for in the nebulous covering of comets: the building block for life predominantly occurs in the form of ammonium salts, the occurrence of which could not previously be measured. The salts may be … Read more
In chimpanzee society, males spend their entire lives in the group where they were born, cooperating to defend their territory, while females tend to move away. But some chimp females seem less willing to cut the apron strings. New findings from researchers at Duke University and North Carolina State University show that female chimpanzees with … Read more
Northwestern University researchers have added a new dimension to the importance of diversity. For the first time, physicists have experimentally demonstrated that certain systems with interacting entities can synchronize only if the entities within the system are different from one another. This finding offers a new twist to the previous understanding of how collective behavior … Read more
The concept of aromaticity is central to organic chemistry and it is widely used to interpret the structure and reactivity of small molecules. This article shows that global aromaticity can arise in molecular rings as large as proteins. Hückel’s rule was formulated in 1931 by considering molecules with up to 6 π-electrons. A new Oxford’s … Read more
They might not yet speak in complete sentences, but 18-month-olds are savvy when it comes to deciding when and how to try. According to a study from Arizona State University, the University of Washington and University of Toronto that has implications for how people learn, infants do not try things at random or simply mimic … Read more
An accurate refinement of the quality of the data on the surface composition of the nucleus of the comet 67P Churyumov Gerasimenko collected by the Italian spectrometer VIRTIS, on board the European space mission Rosetta, has allowed to identify, the first time for a comet, clear traces of aliphatic organic compounds, chains of carbon and … Read more
The prevailing theory in cancer nanomedicine — an approach that enables more targeted therapies than standard chemotherapy — has been that nanoparticles mainly diffuse passively into tumours through tiny gaps between cells in the endothelium, which lines the inner wall of blood vessels that support tumour growth. The researchers previously showed that less than one per … Read more
A recent study finds that the observed weak linkage between the Labrador Sea convection, a process that mixes surface waters to depth, and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a basin-scale circulation critical to the climate system, can be attributed to the density compensation by temperature and salinity. Using observational and reanalysis data, this study … Read more
Engineers at Duke University have devised a model that can predict the early mechanical behaviors and origins of an earthquake in multiple types of rock. The model provides new insights into unobservable phenomena that take place miles beneath the Earth’s surface under incredible pressures and temperatures, and could help researchers better predict earthquakes — or … Read more
Quantum physics is moving out of the laboratory and into our everyday lives. Despite the big headline results about quantum computers solving problems impossible for classical computers, technical challenges are standing in the way of getting quantum physics into the real world. New research published in Nature Communications from teams at Aalto University and Lund University hopes … Read more