/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. When people are highly stressed for prolonged periods of time, they can sometimes experience a state known as burnout, characterized by pronounced emotional, mental and physical exhaustion. The stressors leading to burnout could be personal, such as family conflicts or the end of a relationship, as well as academic or professional, such as studying a lot for exams or working long hours while taking very few breaks or vacations. /news/2025-10-repetitive-negative-relationship-esteem-burnout.html Social Sciences Education Sun, 05 Oct 2025 09:00:01 EDT news678703984 A novel spectroscopic method developed at Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, enables highly sensitive analysis of molecules at material interfaces, using a combination of conventional ATR-IR, precise gap-control and advanced data processing. The technique offers a low-cost alternative to conventional interfacial spectroscopy and has potential applications in material sciences, nanotechnology, and biological sciences. /news/2025-10-gap-infrared-method-enables-analysis.html Analytical Chemistry Fri, 03 Oct 2025 11:21:04 EDT news678709262 Researchers have engineered a novel M6L4 octahedral molecular cage by integrating photoactive cyclometalated platinum(II) units, creating a visible-light-responsive "nanoreactor" that drives highly efficient photochemical reactions through precise molecular confinement. This innovative design overcomes the limitations of previous hosts, achieving perfect stereo- and site-selective cross-[2 + 2] cycloaddition reactions, and most notably, enabling catalytic cross-[2 + 2] cycloaddition of chemically inert substrates using this supramolecular confinement approach. /news/2025-10-nanoreactor-cage-visible-catalytic-ultra.html Nanomaterials Thu, 02 Oct 2025 13:30:02 EDT news678630366 Though it might seem like science fiction, scientists are working to build nanoscale molecular machines that can be designed for myriad applications, such as "smart" medicines and materials. But like all machines, these tiny devices need a source of power, the way electronic appliances use electricity or living cells use ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the universal biological energy source). /news/2025-10-rechargeable-powers-nanoscale-molecular-machines.html Bio & Medicine Nanophysics Wed, 01 Oct 2025 15:40:04 EDT news678552001 Metal-organic (MO) precursors are the chemical building blocks at the heart of atomically precise complex oxide materials. Yet in vapor-phase deposition techniques like MOCVD, ALD, and hybrid-MBE, they have long been treated as a "black box"—their reactions poorly understood and often dismissed as "just another knob to tweak." /news/2025-10-guesswork-decoding-metal-precursor-chemistry.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Wed, 01 Oct 2025 15:00:06 EDT news678549381 The seemingly unpredictable, and thereby uncontrollable, dynamics of living organisms have perplexed and fascinated scientists for a long time. While these dynamics can be represented by reaction networks, which can model a variety of biological systems, taming and therefore controlling these dynamics can be challenging. /news/2025-09-secret-survival-strategy-life-revealed.html Mathematics Tue, 30 Sep 2025 09:17:03 EDT news678442621 Machine-learning models can speed up the discovery of new materials by making predictions and suggesting experiments. But most models today only consider a few specific types of data or variables. Compare that with human scientists who work in a collaborative environment and consider experimental results, the broader scientific literature, imaging and structural analysis, personal experience or intuition, and input from colleagues and peer reviewers. /news/2025-09-ai-driven-blends-literature-robotics.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 25 Sep 2025 14:34:05 EDT news678029641 Research led by a physicist at the University of California, Riverside, shows how viruses form protective shells (capsids) around their genomes, a process that—while messy and complex—consistently results in highly symmetrical icosahedral structures. /news/2025-09-qa-viruses-symmetrical-shells.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 24 Sep 2025 14:00:05 EDT news677862661 A new type of catalyst—a material that speeds up chemical reactions—that could make the production of clean hydrogen fuel more efficient and long-lasting has been developed by a team led by City University of Hong Kong, including researchers from Hong Kong, mainland China, and Japan. /news/2025-09-catalyst-green-hydrogen-production-efficient.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 18 Sep 2025 15:33:04 EDT news677428381 Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have created a miniaturized microscope for real-time, high-resolution, noninvasive imaging of brain activity in mice. The device is a significant step toward revolutionizing how neuroscientists study the brain. /news/2025-09-mini-microscope-enables-real-3d.html Optics & Photonics Sat, 13 Sep 2025 07:05:16 EDT news676965910 In the late 1980s, scientists realized they could understand the interior properties of the sun by observing the sound waves that resonate inside it. This technique, called helioseismology, revealed a mysteriously thin dynamical layer in the interior of the sun that became known as the tachocline. /news/2025-09-mysterious-feature-magnetic-properties-sun.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Fri, 12 Sep 2025 09:40:30 EDT news676888821 With pollution levels rising, the need to quickly check water quality has become more urgent than ever. Traditional monitoring systems often rely on expensive bulky equipment with operational difficulty, making them impractical in remote areas or in places with limited resources. /news/2025-09-powered-pollution-sensor-toxic-amines.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 09 Sep 2025 13:26:03 EDT news676643161 Imagine being able to flip a light switch to control disease pathways inside a living cell. A team of visionary researchers at the Texas A&M University Health Science Center (Texas A&M Health) is making this dream a reality with their genetic tools known as photo-inducible binary interaction tools, or PhoBITs. /news/2025-09-compact-genetic-safer-precise-disease.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 09 Sep 2025 10:40:05 EDT news676632577 Anthropogenic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widespread and persistent pollutants that are increasingly subject to stringent regulatory thresholds in water resources. Current nonthermal defluorination strategies have limitations including incomplete mineralization, leaving behind short-chain PFAS byproducts and residual fluoride ions, thereby posing challenges to meeting water quality standards. /news/2025-09-microdroplets-enable-mineralization-persistent-pfas.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Fri, 05 Sep 2025 12:43:03 EDT news676294981 LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, has been called the most precise ruler in the world for its ability to measure motions more than 10,000 times smaller than the width of a proton. By making these extremely precise measurements, LIGO, which consists of two facilities—one in Washington and one in Louisiana—can detect undulations in space-time called gravitational waves that roll outward from colliding cosmic bodies such as black holes. /news/2025-09-algorithm-hushes-unwanted-noise-ligo.html Astronomy Thu, 04 Sep 2025 14:00:23 EDT news676195681 From the mighty blue whale to the humble baker's yeast, scientists have barely begun to understand the vast genetic diversity among lifeforms. Of the 1.67 million known species of animal, plant, fungi and protists, just 1% have been genetically sequenced. By 2035, this figure could reach 100%. /news/2025-09-biological-moonshot-efforts-genetically-earth.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 04 Sep 2025 05:00:07 EDT news676048229 Everybody makes mistakes. Biology is no different. However, living organisms have certain error-correction mechanisms that enable their biomolecules to assemble and function despite the defective slough that is a natural byproduct of the process. /news/2025-09-magnetic-microparticles-mimic-biological-error.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 02 Sep 2025 14:09:04 EDT news676040941 A new study on water usage inside U.S. homes found toilets led the way for the highest water use, followed closely by showers, while dishwashers used the least. /news/2025-09-household-toilets-showers-dominate-humidifiers.html Environment Tue, 02 Sep 2025 13:26:04 EDT news676038362 Cellular differentiation of stem cells into specialized cells requires many steps, including division, to create more cells; fate determination, which is a commitment to a specific lineage or developmental path; and migration, to integrate the cell into its final location. /news/2025-08-sniffing-stem-cells-olfactory-neurons.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 28 Aug 2025 17:10:05 EDT news675619801 University of Toronto researchers have uncovered how bacterial viruses protect their progeny in order to maximize their reach. The phenomenon, described in a study published in Nature, relies on viral proteins to fine-tune structures on the surface of the bacterial host cell and is widely conserved—pointing to a previously unknown parallel between microbial and human immunity. /news/2025-08-anti-kronos-effect-bacterial-viruses.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 28 Aug 2025 16:27:04 EDT news675617222 The brains of politically extreme individuals, whether left- or right-leaning, appear to respond to and process political information in surprisingly similar ways, according to research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The paper is titled "Politically extreme individuals exhibit similar neural processing despite ideological differences." /news/2025-08-political-polar-opposites-alike.html Social Sciences Political science Thu, 28 Aug 2025 09:00:03 EDT news675503761 Researchers at North Carolina State University have unveiled Rainbow, a first-of-its-kind multi-robot self-driving laboratory that autonomously discovers high-performance quantum dots—semiconductor nanoparticles critical for next-generation displays, solar cells, LEDs and quantum-engineering technologies. /news/2025-08-rainbow-multi-robot-lab-quantum.html Nanomaterials Mon, 25 Aug 2025 10:13:03 EDT news675335581 Researchers at Tohoku University have created a new catalyst that can partly renew itself while working, opening possibilities for more durable materials in energy and chemical applications. The catalyst is designed for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), an essential process for fuel cells and other clean energy technologies. /news/2025-08-renewing-fe-catalyst-durability-oxygen.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Fri, 22 Aug 2025 13:11:07 EDT news675087061 In the past, scientists believed that the fast-acting biochemistry of genes and proteins was responsible for directing the forces that shape developing organs. But a new study from Syracuse University shows that steady, powerful flows of tissue might be equally significant in shaping an organ's development as biochemistry. By understanding this physical process, doctors could find ways to prevent or treat human illness. /news/2025-08-steady-tissue-important-genes-biochemistry.html Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 21 Aug 2025 14:56:03 EDT news675006961 The first time I saw the Ada Tree, I felt tiny. It was October 2015, just days after arriving in Victoria to study mountain ash forests. During a visit to the Central Highlands, we went to see the Ada Tree—one of the largest mountain ash specimens, standing 76 meters tall (equivalent to a 20-story building), with a trunk 5 meters wide. /news/2025-08-giants-australian-forest.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 21 Aug 2025 12:16:21 EDT news674997371 Heat-stressed Victorian mountain ash forests are thinning fast, turning from carbon sinks to carbon sources, new research reveals. /news/2025-08-stressed-australian-forests-thinning-fast.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 21 Aug 2025 11:27:04 EDT news674994421 At first glance, biology and quantum technology seem incompatible. Living systems operate in warm, noisy environments full of constant motion, while quantum technology typically requires extreme isolation and temperatures near absolute zero to function. /news/2025-08-scientists-cells-biological-qubit-multidisciplinary.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 20 Aug 2025 16:10:07 EDT news674925002 Most metals found in nature are actually in their oxide forms. To extract those metals for use in critical applications—ranging from infrastructure such as bridges and buildings to advanced technologies like airplanes, semiconductors or even quantum materials—those oxides must be reduced with gases. /news/2025-08-hydrogen-greener-faster-metal-production.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Wed, 20 Aug 2025 12:55:06 EDT news674913302 Researchers have successfully improved a catalyst used in dry reforming reactions that produce energy from greenhouse gases. The newly developed self-generating catalyst offers high durability and significantly reduces metal usage compared to conventional catalysts, greatly enhancing economic efficiency. /news/2025-08-generating-catalyst-durability-limits-hydrogen.html Materials Science Mon, 18 Aug 2025 10:05:58 EDT news674730354 Work can be a boon or a burden, depending on who you ask. For many, the thought of having nothing to fill their days after retirement is distressing, while others might look forward to filling their days with all the activities they never had time for before. But what is the reality of life after retirement? Is it different for men and women? Will some people choose to continue working when there is no need for money? /news/2025-08-higher-life-satisfaction-men.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Tue, 12 Aug 2025 11:21:09 EDT news674216439