What did the historical world sound like, and how did humans interact with nature? Associate Professor Britton Elliott Brooks from Kyushu University's Faculty of Languages and Cultures has explored these questions in a unique arena: the open sea in early medieval English literature. This conceptually vast body of water, isolated from land, appears in medieval authors' works not only through visual imagery, but often through sound.

Nickel and nitrogen co-doped carbon (Ni-N-C) catalysts have shown exceptional performance in converting CO2 into CO, a valuable chemical feedstock. However, the exact working mechanism of these catalysts has remained elusive—until now.

A group of young students became bonafide biomedical scientists before they even started high school. Through a partnership with a nearby university, the middle schoolers collected and analyzed environmental samples to find new antibiotic candidates. One unique sample, goose poop collected at a local park, had a bacterium that showed antibiotic activity and contained a novel compound that slowed the growth of human melanoma and ovarian cancer cells in lab tests.

Small, spoon-shaped objects found on the end of warriors' belts at archaeological sites across northern Europe could have been used to dispense stimulants before battle, a study suggests.

Northwestern Medicine scientists have uncovered new details about how the spinal column forms in developing vertebrates, according to a study published in Developmental Cell.

The algorithms behind generative AI tools like DallE, when combined with physics-based data, can be used to develop better ways to model the Earth's climate. Computer scientists in Seattle and San Diego have now used this combination to create a model that is capable of predicting climate patterns over 100 years 25 times faster than the state of the art.

A team of researchers has uncovered a previously unknown phenomenon that could improve the way we design materials at the molecular level. By unlocking a transformation between two types of structural defects on the surface of liquid droplets, the research opens new possibilities for controlling molecular patterns with unprecedented precision. This discovery has broad applications across a range of technologies, including vaccine design, the creation of self-assembling structures, and the synthesis of complex nanoparticles.

Communities of microbes (microbiomes), particularly in soils, can be startlingly diverse, with as many as 10,000 species in just a cup of material. Scientists are working to understand how microbiomes and their members respond to their environments. These processes can profoundly shape the properties and composition of soils.

Newly discovered insect fossils are so small they can barely be seen by the human eye but have been preserved in an extraordinary way. Published in the journal Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, a study reveals rare whitefly insect fossils have been found in Miocene age crater lake sediments at Hindon Maar, near Dunedin.

As global water resources become more strained, the insights gained from traditional agricultural systems could pave the way for the development of innovative, low-water-use agricultural practices to confront the growing challenges of water scarcity and food insecurity in arid and marginal regions.