Around 700 BC, the Neo-Assyrian emperor Sargon II began building a new capital city, named after himself, in the desert of what is now Iraq. Archaeologists have long thought this grandiose project had barely gotten underway when it was abandoned, leaving only the ruins of a construction zone. But a newly published survey of the site upends that idea. Visualizations of data from a precision magnetometer show previously unknown buildings and infrastructure within the city walls, suggesting that the city indeed thrived beyond the palace.

Scientists have developed the first electrically pumped continuous-wave semiconductor laser composed exclusively of elements from the fourth group of the periodic table—the "silicon group."

Finding a reasonable hypothesis can pose a challenge when there are thousands of possibilities. This is why Dr. Joseph Sang-II Kwon is trying to make hypotheses in a generalizable and systematic manner.

An international research team has developed a new technology that helps to improve the accuracy of radar applications and LiDAR systems. Among its possible uses, it could contribute to implementing autonomous cars and optimize environmental monitoring.

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a first-ever urban heat wave simulation that takes into account the compounding effects from building infrastructure. The method provides a more accurate picture of the impacts from excessive heat on at-risk populations, which can guide local planners seeking mitigation solutions.

Photosynthesis, the process by which plants, algae and certain kinds of bacteria convert solar radiation into chemical energy, must adjust itself to changes in the intensity of sunlight, so as to ensure its efficient use.

Nuclear theorists at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory have successfully employed a new theoretical approach to calculate the Collins-Soper kernel, a quantity that describes how the distribution of quarks' transverse momentum inside a proton changes with the collision energy.

The first dark comet—a celestial object that looks like an asteroid but moves through space like a comet—was reported less than two years ago. Soon after, another six were found. In a new paper, researchers announce the discovery of seven more, doubling the number of known dark comets, and find that they fall into two distinct populations: larger ones that reside in the outer solar system and smaller ones in the inner solar system, with various other traits that set them apart.

A new study from UC San Diego's Comparative Cognition Lab shows that dogs trained to use soundboards to "talk" are capable of making two-word button combinations that go beyond random behavior or simple imitation of their owners. Published in the journal Scientific Reports, the study analyzed data from 152 dogs over 21 months, capturing more than 260,000 button presses—195,000 of which were made by the dogs themselves.

Animals showcase a remarkable diversity of colors and patterns, from the shimmery appearance of a peacock's tail to the distinctive rosettes on a jaguar's fur. Quantifying animal color has been a longtime goal of evolutionary biologists, who aim to understand how color evolved over time—and the physical and genetic mechanisms involved.