Category: Science and Nature

  • What Twisters gets right — and wrong

    What Twisters gets right — and wrong

    When Hollywood producers showed up a few years ago at Sean Waugh’s office, he couldn’t wait to show them his thunderstorm-tracking equipment. Waugh, a meteorologist at the US National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, is a big fan of the 1996 film Twister, which stars Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as leaders of a…

  • Freeze-dried woolly mammoths share their genetic secrets with scientists

    Freeze-dried woolly mammoths share their genetic secrets with scientists

    A 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth was impeccably freeze-dried by nature, its swatches of fur remaining intact — remarkably enough — and allowing a global team of scientists to reconstruct the creature’s three-dimensional genome for the first time. A study published Thursday in the journal Cell about mammoths inspires a new way of looking at ancient DNA…

  • Fresh guidance launched for nature-focused science-based targets

    Fresh guidance launched for nature-focused science-based targets

    The SBTN has this week unveiled its new target-setting guide, with updated technical guidance and resources aimed at helping companies set science-based targets for nature. Last year, the SBTN launched a global initiative aimed at helping companies evaluate their environmental footprints and explore scientific strategies to mitigate them. As part of this initiative, a pilot programme…

  • River Bend Nature Center to hold themed Sip’N Science event

    River Bend Nature Center to hold themed Sip’N Science event

    WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) – River Bend Nature Center will be holding a Sip’N Science event themed around Texas Hummingbirds on July 19. The event will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and is only $25 per person to attend. Attendees will learn about hummingbird diets, predators, and migration patterns from Penny Miller.…

  • Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) across orbits

    Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) across orbits

    A visual summary of the 44 papers in the SOMA package is also available as a PDF version. All papers can be accessed in the collection page. Key laboratories and scientific leads for the SOMA resources Chris Mason, Weill Cornell Medicine, Mason Lab Afshin Beheshti, Blue Marble Space Institute of Science at NASA Ames Research Center, Beheshti…

  • Structure-based prediction of T cell receptor recognition of unseen epitopes using TCRen

    Structure-based prediction of T cell receptor recognition of unseen epitopes using TCRen

    Abstract T cell receptor (TCR) recognition of foreign peptides presented by major histocompatibility complex protein is a major event in triggering the adaptive immune response to pathogens or cancer. The prediction of TCR–peptide interactions has great importance for therapy of cancer as well as infectious and autoimmune diseases but remains a major challenge, particularly for…

  • A decomposition of light’s spin angular momentum density

    A decomposition of light’s spin angular momentum density

    Abstract Light carries intrinsic spin angular momentum (SAM) when the electric or magnetic field vector rotates over time. A familiar vector equation calculates the direction of light’s SAM density using the right-hand rule with reference to the electric and magnetic polarisation ellipses. Using Maxwell’s equations, this vector equation can be decomposed into a sum of…

  • Daily briefing: Zircons rewrite history of plate tectonics

    Daily briefing: Zircons rewrite history of plate tectonics

    Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. A module being assembled at the international nuclear fusion project ITER in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance in southern France.Credit: Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty ITER might be beaten to fusion goal The world’s biggest fusion-energy experiment, ITER, likely won’t be…

  • Iran elects heart surgeon as president: scientists are hopeful

    Iran elects heart surgeon as president: scientists are hopeful

    Iran has elected a former heart surgeon as its next president. Scientists expect Masoud Pezeshkian, who ran the nation’s health ministry in an earlier administration, to revive universities and reconnect the country’s isolated scientists with their international counterparts. His term could also usher in improvements to human rights, investment in science, greater academic freedom and…

  • Canada just hiked PhD and postdoc pay — here’s how to get your country to do it, too

    Canada just hiked PhD and postdoc pay — here’s how to get your country to do it, too

    Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars often struggle to make ends meet, despite playing a crucial part in driving research and innovation. The cost-of-living crisis, which took root in many countries in late 2021, has worsened the situation. Respondents to a November 2022 Nature survey of early-career academics reported sometimes having to get groceries from food…