To make a better sensor, just add noise

Adding noise to enhance a weak signal is a sensing phenomenon common in the animal world…

Wool-like material can remember and change shape

As anyone who has ever straightened their hair knows, water is the enemy. Hair painstakingly straightened…

NASA finds Maysak becoming extra-tropical

NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite provided forecasters with a visible image of former Typhoon Maysak, now an…

In butterfly battle of sexes, males deploy 'chastity belts' but females fight back

Some male butterflies go to extreme lengths to ensure their paternity—sealing their mate’s genitalia with a…

Hearing loss in naked mole-rats is an advantage, not a hardship

If naked mole-rats were human, they would be prescribed hearing aids. With six mutations in genes…

Megafire does not deter Yosemite's spotted owls

In 2013 the Rim Fire—the largest fire on record in the Sierra Nevada—burned one third of…

A 400-year-old chamois will serve as a model for research on ice mummies

Discovered in Val Aurina and now in the laboratory of Eurac Research’s mummy experts, the remains…

New observations show planet-forming disc torn apart by its three central stars

A team of astronomers have identified the first direct evidence that groups of stars can tear…

Start here to make a protein: Structure of mRNA initiation complex could give insight into cancer and other diseases

Researchers at the University of California, Davis and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge,…

A spicy silver lining

Distinctive thermal and electrical characteristics make silver nanoparticles perfect for optics and biosensing applications. One increasingly…