A 280-million-year-old fossil that has baffled researchers for decades has been shown to be—in part—a forgery‚ following new examination of the remnants.

University of Pennsylvania engineers have developed a new chip that uses light waves‚ rather than electricity‚ to perform the complex math essential to training AI. The chip has the potential to radically accelerate the processing speed of computers while also reducing their energy consumption.

A revolutionary nanomaterial with huge potential to tackle multiple global challenges could be developed further without acute risk to human health‚ research suggests. The study is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Extreme wind and rain may lead to bigger and worse desert locust outbreaks‚ with human-caused climate change likely to intensify the weather patterns and cause higher outbreak risks‚ a new study has found.

Plant leaves come in many different shapes‚ sizes and complexities. Some leaves are large and smooth‚ while others are smaller and serrated. Some leaves grow in single pieces while others form multiple leaflets. These variations in leaf structure play a crucial role in how plants adapt—and survive—in different environments.

The Space Climate Research Group at the University of Oulu‚ Finland has been studying the effects of energetic particle precipitation from space‚ more commonly known as the aurora borealis or Northern Lights‚ on winter weather variations for quite some time. The aurora borealis is not only a beautiful light phenomenon‚ but also involves chemical changes that lead to ozone depletion high in the polar stratosphere in winter.

A trio of biologists at Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz‚ in Brazil‚ has verified that a tiny frog‚ Brachycephalus pulex‚ also known as the Brazilian flea toad‚ which is found only in southern Brazil‚ is not only the world's smallest amphibian‚ it is also the world's smallest vertebrate. Their paper is published in the journal Zoologica Scripta.

The color centers of diamond are the focus of an increasing number of research studies‚ due to their potential for developing quantum technologies. Some works have particularly explored the use of negatively-charged group-IV diamond defects‚ which exhibit an efficient spin-photon interface‚ as the nodes of quantum networks.

Researchers at the University of Nevada‚ Reno have completed one of the most extensive river resilience studies‚ examining how river ecosystems recover following floods. They developed a novel modeling approach that used data from oxygen sensors placed in rivers to estimate daily growth in aquatic plants and algae. The researchers then modeled the algal and plant biomass in 143 rivers across the contiguous U.S. to quantify what magnitude of flooding disturbs the biomass and how long the rivers take to recover from floods.

Toxoplasmosis is an infectious disease found worldwide‚ caused by the single-celled parasite Toxoplasma gondii. In humans‚ infection poses a particular risk to pregnant women‚ as it can lead to birth defects. Like the closely related malaria pathogen—Plasmodium falciparum—and other related species‚ T. gondii possesses special organelles‚ so-called rhoptries and micronemes‚ for infecting the host cell.