The wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles a year ago were among the worst in California's history. They were exacerbated by persistent drought, a buildup of vegetation and Santa Ana winds which, at times, exceeded 80 mph. The most damaging fires, which reduced Altadena and Pacific Palisades to ashes, were finally extinguished on January 31, 2025.
Small businesses are planning to hire fewer recent college graduates than they did in 2025, making it likely harder for this cohort to find entry-level jobs.
Most people are aware that plastic waste is a problem. Almost all types of plastics that we use in our everyday lives are derived from fossil sources. When they end up in the environment, they cause pollution for generations. When incinerated in a waste incineration plant, they release climate-warming CO₂ into the atmosphere. Recycling is therefore the better option: Used plastics provide the raw materials for new ones, closing the loop.
Researchers at National Taiwan University reveal that combined exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics and the preservative butylparaben, at a level considered safe on their own, can cause heritable harm, disrupting reproduction across generations through epigenetic changes.
Researchers at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, in collaboration with Osaka University and the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology, have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism behind the activation of the Met receptor—a key player in tissue regeneration and cancer progression.
As winter heating costs rise, new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York reveals a cold truth. Renters—who make up approximately one-third of the U.S. population—are missing out on energy efficiency improvements that could lower their bills, make their apartments more comfortable and improve their health.
Avian flu has been blamed for the deaths of 32 birds at Lake Eola Park since Dec. 17, including 26 of the city's signature swans.
Lions in Kenya respond very differently to human land use, climate and conservation practices. That is the conclusion of thesis from Leiden biologist Monica Chege. A uniform approach is therefore insufficient. "Effective conservation only works when management is tailored to local conditions and developed with and around local communities."
Professor Dallas Trinkle and colleagues have provided the first quantitative explanation for how magnetic fields slow carbon atom movement through iron, a phenomenon first observed in the 1970s but never fully understood. Published in Physical Review Letters, their computer simulations reveal that magnetic field alignment changes the energy barriers between atomic "cages," offering potential pathways to reduce the energy costs and CO2 emissions associated with steel processing.
UCLA biologists are developing a tool to predict when deadly Salmonella outbreaks are likely to happen in wild songbird populations so that people can protect their feathered friends by taking down bird feeders at the right time. The research is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
An innovative product with the potential to replace polymers used in soil fertilizers is being developed in São Carlos in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.
Dr. Rowan Martindale, a paleoecologist and geobiologist at the University of Texas at Austin, was walking through the Dadès Valley in the Central High Atlas Mountains of Morocco when she saw something that literally stopped her in her tracks.
Purdue University researchers have developed a device for more conveniently detecting pathogens in health care settings, on farms and in food production operations.
Researchers from the Optics Group at the Universitat Jaume I in Castellón have managed to correct in real time problems related to image aberrations in single-pixel microscopy using a recent technology: programmable deformable lenses. The new method was described by the research team in an open-access article recently published in Nature Communications and is part of the development of the European CONcISE project.
Researchers have shown that consumer-grade 3D printers and low-cost materials can be used to produce multi-element optical components that enable super-resolution imaging, with each lens costing less than $1 to produce. The new fabrication approach is poised to broaden access to fully customizable optical parts and could enable completely new types of imaging tools.
Does living in an unequal society make people unhappy? Not necessarily, reveals the largest study ever conducted on the subject. Nicolas Sommet, a social psychologist and research manager at the LIVES Centre at the University of Lausanne, and his team have published the first social science meta-analysis in the journal Nature. Their conclusions—based on 168 studies covering more than 11 million participants from around the world—challenge the widely held belief that economic inequality is detrimental to well-being and mental health.
