Dynamic terahertz wavefront control using stretchable single-walled carbon nanotube-based metasurfaces

When we think of wildlife trafficking, we might think of rhino horns or baby orangutans sold as pets—but the smuggling of sea creatures, a less well-known crime, is just as damaging to marine ecosystems. Unfortunately, many commonly smuggled marine wildlife items, like shark fins, can be hidden in baggage or parcels and carried across borders with relative ease, without being detected. To get around this, scientists used AI to develop an algorithm that can detect samples of commonly trafficked s

A major goal of modern crop breeding is to efficiently combine multiple desirable traits by "stacking" the favorable gene variants (alleles) that contribute to those traits in a single crop variety. However, current strategies are often time-consuming and inefficient.

3I/ATLAS has caused quite a stir over the last year, inviting astronomers to update what they know about other solar systems as well as our own. However, this third interstellar visitor may have an unexpected impact on our understanding of dark matter. A new paper, available on the arXiv preprint server from researchers at the University of Hamburg, attempts to calculate the impact that the presence of large amounts of interstellar objects, or ISOs, would have on our calculation of dark matter i

Decomposers are crucial for keeping Earth habitable, breaking down dead biomass and returning key nutrients, such as carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, to the ecosystem. Most decomposers, including fungi, survive through osmotrophy—a means of feeding by absorbing dissolved nutrients rather than engulfing prey. But how this method of feeding repeatedly arose across the eukaryotic tree of life remains unclear.