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A new electrode design developed at MIT boosts the efficiency of electrochemical reactions that turn carbon dioxide into ethylene and other products.

Scientists using observations from NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have discovered, for the first time, the signal from a pair of monster black holes disrupting a cloud of gas in the center of a galaxy.

Most people don't enjoy getting shots for treatments or vaccines. So, researchers are working to create more medicines, such as those made from messenger RNA (mRNA), that can be sprayed and inhaled. A study reports steps toward making inhalable mRNA medicines a possibility. Researchers outline their improved lipid-polymer nanoparticle for holding mRNA that is stable when nebulized and successfully delivers aerosols (liquid droplets) in mice's lungs.

X-rays are a common component of diagnostic testing and industrial monitoring, used for everything from monitoring your teeth to scanning your suitcase at the airport. But the high-energy rays also produce ionizing radiation, which can be dangerous after prolonged or excessive exposures. Now, researchers have taken a step toward safer X-rays by creating a highly sensitive and foldable detector that produces good quality images with smaller dosages of the rays.

Few questions have captivated humankind more than the origin of life on Earth. How did the first living cells come to exist? How did these early protocells develop the structural membranes necessary for cells to thrive and assemble into complex organisms? New research has uncovered a plausible explanation involving the reaction between two simple molecules.

An international team of scientists has identified a surprising factor that accelerates the degradation of lithium-ion batteries leading to a steady loss of charge. This discovery provides a new understanding of battery life and offers strategies to combat self-discharge, which could improve performance in various applications from smartphones to electric vehicles.

An international team of scientists has identified a surprising factor that accelerates the degradation of lithium-ion batteries leading to a steady loss of charge. This discovery provides a new understanding of battery life and offers strategies to combat self-discharge, which could improve performance in various applications from smartphones to electric vehicles.

Engineers have invented a protective coating for concrete pipes that could help drastically reduce the formation of fatbergs in sewers.

Hospitals are already deploying artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance patient care. But can it actually improve doctors' diagnoses? A new study has surprising answers.

How to keep stray radiation from 'shorting' superconducting qubits; a pair of studies shows where ionizing radiation is lurking and how to banish it.

How to keep stray radiation from 'shorting' superconducting qubits; a pair of studies shows where ionizing radiation is lurking and how to banish it.

Researchers have developed a robot that identifies different plant species at various stages of growth by 'touching' their leaves with an electrode. The robot can measure properties such as surface texture and water content that cannot be determined using existing visual approaches. The robot identified ten different plant species with an average accuracy of 97.7% and identified leaves of the flowering bauhinia plant with 100% accuracy at various growth stages.

Researchers have developed a robot that identifies different plant species at various stages of growth by 'touching' their leaves with an electrode. The robot can measure properties such as surface texture and water content that cannot be determined using existing visual approaches. The robot identified ten different plant species with an average accuracy of 97.7% and identified leaves of the flowering bauhinia plant with 100% accuracy at various growth stages.

Researchers have developed a new method to extract fluorine from fluorspar using oxalic acid and a fluorophilic Lewis acid in water under mild reaction conditions. This technology enables direct access to fluorochemicals, including commonly used fluorinating agents, from both fluorspar and lower-grade metspar, eliminating reliance on the supply chain of hazardous hydrogen fluoride (HF).

Astronomers have identified three ultra-massive galaxies -- nearly as massive as the Milky Way -- already in place within the first billion years after the Big Bang. This surprising discovery was made possible by the James Webb Space Telescope's FRESCO program, which uses the NIRCam/grism spectrograph to measure accurate distances and stellar masses of galaxies. The results indicate that the formation of stars in the early Universe was far more efficient than previously thought, challenging existing galaxy formation models.

I noticed last week that the followers of my Twitter account had dropped by several hundred, and then I realized that a lot of people are going to the alternative site Bluesky, presumably because they don’t like Elon Musk because he gave a lot of dosh to Trump (and now has a job in the Trump Administration).

Matthew went from “X” to Bluesky a while back, and has been telling me to move as well. He said this:

People aren’t leaving (just) because they hate Musk – the site [X] doesn’t work. Posts aren’t seen, even if you follow people your timeline gets swamped with blue tick reply guy crap. To see what people post you have to go onto their timeline. And fewer and fewer people are there. You have 40,000 followers [JAC: it’s 36,400] – how many interactions with your tweets? How many of those followers are either a) human or b) active? And – though this isn’t why you use it – the fun component [like the tweet he sent about fat cheetah cubs]) has disappeared from X completely. The Guardian has stopped posting there. User numbers are dropping. Not a useful or fun place to be any more.

Yes, there appear to be advantages of Bluesky, which seem to include these:

1. Everybody seems to be going there, though I haven’t done any systematic checking, as I don’t formally follow anyone on Twitter
2. You can directly embed the posts (they are apparently called “skeets”) into my website without going through the complicated process of embedding Tweets
3. It appears to  have more fun stuff on it, though I like a mixture of fun and serious stuff (e.g., animals and politics)

The downsides seem less important, but include two:

1. How do I get all the people who follow me now to go there? I suppose by telling them on X.
2. I am old and lazy, and it takes a bit of effort—though not much—to open an account.

I don’t particularly feel compelled to leave X just because Elon Musk runs it, as I have no strong feelings about that, but I suppose I’ll move after I check Bluesky. But I wonder about readers’ experience with these two cites. Please give your take below (not advice on whether to move, but the relative advantages of the two sites). Which site do you use or occupy? Are there any other advantages, issues or features that I don’t know about?

Eric Bailey, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rates of near-sightedness are rising all over the world. But solutions to the epidemic are coming into focus and could be simpler than you think

Selection for bigger tomatoes has made the fruits less sweet, but now it has been shown that gene editing can make them sweeter without decreasing yields

Researchers mapped Earth’s ionosphere, part of the upper atmosphere, using signal data from 40 million phones – a method that could improve GPS accuracy and help track space weather

Palaeontologists have pieced together the brain structure of a bird that lived 80 million years ago named Navaornis hestiae, thanks to a remarkably well-preserved fossil