Stellar flares could masquerade as life on exoplanets
Astronomers tested whether energy bursts from stars could artificially elevate typical “biosignature” gases on exoplanets.
Category: Big Questions
The lifecycle of a steam world
Scientists studied exoplanets with high water contents and found that they initially have outer vapor layers, which then cool and shrink…
Can 300-year-old Antarctic microbes help us understand climate change?
Researchers demonstrated that microbial DNA from a 300-year-old ice core can help track how microbes respond to global change.
How do small galaxies get magnetic fields?
Astronomers showed that small galaxies orbiting larger galaxies become 2 to 8 times more magnetic after nearing their hosts.
Ice shelf collapse reveals early warning signs of melt
Scientists found that growing fractures caused an East Antarctic ice shelf to collapse.
Toward personalized cancer treatments
Medical researchers developed a computational analysis technique, called VIPER, that can predict how cancer cells respond to drug…
Where do deep-space gamma-rays come from?
Researchers found that distant star-forming galaxies can only account for about half of the high-energy radiation from outside the Milky Way…
Carbon feedbacks 56 million years ago similar to today
Geologists simulated the chemistry of Earth's past oceans and atmosphere using mineral data from the ancient seafloor. They found a…
Cancer cells exploit an immune protein to evade treatment
Scientists tested several immunotherapy-resistant tumors and found that an evolutionary change in an immune protein makes humans more…
A circular economy for sustainable resources
Scientists proposed a new economic strategy to distribute global rare earth element reserves more sustainably.