Rat infestations are increasing all around the world, and scientists suggest that climate change may be to blame. Publishing their results in a recent Science Advances article, a team of researchers analyzed rat populations in 16 cities from around the world, including New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Their analysis — one of the first to assess rat populations at such scale — revealed that the cities that saw bigger bumps in temperatures were also the cities that saw bigger bumps in ra ...read more

From jumping kangaroos to sleepy koalas to sturdy wombats, Australia is full of a variety of marsupials — animals that carry their premature young in a skin pouch until they are fully developed. However, just because many marsupials live in Australia doesn’t mean they’re always thriving. A research team led by the University of Queensland in Australia has successfully produced the first kangaroo embryos through in vitro fertilization (IVF). According to the team, this could be a big leap ...read more

When it comes to pressing environmental issues, air pollution is a common concern. The effects of air pollution on human health, specifically cardiovascular and respiratory systems, are well known. But have you ever wondered what it might be doing to your brain?A research team from the Universities of Birmingham and Manchester asked this exact question and discovered that even short-term exposure to air pollution can have surprising and long-lasting effects on our ability to perform daily activi ...read more

Deep beneath the streets of Rome near the Vatican, overlooking the banks of the Tiber River, Italian archaeologists have uncovered a hidden gem of Roman history — Caligula’s secret garden. This 2,000-year-old marvel, buried for centuries, offers a rare glimpse into one of Rome's most infamous rulers. Known for his excesses and controversial reign, the discovery of Caligula’s Garden not only illuminates his world but also sheds light on the opulence of ancient Roman life.Read More: 5 of the ...read more

Earthquakes, tornadoes, air strikes — all around the world, countless lives are lost not just to the direct impacts of disasters, but those that are trapped in the resulting wreckage. Search and rescue efforts, both professional and amateur, are dangerous in themselves, as digging through rubble creates risk for secondary collapse and exposure to hazardous materials. Meanwhile time is short, and the larger the affected area, the harder it is to search efficiently and effectively. Dogs can snif ...read more

The ancestors of modern waterfowl weren’t all that odd. Diving for fish and other prey in the waters of Antarctica, they looked like today’s birds, but were they truly modern?A new paper published today in Nature tells us all about these ancestors of modern-day ducks. Assessing a newly found fossil of Vegavis iaai from the Late Cretaceous around 69 million years ago, the paper confirms the classification of the species as a truly modern bird, not wholly unlike the ducks and geese of today.†...read more

A medley of elements make life on Earth possible, yet the ways in which our planet has gained them — and lost some in the process — have been on scientists’ minds for years. The major building blocks of life, like water, carbon, and nitrogen, often take center stage, but scientists have recently made sense of another foundational component in Earth’s framework — moderately volatile elements (MVEs). MVEs, containing such elements as zinc and copper, work in tandem with life-essential e ...read more

The conventional wisdom on why some antibiotics don’t work rests on the concept of persistence. A small subset of bacteria sometimes hides out and escapes the effects of the drugs meant to kill them. These persisters can then come back with a vengeance and may no longer respond to the same antibiotic, the theory goes.For example, antibiotics are only partially effective against infections caused by the Salmonella bacteria. The persistence of that infection can lead to other conditions, such as ...read more

The Grand Canyon on Earth versus the ones on the Moon are a study in contrasts. The terrestrial version was slowly carved over millions of years by wind and water. The lunar equivalents appear to have been ripped open within minutes, by the geological version of two massive fingernails, according to a study in Nature Communications.Although the Moon’s canyons are well hidden on the dark side of the satellite, they are as impressive as the one in Arizona. They measure about 16 miles wide, over ...read more

The human-canine bond began more than 30,000 years ago, leading to the extensive domestication of dogs to serve human needs in hunting, protection, and herding. Over time, intentional breeding practices have created hundreds of dog breeds with a wide variety of appearances and behaviors. The prevailing belief has been that selective breeding enhances a dog’s ability to perform specific tasks, but new research challenges this assumption, at least when it comes to skills associated with the shap ...read more