Himalayan snowfall has been miscalculated for years, here's how we found a new way to measure it
Mountain snow and meltwater from glaciers in the Himalayas determine how much water is available for drinking, farming and hydropower for millions of people in India, Pakistan, Nepal, China and Afghanistan.
For Black girls, puberty is more than physical—it transforms conversations about identity
Some of the most meaningful changes during puberty may not happen in the body alone. They may also happen in conversation. A new University of Michigan study suggests that as Black girls move through puberty, conversations with their mothers become an important space for making sense of changing bodies, race, gender, ethnicity and identity.
Zirconium tweak unlocks stronger cast aluminum alloy with ductility boost
Researchers at the Department of Materials Engineering (MatE), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and collaborators have developed a new lightweight cast aluminum alloy that is both exceptionally strong and remarkably ductile, overcoming one of the biggest challenges in the structural metallurgy of aluminum alloys.
Hubble discovers first of star cluster's missing black holes
The massive globular star cluster Omega Centauri has puzzled astronomers for decades. It should be filled with black holes left behind by exploding stars, yet evidence for them is scarce. Now, astronomers using archival data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and supporting observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have finally located the first stellar-mass black hole in this cluster. Discovering the first of this missing black hole population will help refine current theories on black hole formation within environments such as Omega Centauri. The team's findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Firefly brightness holds a cautionary tale about accepting older measurements
For over a century, the accepted value for a firefly's brightness has mostly stood, tracing its origins to experiments carried out in 1912. Through rigorous new analysis published in the American Journal of Physics, David Silver of Remiza AI in New York has discovered that this value has likely been vastly overestimated. His results provide a stark reminder of what can happen when widely accepted older measurements are converted into modern standard units.
How the 'creeping normality' of large language models is quietly reshaping the life sciences
Large language models (LLMs) are gradually transforming research in the life sciences in ways that extend far beyond improving productivity, and they are becoming a new normal before scientists have agreed on the limits of their use.
Low-cost genome sequencing approach is powering genetics research on mental illness and many other studies
For researchers on the hunt for the genetic roots of disease, the cost of deep whole-genome sequencing makes it challenging to conduct large genetic studies involving thousands of participants, which are needed to reveal new genetic insights. So scientists at the Broad Institute came up with a clever approach, called the Blended Genome Exome (BGE), that lowers the cost of sequencing by 75% and is becoming one of the most commonly used sequencing methods at the Broad.
Gravitational waves reveal hidden populations within black hole mergers
Since gravitational waves were first detected in 2015, instruments including LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA have picked up a steady stream of signals from colliding black holes, building a catalog that now numbers in the hundreds. Yet despite this wealth of data, a fundamental question has remained stubbornly unresolved: How do these black holes actually form?
X-ray tracking reveals uneven expansion in young supernova remnant G292.0+1.8
By analyzing data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Dutch astronomers have investigated a young, oxygen-rich supernova remnant known as G292.0+1.8. Results of the new study, published June 29 on the arXiv preprint server, yield important insights into the expansion of this remnant.
Collective agreements are least common where workers need them most
Workers earning the lowest wages are the least likely to be covered by collective agreements in Germany, despite being the group for whom these protections are arguably most important. In 2021, only 34% of workers in the lowest wage decile were covered by collective agreements, compared with more than 60% of workers in the middle of the wage distribution, according to findings of a new report by the ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin) and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg.