Astronomers may have found a new way to investigate one of the biggest mysteries in cosmic history: how the Universe’s first supermassive black holes were born. A faint gravitational-wave “hum” detected through networks of pulsars could contain clues about objects that existed more than 13 billion years ago. A new study by researchers at Colgate…
In 1990, a small bird became an unlikely symbol of one of America’s fiercest environmental battles. The northern spotted owl was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, putting the future of vast stretches of old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest at the centre of a bitter fight between environmentalists and the logging industry.Thirty-six…
Representational image of quantum imaging showing electron waves around an atom. (AI photo) Dirk Morr, a physics professor at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), has developed a quantum imaging strategy that uses superconductors as tiny projectors. The research, published in Nature Physics, provides experimental support for an idea Morr first proposed two decades ago.Morr…
Starling tested GPS-free navigation using onboard cameras to track space objects. (Credit: NASA) NASA has tested a navigation system that allows satellites to determine their position without relying on GPS. Instead of depending on an external navigation network, the system uses other spacecraft and orbital debris as reference points to work out where a satellite…
Diamond is celebrated as one of the hardest materials known, but new research shows that even its famously rigid structure can be dramatically altered by an impact travelling at hypersonic speed. Scientists have found that diamond particles embedded in a specially engineered ceramic composite can undergo a near-complete transformation into graphite during a collision lasting…
Palaeoecological reconstruction of the Carboniferous stem-insect Chosha praecursor. (Image by NIGPAS) An international research team has identified a remarkable insect fossil from western Texas that could represent a crucial missing link in the story of insect evolution. The fossil, from the Late Mississippian period approximately 324 million years ago, belongs to a stem group of…
For decades, Pickerel Lake in Minnesota struggled with poor water quality, heavy algal growth and extremely low aquatic plant cover. The shallow lake had become dominated by common carp, a bottom-feeding fish that can disturb lake sediments and alter the movement of nutrients through an aquatic ecosystem.But after the invasive fish were removed in 2009,…
Credit: Arkæologi Vestjylland Danish archaeologists have unearthed rare textile remains from a Viking woman’s grave near Varde, in the heart of Western Jutland. During excavations at the Skonager site (ARV 661), a team of archaeologists discovered a Viking Age burial in which fragments of clothing survived against all odds. This discovery gives a rare glimpse…
Representative Image (AI-generated) For more than 2,700 years, the story of Assyria’s kings has survived through fragments of clay tablets, royal inscriptions, monuments and carefully preserved lists of rulers. Together, these records have allowed historians to reconstruct the succession of one of the ancient Near East’s most powerful kingdoms. Yet ancient history is rarely as…
McDonald’s has approximately 13,500 restaurants in US, and while the brand serves a variety of menu options across the country, it also supports other causes. On August 27, 2026, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced nearly $2.4 million in grants, supported by funding from McDonald’s USA and several of its suppliers. The initiative…