Although cosmic inflation is well known for resolving some important mysteries about the structure and evolution of the universe, other very different theories can also explain these mysteries. In some of these theories, the state of the universe preceding the Big Bang – the so-called primordial universe – was contracting instead of expanding, and the Big Bang was thus a part of a Big Bounce. To help decide between inflation and these other ideas, the issue of falsifiability – that is, whether a theory can be tested to potentially show it is false – has inevitably arisen....

The surprise finding came when researchers led by Perth-based Dr. Brett Taylor of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) looked at fish populations in severely bleached areas of two reefs — the Great Barrier Reef in the western Pacific and the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The sites are 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) apart. Bleaching is coral’s stress reaction to prolonged exposure to higher sea surface temperatures. “Warming oceans place enormous pressure on reefs and if the temperatures remain high for too long the coral will die....

This galaxy was observed for a Hubble study on galactic bulges, the bright round central region of spiral galaxies. Spiral galaxies like IC 2051 are shaped a bit like flying saucers when seen from the side; they comprise a thin, flat disc, with a bulky bulge of stars in the center that extends above and below the disc. These bulges are thought to play a key role in how galaxies evolve, and to influence the growth of the supermassive black holes lurking at the centers of most spirals....

The researchers used acoustic surveys to test the effects of burn severity and variation in fire effects, or pyrodiversity, on 17 species of bats in the region. Individual species responded to wildfire differently, but overall species richness increased from about eight species in unburned forests to 11 species in forests that experienced moderate- to high-severity burns. “Bats rely on forests for a number of resources,” said lead author Zack Steel, a postdoctoral researcher with UC Davis and UC Berkeley who conducted the study as a UC Davis doctoral candidate....

Researchers from the University of New South Wales have set world record in solar energy efficiency, converting over 40% of the sunlight hitting a solar system into electricity. The world-beating efficiency was achieved in outdoor tests in Sydney, before being independently confirmed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at their outdoor test facility in the United States. The work was funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and supported by the Australia–US Institute for Advanced Photovoltaics (AUSIAPV)....

Existing blanket technology can protect an isolated building from a short wildfire attack, but technological advancements are needed for severe situations. Wrapping a building in a fire-protective blanket is a viable way of protecting it against wildfires, finds the first study to scientifically assess this method of defense. By rigorously testing different fabric materials in the laboratory and using them to shield structures that were exposed to fires of increasing magnitude, this research, published in Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering, confirms that existing blanket technology can protect structures from a short wildfire attack....

Engineers ran an experiment to reveal how tiny water droplets, invisible to the naked eye, are rapidly ejected into the air when a lid-less, public restroom toilet is flushed. The team of scientists, from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), used bright green lasers and camera equipment to capture the stunning videos. It is the first study to directly visualize the resulting aerosol plume and measure the speed and spread of particles within it....

Astrophysicists Duncan Farrah and Kevin Croker led this ambitious study, combining Hawaiʻi’s expertise in galaxy evolution and gravity theory with the observation and analysis experience of researchers across nine countries to provide the first insight into what might exist inside real black holes. “When LIGO heard the first pair of black holes merge in late 2015, everything changed,” said Croker. “The signal was in excellent agreement with predictions on paper, but extending those predictions to millions, or billions of years?...

A theory that has evolved in the past fifteen years assumes that hydrogen compounds (hydrides) can make excellent superconductors; that is, substances that have zero electrical resistance when cooled down to a certain temperature and are capable of carrying electricity without any losses, which is particularly valuable for power networks. However, the sticking point that scientists are still striving to work out is the temperature at which a substance achieves superconductivity....

Also known as a nickelate, it’s the first in a potential new family of unconventional superconductors that’s very similar to the copper oxides, or cuprates, whose discovery in 1986 raised hopes that superconductors could someday operate at close to room temperature and revolutionize electronic devices, power transmission, and other technologies. Those similarities have scientists wondering if nickelates could also superconduct at relatively high temperatures. At the same time, the new material seems different from the cuprates in fundamental ways – for instance, it may not contain a type of magnetism that all the superconducting cuprates have – and this could overturn leading theories of how these unconventional superconductors work....

“They don’t have any particular feature that you can see with the naked eye where you can say they belong to the same group. But when you go to the genome, suddenly this emerges,” says Toby Spribille, principal investigator on the project and associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. “I like to think of these as the platypus and echidna of the fungal world.” Spribille, Canada Research Chair in Symbiosis, is referring to Australia’s famed Linnaean classification system-defying monotremes — which produce milk and have nipples but lay eggs — that were the source of debate as to whether they were even real....

“During the yearly breeding season, male lemurs rub the glands on their wrists against their fluffy tails and then wave them at females in a behavior called ‘stink flirting,’” says senior author Kazushige Touhara, professor and biochemist at the University of Tokyo. Ring-tailed lemurs have well-developed scent glands on their shoulders and wrists. These glands are typically used to designate social rank, territory, and reproductive status. However, behavioral observations show they also use their scent glands to catch the attention of females....

Quasars are among the most energetic objects in the universe, with some of them as luminous as ten thousand Milky Way galaxies. Quasars are thought to have massive black holes at their cores, and astronomers also think that the regions around the black holes actively accrete matter, a process that releases vast amounts of energy and often ejects a powerful, narrow jet of material. Because they are so bright, quasars can be seen even when they are very far away, and this combination of being both highly energetic and located at cosmological distances makes them appealing to astronomers trying to figure out the nature of galactic center black holes (our own Milky Way has one) and the conditions in the early universe that prompt these monsters to form....

Arctic sea ice, the cap of frozen seawater blanketing most of the Arctic Ocean and neighboring seas in wintertime, follows seasonal patterns of growth and decay. It thickens and spreads during the fall and winter and thins and shrinks during the spring and summer. But in the past decades, increasing temperatures have led to prominent decreases in the Arctic sea ice extent, with particularly rapid decreases in the minimum summertime extent....

Imagine a world without man-made climate change, energy crunches, or reliance on foreign oil. It may sound like a dream world, but University of Tennessee, Knoxville, engineers have made a giant step toward making this scenario a reality. UT researchers have successfully developed a key technology in developing an experimental reactor that can demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy for the power grid. Nuclear fusion promises to supply more energy than the nuclear fission used today but with far fewer risks....

“We looked at the connection between objectively measured physical activity and the proportion of body fat in girls and boys,” says Silje Steinsbekk, a professor at NTNU’s (the Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Department of Psychology. Rather than weight and height, the researchers assessed individuals’ body composition. They addressed questions such as: does greater physical activity result in a reduced proportion of body fat over time? Or is it possible that people who accumulate more body fat over time become less physically active?...

Type 2 diabetes is a global public health concern affecting almost 10 percent of people worldwide. Doctors may prescribe diet and lifestyle changes, diabetes medications, or insulin to help people with diabetes better manage their blood sugar, but recent data points to common over-the-counter antacid medicines as another way to improve glucose levels. “Our research demonstrated that prescribing antacids as an add-on to standard care was superior to standard therapy in decreasing hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels and fasting blood sugar in people with diabetes,” said study author Carol Chiung-Hui Peng, M....

Lead author Felicia Keesing is a professor at Bard College and a Visiting Scientist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. She explains, “There’s a persistent myth that wild areas with high levels of biodiversity are hotspots for disease. More animal diversity must equal more dangerous pathogens. But this turns out to be wrong. Biodiversity isn’t a threat to us, it’s actually protecting us from the species most likely to make us sick....

Video Transcript: Could a polio vaccine help us fight COVID-19? When I first heard that idea I thought there’s no way, polio has nothing to do with coronaviruses. Turns out it’s not as crazy an idea as I first thought. I called up one of the researchers who’s proposing it, Dr. Robert Gallo. Dr. Gallo was one of the co-discoverers of HIV and he is a huge name in biomedical research....

Researchers at the Université Laval have shown that the molecule MPL (monophosphoryl lipid A) can eliminate up to 80% of the senile plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease when injected into mice. The researchers believe that it could be administered to Alzheimer’s patients to slow the progression of the disease and to stimulate their natural immunity. A team of researchers from Université Laval, CHU de Québec, and pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has discovered a way to stimulate the brain’s natural defense mechanisms in people with Alzheimer’s disease....