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Researchers develop new framework for understanding how emotions shape behavior online

11 August 2026 at 14:20
Every day, billions of people scroll through social media posts, online reviews and news feeds filled with emotional contentβ€”from glowing five-star reviews to rage-inducing social media rants. Those emotions can quietly shape what people buy, what they believe and how they act.

Color-sensing yeast could make biofactories more programmable and precise

11 August 2026 at 14:00
Baker's yeast is one of biotechnology's most important microorganisms. It has long been used to leaven bread and ferment beer. More recently, advances in synthetic biology have enabled engineered yeast to convert sugar into a wide range of products, including medicines, fuels and industrial chemicals. Yet even well-engineered yeast cells can be difficult to control in a precise and timely way.

Australia's plastic exports may deepen health risks in Indonesian communities

11 August 2026 at 13:20
A new commentary in BMJ Global Health, co-authored by the George Institute, reveals that Australia exported 22,333 metric tons of plastic waste to Indonesia in 2023–24 alone, part of a wider crisis that has seen the country take in more than 200,000 metric tons of imported waste it cannot safely process. Up to 80% of it ends up burned or dumped.

Historical DNA reveals largetooth sawfish have lost much of their genetic diversity

11 August 2026 at 13:00
The genetic diversity of the largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis), a critically endangered ray, has plummeted over the past century and a half, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The species once lived in tropical waters worldwide but has disappeared from much of its former range.

Fighting pathogens by watching how they read their own DNA: Q&A with structural biologist

11 August 2026 at 12:00
Every living cell, from the simplest bacterium to a human neuron, relies on the same basic machinery to read, interpret, and use its DNA. This molecular machinery is so fundamental that life as we know it cannot exist without it. And because it is so essential, it has long been a target for drugs; it shuts down a bacterium's ability to access its own genes and it quickly dies.

Who are the secret gardeners of a parasitic plant?

11 August 2026 at 11:00
In the coastal forests of a tropical Japanese island near Okinawa grows an inconspicuous plant that is easy to mistake for a mushroom. It is a non-green parasite that feeds on the roots of other plants and produces up to 1 million tiny seeds, each covered in a minuscule, dry fruit. The seeds, in particular, present a mystery to scientists: How do they get dispersed?

Ancient Colombians built huge water system without centralized rule, archaeologists say

11 August 2026 at 10:00
Communities living in Colombia thousands of years ago achieved an engineering wonder of the world based on cooperation among family groups without top-down government, a new study shows. Archaeologists argue that policymakers in Colombia should now adopt a similar strategy to solve the country's current water management crisis.

New optical method reveals internal dynamics of elusive Wigner crystals

11 August 2026 at 10:00
Researchers at the University of Basel and the Technical University of Munich have developed a new method to reveal the collective motion of electrons in one of the most elusive states of matter: the Wigner crystal. Using light, the physicists were able to uncover previously inaccessible properties of this fragile quantum state.

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