SciExplore Connect

Earth has a natural thermostat and scientists finally know how it works

Scientists have identified a hidden feedback loop that may explain how Earth has regulated its climate for tens of millions of years. As sea levels rose and fell, they changed how much phosphate reached the open ocean, affecting marine life and the amount of carbon buried beneath the seafloor. That burial removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping cool the planet.

Earth appears to have a natural climate control system that has helped keep the planet habitable for more than 100 million years. Scientists have long known that this system exists, but the mechanisms behind it have remained difficult to explain.

New research points to a previously overlooked connection between sea level and the availability of phosphate in the ocean. Changes in global temperature affected the size of polar ice sheets, which altered sea level. Those shifts then…

Scientists reveal what really happens when water is trapped in tiny spaces

A decades-old puzzle about water has finally been unraveled. Researchers found that water trapped in tiny nanoscale spaces is not inherently more reactive. Instead, the intense pressures created inside these microscopic gaps explain most of the effect, while the surrounding material can further enhance water's chemistry if it interacts with the reaction products.

Water has been studied more than almost any other substance, yet scientists have long debated a surprisingly simple question: What happens to its chemistry when it is squeezed into spaces only a few molecules wide?

Those tiny spaces exist throughout nature and technology, including nanoscale pores, membranes, and biological channels. A new study has now found that the answer is more nuanced than researchers once believed, helping resolve years of conflicting results.

Why Water Splitting Matters

390 gravitational wave detections reveal hidden population of black holes

Astronomers have released the largest gravitational wave catalog ever, revealing 161 new black hole collisions and pushing the total number of detections to 390. Among the highlights are the clearest gravitational wave signal ever recorded, the most accurate location of a black hole merger, and growing evidence that some black holes are the products of previous black hole mergers. With discoveries now arriving several times a week, gravitational wave astronomy is entering an exciting new era.

Scientists at the University of Glasgow are celebrating the release of a massive new catalog of gravitational wave detections that marks another major step forward for gravitational wave astronomy.

The newly published Gravitational Wave Transient Catalogue-5.0 (GWTC-5) has been released online, with companion research papers submitted to Astrophysical Journal and Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The latest catalog adds 161 newly identified signals from colliding black…

Scientists propose a radical new theory for how life began on Earth

Researchers propose that tiny mineral nanoparticles may have been the hidden engines that transformed Earth’s early chemistry into the first building blocks of life. By acting as natural catalysts and energy processors, these “nanozymes” could help explain how lifeless matter gradually became living systems.

One of the biggest questions in science is how life first emerged on Earth. Researchers generally agree that the appearance of the first biopolymers and their building blocks marked a critical step in the origin of life (OoL). However, scientists still do not know exactly how a collection of prehistoric inert chemicals (gases) transformed into the first living systems.

The mystery remains difficult to solve because the full sequence of events that led to life is impossible to observe directly and extremely challenging to recreate. Over the past century, scientists have proposed numerous hypotheses,…