In meerkat society a dominant female is in charge, growling, biting, pushing and shoving to keep others in line. The matriarch’s bullying behavior is fueled by high levels of testosterone that can surge to twice those of her male counterparts when she’s pregnant. But while testosterone gives her a competitive edge and helps her keep the upper hand, it can also take a toll on the health of her developing offspring, Duke University researchers report.

Lice live their entire lives with a set of genes that in humans would indicate a late-stage degenerative disorder such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease. How do lice tolerate this genome structure that in humans and many other animals would result in major neurodegenerative problems? “We’re a long way from connecting those dots,” said Stephen Cameron, professor of entomology at Purdue University. Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s are aging-related mitochondrial diseases, so called because of the malfunctioning mitochondria that produce cellular energy.

Eric Stach of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science and colleagues used neural networks to better identify the characteristics of catalysts that drive the creation of liquid fuels from sunlight.

Three University of Texas at Dallas faculty members and collaborators from other universities and two industry partners have teamed up to design and test indium-based materials to enable the manufacture of the next generation of computer chips. The researchers have received a $1.9 million, three-year grant to support their work through the National Science Foundation Future of Semiconductors (FuSe2) program.

A new study by Rice University physicist Qimiao Si unravels the enigmatic behaviors of quantum critical metals — materials that defy conventional physics at low temperatures. Published in Nature Physics Dec. 9 , the research examines quantum critical points (QCPs), where materials teeter on the edge between two distinct phases such as magnetism and nonmagnetism. The findings illuminate the peculiarities of these metals and provide a deeper understanding of high-temperature superconductors, which conduct electricity without resistance at relatively high temperatures.

Children as young as age 6 develop gender stereotypes about computer science and engineering, viewing boys as more capable than girls, according to new results from an American Institutes for Research (AIR) study. However, math stereotypes are far less gendered, showing that young children do not view all STEM fields as the same. These new findings come from the largest-ever study on children’s gender stereotypes about STEM and verbal abilities, based on data from 145,000 children across 33 nations, synthesizing more than 40 years of research.

We tie our shoes, we put on neckties, we wrestle with power cords. Yet despite deep familiarity with knots, most people cannot tell a weak knot from a strong one by looking at them, new Johns Hopkins University research finds.

University of Michigan physicists have devised an algorithm that provides a mathematical framework for how learning works in lattices called mechanical neural networks.

Consumers' real-world stop-and-go driving of electric vehicles benefits batteries more than the steady use simulated in almost all laboratory tests of new battery designs, Stanford-SLAC study finds.