For billions of years, Earth’s continents have remained remarkably stable, forming the foundation for mountains, ecosystems and civilizations. But the secret to their stability has mystified scientists for more than a century. Now, a new study by researchers at Penn State and Columbia University provides the clearest evidence yet for how the landforms became and remained so stable — and the key ingredient is heat. 

Researchers have improved the ability of wearable health devices to accurately detect when a patient is coughing, making it easier to monitor chronic health conditions and predict health risks such as asthma attacks. The advance is significant because cough-detection technologies have historically struggled to distinguish the sound of coughing from the sound of speech and nonverbal human noises.

In a new paper published today in Chem, a team of Columbia chemists has identified how to combine matter and light to get the best of both worlds: polaritons with strong interactions and fast, wavelike flow. These distinctive behaviors can be used to power optical computers and other light-based quantum devices.

Researchers have created a polymer “Chinese lantern” that can snap into more than a dozen curved, three-dimensional shapes by compressing or twisting the original structure. This rapid shape-shifting behavior can be controlled remotely using a magnetic field, allowing the structure to be used for a variety of applications.

A Tulane University-led study published in Nature Geoscience reveals that melting North American ice sheets were the primary driver of dramatic sea-level rise at the end of the last ice age, overturning long-held assumptions that Antarctica played the larger role. Between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, retreating North American ice sheets caused more than 30 feet (10 meters) of global sea-level rise, reshaping scientists’ understanding of Earth’s climate history.

Targeted drug delivery is a powerful and promising area of medicine. Therapies that pinpoint precise areas of the body can reduce the medicine dosage and avoid potentially harmful “off target” effects. Researchers at the UW took a significant step toward that goal by designing proteins with autonomous decision-making capabilities. By adding smart tail structures to therapeutic proteins, the team demonstrated that the proteins could be “programmed” to act based on the presence of specific environmental cues.