Top Science News
July 19, 2024
July 16, 2024 — Researchers have discovered that a single-celled organism, a close relative of animals, harbors the remnants of ancient giant viruses woven into its own genetic code. This finding sheds light on how complex organisms may have acquired some of their ...
July 17, 2024 — Scientists have discovered that 'switching off' a protein called IL-11 can significantly increase the healthy lifespan of mice by almost 25 ...
July 17, 2024 — Biology researchers have developed a new antibody therapy that can neutralize a wide variety of HIV-1 strains. They found success in an unlikely source -- ...
July 17, 2024 — Have you ever wondered how insects are able to go so far beyond their home and still find their way? The answer to this question is not only relevant to biology but also to making the AI for tiny, autonomous robots. Drone-researchers felt inspired ...
Latest Top Headlines
updated 10:47pm EDT
July 17, 2024 — Cobras kill thousands of people a year worldwide and current antivenom treatment is expensive and does not effectively treat the necrosis of the flesh where the bite occurs. Using CRISPR technology, scientists have discovered a commonly available drug can stop the necrosis, potentially saving thousands of lives a ...
July 18, 2024 — Ever hear the old adage that time flies when you're having fun? A new study suggests that there's a lot of truth to the ...
July 17, 2024 — A new gene therapy treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) shows promise of not only arresting the decline of the muscles of those affected by this inherited genetic disease, but perhaps, in the future, repairing those muscles. The research focuses on delivering a series of protein packets inside shuttle vectors to replace the defective DMD gene within the muscles.The gene for dystrophin ...
July 17, 2024 — Researchers report that psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, destabilizes a critical network of brain areas involved in introspective thinking. The findings provide a neurobiological explanation for the drug's mind-bending ...
July 18, 2024 — So far, only about ten intermediate-mass black holes have been discovered in the entire universe. The newly identified black hole causes surrounding stars in a cluster to move in an unexpectedly orderly ...
July 17, 2024 — Researchers have developed soft, stretchable 'jelly batteries' that could be used for wearable devices or soft robotics, or even implanted in the brain to deliver drugs or treat conditions such as ...
July 17, 2024 — Researchers have demonstrated that the layered multiferroic material nickel iodide (NiI2) may be the best candidate yet for devices such as magnetic computer memory that are extremely fast and compact. Specifically, they found that NiI2 has greater magnetoelectric coupling than any known material of its ...
July 17, 2024 — An environmental engineering team has discovered that specific bacterial species can cleave the strong fluorine-to-carbon bond certain kinds of 'forever chemical' water pollutants, offering promise for low-cost treatments of contaminated drinking ...
July 19, 2024 — A new species of fossil snake unearthed in Wyoming is rewriting our understanding of snake evolution. The discovery, based on four remarkably well-preserved specimens found curled together in a burrow, reveals a new species named Hibernophis breithaupti. This snake lived in North America 34 million years ago and sheds light on the origin and ...
July 17, 2024 — Despite facing regional threats like deforestation and wildfires, the world's forests continue to be a powerful weapon in the fight against climate change. A new study reveals these vital ecosystems have consistently absorbed carbon dioxide for the past three decades, even as disruptions chip away at their capacity. The study, based on long-term ground measurements combined with remote sensing ...
July 17, 2024 — Cut marks on fossils could be evidence of humans exploiting large mammals in Argentina more than 20,000 years ago, according to a new ...
July 17, 2024 — During an event, details like what you saw, smelled, and felt aren't stored as a single memory. Rather, they are encoded and stored in your brain separately. To retrieve that memory, those pieces must get put back together. When that doesn't happen in the right way or details are distorted, it can lead to the creation of false memories. Now researchers have evidence that the common cuttlefish may ...
Health News
July 19, 2024
July 8, 2024 — The largest animals do not have proportionally bigger brains -- with humans bucking this trend -- a new study has ...
July 1, 2024 — With a new surgical intervention and neuroprosthetic interface, researchers restored a natural walking gait in people with amputations below the knee. Seven patients were able to walk faster, avoid ...
June 20, 2024 — Scientists have discovered a new cause of why people who lack a specific blood group are genetically predisposed to be overweight or ...
June 13, 2024 — A lack of sleep can make it extraordinarily difficult to retain information. Two new studies uncover why this is and what is happening inside the brain during sleep and sleep deprivation to help or harm the formation of ...
Latest Health Headlines
updated 10:47pm EDT
July 19, 2024 — Researchers use microscopy to chart amyloid beta's underlying structure and yield insight into neurodegenerative ...
July 19, 2024 — New research reveals a promising approach to developing a universal influenza vaccine -- a so-called 'one and done' vaccine that confers lifetime immunity against an evolving virus. The study tested a vaccine platform against the virus considered most likely to trigger the next ...
July 19, 2024 — Scientists have discovered how the dangerous Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) defuses our immune response and, in doing so, they have pinpointed an exciting new target for drug ...
July 15, 2024 — Women who carry a particular form of a pain gene are more likely to respond well to a common medication used to treat long-term discomfort, research ...
July 16, 2024 — A new study on common food aromas may help explain why astronauts report that meals taste bland in space and struggle to eat their normal nutritional intake. This research has broader implications for improving the diets of isolated people, including nursing home residents, by personalizing aromas to enhance the flavor of their ...
July 17, 2024 — Researchers have found that middle-aged to older adults with inconsistent sleep duration had a heightened risk of developing diabetes compared to those with more consistent sleep ...
July 18, 2024 — Persistently unhealthy sleep, either not enough or too much, is associated with a significantly increased risk of Type 2 diabetes in a racially and economically diverse adult population, an international team of researchers has ...
July 17, 2024 — A new collaboration explores the neural substrates of blushing in a MRI ...
July 18, 2024 — A meta-analysis of existing research shows exposure to nature, even as little as 10 minutes, could benefit those with diagnosed mental ...
July 17, 2024 — Mindfulness training may lead participants to experience disembodiment and unity -- so-called altered states of consciousness -- according to a new ...
July 17, 2024 — Pet cats may be excellent animal models for the study of obesity origins and treatment in humans, a new study of feline gut microbes suggests -- and both species would likely get healthier in the research process, scientists ...
July 17, 2024 — High-protein diets, known as 'Paleolithic diets', are popular. Using mouse models, scientists have studied their impact. While effective in regulating weight and stabilizing diabetes, these diets are not without risks. Excess protein greatly increases ammonium production, overwhelming the liver. Excess ammonium can cause neurological disorders and, in severe cases, lead to coma. These results ...
Physical/Tech News
July 19, 2024
July 16, 2024 — A strange 'garden sprinkler-like' jet coming from a neutron star has been pictured for the first time. The S-shaped structure is created as the jet changes direction due to the wobbling of the disc of hot gas around the star -- a process called ...
July 15, 2024 — Researchers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have finally confirmed what models have previously predicted: An exoplanet has differences between its eternal morning and eternal evening atmosphere. WASP-39 b, a giant planet with a diameter 1.3 ...
July 11, 2024 — The qualities and behavior of dark matter, the invisible 'glue' of the universe, continue to be shrouded in mystery. Though galaxies are mostly made of dark matter, understanding how it is distributed within a galaxy offers clues to what this ...
July 10, 2024 — Most known black holes are either extremely massive, like the supermassive black holes that lie at the cores of large galaxies, or relatively lightweight, with a mass of under 100 times that of the Sun. Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are ...
Latest Physical/Tech Headlines
updated 10:47pm EDT
July 19, 2024 — Engineers have shown that using a type of AI that revolutionized computer vision can greatly enhance modern adaptive radar systems. And in a move that parallels the impetus of the computer vision boom, they have released a large dataset of digital landscapes for others to build on their ...
July 19, 2024 — When deciding what material to use for infrastructure projects, metals are often selected for their durability. However, if placed in a hydrogen-rich environment, like water, metals can become brittle and fail. Since the mid-19th century, this phenomenon, known as hydrogen embrittlement, has puzzled researchers with its unpredictable nature. Now, a study brings us a step closer to predicting it ...
July 19, 2024 — A new ambient-energy-driven membrane that pumps carbon dioxide out of the air has been developed by ...
July 19, 2024 — Researchers have found that titanium-48 changes from a shell model structure to an alpha-cluster structure depending on the distance from the center of the nucleus. The results upend the conventional understanding of nuclear structure and are expected to provide clues to the Gamow theory on the alpha-decay process that occurs in heavy nuclei, ...
July 19, 2024 — Space storms could soon be forecasted with greater accuracy than ever before thanks to a big leap forward in our understanding of exactly when a violent solar eruption may hit Earth. Scientists say it is now possible to predict the precise speed a coronal mass ejection (CME) is travelling at and when it will smash into our planet -- even before it has fully erupted from the ...
July 19, 2024 — The first rumblings of the Sun's next 11-year solar cycle have been detected in sound waves inside our home star -- even though it is only halfway through its current one. This existing cycle is now at its peak, or 'solar maximum' -- which is when the Sun's magnetic field flips and its poles swap places -- until ...
July 18, 2024 — Europe's next big space mission -- a telescope that will hunt for Earth-like rocky planets outside of our solar system -- is on course to launch at the end of 2026. PLATO, or PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars, is being built to find nearby potentially habitable worlds around Sun-like stars that we can examine in ...
July 17, 2024 — Damping vibrations is crucial for precision experiments, for example in astronomy. A new invention uses a special kind of magnets to achieve this -- electropermanent magnets. They consist of a permanent magnet and a coil. In contrast to electromagnets, they do not have to be permanently supplied with energy. In contrast to permanent magnets, their strength can be tuned: Whenever necessary, a ...
July 18, 2024 — By harnessing the power of machine learning, researchers have constructed a framework for analyzing what factors most significantly contribute to a species' genetic ...
July 18, 2024 — A new camera could prevent companies from collecting embarrassing and identifiable photos and videos from devices like smart home cameras and robotic vacuums. It's called ...
July 17, 2024 — Researchers engineered a new technique to identify at the nanoscale level what components are overheating in electronics and causing their performance to ...
July 17, 2024 — When you think of a battery, you probably don't think stretchy. But batteries will need this shape-shifting quality to be incorporated into flexible electronics, which are gaining traction for wearable health monitors. Now, researchers report a lithium-ion battery with entirely stretchable components, including an electrolyte layer that can expand by 5000%, and it retains its charge storage ...
Environment News
July 19, 2024
July 15, 2024 — One of the most important controversies about human evolution and expansion is when and by what route the first hominids arrived in Europe from the African continent. Now, geological dating ...
July 11, 2024 — Using genomes from 2,000 living humans as well as three Neanderthals and one Denisovan, an international team mapped the gene flow between the hominin groups over the past quarter-million ...
July 12, 2024 — Researchers have shed light on Earth's earliest ecosystem, showing that within a few hundred million years of planetary formation, life on Earth was already ...
July 11, 2024 — An international research team has assembled the genome and 3D chromosomal structures of a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth -- the first time such a feat has been achieved for any ancient DNA sample. ...
Latest Environment Headlines
updated 10:47pm EDT
July 19, 2024 — Some species of fish can evolve their egg-laying habits in response to predators in the area in order to survive, according to new ...
July 19, 2024 — Recent research on Lotus japonicus, a model leguminous plant, has unveiled that the interaction between legume roots and rhizobia is characterized by periodic gene expression with a six-hour rhythm. This rhythmic gene expression influences the regions of the root susceptible to rhizobial infection and the distribution of nodules. It was also ...
July 17, 2024 — Most influenza viruses enter human or animal cells through specific pathways on the cells' surface. Researchers have now discovered that certain human flu viruses and avian flu viruses can also use a second entry pathway, a protein complex of the immune system, to infect cells. This ability helps the viruses infect different species -- and potentially jump between animals and ...
July 18, 2024 — Imagine a small fruit that tastes like a cross between a tomato and a pineapple, wrapped in its own natural paper lantern. That's the groundcherry (Physalis grisea) -- a little-known relative of tomatoes that's been quietly growing in gardens and small farms across North America for centuries. Now, this humble fruit is getting a 21st-century ...
July 19, 2024 — Chemists have been working to synthesize high-value materials from waste molecules for ...
July 18, 2024 — Creating fertilizers from organic waste can help reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and promote sustainable production. One way of doing this is through hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), which converts biomass into biocrude oil through a high-temperature, high-pressure process. Two studies explore the use of a fungal treatment to convert the leftover wastewater into fertilizer for agricultural ...
July 16, 2024 — New research shows that ozone concentrations at Carlsbad Caverns National Park frequently exceed Environmental Protection Agency health standards, likely due to oil and natural gas development in the Permian Basin and surrounding ...
July 16, 2024 — A new study reveals that Storm Ciaran cut an invisible path of mayhem across southern Britain last autumn, destroying any possibility that 20 million people could have a proper cup of tea at breakfast. The storm's record-breaking low pressure meant the boiling point of water was below the crucial 100 degrees Celsius required for a decent ...
July 17, 2024 — New research has examined the fossil record going back 66 million years and tracked changes to mammalian ecosystems and species diversity on the North American ...
July 15, 2024 — Humans have been an important driver of vegetation change over thousands of years, and, in some places, had positive impacts on biodiversity, according to a new ...
July 10, 2024 — Ancient DNA from bones and teeth hints at a role of the plague in Stone Age population collapse. Contrary to previous beliefs, the plague may have diminished Europe's populations long before the major plague outbreaks of the Middle Ages, new research ...
July 11, 2024 — A study has revealed that the earliest Neolithic groups to settle some 7,000 years ago in the Pyrenean site of Coro Trasito (Tella, Huesca) used species selection strategies to manufacture their tools made out of bone and chose deer for the projectile tips. The study applied for the first time in a Neolithic site an innovative combination of ...
Society/Education News
July 19, 2024
June 12, 2024 — Rising to power in the wake of the Classic Maya collapse, Chichen Itz was among the largest and most influential cities of the ancient Maya, but much about its political connections and ritual life remain poorly understood. Close kin relationships, ...
May 20, 2024 — Glaciologists show evidence of warm ocean water intruding kilometers beneath grounded ice at Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. The findings suggest that existing climate models are underestimating the impact of ocean and ice interactions in ...
Apr. 18, 2024 — Land subsidence is overlooked as a hazard in cities, according to new research. Scientists used satellite data that accurately and consistently maps land movement across ...
Apr. 17, 2024 — Even if CO2 emissions were to be drastically cut down starting today, the world economy is already committed to an income reduction of 19% until 2050 due to climate change, a new study finds. These ...
Latest Society/Education Headlines
updated 10:47pm EDT
July 18, 2024 — A new study suggests that the U.S. government's push to increase heavy-duty trucks' energy efficiency could encourage more shipping by truck instead of rail, reducing the policies' anticipated effectiveness by ...
July 17, 2024 — PrISMa is a new platform that uses advanced simulations and machine learning to streamline carbon capture technologies, by taking into account the perspectives of diverse stakeholders early in the research ...
July 17, 2024 — The most threatened reef fishes are also the most overlooked by scientists and the general public. Scientists measured the level of human interest in 2,408 species of marine reef fish and found that the attention of the scientific community is attracted by the commercial value more than the ecological value of the fishes. The public, on the other hand, is primarily influenced by the aesthetic ...
July 17, 2024 — Scientists have generated a new catalog of human gene expression data from around the world to address how most research in human genetics has historically focused on people of European ancestries -- a bias that may limit the accuracy of scientific predictions for people from other ...
July 12, 2024 — A new study finds that AI enhances creativity by boosting the novelty of story ideas as well as the 'usefulness' of stories -- their ability to engage the target audience and potential for publication. However, AI was not judged to enhance the work produced by more creative writers and the study also warns that while AI may enhance individual ...
July 11, 2024 — Toddlers engage more regions of their brains around 16-months to help them develop important cognitive skills enabling them to follow simple instructions and control impulses. Findings from the study suggests 16 months is a critical period for brain ...
July 10, 2024 — Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have frequently shown signs of an 'empathy gap' that puts young users at risk of distress or harm, raising the urgent need for 'child-safe AI', according to a new study. The research urges developers and policy actors to prioritize AI design that take greater account of children's needs. It provides evidence ...
July 11, 2024 — The human brain is remarkably adept at adjusting what we hear based on contexts, like our current environment or priorities, but it's still unknown how exactly the brain helps us detect, filter and react to sounds. Now, biologists are a step closer to solving that mystery. Using an animal model, the researchers found that the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a brain region associated with ...
July 12, 2024 — A new technique enables huge machine-learning models to efficiently generate more accurate quantifications of their uncertainty about certain predictions. This could help practitioners determine whether to trust the model when it is deployed in real-world ...
July 8, 2024 — Organizations using AI to monitor employees' behavior and productivity can expect them to complain more, be less productive and want to quit more -- unless the technology can be framed as supporting their development, research ...
July 2, 2024 — A new study shows how the global economy could claw back billions of dollars lost each year due to workplace injuries and ...
June 26, 2024 — Understanding why we delay tasks may help reclaim ...