Human Quirks News

July 19, 2024

Top Headlines

Food Aroma Study May Help Explain Why Meals Taste Bad in Space

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, ...

Singing the Science: Using Karaoke to Examine Blushing

July 17, 2024 — A new collaboration explores the neural substrates of blushing in a MRI ...

Psilocybin Generates Psychedelic Experience by Disrupting Brain Network

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 ...

What Fat Cats on a Diet May Tell Us About Obesity in Humans

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 ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:18pm EDT

Enzyme-Powered 'Snot Bots' Help Deliver Drugs in Sticky Situations

July 17, 2024 — Snot might not be the first place you'd expect nanobots to be swimming around. But this slimy secretion exists in more places than just your nose and piles of dirty tissues -- it also lines and helps ...

Cuttlefish Can Form False Memories, Too

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 ...

Scientists Find That Small Regions of the Brain Can Take Micro-Naps While the Rest of the Brain Is Awake and Vice Versa

July 16, 2024 — For the first time, scientists have found that sleep can be detected by patterns of neuronal activity just milliseconds long, 1000 times shorter than ...

New Way for Beneficial Microbes to Survive Extreme Conditions and Space Exploration

July 9, 2024 — Investigators sought to help figure out how to send materials like probiotics into space and to better treat a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) and ...

Origins of Creativity in the Brain

July 15, 2024 — New results could ultimately help lead to interventions that spark creative thought or aid people who have mental illnesses that disrupt these regions of the ...

Muscle Machine: How Water Controls the Speed of Muscle Contraction

July 11, 2024 — The flow of water within a muscle fiber may dictate how quickly muscle can contract, according to a new ...

'A History of Contact': Geneticists Are Rewriting the Narrative of Neanderthals and Other Ancient Humans

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 ...

Eating Small Fish Whole Can Prolong Life Expectancy, a Japanese Study Finds

June 13, 2024 — A new study has found evidence linking the intake of whole-sized small fish with a reduced risk of all-cause and cancer mortality in Japanese ...

Two New Species of Psilocybe Mushrooms Discovered in Southern Africa

July 2, 2024 — In a new paper, researchers and citizen mycologists describe the two new species as Psilocybe ingeli and Psilocybe maluti. The paper also contains information on the traditional use of P. maluti by ...

Clever Clothes! Seams in Clothing Capture Body Movement

July 2, 2024 — Everyday clothing may soon be able to capture and record body movements according to new ...

Earlier Headlines

Can Consciousness Exist in a Computer Simulation?

July 19, 2024 — A new essay explores which conditions must be met for consciousness to exist. At least one of them can't be found in a ...

When There's Money to Lose, Phone Usage While Driving Drops

July 10, 2024 — Researchers discovered that feedback plus cash incentives designed with insights from behavioral science reduces phone use while ...

Doctors Could Soon Use Facial Temperature for Early Diagnosis of Metabolic Diseases

July 2, 2024 — A colder nose and warmer cheeks may be a telltale sign of rising blood pressure. Researchers discovered that temperatures in different face regions are associated with various chronic illnesses, such ...

New and Improved Camera Inspired by the Human Eye

July 1, 2024 — Computer scientists have invented a camera mechanism that improves how robots see and react to the world around them. Inspired by how the human eye works, their innovative camera system mimics the ...

Creating Supranormal Hearing in Mice

June 28, 2024 — A new study has produced supranormal hearing in mice, while also supporting a hypothesis on the cause of hidden hearing loss in ...

Microrobot-Packed Pill Shows Promise for Treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Mice

June 26, 2024 — Engineers have developed a pill that releases microscopic robots, or microrobots, into the colon to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The experimental treatment, given orally, has shown success ...

Your Future Medications Could Be Personalized for You on a 3D Printer

June 25, 2024 — Scientists are helping to develop standards and safety protocols that would allow pharmacies to print drugs onsite at a dosage best for ...

Next Platform for Brain-Inspired Computing

June 25, 2024 — Computers have come so far in terms of their power and potential, rivaling and even eclipsing human brains in their ability to store and crunch data, make predictions and communicate. But there is ...

Moving Objects Precisely With Sound

June 25, 2024 — Researchers have succeeded in directing floating objects around an aquatic obstacle course using only soundwaves. Their novel, optics-inspired method holds great promise for biomedical applications ...

Meet CARMEN, a Robot That Helps People With Mild Cognitive Impairment

June 24, 2024 — Meet CARMEN, short for Cognitively Assistive Robot for Motivation and Neurorehabilitation -- a small, tabletop robot designed to help people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) learn skills to ...

Can AI Learn Like Us?

June 20, 2024 — Scientists have developed a new, more energy-efficient way for AI algorithms to process data. His model may become the basis for a new generation of AI that learns like we do. Notably, these findings ...

Parliamentary Members Use Simpler Language on Hot Days

June 13, 2024 — Climate change has many widespread and complicated effects on the well-being of people and the planet, and a new study has now added a surprising one to the list. After analyzing the language used in ...

Swimming Microrobots Deliver Cancer-Fighting Drugs to Metastatic Lung Tumors in Mice

June 12, 2024 — Engineers have developed microscopic robots, known as microrobots, capable of swimming through the lungs to deliver cancer-fighting medication directly to metastatic tumors. This approach has shown ...

Ingestible Microbiome Sampling Pill Technology Advances

June 12, 2024 — Significant progress has been made in the development of a small device, about the size of a vitamin pill, that can be swallowed and passed through the gastrointestinal tract to sample and help ...

To Heal Skin, Scientists Invent Living Bioelectronics

June 12, 2024 — Engineers have created a patch that combines sensors and bacteria to interact with the ...

Towards a New Era in Flexible Piezoelectric Sensors for Both Humans and Robots

June 12, 2024 — Flexible piezoelectric sensors are essential to monitor the motions of both humans and humanoid robots. However, existing designs are either are costly or have limited sensitivity. In a recent study, ...

AI-Powered Simulation Training Improves Human Performance in Robotic Exoskeletons

June 12, 2024 — Researchers have demonstrated a new method that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and computer simulations to train robotic exoskeletons to autonomously help users save energy while walking, ...

Research on the Visual Rabbit Illusion Takes a Leap Forward

June 11, 2024 — Researchers have discovered new variations of an illusion created when we see three rapid flashes in our side vision. Regardless of the position of the second flash, the illusion causes the brain to ...

Would Astronauts' Kidneys Survive a Roundtrip to Mars?

June 11, 2024 — The structure and function of the kidneys is altered by space flight, with galactic radiation causing permanent damage that would jeopardise any mission to Mars, according to a new study led by ...

Protocol for Creating 'Wired Miniature Brains'

June 10, 2024 — Researchers have developed -- and shared -- a process for creating brain cortical organoids -- essentially miniature artificial brains with functioning neural ...