Top Science News
August 15, 2024
Aug. 14, 2024 A new brain-computer interface translates brain signals into speech with up to 97 percent accuracy. Researchers implanted sensors in the brain of a man with severely impaired speech due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The man was able to ...
Aug. 13, 2024 A new interpretation of the runic inscription on the Forsa Ring (Forsaringen in Swedish), provides fresh insights into the Viking Age monetary system and represents the oldest documented value record in Scandinavia. The inscription describes how the ...
Aug. 12, 2024 Quakes and meteor impacts on Mars generate seismic waves that can help map the interior. A new study analyzed seismic waves detected by the Insight lander and concludes that 11-20 kilometers beneath the surface, a zone of pores and fractures is ...
Aug. 9, 2024 A 'loopy' discovery in bacteria is raising fundamental questions about the makeup of our own genome -- and revealing a potential wellspring of material for new genetic ...
Latest Top Headlines
updated 8:48am EDT
Aug. 14, 2024 A new class of fat cells makes people healthier. The cells consume energy and produce heat through seemingly pointless biochemical ...
Aug. 14, 2024 In the fight against Alzheimer's, researchers have developed a promising, preventative therapeutic approach. They specifically targeted the amyloid beta biomolecule, which triggers the hyperactivity of nerve cells typical of the brain disease in its early stages. They succeeded in developing and using a protein drug that can suppress the effects of the harmful ...
Aug. 14, 2024 New research found that brain scans can detect consciousness in some patients with brain injury who are unresponsive. In the study, 241 participants with severe brain injury who do not respond when given a simple instruction were assessed with functional MRI (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), or both tests, while hearing instructions, such as 'imagine opening and closing your hand.' Their ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Early life exposure to 'forever chemicals' in the environment permanently disrupts the gut microbiome in mice, contributing to the development of metabolic disease in later life, according to new research. The results suggest that human exposure to these chemicals during early childhood may be contributing to the recent epidemic of metabolic ...
Aug. 14, 2024 With 2D cameras and space robotics algorithms, astronautics engineers have created a navigation system able to manage multiple satellites using visual data only. They just tested it in space for the first ...
Aug. 14, 2024 A new study has found galaxies with more neighbors tend to be larger than their counterparts that have a similar shape and mass, but reside in less dense environments. The team, which used a machine-learning algorithm to analyze millions of galaxies, reports that galaxies found in denser regions of the universe are as much as 25% larger than ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Researchers have developed a smart fabric that can convert body heat and solar energy into electricity, potentially enabling continuous operation with no need for an external power source. Different sensors monitoring temperature, stress, and more can be integrated into the ...
Aug. 14, 2024 A new milestone has been set for levitated optomechanics as a group of scientists observed the Berry phase of electron spins in nano-sized diamonds levitated in ...
Aug. 14, 2024 A team of researchers has made strides in understanding the formation of massif-type anorthosites, enigmatic rocks that only formed during the middle part of Earth's history. These plagioclase-rich igneous rock formations, which can cover areas as large as 42,000 square kilometers and host titanium ore deposits, have puzzled scientists for decades due to conflicting theories about their ...
Aug. 13, 2024 Unprecedented wildfires in Canada and parts of Amazonia last year were at least three times more likely due to climate change and contributed to high levels of CO2 emissions from burning globally, according to the a new systematic review. The State of Wildfires report takes stock of extreme wildfires of the 2023-2024 fire season (March 2023-February 2024), explains their causes, and assesses ...
Aug. 14, 2024 A major international study has explained how bread wheat helped to transform the ancient world on its path to becoming the iconic crop that today helps sustain a global population of eight ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Changes in the Atlantic Ocean's mixed layer are the primary force behind the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability ...
Health News
August 15, 2024
Aug. 1, 2024 A new large study suggests incidence rates continued to rise in successively younger generations in 17 of the 34 cancer types, including breast, pancreatic, and gastric cancers. Mortality trends also ...
July 30, 2024 Two of the closest known relatives to SARS-CoV-2 -- a pair of bat coronaviruses discovered by researchers in Laos -- may transmit poorly in people despite being genetically similar to the COVID-19-causing virus, a new study reveals. The findings ...
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 -- ...
Latest Health Headlines
updated 8:48am EDT
Aug. 14, 2024 A team defined key cells behind severe kidney damage in lupus. The research can inform future antibody ...
Aug. 14, 2024 The health benefits of sunshine could outweigh the risks for people living in places with limited sunlight, such as parts of the UK, a study suggests. Exposure to higher levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in areas with low sunlight was linked to a drop in deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancer, according to the ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Recent trials of an experimental malaria vaccine in healthy Malian adults found that all three tested regimens were safe. One of the trials enrolled 300 healthy women ages 18 to 38 years who anticipated becoming pregnant soon after immunization. That trial began with drug treatment to remove malaria parasites, followed by three injections spaced ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Researchers announced a significant paradigm shift in the understanding of T-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), an aggressive and high-risk form of cancer, to one frequently driven by genetic changes in non-coding portions of our ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Psychologists studied 'earworms,' the types of songs that get stuck in your head and play automatically on a loop, to show that highly accurate pitch memory is much more common than might be ...
Aug. 14, 2024 People 60 and older with untreated high blood pressure may have an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease compared to both people who have been or are being treated for high blood pressure as well as people without the chronic condition. These results do not prove that untreated high blood pressure causes Alzheimer's disease, they only show an ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Psychotherapy sessions with caregivers may help prevent serious disease later in life for young children who have experienced significant trauma, a new study ...
Aug. 14, 2024 A research team has made a significant breakthrough in understanding the complex neural circuitry underlying reward and addiction by identifying 34 distinct subtypes of medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key brain region involved in pleasure and motivation. The findings offer insights into the diversity of these neurons and their potential roles in substance use ...
Aug. 14, 2024 A high-sugar diet is seen as a risk factor for obesity and chronic illness. Researchers have analyzed data on sugar intake among children and adolescents in a long-term study, finding that intake has been declining steadily since 2010 -- but is still above the level recommended by the World Health Organization ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Being born in autumn or winter is associated with asthma and allergic rhinitis in Finland, a new registry-based study ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Caesarean section recipients are usually given prophylactic antibiotics just before the procedure to prevent later infections at the surgical site. But there have been concerns about whether these antibiotics may have a negative impact on newborns and their microbiomes if the drugs travel through the umbilical cord and reach the baby before the ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Venting about your frustrations with one friend to another may feel good, but it doesn't necessarily reduce anger. Experiments showed that people who listened to a friend vent liked and supported that person more than those who were vented about -- but only if the person venting didn't derogate or seem aggressive toward the other friend. Venting ...
Physical/Tech News
August 15, 2024
Aug. 7, 2024 Ever since we learned that the surface of planet Mars is cold and dead, people have wondered if there is a way to make it friendlier to life. The newly proposed method is over 5,000 times more efficient than previous schemes to globally warm Mars, ...
Aug. 5, 2024 With GROVER, a new large language model trained on human DNA, researchers could now attempt to decode the complex information hidden in our genome. GROVER treats human DNA as a text, learning its rules and context to draw functional information ...
July 30, 2024 Researchers have found that training successive generations of generative artificial intelligence models on synthetic data gives rise to self-consuming feedback ...
July 21, 2024 Europa and Enceladus, icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn respectively, have evidence of oceans beneath their crusts. A NASA experiment suggests -- if these oceans support life -- signatures of that life in the form of organic molecules (like amino ...
Latest Physical/Tech Headlines
updated 8:48am EDT
Aug. 14, 2024 Scientists recently discovered a one-dimensional nanoscale material whose color changes as temperature ...
Aug. 14, 2024 More efficient and longer-lasting fuel cells are essential for fuel cell-powered heavy-duty hydrogen vehicles to be an alternative to combustion fuelled counterparts. Researchers have developed an innovative method to study and understand how parts of fuel cells degrade over time. This is an important step towards the improved performance of fuel cells and them becoming commercially ...
Aug. 14, 2024 The remarkable affinity of the microbial enzyme iron nitrogenase for the greenhouse gas CO2 makes it promising for future ...
Aug. 14, 2024 A new implantable sensor could reverse opioid overdoses. The device rapidly releases naloxone when an overdose is ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Between July and November of 2022, NASA's Perseverance rover collected seven samples of sediment from an ancient alluvial fan in Jezero crater. While onboard analysis gave researchers some information about their origins, only detailed analysis on Earth can retrieve evidence of when water flowed on Mars and whether life arose there. Geophysicists ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Scientists report that rock samples from Mars' Jezero Crater contain minerals that are typically formed in water. While the presence of organic matter is inconclusive, the rocks could be scientists' best chance at finding remnants of ancient Martian ...
Aug. 13, 2024 Using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed hydroxyl molecules on the surface of the metallic asteroid Psyche. The presence of hydrated minerals suggests a complex history for Psyche, important context for the NASA spacecraft en route to this interesting asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and ...
Aug. 13, 2024 Researchers used large language models to efficiently detect anomalies in time-series data, without the need for costly and cumbersome training steps. This method could someday help alert technicians to potential problems in equipment like wind turbines or ...
Aug. 14, 2024 A new, air-powered computer sets off alarms when certain medical devices fail. The invention is a more reliable and lower-cost way to help prevent blood clots and strokes -- all without electronic ...
Aug. 13, 2024 A computer algorithm has achieved a 98% accuracy in predicting different diseases by analyzing the color of the human tongue. The proposed imaging system can diagnose diabetes, stroke, anemia, asthma, liver and gallbladder conditions, COVID-19, and a range of vascular and gastrointestinal issues, according to new ...
Aug. 13, 2024 The smaller carbon footprint, or wheel print, of automatic delivery robots can encourage consumers to use them when ordering food, according to a new study. The suitcase-sized, self-driving electric vehicles are much greener than many traditional food delivery methods because they have low, or even zero, carbon emissions. In this study, participants who had more environmental awareness and ...
Aug. 12, 2024 New research explains the mathematics behind how initial predispositions and additional information affect decision ...
Environment News
August 15, 2024
Aug. 9, 2024 Scientists have recovered the first long section of rocks that originated in the Earth's mantle, the layer below the crust and the planet's largest component. The rocks will help unravel the mantle's ...
Aug. 8, 2024 What distinguishes the growth and development patterns of early mammals of the Jurassic period? Paleontologists have been able to gauge the lifespan and growth rates of these ancient animals, and even when they reached maturity, by studying growth ...
Aug. 7, 2024 The pterosaur likely used all four limbs to propel itself in the air, as seen in bats today, researchers have ...
Aug. 6, 2024 Markings on a stone pillar at a 12,000 year-old archaeological site in Turkey likely represent the world's oldest solar calendar, created as a memorial to a devastating comet strike, experts ...
Latest Environment Headlines
updated 8:48am EDT
Aug. 14, 2024 In 2017, the Minamata Convention on Mercury went into effect, designed to help curb mercury emissions and limit exposure across the globe. However, a new study of mercury levels in soil suggests that the treaty's provisions might not be enough. The study estimates that soil stores substantially more mercury than previously thought, and it predicts that increases in plant growth due to climate ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Researchers have made significant progress in understanding how cells communicate during ...
Aug. 14, 2024 A new technique will make it much easier for researchers to discover the traits or activities encoded by genes of unknown function in microbes, a key step toward understanding the roles and impact of individual species within the planet's diverse ...
Aug. 14, 2024 An international research team has discovered that comammox bacteria, first identified by them in 2015, can grow using guanidine, a nitrogen-rich organic compound, as their sole energy and nitrogen source. This unique ability opens new avenues for targeted cultivation of these enigmatic microbes and could also provide a key to reducing ...
Aug. 14, 2024 A new article concludes that current climate standards are not sufficiently incentivizing the big picture innovations necessary to deliver net zero, and must be expanded to include a company's broader influence on climate ...
Aug. 14, 2024 The distribution of species around the globe is not a random process but an outcome resulting from several evolutionary mechanisms as well as past and current environmental limitations. As a result, since the mid-19th century, biologists have identified several main regions, called biogeographic realms, that depict these large ensembles of species around the world. These biogeographic realms ...
Aug. 14, 2024 For a long time, scientists assumed that jellies (commonly known as jellyfish) were a dead-end food source for predatory fish. However, a team has now discovered that fish in Greenland waters do indeed feed on jellyfish. In two of the analyzed species, they even made up the majority of the food. The results suggest that the role of jellyfish as prey in marine food webs should be reconsidered, ...
Aug. 7, 2024 Researchers found a notable effect of aluminum on the sound velocities of superhydrous phase B, a dense hydrous magnesium silicate and potential host of water in the deep Earth. Their results suggest that aluminous phase B could explain seismic velocity anomalies in the Earth's mantle transition region and uppermost lower ...
Aug. 14, 2024 An unchartered area in the foothills of the Southern Pyrenees in Spain is providing insights into a poorly known period of Neanderthal history, offering clues that could help archaeologists uncover the mystery of their downfall, according to new ...
Aug. 14, 2024 An international team of researchers analyzed beluga whale bones retrieved from archaeological sites in the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada, to shed light on the sustainability of centuries of Inuvialuit beluga whale subsistence ...
Aug. 14, 2024 New research has revealed Stonehenge's monumental six-ton Altar Stone, long believed to originate from Wales, actually hails from ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Scientists have sequenced the largest genome of all animals, the lungfish genome. Their data help to explain how the fish-ancestors of today's land vertebrates were able to conquer ...
Society/Education News
August 15, 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 8:48am EDT
Aug. 14, 2024 New York City neighborhoods subject to higher rates of policing during the Stop and Frisk years also experienced higher burdens of psychiatric hospitalization among their adolescent and young adult residents -- independent of underlying neighborhood socio-economic ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Researchers reveal that individuals who finish their PhD in situations where the average team in their field is larger have worse academic career ...
Aug. 13, 2024 Safeguarding places to hang ten and shoot the curl is an opportunity to simultaneously mitigate climate change, fuel tourism and help surrounding ecosystems, research has ...
Aug. 13, 2024 A new study comparing expected lifespans among six high-income English-speaking countries found that Australians live the longest while American lifespans faltered over the last three ...
Aug. 13, 2024 New research suggests that the overreliance on retrospective self-reports of maltreatment in research has resulted in a biased evidence base that overlooks the challenges faced by children and young people with documented exposure to ...
Aug. 13, 2024 A new study finds that preterm-born children fit into three profiles, with markedly different results on tests that measure cognition and ...
Aug. 11, 2024 Researchers have uncovered a more nuanced view of what makes an 'ideal' computer science student, challenging long-held stereotypes of geeky, clever, detail-oriented men, who lack social ...
Aug. 12, 2024 New research shows the timing of others' reactions to their babbling is key to how babies begin learning language and social norms -- a process evident in infants' interactions with a ...
Aug. 14, 2024 Job strain and effort-reward imbalance at work were associated with a greater chance of developing an abnormal heart rhythm condition, finds a new ...
Aug. 13, 2024 The atmosphere within a group can influence the outcome of strategic decision-making, according to a new study. Researchers found that different atmospheres led to people speaking and interacting in different ways that changed how they made sense of the ...
Aug. 9, 2024 Fear of missing out (FoMO) is a key risk factor for employee mental health and, along with information overload, may increase burnout, according to new ...
July 30, 2024 Remote and hybrid working may be great for employees' work-life balance, but it may be stifling innovation, according to new ...