Top Science News

Sep. 19, 2024 — The beliefs we hold develop from a complex dance between our internal and external lives. A recent study uses well-known formalisms in statistical physics to model multiple aspects of belief-network dynamics. This multidimensional approach to modeling belief dynamics could offer new tools for tackling various real-world problems such as polarization or the spread of ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — The first academic study to provide quantitative assessment of the possible dangers of competitive slap fighting offers a starting point for conversations about ensuring participants' long-term health and ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — Human breast milk regulates a baby's mix of microbes, or microbiome, during the infant's first year of life. This in turn lowers the child's risk of developing asthma, a new study ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — By staring into the hellish landscape of Jupiter's moon Io -- the most volcanically active location in the solar system -- astronomers have been able to study a fundamental process in planetary formation and evolution: tidal ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — Researchers have developed a Martian atmospheric evolution model to propose a new theory about Mars's ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — Static electricity was first observed in 600 B.C., but researchers have struggled to explain how rubbing causes it. In 2019, researchers discovered nanosized surface deformations at play. The same researchers now say different electrical charges build up on the front and back parts of a sliding object, creating a ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — Researchers demonstrates the effectiveness of homemade play putty at reading brain, heart, muscle and eye activity. The research outlines the conductive properties of this material, so-named 'squishy ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — A new, wide-ranging exploration of human remains casts doubt on a long-standing theory in archaeology known as the Kurgan hypothesis -- which, among other claims, suggests that humans first domesticated horses as early as the fourth millennium ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — An international group of researchers says two decades of research have generated sufficient knowledge about the sources and effects of microplastics to allow world leaders to agree measures to address them. The argument comes 20 years after the first ever study to coin the term microplastics to describe the microscopic fragments of plastics in ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — Ice may look safe for a game of pick-up hockey on the lake, but as a new study has found, looks can be deceiving. Warming winters are not only affecting ice thickness and timing -- when a lake freezes and thaws -- but also quality, making it potentially unstable and unsafe. The problem, say researchers, is that the unpredictable and warmer winter ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — Lavas from hotspots - -whether erupting in Hawaii, Samoa or Iceland -- likely originate from a worldwide, uniform reservoir in Earth's mantle, according to an evaluation of volcanic ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — Fever temperatures rev up immune cell metabolism, proliferation and activity, but they also -- in a particular subset of T cells -- cause mitochondrial stress, DNA damage and cell death, researchers have discovered. The findings offer a mechanistic understanding for how cells respond to heat and could explain how chronic inflammation contributes to the development of ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — A multi-institutional clinical trial showed that a newer technique for collecting prostate biopsy samples reduced the risk of infection compared with traditional biopsy ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — A new study highlights the role of natural killer T cells in influencing the immune response to dengue virus, potentially reducing the severity of subsequent ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — Neuronal pathways originating from the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) of the brain participate in different adaptive behaviors, but which pathways are used for distinct adaptive strategies remains unclear. In a recent study, researchers from Japan conducted behavioral experiments on monkeys whose OFC pathways could be selectively silenced chemically. ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — The incidence of stroke continues to increase for adults and children living with sickle cell disease (SCD) despite the Stroke Prevention Trial in Sickle Cell Anemia (STOP) establishing standards of care like transfusions and tests to measure blood flow in the brain for those deemed high-risk, according to a new ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — Researchers have used a drug screening platform they developed to show that an antidepressant, currently on the market, kills tumor cells in the dreaded glioblastoma -- at least in the cell-culture ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — Researchers report significant strides in enhancing early diagnosis of bipolar disorder in adolescents. They demonstrate the efficacy of integrating multimodal MRI with behavioral assessments for greater diagnostic precision. Bipolar disorder is a severe neuropsychiatric condition that often emerges during adolescence and is characterized by ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — People whose diet more closely resembles the MIND diet may have a lower risk of cognitive impairment, according to a new study. Results were similar for Black and white participants. These results do not prove that the MIND diet prevents cognitive impairment, they only show an ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — A class of drugs for diabetes may be associated with a lower risk of dementia and Parkinson's disease, according to a new ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — A study more closely links obesity to dementia, finding that leptin, a hormone that helps maintain normal body weight, is associated with better signal-transmitting brain white matter in middle-aged ...

Sep. 16, 2024 — People who eat more ultra-processed foods (UPF) are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but this risk can be lowered by consuming less processed foods instead, finds a new ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — Within the cycling realm, 'to Everest' involves riding up and down the same mountain until your ascents total the elevation of Mt. Everest. A new record was set a few years ago, but a debate ensued about the strong tailwind the cyclist had on climbs. To what extent do the tailwind help a cyclist as they climb? Should limits be set on the allowed ...

Sep. 17, 2024 — Rising demand for electronic devices and electric vehicles has increased the dependence on secondary ion batteries. While lithium-ion batteries are already popular, a promising alternative sodium-ion batteries (SIB) are struggling to get wider acceptance due to slow ion kinetics affecting their performance. A new polymer-based binder called PMAI ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — Lasso peptides are natural products made by bacteria. Their unusual lasso shape endows them with remarkable stability, protecting them from extreme conditions. In a new study, researchers have constructed and tested models for how these peptides are made and demonstrated how this information might be used to advance lasso peptide-based drugs into the ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — A newly discovered cluster-scale strong gravitational lens, with a rare alignment of seven background lensed galaxies, provides a unique opportunity to study ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — Astronomers examined galaxy Arp 107 which has revealed a wealth of information about star-formation and how two galaxies collided hundreds of million years ago. Arp 107 is located 465 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo ...

Sep. 17, 2024 — In a new paper, physicists argue that close observations of merging black hole pairs may unveil information about potential new ...

Sep. 17, 2024 — With the help of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of scientists has found more black holes in the early universe than has previously been reported. The new result can help scientists understand how supermassive black holes were ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — Large language models (LLMs) have developed rapidly in recent years and are becoming an integral part of our everyday lives through applications like ChatGPT. An article explains the opportunities and risks that arise from the use of LLMs for our ability to collectively deliberate, make decisions, and solve ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — A research team has developed a computational workflow for analyzing large data sets in the field of metabolomics, the study of small molecules found within cells, biofluids, tissues, and entire ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — Spintronic devices work with spin textures caused by quantum-physical interactions. Scientists have now studied graphene-cobalt-iridium heterostructures at BESSY II. The results show how two desired quantum-physical effects reinforce each other in these heterostructures. This could lead to new spintronic devices based on these ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — Chemists have developed a generative AI model that can make it much easier to determine the structures of powdered crystal materials. The prediction model could help researchers characterize materials for use in batteries, magnets, and many other ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — Scientists now understand why some gray horses turn completely white as they age, while others remain an eye-catching 'dappled' gray ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa can secure future food supplies by unlocking the potential of their people and farming ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — A researcher has found evidence that the treeless, rugged, grassland landscape of the Falkland Islands was home to a lush, diverse rainforest up to 30 million years ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — The Colorado River is a vital source of water in the Western United States, providing drinking water for homes and irrigation for farms in seven states, but the basin is under increasing pressure from climate change and drought. A new computational tool may help the region adapt to a complex and uncertain ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — Researchers have found microplastics less than 300 m in size in coral skeletons. The team developed a new protocol to extract and detect microplastics and applied it to coral samples from the Gulf of Thailand. The finding may also explain the 'missing plastic problem,' where about 70% of plastic in the oceans cannot be found. The corals may act as a 'sink' for microplastics, absorbing them from ...

Sep. 20, 2024 — The European Green Deal will bring the emission of greenhouse gases in the European Union down, but at the same time causes a more than a twofold increase in emissions outside its ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — A study reveals that current methods of designing and evaluating wildlife corridors may not be adequate to ensure wildlife protection, and suggests that Best Management Practices should include analyzing corridors with a smarter and more thorough framework. Researchers tested different wildlife corridor designs against black bear movement data in Florida and found that each achieved very ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — Findings suggest that new genes can form by repurposing fragments of ancestral genes while incorporating entirely new coding regions (the protein-coding parts of the DNA). This innovative concept bridges the gap between entirely new gene formation from noncoding regions and the more traditional model in which new functions can arise from duplicated ...

Sep. 17, 2024 — Scientists have unravelled a mystery about the disappearance of dwarf hippos and elephants that once roamed the picturesque landscape on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus before palaeolithic humans arrived. Cyprus only had two species of megafauna present during the Late Pleistocene -- the 500-kg dwarf elephant (Palaeoloxodon cypriotes), and the ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — A new study offers the most detailed glimpse yet into how Earth's surface temperature has changed over the past 485 million years. The data show that Earth has been and can be warmer than today -- but humans and animals cannot adapt fast enough to keep up with human-caused climate ...

Sep. 19, 2024 — Ancient DNA has provided spectacular insights into human history, particularly in Europe and Asia, where researchers have reconstructed the genomes of thousands of people. However, fewer than two dozen ancient genomes have been recovered from southern Africa -- specifically Botswana, South Africa and Zambia -- which has some of the world's ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — A new study has directly linked operating room design to the length of surgeries, with implications both for patient health and hospitals' bottom ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new framework to make complex AI tasks more accessible and transparent to users. The framework specializes in providing solutions to deep reinforcement learning (DRL) requests. The framework pairs developers, companies and individuals that have specific but out-of-reach AI needs with service providers who have the ...

Sep. 16, 2024 — Imagine simply telling your vehicle, 'I'm in a hurry,' and it automatically takes you on the most efficient route to where you need to be. Engineers found that an autonomous vehicle (AV) can do this with the help of ChatGPT or other chatbots made possible by artificial intelligence algorithms called large language ...

Sep. 16, 2024 — An experiment tested six generative large language models against students in an online introductory biomedical and health informatics course. The models scored higher than as many as three quarters of the real-world students in the ...

Sep. 11, 2024 — Researchers developed a new smartphone-based digital holographic microscope that enables precision 3D measurements. The highly portable and inexpensive microscope could help bring 3D measurement capabilities to a broader range of applications, including educational uses and point-of-care diagnostics in resource-limited ...

Sep. 11, 2024 — Neuroscientists have revealed how sensory input is transformed into motor action across multiple brain regions in mice. The research shows that decision-making is a global process across the brain that is coordinated by learning. The findings could aid artificial intelligence research by providing insights into how to design more distributed neural ...

Sep. 10, 2024 — A new article examines how the flexibility of containers affect how fast they ...

Aug. 16, 2024 — Researchers developed a new method known as flash-within-flash Joule heating (FWF) that could transform the synthesis of high-quality solid-state materials, offering a cleaner, faster and more sustainable manufacturing ...

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 — Researchers reveal that individuals who finish their PhD in situations where the average team in their field is larger have worse academic career ...

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 ...