Top Science News

January 6, 2023

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Human brain illustration | (c) koya979 / stock.adobe.com

Blood Test for Alzheimer's, Before Symptoms

Clouds above ocean | (c) Pavel Losevsky / stock.adobe.com

Harvesting Untapped Source of Freshwater

Planet Mars illustration | (c) revers_jr / stock.adobe.com

Giant Mantle Plume On Mars

Modern-day cat | (c) DenisNata / stock.adobe.com

First-Ever Domestication of Cats

Dec. 5, 2022 — Researchers can detect 'toxic' small aggregates of a particular protein in the blood of individuals with Alzheimer's disease, as well as in ...

Dec. 6, 2022 — An almost limitless supply of fresh water exists in the form of water vapor above Earth's oceans, yet remains untapped, researchers said. A new study suggests an investment in new infrastructure ...

Dec. 5, 2022 — Orbital observations unveil the presence of an enormous mantle plume pushing the surface of Mars upward and driving intense volcanic and seismic activity. The discovery reveals that Mars, like Earth ...

Dec. 5, 2022 — Nearly 10,000 years ago, humans settling in the Fertile Crescent, the areas of the Middle East surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, made the first switch from hunter-gatherers to farmers. ...

Latest Top Headlines

updated 12:01pm EST

Newly Discovered Anatomy Shields and Monitors Brain

Jan. 5, 2023 — Researchers describe a previously unknown component of brain anatomy that acts as both a protective barrier and platform from which immune cells surveil the brain for infection and ...

Brain Area Necessary for Fluid Intelligence Identified

Dec. 28, 2022 — A team of researchers has mapped the parts of the brain that support our ability to solve problems without prior experience -- otherwise known as fluid ...

Can the AI Driving ChatGPT Help to Detect Early Signs of Alzheimer's Disease?

Dec. 22, 2022 — The artificial intelligence algorithms behind the chatbot program ChatGPT -- which has drawn attention for its ability to generate humanlike written responses to some of the most creative queries -- might one day be able to help doctors detect Alzheimer's Disease in its early stages. Research recently demonstrated that OpenAI's GPT-3 program can ...

Researchers Use 3D Bioprinting to Create Eye Tissue

Dec. 22, 2022 — Scientists used patient stem cells and 3D bioprinting to produce eye tissue that will advance understanding of the mechanisms of blinding diseases. The research team printed a combination of cells that form the outer blood-retina barrier--eye tissue that supports the retina's light-sensing photoreceptors. The technique provides a theoretically unlimited supply of patient-derived tissue to study ...

Electrochemistry Converts Carbon to Useful Molecules

Jan. 5, 2023 — A chemistry collaboration led to a creative way to put carbon dioxide to good -- and even healthy -- use: by incorporating it, via electrosynthesis, into a series of organic molecules that are vital to pharmaceutical ...

James Webb Telescope Reveals Milky Way-Like Galaxies in Young Universe

Jan. 5, 2023 — New images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal galaxies with stellar bars -- elongated features of stars stretching from the centers of galaxies into their outer disks -- at a time when the universe was a mere 25% of its present age. The finding of so-called barred galaxies, similar to our Milky Way, this early in the universe will require astrophysicists to refine their theories ...

High-Performance Visible-Light Lasers That Fit on a Fingertip

Jan. 4, 2023 — Researchers have created visible lasers of very pure colors from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared that fit on a fingertip. The colors of the lasers can be precisely tuned and extremely fast -- up to 267 petahertz per second, which is critical for applications such as quantum optics. The team is the first to demonstrate chip-scale narrow-linewidth and tunable lasers for colors of light below red ...

New Type of Entanglement Lets Scientists 'See' Inside Nuclei

Jan. 4, 2023 — Nuclear physicists have found a new way to use the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) to see the shape and details inside atomic nuclei. The method relies on particles of light that surround gold ions as they speed around the collider and a new type of quantum entanglement that's never been seen ...

DNA from Archaeological Remains Shows That Immigration to Scandinavia Was Exceptional During the Viking Period

Jan. 5, 2023 — A new study based on 297 ancient Scandinavian genomes analysed together with the genomic data of 16,638 present day Scandinavians resolve the complex relations between geography, ancestry, and gene flow in Scandinavia -- encompassing the Roman Age, the Viking Age and later periods. A surprising increase of variation during the Viking period ...

Cyclone Researchers: Warming Climate Means More and Stronger Atlantic Tropical Storms

Jan. 4, 2023 — Tropical cyclone researchers report a warming climate could increase the number of tropical cyclones and their intensity in the North Atlantic, potentially creating more and stronger hurricanes. In a second research paper, researchers examine a possible explanation for the relatively constant number of tropical cyclones around the globe every ...

Cheap, Sustainable Hydrogen Through Solar Power

Jan. 4, 2023 — A new kind of solar panel has achieved 9% efficiency in converting water into hydrogen and oxygen--mimicking a crucial step in natural photosynthesis. Outdoors, it represents a major leap in the technology, nearly 10 times more efficient than solar water-splitting experiments of its ...

A Step Towards Solar Fuels out of Thin Air

Jan. 4, 2023 — Chemical engineers have invented a solar-powered artificial leaf, built on a novel electrode which is transparent and porous, capable of harvesting water from the air for conversion into hydrogen fuel. The semiconductor-based technology is scalable and easy to ...

Artemis-SCID Infant Gene Therapy Breakthrough

Why Loss of Smell Occurs in Long COVID

Common Red Food Dye: Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

'Gelbots' to Crawl Through People to Deliver ...

Dec. 21, 2022 — Ten young children born without functioning immune systems and lacking the ability to fight infections are on track for healthier lives thanks to a new gene therapy ...

Dec. 21, 2022 — The reason some people fail to recover their sense of smell after COVID-19 is linked to an ongoing immune assault on olfactory nerve cells and an associated decline in the number of those cells, ...

Dec. 20, 2022 — Researchers using experimental animal models of IBD found that continual exposure to Allura Red AC harms gut health and promotes inflammation. The ...

Dec. 14, 2022 — A new gelatinous robot that crawls, powered by nothing more than temperature change and clever design, brings 'a kind of intelligence' to the field of soft ...

Latest Health Headlines

updated 12:01pm EST

Genetic Effect on the Response to Treatment for Obesity

Jan. 5, 2023 — Collaborative research has found that patients with severe and complicated obesity respond differently to a dietary weight loss program based on their ...

Blood Pressure Drug Holds Promise for Treating PTSD

Jan. 5, 2023 — There is new evidence that a 50-year-old blood pressure drug could find new purpose as a treatment to mitigate the often life-altering effects of increasingly prevalent PTSD, scientists ...

Researchers Identify Blood Panel to Predict Placenta Accreta

Jan. 5, 2023 — Of the nearly 4 million births each year in the United States, roughly 50,000 are marked by life-threatening complications, and up to 900 result in maternal death during delivery. One major, often life-threatening complication is placenta accreta spectrum (PAS), which poses a threat to both the mother and the ...

Incurable Liver Disease May Prove Curable

Jan. 5, 2023 — Research has shown for the first time that the effects of Alagille syndrome, an incurable genetic disorder that affects the liver, could be reversed with a single drug. The study has the potential to transform treatment for this rare disease and may also have implications for more common ...

The Brain's Ability to Perceive Space Expands Like the Universe

Jan. 4, 2023 — Scientists have discovered that time spent exploring an environment causes neural representations to grow in surprising ways. This discovery provides valuable methods for analyzing data on neurocognitive disorders involving learning and memory, such as Alzheimer's ...

Scientists Develop a Cancer Vaccine to Simultaneously Kill and Prevent Brain Cancer

Jan. 4, 2023 — Investigators have developed a new cell therapy approach to eliminate established tumors and induce long-term immunity, training the immune system so that it can prevent cancer from recurring. Dual-action cell therapy engineered to eliminate established tumors and train the immune system to eradicate primary tumor and prevent cancer's ...

Researchers Reveal an Added Layer of Nuance in Our Sense of Smell

Jan. 4, 2023 — The delicate fragrance of jasmine is a delight to the senses. The sweet scent is popular in teas, perfumes and potpourri. But take a whiff of the concentrated essential oil, and the pleasant aroma becomes almost cloying. Indeed, part of the flower's smell comes from the compound skatole, a prominent component of fecal ...

Generous Parental Leave Is Protective Against Poorer Mental Health

Jan. 4, 2023 — Being on parental leave is protective against poorer mental health particularly among mothers, with evidence of this beneficial effect continuing in later life, according to a systematic ...

Climate Impact Labels on Sample Fast Food Menu Had Strong Effect on Food Selection

Jan. 4, 2023 — A new study has found that including climate impact labels on a sample fast food menu influenced participants' food choices in favor of more climate-friendly ...

A Brain Game May Predict Your Risk of Infection

Jan. 3, 2023 — If your alertness and reaction time is see-sawing more than usual, you may be more at risk of a viral illness. That's the key finding of a recent ...

Couples Don't Have the Same Experience When Both Work from Home

Jan. 3, 2023 — In dual-earner couples, working from home may be a better deal for husbands than wives in some ways, according to two related studies of workers in China and South ...

Good Hydration Linked to Healthy Aging

Jan. 2, 2023 — Adults who stay well-hydrated appear to be healthier, develop fewer chronic conditions, such as heart and lung disease, and live longer than those who may not get sufficient fluids, according to a new ...

Ghost Light Among Galaxies Stretches Far Back

Cool New Method of Refrigeration

Human Brain Organoid in Mouse Brain Responsive

Ancient Projectile Points in the Americas

Jan. 4, 2023 — In giant clusters of hundreds or thousands of galaxies, innumerable stars wander among the galaxies like lost souls, emitting a ghostly haze of light. These stars are not gravitationally tied to any ...

Jan. 4, 2023 — Researchers have developed a new kind of heating and cooling method that they have named the ionocaloric refrigeration cycle. They hope the technique will someday help phase out refrigerants that ...

Dec. 29, 2022 — A team of engineers and neuroscientists has demonstrated for the first time that human brain organoids implanted in mice have established functional ...

Dec. 26, 2022 — Archaeologists have uncovered projectile points in Idaho that are thousands of years older than any previously found in the Americas, helping to fill in the history of how early humans crafted and ...

Latest Physical/Tech Headlines

updated 12:01pm EST

Efficient Sodium-Ion Battery Anode for Energy Storage

Jan. 5, 2023 — Lithium is expensive and limited, necessitating the development of efficient energy storage systems beyond lithium-ion batteries. Sodium is a promising candidate. However, sodium ions, being large and sluggish, hamper sodium-ion battery (SIB) anode performance. Researchers have recently developed pyrolyzed quinacridones, new carbonaceous SIB anode materials, that are efficient, easily prepared, ...

Next-Generation Wireless Technology May Leverage the Human Body for Energy

Jan. 4, 2023 — While you may be just starting to reap the advantages of 5G wireless technology, researchers throughout the world are already working hard on the future: 6G. One of the most promising breakthroughs in 6G telecommunications is the possibility of Visible Light Communication (VLC), which is like a wireless version of fiberoptics, using flashes of light to transmit information. Now, a team has ...

Researchers Detect Fluoride in Water With New Simple Color Change Test

Jan. 4, 2023 — Environmental contaminants like fluoride, lead and pesticides exist all around and even within us. While researchers have simple ways to measure concentrations of such contaminants inside lab environments, levels are much more difficult to test in the field. That's because they require costly specialized ...

Space Solar Power Technology Demo Launched Into Orbit

Jan. 4, 2023 — The launch represents the first in-situ test of the technology to harvest solar energy in space and transmit it to ...

The World's Largest Turbulence Simulation Unmasks the Flow of Energy in Astrophysical Plasmas

Dec. 26, 2022 — Researchers uncover the long-hidden process that helps explain why the Sun's corona can be vastly hotter than the solar surface that emits ...

Experimentalists: Sorry, No Oxygen Required to Make These Minerals on Mars

Dec. 22, 2022 — When NASA's Mars rovers found manganese oxides in rocks in the Gale and Endeavor craters on Mars in 2014, the discovery sparked some scientists to suggest that the red planet might have once had more oxygen in its atmosphere billions of years ago. But a new experimental study upends this view. Scientists discovered that under Mars-like conditions, manganese oxides can be readily formed without ...

Loon Stratospheric Balloons Confirm Wind Data from Aeolus

Dec. 20, 2022 — ESA's novel Aeolus satellite reliably measures wind speed also in higher air layers and thus in a region of the atmosphere where other direct global wind measurements are relatively sparse. This is the result of a study for which data from the satellite were compared with wind observations from stratospheric balloons. Stratospheric balloons would provide highly accurate data on the horizontal ...

The Interior Design of Our Cells: Database of 200,000 Cell Images Yields New Mathematical Framework to Understand Our Cellular Building Blocks

Jan. 4, 2023 — This milestone in cell biology -- akin to discovering 'design principles' of the cell -- unlocks the potential to find new treatments for diseases where cells ...

Strengthening Electron-Triggered Light Emission

Jan. 4, 2023 — Researchers have found a way to create much stronger interactions between photons and electrons, in the process producing a hundredfold increase in the emission of light from a phenomenon called Smith-Purcell radiation. The finding has potential implications for both commercial applications and fundamental scientific ...

Researchers Demonstrate New Sensors by Creating Novel Health Monitoring, Machine Interface Devices

Jan. 3, 2023 — Researchers have developed a stretchable strain sensor that has an unprecedented combination of sensitivity and range, allowing it to detect even minor changes in strain with greater range of motion than previous technologies. The researchers demonstrated the sensor's utility by creating new health monitoring and human-machine interface ...

Self-Powered, Printable Smart Sensors Created from Emerging Semiconductors Could Mean Cheaper, Greener Internet of Things

Jan. 3, 2023 — Creating smart sensors to embed in our everyday objects and environments for the Internet of Things (IoT) would vastly improve daily life -- but requires trillions of such small devices. A professor believes that emerging alternative semiconductors that are printable, low-cost and eco-friendly could lead the way to a cheaper and more sustainable ...

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Environment News

January 6, 2023

Eating Viruses Can Power Growth in Microbe

Slime for the Climate, Delivered by Brown Algae

Bering Land Bridge Formed Surprisingly Late

How Glassfrogs Become Transparent

Dec. 27, 2022 — Researchers have found that microscopic ciliates can eat huge numbers of infectious chloroviruses that share their aquatic habitat. The team's lab experiments have also shown that a virus-only diet, ...

Dec. 26, 2022 — Brown algae take up large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and release parts of the carbon contained therein back into the environment in mucous form. This mucus is hard to break down for other ...

Dec. 26, 2022 — A new study that reconstructs the history of sea level at the Bering Strait shows that the Bering Land Bridge connecting Asia to North America did not emerge until around 35,700 years ago, less than ...

Dec. 22, 2022 — New research shows that glassfrogs -- known for their highly transparent undersides and muscles -- perform their 'disappearing acts' by stowing away ...

Latest Environment Headlines

updated 12:01pm EST

Caribbean Breadfruit Traced Back to Capt. Bligh's 1791-93 Journey

Jan. 5, 2023 — Exactly 230 years after Capt. William Bligh's voyage on the HMS Providence, a plant biology team has traced five major lineages of Caribbean breadfruit back to that single introduction from Bligh's voyage. Three generation of women solved the centuries-old ...

Effects of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza on Canids Investigated

Jan. 4, 2023 — Researchers have revealed the effects of high pathogenicity avian influenza virus infection on an Ezo red fox and a Japanese raccoon dog, linking their infection to a recorded die-off of ...

Antibiotic Residues in Water a Threat to Human Health

Jan. 4, 2023 — Antibiotic residues in wastewater and wastewater treatment plants in the regions around China and India risk contributing to antibiotic resistance, and the drinking water may pose a threat to human health, according to a comprehensive analysis. The researchers also determined the relative contribution of various sources of antibiotic contamination in waterways, such as hospitals, municipals, ...

A Three-Dose Malaria Vaccine Shows Safety, Efficacy in West African Adults

Jan. 4, 2023 — A three-dose regimen of a whole-parasite vaccine against malaria -- called Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite (PfSPZ) vaccine -- demonstrated safety and efficacy when tested in adults living in Burkina Faso, West Africa, which has endemic ...

How Climate Change Impacts the Indian Ocean Dipole, Leading to Severe Droughts and Floods

Jan. 4, 2023 — Researchers now have a much better understanding of how climate change can impact and cause sea water temperatures on one side of the Indian Ocean to be so much warmer or cooler than the temperatures on the other -- a phenomenon that can lead to sometimes deadly weather-related events like megadroughts in East Africa and severe flooding in ...

Specific Outdoor Air Pollutants Linked to Asthma Attacks in Urban Children

Jan. 4, 2023 — Moderate levels of two outdoor air pollutants, ozone and fine particulate matter, are associated with non-viral asthma attacks in children and adolescents who live in low-income urban areas. The study also identifies associations between exposure to the two pollutants and molecular changes in the children's airways during non-viral asthma attacks, suggesting potential mechanisms for those ...

Climate Change Could Cause 'Disaster' in the World's Oceans

Jan. 4, 2023 — Climate change will slow down deep overturning ocean circulation in the coming centuries. Using three dozen Earth system models, researchers have concluded that the Southern Meridional Overturning Circulation could completely shut down by 2300, causing disaster to the marine ecosystem on a large portion of the ...

Climate Risk Insurance Can Effectively Mitigate Economic Losses

Jan. 4, 2023 — Global warming is expected to lead to an accumulation of particularly intense hurricanes in the United States. This may substantially increase the economic losses caused by these storms. Better insurance could effectively mitigate the climate change-induced increase in economic losses. This is shown in a new study examining the effectiveness of climate risk insurance in the ...

Mayas Utilized Market-Based Economics

Jan. 5, 2023 — More than 500 years ago in the midwestern Guatemalan highlands, Maya people bought and sold goods with far less oversight from their rulers than many archeologists previously thought. Overtime, the availability of obsidian resources and the prevalence of craftsmen to shape it resulted in a system that is in many ways suggestive of contemporary market-based ...

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: How Humans Lost Their Body Hair

Jan. 4, 2023 — Orangutans, mice, and horses are covered with it, but humans aren't. Why we have significantly less body hair than most other mammals has long remained a mystery. But a first-of-its-kind comparison of genetic codes from 62 animals is beginning to tell the story of how people -- and other mammals -- lost their ...

Map of Ancient Ocean 'Dead Zones' Could Predict Future Locations, Impacts

Jan. 4, 2023 — Researchers have created a map of oceanic 'dead zones' that existed during the Pliocene epoch, when the Earth's climate was two to three degrees warmer than it is now. The work could provide a glimpse into the locations and potential impacts of future low oxygen zones in a warmer Earth's ...

Drying Process Could Be Key Step in the Development of Life

Dec. 21, 2022 — New research could help explain crucial early steps on the path of life that led from a pool filled with simple amino acids to bacteria, redwood trees and ...

Americans Flocking to Fire

Traditional 'Good Fire' May Cut Megafires

Genetic Links Between Traits Often Overstated

No Sign of Decrease in Global CO2 Emissions

Dec. 8, 2022 — Americans are leaving many of the U.S. counties hit hardest by hurricanes and heatwaves -- and moving towards dangerous wildfires and warmer temperatures, says one of the largest studies of U.S. ...

Dec. 7, 2022 — Devastating megafires are becoming more common, in part, because the planet is warming. But a new study suggests bringing 'good fire' back to the ...

Nov. 17, 2022 — Genetic correlation estimates typically assume that mating is random. But in the real world, partners tend to pair up because of many shared interests and social ...

Nov. 10, 2022 — Global carbon emissions in 2022 remain at record levels -- with no sign of the decrease that is urgently needed to limit warming to 1.5°C, according to the Global Carbon Project science ...

Latest Society/Education Headlines

updated 12:01pm EST

COVID-19 Vaccines, Prior Infection Reduce Transmission of Omicron

Jan. 2, 2023 — Vaccination and boosting, especially when recent, helped to limit the spread of COVID-19 in California prisons during the first Omicron wave, according to an analysis that examined transmission between people living in the same ...

What Does a Region Need to Lead a Discipline? Pioneers

Dec. 29, 2022 — To find out how many scientists a region needs to become a leader in a discipline, researchers tracked millions of scientists moving across the globe. Their result: there is no critical mass, but you have to be a pioneer. Regions can catch up later, but this costs a ...

Skiing Over Christmas Holidays No Longer Guaranteed -- Even With Snow Guns

Dec. 28, 2022 — For many people, holidays in the snow are as much a part of the end of the year as Christmas trees and fireworks. As global warming progresses, however, white slopes are becoming increasingly rare. Researchers have calculated how well one of Switzerland's largest ski resorts will remain snow reliable with technical snow-making by the year 2100, and how much water this snow will ...

Microplastics Deposited on the Seafloor Triple in 20 Years

Dec. 22, 2022 — The total amount of microplastics deposited on the bottom of oceans has tripled in the past two decades with a progression that corresponds to the type and volume of consumption of plastic products by ...

Holding Information in Mind May Mean Storing It Among Synapses

Dec. 29, 2022 — Comparing models of working memory with real-world data, researchers found that information resides not in persistent neural activity, but in the pattern of their ...

Virtual Reality Game to Objectively Detect ADHD

Dec. 20, 2022 — A virtual reality game offers an objective assessment of attention deficit disorders and may lead to an improved therapeutic ...

Male Gender Bias Deters Men from Some Career Paths

Dec. 22, 2022 — Men are less likely to seek careers in early education and some other fields traditionally associated with women because of male gender bias in those ...

Network Neuroscience Theory Best Predictor of Intelligence

Dec. 20, 2022 — Scientists have labored for decades to understand how brain structure and functional connectivity drive intelligence. A new analysis offers the clearest picture yet of how various brain regions and neural networks contribute to a person's problem-solving ability in a variety of contexts, a trait known as general intelligence, researchers ...

Cheerful Chatbots Don't Necessarily Improve Customer Service

Dec. 21, 2022 — Humans displaying positive emotions in customer service interactions have long been known to improve customer experience, but researchers wanted to see if this also applied to AI. They conducted experimental studies to determine if positive emotional displays improved customer service and found that emotive AI is only appreciated if the customer expects it, and it may not be the best avenue for ...

Volatile Pay for Gig Workers Linked to Health Problems

Dec. 8, 2022 — Gig workers, waiters, salespeople and others who rely on fluctuating income may be paying for wage volatility with their health, according to new ...

How Voice Technology Influences What We Reveal About Ourselves

Nov. 30, 2022 — The shift from manual to oral communication in our interactions with technology can affect what consumers disclose about ...

'Turning a Blind Eye' a Typical Response to Threatening Managerial Controls

Nov. 16, 2022 — Employees who perceive managerial controls to be restrictive and punitive will develop dysfunctional and negative responses to the organization where they work, according to a new study. These responses might be observed through what the researchers call 'workplace deviance' -- for example absenteeism, reducing effort, daydreaming, taking longer breaks -- and turning a blind eye, also referred to ...

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