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Top Science News

October 14, 2018

Did Mosasaurs Hunt Like Killer Whales?

'Vampire Burial' at Ancient Roman Site

Mouse Pups With Same-Sex Parents

Dying Star Emits a Whisper

Oct. 12, 2018 — Researchers have examined the youngest-ever specimen of tylosaur ever found. Like orcas, mosasaurs might have used their bony noses to strike ... read more

Oct. 12, 2018 — Archaeologists found the remains of a 10-year-old child with a stone inserted into his or her mouth at a fifth-century Italian cemetery. They think the stone was meant to keep the child from rising ... read more

Oct. 11, 2018 — Researchers were able to produce healthy mice with two mothers that went on to have normal offspring of their own. Mice from two dads were also born ... read more

Oct. 11, 2018 — The unexpectedly gentle death of a massive star suggests that it was being robbed by a dense companion lurking out of ... read more

Latest Top Headlines

updated 5:40pm EDT

Human Retinas Grown in a Dish Explain How Color Vision Develops

Oct. 11, 2018 — Biologists grew human retina tissue from scratch to determine how cells that allow people to see in color ... read more

Computational Model Links Family Members Using Genealogical and Law-Enforcement Databases

Oct. 11, 2018 — Researchers are reporting ways in which using genetic ancestry databases to solve crimes could potentially ... read more

Human Brain Cell Transplant Offers Insights Into Neurological Conditions

Oct. 11, 2018 — Scientists have created a 'window' into the brain, which enables researchers to watch in incredible detail how human brain cells develop and connect to each other in ... read more

Engineers Develop Process to 3-D Print Cells to Produce Human Tissue Such as Ligaments and Tendons

Oct. 10, 2018 — Scientists have developed a method to 3-D print cells to produce human tissue such as ligaments and tendons to greatly improve a patient's recovery. A person with a badly damaged ligament, tendon, or ruptured disc could simply have new replacement ... read more

Researchers Quickly Harvest 2-D Materials, Bringing Them Closer to Commercialization

Oct. 12, 2018 — Researchers have developed a technique to harvest 2-inch diameter wafers of 2-D material within just a few minutes. They can then be stacked together to form an electronic device within ... read more

World's Fastest Camera Freezes Time at 10 Trillion Frames Per Second

Oct. 12, 2018 — Researchers have developed what they call T-CUP: the world's fastest camera, capable of capturing ten trillion frames per second. This new camera literally makes it possible to freeze time to see phenomena -- and even light! -- in extremely ... read more

Icy Moon of Jupiter, Ganymede, Shows Evidence of Past Strike-Slip Faulting

Oct. 10, 2018 — A recently published study reveals Ganymede, an icy moon of Jupiter, appears to have undergone complex periods of geologic activity, specifically strike-slip tectonism, as is seen in Earth's San ... read more

Researchers Develop 3D Printed Objects That Can Track and Store How They Are Used

Oct. 10, 2018 — Engineers have developed 3D printed devices that can track and store their own use -- without using batteries or electronics. Instead, this system uses a method called backscatter, through which a device can share information by reflecting signals ... read more

Newly Described Fossils Could Help Reveal Why Some Dinos Got So Big

Oct. 10, 2018 — A new, in-depth anatomical description of the best preserved specimens of a car-sized sauropod relative from North America could help paleontologists with unraveling the mystery of why some dinosaurs got ... read more

Do Lizards Dream Like Us?

Oct. 11, 2018 — Researchers have confirmed that lizards exhibit two sleep states, just like humans, other mammals, and birds. They corroborated the conclusions of a 2016 study on the bearded dragon and conducted the same sleep investigation on another lizard, the Argentine tegu. Their findings nevertheless point ... read more

Role of 'Natural Factors' on Recent Climate Change Underestimated, Research Shows

Oct. 10, 2018 — Pioneering new research has given a new perspective on the crucial role that 'natural factors' play in global ... read more

A Break from the Buzz: Bees Go Silent During Total Solar Eclipse

Oct. 10, 2018 — In an unprecedented study of a solar eclipse's influence on bee behavior, researchers organized citizen scientists and elementary school classrooms to set up acoustic monitoring stations to listen in on bees' buzzing -- or lack thereof -- as the August 2017 total solar eclipse passed over North ... read more

People Know an Average of 5,000 Faces

Devices Speed Nerve Regeneration in Rats

Intermittent Fasting to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

Time-Traveling Illusion Tricks the Brain

Oct. 9, 2018 — A research team tested study participants on how many faces they could recall from their personal lives and the media, as well as the number of ... read more

Oct. 8, 2018 — Peripheral nerve injuries leave people with tingling, numbness and weakness in their arms, hands and legs. Researchers have developed an implantable, bioabsorbable device that speeds recovery in rats ... read more

Oct. 9, 2018 — Planned intermittent fasting may help to reverse type 2 diabetes, suggest doctors after three patients in their care, who did this, were able to cut ... read more

Oct. 9, 2018 — Researchers have developed two new illusions that reveal how the senses can influence each other -- in particular, how sound can give rise to visual illusions. These illusions occur so quickly that ... read more

Latest Health Headlines

updated 5:40pm EDT

A New Cancer Weapon: Antibodies

Oct. 11, 2018 — Engineers haVE proposed a novel approach to antibody-based imaging of cancer, using ultrasmall silica nanoparticles -- better known as 'Cornell dots' (or C ... read more

Link Between Gut Flora and Multiple Sclerosis Discovered

Oct. 11, 2018 — In multiple sclerosis, a defective response of the body's own immune system leads to brain tissue damage. Gastrointestinal microbiota could play a far greater role in the pathogenesis of the disease than previously ... read more

He's in a Rush, She Isn't: Reproductive Strategy Drives Slower Female Aging

Oct. 11, 2018 — The aging of males and females is influenced by how they choose to invest their available energy, according to a study of fruit flies. The results support the idea that differences in strategy between the sexes to maximize the number of offspring contribute to differences in aging between males ... read more

Long-Term Exposure to Ozone Has Significant Impacts on Human Health

Oct. 11, 2018 — A new study has utilized a novel method to estimate long-term ozone exposure and previously reported epidemiological results to quantify the health burden from long-term ozone exposure in three major regions of the world. The research estimates that 266,000 premature mortalities across Europe, the USA and China in 2015 were attributable to long-term exposure to ozone ... read more

THC Amounts Identical in Most Cannabis Strains

Oct. 10, 2018 — Newly published research has determined that many strains of cannabis have virtually identical levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), despite their unique street ... read more

Higher Levels of Urinary Fluoride Associated With ADHD in Children

Oct. 10, 2018 — Higher levels of urinary fluoride during pregnancy are associated with more ADHD-like symptoms in school-age ... read more

Oscillations Provide Insights Into the Brain's Navigation System

Oct. 12, 2018 — The brain creates a map of our environment, which enables reliable spatial navigation. The Nobel Prize was awarded in 2014 for research into how this navigation system works at the cellular level. Researchers have now shown that the characteristics of this navigation system are also present in brain oscillations that can be measured using depth electrodes in the human brain. The possibility of ... read more

Sidestepping the Pitfalls of Overconfidence With Plausible Deniability

Oct. 12, 2018 — Although confidence can serve as both a blessing and a curse, new research shows how people can reap the rewards without risking the social penalties for ... read more

Altruism Can Be Trained

Oct. 10, 2018 — Mental training can effectively cultivate care, compassion and even altruistically motivated behavior psychologists have shown in a recent ... read more

Babies of Overweight Mothers May Risk Developing Self-Regulation Problems

Oct. 10, 2018 — A mother's weight during early pregnancy may affect how well her baby is able to self-regulate during its first months and years of life. This is according to a study of more than 3100 Finnish ... read more

Why Don't We Understand Statistics? Fixed Mindsets May Be to Blame

Oct. 12, 2018 — The first study of why people struggle to solve statistical problems reveals a preference for complicated rather than simpler, more intuitive solutions -- which often leads to failure in solving the problem altogether. The researchers suggest this is due to unfavorable methods of teaching statistics in schools and universities, and highlight the serious consequences when applied to professional ... read more

How Parenting Affects Antisocial Behaviors in Children

Oct. 11, 2018 — In a recent study of the parental caregiving environment, researchers found that within identical twin pairs, the child who experienced harsher behavior and less parental warmth was at a greater risk for developing antisocial ... read more

Mystery at the Center of the Milky Way

Icy Warning for Space Missions to Jupiter's Moon

The Stuff That Planets Are Made of

String Theory: Is Dark Energy Even Allowed?

Oct. 10, 2018 — Astronomers have now found the explanation to a recent mystery at the center of the Milky Way galaxy: the high levels of scandium discovered last spring near the galaxy's giant black hole were in ... read more

Oct. 9, 2018 — A location often earmarked as a potential habitat for extra-terrestrial life could prove to be a tricky place for spacecraft to land, new research has ... read more

Oct. 9, 2018 — Researchers have analyzed the composition and structure of faraway exoplanets using statistical tools. Their analysis indicates whether a planet is earth-like, made up of pure rock or a water-world. ... read more

Oct. 9, 2018 — In string theory, a paradigm shift could be imminent. In June, a team of string theorists published a conjecture which sounded revolutionary: String theory is said to be fundamentally incompatible ... read more

Latest Physical/Tech Headlines

updated 5:40pm EDT

'Fudge Factors' in Physics?

Oct. 11, 2018 — What if your theory to model and predict the electronic structure of atoms isn't accounting for dispersion energy? You come up with some 'fudge factors' to make it all work. But getting the right results for the wrong reasons can only take you ... read more

New Catalyst Opens Door to CO2 Capture in Conversion of Coal to Liquid Fuels

Oct. 12, 2018 — World energy consumption projections expect coal to stay one of the world's main energy sources in the coming decades, and a growing share of it will be used in CTL, the conversion of coal to liquid fuels. Researchers have developed iron-based catalysts that substantially reduce operating costs and open the door to capturing the large amounts of ... read more

Bioinspired Camera Could Help Self-Driving Cars See Better

Oct. 11, 2018 — Inspired by the visual system of the mantis shrimp-researchers have created a new type of camera that could greatly improve the ability of cars to spot hazards in challenging imaging ... read more

Simple Fabrication of Full-Color Perovskite LEDs

Oct. 10, 2018 — An international team of researchers has introduced a simple technique to fabricate full-color ... read more

New Telescope Almost Doubles Known Number of Mysterious 'Fast Radio Bursts'

Oct. 10, 2018 — Astronomers have nearly doubled the known number of 'fast radio bursts'-- powerful flashes of radio waves from deep space. The team's discoveries include the closest and brightest fast radio bursts ever detected and they have proved that fast radio bursts are coming from the other side of the ... read more

The Cosmological Lithium Problem

Oct. 9, 2018 — An international research group has tried to find a solution to one of the unknowns in the current description of the Big Bang. Different nuclear reactions responsible for the creation and destruction of atomic nuclei in nucleosynthesis during the Big Bang are crucial in determining the primordial abundance of lithium, the third (and last) chemical element formed during the very early phase of ... read more

The Threat of Centaurs for the Earth

Oct. 9, 2018 — Astrophysicists have investigated the long-term path development of Centaurs -- small icy bodies that orbit the Sun between Jupiter and ... read more

This Bacterium Gets Paid in Gold

Oct. 9, 2018 — Scientists have placed light-absorbing gold nanoclusters inside a bacterium, creating a biohybrid system that produces a higher yield of chemical products, such as biofuels, than previously demonstrated. The biohybrid captures sunlight and carbon dioxide to make chemicals useful not only on Earth ... read more

New Microscope Offers 4-D Look at Embryonic Development in Living Mice

Oct. 11, 2018 — With the development of an adaptive, multi-view light sheet microscope and a suite of computational tools, researchers have captured the first view of early organ development inside the ... read more

Fake or Real? New Study Finds Consumers Wary of Manipulated Photos

Oct. 11, 2018 — In the age of fake news and doctored photos, wary consumers are not nearly as gullible as one might presume. But the source of the images does not matter much as people evaluate what is fake and what is real, a study ... read more

The Culprit of Superconductivity in Cuprates

Oct. 11, 2018 — Researchers have uncovered an underlying mechanism related to the materials dependence in copper-based high-temperature superconductors. The research may open a new avenue for designing materials with high-temperature ... read more

New Technique Locates Robots, Soldiers in GPS-Challenged Areas

Oct. 9, 2018 — Scientists have developed a novel algorithm that enables localization of humans and robots in areas where GPS ... read more

more top physical/tech stories

Environment News

October 14, 2018

Clues About Modern Mammals' Dark Past

Feeding 10 Billion People by 2050

Wild Chimps Share Food With Their Friends

Towards Biological Warfare With Insects?

Oct. 11, 2018 — After millions of years living in darkness, a species of blind cavefish has lost an ancient system of DNA repair. That DNA repair system, found in organisms including bacteria, fungi, plants, and ... read more

Oct. 10, 2018 — A new study quantifies how food production and consumption affects the planetary boundaries that describe a safe operating space for humanity beyond which Earth's vital systems could become ... read more

Oct. 10, 2018 — Why share food with non-family members when there is no immediate gain? An international team of researchers conducted observations of natural food sharing behavior of the chimpanzees of the Tai ... read more

Oct. 9, 2018 — A project by a research agency of the US Department of Defense could easily be misused for developing biological weapons, according to ... read more

Latest Environment Headlines

updated 5:40pm EDT

New Study Helps Explain Recent Scarcity of Bay Nettles

Oct. 10, 2018 — A new, long-term study of how environmental conditions affect the abundance and distribution of jellyfish in the nation's largest estuary helps explain the widely reported scarcity of sea nettles within Chesapeake Bay during the past few months and raises concerns about how a long-term continuation ... read more

Irrigating Vegetables With Wastewater in African Cities May Spread Disease

Oct. 12, 2018 — Urban farmers growing vegetables to feed millions of people in Africa's ever-growing cities could unwittingly be helping to spread disease by irrigating crops with wastewater, a new study ... read more

Shrimp Talent Quest Finds a Winner

Oct. 11, 2018 — Shrimp help keep fish clean -- and scientists have identified the 'cleaner shrimp' with the most talent for reducing parasites and chemical use in farmed ... read more

Smallest Ever Tylosaurus Fossil Sheds Light on Species

Oct. 12, 2018 — The smallest Tylosaurus mosasaur fossil ever found has been revealed in a new study, and surprisingly it lacks a trademark feature of ... read more

Tropical Moths in the Mountains Are Larger

Oct. 12, 2018 — Researchers have measured more than 19,000 tropical moths from 1,100 species to find out whether their size varies with elevation. The researchers found clear patterns: moths increase in size significantly at ... read more

Quantifying Evolutionary Impacts of Humans on the Biosphere Is Harder Than It Seems

Oct. 12, 2018 — Are human disturbances to the environment driving evolutionary changes in animals and plants? A new study finds that, on average, human disturbances don't appear to accelerate the process of natural selection. While the finding may seem reassuring, ... read more

Puppy-Killing Disease Rampant in Australia

Oct. 10, 2018 — A study has found that canine parvovirus (CPV), a highly contagious and deadly disease that tragically kills puppies, is more prevalent than previously thought with 20,000 cases found in Australia each year, and nearly half of these cases result in ... read more

Why Shoals of Fish Flash Silver

Oct. 10, 2018 — Scientists have helped to figure out why shoals of fish flash silver as they twist through the water by studying how the shiny silver cells are created in ... read more

Classifying Microbes Differently Leads to Discovery

Oct. 12, 2018 — Changing the way microbes are classified can reveal similarities among mammals' gut microbiomes, according to a new study that proposes an alternative method for classifying microbes to provide insight into human and environmental ... read more

Does Climate Vary More from Century to Century When It Is Warmer?

Oct. 12, 2018 — Century-scale climate variability was enhanced when the Earth was warmer during the Last Interglacial period (129,000-116,000 years ago) compared to the current interglacial (the last 11,700 years), according to a new ... read more

Reconstructing Human History With the Help of Fecal Sterols

Oct. 10, 2018 — The story of human presence on Earth can be told by studying the sediment and soil accumulation of these chemical compounds in human ... read more

City of Koh Ker Was Occupied for Centuries Longer Than Previously Thought

Oct. 10, 2018 — The classic account of the ancient city of Koh Ker is one of a briefly-occupied and abruptly-abandoned region, but in reality, the area may have been occupied for several centuries beyond what is traditionally acknowledged, according to a ... read more

Nobel Economics Prize: Innovation, Climate

When Neglected Children Become Teenagers

N. Korea's 2017 Bomb Test Set Off Later Quakes

The Dark Core of Personality

Oct. 8, 2018 — The 2018 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is being awarded to William D. Nordhaus "for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis" and Paul ... read more

Sep. 27, 2018 — Many migrant children separated from their parents at the U.S. border, some of them very young, have landed in shelters where they often experience stress, neglect and minimal social and cognitive ... read more

Sep. 24, 2018 — Using newly refined analysis methods, scientists have discovered that a North Korean nuclear bomb test last fall set off aftershocks over a period of eight months. The shocks, which occurred on a ... read more

Sep. 26, 2018 — Egoism, Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, sadism, spitefulness are all traits that stand for the malevolent dark sides of human personality. Results from a recent project show, these traits ... read more

Latest Society/Education Headlines

updated 5:40pm EDT

Muscular Men Prefer an Unequal Society

Oct. 10, 2018 — For men, physical strength and political attitudes are linked. This is not the case for women. New research shows that ancestral human instincts affect men's political ... read more

A Genome Under Influence

Oct. 10, 2018 — Researchers recently discovered that 95 percent of our genome seems to be affected by selection and other genetic biases and that markers previously thought to be neutral appear to provide skewed estimates. Their study calls for the re-examination of a plethora of results and provides the tools and recommendations to correct such issues in the ... read more

To Crash or Swerve? Study Reveals Which Actions Taken by Self-Driving Cars Are Morally Defensible

Oct. 9, 2018 — Researchers asked the public what they believed would be the most morally and ethically sound behavior for an autonomous vehicle (AV) faced with an oncoming collision. Even a perfectly functioning AV will not be able to avoid every collision and in some situations, every option will result in some type of ... read more

Code of Ethics Doesn't Influence Decisions of Software Developers

Oct. 9, 2018 — The world's largest computing society, ACM, updated its code of ethics in July 2018 -- but new research shows that the code of ethics does not appear to affect the decisions made by software ... read more

Infants Capable of Complex Babble May Grow Into Stronger Readers

Oct. 10, 2018 — Infants' early speech production may predict their later literacy, according to a new ... read more

Brain Circuits for Successful Emotional Development Established During Infancy

Oct. 10, 2018 — Researchers tracking the development of the brain's emotion circuitry in infancy found that adult-like functional brain connections for emotional regulation emerge during the first year of life. And the growth of these brain circuits during the second year of life predicted the IQ and emotional control of the children at 4 years old, suggesting ... read more

You Can Improve Your Spatial Skills With Training

Oct. 9, 2018 — Do you marvel at your friend's ability to assemble complex furniture and navigate a new city, or do you all-around groan at your own lack of spatial skills? Don't fret! A new study found that you, too, can improve your spatial reasoning with ... read more

For Better Multiple-Choice Tests, Avoid Tricky Questions, Study Finds

Oct. 3, 2018 — Although people often think about multiple-choice tests as tools for assessment, they can also be used to facilitate learning. A new study offers straightforward tips for constructing multiple-choice questions that are effective at both assessing current knowledge and strengthening ongoing ... read more

Freeloaders Beware: Incentives to Foster Cooperation Are Just Around the Corner

Oct. 9, 2018 — In our society, there are always a certain percentage of people who adopt a freeloader attitude. They let other members of society do all the work and do not do their part. In a new study researchers show that it is possible to incentivize members of society to cooperate by providing them fixed bonuses and, thus, prevent freeloader behavior from ... read more

Thinking Outside the Box: Adults With ADHD Not Constrained in Creativity

Oct. 9, 2018 — People often believe those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder face challenges that could hinder future employment, but a new study found that adults with ADHD feel empowered doing creative tasks that could help them on the ... read more

Even Small Gifts Boost Business

Oct. 4, 2018 — If a sales agent brings their customer a small gift, the customer is much more likely to make a purchase, a study has shown. This works particularly well when the person receiving the gift is the boss. The fact that even small gifts can result in conflicts of interest has implications for the ... read more

It Pays to Be Pessimistic, Shows New Research Into Entrepreneurs

Oct. 3, 2018 — Optimistic thinking is leading people to set up businesses that have no realistic prospect of financial success, shows new research which may help explain why only fifty per cent of businesses in the UK survive their first five ... read more

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