Top Science News

July 20, 2023

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'Stunning' Discovery: Metals Can Heal Themselves

July 19, 2023 — Researchers announce the first observation of a self-healing metal. If harnessed, the newly discovered phenomenon could someday lead to engines, bridges and airplanes that reverse damage caused by wear and tear, making them safer and ...

'Mind Controlling' Parasitic Worms Are Missing Genes Found in Every Other Animal

July 18, 2023 — Parasitic hairworms manipulate the behavior of their hosts in what's sometimes called 'mind control.' A new study reveals another strange trait shared by different hairworm species: they're missing about 30% of the genes that researchers expected ...

Unusual Fossil Shows Rare Evidence of a Mammal Attacking a Dinosaur

July 18, 2023 — Scientists have described an unusual fossil from around 125 million years ago in China that shows a dramatic moment in time when a carnivorous mammal attacked a larger plant-eating dinosaur. The two animals are locked in mortal combat, and it's among the first evidence to show actual predatory ...

Surgical and Engineering Innovations Enable Unprecedented Control Over Every Finger of a Bionic Hand

July 12, 2023 — For the first time, a person with an arm amputation can manipulate each finger of a bionic hand as if it was his own. Thanks to revolutionary surgical and engineering advancements that seamlessly merge humans with machines, this breakthrough offers ...

Latest Top Headlines

updated 10:46pm EDT

Gene Mutation May Explain Why Some Don't Get Sick from COVID-19

July 19, 2023 — People who contract COVID-19 but never develop symptoms -- the so-called super dodgers -- may have a genetic ace up their sleeve. They're more than twice as likely as those who become symptomatic to carry a specific gene variation that helps them obliterate the virus, according to a new ...

Liquid Safety Cushioning Technology

July 14, 2023 — Mechanical engineering and materials science advancements could revolutionize safety equipment for athletes and ...

Genes for Learning and Memory Are 650 Million Years Old

July 14, 2023 — Scientists have discovered that the genes required for learning, memory, aggression and other complex behaviors originated around 650 million years ...

Key Improvements to Parkinson's Disease Cell Therapies

July 12, 2023 — Researchers have demonstrated that a transplant surgical procedure (called 'needle trauma') triggers a profound immune response and causes the death of most grafted dopamine neurons. They also found that co-transplantation of neuronal cell therapy with host regulatory T cells resulted in effective suppression of needle trauma and significant improvement in the survival and recovery of grafts. ...

Unlocking the Power of Molecular Crystals: A Possible Solution to Nuclear Waste

July 19, 2023 — A team researchers has discovered molecular crystals capable of capturing iodine -- one of the most common radioactive fission products -- and other pollutants. The versatile crystals could be used for nuclear waste management and other energy-related applications and move the world closer to a net-zero ...

The Puzzle of the Galaxy With No Dark Matter

July 19, 2023 — New research has found the first evidence of a massive galaxy with no dark matter. The result is a challenge to the current standard model of ...

Unusual White Dwarf Star Is Made of Hydrogen on One Side and Helium on the Other

July 19, 2023 — In a first for white dwarfs, the burnt-out cores of dead stars, astronomers have discovered that at least one member of this cosmic family is two faced. One side of the white dwarf is composed of hydrogen, while the other is made up of ...

Does This Exoplanet Have a Sibling Sharing the Same Orbit?

July 19, 2023 — Astronomers have found the possible 'sibling' of a planet orbiting a distant star. The team has detected a cloud of debris that might be sharing this planet's orbit and which, they believe, could be the building blocks of a new planet or the remnants of one already formed. If confirmed, this discovery would be the strongest evidence yet that two exoplanets can share one ...

Early Humans Were Weapon Woodwork Experts, Study Finds

July 19, 2023 — State-of-the-art analysis of a 300,000 wooden throwing found in Germany three decades ago, shows early humans used advanced woodworking ...

Flying Reptiles Had Nurturing Parental Style

July 19, 2023 — Did the pterosaurs, flying reptiles from the days of the dinosaurs, practice parental care or not? New research shows that pterosaurs were indeed caring parents -- but only the larger ...

Life on Earth Didn't Arise as Described in Textbooks

July 18, 2023 — No, oxygen didn't catalyze the swift blossoming of Earth's first multicellular organisms. The result defies a 70-year-old assumption about what caused an explosion of oceanic fauna hundreds of millions of years ...

All About the Benjamins: Researchers Decipher the Secrets of Benjamin Franklin's Paper Money

July 17, 2023 — During his career, Benjamin Franklin printed nearly 2,500,000 money notes for the American Colonies using what the researchers have identified as highly original ...

The Sound of Silence? Researchers Demonstrate People Hear It

July 10, 2023 — Silence might not be deafening but it's something that literally can be heard, concludes a team of philosophers and psychologists who used auditory illusions to reveal how moments of silence distort people's perception of ...

Medical 'Microrobots' Could One Day Treat Bladder Disease, Other Human Illnesses

May 24, 2023 — Engineers have designed a new class of 'microrobots' several times smaller than the width of a human hair that may be able to treat human illnesses like interstitial cystitis -- a painful bladder disease that affects millions of ...

Skin Patch Shows Promise for Toddlers With Peanut Allergy

May 23, 2023 — A global phase 3 clinical trial found that a year-long immunotherapy through a skin patch safely desensitized toddlers with peanut allergy, lowering the risk of a severe allergic reaction from accidental ...

Homo Sapiens Likely Arose from Multiple Closely Related Populations

May 17, 2023 — In testing the genetic material of current populations in Africa and comparing against existing fossil evidence of early Homo sapiens populations there, researchers have uncovered a new model of human evolution -- overturning previous beliefs that a single African population gave rise to all ...

Latest Health Headlines

updated 10:46pm EDT

Single-Cell Atlas of the Human Kidney Provides New Resources to Study Kidney Disease

July 19, 2023 — What causes certain individuals who experience a sudden decline in kidney function to develop kidney disease while others recover? A new study co-led by bioengineers could provide detailed insight -- at the level of individual cells -- into the underlying factors contributing to these divergent ...

Researchers Map Morphing Placenta

July 19, 2023 — Researchers lead a study showing the cellular detail of how the placenta changes during ...

New Prostate Cancer Biomarkers Provide Hope to Millions of Men

July 19, 2023 — Three new biomarkers for prostate cancer have been identified to help pinpoint potentially aggressive cases of the disease, which kills 300,000 men each ...

New Treatment to Tackle Infections Resistant to Antibiotics

July 19, 2023 — Innovative treatment paves the way for reducing antimicrobial resistance in the treatment of a deadly infection in chickens, according to an international team of ...

Espresso Can Prevent Alzheimer's Protein Clumping in Lab Tests

July 19, 2023 — Whether enjoyed on its own or mixed into a latte, Americano or even a martini, espresso provides an ultra-concentrated jolt of caffeine to coffee lovers. But it might do more than just wake you up. Research now shows that, in preliminary in vitro laboratory tests, espresso compounds can inhibit tau protein aggregation -- a process that is believed to be involved in the onset of Alzheimer's ...

Learning from Superheroes and AI: Researchers Study How a Chatbot Can Teach Kids Supportive Self-Talk

July 18, 2023 — Researchers created a new audio chatbot, Self-Talk with Superhero Zip, aimed to help children speak positively to themselves. This chatbot is 'a 'Sesame Street' experience for a smart ...

AI-Guided Brain Stimulation Aids Memory in Traumatic Brain Injury

July 18, 2023 — AI-guided electrical stimulation in the brains of patients with traumatic brain injury improved memory, a collaborative new study shows. This builds on previous research involving epilepsy patients without traumatic brain injury. Brain injuries can result in profound memory loss, and the current study provides a proof-of-concept for future AI-guided brain stimulation ...

Lewy Body Disease Can Be Detected Before Symptoms

July 18, 2023 — Lewy body disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease. A research group has now shown that the disease can be detected before symptoms appear, using a spinal fluid test. Researchers also demonstrate that reduced sense of smell is strongly linked to Lewy body disease even before other clear symptoms have ...

Study Reveals Goal-Oriented Rewards as Key Factors in Decision-Making

July 18, 2023 — Groundbreaking research is shifting the understanding of human decision-making processes by highlighting the importance of goal-oriented ...

An Early Breakfast May Reduce the Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes

July 18, 2023 — Eating breakfast after 9 a.m. increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 59% compared to people who eat breakfast before 8 a.m. This is the main conclusion of a study which followed more than 100,000 participants in a French cohort. The results show that we can reduce the risk of diabetes not only by changing what we eat, but also when we eat ...

Each Mom Passes Unique Set of Breast Milk Antibodies to Baby

July 18, 2023 — Breast milk from each individual contains a unique assemblage of antibodies that are surprisingly stable throughout lactation and across pregnancies, according to a new ...

Children's IQs Not Diminished by Concussion, Study Suggests

July 17, 2023 — A new study finds concussions don't reduce the IQ of children. Findings may help to reduce parental fears regarding these common and concerning head injuries. Researchers looked at socioeconomic status, patient sex, severity of injuries, concussion history, and whether there was a loss of consciousness at the time of injury. None of these factors made a difference. Across the board, concussion ...

New Study Reveals Evidence of Diverse Organic Material on Mars

July 12, 2023 — Scientists gain vital insights into Mars' history and potential for supporting ...

First 'Ghost Particle' Image of Milky Way

June 29, 2023 — Scientists have revealed a uniquely different image of our galaxy by determining the galactic origin of thousands of neutrinos -- invisible 'ghost particles' which exist in great quantities but normally pass straight through Earth undetected. The neutrino-based image of the Milky Way is the first ...

Earliest Strands of the Cosmic Web

June 29, 2023 — Galaxies are not scattered randomly across the universe. They gather together not only into clusters, but into vast interconnected filamentary structures with gigantic barren voids in between. This 'cosmic web' started out tenuous and became more distinct over time as gravity drew matter ...

Gravitational Waves from Colossal Black Holes Found Using 'Cosmic Clocks'

June 29, 2023 — You can't see or feel it, but everything around you -- including your own body -- is slowly shrinking and expanding. It's the weird, spacetime-warping effect of gravitational waves passing through our galaxy. New results are the first evidence of the gravitational wave background -- a sort of soup ...

Latest Physical/Tech Headlines

updated 10:46pm EDT

Bioengineered Yeast Feed on Agricultural Waste

July 19, 2023 — Researchers have created a bioengineered yeast that can grow efficiently on a wide range of sugars from agricultural waste biomass, closing a carbon cycle for the biosynthesis of fuels, pharmaceuticals and ...

Researchers Put a New Twist on Graphite

July 19, 2023 — Researchers report that it is possible to imbue graphite -- the bulk, 3D material found in No. 2 pencils -- with physical properties similar to graphite's 2D counterpart, graphene. Not only was this breakthrough unexpected, the team also believes its approach could be used to test whether similar types of bulk materials can also take on 2D-like properties. If so, 2D sheets won't be the only ...

A Quick and Inexpensive Test for Osteoporosis Risk

July 19, 2023 — As life expectancy increases worldwide, age-associated diseases such as osteoporosis are having an increasing impact. Although early detection could help physicians intervene as soon as possible -- when treatment might offer the greatest benefit -- this type of detection is not yet possible with current osteoporosis diagnostic tests. Now, researchers have developed a biosensor that could someday ...

Dry Manufacturing Process Offers Path to Cleaner, More Affordable High-Energy EV Batteries

July 18, 2023 — Early experiments have revealed significant benefits to a dry battery manufacturing process. This eliminates the use of toxic solvents while showing promise for delivering a battery that is durable, less weighed down by inactive elements and able to maintain high energy storage capacity after use. Such improvements could boost wider EV adoption, ...

VERA Unveils Surroundings of Rapidly Growing Black Holes

July 18, 2023 — Astronomers used the state-of-the-art capability of VERA, a Japanese network of radio telescopes, to uncover valuable clues about how rapidly growing 'young' supermassive black holes form, grow, and possibly evolve into more powerful ...

Into the Unknown: NASA Space Laser Provides Answers to a Rainforest Canopy Mystery

July 17, 2023 — The space laser GEDI has allowed researchers to 3D map Earth's rainforests for the first time ever, helping us understand the forest canopy and providing vital information for understanding Earth's carbon cycle and how it is ...

Astronomers Discover Striking Evidence of 'Unusual' Stellar Evolution

July 17, 2023 — Astronomers have found evidence that some stars boast unexpectedly strong surface magnetic fields, a discovery that challenges current models of how they ...

Giant Swirling Waves at Edge of Jupiter's Magnetosphere

July 17, 2023 — A team has found that NASA's Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter frequently encounters giant swirling waves at the boundary between the solar wind and Jupiter's magnetosphere. The waves are an important process for transferring energy and mass from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun, to planetary space ...

A Faster Way to Teach a Robot

July 18, 2023 — A new technique enables a human to efficiently fine-tune a robot that failed to complete a desired task with very little effort on the part of the human. Their system uses algorithms, counterfactual explanations, and feedback from the user to generate synthetic data it uses to quickly fine-tune the ...

Efficient Discovery of Improved Energy Materials by a New AI-Guided Workflow

July 18, 2023 — Scientists have recently proposed a workflow that can dramatically accelerate the search for novel materials with improved properties. They demonstrated the power of the approach by identifying more than 50 strongly thermally insulating materials. These can help alleviate the ongoing energy crisis, by allowing for more efficient thermoelectric ...

Bot Inspired by Baby Turtles Can Swim Under the Sand

July 18, 2023 — This robot can swim under the sand and dig itself out too, thanks to two front limbs that mimic the oversized flippers of turtle hatchlings. It's the only robot that is able to travel in sand at a depth of 5 inches. It can also travel at a speed of 1.2 millimeters per second--roughly 4 meters, or 13 feet, per hour. This may seem slow but is comparable to other subterranean animals like worms and ...

ROSE: Revolutionary, Nature-Inspired Soft Embracing Robotic Gripper

July 14, 2023 — Soft robotic grippers could greatly increase productivity in many fields. However, currently existing designs are overly complex and expensive. A research team has developed ROSE, a novel embracing soft gripper inspired by the blooming and closing of rose flowers. Bearing a surprisingly simple, inexpensive, and scalable design, ROSE can pick up many kinds of objects without damaging them, even in ...

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Environment News

July 20, 2023

Air Pollution Particles May Be Cause of Dramatic Drop in Global Insect Numbers

July 12, 2023 — Researchers report that an insect's ability to find food and a mate is reduced when their antennae are contaminated by particulate matter from industry, transport, bushfires, and other sources of air ...

The Ocean's Color Is Changing as a Consequence of Climate Change

July 12, 2023 — The ocean's color has changed significantly in 20 years, and the trend is likely a consequence of human-induced climate change, report ...

Crawford Lake, Canada, Chosen as the Primary Marker to Identify the Start of the Anthropocene Epoch

July 11, 2023 — An international team of researchers has chosen the location which best represents the beginnings of what could be a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene Working Group have put forward Crawford Lake, in Canada, as a Global ...

The Ground Is Deforming, and Buildings Aren't Ready

July 11, 2023 — A new study has linked underground climate change to the shifting ground beneath urban areas. The phenomenon is affecting all major urban areas around the globe, causing civil structures and infrastructures to ...

Latest Environment Headlines

updated 10:46pm EDT

Picturing Where Wildlands and People Meet at a Global Scale

July 19, 2023 — Researchers have created the first tool to map and visualize the areas where human settlements and nature meet on a global scale. The tool could improve responses to environmental conflicts like wildfires, the spread of zoonotic diseases and loss of ecosystem ...

Why Does Skin Get 'Leathery' After Too Much Sun? Bioengineers Examine Cellular Breakdown

July 19, 2023 — A study explores how ultraviolet radiation can alter the microstructure of human skin. Particularly affected is collagen, the fibrous protein that binds together tissue, tendon, cartilage and bone throughout our ...

Some Corals May Survive Climate Change Without Paying a Metabolic Price

July 18, 2023 — If, as the saying goes, 'nothing in life is free,' then corals might pay a price for being resilient to climate change. Indeed, the prevailing belief among scientists has been that corals must suffer reduced growth or other tradeoffs when they partner with symbiotic algae that help them tolerate warmer water. Yet, new research demonstrates that certain corals can have their cake and eat it too, ...

Unraveling the Mystery of Semi-Extractable RNAs from Human Cell Lines

July 18, 2023 — Membraneless organelles in cells contain high concentrations of semi-extractable RNAs, which could serve as potential biomarkers and drug targets. However, the identification and characterization of these RNAs have been limited. Researchers have now developed a novel bioinformatic pipeline to define and analyze semi-extractable RNAs, which has led to the identification of over 1000 RNAs involved ...

Droplet Levitation Is a New Way to Explore Airborne Viruses and Microorganisms

July 18, 2023 — Researchers report achieving self-sustaining and long-term levitation of millimeter-sized droplets of several different liquids without any external forces. To get the droplets to levitate, they use solutocapillary convection, which occurs when a surface tension gradient is formed by nonuniform distribution of vapor molecules from the droplet at ...

Natural Hazard Vulnerability Shows Disproportionate Risk

July 18, 2023 — Researchers developed a detailed assessment and map of vulnerability to natural disaster of the continental United ...

Bifacial Perovskite Solar Cells Point to Higher Efficiency

July 18, 2023 — A bifacial perovskite solar cell, which allows sunlight to reach both sides of the device, holds the potential to produce higher energy yields at lower overall ...

The Legacy of Past Disturbance Shapes Coastal Forest Soil Stability

July 18, 2023 — Coastal forests are increasingly exposed to the effects of climate change and sea level rise. New experimental research examined how soils change when transplanted between parts of a tidal creek that differed in salinity. Scientists found that soils with a history of salinity and inundation by seawater were more resistant to changes in water conditions, suggesting that soils learn from their ...

Picky Green Sea Turtle Has Travelled to the Same Place to Eat for Generations

July 17, 2023 — For approximately 3,000 years, generations of green sea turtles have returned to the same seagrass meadows to eat. The fact that this stretches over many generations highlights the importance of protecting seagrass meadows along the coasts of North ...

Butterflies and Moths Share Ancient 'Blocks' of DNA

July 13, 2023 — Butterflies and moths share 'blocks' of DNA dating back more than 200 million years, new research ...

New Fossil Flying Reptile 'Elvis' Takes Flight

July 14, 2023 — In an exciting scientific development, an international team of researchers have officially named a newly discovered 145-million-year-old pterosaur. The animal had enormous 2-meter wingspan and was nicknamed 'Elvis' when the fossil was first unearthed in Bavaria, Germany because of the giant pompadour-like bony crest on its skull. Now the animal has been given a formal scientific name of ...

How Larger Body Sizes Helped the Colonizers of New Zealand

July 12, 2023 — Researchers have developed a model to estimate how much energy the original colonizers of New Zealand expended to maintain their body temperatures on the cold, harrowing ocean journey from Southeast ...

Human Pangenome Reference Will Enable More Complete and Equitable Understanding of Genomic Diversity

May 10, 2023 — Scientists have released a draft of the first human pangenome -- a new, usable reference for genomics that combines the genetic material of 47 individuals from different ancestral backgrounds to allow for a deeper, more accurate understanding of ...

Global Research Reveals Countries Where Record-Breaking Heatwaves Are Likely to Cause Most Harm

Apr. 25, 2023 — A new study has highlighted under-prepared regions across the world most at risk of the devastating effects of scorching ...

Small Acts of Kindness Are Frequent and Universal, Study Finds

Apr. 24, 2023 — A study found that people around the world signal others for assistance every couple of minutes. The research, which examined behaviors in towns and rural areas in several different countries, revealed that people comply with these small requests for help far more often than they decline them. The ...

Study Into Global Daily Air Pollution Shows Almost Nowhere on Earth Is Safe

Mar. 7, 2023 — In a new study of daily ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) across the globe, a new study has found that only 0.18% of the global land area and 0.001% of the global population are exposed to levels of PM2.5 -- the world's leading environmental health risk factor -- below levels of safety ...

Latest Society/Education Headlines

updated 10:46pm EDT

Report Highlights Public Health Impact of Serious Harms from Diagnostic Error in US

July 17, 2023 — Improving diagnosis in health care is a moral, professional and public health imperative, according to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine. However, little is known about the full scope of harms related to medical misdiagnosis -- current estimates range widely. Using novel methods, a team sought to derive what is believed to be the first ...

Cap Top 20% of Energy Users to Reduce Carbon Emissions

July 17, 2023 — Consumers in the richer, developed nations will have to accept restrictions on their energy use if international climate change targets are to be met, warn researchers. The big challenge is to identify the fairest and most equitable way that governments can curtail energy use, a process known as energy demand reduction. The research team analyzed several scenarios to identify a potential ...

The Missing Americans: Unprecedented US Mortality Far Exceeds Other Wealthy Nations

July 17, 2023 — A new study found that more than one million US deaths per year -- including many young and working-age adults -- could be avoided if the US had mortality rates similar to its peer nations. In 2021, 1.1 million deaths would have been averted in the United States if the US had mortality rates similar to other wealthy nations, according to a new ...

Our Favorite Vintages and Their Precarious Mountainside Homes Are at Risk Due to Climate Change, Environmental Scientists Warn

July 14, 2023 — Tucked into the hillsides of Italy, Portugal, and Spain, some of the world's most famous -- and most difficult to maintain -- vineyards are heralded for their unique flavor profiles and centuries of tradition. But as extreme weather and changing socioeconomic conditions make this so-called 'heroic viticulture' even more challenging, scientists ...

Successful Cooperation Depends on Good 'Mindreading' Abilities

July 13, 2023 — Researchers found that people with strong mind reading abilities -- the ability to understand and take the perspective of another person's feelings and intentions -- are more successful in cooperating to complete tasks than people with weaker mind reading ...

New Zealand Kids Spending One-Third of After-School Time on Screens

July 6, 2023 — Regulations are urgently needed to protect children from harm in the unregulated online world, researchers ...

GPT Detectors Can Be Biased Against Non-Native English Writers

July 10, 2023 — Researchers show that computer programs commonly used to determine if a text was written by artificial intelligence tend to falsely label articles written by non-native language speakers as AI-generated. The researchers caution against the use of such AI text detectors for their unreliability, which could have negative impacts on individuals including students and those applying for ...