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Top Science News

May 29, 2017

Device Reads Brain, Converts to Motion

Jupiter: Surprisingly Exotic

Bus-Sized Fossil Marine Reptile

Two-Headed Worms Coded for Regeneration

May 26, 2017 — Stroke patients who learned to use their minds to open and close a plastic brace fitted over their paralyzed hands gained some ability to control ... read more

May 25, 2017 — NASA's Juno mission is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about Jupiter specifically, and gas giants in general, according to a pair of Science papers released today. The Juno spacecraft has ... read more

May 25, 2017 — A new species of a fossil pliosaur (large predatory marine reptile from the 'age of dinosaur') has been found in Russia and profoundly change how we understand the evolution of the group, says an ... read more

May 23, 2017 — Researchers have succeeded in permanently rewriting flatworms' regenerative body shape by resetting their internal bioelectric pattern memory, ... read more

Latest Top Headlines

updated 4:43pm EDT

Seeing Life in Fast-Forward: Visual Brain Predicts Future Events Based on Past Experience

May 29, 2017 — For a long time, researchers thought of the visual cortex as a brain area that determines what you perceive based on information coming from the eyes. Neuroscientists now show that the area is also involved in the prediction of ... read more

Gray Matter Density Increases During Adolescence, Study Finds

May 26, 2017 — While volume indeed decreases from childhood to young adulthood, gray matter density actually increases, a new ... read more

Marmoset Monkeys Learn to Call the Same Way Human Infants Learn to Babble

May 25, 2017 — Human social groups have a strange tendency to share responsibility for taking care of infants; parents, older siblings, and other adult relatives all help to nurture babies. The only other primates that take care of infants this way are marmosets, a group of small, highly social monkeys from South ... read more

The Brain Detects Disease in Others Even Before It Breaks out

May 24, 2017 — The human brain is much better than previously thought at discovering and avoiding disease, a new study reports. Our sense of vision and smell alone are enough to make us aware that someone has a disease even before it breaks out. And not only aware – we also act upon the information and avoid ... read more

Harnessing Energy from Glass Walls

May 29, 2017 — Semi-transparent perovskite solar cells have been developed that could be great candidates for solar windows, ... read more

Water Forms 'Spine of Hydration' Around DNA, Group Finds

May 25, 2017 — How water relates to and interacts with biological systems -- like DNA, the building block of all living things -- is of critical importance, and a research group has used a relatively new form of spectroscopy to observe a previously unknown characteristic ... read more

Where Rivers Meet the Sea: Harnessing Energy Generated When Freshwater Meets Saltwater

May 26, 2017 — A new hybrid technology has been created that produces unprecedented amounts of electrical power where seawater and freshwater combine at ... read more

Extreme Jupiter Weather and Magnetic Fields

May 25, 2017 — New observations about the extreme conditions of Jupiter's weather and magnetic fields by astronomers have contributed to the revelations and insights coming from the first close passes of Jupiter by NASA's ... read more

'Heat Island' Effect Could Double Climate Change Costs for World's Cities

May 29, 2017 — Overheated cities face climate change costs at least twice as big as the rest of the world because of the 'urban heat island' effect, new ... read more

A First Look at Dolphin Immune System

May 25, 2017 — For humans, there are hundreds of antibodies available on the market today to evaluate immune status in health and diseases. However, for the more than 42 known species of dolphins around the world, commercially available marine-specific antibodies do not exist. With the drastic increase in the ... read more

American Beekeepers Lost 33 Percent of Bees in 2016-17

May 25, 2017 — Beekeepers across the United States lost 33 percent of their honey bee colonies during the year spanning April 2016 to April 2017, according to the latest preliminary results of an annual nationwide survey. Rates of both winter loss and summer loss -- and consequently, total annual losses -- ... read more

How Do Blind Cavefish Find Their Way? The Answer Could Be in Their Bones.

May 24, 2017 — Blind cavefish typically have skulls that bend slightly to the left. A study suggests this orientation might help them find food as they navigate in a perpetual counter-clockwise direction around ... read more

Probiotics to Treat Symptoms of Depression?

How Hand Amputation, Reattachment, Affects Brain

Becoming Literate at 30 Profoundly Changes Brain

Learning from Lizards About Stress Overload

May 23, 2017 — A new study is the first to show improved depression scores with a probiotic. It adds to the whole field of microbiota-gut-brain axis, providing evidence that bacteria affect ... read more

May 24, 2017 — Researchers have found evidence of specific neurochemical changes associated with lower neuronal health in these brain regions. Further, they report that some of these changes in the brain may ... read more

May 24, 2017 — Reading is such a modern cultural invention that there is no specific area in the brain dedicated to it. Scientists have found that learning to read ... read more

May 23, 2017 — Lizards living in fire-ant-invaded areas are stressed. However, a team of biologists found that the lizards did not exhibit this stress as expected after extended fire ant exposure in socially ... read more

Latest Health Headlines

updated 4:43pm EDT

Sensing Insole for Footstrike Pattern Detection in Runners

May 29, 2017 — A mobile biofeedback device has been developed for footstrike pattern modification for injury prevention and rehabilitation ... read more

Some Heart Attack Patients May Not Benefit from Beta Blockers

May 29, 2017 — New research challenges established medical practice that all heart attack patients should be on beta ... read more

Toward an Hiv Cure: Team Develops Test to Detect Hidden Virus

May 29, 2017 — The quest to develop a cure for HIV has long been plagued by a seemingly simple question: how do doctors determine if someone is cured? The virus has a knack for lying dormant in immune cells at levels undetectable. Now scientists have created a test sensitive enough to detect 'hidden' HIV, and yet ... read more

Remembrance of Things Past: Bacterial Memory of Gut Inflammation

May 29, 2017 — A team of scientists has designed a powerful bacterial sensor with a stable gene circuit in a colonizing bacterial strain that can record gut inflammation for six months in mice. This study offers a solution to previous challenges associated with living diagnostics and may bring them closer to use ... read more

Vision Keeps Maturing Until Mid-Life

May 29, 2017 — The visual cortex, the human brain's vision-processing center that was previously thought to mature and stabilize in the first few years of life, actually continues to develop until sometime in the late 30s or early 40s, a neuroscientist has ... read more

Connecting the Dots Between Dreams and Brain Disease

May 29, 2017 — Scientists have unveiled a connection between sleep disorders and neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson's Disease. The work reveals REM-active neurons are responsible for turning on and off dreaming. Dysfunction in these cells, called REM sleep behavior disorder is associated in up to 80 percent of the cases with neurodegenerative disorders later in ... read more

How Self-Regulation Can Help Young People Overcome Setbacks

May 29, 2017 — Researchers have analyzed whether self-regulation would be a good predictor of resilience. This study shows that helping these young people to bounce back from adversities by acquiring self-regulation skills such as setting goals and adjusting their path after a misstep, equips them better to do well in school and in ... read more

New 'GPS' Neuron Discovered

May 29, 2017 — A new type of neuron that might play a vital role in humans’ ability to navigate their environments, report investigators. The discovery is an important step towards understanding how the brain codes navigation behavior at larger scales and could potentially open up new treatment strategies for people with impaired topographical orientation like Alzheimer’s ... read more

Too Much Stress for the Mother Affects the Baby Through Amniotic Fluid

May 29, 2017 — If the mother is stressed over a longer period of time during pregnancy, the concentration of stress hormones in amniotic fluid rises, as proven by an interdisciplinary team of researchers. Short-term stress situations, however, do not seem to have an unfavorable effect on the development of the ... read more

New Genomic Analysis Promises Benefit in Female Urinary Incontinence

May 28, 2017 — Urinary incontinence in women is common, with almost 50 percent of adult women experiencing leakage at least occasionally. Genetic or heritable factors are known to contribute to half of all cases, but until now studies had failed to identify the genetic variants associated with the ... read more

Sedentary Lifestyle Appears to Increase Risk for Both Kidney and Bladder Cancer

May 24, 2017 — A connection between a sedentary lifestyle and risk of developing kidney or bladder cancer has been established by ... read more

Recreational Cannabis, Used Often, Increases Risk of Gum Disease

May 24, 2017 — Recreational use of cannabis -- including marijuana, hashish, and hash oil -- increases the risk of gum disease, shows a new ... read more

Significant Potential for U.S. Nuclear Disaster

Collapsing Star Gives Birth to a Black Hole

Strange Quantum Property Turns On and Off

Building Circuits in Living Cells

May 25, 2017 — The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission relied on faulty analysis to justify its refusal to adopt a critical measure for protecting Americans from nuclear-waste fires at dozens of reactor sites around ... read more

May 25, 2017 — For the first time in history, astronomers have been able to watch as a dying star was reborn as a black hole. It went out with a whimper instead of a ... read more

May 25, 2017 — A research team has developed the first switch that turns on and off a quantum behavior called the Berry phase. The discovery promises to provide new insight into the fundamentals of quantum theory ... read more

May 25, 2017 — Synthetic biology researchers have demonstrated a new method for digital information processing in living cells, analogous to the logic gates used in electric circuits. The circuits are the largest ... read more

Latest Physical/Tech Headlines

updated 4:43pm EDT

Graphene and Quantum Dots Put in Motion a CMOS-Integrated Camera That Can See the Invisible

May 29, 2017 — The first graphene-based camera has now been developed. It is capable of imaging visible and infrared light at the same time. The camera will be useful for many applications such as night vision, food inspection, fire control, vision under extreme ... read more

A New Spin on Electronics: Study Discovers a 'Miracle Material' for Field of Spintronics

May 29, 2017 — A new class of 'miracle materials' has been discovered by a team of researchers who say that these organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites could be a game changer for future ... read more

Squeezing Every Drop of Fresh Water from Waste Brine

May 29, 2017 — A new way to recover almost 100 percent of the water from highly concentrated salt solutions has now been developed by researchers. The system will alleviate water shortages in arid regions and reduce concerns surrounding high salinity brine disposal, such as hydraulic ... read more

Urban Emissions Could Be Cut by Seventy Per Cent

May 29, 2017 — A researcher has developed a mathematical model that determines the optimal conditions for sustainable urban distribution. The model can reduce logistical pressure in cities and make goods transport more sustainable. In some cases, it may be possible to reduce emissions in cities by seventy per ... read more

Camera on NASA's Lunar Orbiter Survived 2014 Meteoroid Hit

May 29, 2017 — Images from LRO show a brief violent movement of one of the Narrow Angle Cameras on NASA's Lunar Orbiter in October ... read more

Atomic-Scale Imaging Improves Dating of Planetary Events

May 26, 2017 — A new way to improve how we measure the age of planetary evolution in our solar system has been identified by a team ... read more

Fruit Flies Journey to International Space Station to Study Effects of Zero Gravity on the Heart

May 25, 2017 — Researchers have announced that six boxes of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) to study the impact of weightlessness on the heart. The fruit flies are scheduled to launch on June 1, 2017, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and will travel to the ISS via a SpaceX Dragon ... read more

Neptune: Neutralizer-Free Plasma Propulsion

May 23, 2017 — Plasma propulsion concepts are gridded-ion thrusters that accelerate and emit more positively charged particles than negatively charged ones. To enable the spacecraft to remain charge-neutral, a 'neutralizer' injects electrons to exactly balance the positive ion charge in the exhaust beam, but this ... read more

Toward Mass-Producible Quantum Computers

May 26, 2017 — Mass-producible quantum computers are closer than ever, thanks to new research. This process for positioning quantum bits in diamond optical circuits could work at large scales, say ... read more

Printed, Flexible and Rechargeable Battery Can Power Wearable Sensors

May 24, 2017 — Nanoengineers have developed the first printed battery that is flexible, stretchable and rechargeable. The zinc batteries could be used to power everything from wearable sensors to solar cells and other kinds ... read more

System Piggybacks on Bitcoin to Prevent Identity Theft

May 24, 2017 — Researchers have developed a new system that uses Bitcoin's security machinery to defend against online identity ... read more

'Drastically' Higher Resolution to Your TV and Smartphone

May 25, 2017 — By developing a way to tune the color of individual pixels, researchers have eliminated the need for subpixels -- allowing a greater density of pixels and much higher resolution for video ... read more

more top physical/tech stories

Environment News

May 29, 2017

Global Carbon Cycle: Tiny Shells Show Big Changes

Why Sumatra Earthquake Was So Severe

Hunter-Gatherers and Farmers Intimately Linked

Cowbirds Choosy When Selecting Foster Parents

May 25, 2017 — Experiments with tiny, shelled organisms in the ocean suggest big changes to the global carbon cycle are underway, according to a new ... read more

May 25, 2017 — An international team of scientists has found evidence suggesting the dehydration of minerals deep below the ocean floor influenced the severity of the Sumatra earthquake, which took place on Dec. ... read more

May 25, 2017 — In human history, the transition from hunting and gathering to farming is a significant one. As such, hunter-gatherers and farmers are usually ... read more

May 23, 2017 — Despite their reputation as uncaring, absentee moms, cowbird mothers are capable of making sophisticated choices among potential nests in order to give their offspring a better chance of thriving, a ... read more

Latest Environment Headlines

updated 4:43pm EDT

Hotspots Show That Vegetation Alters Climate by Up to 30 Percent

May 29, 2017 — A new study that analyzes global satellite observations shows that vegetation alters climate and weather patterns by as much as 30 percent. The researchers used a new approach and found feedbacks between the atmosphere and vegetation can be strong, explaining up to 30 percent of variability in precipitation and surface ... read more

Dramatic Shift in Gut Microbes and Their Metabolites Seen After Weight Loss Surgery

May 26, 2017 — Obesity is linked with the composition of microbes in the human gut. In new research, bacterial composition in the gut, as well as accompanying metabolites are shown to undergo a profound and permanent shift, with microbial diversity significantly ... read more

Improving Wheat Yields by Increasing Grain Size, Weight

May 26, 2017 — Researchers aim to improve wheat yields by increasing grain size and weight using a precise gene-editing tool known ... read more

Congo's Miners Often Resort to Hunting Wildlife for Food, Study Finds

May 26, 2017 — Mining for valuable minerals in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a major driving factor in the illegal hunting of great apes and other wildlife for food, a new study has found. Authors of the new report recommend strengthening wildlife-friendly mining regulations and increasing sustainable domestic food sources as solutions against wildlife poaching near mining ... read more

Concrete for Taller Wind Turbine Towers Passes Tests, Could Help Expand Wind Energy Nationwide

May 25, 2017 — An 18-month, $1 million study of concrete technology for taller wind turbine towers has just wrapped up, with results indicating that the taller towers could enable wind energy production in all ... read more

Modeling Invasive Activity: Zebra Mussels' Infiltration of North American Rivers

May 25, 2017 — The invasion of nonnative species has widespread and detrimental effects on local and global ecosystems. These intruders often spread and multiply prolifically, displace native species, alter the intended interactions between flora and fauna, and damage the environment and economy. Scientists now present a continuous-discrete hybrid population ... read more

Marine Species Distribution Shifts Will Continue Under Ocean Warming

May 27, 2017 — Scientists using a high-resolution global climate model and historical observations of species distributions on the Northeast US Shelf have found that commercially important species will continue to shift their distribution as ocean waters warm two to three times faster than the global average through the end of this century. Projected increases in surface to bottom waters of 6.6 to 9 degrees F ... read more

Targeted Conservation Could Protect More of Earth's Biodiversity

May 25, 2017 — Major gains in global biodiversity can be achieved if an additional 5 percent of land is set aside to protect key species, say experts. Scientists report such an effort could triple the protected range of those species and safeguard their functional diversity. The findings underscore the need to ... read more

Genomics Tracks Migration from Lost Empires to Modern Cities

May 28, 2017 — New genomic tools are enabling researchers to overturn long-held beliefs about the origins of populations. Until recently, assumptions about origins were based on where people were buried, but this does not take into account the migrations that scientists now know took place thousands of years ... read more

'Tiny Clocks' Crystallize Understanding of Meteorite Crashes

May 26, 2017 — Scientists are using new imaging techniques to measure the atomic nanostructure of ancient crystal fragments at meteorite impact sites. The end goal? To understand when impacts ended and life ... read more

Knowledge Gap on the Origin of Sex

May 26, 2017 — There are significant gaps in our knowledge on the evolution of sex, according to a research review on sex chromosomes. Even after more than a century of study, researchers do not know enough about the evolution of sex chromosomes to understand how males and females ... read more

Fossil Beetles Suggest That LA Climate Has Been Relatively Stable for 50,000 Years

May 24, 2017 — Research based on more than 180 fossil insects preserved in the La Brea Tar Pits of Los Angeles indicate that the climate in what is now southern California has been relatively stable over the past 50,000 ... read more

Seeing Star Explosion from 970 Million Years Ago

52 Genes for Intelligence; 40 Brand New

Traffic Pollution Tied to Kids' DNA Damage

Planting Trees Can't Replace Cutting Emissions

May 24, 2017 — Online volunteers have helped astronomers find a star that exploded 970 million years ago, predating the dinosaurs' time on ... read more

May 23, 2017 — Scientists have made a major advance in understanding the genetic underpinnings of intelligence. Using a large dataset of more than 78,000 individuals with information on DNA genotypes and ... read more

May 19, 2017 — Children and teens exposed to high levels of traffic-related air pollution have evidence of a specific type of DNA damage called telomere shortening, reports a new ... read more

May 18, 2017 — Growing plants and then storing the carbon dioxide they have taken up from the atmosphere is no viable option to counteract unmitigated emissions ... read more

Latest Society/Education Headlines

updated 4:43pm EDT

Scientists Jump Hurdle in HIV Vaccine Design

May 26, 2017 — Scientists have made another important advance in HIV vaccine design. The development was possible thanks to previous studies showing the structures of a protein on HIV’s surface, called the envelope glycoprotein. The scientists used these structures to design a mimic of the viral protein from a ... read more

Legalizing Marijuana Will Harm Health of Youth in Canada, Study Shows

May 29, 2017 — The Canadian federal government's bill C-45 to legalize marijuana in Canada will jeopardize the health of young people and Parliament should vote against it, argues a new ... read more

Some Grizzly Bears Appear to Target Railways for Foraging in Canadian National Parks

May 24, 2017 — Spilled grain, rail-killed ungulates, and the effects on other species of increased light and warmth may all attract grizzly bears to forage along railways in Canada's mountain parks, which could increase their risk of being hit by trains, according to a ... read more

Depression Risk Following Natural Disaster Can Be Predicted Via Pupil Dilation

May 23, 2017 — Pupil dilation could identify which individuals are at greatest risk for depression following disaster-related stress, and help lead to targeted interventions, according to ... read more

Improve Evolution Education by Teaching Genetics First

May 23, 2017 — Evolution is a difficult concept for many students at all levels, however, a study has demonstrated a simple cost-free way to significantly improve students' understanding of evolution at the secondary level: teach genetics before you teach them ... read more

Deep Sleep Maintains the Learning Efficiency of the Brain

May 23, 2017 — For the first time, researchers have demonstrated the causal context of why deep sleep is important to the learning efficiency of the human brain. They have developed a new, noninvasive method for modulating deep sleep in humans in a targeted region of the ... read more

Strategic Brain Training Positively Affects Neural Connectivity for Individuals With TBI

May 23, 2017 — A new study shows that a specific instructor-led brain training protocol can stimulate structural changes in the brain and neural connections even years after a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The findings further suggest that changes in cortical ... read more

Critical Thinking Can Be Taught

May 23, 2017 — 10-12-years-olds can be taught how to think critically at school, even with few teachers and limited resources. Parents can also be taught to assess claims about health ... read more

Change at Work Linked to Employee Stress, Distrust and Intent to Quit, New Survey Finds

May 24, 2017 — At a time of change and uncertainty across the country, American adults who have been affected by change at work are more likely to report chronic work stress, less likely to trust their employer and more likely to say they plan to leave the organization within the next year compared with those who haven't been affected by organizational change, ... read more