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Top Science News
July 13, 2021
July 8, 2021 — The ability to focus on where we will be in the near future, rather than where we are at present, may be a key characteristic of the mammalian brain's built-in navigation system, suggests a new ...
July 8, 2021 — Scientists map the part of the brain that 'links' similar objects, leading to new insights about how the brain processes information out of ...
July 9, 2021 — A team of physicists has developed a special type of quantum computer known as a programmable quantum simulator capable of operating with 256 quantum bits, or ...
July 8, 2021 — Researchers discovered that most bacteria in the gut microbiome are heritable after looking at more than 16,000 gut microbiome profiles collected over 14 years from a long-studied population of ...
Latest Top Headlines
updated 10:46pm EDT
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More Filling? Tastes Great? How Flies, and Maybe People, Choose Their Food

July 5, 2021 — Flies have discriminating taste. Like a gourmet perusing a menu, they spend much of their time seeking sweet nutritious calories and avoiding bitter, potentially toxic food. But what happens in their brains when they make these food choices? Researchers discovered an interesting way to find out. ...
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Study Ties Milder COVID-19 Symptoms to Prior Run-Ins With Other Coronaviruses

July 1, 2021 — In COVID-19 patients whose symptoms were mild, researchers found that they were more likely than sicker patients to have signs of prior infection by similar, less ...
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Scientists Discover a New Class of Memory Cells for Remembering Faces

July 1, 2021 — Our brains have sensory cells, which process the faces that we see, and memory cells dedicated to storing data from person encounters. But until now, a hybrid neuron capable of linking vision to memory -- and explaining how we recall familiar faces -- ...
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Stress Can Turn Hair Gray -- And It's Reversible, Researchers Find

June 22, 2021 — A new study offers quantitative evidence linking psychological stress to graying hair ...
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New Clues to Why There's So Little Antimatter in the Universe

July 7, 2021 — New research shows radioactive molecules are sensitive to subtle nuclear phenomena. The molecules might help physicists probe violation of the most fundamental symmetries of nature, including why the universe contains relatively ...
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Methane in Plumes of Saturn's Moon Enceladus: Possible Signs of Life?

July 6, 2021 — A study concludes that known geochemical processes can't explain the levels of methane measured by the Cassini spacecraft on Saturn's icy moon. While the paper by no means suggests that life exists on Enceladus, the results would be consistent with microbial activity similar to that known to occur ...
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'There May Not Be a Conflict After All' in Expanding Universe Debate

June 30, 2021 — Our universe is expanding, but our two main ways to measure how fast this expansion is happening have resulted in different answers. An astronomer gives an overview of the most recent observations. New conclusion: the latest observations are beginning to close the gap. That is, there may not be a ...
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Why Does Mercury Have Such a Big Iron Core?

July 2, 2021 — A new study disputes the prevailing hypothesis on why Mercury has a big core relative to its mantle. For decades, scientists argued that hit-and-run collisions blew away much of Mercury's rocky mantle and left the big, dense, metal core inside. But new research reveals that collisions are not to ...
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Is Global Plastic Pollution Nearing an Irreversible Tipping Point?

July 1, 2021 — Current rates of plastic emissions globally may trigger effects that we will not be able to reverse, argues a new study. According to the authors, plastic pollution is a global threat, and actions to drastically reduce emissions of plastic to the environment are 'the rational ...
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Role of Dopamine in Songbird's Brain Plasticity

July 2, 2021 — Neuroscientists have demonstrated in new research that dopamine plays a key role in how songbirds learn complex ...
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Last Ice-Covered Parts of Summertime Arctic Ocean Vulnerable to Climate Change

July 1, 2021 — Last August, sea ice north of Greenland showed its vulnerability to the long-term effects of climate change. The region, part of what's known as the 'Last Ice Area' that could serve as a refuge for ice-dependent species, may be ice-free in ...
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'Dragon Man' Fossil May Replace Neanderthals as Our Closest Relative

June 25, 2021 — A near-perfectly preserved ancient human fossil known as the Harbin cranium sits in the Geoscience Museum in Hebei GEO University. The largest of Homo skulls, scientists now say this skull represents a newly discovered human species named Homo longi or 'Dragon Man.' Their findings suggest that the ...
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Health News
July 13, 2021
June 17, 2021 — Researchers studying prions -- misfolded proteins that cause lethal incurable diseases -- have identified the surface features of human prions responsible for their replication in the ...
June 18, 2021 — In a bid to find or refine laboratory research models for cancer that better compare with what happens in living people, scientists report they have ...
June 17, 2021 — Using neural networks, researchers have developed a new method to search the human genome for beneficial mutations from Neanderthals and other ...
June 16, 2021 — Philosophers, artists and scientists -- and probably all the rest of us -- have long obsessed over the key to human immortality. We all, no matter our income, culture or religion are bound to die. ...
Latest Health Headlines
updated 10:46pm EDT

Study Shows Benefits of Early Anticlotting Therapy in Moderate COVID-19

July 13, 2021 — New research shows that administering a full dose of a standard blood thinner early to moderately ill hospitalized patients with COVID-19 could halt the thrombo-inflammation process and reduce the risk of severe disease and ...
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'Long COVID': More Than a Quarter of COVID-19 Patients Still Symptomatic After 6 Months

July 13, 2021 — In a new study of adults from the general population who were infected with COVID-19 in 2020, more than a quarter report not having fully recovered after six to eight ...
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COVID-Causing Coronavirus Following Predictable Mutational Footsteps

July 13, 2021 — New research has shown that the mutations arising in the COVID-19-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus seem to run in the family -- or at least the genus of coronaviruses most dangerous to humans. After comparing the early evolution of SARS-CoV-2 against that of its closest relatives, the betacoronaviruses, researchers found that SARS-CoV-2 mutations are occurring in essentially the same locations, both ...
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Eating Whole Grains Linked to Smaller Increases in Waist Size, Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar

July 13, 2021 — A study finds middle- to older-aged adults who ate more servings of whole grains, compared to those who ate fewer, were more likely to have smaller increases in waist size, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels as they aged. All three are linked with increased risk of heart ...
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Long-Term Memory Setup Requires a Reliable Delivery Crew

July 13, 2021 — Neural plasticity depends on a reliable delivery team of Kinesin protein KIF5C to carry goods like RNA from cell body to synapse, a new study ...
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Species of Gut Bacteria Linked to Enhanced Cognition and Language Skills in Infant Boys

July 13, 2021 — Infant boys with a higher composition of a particular gut microbiota show enhanced neurodevelopment, according to a new ...
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What You Say in the First Minute After a Vaccine Can Be Key in Reducing a Child's Distress

July 13, 2021 — New pain research finds what you say in the first minute after a vaccine can be key in reducing a child's ...
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Recent Study Identifies 11 Candidate Genetic Variants for Alzheimer's Disease

July 13, 2021 — A recently published study identifies 11 rare candidate variants for Alzheimer's disease. Researchers found 19 different families in Utah that suffered from Alzheimer's disease more frequently than what is considered ...
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Mosquito-Resistant Clothing Prevents Bites in Trials

July 13, 2021 — Researchers have created insecticide-free, mosquito-resistant clothing using textile materials they confirmed to be bite-proof in experiments with live ...
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Air Pollution Exposure Linked to Poor Academics in Childhood

July 13, 2021 — Children exposed to elevated levels of air pollution may be more likely to have poor inhibitory control during late childhood and poor academic skills in early adolescence, including spelling, reading comprehension, and math skills. Difficulty with inhibition in late childhood was found to be a precursor to later air pollution-related academic problems. Interventions that target inhibitory ...
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Restless Nights: Shelter Housed Dogs Need Days to Adapt to New Surroundings

July 13, 2021 — Every year, thousands of dogs end up in a shelter in the Netherlands. Experts expect an increase in this number in the upcoming period, when people go back to the office after working from home during the corona crisis. Despite the good care of staff and volunteers, the shelter can be a turbulent experience for dogs. Researchers investigated if dogs can adapt to their new environment based on ...
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Preferred Life Expectancy and Its Association With Hypothetical Adverse Life Scenarios

July 12, 2021 — A new study sheds light on how the specter of dementia and chronic pain reduce people's desire to live into older ages. Among Norwegians 60 years of age and older the desire to live into advanced ages was significantly reduced by hypothetical adverse life scenarios with the strongest effect caused by dementia and chronic ...
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Physical/Tech News
July 13, 2021
June 29, 2021 — A long time ago, in two galaxies about 900 million light-years away, two black holes each gobbled up their neutron star companions, triggering gravitational waves that finally hit Earth in January ...
June 28, 2021 — Scientists have discovered the first convincing evidence for a new type of stellar explosion -- an electron-capture supernova. While they have been theorized for 40 years, real-world examples have ...
June 23, 2021 — Scientists have identified 2,034 nearby star-systems -- within the small cosmic distance of 326 light-years -- that could find Earth merely by watching our pale blue dot cross our ...
June 17, 2021 — In the last few decades, physicists have found ways to super-cool objects so that their atoms are at a near standstill, wrestling small objects such ...
Latest Physical/Tech Headlines
updated 10:46pm EDT

5D Imaging of Ultrafast Phenomena

July 13, 2021 — An international team of researchers recently developed and experimentally demonstrated a spectral-volumetric (SV) CUP system that can simultaneously capture 5D information with a single snapshot ...
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Are Silver Nanoparticles a Silver Bullet Against Microbes?

July 13, 2021 — Antimicrobials are used to kill or slow the growth of bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms. They are essential to preventing and treating infections, but they also pose a global threat to public health when microorganisms develop antimicrobial resistance. A lab studied the mechanisms behind bacterial resistance to silver nanoparticles to determine if their ubiquitous use is a solution to ...
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Supercomputer Predicts Cell-Membrane Permeability of Cyclic Peptides

July 13, 2021 — Scientists have developed a computational method based on large-scale molecular dynamics simulations to predict the cell-membrane permeability of cyclic peptides using a supercomputer. Their protocol has exhibited promising accuracy and may become a useful tool for the design and discovery of cyclic peptide drugs, which could help us reach new therapeutic targets inside cells beyond the ...
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Synthesis of One of the Most Abundant Organic Lipids Elucidates Its Structure

July 13, 2021 — Crenarchaeol is a large, closed-loop lipid that is present in the membranes of ammonium-oxidizing archaea. In comparison to other archaeal membrane lipids, crenarchaeol is very complex and, so far, attempts to confirm its structure by synthesizing the entire molecule have been unsuccessful. Organic chemists have now taken up this challenge and ...
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Galactic Gamma Ray Bursts Predicted Last Year Show Up Right on Schedule

July 13, 2021 — Astronomers see many periodic emissions from space, typically caused by rotation of stars and often very regular. Astrophysicists noticed a unique periodicity in the soft gamma ray emissions from a magnetar located in our galaxy. The soft gamma repeater SGR1935+2154 appears to emit bursts only within regularly spaced windows, and is inactive in between. Based on their analysis, they predicted a ...
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Trace Gas Phosphine Points to Volcanic Activity on Venus, Scientists Say

July 12, 2021 — Last autumn, researchers reported finding the gas phosphine in trace amounts in Venus' upper atmosphere, raising the slim possibility of a biological signature. Now scientists say that the phosphine's chemical fingerprints support a different find: evidence of explosive ...
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How the Universe Is Reflected Near Black Holes

July 12, 2021 — In the vicinity of black holes, space is so warped that even light rays may curve around them several times. This phenomenon may enable us to see multiple versions of the same thing. While this has been known for decades, only now do we have an exact, mathematical ...
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Teardrop Star Reveals Hidden Supernova Doom

July 12, 2021 — Astronomers have made the rare sighting of two stars spiralling to their doom by spotting the tell-tale signs of a teardrop-shaped ...
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Electrons in Quantum Liquid Gain Energy from Laser Pulses

July 13, 2021 — The absorption of energy from laser light by free electrons in a liquid has been demonstrated for the first time. Until now, this process was observed only in the gas phase. The findings open new doors for ultra-fast electron ...
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This Device Harvests Power from Your Sweaty Fingertips While You Sleep

July 13, 2021 — Researchers have developed a new device that harvests energy from the sweat on -- of all places -- your fingertips. To date, the device is believed to be the most efficient on-body energy harvester ever invented, producing 300 millijoules (mJ) of energy per square centimeter without any mechanical energy input during a 10-hour sleep and an additional 30 mJ of energy with a single press of a ...
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Simulating Microswimmers in Nematic Fluids

July 13, 2021 — New research shows how control over self-propelled microswimmers could be achieved using exotic materials named 'nematic liquid crystals' - whose viscosity and elasticity can vary depending on the direction of an applied ...
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Mathematical Model Predicts the Movement of Microplastics in the Ocean

July 13, 2021 — New research has identified the processes that underpin the trajectories of microplastics below the ocean surface. The authors analyzed how biofouling -- the accumulation of algae on the surface of microplastics -- impacts the vertical movement of buoyant ...
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Environment News
July 13, 2021
June 24, 2021 — The bones of an early human, unknown to science, who lived in the Levant at least until 130,000 years ago, were discovered in excavations at the Nesher Ramla site, near the city of Ramla. Recognizing ...
June 18, 2021 — It could be a milestone on the path to detecting life on other planets: Scientists detect a key molecular property of all living organisms from a helicopter flying several kilometers above ground. ...
June 7, 2021 — A new study predicts massive range declines of Africa's great apes -- gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos -- due to the impacts of climate change, land-use changes and human population ...
June 3, 2021 — The biggest shark attack in history did not involve humans. A new study by earth scientists has turned up a massive die-off of sharks roughly 19 million years ago. It came at a period in history when ...
Latest Environment Headlines
updated 10:46pm EDT

When a Single Tree Makes a Difference

July 12, 2021 — A single tree along a city street or in a backyard can provide measurable cooling benefits, according to a new ...
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Study Evaluates Biodiversity Impacts of Alternative Energy Strategies

July 13, 2021 — Climate change mitigation efforts have led to shifts from fossil-fuel dependence to large-scale renewable energy. However, renewable energy sources require significant land and could come at a cost to ecosystems. A new study evaluates potential conflicts between alternative energy strategies and biodiversity ...
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The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Mystery of the Havoc-Wreaking Worm

July 13, 2021 — Humans have known for over two thousand years that shipworms, a worm-like mollusk, are responsible for damage to wooden boats, docks, dikes and piers. Yet new research reveals that we still don't know the most basic thing about them: how they ...
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Global Study Reveals Effectiveness of Protected Forests

July 13, 2021 — Scientists have published a global study on the effectiveness of protected areas in preventing deforestation. The study explored the success of country-level protected areas at reducing forest loss, and used machine learning to uncover some of the factors that contribute to differences in ...
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Poor and Minority Communities Suffer More from Extreme Heat in US Cities

July 13, 2021 — Low-income neighborhoods and communities with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations experience significantly more urban heat than wealthier and predominantly white neighborhoods within a vast majority of populous US counties, according new ...
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The Rat's Whiskers: Multidisciplinary Research Reveals How We Sense Texture

July 13, 2021 — Two very different teams of scientists have worked together to reveal important insights into how we sense texture by looking at the whiskers of a ...
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Childhood Lead Exposure May Adversely Affect Adults' Personalities

July 12, 2021 — A study sampled more than 1.5 million people in 269 U.S. counties and 37 European nations. Researchers found that those who grew up in areas with higher levels of atmospheric lead had less adaptive personalities in adulthood -- lower levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness and higher levels of ...
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Mapping How Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Strategies Impact Economies and Floodwaters

July 12, 2021 — By 2100, sea levels are expected to rise by almost seven feet in the Bay Area. New research shows how traditional approaches to combating sea-level rise can create a domino effect of environmental and economic impacts for nearby ...
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DNA Reveals the Evolutionary History of Museum Specimens

July 13, 2021 — Museum specimens held in natural history collections around the world represent a wealth of underutilized genetic information due to the poor state of preservation of the DNA, which often makes it difficult to sequence. An international team has optimized a method developed for analyzing ancient DNA to identify the relationships between species on a deep evolutionary ...
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Resilience, Not Collapse: What the Easter Island Myth Gets Wrong

July 13, 2021 — New research suggests that the demographic collapse at the core of the Easter Island myth didn't really ...
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Human Environmental Genome Recovered in the Absence of Skeletal Remains

July 12, 2021 — Ancient sediments from caves have already proven to preserve DNA for thousands of years. The amount of recovered sequences from environmental sediments, however, is generally low, which complicates analyses. A study has now successfully retrieved three mammalian environmental genomes from a single soil sample of 25,000 years BP obtained from the cave of Satsurblia in the Caucasus ...
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How Seeds Know It's a Good Time to Germinate

July 7, 2021 — Dehydrated plant seeds can lay dormant for long periods -- over 1,000 years in some species -- before the availability of water can trigger germination. This protects the embryonic plant inside from a variety of environmental stresses until conditions are favorable for growth and survival. However, the mechanism by which the baby plant senses water and reactivates cellular activity has remained a ...
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Society/Education News
July 13, 2021
May 20, 2021 — A growing body of research has explored the ability of solar geoengineering to reduce physical climate changes. But much less is known about how ...
Apr. 22, 2021 — Researchers showed that COVID-19 survivors -- including those not sick enough to be hospitalized -- have an increased risk of death in the six months following diagnosis with the virus. They also ...
Apr. 15, 2021 — Coral reefs provide many services to coastal communities, including critical protection from flood damage. A new study reveals how valuable coral ...
Apr. 13, 2021 — The human scream signals more than fear of imminent danger or entanglement in social conflicts. Screaming can also express joy or excitement. For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that ...
Latest Society/Education Headlines
updated 10:46pm EDT

Dire Impacts Downstream of Nile River Dam: Study

July 13, 2021 — Downstream water supply and economic losses could substantially disrupt Egypt, according to a new analysis that offers potential solutions to avoid conflict over the ...
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Mathematicians Develop Ground-Breaking Modeling Toolkit to Predict Local COVID-19 Impact

July 12, 2021 — Mathematicians have created a new modeling toolkit which predicts the impact of COVID-19 at a local level with unprecedented ...
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Rise in Southeast Asia Forest Clearance Increasing Greenhouse Gases

July 12, 2021 — Forest clearance in Southeast Asia is accelerating, leading to unprecedented increases in carbon emissions, according to new research. The findings show that forests are being cut down at increasingly higher altitudes and on steeper slopes in order to make way for agricultural ...
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Electric Delivery Vehicles: When, Where, How They’re Charged Has Big Impact on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

July 12, 2021 — The transportation sector is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and a lot of attention has been devoted to electric passenger vehicles and their potential to help reduce those ...
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Recess Quality Influences Student Behavior, Social-Emotional Development

July 9, 2021 — Recess quality, not just the amount of time spent away from the classroom, plays a major role in whether children experience the full physical, mental and social-emotional benefits of recess, a new study has ...
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Newborns to Three Months Should Be Stimulated to Hold and Reach for Objects, Study Says

July 8, 2021 — When newborns observe adults performing everyday tasks, their social, motor and cognitive development is ...
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For Many Students, Double-Dose Algebra Leads to College Attainment

July 7, 2021 — In the United States, low-income and minority students are completing college at low rates compared to higher-income and majority peers -- a detriment to reducing economic inequality. Double-dose algebra could be a solution, according to a new ...
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Digital Pens Provide New Insight Into Cognitive Testing Results

July 6, 2021 — During neuropsychological assessments, participants complete tasks designed to study memory and thinking. Based on their performance, the participants receive a score that researchers use to evaluate how well specific domains of their cognition are ...
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Employed Individuals More Likely to Contract the Flu, Study Shows

June 30, 2021 — Researchers found that employed individuals, on average, are 35.3% more likely to be infected with the flu ...
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Powerful People Are Less Likely to Be Understanding When Mistakes Are Made

June 23, 2021 — Those with power, such as the wealthy are more likely to blame others for having shortcomings and they are also less troubled by reports of inequality, according to recent ...
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Computers Can Now Predict Our Preferences Directly from Our Brain

June 7, 2021 — A research team demonstrates it is possible to predict individual preferences based on how a person's brain responses match up to others. This could potentially be used to provide individually tailored media content -- and perhaps even to enlighten us about ...
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New Research May Explain Shortages in STEM Careers

May 12, 2021 — A new study revealed that more college students change majors within the STEM pipeline than leave the career path of science, technology, engineering and mathematics ...
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