Top Science News
January 16, 2025
Jan. 16, 2025 — In 2018, a galaxy about 270 million light-years away from Earth exhibited a major increase in activity. It quieted down again by 2020 -- only to dramatically increase its output again in 2023. At ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — A new study found that younger siblings generally receive more favorable treatment from parents. Meanwhile, older siblings are often granted more autonomy, and parents are less controlling towards them as they grow ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — Scientists have identified fossils of snow leopards. The discovery has allowed them to trace the evolutionary history of the species during the Quaternary period and to propose how it dispersed from ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — Researchers have demonstrated new wearable technologies that both generate electricity from human movement and improve the comfort of the technology for the people wearing them. The work stems from an advanced understanding of materials that ...
Latest Top Headlines
updated 10:48pm EST
Jan. 15, 2025 — Most treatments being pursued today to protect against Alzheimer's disease focus on amyloid plaques and tau tangles that accumulate in the brain, but new research points to a novel -- and noble -- approach: using Xenon gas. The study found that Xenon gas inhalation suppressed neuroinflammation, reduced brain atrophy, and increased protective neuronal states in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — Two new articles document progress in neuroprosthetic technology that lets people feel the shape and movement of objects moving over the 'skin' of a bionic ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — Amid a global surge in measles cases, new research suggests that undernutrition may be exacerbating outbreaks in areas suffering from food insecurity. A study involving over 600 fully vaccinated children in South Africa found those who were undernourished had substantially lower levels of antibodies against ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — A research team identified the brain's food-specific memory system and its direct role in overeating and diet-induced obesity. They found a specific population of neurons in the mouse brain that encode memories for sugar and fat, profoundly impacting food intake and body ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — Resembling the interlocking links in chainmail, novel nanoscale material is incredibly strong and flexible. The interlocked material contains 100 trillion mechanical bonds per 1 square centimeter -- the highest density of mechanical bonds ever achieved. Small amounts of the mechanically interlocked polymer added to Ultem fibers increased the high-performance material's ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — Leo P, a small galaxy and a distant neighbor of the Milky Way, is lighting the way for astronomers to better understand star formation and how a galaxy grows. Scientists have reported finding that Leo P 'reignited,' reactivating during a significant period on the timeline of the universe, producing stars when many other small galaxies ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — A research team has discovered another piece in the puzzle of the formation of the Moon and water on Earth. The prevailing theory was that the Moon was the result of a collision between the early Earth and the protoplanet Theia. New measurements indicate that the Moon formed from material ejected from the Earth's mantle with little contribution from Theia. In addition, the findings support the ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — A new analysis of data from the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) reveals fresh evidence that collisions of even very small nuclei with large ones might create tiny specks of a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Scientists believe such a substance of free quarks and gluons, the building blocks of protons and neutrons, permeated the universe a fraction of a second after the ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — Increasingly common since 1980, persistent multi-year droughts will continue to advance with the warming climate, warns a new study. This publicly available forty-year global quantitative inventory seeks to inform policy regarding the environmental impact of human-induced climate change. It also detected previously 'overlooked' ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — 4,900 years ago, a Neolithic people on the Danish island Bornholm sacrificed hundreds of stones engraved with sun and field motifs. Archaeologists and climate scientists can now show that these ritual sacrifices coincided with a large volcanic eruption that made the sun disappear throughout Northern ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — Previous studies have posited that the mass extinction that wiped the dinosaurs off the face of the Earth was caused by the release of large volumes of sulfur from rocks within the Chicxulub impact crater 66 million years ago. A new study questions this scenario. Using groundbreaking empirical measurements of sulfur within the related Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary layer, the international ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — The synchronization of data from two natural climate archives -- a speleothem from the Herbstlabyrinth Cave in Hesse (Germany) and ice cores from Greenland -- offers new insights into the chronology of abrupt climate changes in Central Europe. According to the analysis, the devastating eruption of the Laacher See volcano in what is now ...
Health News
January 16, 2025
Jan. 13, 2025 — A new study shows that the risk of developing dementia anytime after age 55 among Americans is 42%, more than double the risk reported by older ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — Scientists have succeeded in controlling the structure and function of biological membranes with the help of 'DNA origami'. The system they developed may facilitate the transportation of large therapeutic loads into cells. This opens up a new way ...
Jan. 9, 2025 — An international research team has discovered a new type of skeletal tissue that offers great potential for advancing regenerative medicine and tissue ...
Jan. 1, 2025 — A research team has clarified a mechanism of how retrotransposons, genetic elements that can 'jump around' chromosomes and are known drivers of evolution, preferentially insert in the ...
Latest Health Headlines
updated 10:48pm EST
Jan. 15, 2025 — Research has established a clear link between racial and ethnic disparities in maternal heart health and higher risks of preterm birth, preeclampsia and cardiovascular issues for Black and Hispanic mothers and their ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — Mosquitoes can survive prolonged droughts by drinking blood, which helps to explain why rates of mosquito-borne illness don't always decline in dry ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — Scientists have revealed the secret to the structural integrity of tiny particles that transport cargo from cell to cell through blood vessels and bodily fluids: special proteins that keep their membranes intact as they negotiate shifting electrical impulses in different biological ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — Scientists have found that a test to detect circulating tumor DNA can predict lung cancer ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — Semliki Forest virus was originally isolated from mosquitoes in the Semliki Forest, Uganda, hence the name. Upon systemic infection from mosquito bites, Semliki Forest virus causes mild blood viremia before finding its way to the central nervous system where it can cause neurotoxicity. In a recent study, researchers show that the Semliki Forest virus enters the central nervous system by first ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — Researchers have described the neurodegeneration that occurs in the nervous system of the bowel in Batten disease, a rare and fatal genetic condition. In their latest study, a team showed that gene therapy to the bowel in mice modeling Batten disease reduced symptoms and extended ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — Past studies have identified a loneliness-rumination-depression nexus. Rumination is defined as repetitive and intrusive negative thoughts and feelings, and loneliness as a gap between desired and actual social connections. Given a widely reported high co-occurrence between loneliness and depression, a research team sought to understand the ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — A research team improved the AI recognition accuracy of word-level sign language recognition by adding data such as the signer's hand and facial expressions, as well as skeletal information on the position of the hands relative to the ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — Giving people better data about their energy use, plus some coaching, can help them substantially reduce their consumption and costs, according to a new ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — An international research team concludes that gentle touch is not only good for mental health, but also for the evolution of ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — A cutting-edge molecular approach provides a detailed picture of the biological pathways associated with childhood obesity and metabolic dysfunction, and identifies environmental risk factors during early ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — People who eat more red meat, especially processed red meat like bacon, sausage and bologna, are more likely to have a higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia when compared to those who eat very little red meat, according to a new ...
Physical/Tech News
January 16, 2025
Jan. 15, 2025 — Astronomers have detected an intensely brightening and dimming quasar that may help explain how some objects in the early universe grew at a highly accelerated rate. The discovery is the most distant object detected by the NuSTAR X-ray space ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — Hot Jupiters are giant planets initially known to orbit alone close to their star. During their migration towards their star, these planets were thought to accrete or eject any other planets present. However, this paradigm has been overturned by ...
Jan. 14, 2025 — Engineers have demonstrated a well-known quantum thought experiment in the real world. Their findings deliver a new and more robust way to perform quantum computations and they have important ...
Jan. 10, 2025 — A whitish, grey patch that sometimes appears in the night sky alongside the northern lights has now been ...
Latest Physical/Tech Headlines
updated 10:48pm EST
Jan. 15, 2025 — For decades there has been near constant progress in reducing the size, and increasing the performance, of the circuits that power computers and smartphones. But Moore's Law is ending as physical limitations -- such as the number of transistors that can fit on a chip and the heat that results from packing them ever more densely -- are slowing the rate of performance increases. Computing capacity ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — Engineers have found a way to eliminate the fluid flow 'dead zones' that plague the types of electrodes used for battery-based seawater desalination. The new technique uses a physics-based tapered flow channel design within electrodes that moves fluids quickly and efficiently, potentially requiring less energy than reverse osmosis techniques ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — Scientists have taken a major step forwards in tackling one of the greatest abiding challenges in chemistry, by learning how to program the self-assembly of molecules in such a way that the end result is predictable and desirable. Their 'Malteser-like' molecules could one day have a suite of applications -- from highly sensitive and specific ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — In order to recover valuable substances from CO2, it must be reduced in many individual steps. If electrocatalysis is used for this, many potentially different potential molecules are formed, which cannot necessarily be used. Biocatalysts, on the other hand, are selective and only produce one product -- but they are also very sensitive. An international research team has developed a hybrid ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — Pandora, a small satellite mission poised to provide in-depth study of at least 20 known planets orbiting distant stars to determine the composition of their atmospheres cleared an important milestone by completing the spacecraft bus, which acts as the spacecraft's ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — By combining data from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys and the Gemini South telescope, astronomers have investigated three ultra-faint dwarf galaxies that reside in a region of space isolated from the environmental influence of larger objects. The galaxies, located in the direction of NGC 300, were found to contain only very old stars, supporting the theory that events in the early Universe cut ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — For humans, the most important star in the universe is our Sun. The second-most important star is nestled inside the Andromeda galaxy. Don't go looking for it -- the flickering star is 2.2 million light-years away, and is 1/100,000th the brightness of the faintest star visible to the human eye. Yet, a century ago, its discovery by Edwin Hubble opened humanity's eyes as to how large the universe ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — New observational data and simulation models have confirmed a new type of planet unlike anything found in the Solar System. This provides another piece of the puzzle to understand how planets and planetary systems ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — The process of updating deep learning/AI models when they face new tasks or must accommodate changes in data can have significant costs in terms of computational resources and energy consumption. Researchers have developed a novel method that predicts those costs, allowing users to make informed decisions about when to update AI models to improve AI ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — A new study overcomes a key obstacle to switching commercial aircraft from their near-total reliance on fossil fuels to more sustainable aviation fuels. The study details a cost-effective method for producing ethylbenzene -- an additive that improves the functional characteristics of sustainable aviation fuels -- from polystyrene, a hard plastic used in many consumer ...
Jan. 9, 2025 — Imagine a future where your phone, computer or even a tiny wearable device can think and learn like the human brain -- processing information faster, smarter and using less energy. A breakthrough approach brings this vision closer to reality by electrically 'twisting' a single nanoscale ferroelectric domain ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — New insect-scale microrobots can fly more than 100 times longer than previous versions. The new bots, also significantly faster and more agile, could someday be used to pollinate fruits and ...
Environment News
January 16, 2025
Jan. 15, 2025 — New research has revealed that the nervous system circuitry that controls arm movement in octopuses is segmented, giving these extraordinary creatures precise control across all eight arms and ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — A groundbreaking study finds evidence that land was inherited through the female line in Iron Age Britain, with husbands moving to live with their wife's community. This is believed to be the first time such a system has been documented in European ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — Researchers have discovered what may be the world's oldest three-dimensional map, located within a quartzitic sandstone megaclast in the Paris ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — Scientists have mapped the amount of water stored beneath volcanic rocks at the crest of the central Oregon Cascades and found an aquifer many times larger than previously estimated -- at least 81 cubic kilometers. The finding has implications for ...
Latest Environment Headlines
updated 10:48pm EST
Jan. 15, 2025 — A new study shows distinct effects of neonicotinoid pesticide exposure in different bumble bee body parts, explaining why pesticides have diverse harmful effects and highlighting the need for more sensitive safety testing. The study shows pervasive effects 'akin to aging or ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — Researchers have described how the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus genetically adapts to humans, including mutations that allow some strains to evade the immune system and become resistant to ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — When a bird drapes its nest with snake skin, it isn't just making an interesting decor choice. Researchers find that for some birds, it keeps predators at ...
Jan. 9, 2025 — Prehistoric kangaroos in southern Australia had a more general diet than previously assumed, giving rise to new ideas about their survival and resilience to climate change, and the final extinction of the megafauna, a new study has found. The new research used advanced dental analysis techniques to study microscopic wear patterns on fossilized kangaroo ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — A new study has revealed the alarming extent glaciers have shrunk over the past 40 years in a global warming hotspot -- and the biggest retreat has occurred in recent ...
Jan. 16, 2025 — A long-standing question about when archaic members of the genus Homo adapted to harsh environments such as deserts and rainforests has been answered in a new research ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — A research team has discovered how the 'Shethna protein II' protects the nitrogen-fixing enzyme nitrogenase from damage. The oxygen sensor protein could help to make nitrogenase usable in biotechnology, thereby reducing the need for synthetic ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — Longer, more diverse rotations of crops fertilized with livestock manure have many environmental benefits, but carbon sequestration isn't one of them, according to a new ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — A new study outlines the ways by which city life may be shaping the evolution of urban coyotes, the highly adaptable carnivores spotted in alleyways from Berkeley, Calif., to the Bronx, in New ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — The three-dimensional shape of a protein can be used to resolve deep, ancient evolutionary relationships in the tree of life, according to a new study. It is the first time researchers use data from protein shapes and combine it with data from genomic sequences to improve the reliability of evolutionary trees, a critical resource used by the scientific community for understanding the history of ...
Jan. 10, 2025 — An international team of scientists has uncovered a fascinating piece of the evolutionary puzzle: how the ventral nerve cord, a key component of the central nervous system, evolved in ecdysozoan animals, a group that includes insects, nematodes, and priapulid worms. Their findings provide valuable insights into the origins of these structures in ...
Jan. 10, 2025 — anthropologists have analyzed a skull that was found in the ruins of Ephesos (Turkey) in 1929. It was long speculated that it could be the remains of Arsino IV, the sister of the famous Cleopatra. However, the latest anthropological analyses show that the remains are those of a boy between the ages of 11 and 14 who suffered from pathological developmental disorders. His genes point to an origin ...
Society/Education News
January 16, 2025
Dec. 11, 2024 — A new study shows that long-term exposure to air pollution contributes to millions of deaths in India. The research emphasizes the need for stricter air quality regulations in the ...
Dec. 10, 2024 — AI predicts that most of the world will see temperatures rise to 3C much faster than previously ...
Dec. 4, 2024 — Exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas during childhood altered the balance of mental health in the U.S. population, making generations of Americans more depressed, anxious and inattentive or hyperactive, according to researchers. They estimate ...
Nov. 13, 2024 — How much land, water, and other resources does our lifestyle require? And how can we adapt this lifestyle to stay within the limits of what the Earth can give? A new article tackles these ...
Latest Society/Education Headlines
updated 10:48pm EST
Jan. 15, 2025 — Experts are warning of the risks of spreading invasive and non-native species when moving large volumes of untreated lake, reservoir and river ...
Jan. 15, 2025 — Small-scale fisheries play a significant but overlooked role in global fisheries production and are key to addressing hunger and malnutrition while supporting livelihoods around the world, according to new research. The study rigorously quantified how marine and inland small-scale fisheries contribute to aquatic harvests and nutritional and socioeconomic security on a global ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — A new study found no changes in opioid outcomes among the general population with the states' passage of medical and recreational marijuana laws. However, the findings also show decreases in opioid outcomes after medical marijuana laws existed among people reporting cannabis ...
Jan. 14, 2025 — Federal reservoirs could help meet the country's solar energy needs, according to a new study. Geospatial scientists and senior legal and regulatory analyst quantified exactly how much energy could be generated from floating solar panel projects installed on federally owned or regulated ...
Jan. 13, 2025 — New research identifies differing trends in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses among adolescents and adults, including an increase among adults from 2020 to 2023. The study found a significant downward trends in ADHD incidence among adults from 2016 to 2020 and adolescents from 2016 to 2018. The ADHD incidence rate remained stable for adolescents in subsequent ...
Jan. 6, 2025 — A new study used acoustic sensors that detect the sound of gunfire to show how often children in one Chicago neighborhood are exposed to gunshots while walking to and from school. Results showed that nearly two-thirds of schools in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago had at least one gun incident within 400 meters (about one-quarter mile) of where children were walking home during the 2021-22 ...
Dec. 16, 2024 — When young children's behavior becomes challenging, many parents resort to threats -- from taking away toys to threatening that Santa will skip their house, a national poll ...
Dec. 10, 2024 — New research shows that mothers have twice the impact on language exposure, challenging traditional parenting advice. In a new study, researchers found that there wasn't a single strategy that could be singled out as 'best' to raise a child bilingually. But when they looked at parents' language use individually rather than the family's overall strategy, they had an unexpected and striking ...
Jan. 9, 2025 — Both intuition and past research suggest that whether people deem someone trustworthy depends on that person's past behavior and reputation for betrayal. In a series of experiments, psychologists found that subjects regarded those who previously exhibited that behavior as less trustworthy. However, when the betrayal benefited them or had no effect ...
Jan. 9, 2025 — Contrary to the long-held belief that the mid-career crisis plagues everyone, new research suggests that job satisfaction follows a U-shaped trajectory only for managerial and professional workers. This provocative finding challenges societal perceptions surrounding midlife and calls for a revaluation of workplace support for individuals in their ...
Jan. 3, 2025 — Farmers are receiving less of what consumers spend on food, as modern food systems increasingly direct costs toward value-added components like processing, transport, and marketing. A study shows that this effect shapes how food prices respond to agricultural climate policies: While value-added components buffer consumer price changes in wealthier ...
Dec. 17, 2024 — A new study has shown that employees are experiencing mental and physical techno-strain due to being 'hyperconnected' to digital technology making it difficult for people to switch off from ...