Top Science News

Oct. 10, 2024 — Skin pigmentation may act as a 'sponge' for some medications, potentially influencing the speed with which active drugs reach their intended targets, a pair of scientists ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — The secret to losing weight could all be down to a combination of 14 'skinny genes', a new study has found. Researchers discovered they helped people drop twice as much weight when they ran for half an hour three times a week. The team found those with more of the genes slimmed the most across eight ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — People with a preference for sweets are at a higher risk of developing depression, diabetes, and suffering a stroke, according to new ...

Oct. 11, 2024 — Researchers have successfully develop single-atom editing technology that maximizes drug ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — When lightning cracks on Earth, especially high-energy electrons may fall out of Earth's inner radiation belt, according to a new study -- an electron 'rain' that could threaten satellites, and even humans, in ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Researchers have significantly improved a new joining technology, interlocking metasurfaces (ILMs), designed to increase the strength and stability of a structure in comparison to traditional techniques like bolts and adhesives, using shape memory alloys (SMAs). ILMs offer the potential to transform mechanical joint design in manufacturing for aerospace, robotics and biomedical ...

Oct. 11, 2024 — A new technique enables makers to finely tune the color, shade, and texture of 3D-printed objects using only one material. The method is faster and uses less material than other ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — They say that hindsight is 20/20, and though the theory of ecological speciation -- which holds that new species emerge in response to ecological changes -- seems to hold in retrospect, it has been difficult to demonstrate experimentally, until now. Biologists have identified a key connection between ecology and speciation in Darwin's finches, ...

Oct. 11, 2024 — Female crested gibbons display jerky, almost geometric patterns of movement. Researchers have studied these conspicuous movements, which are comparable to human dances. They describe the structure of the dances, their rhythm and the contexts in which the dances ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — Researchers developed a rating system to evaluate the plausibility of climate model simulations in the IPCC's latest report, and show that models that lead to potentially catastrophic warming are to be taken ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Newly discovered birds from Late Cretaceous North America were hawk-sized and had powerful raptor-like feet, according to a new ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — A new study has failed to find any strong links between drinking coffee during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental difficulties in ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — There is new evidence that the cells responsible for communication in the brain may be structured differently in children with autism. Researchers discovered that in some areas of the brain neuron density varies in children with autism when compared to the general ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — There is variability in when and how cells divide during the development of embryos. While researchers traditionally believed this variability was an obstacle that needed to be regulated, a group now found that it actually promotes healthy ...

Oct. 2, 2024 — If you started watching a movie from the middle without knowing its plot, you'd likely be better at inferring what had happened earlier than predicting what will happen next, according to a new ...

Oct. 11, 2024 — For recognizing people's emotions, facial expressions do play an important role. However, they are not the only crucial ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — A team found fluorescein angiography useful for visualizing and assessing neural blood flow in severely damaged nerves during open carpal tunnel release ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — A new computer simulation of how our brains develop and grow neurons has been built. Along with improving our understanding of how the brain works, researchers hope that the models will contribute to neurodegenerative disease research and, someday, stem cell research that helps regenerate brain ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Light pollution is more serious than expected: Moths not only lose their orientation directly under street lamps. Their flight behaviour is also disturbed outside the cone of ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — Researcherers say a pair of experiments with children ages 4 to 7 shows that, given children's natural skepticism and early exposure to the internet's boundless misinformation, it is crucial for adults to teach them practical fact-checking skills. Instead of attempting to completely sanitize their online environment researchers argue adults should ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Dyslexia and dyscalculia are most commonly acknowledged as posing challenges linked to people's literacy and numeracy. However, a new study has shown those with the conditions may have previously unheralded strengths, namely reduced bias against others based on characteristics such as their disability, race or ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Parents seeking help in encouraging toddlers to be physically active may soon need to look no further than an inexpensive robotic buddy for their kids, a new study ...

Oct. 11, 2024 — Scientists have used light to visualize magnetic domains, and manipulated these regions using an electric field, in a quantum antiferromagnet. This method allows real-time observation of magnetic behaviors, paving the way for advancements in next-generation electronics and memory devices, as well as a deeper understanding of quantum ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — An organic catalyst offers chemists precise control over a vital step in activating ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Scientists are using mechanisms inspired by nature to create new technological innovations. A team has now created an octopus-inspired adhesive, inspired by the shape of octopus suckers, that can quickly grab and controllably release challenging underwater objects. Having the ability to grab and release these underwater objects like heavy rocks, small shells, and soft beads, and other debris ...

Oct. 11, 2024 — NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft simultaneously set their sights on Uranus recently, allowing scientists to make a direct comparison of the planet from two very different viewpoints. The results inform future plans to study like types of planets around other ...

Oct. 11, 2024 — Researchers have used the chemical fingerprints of zinc contained in meteorites to determine the origin of volatile elements on Earth. The results suggest that without 'unmelted' asteroids, there may not have been enough of these compounds on Earth for life to ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — When three massive objects meet in space, they influence each other through gravity in ways that evolve unpredictably. In a word: Chaos. That is the conventional understanding. Now, a researcher has discovered that such encounters often avoid chaos and instead follow regular patterns, where one of the objects is quickly expelled from the system. ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Astronomers have observed Jupiter's legendary Great Red Spot (GRS), an anticyclone large enough to swallow Earth, for at least 150 years. But there are always new surprises -- especially when NASA's Hubble Space Telescope takes a close-up look at it. Hubble's new observations of the famous red storm, collected 90 days between December 2023 to March 2024, reveal that the GRS is not as stable as it ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Artificial Intelligence has learned to master language, generate art, and even beat grandmasters at chess. But can it crack the code of abstract reasoning --t hose tricky visual puzzles that leave humans scratching their heads? Researchers are putting AI's cognitive abilities to the test, pushing the multi-modal large language models (MLLMs) to solve visual problems once reserved for human IQ ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Smart CCTV systems trained to spot blockages in urban waterways could become an important future tool in flood prevention, new research has ...

Oct. 8, 2024 — Researchers have just described the existence of the paradoxical Mpemba effect within quantum systems. Initially investigating out of pure curiosity, the discovery has bridged the gap between Aristotle's observations two millennia ago and modern-day understanding, and opened the door to a whole host of 'cool' -- and 'cooling' -- ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Researchers have developed a soft robotic 'finger' with a sophisticated sense of touch that can perform routine doctor office examinations, including taking a patient's pulse and checking for abnormal ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Bacteria that cause diseases, so-called pathogens, develop various strategies to exploit human cells as hosts to their own advantage. Researchers have now uncovered the attack strategies employed by the bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae (for short: C. pneumoniae). In a new study, they describe which molecular mechanisms the bacterium ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Opioid drugs are highly effective at relieving pain but come with severe drawbacks. Their side effects range from dizziness to potentially fatal respiratory depression. Their illegal use contributes to nearly half a million deaths worldwide each year. Researchers have discovered a molecule, called nanobody NbE, which binds tightly and durably to the cell receptors that usually bind to opioids, ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — New research identifies for the first time the genes that help plants grow under stressful conditions -- with implications for producing more sustainable food crops in the face of global climate change. The study reveals the genes that enable plants to make a novel anti-stress molecule called dimethylsulfoniopropionate, or DMSP. It shows that most plants make DMSP, but that high-level DMSP ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — Microscopic organisms in the ocean play a key role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A new study unveils a hidden biological factor that could change our understanding of how this process works, and make climate change predictions more ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — An international study investigates the health consequences of heavy rainfall events. Researchers analyzed the relationship between precipitation patterns and mortality rates at 645 locations across 34 countries from 1980 to 2020. The key finding: Extremely heavy rainfall, which occurs approximately every five years, significantly increases the risk of death, particularly among individuals with ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — For decades, scientists knew there was a huge swath of undetected and unaccounted for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the atmosphere, often referred to as PFAS dark matter, but no one knew how much was missing or how to measure them. Now, an atmospheric chemistry research team has devised a way to test for one of the most ubiquitous ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — A recent study provides groundbreaking insights into long-term changes in tropical weather patterns that are leading to an increased frequency of extreme weather events such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall in the Indo-Pacific. These changes are possibly driven by global warming, among other ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — Studying microscopic layers of dirt dug from the Tam Pa Ling cave site in northeastern Laos has provided a team of archaeologists further insights into some of the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in mainland Southeast Asia. The site, which has been studied for the past 14 years, has produced some of the earliest fossil evidence of our direct ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Archaeological surveys suggest that coastal and underwater cave sites in southern Sicily contain important new clues about the path and fate of early human migrants to the ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — Researchers have identified how the architecture of brain circuits helps different species flexibly adapt to new mating signals across evolutionary ...

Oct. 8, 2024 — Scientists have discovered one of the earliest examples of a winged seed, granting insight into the origin and early evolution of wind dispersal strategies in ...

Oct. 10, 2024 — The world's freshwater lakes are freezing over for shorter periods of time due to climate change. This shift has major implications for human safety, as well as water quality, biodiversity, and global nutrient ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — If you smugly believe you're right in a disagreement with a friend or colleague, a new study suggests why you may actually be wrong. Researchers found that people naturally assume they have all the information they need to make a decision or support their position, even when they do ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — As flu season approaches, researchers are discovering that the flu and fake news have far more in common than we may ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — New research has identified a key step in how neurons encode information on timescales that match ...

Sep. 30, 2024 — Prior research has found that exposure to social diversity in early life, such as through day care, influences how people communicate. Those early social experiences can also moderate tendencies toward stereotyping down the road, according to a new ...

Oct. 2, 2024 — Despite growing evidence of the importance of student well-being and an abundance of best practices, most institutions have yet to prioritize it as much as they do enrollment, graduation and grades. A new study provides guidance on how institutions can support and enhance student well-being, and breaks down the various benefits for learners during and beyond their university career. It identifies ...

Oct. 2, 2024 — 'Future You' is a generative AI tool that enables users to have a simulated conversation with a potential version of their future selves. The chatbot is meant to reduce users' anxiety, improve positive emotions, and guide them toward making better everyday ...

Sep. 26, 2024 — Using mathematical modeling, researchers found a way to maintain cooperation without relying on complex norms or ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new framework to make complex AI tasks more accessible and transparent to users. The framework specializes in providing solutions to deep reinforcement learning (DRL) requests. The framework pairs developers, companies and individuals that have specific but out-of-reach AI needs with service providers who have the ...

Aug. 16, 2024 — Researchers developed a new method known as flash-within-flash Joule heating (FWF) that could transform the synthesis of high-quality solid-state materials, offering a cleaner, faster and more sustainable manufacturing ...

Aug. 14, 2024 — A new article concludes that current climate standards are not sufficiently incentivizing the big picture innovations necessary to deliver net zero, and must be expanded to include a company's broader influence on climate ...