Human Quirks News

July 26, 2024

Top Headlines

Controlling Mosquito Populations Through Genetic Breeding

July 22, 2024 — Researchers have found a new way to identify genetic targets useful for control of mosquito populations, potentially offering an alternative to insecticides. Their study focused on the genetic basis of species incompatibility. They crossed Ae. ...

In Clinical Trial, Fecal Matter Transplant Helped Half of Patients With Gastrointestinal Cancers Overcome Resistance to Immunotherapy Treatment

July 25, 2024 — Findings from a small, proof-of-concept clinical trial have suggested that fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) can boost the effectiveness of immunotherapy in a range of gastrointestinal cancers. In ...

Artificial Blood Vessels Could Improve Heart Bypass Outcomes

July 25, 2024 — 3D-printed blood vessels, which closely mimic the properties of human veins, could transform the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Strong, flexible, gel-like tubes -- created using a novel 3D printing technology -- could improve outcomes for ...

Smell of Human Stress Affects Dogs' Emotions Leading Them to Make More Pessimistic Choices

July 22, 2024 — Dogs experience emotional contagion from the smell of human stress, leading them to make more 'pessimistic' choices, new research finds. Researchers tested how human stress odors affect dogs' ...

Latest Headlines

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Expiring Medications Could Pose Challenge on Long Space Missions

July 23, 2024 — A new study shows that over half of the medicines stocked in space -- staples such as pain relievers, antibiotics, allergy medicines, and sleep aids -- would expire before astronauts could return to ...

Study Uses Game of Thrones to Advance Understanding of Face Blindness

July 23, 2024 — Psychologists have used the hit TV series Game of Thrones to understand how the brain enables us to recognize faces. Their findings provide new insights into prosopagnosia or face blindness, a ...

Food Aroma Study May Help Explain Why Meals Taste Bad in Space

July 16, 2024 — A new study on common food aromas may help explain why astronauts report that meals taste bland in space and struggle to eat their normal nutritional intake. This research has broader implications ...

Singing the Science: Using Karaoke to Examine Blushing

July 17, 2024 — A new collaboration explores the neural substrates of blushing in a MRI ...

Psilocybin Generates Psychedelic Experience by Disrupting Brain Network

July 17, 2024 — Researchers report that psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, destabilizes a critical network of brain areas involved in introspective thinking. The findings provide a neurobiological ...

What Fat Cats on a Diet May Tell Us About Obesity in Humans

July 17, 2024 — Pet cats may be excellent animal models for the study of obesity origins and treatment in humans, a new study of feline gut microbes suggests -- and both species would likely get healthier in the ...

Enzyme-Powered 'Snot Bots' Help Deliver Drugs in Sticky Situations

July 17, 2024 — Snot might not be the first place you'd expect nanobots to be swimming around. But this slimy secretion exists in more places than just your nose and piles of dirty tissues -- it also lines and helps ...

Cuttlefish Can Form False Memories, Too

July 17, 2024 — During an event, details like what you saw, smelled, and felt aren't stored as a single memory. Rather, they are encoded and stored in your brain separately. To retrieve that memory, those pieces ...

Scientists Find That Small Regions of the Brain Can Take Micro-Naps While the Rest of the Brain Is Awake and Vice Versa

July 16, 2024 — For the first time, scientists have found that sleep can be detected by patterns of neuronal activity just milliseconds long, 1000 times shorter than ...

New Way for Beneficial Microbes to Survive Extreme Conditions and Space Exploration

July 9, 2024 — Investigators sought to help figure out how to send materials like probiotics into space and to better treat a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) and ...

Can Consciousness Exist in a Computer Simulation?

July 19, 2024 — A new essay explores which conditions must be met for consciousness to exist. At least one of them can't be found in a ...

Origins of Creativity in the Brain

July 15, 2024 — New results could ultimately help lead to interventions that spark creative thought or aid people who have mental illnesses that disrupt these regions of the ...

'A History of Contact': Geneticists Are Rewriting the Narrative of Neanderthals and Other Ancient Humans

July 11, 2024 — Using genomes from 2,000 living humans as well as three Neanderthals and one Denisovan, an international team mapped the gene flow between the hominin groups over the past quarter-million ...

Muscle Machine: How Water Controls the Speed of Muscle Contraction

July 11, 2024 — The flow of water within a muscle fiber may dictate how quickly muscle can contract, according to a new ...

When There's Money to Lose, Phone Usage While Driving Drops

July 10, 2024 — Researchers discovered that feedback plus cash incentives designed with insights from behavioral science reduces phone use while ...

Two New Species of Psilocybe Mushrooms Discovered in Southern Africa

July 4, 2024 — In a new paper, researchers and citizen mycologists describe the two new species as Psilocybe ingeli and Psilocybe maluti. The paper also contains information on the traditional use of P. maluti by ...

Clever Clothes! Seams in Clothing Capture Body Movement

July 2, 2024 — Everyday clothing may soon be able to capture and record body movements according to new ...

Doctors Could Soon Use Facial Temperature for Early Diagnosis of Metabolic Diseases

July 2, 2024 — A colder nose and warmer cheeks may be a telltale sign of rising blood pressure. Researchers discovered that temperatures in different face regions are associated with various chronic illnesses, such ...

New and Improved Camera Inspired by the Human Eye

July 1, 2024 — Computer scientists have invented a camera mechanism that improves how robots see and react to the world around them. Inspired by how the human eye works, their innovative camera system mimics the ...

Creating Supranormal Hearing in Mice

June 28, 2024 — A new study has produced supranormal hearing in mice, while also supporting a hypothesis on the cause of hidden hearing loss in ...

Microrobot-Packed Pill Shows Promise for Treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Mice

June 26, 2024 — Engineers have developed a pill that releases microscopic robots, or microrobots, into the colon to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The experimental treatment, given orally, has shown success ...

Eating Small Fish Whole Can Prolong Life Expectancy, a Japanese Study Finds

June 26, 2024 — A new study has found evidence linking the intake of whole-sized small fish with a reduced risk of all-cause and cancer mortality in Japanese ...

Your Future Medications Could Be Personalized for You on a 3D Printer

June 25, 2024 — Scientists are helping to develop standards and safety protocols that would allow pharmacies to print drugs onsite at a dosage best for ...

Next Platform for Brain-Inspired Computing

June 25, 2024 — Computers have come so far in terms of their power and potential, rivaling and even eclipsing human brains in their ability to store and crunch data, make predictions and communicate. But there is ...

Moving Objects Precisely With Sound

June 25, 2024 — Researchers have succeeded in directing floating objects around an aquatic obstacle course using only soundwaves. Their novel, optics-inspired method holds great promise for biomedical applications ...

Meet CARMEN, a Robot That Helps People With Mild Cognitive Impairment

June 24, 2024 — Meet CARMEN, short for Cognitively Assistive Robot for Motivation and Neurorehabilitation -- a small, tabletop robot designed to help people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) learn skills to ...

Can AI Learn Like Us?

June 20, 2024 — Scientists have developed a new, more energy-efficient way for AI algorithms to process data. His model may become the basis for a new generation of AI that learns like we do. Notably, these findings ...

Parliamentary Members Use Simpler Language on Hot Days

June 13, 2024 — Climate change has many widespread and complicated effects on the well-being of people and the planet, and a new study has now added a surprising one to the list. After analyzing the language used in ...

Swimming Microrobots Deliver Cancer-Fighting Drugs to Metastatic Lung Tumors in Mice

June 12, 2024 — Engineers have developed microscopic robots, known as microrobots, capable of swimming through the lungs to deliver cancer-fighting medication directly to metastatic tumors. This approach has shown ...

Ingestible Microbiome Sampling Pill Technology Advances

June 12, 2024 — Significant progress has been made in the development of a small device, about the size of a vitamin pill, that can be swallowed and passed through the gastrointestinal tract to sample and help ...