Top Science News

Dec. 19, 2024 — Antibodies can improve the rehabilitation of people with acute spinal cord injury. Researchers have investigated this with promising results. For the first time, it was possible to identify patient groups that displayed a clinically relevant treatment ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — Stitching together four molecules found in the standard flu vaccine ensures an immune response to all of them, scientists have ...

Dec. 17, 2024 — A psychologist found that a baby's first sweet sounds and early attempts at forming words are directly linked to the baby's heart ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — Opening new doors for the development of nanotechnologies in medicine and other fields, scientists recreate and compare two natural mechanisms to better program the timescale of molecular communication and ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — Quantum teleportation could provide near-instant communication over long distances. But, inside Internet cables, photons needed for teleportation are lost within the millions of light particles required for classical communications. A new study quantified light scattering to find exact areas to place photons to keep them safe from other particles. The approach successfully worked in experiments ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — A study introduces a novel thermodynamic concept called the 'centotectic' and investigates the stability of liquids in extreme conditions -- critical information for determining the habitability of icy moons like ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — Researchers developed a laser-based artificial neuron that fully emulates the functions, dynamics and information processing of a biological graded neuron, which could lead to new breakthroughs in advanced computing. With a processing speed a billion times faster than nature, chip-based laser neuron could help advance AI tasks such as pattern ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — Scientists have discovered a way to remove toxic compounds from potatoes and tomatoes, making them safer to eat and easier to store. The breakthrough could cut food waste and enhance crop farming in extreme environments, like outer ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — At a Neolithic settlement on the Danish island Funen dating back 5,500 years, archaeologists have discovered both grinding stones and grains from early cereals. However, new research reveals that the inhabitants did not use the stones to grind the cereal grains. Instead of making bread, they likely prepared porridge or gruel from the ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — A new study finds nearly 50 hidden relatives of Pterodactylus, the first pterosaur. Joined by its newly discovered relatives, Pterodactylus's 'family' now encompasses tiny flaplings, a host of teenagers, some mums and dads and even a few large old seniors. Fluorescing bones stimulated by powerful LED UV torches, revealed invisible details of the head, hands and feet of ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — A new study about Earth's northernmost seafloor hydrothermal system shows even more variety in vent styles than previously thought. The study has important implications for understanding the origin of these vents and assessing their global-scale impact on the Earth-Ocean system. The study also has implications for understanding and searching for habitable environments, and potentially even life ...

Dec. 23, 2024 — A research team has developed a groundbreaking technology that can treat colon cancer by converting cancer cells into a state resembling normal colon cells without killing them, thus avoiding side ...

Dec. 23, 2024 — Hospitals that have adopted the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) 'hospital-at-home' program, which serves as an alternative to admission to brick-and-mortar facilities, are concentrated in large, urban, not-for-profit, and academic hospitals, highlighting need for targeted incentives to expand program to smaller, rural, and non-teaching ...

Dec. 23, 2024 — Researchers have created a platform, called SIMPL2, that revolutionizes the study of protein-protein interactions by simplifying detection while improving measurement accuracy. While protein-protein interactions have previously been considered 'undruggable' using small molecules, the platform addresses this challenge by facilitating the ...

Dec. 23, 2024 — Researchers have unveiled a critical mechanism that links cellular stress in the brain to the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The study highlights microglia, the brain's primary immune cells, as central players in both the protective and harmful responses associated with the ...

Dec. 23, 2024 — Scientists traced connectivity between neurons to identify how the brain communicates with the spinal cord to control motor ...

Dec. 23, 2024 — A choice was made to include each word in this sentence. Every message, even the most mundane, is crafted with a specific frame in mind that impacts how the message is perceived. The study of framing effects is a multidisciplinary line of research that investigates when, how, and why language influences those who receive a message and how it impacts their ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — Using an AI tool, researchers have analyzed brain images from 70-year-olds and estimated their brains' biological age. They found that factors detrimental to vascular health, such as inflammation and high glucose levels, are associated with an older-looking brain, while healthy lifestyles were linked to brains with a younger ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — New research finds a pervasive low-quality diet among pregnant and postpartum individuals, reflecting 'an urgent need for widespread ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — Impatience, studies of more than 1,200 people found, is the emotion people feel when they face a delay that seems unfair, unreasonable, or inappropriate -- like a traffic jam outside of rush hour, or a meeting that should have ended 15 minutes ago. Patience is the form of emotion regulation we use to cope with those feelings of ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — A study of more than 2,400 people with atrial fibrillation, who had an average age of 73, found that drinking more than five cups of caffeinated coffee daily was associated with better performance on an array of cognitive tests than drinking less than one cup or avoiding coffee ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — California's native wildflowers are being smothered by layers of dead, invasive grasses. A new study shows that simply raking these layers can boost biodiversity and reduce fire ...

Dec. 23, 2024 — Bright, twisted light can be produced with technology similar to an Edison light bulb, researchers have shown. The finding adds nuance to fundamental physics while offering a new avenue for robotic vision systems and other applications for light that traces out a helix in ...

Dec. 17, 2024 — Another advance has been made by experts in nano-scale chemistry to propel further development of sustainable and efficient generation of hydrogen from water using solar power. Experts have now identified a novel solar cell process to potentially use in future technologies for photocatalytic water splitting in green hydrogen ...

Dec. 16, 2024 — A novel nanobody-based immunosensor, designed to function stably in undiluted biological fluids and harsh conditions, has been developed. Their innovative design leverages BRET -- bioluminescence resonance energy transfer -- and exhibits great potential for point-of-care testing, therapeutic drug monitoring, and environmental applications using ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — Scientists have delivered the first measurements of Greenland Ice Sheet thickness change using data from ESA and NASA ice satellite missions. With global warming causing the Greenland Ice Sheet to melt and flow more rapidly, raising sea levels and disturbing weather patterns across our planet, precise measurements of its changing shape are of ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — Scientist have begun to reveal the particle-level processes that create the type of auroras that dance rapidly across the sky. The Kinetic-scale Energy and momentum Transport experiment -- KiNET-X -- lifted off from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on May 16, 2021, in the final minutes of the final night of the nine-day launch ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — Researchers have found evidence of magnetic fields associated with a disc of gas and dust a few hundred light-years across deep inside a system of two merging galaxies known as Arp220. They say these regions could be the key to making the centres of interacting galaxies just right for cooking lots of hydrogen gas into young ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — Scientists are changing our understanding of climate and weather on Mars and providing critical insights into Earth's atmospheric processes as ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — Researchers have made a meaningful advance in the simulation of molecular electron transfer -- a fundamental process underpinning countless physical, chemical and biological processes. The study details the use of a trapped-ion quantum simulator to model electron transfer dynamics with unprecedented tunability, unlocking new opportunities for ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — Researchers trained a large language model to read medical charts, looking for signs that kids with ADHD received the right follow-up care when using new ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — Artificial intelligence can provide critical insights into how complex mixtures of chemicals in rivers affect aquatic life -- paving the way for better environmental ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — Artificial intelligence that is as intelligent as humans may become possible thanks to psychological learning models, combined with certain types of ...

Dec. 23, 2024 — Putting extra holiday cookies and leftovers in the freezer will not only extend their shelf life -- it could also put a dent in the U.S. household tendency to throw away edible food, a new study ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — A new tool that predicts the behavior of desert locust populations will help national agencies to manage huge swarms before they devastate food crops in Africa and ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — Researchers have designed a new technology that takes inspiration from WWI fighter aircraft machine gun and propeller synchronization to manipulate cell behavior by precisely modulating the pH of the cell's environment in real-time. Their findings provide a new pathway for creating therapeutics for cancer and heart disease and expanding the field of tissue ...

Dec. 23, 2024 — Three years after the Dec. 30, 2021, Marshall Fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County, two new studies offer insight into what happens to air quality and health in the aftermath of urban ...

Dec. 23, 2024 — A new study finds gases harmful to human health lingered for weeks following the ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new material for sodium-ion batteries, sodium vanadium phosphate, that delivers higher voltage and greater energy capacity than previous sodium-based materials. This breakthrough could make sodium-ion batteries a more efficient and affordable alternative to lithium-ion, using a more abundant and cost-effective ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — New research reveals that right whales can survive for more than 130 years -- almost twice as long as previously ...

Dec. 20, 2024 — Investigations into precipitation patterns in eastern Central Europe since the end of the last ice age have shown that dynamic processes in atmospheric circulation, such as the North Atlantic jet stream, influence regional changes in precipitation. The researchers analyzed dripstones from caves in Romania, which act as a natural climate archive that allows conclusions to be drawn about ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — Scientists have successfully identified a previously unknown species to Southern California from fossilized seeds, revealing a drought-fueled dance between two species of juniper with lessons for the region's climate ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — Fossilized skeletons and shells clearly show how evolution and extinction unfolded over the past half a billion years, but a new analysis extends the chart of life to nearly 2 billion years ago. The chart shows the relative ups and downs in species counts, telling scientists about the origin, diversification, and extinction of ancient life. With this new study, the chart of life now includes life ...

Dec. 18, 2024 — A fragment of 'lost' music found in the pages of Scotland's first full-length printed book is providing clues to what music sounded like five centuries ago. Scholars have been investigating the origins of the musical score -- which contains only 55 notes -- to cast new light on music from pre-Reformation Scotland in the early sixteenth-century. Researchers say the tantalizing discovery is a rare ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — A new study reveals significant improvements in the health of older adults when compared to previous ...

Dec. 19, 2024 — The future of data security depends on the reliable application of quantum technology, but its widespread adoption requires rigorous verification. Researchers have developed a novel approach to verify quantum protocols, ensuring their reliability in safety- and security-critical applications. This advancement addresses the need for trustworthy ...

Dec. 17, 2024 — If the experience of watching a FIFA World Cup soccer final is intense, spare a thought for the players, who are competing at an ever increasing intensity, according to a new ...

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 ...

Dec. 10, 2024 — Life can be tricky. We have so many decisions to make. It's a good thing we have an orbitofrontal cortex and hippocampus to help us. These areas of the brain work together to help us sort through tasks that require resolving ambiguity, that is, situations in which the meaning of stimuli changes depending on ...

Dec. 8, 2024 — Bucking conventionality, boys in Norway are making early gains in reading English as a second language and even outperforming girls at age 10 and 13 -- a new a study of more than one million students ...

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 ...

Dec. 13, 2024 — Tsunamis can cause immense physical damage to ports, but the economic cost does not stop there. The resultant disruptions of shipping lanes result in billions of dollars in losses every day, as was seen in the 2011 tsunami that hit the Tohoku Region. To better assess the ripple effect a tsunami could cause to shipping lanes in the South China Sea, a group of international researchers carried out ...

Dec. 11, 2024 — Artificial intelligence, AI, is rapidly transforming work also in the financial sector. A recent study explored how integrating AI into the work of sales teams affects the interpersonal communication competence required of sales managers. The study found that handing routine tasks over to AI improved efficiency and freed up sales managers' time ...

Nov. 26, 2024 — A study offers a solution to water scarcity during droughts amid the tug of economic development, population growth and climate uncertainty for water users in Western U.S. states. The proposed two-way leasing contracts would coordinate agricultural-to-urban leasing during periods of drought and urban-to-agricultural leasing during wet periods, ...