Human Quirks News

June 13, 2025

Top Headlines

The Hunger Switch in Your Nose: How Smells Tell Your Brain to Stop Eating

June 12, 2025 — A team of scientists has discovered a direct link between the smell of food and feelings of fullness at least in lean mice. This brain circuit, located in the medial septum and triggered by food odors, helps animals eat less by making them feel ...

Brain-Computer Interface Restores Real-Time Speech in Als Patient

June 12, 2025 — A team at UC Davis has made a major leap in neurotechnology, enabling a man with ALS to speak again through a brain-computer interface that converts thoughts into speech in real time. Unlike prior systems that translated neural signals into text, ...

Scientists Discover Natural Cancer-Fighting Sugar in Sea Cucumbers

June 11, 2025 — Sea cucumbers, long known for cleaning the ocean floor, may also harbor a powerful cancer-fighting secret. Scientists discovered a unique sugar in these marine creatures that can block Sulf-2, an enzyme that cancer cells use to spread. Unlike ...

New Discovery: Tylenol Stops Pain at the Nerves, Before It Hits the Brain

June 10, 2025 — Acetaminophen may be doing more than just dulling pain in your brain it could be stopping it before it even starts. Scientists at Hebrew University have discovered that a metabolite of the drug, AM404, blocks pain signals right at their source by ...

Burning for Beauty: How TikTok Skin Trends Are Harming Young Girls

June 9, 2025 — Teens are diving into intense skincare routines inspired by TikTok, often slathering on six or more products daily, sometimes over ten in just minutes, chasing beauty ideals that favor lighter, flawless skin. But new research warns this digital ...

5-Minute STI Test Poised to Transform Sexual Health Diagnostics

June 9, 2025 — A revolutionary STI test developed by UK-based Linear Diagnostics is on track to dramatically reduce the time it takes to detect infections like gonorrhea and chlamydia. Built on ultra-fast EXPAR DNA amplification technology, the platform can ...

Cannabis Use Among Seniors Surges 46% in Two Years--Study Reveals

June 7, 2025 — Cannabis use among older Americans has climbed dramatically, with 7% of adults 65 and older now reporting recent use. This rise isn't just in numbers but also in diversity older users today are more likely to be women, college-educated, and ...

Why Your Diet Might Be Making You Sad--Especially If You're a Man

June 7, 2025 — New research reveals a surprising downside to calorie-cutting diets: a link to higher levels of depressive symptoms, especially in men and those who are overweight. Despite popular beliefs that healthy eating boosts mental wellness, real-life ...

Dancing Brainwaves: How Sound Reshapes Your Brain Networks in Real Time

June 2, 2025 — Listening to sound doesn t just trigger brain activity it reshapes your brain s internal networks in real time. Scientists have unveiled a powerful new imaging method, FREQ-NESS, that traces how different sound frequencies ripple through brain ...

Could 'Pausing' Cell Death Be the Final Frontier in Medicine on Earth and Beyond?

May 29, 2025 — The process of necrosis, a form of cell death, may represent one of the most promising ways to change the course of human aging, disease and even space travel, according to a new ...

Five Things to Do in Virtual Reality -- And Five to Avoid

May 28, 2025 — A review of experimental research reveals how VR is best used and why it's struggled to become a megahit with ...

Electronic Tattoo Gauges Mental Strain

May 29, 2025 — Researchers gave participants face tattoos that can track when their brain is working too hard. The study introduces a non-permanent wireless forehead e-tattoo that decodes brainwaves to measure mental strain without bulky headgear. This technology ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:44pm EDT

Pincer Plot Twist: How Female Earwigs Evolved Deadly Claws for Love and War

June 12, 2025 — Female earwigs may be evolving exaggerated weaponry just like males. A study from Toho University found that female forceps, once assumed to be passive tools, show the same kind of outsized growth ...

Common Supplement Reverses Premature Aging in Landmark Human Trial

June 9, 2025 — A rare genetic disorder called Werner syndrome causes premature aging and devastating health complications from an early age, yet treatment options have been lacking. New hope emerges from Chiba ...

Whales Blow Bubble Rings--And They Might Be Talking to Us

June 7, 2025 — Humpback whales have been observed blowing bubble rings during friendly interactions with humans a behavior never before documented. This surprising display may be more than play; it could represent ...

Overlooked Cells Might Explain the Human Brain's Huge Storage Capacity

May 27, 2025 — Researchers have a new hypothesis for how brain cells called astrocytes might contribute to memory storage in the brain. Their model, known as dense associative memory, would help explain the brain's ...

Nearly Five Million Seized Seahorses Just 'Tip of the Iceberg' in Global Wildlife Smuggling

May 28, 2025 — Close to five million smuggled seahorses worth an estimated CAD$29 million were seized by authorities over a 10-year span, according to a new study ...

An Artificial Protein That Moves Like Something Found in Nature

May 22, 2025 — Proteins catalyze life by changing shape when they interact with other molecules. The result is a muscle twitching, the perception of light, or a bit of energy extracted from food. The ability to ...

Emotional Responses Crucial to Attitudes About Self-Driving Cars

May 27, 2025 — When it comes to public attitudes toward using self-driving cars, understanding how the vehicles work is important -- but so are less obvious characteristics like feelings of excitement or pleasure ...

Why After 2000 Years We Still Don't Know How Tickling Works

May 27, 2025 — How come you can't tickle yourself? And why can some people handle tickling perfectly fine while others scream their heads off? Neuroscientists argue that we should take tickle research more ...

A Dental Floss That Can Measure Stress

May 23, 2025 — Scientists create a floss pick that samples cortisol within saliva as a marker of stress and quantifies it with a built-in electrode. The system uses a polymer casting technology that can be adapted ...

Toothache from Eating Something Cold? Blame These Ancient Fish

May 21, 2025 — New research shows that dentine, the inner layer of teeth that transmits sensory information to nerves inside the pulp, first evolved as sensory tissue in the armored exoskeletons of ancient ...

Could AI Understand Emotions Better Than We Do?

May 22, 2025 — Is artificial intelligence (AI) capable of suggesting appropriate behavior in emotionally charged situations? A team put six generative AIs -- including ChatGPT -- to the test using emotional ...

Are Groovy Brains More Efficient?

May 21, 2025 — The smallest grooves on the brain's surface, unique to humans, have largely been ignored by anatomists, but recent studies show that they're related to cognitive performance, including face ...

A New Technology for Extending the Shelf Life of Produce

May 21, 2025 — Researchers developed a way to extend the shelf life of vegetables by injecting them with melatonin using biodegradable ...

Hand2: Positional Code That Allows Axolotls to Regrow Limbs Found

May 21, 2025 — With its fascinating ability to regrow entire limbs and internal organs, the Mexican axolotl is the ideal model for studying regeneration. Scientists have now found a factor that tells cells which ...

Wild Orangutans Show Communication Complexity Thought to Be Uniquely Human

May 16, 2025 — Researchers have found that wild orangutans vocalize with a layered complexity previously thought to be unique to human communication, suggesting a much older evolutionary ...

AI Overconfidence Mirrors Human Brain Condition

May 15, 2025 — Agents, chatbots and other tools based on artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly used in everyday life by many. So-called large language model (LLM)-based agents, such as ChatGPT and Llama, ...

Your Fingers Wrinkle in the Same Pattern Every Time You're in the Water for Too Long

May 12, 2025 — Your fingers wrinkle in the same pattern every time you're in the water for too long, according to new ...

3D Printing in Vivo Using Sound

May 8, 2025 — New technique for cell or drug delivery, localization of bioelectric materials, and wound healing uses ultrasound to activate printing within the ...

Is AI Truly Creative? Turns out Creativity Is in the Eye of the Beholder

May 8, 2025 — What makes people think an AI system is creative? New research shows that it depends on how much they see of the creative act. The findings have implications for how we research and design creative ...

AI-Designed DNA Controls Genes in Healthy Mammalian Cells for First Time

May 8, 2025 — A recent study marks the first reported instance of generative AI designing synthetic molecules that can successfully control gene expression in healthy mammalian cells. As a proof-of-concept, the ...

Non-Inherited Genes Affect Children's Development

May 7, 2025 — Parents' genes -- even when not directly inherited by a child -- may play a role in their educational and mental health outcomes, finds a new ...

Study Suggests We Don't Just Hear Music, but 'Become It'

May 6, 2025 — Psychologists suggest our brains and bodies don't just understand music, they physically resonate with it. These discoveries, based on findings in neuroscience, music, and psychology, support ...

Ancient Andes Society Used Hallucinogens to Strengthen Social Order

May 5, 2025 — Snuff tubes uncovered at Chavin de Huantar in Peru reveal how leaders used mystical experiences to cement their ...

Children as Young as Five Can Navigate a 'Tiny Town'

May 5, 2025 — Neuroscientists are developing methods to map the brain systems that allow us to recognize and get around our ...

The Future of Brain Activity Monitoring May Look Like a Strand of Hair

May 2, 2025 — Researchers have created a hairlike device for long-term, non-invasive monitoring of the brain's electrical activity. The lightweight and flexible electrode attaches directly to the scalp and ...

The All-Female Korean Haenyeo Divers Show Genetic Adaptions to Cold Water Diving

May 2, 2025 — The Haenyeo, a group of all-female divers from the Korean island of Jeju, are renowned for their ability to dive in frigid waters without the aid of breathing equipment -- even while pregnant. A ...

Artificial Sense of Touch, Improved

May 1, 2025 — While exploring a digitally represented object through artificially created sense of touch, brain-computer interface users described the warm fur of a purring cat, the smooth rigid surface of a door ...

New Research Reveals How Physiology-Inspired Networks Could Improve Political Decision-Making

May 1, 2025 — A new study has unveiled a groundbreaking framework for rethinking political decision-making -- drawing inspiration from how the human body maintains stability and ...

Good Karma for Me, Bad Karma for You

May 1, 2025 — Many people around the world believe in karma -- that idea that divine justice will punish people who do bad deeds and reward those who good. But that belief plays out differently for oneself versus ...

Seasonal Changes Affect Alcohol Tolerance and Your Waistline

Apr. 30, 2025 — Researchers have found that drug effectiveness, alcohol tolerance, and carbohydrate metabolism change with the seasons. Their findings are based on a comprehensive seasonal gene expression map, which ...