Top Science News

Mar. 31, 2025 — People breathing contaminated air over the course of years are at greater risk of developing numerous diseases. This is thought to be due to highly reactive components in particulate matter, which affect biological processes in the body. However, researchers have now shown that precisely these components disappear within hours and that previous ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — A newly developed blood test for Alzheimer's disease not only aids in the diagnosis of the neurodegenerative condition but also indicates how far it has progressed, according to a new ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — Inhaling dust particles from the Red Planet over long periods of time could put humans at risk of developing respiratory issues, thyroid disease and other health ...

Mar. 28, 2025 — Scientists have long sought to unravel the mysteries of strange metals -- materials that defy conventional rules of electricity and magnetism. Now, a team of physicists has made a breakthrough in this area using a tool from quantum information science. The study reveals that electrons in strange metals become more entangled at a crucial tipping point, shedding new light on the behavior of these ...

Mar. 28, 2025 — Novel artificial neurons learn independently and are more strongly modeled on their biological counterparts. A team of researchers has programmed these infomorphic neurons and constructed artificial neural networks from them. The special feature is that the individual artificial neurons learn in a self-organized way and draw the necessary information from their immediate environment in the ...

Mar. 27, 2025 — How gravity causes a perfectly spherical ball to roll down an inclined plane is part of elementary school physics canon. But the world is messier than a textbook. Scientists have sought to quantitatively describe the much more complex rolling physics of real-world objects. They have now combined theory, simulations, and experiments to understand what happens when an imperfect, spherical object is ...

Mar. 27, 2025 — Imagine navigating a virtual reality with contact lenses or operating your smartphone under water: This and more could soon be a reality thanks to innovative e-skins. A research team has developed an electronic skin that detects and precisely tracks magnetic fields with a single global sensor. This artificial skin is not only light, transparent and permeable, but also mimics the interactions of ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — While the threat that microplastics pose to human and ecological health has been richly documented and is well known, nanoplastics, which are smaller than one micrometer (1/50th the thickness of an average human hair), are far more reactive, far more mobile and vastly more capable of crossing biological membranes. Yet, because they are so tiny and ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — A new study warns that global climate change may have a devastating effect on butterflies, turning their species-rich, mountain habitats from refuges into traps. Think of it as the 'butterfly effect' -- the idea that something as small as the flapping of a butterfly's wings can eventually lead to a major event such as a hurricane -- in reverse. The new study also suggests that a lack of ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered a complete Quina technological system in the Longtan site in southwest China. The discovery challenges the widely held perception that the Middle Paleolithic period was mostly static in East ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — Every night, bats emerge out of roosts in massive numbers, creating what scientists have called a 'cocktail party nightmare' of clashing echolocations. Nobody knew how bats managed this severe sensorial challenge. Now, scientists have tracked bats within a group of thousands to find out: when bats first emerge from the roost, they increase their distance from the center of the group and adjust ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — A new form of tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy, a form of personalized cancer immunotherapy, dramatically improved the treatment's effectiveness in patients with metastatic gastrointestinal cancers, according to results of a clinical trial. The findings offer hope that this therapy could be used to treat a variety of solid tumors, which ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — By integrating powerful 3D imaging technology with advanced computation, researchers can capture gaze direction information from tens of thousands of surface points on the eye instead of about a dozen used by conventional eye-tracking methods. The technique could boost eye-tracking accuracy in a variety of fields ranging from the entertainment industry to medical research and industrial ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — A new study has found that children exposed to higher levels of air pollution in early and mid childhood have weaker connections between key brain regions. The findings highlight the potential impact of early exposure to air pollution on brain ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — Medical imaging experts are adept at solving common optical illusions, according to new research. The research is the first to show that people can be trained to do better at solving visual illusions, which was previously thought to be near-impossible. The study shows that medical imaging experts are particularly accurate at judging the size of objects in common optical illusions. In other words, ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — AI mental health apps may offer a cheap and accessible way to fill the gaps in the overstretched U.S. mental health care system, but ethics experts warn that we need to be thoughtful about how we use them, especially with ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — Fear of emotions among couples with PTSD is associated with unproductive communication, according to a new ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — As warehouses go, nuclei are more like libraries than bank vaults. Too many cellular components need access to the genome to lock it down like Fort Knox. Instead, large groupings of more than 1,000 individual protein molecules called nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) pepper the dividing membrane, serving as gateways for materials and messages entering and exiting the nucleus. While the basic need for ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — Public awareness of the link between drinking alcohol and an elevated risk of cancer has grown since last fall, with 55% of U.S. adults saying that regularly consuming alcohol increases your chances of later developing cancer, according to a new ...

Mar. 30, 2025 — New findings indicate that while the rate of marathon runners who suffer cardiac arrests remained unchanged, their chance for survival is twice what it was in the past. Now, far fewer marathon runners who suffer cardiac arrest are dying of ...

Mar. 27, 2025 — The way teachers manage classroom discussion with pupils plays a key role in the teaching of writing, a new study ...

Mar. 26, 2025 — People living in more disadvantaged neighborhoods may be more likely to develop dementia than people living in neighborhoods with fewer disadvantages, according to a new study. The study does not prove that neighborhood factors cause dementia; it only shows an ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — A team of chemists found a way to see into battery interfaces -- tight, tricky spots buried deep inside the cell have long frustrated battery ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — Self-healing coatings are advanced materials that can repair damage, such as scratches and cracks on their own. Researchers have developed an efficient method for preparing self-healing films consisting of alternating layers of highly cross-linked organosiloxane and linear polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Their film is more durable than conventional self-healing PDMS materials, offering superior ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — Researchers present gum tragacanth as a plant-based alternative to gelatin for creating edible films. The team developed films containing different concentrations of gelatin and gum tragacanth and monitored their survivability in water and saline solutions. They found the optimal combination of gum tragacanth and gelatin for maintaining the gelatin's gel-like behavior was a 3-to-1 ratio of the ...

Mar. 25, 2025 — Deep below the Earth's surface, rock and mineral formations lay hidden with a secret brilliance. Under a black light, the chemicals fossilized within shine in brilliant hues of pink, blue and green. Scientists are using these fluorescent features to understand how the caves formed and the conditions for supporting life in extreme, and even ...

Mar. 24, 2025 — The longest organic molecules identified to date on Mars have recently been detected. These long carbon chains, containing up to 12 consecutive carbon atoms, could exhibit features similar to the fatty acids produced on Earth by biological activity. The lack of geological activity and the cold, arid climate on Mars have helped preserve this invaluable organic matter in a clay-rich sample for the ...

Mar. 24, 2025 — To mitigate global climate change, emissions of the primary culprit, carbon dioxide, must be drastically reduced. A newly developed process helps solve this problem: CO2 is directly split electrochemically into carbon and oxygen. Oxygen could also be produced in this way under water or in space -- without requiring stringent conditions such as pressure and ...

Mar. 5, 2025 — Satellite images from space are allowing scientists to delve deeper into the individual functions of different tropical forest canopies with new and surprising results. Understanding tree traits and functional diversity in the tropics is crucial for biodiversity, ecosystem modelling, and ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — Bioelectronic devices, neural interfaces, biosensors and AI hardware are now easier to make thanks to a streamlined method for fabricating a key ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — Researchers have developed new AI models that can vastly improve accuracy and discovery within protein science. Potentially, the models will assist the medical sciences in overcoming present challenges within, e.g. personalised medicine, drug discovery, and ...

Mar. 30, 2025 — Be it sensors, cameras, or displays: Metasurfaces have the potential to fundamentally improve optical systems in our everyday lives. By controlling light more precisely, they drive compact, multi-functional solutions. Researchers have now developed an optical component that enables highly efficient light control at steep angles of incidence, overcoming previous ...

Mar. 27, 2025 — Researchers have conducted groundbreaking research on memristor-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). This research presents an innovative approach for implementing energy-efficient adaptive neuromorphic decoders in BCIs that can effectively co-evolve with changing brain ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — Linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid found in seed oils such as soybean and safflower oil, and animal products including pork and eggs, specifically enhances the growth of the hard-to-treat 'triple negative' breast cancer subtype, according to a preclinical study. The discovery could lead to new dietary and pharmaceutical strategies against breast ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — Scientists have released new and more accurate genome sequences for five species of duckweed. Their research reveals the specific genes responsible for some of the plant's most useful traits, allowing for new commercial agriculture ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — A study presents a striking example of cooperative organization among cells as a potential force in the evolution of multicellular life. The study is based on the fluid dynamics of cooperative feeding by Stentor, a relatively giant unicellular ...

Apr. 1, 2025 — Mountain snowpacks accumulate snow throughout the winter, building up stores of water that will supply communities across the American West throughout the long dry season. Now, a new study shows that as storms carry snow to the Rocky Mountains, they are also bringing mercury and other contaminants from mines in the region. The research helps scientists understand how contaminants are spread by ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — Human thermoregulation limits are lower than previously thought, indicating that some regions may soon experience heat and humidity levels exceeding safe limits for survival. The study underscores the urgent need to address climate change impacts on human health, providing vital data to inform public health strategies and climate ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — A combination of water management practices has contributed to notable groundwater gains in Central Arizona despite the region dealing with long-term water stress, according to a new ...

Mar. 31, 2025 — Researchers have developed an innovative solution to a pressing environmental challenge: removing and destroying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly called 'forever chemicals.' A new study unveils a method that not only eliminates PFAS from water systems but also transforms waste into high-value graphene, offering a cost-effective and sustainable approach to environmental ...

Mar. 24, 2025 — Biologists have discovered that bombesin, a neurohormone controlling appetite in humans, also regulates feeding in starfish, revealing its ancient evolutionary origin dating back over 500 million years. The study not only sheds light on the deep evolutionary roots of appetite regulation but also suggests potential applications for managing starfish invasions in shellfish farms impacted by climate ...

Mar. 26, 2025 — Scientists uncovered how whole-genome duplication emerges and remains stable over thousands of generations of evolution in the ...

Mar. 26, 2025 — Major milestone reached in digital Cuneiform studies: Researchers present an innovative tool that offers many new ...

Mar. 27, 2025 — Researchers have created a way to see your family tree as a movie rather than a still portrait by tracing where your ancestors moved across the globe over time. The statistical method can also be used to model disease spread and studying how animals move through geographic ...

Mar. 28, 2025 — A new study found that over half of US adults experienced some form of discrimination, and individuals with high exposure to discrimination have more than five times the chances of screening positive for depression, and five times the chances of screening positive for anxiety. Compared to adults who do not experience discrimination, adults who do ...

Mar. 27, 2025 — In the past, intact forests absorbed 7.8 billion tons of CO2 annually -- about a fifth of all human emissions -- but their carbon storage is increasingly at risk from climate change and human activities such as deforestation. A new study shows that failing to account for the potentially decreasing ability of forests to absorb CO2 could make reaching the Paris agreement targets significantly ...

Mar. 27, 2025 — Renting clothes can reduce the fashion industry's enormous environmental impact, but so far, the business models have not worked very well. The best chance of success is for a rental company to provide clothing within a niche market, such as specific sportswear, and to work closely with the suppliers and clothing ...

Mar. 24, 2025 — Pro-environmental behavior increases among school students who participate in insect-related citizen science projects, according to new ...

Mar. 21, 2025 — If you've ever noticed how memories from the same day seem connected while events from weeks apart feel separate, a new study reveals the reason: Our brains physically link memories that occur close in time not in the cell bodies of neurons, but rather in their spiny extensions called ...

Mar. 19, 2025 — By revealing for the first time what happens in the brain when an animal makes a mistake, researchers are shedding light on the holy grail of neuroscience: the mechanics of how we learn. The team pinpointed the exact moment mice learned a new skill by observing the activity of individual neurons, confirming earlier work that suggested animals are fast learners that purposely test the boundaries ...

Mar. 18, 2025 — A recent study has linked longevity specifically to verbal fluency, the measure of one's vocabulary and ability to use ...

Mar. 27, 2025 — People with dementia can enjoy productive and rewarding working lives in the digital era, contrary to the widespread stereotype that dementia is incompatible with the use of modern technology, according to new ...

Mar. 26, 2025 — New research has found that employers and policymakers might want to start paying attention to how workers are feeling, because employee happiness contains critical economic ...

Mar. 12, 2025 — Research finds people who learn the basics of debate are more likely to advance to leadership roles in U.S. organizations. A key reason seems to be that debate training makes employees more comfortable about being assertive in the ...

Mar. 12, 2025 — 'Fake it till you make it' might be common advice to climb the corporate ladder, but new research shows that this attitude could also adversely affect job satisfaction and mental ...