Top Science News

Jan. 15, 2025 — Researchers have identified nine mutations in a bird flu strain from a person in Texas. Bad news: this strain is more capable of causing disease and replicates better in the brain. Good news: approved antivirals are still ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — Small-scale fisheries play a significant but overlooked role in global fisheries production and are key to addressing hunger and malnutrition while supporting livelihoods around the world, according to new research. The study rigorously quantified how marine and inland small-scale fisheries contribute to aquatic harvests and nutritional and socioeconomic security on a global ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — People who eat more red meat, especially processed red meat like bacon, sausage and bologna, are more likely to have a higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia when compared to those who eat very little red meat, according to a new ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — By combining data from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys and the Gemini South telescope, astronomers have investigated three ultra-faint dwarf galaxies that reside in a region of space isolated from the environmental influence of larger objects. The galaxies, located in the direction of NGC 300, were found to contain only very old stars, supporting the theory that events in the early Universe cut ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — An international team of engineers has developed an innovative, scalable method for creating topography-patterned aluminum surfaces, enhancing liquid transport properties critical for applications in electronics cooling, self-cleaning technologies and anti-icing ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — A milestone in graphene research: Chemists have succeeded in controlling the passage of halide ions by deliberately introducing defects into a two-layer nanographene system. Their paper shows new perspectives for applications in water filtration or sensor ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — New observational data and simulation models have confirmed a new type of planet unlike anything found in the Solar System. This provides another piece of the puzzle to understand how planets and planetary systems ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — The three-dimensional shape of a protein can be used to resolve deep, ancient evolutionary relationships in the tree of life, according to a new study. It is the first time researchers use data from protein shapes and combine it with data from genomic sequences to improve the reliability of evolutionary trees, a critical resource used by the scientific community for understanding the history of ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — Evidence from over 18,300 hours of recorded flight calls suggests songbirds may 'talk' to other species as they migrate, forming social connections and -- just maybe -- exchanging information about the ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) has not slowed down since the mid-20th century based on the North Atlantic air-sea heat fluxes over that time. This finding contrasts with studies that have estimated a decline in the AMOC, likely because previous studies rely on sea surface temperature measurements to understand how the AMOC has changed. However, sea surface temperature is ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — Researchers have discovered a biological mechanism that makes plant roots more welcoming to beneficial soil ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered how chronic hepatitis C infection leads to autoimmune disease, which opens new paths for ...

Jan. 14, 2025 — Painful skin and trouble sleeping are among the problems reported when tapering cortisone cream for atopic eczema, according to a new study. Many users consider the problems to be caused by cortisone ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — A research team reports on a novel observation of a plant protection mechanism in response to salt stress. The study opens new avenues of research to strengthen food ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — A computational model explains how place cells in the hippocampus can be recruited to form any kind of episodic memory, even when there's no spatial ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — An international study has identified three psychological profiles associated with different patterns of cognitive and brain decline in aging. The study, which analyzed more than 1,000 middle-aged and older adults, shows that the specific psychological characteristics of each profile may influence the risk of developing dementia, as well as ...

Jan. 10, 2025 — Humans and mice exposed to long-wavelength red light had lower rates of blood clots that can cause heart attacks, lung damage and strokes, according to research led by ...

Jan. 13, 2025 — ICU delirium can be associated with a multitude of factors including underlying and acute medical conditions, pharmacologic agents or treatment regimens like surgery. Currently there is no definitive consensus on drug interventions that aid in the prevention of delirium or its treatment. While there has been some evidence that the ICU environment plays a role in delirium, more research is needed ...

Jan. 14, 2025 — A new study from an obesity researcher reveals that college students and older adults gain holiday weight just in different ...

Jan. 14, 2025 — Scientists are working to produce plant-based cheese with all the characteristics of real cheese, but with better health benefits. To create a cheesy product with the same texture as the real thing, they looked at a variety of physical attributes such as the melting, stretching, and oil-release upon grilling and heating and studied isolates from three proteins and how they interacted with the oil ...

Jan. 10, 2025 — A new study has found that the composition of your gut microbiome helps predict how likely you are to succumb to potentially life-threatening infection with Klebsiella pneumoniae, E.coli and other bugs -- and it may be altered by changing your ...

Jan. 10, 2025 — More than half of 23-year-olds in a European study show restrictive, emotional or uncontrolled eating behaviors, according to new research. Structural brain differences appear to play a role in the development of these eating ...

Jan. 14, 2025 — Scientists describe their construction of complementary, internal, ion-gated, organic electrochemical transistors that are more amenable chemically, biologically and electronically to living tissues than rigid, silicon-based technologies. The medical device based on these transistors can function in sensitive parts of the body and conform to organ structures even as they grow. The result is a ...

Jan. 14, 2025 — Researchers have published a study describing how quasiparticles called polarons behave in tellurene, a nanomaterial first synthesized in 2017 that is made up of tiny chains of tellurium atoms and has properties useful in sensing, electronic, optical and energy ...

Jan. 14, 2025 — Federal reservoirs could help meet the country's solar energy needs, according to a new study. Geospatial scientists and senior legal and regulatory analyst quantified exactly how much energy could be generated from floating solar panel projects installed on federally owned or regulated ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — For humans, the most important star in the universe is our Sun. The second-most important star is nestled inside the Andromeda galaxy. Don't go looking for it -- the flickering star is 2.2 million light-years away, and is 1/100,000th the brightness of the faintest star visible to the human eye. Yet, a century ago, its discovery by Edwin Hubble opened humanity's eyes as to how large the universe ...

Jan. 13, 2025 — The night sky has always played a crucial role in navigation, from early ocean crossings to modern GPS. Besides stars, the United States Navy uses quasars as beacons. Quasars are distant galaxies with supermassive black holes, surrounded by brilliantly hot disks of swirling gas that can blast off jets of material. Following up on the groundbreaking 2020 discovery of newborn jets in a number of ...

Jan. 13, 2025 — The name 'blue lurker' might sound like a villainous character from a superhero movie. But it is a rare class of star that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope explored by looking deeply into the open star cluster M67, roughly 2,800 light-years ...

Jan. 13, 2025 — Scientists have come a step closer to understanding how collisionless shock waves -- found throughout the universe -- are able to accelerate particles to extreme ...

Jan. 14, 2025 — AI applications like ChatGPT are based on artificial neural networks that, in many respects, imitate the nerve cells in our brains. They are trained with vast quantities of data on high-performance computers, gobbling up massive amounts of energy in the process. Spiking neurons, which are much less energy-intensive, could be one solution to this problem. In the past, however, the normal ...

Jan. 13, 2025 — Researchers have developed a drastically smaller and more energy efficient method of creating coveted photon pairs that influence each other from any distance. The technology could transform computing, telecommunications, and ...

Jan. 8, 2025 — A research team has achieved a groundbreaking quantum simulation of the non-Hermitian skin effect in two dimensions using ultracold fermions, marking a significant advance in quantum physics ...

Jan. 9, 2025 — A team developed a method that makes it easy to measure the wrinkles in thin membranes used on large spacecraft using just a single ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — Understanding biological relationships is often critical when studying animal populations. Researchers have now developed a transformative approach that identifies stretches of DNA that two individuals inherited from a common ancestor. The team successfully applied their new tool to a free-ranging population of rhesus macaques. The results show that even for low-quality sequencing data, this ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — Experts are warning of the risks of spreading invasive and non-native species when moving large volumes of untreated lake, reservoir and river ...

Jan. 15, 2025 — While most known types of DNA damage are fixed by our cells' in-house DNA repair mechanisms, some forms of DNA damage evade repair and can persist for many years, new research shows. This means that the damage has multiple chances to generate harmful mutations, which can lead to ...

Jan. 14, 2025 — Beneath sandy beaches, microbes filter chemicals from groundwater and safeguard ocean health. A new study reveals that sneaker waves provide a lens to explore the impending impacts of sea level rise on beach hydrology, chemistry, and ...

Jan. 14, 2025 — Using 22 years of LEMIS data, a recent study explores the dimensions of wildlife trade and obtain one of the most comprehensive overviews to date. The study reveals striking findings: between 2000 and 2022, the US traded almost 30,000 wild species and over 2.85 billion individuals, with over 50% of individuals from most taxa sourced directly from the wild. These findings are significant as the ...

Jan. 14, 2025 — Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are used in the aerospace, automotive, and sports equipment industries. However, their recycling remains a major problem. In a recent study, researchers demonstrated a novel direct discharge electrical pulse method for the efficient, effective, and environmentally friendly separation of CFRPs to recover high-quality carbon fibers. This work is expected to ...

Jan. 14, 2025 — Researchers have proposed that some wild plant species possess certain attributes which make them more suitable for human cultivation than ...

Jan. 10, 2025 — An international team of scientists has uncovered a fascinating piece of the evolutionary puzzle: how the ventral nerve cord, a key component of the central nervous system, evolved in ecdysozoan animals, a group that includes insects, nematodes, and priapulid worms. Their findings provide valuable insights into the origins of these structures in ...

Jan. 10, 2025 — anthropologists have analyzed a skull that was found in the ruins of Ephesos (Turkey) in 1929. It was long speculated that it could be the remains of Arsino IV, the sister of the famous Cleopatra. However, the latest anthropological analyses show that the remains are those of a boy between the ages of 11 and 14 who suffered from pathological developmental disorders. His genes point to an origin ...

Jan. 9, 2025 — A recent study has uncovered the surprising evolutionary origin of the mammalian outer ear, linking it to the gills of ancient fish and marine invertebrates. The research reveals that both structures are composed of elastic cartilage and shares gene control elements that hint at their connection. This finding sheds new light on the evolution of the mammalian ear, highlighting how structures can ...

Jan. 9, 2025 — Sabre-toothed predators -- best know from the infamous Smilodon -- evolved multiple times across different mammal groups. A new study reveals why: these teeth were 'functionally optimal' and highly effective at puncturing ...

Jan. 8, 2025 — Nations must better safeguard health and reduce childhood diseases linked to exposures to toxic chemicals, according to researchers. Governments need to test and regulate chemicals and chemical products as closely as they safeguard prescription drugs, the researchers ...

Jan. 13, 2025 — It's long been known that different positions on the football field fit different body types. A study led by the University of Kansas has gone beyond knowing that linemen are bigger with more body mass than receivers and tested a team of college football starters, finding differences in strength, power, jumping ability and more. The findings could help improve strength training designed to ...

Jan. 13, 2025 — A thorough analysis of market, technological, and supply chain outcomes for sodium-ion batteries finds that significant advances are needed before ...

Jan. 13, 2025 — New research identifies differing trends in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses among adolescents and adults, including an increase among adults from 2020 to 2023. The study found a significant downward trends in ADHD incidence among adults from 2016 to 2020 and adolescents from 2016 to 2018. The ADHD incidence rate remained stable for adolescents in subsequent ...

Jan. 6, 2025 — A new study used acoustic sensors that detect the sound of gunfire to show how often children in one Chicago neighborhood are exposed to gunshots while walking to and from school. Results showed that nearly two-thirds of schools in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago had at least one gun incident within 400 meters (about one-quarter mile) of where children were walking home during the 2021-22 ...

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 ...

Jan. 9, 2025 — Both intuition and past research suggest that whether people deem someone trustworthy depends on that person's past behavior and reputation for betrayal. In a series of experiments, psychologists found that subjects regarded those who previously exhibited that behavior as less trustworthy. However, when the betrayal benefited them or had no effect ...

Jan. 9, 2025 — Contrary to the long-held belief that the mid-career crisis plagues everyone, new research suggests that job satisfaction follows a U-shaped trajectory only for managerial and professional workers. This provocative finding challenges societal perceptions surrounding midlife and calls for a revaluation of workplace support for individuals in their ...

Jan. 3, 2025 — Farmers are receiving less of what consumers spend on food, as modern food systems increasingly direct costs toward value-added components like processing, transport, and marketing. A study shows that this effect shapes how food prices respond to agricultural climate policies: While value-added components buffer consumer price changes in wealthier ...

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 ...