Top Science News

Nov. 6, 2024 — The CRISPR tool is capable of repairing the genetic defect responsible for the immune disease chronic granulomatous disease. However, researchers have now shown that there is a risk of inadvertently introducing other ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — A new cell type provides a missing piece of the neural network regulating ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a neural mechanism for memory integration that stretches across both time and personal ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — Scientists have demonstrated a new way to use high-energy particle smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) to reveal subtle details about the shapes of atomic nuclei. The method is complementary to lower energy techniques for determining nuclear structure. It will add depth to scientists' understanding of the nuclei that make up the bulk of visible ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new method for disrupting the crystal structure of a semiconductor that requires as little as one billion times less power density. This advancement could unlock wider applications for phase-change memory (PCM) -- a promising memory technology that could transform data storage in devices from cell phones to ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — Gamma radiation can convert methane into a wide variety of products at room temperature, including hydrocarbons, oxygen-containing molecules, and amino acids, reports a research team. This type of reaction probably plays an important role in the formation of complex organic molecules in the universe -- and possibly in the origin of life. They also open up new strategies for the industrial ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — Tiny grains from asteroid Ryugu are revealing clues to the magnetic forces that shaped the far reaches of the solar system over 4.6 billion years ago. The findings suggest the distal solar system harbored a weak magnetic field, which could have played a role in forming the giant planets and other ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — Chromosphaera perkinsii is a single-celled species discovered in 2017 in marine sediments around Hawaii. The first signs of its presence on Earth have been dated at over a billion years, well before the appearance of the first animals. A team has observed that this species forms multicellular structures that bear striking similarities to animal embryos. These observations suggest that the genetic ...

Nov. 5, 2024 — At the end of the last global ice age, the deep-frozen Earth reached a built-in limit of climate change and thawed into a slushy planet. Results provide the first direct geochemical evidence of the slushy planet -- otherwise known as the 'plume-world ocean' era -- when sky-high carbon dioxide levels forced the frozen Earth into a massive, rapid melting ...

Nov. 5, 2024 — New research has shown that bio-based fibers caused higher mortality, and reduced growth and reproductivity, among earthworms -- a species critical to the health of soils globally -- than conventional plastics. It has led scientists to suggest that materials being advocated as alternatives to plastic should be tested thoroughly before they are ...

Nov. 5, 2024 — Hydrogen, a promising fuel, has extensive applications in many sectors. However, its safe and widespread use necessitates reliable sensing methods. While tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) has proved to be an effective gas sensing method, detecting hydrogen using TDLAS is difficult due to its weak light absorption property in the ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — A new study shows how students can better understand and interpret conditional ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — Exhaled breath contains chemical clues to what's going on inside the body, including diseases like lung cancer. And devising ways to sense these compounds could help doctors provide early diagnoses -- and improve patients' prospects. Researchers report developing ultrasensitive, nanoscale sensors that in small-scale tests distinguished a key change in the chemistry of the breath of people with ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — The cost of childbirth and postpartum health care results in significant, ongoing financial hardship, particularly for lower-income families with commercial insurance. About half of people who give birth in the United States are covered by commercial health insurance, which typically requires cost-sharing in the form of deductibles, copayments, ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — Neuroscientists have discovered brain cells that form multiple coordinate systems to tell us 'where we are' in a sequence of behaviors. These cells can play out different sequences of actions, just like a music box can be configured to play different sequences of tones. The findings help us understand the algorithms used by the brain to flexibly generate complex behaviors, such as planning and ...

Nov. 5, 2024 — A new study of more than 1,000 adults, average age 33, found that meeting recommended physical activity guidelines isn't enough to counteract the 60-plus hours per week they spend sitting. To reduce heart disease risk and prevent accelerated aging, they need to sit less and work-out ...

Nov. 4, 2024 — Children too young to know words like 'impossible' and 'improbable' nonetheless understand how possibility works, finds new work with two- and three-year-olds. The findings demonstrate that young children distinguish between improbable and impossible events, and learn significantly better after 'impossible' ...

Nov. 4, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered new targets that could be the key to effectively treating glioblastoma, a lethal type of brain cancer. These targets were identified through a screen for genetic vulnerabilities in patient-derived cancer stem cells that represent the variability found in ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — A research team unveils a next-generation transparent cooling film using the principles of radiative ...

Nov. 5, 2024 — Physicists have investigated to which extent a piece of music can evoke expectations about its progression. They were able to determine differences in how far compositions of different composers can be anticipated. In total, the scientists quantitatively analyzed more than 550 pieces from classical and jazz ...

Oct. 30, 2024 — Associations of personality traits with physical activity and sedentary behavior were observed in a study. Individuals characterized by high conscientiousness and extraversion are more likely to accumulate longer periods of both physical activity and sedentary behavior, whereas individuals who have higher scores in neuroticism tend to interrupt ...

Oct. 30, 2024 — A professor led a study that found that shared decision-making and the quality of the health care provider's history-taking and physical exam were the main drivers of spinal pain patients' satisfaction with, trust in and agreement with their ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — Researchers have developed AI-driven mobile robots that can carry out chemical synthesis research with extraordinary efficiency. Researchers show how mobile robots that use AI logic to make decisions were able to perform exploratory chemistry research tasks to the same level as humans, but much ...

Oct. 31, 2024 — A video game in which participants herded virtual cattle has furthered our understanding of how humans make decisions on movement and navigation, and it could help us not only interact more effectively with artificial intelligence, but even improve the way robots move in the ...

Nov. 5, 2024 — Large language models can achieve incredible performance on some tasks without having internalized a coherent model of the world or the rules that govern it, researchers find. This means these models are likely to fail unexpectedly if they are deployed in situations where the environment or task slightly ...

Nov. 6, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered where FRBs are more likely to occur in the universe -- massive star-forming galaxies rather than low - mass ...

Nov. 4, 2024 — A new study details how climate change transforms coastal wetlands in North Carolina from forest to marshland or even open water, and how satellite imagery may help better direct conservation efforts to preserve those ...

Nov. 4, 2024 — Stem cells grown in microgravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have unique qualities that could one day help accelerate new biotherapies and heal complex disease, researchers say. The research analysis finds microgravity can strengthen the regenerative potential of cells. Microgravity is weightlessness or near-zero ...

Nov. 4, 2024 — The temperature of elementary particles has been observed in the radioactive glow following the collision of two neutron stars and the birth of a black hole. This has, for the first time, made it possible to measure the microscopic, physical properties in these cosmic events. Simultaneously, it reveals how snapshot observations made in an instant represents an object stretched out across ...

Nov. 5, 2024 — Researchers have developed an AI-powered system that mimics the human sense of smell to detect and track toxic gases in real time. Using advanced artificial neural networks combined with a network of sensors, the system quickly identifies the source of harmful gases like nitrogen dioxide that poses severe respiratory health ...

Nov. 5, 2024 — Researchers have developed a novel type of nanomechanical resonator that combines two important features: high mechanical quality and piezoelectricity. This development could open doors to new possibilities in quantum sensing ...

Nov. 5, 2024 — To expand the potential use of diamond in semiconductor and quantum technologies, researchers are developing improved processes for growing the material at lower temperatures that won't damage the silicon in computer chips. These advances include insights into creating protective hydrogen layers on quantum diamonds without damaging crucial properties like nitrogen-vacancy ...

Nov. 4, 2024 — Nanoscale 3D transistors made from ultrathin semiconductor materials can operate more efficiently than silicon-based devices, leveraging quantum mechanical properties to potentially enable ultra-low-power AI ...

Nov. 4, 2024 — Scientists and environmental activists have consistently called for drastic reductions in meat production as a way to reduce emissions and, in doing so, combat climate change. However, a new analysis concludes that a smaller reduction, borne by wealthier nations, could remove 125 billion tons of carbon dioxide -- exceeding the total number of ...

Nov. 4, 2024 — Researchers used genomics to investigate the genetic changes causing resistance to transgenic crops in field populations of the corn earworm, also known as cotton bollworm or Helicoverpa zea. They discovered that in this voracious pest, field-evolved resistance was not associated with any of the 20 genes previously implicated in resistance to the ...

Nov. 5, 2024 — According to a new study, the composition of beneficial microorganisms within the mouth differs over a range of subsistence strategies -- from nomadic hunter gatherers to farmers to industrialized ...

Oct. 31, 2024 — Scientists are repurposing their research about bacteria-powered biobatteries into a new idea for artificial plants that can feed off carbon dioxide, give off oxygen and even generate a little ...

Nov. 4, 2024 — Research helps reconstruct an ancient climate and challenges the timing of the Andes Mountains ...

Nov. 4, 2024 — What if farmers could not only prevent excess phosphorus from polluting downstream waterways, but also recycle that nutrient as a slow-release fertilizer, all without spending a lot of money? Researchers now show it's possible and ...

Nov. 4, 2024 — The unique properties of baseball's famed 'magic' mud, which MLB equipment managers applied to every ball in the World Series, have never been scientifically quantified -- until now. Researchers now reveal what makes the magic mud so ...

Oct. 30, 2024 — A team discovered that, contrary to present scientific understanding, ancient volcanoes continued to spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from deep within the Earth long past their period of ...

Nov. 1, 2024 — Ancient cultural burning practices carried out by Indigenous Australians limited fuel availability and prevented high intensity fires in southeastern Australia for thousands of years, according to new ...

Nov. 1, 2024 — New research has found that, unlike birds, the evolution of bats' wings and legs is tightly coupled, which may have prevented them from filling as many ecological niches as ...

Oct. 30, 2024 — A new study of human skeletal remains from the wreck of the 16th century English warship Mary Rose suggests that whether a person is right- versus left-handed may influence how their clavicle bone chemistry changes as they ...

Nov. 1, 2024 — Wastewater contains nutrients that can overfeed algae, leading to harmful algal blooms and pollution issues in the ocean and other waterways. A new study tracked how these nutrients migrate from disposal sites in the Florida Keys, and the results have already informed wastewater practices in the ...

Nov. 1, 2024 — As heatwaves become more intense, cities are looking for strategies that can help keep neighborhoods cooler. A new tool has already helped identify potential solutions in Houston, a city where the impact of heat can vary significantly in different ...

Oct. 30, 2024 — In rural Africa, where livelihoods are often tied directly to the land, environmental degradation poses a critical threat to both ecosystems and people's well-being. New research reveals ways to tackle the dual challenges of land degradation and ...

Oct. 30, 2024 — A research study describes a systematic high-throughput design approach for virtual screening and creation of novel polypeptide-based molecules that form regular secondary structures that can be used in biology or materials science ...

Oct. 28, 2024 — In their peer-reviewed work, Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson present five new ways of proving Pythagoras' Theorem via trigonometry. They also detail a new method for finding proofs that yield at least five ...

Oct. 25, 2024 — A collaborative team of researchers led by Dale Zhou, who did his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, and Dani Bassett in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science looked at how nearly half a million people around the world use Wikipedia's knowledge networks. They found stark differences in browsing habits between countries offering insights into cultural ...

Oct. 23, 2024 — A team of linguistics and psychology researchers has discovered that when a brief sentence is flashed, our brains detect its basic linguistic structure extremely quickly -- in roughly 150 milliseconds, or about the speed of a blink of an ...

Oct. 17, 2024 — The more men are concerned about appearing masculine, the less likely they will forgive a co-worker for a transgression such as missing an important meeting, a study has found. What's more, such men are also more likely seek revenge or avoid the transgressor, which contributes to an unhealthy and less effective work ...

Oct. 9, 2024 — If you smugly believe you're right in a disagreement with a friend or colleague, a new study suggests why you may actually be wrong. Researchers found that people naturally assume they have all the information they need to make a decision or support their position, even when they do ...

Sep. 26, 2024 — Using mathematical modeling, researchers found a way to maintain cooperation without relying on complex norms or ...

Sep. 18, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new framework to make complex AI tasks more accessible and transparent to users. The framework specializes in providing solutions to deep reinforcement learning (DRL) requests. The framework pairs developers, companies and individuals that have specific but out-of-reach AI needs with service providers who have the ...