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Top Science News

July 10, 2016

Tiny Bacteria-Powered 'Windfarm'

Harnessing the Power of Photosynthesis

Surprising Planet Has 3 Suns

Robot Shows How First Land Animals Moved

July 8, 2016 — A team of scientists has shown how the natural movement of bacteria could be harnessed to assemble and power microscopic 'windfarms' -- or other human-made micromachines such as smartphone ... read more

July 7, 2016 — A discovery has been made that could enable scientists to design better ways to use light energy and to engineer crop plants that more efficiently harness the energy of the sun. The identification of ... read more

July 7, 2016 — A team of astronomers have used the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to image the first planet ever found in a wide orbit inside a triple-star system. The orbit of such a planet had ... read more

July 7, 2016 — When early terrestrial animals began moving about on mud and sand 360 million years ago, the powerful tails they used as fish may have been more important than scientists previously realized. That's ... read more

Latest Top Headlines

updated 12:53pm EDT

Fruit and Veggies Give You the Feel-Good Factor

July 10, 2016 — New research suggests up to eight-a-day can make ... read more

Study Maps Transmission of MERS Virus in South Korean Hospital from One 'Super-Spreader' Patient

July 10, 2016 — Tracing the movements of patients at a South Korean hospital has helped identify how Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus was transmitted from a single super-spreader patient in an overcrowded emergency room to a total of 82 individuals over three ... read more

Messaging by Flow in the Brain

July 8, 2016 — Researchers visualize cilia-based networks in the brain, which could transport vital ... read more

Why Do We Tap Our Feet to a Musical Beat?

July 8, 2016 — Investigators have explored the theory behind the relationship between musical sound and body movement. Research shows that people tend to perceive affinities between sound and body motion when experiencing music. The so-called 'motor theory of perception' claims these similarity relationships are ... read more

Dawn Maps Ceres Craters Where Ice Can Accumulate

July 8, 2016 — Scientists with NASA's Dawn mission have identified permanently shadowed regions on the dwarf planet Ceres where ice deposits could ... read more

Study Explains Why Galaxies Stop Creating Stars

July 8, 2016 — Using a large sample of around 70,000 galaxies, a team of researchers led by University of California, Riverside astronomers may have an answer to an outstanding problem in the study of the evolution of galaxies: Why do galaxies stop ... read more

Physicists Discover Family of Tetraquarks

July 8, 2016 — Physicists have made science history by confirming the existence of a rare four-quark particle and discovering evidence of three other 'exotic' siblings. Their findings are based on data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's biggest, most powerful particle accelerator, located at the ... read more

Metals from Cigarette Butts May Pose Potential Threat to Marine Environment

July 7, 2016 — Littered cigarette butts may be an important source of metal contaminants leaching into the marine environment and potentially entering the food chain, suggests ... read more

Super-Sniffer Mice Could Detect Land Mines and Decode Human Olfactory System

July 7, 2016 — Researchers have created super-sniffer mice that have an increased ability to detect a specific odor, according to a new study. The mice, which can be tuned to have different levels of sensitivity to any smell by using mouse or human odor receptors, ... read more

How Plants Sense Electric Fields

July 8, 2016 — An international group of researchers has pinpointed the sensor plants use to sense electric fields. A beneficial side effect: their work could contribute to the understanding of how the Ebola virus enters ... read more

Increase in Childhood, Adult Asthma Linked to London's 1952 Great Smog

July 8, 2016 — London's Great Smog of 1952 resulted in thousands of premature deaths and even more people becoming ill. The five December days the smog lasted may have also resulted in thousands more cases of childhood and adult asthma. Researchers studied how London's Great Smog affected early childhood health ... read more

Marijuana Use Dampens Brain's Response to Reward Over Time, Study Finds

July 6, 2016 — Most people would get a little 'rush' out of the idea that they're about to win some money. In fact, if you could look into their brain at that very moment, you'd see activity in the part of the brain that responds to rewards. But for marijuana users, that rush just isn't as big -- and gets smaller ... read more

A Remote-Controlled Cyborg Stingray Now Exists

Astronomers Discovered An Exoplanet Stuck Between 3 Suns

NASA's Space Probe Juno Finally Made It To Jupiter

Hole In The Ozone Layer Is Actually Shrinking

Some Neurons Tell Brain When to Stop Drinking

Why Architects Should Let the Microbes in

HIV Study Confirms Clinically Viable Vaccine

Why Mom's Diet in Pregnancy Is Important

July 6, 2016 — By activating particular neurons, we may be able to influence alcohol drinking behavior, according to new research findings. These findings provide insight into another mechanism underlying the ... read more

July 7, 2016 — Architectural design is often concerned with energy efficiency or aesthetics, not microbial exposure. But, in a new article environmental engineers make a case for assessing the benefits of having ... read more

July 7, 2016 — In the study, researchers worked with a species of Old World monkeys, rhesus macaques to reproduce the trial results of RV144, the only HIV vaccine ... read more

July 7, 2016 — The process by which a mother's diet during pregnancy can permanently affect her offspring's attributes, such as weight, could be strongly influenced by genetic variation in an unexpected part of the ... read more

Latest Health Headlines

updated 12:53pm EDT

Routine Screenings Prevent Cervical Cancer in Elderly Women

July 7, 2016 — A new study confirms a link between routine Pap smear screenings and a lower risk of developing cervical cancer in women over age 65. However, most American health guidelines discourage women in that age range from receiving screenings unless they have pre-existing risk ... read more

Metformin as a Potential Treatment for a Rare Pediatric Disorder

July 6, 2016 — A study in human skin cells and mice shows the widely-used diabetes drug metformin reduces toxic acid levels in Maple Syrup Urine Disease. The discovery offers the possibility of a new treatment for a disorder identified 1 in 180,000 births. Maple Syrup Urine Disease is a rare inherited disorder involving the dysfunction of an enzyme which breaks down three essential amino acids. Left untreated, ... read more

Osteochondral Allograft Transplantation Effective for Treating Knee Cartilage Injuries

July 10, 2016 — For athletes and highly active patients who sustain cartilage injuries to their knee, an osteochondral allograft transplantation can be a successful treatment option, according to new research. The study showed these patients were consistently able to return to sport or recreational activities after the surgery, though frequently at a lower ... read more

Concussions on the Rise for Adolescents

July 10, 2016 — Sustaining a concussion during adolescence may be more common than previous estimates, according to ... read more

A 'Time Switch' in the Brain Improves Sense of Smell

July 8, 2016 — When the brain processes olfactory stimuli, it differentiates between similar smells using subtly modulated signals. Brain examinations and behavioral studies in mice have now shown that neurons with inhibiting characteristics play a key role in ... read more

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do in the Digital Age

July 10, 2016 — Online abuse between former partners after relationship break ups is common and distressing among UK adults, a new survey ... read more

Researchers Caution Public About Hidden Risks of Self-Administered Brain Stimulation

July 7, 2016 — Experts from the (cognitive) neuroscience research community warn about the risks involved in home use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), the application of electrical current to the ... read more

When Red Evokes Mischief

July 8, 2016 — A new study shows that the color red may tempt certain personality types to rebel against expectations rather than ... read more

Electric Assist Bikes Provide Meaningful Exercise, Cardiovascular Benefits for Riders

July 7, 2016 — A new study shows that using an electrically-powered bicycle on a regular basis can provide riders with an effective workout while improving some aspects of cardiovascular health, especially for riders who previously had been ... read more

Antidepressants: Treatment for Bad Marriages?

July 7, 2016 — Psychiatrists nearly always responded with prescriptions for antidepressants when clients complained of bad marriages, according to a new study spanning 20 years at an American medical center. The assumption that people struggling with their marriages or other domestic issues are suffering from depression is not supported by the way depression is defined ... read more

Poor Sleep Health Could Contribute to Inflammatory Disease

July 6, 2016 — Sleep disturbances and long sleep duration are associated with increases in markers of inflammation, a new meta-analysis reports. Common sleep disturbances, such as insomnia, have been associated with increased risk of inflammatory disease and ... read more

How Cooperation Emerges in Competing Populations

July 7, 2016 — Social behavior like reaching a consensus is a matter of cooperation. However, individuals in populations often spontaneously compete and only cooperate under certain conditions. These problems are so ubiquitous that physicists have now developed models to understand the underlying logic that drives competition. A new study shows the dynamics of competing agents with an evolving tendency to ... read more

Music Therapist Makes Recordings With Heartbeats

It Looks Like Medical Marijuana Is Burning Up Prescription Drug Sales

Scripts Boost Walgreens' Sales

Opioid Addiction Medication Gets A Boost From The Obama Administration

Robotic Stingray With Light-Activated Rat Cells

Clean Energy: Better Catalysts

Beating Heart of the Crab Nebula

Probing Quantum Phenomena in a Tiny Transistor

July 7, 2016 — Researchers have created a robotic mimic of a stingray that's powered and guided by light-sensitive rat heart cells. The work exhibits a new method for building bio-inspired robots by means of tissue ... read more

July 7, 2016 — Researchers have developed a way to use less platinum in chemical reactions commonly used in the clean energy, green chemicals, and automotive industries, according to a new ... read more

July 7, 2016 — Peering deep into the core of the Crab Nebula, this close-up image reveals the beating heart of one of the most historic and intensively studied remnants of a supernova, an exploding ... read more

July 7, 2016 — Nearly 1,000 times thinner than a human hair, nanowires can only be understood with quantum mechanics. Using quantum models, physicists have figured out what drives the efficiency of a ... read more

Latest Physical/Tech Headlines

updated 12:53pm EDT

Engineering E. Coli for Biofuel, Bioproduct Production

July 7, 2016 — Researchers developed an alternative fatty acid synthase (FAS) system in which enzymes from other organisms work with the native FAS in <i>E. coli</i> to improve the microbe’s capacity for ... read more

Physics Researchers Question Calcium-52's Magic

July 6, 2016 — After a multi-institution team's work computing the calcium-48 nucleus, researchers moved on to a larger, heavier, and more complex isotope -- calcium-52 -- and the results surprised them ... read more

Watery Roadblock in the Pathway to Biofuels

July 7, 2016 — Removing oxygen atoms is vital to turning biomass into biofuels. Scientists discovered how water interferes with two oxygen-removal paths by creating a highly stable intermediate that costs energy to move along the ... read more

Setting the Gold Standard: Chemistry Professor Is First to Use Light to Make Gold Crystal Nanoparticles

July 8, 2016 — A researchers has figured out how gold can be used in crystals grown by light to create nanoparticles, a discovery that has major implications for industry and cancer treatment and could improve the function of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and solar ... read more

Astronomers Find Evidence for ‘direct Collapse’ Black Hole

July 7, 2016 — Astronomers have discovered evidence for an unusual kind of black hole born extremely early in the universe. They showed that a recently discovered unusual source of intense radiation is likely powered by a "direct-collapse black hole," a type of object predicted by theorists more than a ... read more

Accelerating Research Into Dark Energy

July 7, 2016 — A quick method for making accurate, virtual universes to help understand the effects of dark matter and dark energy has been developed by scientists. Making up 95 percent of our universe, these substances have profound effects on the birth and lives of galaxies and stars and yet almost nothing is known about their physical ... read more

Earth-Size Telescope Tracks the Aftermath of a Star Being Swallowed by a Supermassive Black Hole

July 6, 2016 — Radio astronomers have used a radio telescope network the size of the Earth to zoom in on a unique phenomenon in a distant galaxy: a jet activated by a star being consumed by a supermassive black hole. The record-sharp observations reveal a compact ... read more

Astronomers Find Evidence of Water Clouds in First Spectrum of Coldest Brown Dwarf

July 6, 2016 — Since its detection in 2014, the brown dwarf known as WISE 0855 has fascinated astronomers. Only 7.2 light-years from Earth, it is the coldest known object outside of our solar system. Astronomers have now obtained an infrared spectrum of the brown ... read more

Atomic Bits Despite Zero-Point Energy?

July 8, 2016 — Scientists have found out that zero-point energy plays an important role in the stability of nanomagnets. These are of great technical interest for the magnetic storage of data, but so far have never been sufficiently stable. Researchers are now pointing the way to making it possible to produce nanomagnets with low zero-point energy and thus a higher degree of ... read more

Quantum Processor for Single Photons

July 7, 2016 — Scientists have realized a photon-photon logic gate via a deterministic interaction with a strongly coupled ... read more

Building a Better Computer Bug Finder

July 7, 2016 — Detecting bugs in computer programs is an expensive task, and there is no way of measuring their efficacy without knowing exactly how many go unnoticed. To tackle this problem, researchers have created LAVA (Large-Scale Automated Vulnerability Addition), a cost-effective technique of intentionally adding vulnerabilities to a program's source code to test the limits of bug-finding tools and ... read more

Theoretical Climbing Rope Could Brake Falls

July 6, 2016 — Mathematicians have shown it is theoretically possible to design ideal climbing ropes to safely slow falling rock and mountain climbers like brakes decelerate a car. They hope someone develops a material to turn theory ... read more

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South Korea's Pregnant Women Find It Easier to Get a Subway Seat

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Environment News

July 10, 2016

The Lowly Cockroach Uses a GPS to Get Around

Can Weathering Rock Explain Old Climate Changes?

'The Blob' Overshadows El Niño

Prehistoric Worm Built 'Houses' On Sea Floor

July 7, 2016 — Rats, men and cockroaches appear to have a similar GPS in their heads that allows them to navigate new surroundings, researchers have ... read more

July 7, 2016 — During the Ordovician period, the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere was about eight times higher than today. It has been hard to ... read more

July 6, 2016 — New research based on ocean models and near real-time data from autonomous gliders indicates that the 'The Blob' and El Nino together strongly depressed productivity off the West Coast, with The Blob ... read more

July 7, 2016 — The fossilised remnants of tube-like 'dwellings' which housed a primitive type of prehistoric sea worm on the ocean floor have been identified in a ... read more

Latest Environment Headlines

updated 12:53pm EDT

Loosen Up Cell Walls and Get the Sugars out

July 7, 2016 — Plant cell walls resist deconstruction. Pretreatment can loosen the structural integrity of cell walls, reducing their recalcitrance. This study offers insights into how pretreatment induces such cell wall modifications in different types ... read more

Game Theory: Does the Rhino Poacher or the Gamekeeper Win?

July 6, 2016 — Conservationists have used game theory to look at the likely outcome of the battle between rhino poachers and the gamekeeper or rhino ... read more

Hold the Nectar, These Butterflies Feed on Galls and Honeydew

July 10, 2016 — While most butterflies feed on nectar from flowers, researchers believe that northern oak hairstreaks feed on non-nectar sources such as oak galls and honeydew from aphids and other ... read more

How Fungi Stage a Deadly Under-Water Attack on Aedes Mosquito Larvae

July 7, 2016 — Insect pathogenic fungi can grow in liquid suspensions and on solid substrates, and their spores can attack and kill mosquitoes in aquatic or terrestrial environments. A new study demonstrates that the fungal attack of aquatic Aedes larvae is a particular rapid and effective way of mosquito ... read more

Traffic Noise Increases the Risk of Heart Attack

July 8, 2016 — Your risk of heart attack increases with the amount of traffic noise to which you are exposed. The increase in risk -- though slight -- is greatest with road and rail traffic noise, less with aircraft ... read more

Preserving Forest Carbon Sinks Top of Donors' Climate Mitigation Agenda

July 7, 2016 — Developing countries with large carbon sinks and good governance tend to be the main destination for major green donors' climate mitigation funding, research shows. This study compared the factors used to allocate climate mitigation finance to 180 developing countries by the five largest donors -- Japan, Germany, France, Norway and the United ... read more

Mixed Response: Floodwaters Return to the Colorado River but Can Release Greenhouse Gases

July 8, 2016 — Deliberately flooding riverbeds left parched by dams has great potential to restore wetlands but may also have a significant unintended consequence: the release of greenhouse ... read more

Researchers Reveal First Sightings of Rare Whales Off New Zealand Coast

July 8, 2016 — For the first time in New Zealand waters, an extremely rare grouping of Shepherd's Beaked Whales has been spotted from a research vessel off the coast of the city of Dunedin in the ... read more

Archeology: Rare Discovery of Late Roman Official Buried in Leicester

July 7, 2016 — Archaeologists have recently excavated a Late Roman cemetery at Western Road in Leicester's West End. Amongst the 83 skeletons recorded by the team, one burial is proving to be ... read more

Scientists Use Mass Spectrometry to 'Look Inside' an Ancient Greek Amphora

July 6, 2016 — Scientists have used mass spectrometry to analyze bitumen samples from an ancient Greek amphora found on the Taman peninsula. Judging by the level of oxygen in the sample, they managed to accurately identify it's age: 2,500 years. Authors of the study believe that using this method in archaeology ... read more

Ancient Brazilians Occupied the Same Homes for Centuries

July 6, 2016 — Ancient inhabitants of the southern Brazilian highlands were no strangers to the types of home improvements we enjoy today, academics ... read more

Ocean Circulation Implicated in Past Abrupt Climate Changes

June 30, 2016 — There was a period during the last ice age when temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere went on a rollercoaster ride, plummeting and then rising again every 1,500 years or so. Those abrupt climate changes wreaked havoc on ecosystems, but their cause has been something of a mystery. New evidence ... read more

Australian Shark Attacks Prompt New 'eco Barriers'

Typhoon's Trail of Destruction in Asia

Super Typhoon Nepartak Lashes Taiwan

Deadly Flood Spread Across China

Gap Between Where It's Made, and Where It's Felt

Engineers Design Programmable RNA Vaccines

Common Chemicals Endanger Kids' Brains

Antarctic Ozone Layer Is Healing

July 6, 2016 — A new study examines the virtual shrinking of distances between places -- arising because of trade, telecommunication and travel -- and the widening ... read more

July 4, 2016 — Engineers have designed programmable RNA vaccines that could be rapidly manufactured and deployed. The vaccines have been shown effective against Ebola, H1N1 influenza, and Toxoplasma gondii, in ... read more

July 1, 2016 — In a new report, dozens of scientists, health practitioners and children's health advocates are calling for renewed attention to the growing evidence that many common and widely available chemicals ... read more

June 30, 2016 — Scientists have found the first 'fingerprints of healing' for the Antarctic ozone hole. The September ozone hole has shrunk by more than 4 million square kilometers since 2000, when ozone depletion ... read more

Latest Society/Education Headlines

updated 12:53pm EDT

Why Clinton and Trump Backers Don't Mix

July 8, 2016 — Living around people with opposing political viewpoints affects your ability to form close relationships and accept other perspectives -- and may even change your personality, finds an American national ... read more

After Decades of Clean Up Attempts, World's Lakes Still Suffer from Phosphorus Pollution

July 8, 2016 — Leading scientists warn: Phosphorus pollution is a major concern. We need to speed up recovery treatments of lakes -- or accept poor freshwater quality. In a new series of studies, leading scientists assess how to control phosphorus pollution ... read more

Two Years and Counting: Cannabis Legalization Efforts Are Starting to Paint a Clearer Picture

July 8, 2016 — What is the current landscape at the US federal level regarding cannabis legalization? A new report shows that from a public health perspective, the biggest concern -- the increase in youth consumption -- has apparently remained stable. From a ... read more

Bats Take Dangerous Flight Into the Wind Farm

July 8, 2016 — Wind turbines attract bats. They seem to appear particularly appealing to female noctule bats in early summer. In a pilot study, researchers noticed this when they tracked the flight paths of noctule bats using the latest GPS tracking devices. The bats managed to take even seasoned experts by ... read more

Attention Problems in Early Childhood Can Have Lasting Impact

July 6, 2016 — Children with attention problems in early childhood were 40 percent less likely to graduate from high school, says a new study that examines how early childhood characteristics affect academic ... read more

Thinking 'I Can Do Better' Really Can Improve Performance, Study Finds

June 30, 2016 — Telling yourself 'I can do better,' can make you do better at a given task, a study has found. Over 44,000 people took part in an experiment to discover what motivational techniques really worked. The researchers tested which physiological skills would help people improve their scores in an ... read more

‘Get Children Playing Outdoors’ to Improve Academic Success and Reduce Obesity

June 21, 2016 — Campaigns to promote physical activity and reduce obesity among children should focus more on active outdoor play, according to a new ... read more

Simple Reward-Based Learning Suits Adolescents Best

June 20, 2016 — Adolescents focus on rewards and are less able to learn to avoid punishment or consider the consequences of alternative actions, finds a new study. The study compared how adolescents and adults learn to make choices based on the available ... read more

Technique from Biology Helps Explain the Evolution of the American Car

July 1, 2016 — Researchers have taken a unique approach to explain the way in which technologies evolve in modern society. Borrowing a technique that biologists might use to study the evolution of plants or animals, the scientists plotted the "births" and "deaths" of every American-made car and truck model from ... read more

Walking Meetings Could Brings Longer and Healthier Lives to Office Workers

July 1, 2016 — Changing just one seated meeting per week at work into a walking meeting increased the work-related physical activity levels of white-collar workers by 10 minutes, according to a new study. The study suggests a possible new health promotion approach to improving the health of millions of white-collar workers who spend most of their workdays sitting in ... read more

Stress Contagion Possible Amongst Students, Teachers

June 27, 2016 — Teacher burnout and student stress may be linked, according to a new study. The work is the first of its kind to examine the connection between teacher burnout and students' cortisol levels, which are a biological indicator ... read more

Power Causes Distrust, Study Shows

June 16, 2016 — When leaders punish subordinates, they often do this out of distrust. They are afraid of losing their position and use punishment as a deterrent. However, their punishments are not very effective, says a social and organizational ... read more

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