Reporting world updates to you
Medications can influence the community of microbes living in the human gut long after a person stops taking them, according to a large study led by researchers at the University of Tartu Institute of Genomics. The findings suggest that a person’s prescription history may help explain differences in the gut…
Backyard bird feeding is one of our country’s most popular pastimes. Research reveals about half of Australian households feed wild birds, with many people doing so daily. However, this practice could act as a superspreader event – where a disease infects an unusually high number of people or animals –…
For billions of years, an ancient cluster of stars has been gradually coming apart, shedding stars that now form a faint, narrow ribbon across space. That delicate structure is offering astronomers a new way to investigate one of the universe’s biggest mysteries. An international research team, including an astrophysicist from…
A microchip about the size of a grain of rice can generate a highly organized “rainbow” of light, a capability that could eventually support faster, higher-capacity 6G communications and extremely precise timing for quantum technologies. Physicists at Loughborough University, working with an international research team, demonstrated a system that produces…
A new analysis of biological aging across the human body suggests that both sleeping too little and sleeping too much are associated with faster aging in the brain, heart, lungs, immune system, and other organs. These sleep patterns were also linked to a broad range of diseases. “Previous studies have…
Screens are now a routine part of life for many young children, raising growing questions about how early exposure could influence development over time. New longitudinal research that tracked children from age 1 through age 8 found that greater screen viewing, especially during infancy and around the time children begin…
Quantum mechanics has long challenged the familiar idea that an object must occupy one precise place at a given moment. Fundamental particles such as electrons are instead described by a “wavefunction,” a mathematical representation that researchers can use to calculate the probabilities of properties such as position and momentum. Inside…
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has passed an important milestone ahead of its trip to space. Mission leaders from NASA, the Roman Space Telescope team, and SpaceX met Friday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a Flight Readiness Review. During this formal assessment, teams examined the spacecraft, rocket,…
President Donald J. Trump will present the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to each member of NASA’s Artemis II crew during a ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The event is scheduled for 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, Aug. 28. The medal is one of the highest honors associated…
Scientists have identified a new species of lizard living in the high mountain forests of western Thailand. The species, Acanthosaura syrax, takes its name from Syrax, the dragon ridden by Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon. Acanthosaura syrax belongs to a group of agamid lizards known as mountain…
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found that gut microbes can transform nitrate and iron from food into molecules that may help protect against cardiovascular and metabolic disease. The findings, published in Cell, uncover a previously unknown way the gut microbiota may influence important functions throughout the body. Nitrate is found…
Millions of people carry APOE4, the strongest known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. New research suggests the gene variant may begin altering brain activity well before memory problems become noticeable. Researchers at Gladstone Institutes have now mapped out a molecular sequence that could help explain these early effects. Their…
Research led by Professor Carl Sayer at UCL Geography has found that abandoned farmland can recover naturally and develop into a diverse wildflower meadow, raising questions about some conventional methods used in habitat restoration. Published in Restoration Ecology, the research followed changes in plant life over 11 years (2011-2022) in…
Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have developed a technology that could make it possible for dentists to produce permanent 3D-printed zirconia restorations in a single day. Zirconia is considered the gold-standard material for permanent dental work because of its strength and durability. With support from the National…
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have recreated the primordial state of matter believed to have filled the Universe shortly after the Big Bang, using collisions between atomic nuclei far smaller than scientists once thought possible. These microscopic versions of the early Universe could help researchers understand both the first…
Healthy growth and development depend on tens of thousands of genes being switched on at the right time and in the right place. Specific regions of DNA help coordinate this process, guiding the production of enzymes, hormones, proteins, and other molecules that cells need to function properly. When gene activation…
GLP-1 medications have transformed the treatment of obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver disease over the past several years. Drugs sold as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound can produce substantial weight loss while helping patients control blood sugar. But these medications can also cause problems. Some patients experience nausea and other…
Researchers have developed a new surface coating that can increase condensation heat transfer performance by as much as 5.5 times compared with conventional copper surfaces. The technology works by helping water droplets form more easily and detach more quickly, a combination that could improve energy efficiency in power plants and…
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have found that cannabis, cocaine, and amphetamines are associated with a significantly greater risk of stroke, including among younger people. The findings come from an analysis that drew on data involving more than 100 million people. Stroke remains one of the world’s biggest health…
More than 7 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s dementia, and that number is expected to climb to nearly 13 million by 2050. New research from Emory University suggests that higher vitamin D supplement intake may be linked to stronger cognitive performance in adults who face an increased risk…
Most galaxies are thought to harbor a supermassive black hole at their center. These enormous objects can weigh millions or even billions of times more than the sun, creating some of the strongest gravitational environments known in the universe. When a star passes dangerously close to one of these black…
Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk watches a Greenland shark glide slowly through the dark waters of the Arctic on her computer screen. “You see it move its eye,” says the University of California, Irvine associate professor of physiology and biophysics, pointing to the footage. “The shark is tracking the light — it’s fascinating.”…
Although alcohol abstinence is associated with improved health outcomes, addiction researchers have theorized that brain changes that occur during abstinence may increase a person’s risk of relapse. To explore this theory, we studied how mice behaved after giving them long-term voluntary access to alcohol followed by a forced abstinence period.…
Daily peppermint oil may offer a simple way to reduce mildly elevated blood pressure, according to new research. Researchers at the University of Lancashire found that taking 100 microliters of peppermint oil twice a day for 20 days reduced systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading)…
The basic principle of weight loss is straightforward: if you consume fewer calories than you burn, you’ll lose weight. In practice though, this isn’t usually so easy or simple. Alongside counting calories or eating smaller portions, many people add exercise into the equation when trying to lose weight to help…
People who speak more than one language may have brains that appear younger than expected for their age, according to research presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Forum 2026. The brain depends on billions of nerve cells constantly communicating with one another. As people get older, those…
The transformation of a liquid into a solid is familiar in nature. Lava flowing from a volcano eventually cools and hardens into rock, while water in a lake can freeze into ice during a cold winter. When materials undergo these phase changes, important physical properties can change as well, including…
Astronomers have found that some of the largest galaxies in the early universe contained many more small stars than scientists previously realized. That hidden population means these ancient galaxies may have been significantly more massive than earlier estimates indicated. The discovery, made by an international team that included Penn State…
Researchers at Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin (UCD) have found that a yeast-based dietary supplement can strengthen immune cells involved in fighting cancer in mice. In experiments with obese laboratory mice, the researchers found that adding the supplement to the animals’ diets changed the way immune cells developed…
Worker bees normally serve as a colony’s first line of defense against contamination, filtering harmful substances before they can spread through the hive. But new research shows that queen bees also have a defense of their own. When honeybee queens are exposed to pesticides over time, some of those chemicals…