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Coronary artery calcium scans are becoming an increasingly popular way to assess a person’s future risk of heart disease. The quick, relatively inexpensive CT test measures calcium buildup in the arteries that supply blood to the heart. But new research from Northwestern Medicine suggests the scan may provide its greatest…
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a new way to protect delicate quantum information using mechanical vibrations, essentially microscopic sound waves. The advance, developed in the lab of Marko Lončar, Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering, could support the development…
Semaglutide, the active ingredient in popular GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, may do more than suppress appetite and improve blood sugar. A National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded study found that the drug reduced several harmful effects of aging and extended lifespan in older, healthy mice. Researchers at…
Millions of people open Wordle each day hoping to solve its five-letter puzzle before their six guesses run out. Now, researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York, say mathematics can dramatically improve the odds. By applying information theory, the team developed a strategy that solved 99% of Wordle…
Researchers have identified a promising way to weaken one of pancreatic cancer’s key defenses against treatment. The approach focuses on blocking IL1RAP, a receptor that plays a central role in inflammatory signaling and helps coordinate the network of cells surrounding pancreatic tumors. The work, led by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive…
Mercury and Earth followed very different paths after they formed. Mercury, the smallest planet and the one closest to the Sun, appears to have cooled relatively quickly. Roughly one billion years after its formation, volcanic activity may already have largely stopped, leaving the planet covered by a solid, continuous rocky…
Some of the best clues to living a long, healthy life may be hidden in the DNA of bats, mammals that can survive for remarkably long periods relative to their body size. The idea fascinated Juan Manuel Vazquez while he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. At…
About 66 million years ago, a large dinosaur, possibly a T. rex or Nanotyrannus, swallowed a bird. Remarkably, evidence of that ancient meal survived in fossilized feces, preserving what researchers describe as the finest feather specimen yet discovered from the age of dinosaurs. By examining that feather, scientists say they…
A study involving more than 11,000 people has found that exposure to light at night is associated with potentially harmful changes in both the structure and function of the heart. The findings were published September 9 in the European Heart Journal. The research was led by Professor Lu Qi of…
A large study across Ontario has found that widely used medications, including statins and iron supplements, can sometimes trigger a chain of additional prescriptions in older adults. In these cases, a side effect from one drug may be mistaken for a new medical condition, prompting treatment with another medication. The…
The development of a nanolaser could mark an early step toward a future in which microchips communicate entirely with particles of light. Researchers at DTU have created a tiny nanolaser that could eventually help make computers, smartphones, and data centers faster while using much less energy. The breakthrough was published…
Quantum computers remain highly vulnerable to errors and tiny disturbances from their surroundings. The longer a quantum operation takes to complete, the more time there is for those errors to build up. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have now developed a method that can perform a broad…
Summer can be lovely – until a wasp turns up. Whether they present as an irritating picnic visitor or an uninvited loft guest, common social wasps are as much a part of our summer as festivals, sun cream and the growing despair of how to entertain children who’ve forgotten how…
Researchers at the University of Warwick have found a striking association between ADHD and digestive health after analyzing data from more than 1.9 million people across 23 studies. Overall, people with ADHD were almost 50% more likely to experience gastrointestinal symptoms than people without ADHD. Some individual conditions showed even…
Quantum mechanics has always challenged our everyday understanding of reality. In the quantum world, particles can exist in a superposition of states, meaning they can occupy multiple possible positions or configurations at the same time. Physicists describe these possibilities mathematically using a wavefunction. That picture is very different from ordinary…
For roughly two centuries, human life expectancy climbed steadily as medicine, sanitation, nutrition, and healthcare improved. More recent research, however, suggests that this long upward trend may now be leveling off in developed countries. If that is the case, the next major challenge may no longer be simply preventing disease,…
Researchers from the University of Sydney, the Baird Institute and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney have found that the human heart can produce new muscle cells after a heart attack. The discovery challenges the long-held assumption that heart muscle lost during an attack cannot regenerate and could eventually help…
A new UIC study suggests that time-restricted eating could offer a safe and potentially effective way to improve blood sugar control in adults with Type 1 diabetes. The research was led by kinesiology and nutrition professor Krista Varady, a longtime researcher in the field of intermittent fasting. “This is the…
Earth has an unusually large moon compared with other rocky planets in the solar system, but scientists still do not fully understand how it formed. A new study from researchers at the Southwest Research Institute and the University of Arizona suggests that one long-overlooked factor may have played a major…
T cell receptor therapy, known as TCR therapy, is a form of cancer treatment that genetically modifies immune cells called T cells so they can recognize and attack cancer with high precision. The approach resembles CAR T-cell therapy, but there is an important difference. CAR T-cell therapy can recognize proteins…
DNA carries a negative electrical charge. Because objects with the same charge normally push away from each other, DNA molecules might be expected to repel one another. Yet inside living cells, DNA must sometimes come into close contact and recognize matching sequences. These interactions are essential for processes including genetic…
Researchers have identified four additional sailors from Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated 1845 Arctic expedition, including one man whose identity had remained the subject of debate for more than a century. Anthropologists from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo led the research, using DNA recovered from skeletal remains…
Look closely at Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, one of Japan’s most famous works of art, and the brilliant whites seem almost painted onto the scene. Yet the white foam of the waves, the snow covering Mount Fuji, and the clouds in the sky contain no white pigment at…
The first moment you look inside a newly discovered ancient tomb is at once exciting and terrifying. I was fortunate to experience this recently as director of an international research team carrying out fieldwork in the Theban necropolis, a Unesco world heritage site near the modern Egyptian city of Luxor.…
Archaeologists from Griffith University have found evidence suggesting that humans were using mind-altering substances much earlier in time than scientists once thought. The research was led by Professor Adam Brumm of Griffith’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE), together with ARCHE colleagues Associate Professors Carney Matheson and Michelle Langley.…
On the French Riviera, a tsunami could arrive before a warning reaches people on the beach. In some local scenarios, the first waves could reach shore in under 10 minutes. France’s national warning center, meanwhile, is designed to send its initial alert to authorities within 15 minutes of a potentially…
High cholesterol can quietly damage arteries for years, raising the risk of heart disease and other cardiovascular problems. Now, researchers from the University of Barcelona and the University of Oregon have developed an experimental strategy that could offer a new way to bring cholesterol levels down. The approach targets PCSK9,…
About 65% of U.S. adults report drinking at least one sugar-sweetened beverage each day. New research from the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute suggests that this common habit may be associated with a higher risk of gastric cancer. The researchers found that people who consumed sugar-sweetened beverages every day were…
Scientists at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have uncovered molecular evidence that could point to a previously unknown connection between Homo erectus and modern humans. At the same time, the team developed new paleoproteomics techniques that can extract valuable information from…
Paint exposed to the elements does not last forever. A garden fence may need a fresh coat after only a few years because weather has gradually worn the surface down. The same basic problem affects far larger structures, including the Eiffel Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge, which require extensive…