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For years, people have debated whether drinking coffee in the evening interferes with sleep. Some people can have caffeine late in the day and fall asleep easily, while others may remain awake for hours. But researchers are increasingly finding that simply asking whether coffee delays sleep may miss a more…
The procedure was “remarkably” successful. That is how 74-year-old Cynthia Schraf-Fletcher describes genicular artery embolization (GAE), a minimally invasive treatment designed to reduce chronic knee pain. Nearly a year after having the outpatient procedure on her right knee, she says the result feels almost the same as the total knee…
Stanford researchers have directly observed quantum jumps of sound in a mechanical resonator for the first time, marking the latest milestone in a line of quantum physics research that stretches back more than a century. Quantum jumps — sudden transitions from one energy state to another — have been part…
A rare observation of a humpback whale mother remaining beside her dead calf is offering researchers a closer look at how these animals may respond to loss. The encounter, documented by researchers from Griffith University and Sea World Foundation, raises the possibility that humpback whale mothers may experience grief when…
Tiny flying robots may one day help rescuers search for people trapped beneath collapsed buildings after earthquakes. Because of their small size, these robotic insects could potentially move through narrow spaces that larger drones cannot enter while avoiding walls, debris, and falling objects. Until recently, however, aerial microrobots have been…
Engineers have created a new type of concrete that is stronger than conventional concrete while also capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The findings, reported in Carbon Research, suggest that adding carefully selected natural materials could give concrete a second role beyond construction by helping remove CO2 from the surrounding…
An amateur astronomer searching satellite maps for possible camping locations in Quebec ended up spotting something far more unusual: evidence of a previously unrecognized impact crater. Earth has only about 200 confirmed impact structures, although geologists believe hundreds more have yet to be identified. One of those hidden structures now…
Around 631,000 years ago — a geological blink of an eye — catastrophe unfolded in what is now north-western Wyoming, US. During what is thought to have been a series of immense volcanic eruptions, life within hundreds of kilometers of the blasts was shattered. Ash was dispersed across much of…
A new brain imaging study led by scientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has uncovered what researchers describe as the strongest evidence so far that long COVID is associated with damage to dopamine-releasing neurons in the brain. Published in eBioMedicine, the findings could help explain persistent…
Antarctica’s four-foot-tall Emperor penguin may be the best-known member of the penguin family, but it is far from alone. Seventeen other penguin species live across the Southern Hemisphere, and many inhabit isolated islands that are difficult for scientists to reach and study. That remoteness may help explain how an entire…
Stem cell transplants may be able to repair damage caused by stroke, according to researchers at the University of Zurich. In experiments with mice, the treatment helped generate new neurons, restore movement, and trigger several other forms of brain repair, offering a promising step toward regenerative treatments for neurological damage.…
GLP-1 drugs such as semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound) have surged in popularity for treating diabetes and helping people lose weight. About one in eight U.S. adults now use these medications, which are also known to provide cardiovascular benefits. But new research suggests that those heart…
An international team of astronomers co-led by an IAS scholar has identified what appears to be a universal rule governing one of the most dramatic behaviors of black holes: the production of powerful jets. The researchers found that black holes can launch jets at the same critical stage of their…
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new way to transform polyethylene, one of the world’s most common plastics, into gasoline- and diesel-like fuels. Polyethylene is widely used in products such as shopping bags and white plastic cutting boards, and large amounts of it…
A new type of brain implant could give scientists a more precise way to study the brain and may eventually contribute to treatments for neurological conditions such as epilepsy. Researchers from DTU, the University of Copenhagen, University College London, and other institutions have developed a long, needle-thin brain electrode equipped…
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has reached another major milestone in space. Mission teams have successfully powered up the Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera designed to survey enormous areas of the universe rapidly while still capturing extremely fine detail. Roman’s planet-imaging system, the Coronagraph Instrument, has also…
As the 2026 El Niño strengthens across the Amazon, new research is drawing attention to a conservation priority that often receives less emphasis: protecting forests that are still standing from damage caused by fires and logging. Efforts to stop deforestation and restore cleared land are central to many conservation programs.…
Chronic stress linked to everyday life may leave a lasting physical mark on the heart, potentially damaging cardiovascular health and shortening lifespan. That conclusion comes from a study of nearly half a million adults in the UK, led by researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) and Imperial…
Scientists have long treated the brain as a single organ with a shared developmental origin. New research led by Stanford Medicine challenges that basic assumption, suggesting that what we call the brain is actually built from two distinct systems that arose separately over hundreds of millions of years of evolution.…
At some point between the tiny world of particles and atoms and the much larger world we experience every day, quantum behavior appears to fade away. Quantum mechanics allows particles to exist in combinations of possible states, a phenomenon known as superposition. That strange feature inspired Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment…
Calcium and vitamin D supplements are widely taken to support bone health, especially by older adults. But a large review published in The BMJ suggests that, for most older people, these supplements provide little to no meaningful protection against falls or broken bones. Falls are a major health concern as…
Common food preservatives found across the processed food supply may be associated with a greater risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, according to research published in the European Heart Journal. The study was led by Dr. Mathilde Touvier, a research director at INSERM (the French National Institute for…
Cats rely heavily on scent to learn about one another, often gathering information from urine and other odor marks left behind in their surroundings. These chemical traces can continue communicating long after the animal that produced them has moved on. That creates a puzzle. Many odor molecules evaporate, break down,…
A longstanding mystery surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls may have a new explanation. Researchers have debated for decades whether the Qumran sect actually followed its unusual 364-day calendar or whether the system existed mainly as a religious and theoretical ideal. A study from Tel Aviv University argues that both possibilities…
Engineers at the University of Toronto have developed a new type of dye-sensitized nanoparticle that can detect chemicals at extremely low concentrations while also telling apart molecules that are nearly identical in shape. The tiny particles produce a light signal after attaching to the chemical they are designed to detect.…
For 10 years, physicist Stephan Schlamminger had been chasing one of the most stubborn numbers in science. Now, after a decade of experiments, corrections, and painstaking analysis, the answer was sitting inside a sealed envelope. He was not entirely sure he wanted to open it. Schlamminger, a physicist at the…
The Black Death is best known for the catastrophic wave of plague that swept through Europe between 1347 and 1353, killing millions of people. But the disease did not vanish once that initial disaster passed. Plague returned again and again for more than four centuries, repeatedly disrupting cities, economies, and…
For more than a century, scientists have tried to reconstruct the biology of Tyrannosaurus rex from bones, teeth, footprints, and other traces left behind more than 60 million years ago. Fossils discovered as far north as Alaska have suggested that T. rex could tolerate cold conditions, adding to evidence that…
Physicists at the University of Oxford have helped demonstrate that one of quantum physics’ strangest phenomena, quantum entanglement, can persist even among some of the heaviest and shortest-lived particles ever produced. The finding, made with CERN’s powerful Large Hadron Collider, has been published in Physical Review Letters. Quantum entanglement occurs…
Tropical cyclones generally need to become vertically organized before they can grow much stronger. That means the storm’s rotating centers at different levels of the atmosphere must line up rather than remain tilted away from one another. Using nearly three decades of observations from NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft, researchers have…