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In 1989, Voyager 2 discovered six previously unknown moons around Neptune. Five of them are tiny satellites that travel just beyond the planet’s main rings. Their small size and distant location have made them extremely difficult to investigate from Earth. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has given scientists…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey V has taken a major step toward mapping the sky on a truly global scale with Data Release 20. Known as DR20, the release includes the first optical (BOSS) SDSS-V spectra collected from the Southern Hemisphere, greatly expanding the survey beyond the groundwork established in…
A large study involving more than 5,500 adults over age 50 has identified a potentially dangerous combination of health risks. People who had both abdominal obesity and vitamin D deficiency faced a 123% higher risk of death compared with those who had neither condition. The findings, published in the journal…
Congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect, affecting about 1 in 100 babies born each year. The condition can have many causes, including changes involving TBX5, a gene that plays a critical role in building the heart. In some cases, a child has only one working copy of…
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has captured a remarkable celestial sight: Earth briefly vanishing behind Phobos in the evening sky of Mars. A newly released sequence of images shows Earth as a tiny point of light while Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons, moves across the sky and passes directly…
Astronomers from MIT and other institutions have identified an exceptionally bright red object dating back to the early universe. At first glance, it resembles an enormous star with dimensions comparable to our solar system. Its energy output, however, is extraordinary. The object is producing roughly 100 billion times more energy…
Most of us think of orange juice as a simple breakfast habit, something you pour without much thought. Yet scientists are discovering that this everyday drink may be doing far more in the body than quenching thirst. A recent study has shown that regular orange juice consumption can influence the…
Some cynodonts may have started giving birth to live young far earlier in evolutionary history than scientists once believed. A new study published in Frontiers in Mammal Science presents the first compelling evidence that at least some cynodonts may have been viviparous — meaning they gave birth to live offspring.…
Obesity is a major health problem worldwide and can raise the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other metabolic disorders. Many factors can contribute to obesity, but researchers are increasingly interested in the role of high fat foods that are readily available in grocery stores. These foods can be difficult…
More than 120,000 babies around the world acquire HIV each year. For millions of people living with the virus, controlling the infection means taking treatment for life, provided those medications are accessible and affordable. A new study led by Oregon Health & Science University points to a potentially very different…
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that individual human neurons can carry out far more complex computations than neurons in other mammals. The discovery offers a new perspective on what may make the human brain so unusual. How does the human…
A recent study from TUD Dresden University of Technology suggests that what people have done before can shape their current decisions more strongly than researchers previously believed. The findings offer new insight into how people make everyday choices and develop habits. The results were published in the journal Communications Psychology.…
During deep sleep, a water-like fluid moves around the brain and helps remove metabolic waste associated with diseases such as Alzheimer’s. This cleanup process is part of the glymphatic system, which was first described in 2012 by Maiken Nedergaard — a pioneering neuroscientist and co-director of the University of RochesterCenter…
For many people, the thought of a tasty burger or a cold pint of beer conjures up a vivid mental image and drives behavior. This link between thinking and doing serves a clear function – it motivates us to get the necessities for life. But for some, this process can…
The region surrounding Earth is getting more crowded as thousands of satellites and pieces of space debris move through low Earth orbit. Farther above, at altitudes of several hundred kilometers, traces of Earth’s upper atmosphere can still exert enough drag to slow satellites. Accurately measuring atmospheric density at these heights…
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) can reduce movement problems caused by Parkinson’s disease, and new research is providing a clearer picture of why the treatment works. Scientists have found that its benefits appear to depend on stimulating a specific brain network that communicates primarily through a relatively fast beta rhythm (20…
A new study led by a Charles Sturt University researcher and international colleagues is challenging a long-accepted idea about how scientists identify ancient disease. Evidence from the skeletal remains of children who lived in prehistoric Vietnam suggests that treponemal diseases could have been passed from mother to child thousands of…
The adult brain may have a greater ability to repair itself after injury or certain autoimmune diseases than scientists previously believed. In experiments with mice, researchers at the University of Zurich found that specialized support cells can repopulate damaged parts of the brain in an unusual way. Rather than moving…
Scientists have found that wool could provide an effective and sustainable new option for repairing damaged bone. The research focused on keratin, a natural structural protein that can be extracted from wool. When tested in a living animal, the material supported bone regeneration and produced new tissue that more closely…
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of NGC 2392, a planetary nebula commonly known as the Lion Nebula, revealing the cosmic object in striking infrared detail. The Hubble Space Telescope previously observed the nebula in 2000, imaging the lion face-shaped target in visible light. Those observations highlighted…
Researchers at the University of Basel and the Technical University of Munich have found a new way to examine how electrons move together inside one of the most elusive forms of matter, the Wigner crystal. By using light to probe this delicate quantum state, the physicists uncovered properties that had…
Where and how did life first emerge on Earth? Those questions are at the heart of research at the Institute of Molecular Evolution at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU). Now, an international team led by biologists in Düsseldorf has reported new findings in Science Advances that shed light on the…
WiFi signals could potentially be used to identify people and map their surroundings without relying on cameras or requiring the person being observed to carry a connected device. “By observing the propagation of radio waves, we can create an image of the surroundings and of persons who are present,” says…
Dogs are exceptionally skilled at reading human emotions, from smiles and laughter to frowns and tears. Scientists and dog owners have recognized this ability for years, but the biological mechanisms that make it possible have remained largely unknown. A study published August 7 in the Cell Press journal iScience offers…
Talking through a difficult problem can help some people organize their thoughts. But according to cognitive neuroscientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, language itself is not required for logical reasoning. In research published recently in the journal PNAS, a team led by MIT associate professor of brain and…
A team at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has developed a new type of stainless steel that could overcome a major limitation of conventional stainless steel and potentially lower the cost of producing green hydrogen. Led by Professor Mingxin Huang of HKU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, the researchers created…
Marine heatwaves are increasingly being recognized as more than an environmental problem. New research warns that prolonged periods of unusually warm ocean temperatures can also threaten human physical and mental health. Researchers from Adelaide University and the University of Hong Kong say marine heatwaves should be treated as an important…
New research from the University of East Anglia suggests that a lost papal letter could change how historians understand the events of 1066 and the Norman Conquest. Surviving excerpts of the letter, preserved in the Vatican archives, point to a major political struggle in Rome that may have influenced the…
Black holes created before the Big Bang may have survived into the Universe we see today, according to new research from the University of Portsmouth. These ancient objects could act as “cosmic fossils” and may even help explain dark matter, the invisible material that plays a major role in shaping…
A rare looping trail of fossilized footprints in Colorado is giving scientists a detailed look at how a giant dinosaur moved 150 million years ago. The evidence also raises the possibility that the animal was walking with a limp. Located near Ouray, the trackway is one of the most continuous…