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The off-label use of ketamine to treat chronic pain is not supported by scientific evidence, a new Cochrane review has found. Ketamine is an anaesthetic commonly used for procedural sedation and short-term pain relief. Ketamine is also frequently prescribed off-label to manage chronic pain conditions such as nerve pain, fibromyalgia…
Millions of Americans have altered vision, ranging from blurriness to blindness. But not everyone wants to wear prescription glasses or contact lenses. Accordingly, hundreds of thousands of people undergo corrective eye surgery each year, including LASIK — a laser-assisted surgery that reshapes the cornea and corrects vision. The procedure can…
For a few dozen people in the world, the downside of living with a rare immune condition comes with a surprising superpower — the ability to fight off all viruses. Columbia immunologist Dusan Bogunovic discovered the individuals’ antiviral powers about 15 years ago, soon after he identified the genetic mutation…
A team of astronomers has taken the sharpest-ever picture of the unexpected interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS using the crisp vision of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble is one of many missions across NASA’s fleet of space telescopes slated to observe this comet, together providing more information about its size and physical…
How can the behavior of elementary particles and the structure of the entire universe be described using the same mathematical concepts? This question is at the heart of recent work by the mathematicians Claudia Fevola from Inria Saclay and Anna-Laura Sattelberger from the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the…
As Greenland’s ice retreats, it’s fueling tiny ocean organisms. To test why, scientists turned to a computer model out of JPL and MIT that’s been called a laboratory in itself. Runoff from Greenland’s ice sheet is kicking nutrients up from the ocean depths and boosting phytoplankton growth, a new NASA-supported…
Roughly two-thirds of all emissions of atmospheric methane — a highly potent greenhouse gas that is warming planet Earth — come from microbes that live in oxygen-free environments like wetlands, rice fields, landfills and the guts of cows. Tracking atmospheric methane to its specific sources and quantifying their importance remains…
The discovery of yet another unique animal species from Rēkohu Chatham Islands illustrates how the physical qualities of an animal are influenced by its surroundings. New research led by the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka describes a new, extinct shelduck whose ancestors arrived on the islands 390,000 years…
Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere will change the way geomagnetic storms impact Earth, with potential implications for thousands of orbiting satellites, according to new research led by scientists at the US. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). Geomagnetic storms, caused by massive…
Data provided by the water satellite, a joint effort between NASA and the French space agency, is helping to improve tsunami forecast models, benefitting coastal communities. The SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite captured the tsunami spawned by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula…
Researchers at Columbia Engineering have built a cancer therapy that makes bacteria and viruses work as a team. In a study published recently in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the Synthetic Biological Systems Lab shows how their system hides a virus inside a tumor-seeking bacterium, smuggles it past the immune system, and unleashes…
In a new study led by Oxford University’s Department of Chemistry, chemists have demonstrated the synthesis of a cyclocarbon that is stable enough for spectroscopic characterisation in solution at room temperature. nough to be studied in liquid solution form at room temperature. The study – only the second example of…
Researchers in Japan have genetically transferred a unique courtship behavior from one fruit fly species to another. By turning on a single gene in insulin-producing neurons, the team successfully made a species of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) perform a gift-giving ritual it had never done before. The study, published in…
The twin cube satellites will operate through at least September 2026, expanding focus from the poles to the whole planet to improve modelling and weather forecasts. NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission has been extended through September 2026 and is broadening its focus from Earth’s poles…
Seventeen days after NISAR’s launch from southeastern India, an essential piece of science hardware has unfurled in orbit. Spanning 39 feet (12 meters), the drum-shaped antenna reflector on the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite mission from NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully unfurled in low Earth…
On March 28, 2025, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the Southeast Asia country of Myanmar along the Sagaing Fault, killing thousands and causing widespread damage. A new study from Caltech uses satellite imaging of the Sagaing Fault’s motion to improve models of how such faults may behave in the future.…
Researchers at Tampere University and their collaborators from Germany and India have experimentally confirmed that angular momentum is conserved when a single photon is converted into a pair – validating a key principle of physics at the quantum level for the first time. This breakthrough opens new possibilities for creating…
For the first time in more than thirty years, the heaviest nucleus decaying via proton emission has been measured. The previous similar breakthrough was achieved in 1996. The radioactive decay of atomic nuclei has been one of the keystones of nuclear physics since the beginning of nuclear research. Now the…
The entry of quantum computers into society is currently hindered by their sensitivity to disturbances in the environment. Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, and Aalto University and the University of Helsinki in Finland, now present a new type of exotic quantum material, and a method that uses…
White sharks exhibit stark differences between the DNA in their nuclei and the DNA in their mitochondria. Until now, scientists have pointed to the migration patterns of great whites to explain these differences. Scientists tested this theory in a new study by analyzing genetic differences between global white shark populations.…
Just as overlapping ripples on a pond can amplify or cancel each other out, waves of many kinds — including light, sound and atomic vibrations — can interfere with one another. At the quantum level, this kind of interference powers high-precision sensors and could be harnessed for quantum computing. In…
A research team from the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) has published a study in Communications Biology showing how ocean acidification and warming — two of the main consequences of global climate change — can simultaneously affect the structure, mineral composition, and microbiome of bryozoans, colonial invertebrates crucial for…
Nearly a quarter of people over the age of 40 experience painful osteoarthritis, making it a leading cause of disability in adults. Osteoarthritis degrades joint-cushioning cartilage, and there is currently no way of reversing this damage: the only option is to manage pain with medication, and eventually, joint replacement. Researchers…
A drought lasting 13 years and several others that each lasted over three years may have contributed to the collapse of the Classic Maya civilization, chemical fingerprints from a stalagmite in a Mexican cave have revealed. A detailed analysis of oxygen isotopes in the stalagmite allowed a team of researchers,…
Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a breakthrough diagnostic tool that could transform how quickly and reliably we detect illnesses like COVID-19, Ebola, AIDS or Lyme disease. The test uses just a single drop of blood, costs a couple of dollars and delivers results in only 15 minutes. In…
Research from scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have shed new light on an age-old question: what makes the human brain unique? The team’s discovery comes from their investigation of human-accelerated regions (HARs) — sections of the human genome that have accumulated an unusually high level…
In 2024, NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance collected an unusual rock sample. The rock, named Sapphire Canyon, features white, leopardlike spots with black borders within a red mudstone and might hold clues about sources of organic molecules within Mars. Here on Earth, in Review of Scientific Instruments, by AIP Publishing, researchers…
Quantum dots – semiconductor nanostructures that can emit single photons on demand – are considered among the most promising sources for photonic quantum computing. However, every quantum dot is slightly different and may emit a slightly different color. This means that, to produce multi-photon states we cannot use multiple quantum…
‘Float rocks,’ sand ripples, and vast distances are among the sights to see in the latest high-resolution panorama by the six-wheeled scientist. The imaging team of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took advantage of clear skies on the Red Planet to capture one of the sharpest panoramas of its mission so…
Weaver ants have solved a problem that has plagued human teams for centuries: individuals contribute less to tasks when more people join in. New research published in Current Biology on August 12 shows individual weaver ants instead get stronger as their group grows. “Each individual ant almost doubled their pulling…
