Reporting world updates to you
CNN — Ukraine has ramped up missile and drone strikes on occupied Crimea in recent weeks, as it attempts to land both strategic and symbolic blows against Russian forces that annexed the peninsula in 2014. Kyiv launched an extensive assault on a Russian naval base in Sevastopol early Wednesday morning…
Lab-based studies reveal how carbon atoms diffuse on the surface of interstellar ice grains to form complex organic compounds, crucial to reveal the chemical complexity in the universe. Uncovering the organic (carbon-based) chemistry in interstellar space is central to understanding the chemistry of the universe in addition to the origin…
Rivers are warming and losing oxygen faster than oceans, according to a Penn State-led study published today (Sept. 14) in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study shows that of nearly 800 rivers, warming occurred in 87% and oxygen loss occurred in 70%. The study also projects that within the…
Researchers have discovered a new way to target and kill cancer cells in hard-to-treat brain tumours using electrically charged molecules to trigger self-destruction, that could be developed into a spray treatment used during surgery. A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Nottingham, led by the School of Pharmacy…
The era of artificial-intelligence chatbots that seem to understand and use language the way we humans do has begun. Under the hood, these chatbots use large language models, a particular kind of neural network. But a new study shows that large language models remain vulnerable to mistaking nonsense for natural…
Although a simple molecule, nitric oxide is an important signal substance that helps to reduce blood pressure by relaxing the blood vessels. But how it goes about doing this has long been unclear. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now present an entirely novel principle that challenges the Nobel Prize-winning…
A team of researchers, led by a University of Hawai’i (UH) at Manoa planetary scientist, discovered that high energy electrons in Earth’s plasma sheet are contributing to weathering processes on the Moon’s surface and, importantly, the electrons may have aided the formation of water on the lunar surface. The study…
Hydrogen is viewed as a promising alternative to fossil fuel, but the methods used to make it either generate too much carbon dioxide or are too expensive. Rice University researchers have found a way to harvest hydrogen from plastic waste using a low-emissions method that could more than pay for…
CNN — One person has died and eight people have been hospitalized after an outbreak of botulism in a restaurant in the French city of Bordeaux, according to a statement from France’s public health body on Wednesday. Two less serious cases were also identified, according to local health authorities. It…
Capturing blur-free images of fast movements like falling water droplets or molecular interactions requires expensive ultrafast cameras that acquire millions of images per second. In a new paper, researchers report a camera that could offer a much less expensive way to achieve ultrafast imaging for a wide range of applications…
The study across three countries led by the Department of Psychology’s Dr Paul Hanel discovered people who prioritised achievement over enjoyment were less happy on the next day. Whereas those who aimed for freedom said they had a 13% increase in well-being, recording better sleep quality and life satisfaction. And…
It’s a skin disorder that makes life miserable for around 800 million teenagers and adults worldwide, but Australian scientists may have found an effective treatment for acne, delivered via tiny nanoparticles. In a study led by the University of South Australia (UniSA), a new antibacterial compound known as Narasin was…
To obtain the biggest cherry harvest, trees should be pollinated by both honey bees and mason bees. A new study led by a researcher at the University of Gothenburg shows yet another benefit of biodiversity. Like many other fruit trees, most sweet cherry cultivars depend on cross-pollination to produce their…
Rock faces in Namibia are decorated with hundreds of stone-age images not only of animals and human footprints, but also of animal tracks. These have been largely neglected to date as researchers lacked the knowledge required to interpret them. Archaeologists from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the University of Cologne have…
Scientists have confirmed that human brains are naturally wired to perform advanced calculations, much like a high-powered computer, to make sense of the world through a process known as Bayesian inference. In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers from the University of Sydney, University of Queensland and…
Most wild bees are solitary, but one tiny species of carpenter bees fastidiously cares for and raises their offspring, an act that translates into huge benefits to the developing bee’s microbiome, development and health, found York University researchers. Not unlike the positive affect human mothers can have on their offspring,…
When people feel that their resources are scarce — that they don’t have enough money or time to meet their needs — they often make decisions that favor short-term gains over long-term benefits. Because of that, researchers have argued that scarcity pushes people to make myopic, impulsive decisions. But a…
A team of researchers, jointly led by Professor Hyun-Wook Lee and Professor Dong-Hwa Seo from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), in collaboration with Professor Seok Woo Lee from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, has achieved significant breakthroughs in…
CNN — Two women who were arrested while attending a Sarah Everard vigil in London in 2021 have been paid damages and received an apology from the Metropolitan Police. A lawyer’s statement on Thursday confirmed that the London police force had apologized and agreed to pay “substantial” damages to the…
CNN — Police in Spain arrested a man on suspicion of sexual assault after he appeared to touch a TV journalist on the bottom as she was reporting live from the streets of Madrid. The man approached Isa Balado, a journalist for the “En boca de todos” program on Spain’s…
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un attend a meeting at the Vostochny Сosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, on September 13. KCNA/Reuters Vladimir Putin has said Russia is considering and discussing some military cooperation with North Korea, following a summit at which that country’s leader Kim Jong Un appeared to endorse Moscow’s war on…
An international team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has announced a groundbreaking step forward that has added significantly to the technical know-how required to clean up the planet. The discovery, published in the journal Nature, centres on developing a highly efficient electrocatalyst that can enhance hydrogen generation…
In a trio of papers appearing in Nature on Sept. 13, 2023, the researchers offer the most comprehensive look yet at how malnutrition affects growth in the first two years of life, underscoring a devastating reality for millions of children in the Global South, particularly Asia. In 2022, more than…
Researchers at Utah State University have successfully demonstrated that hagfish slime proteins can accurately replicate membranes in the human eye. Professor Elizabeth Vargis and her team study a condition called age-related macular degeneration that causes damage to the retina, making it difficult to see. They study in vitro models, or…
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed small robotic devices that can change how they move through the air by “snapping” into a folded position during their descent. When these “microfliers” are dropped from a drone, they use a Miura-ori origami fold to switch from tumbling and dispersing outward…
A new study updates the planetary boundary framework and shows human activities are increasingly impacting the planet and, thereby, increasing the risk of triggering dramatic changes in overall Earth conditions. For over 3 billion years, the interaction between life (represented by the planetary boundary, Biosphere Integrity) and climate have controlled…
Two graduate students from Western University have developed a ground-breaking method for predicting which intensive care unit (ICU) patients will survive a severe brain injury. Matthew Kolisnyk and Karnig Kazazian combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with state-of-the art machine learning techniques to tackle one of the most complex issues…
During a bout of influenza, B cells interact with other immune cells and then take different paths to defend the body. One path is the B cells that differentiate into antibody producing cells. Another path is the B cells that differentiate into lung-resident memory B cells, or lung-BRMs, that are…
If the Chicago region replaced 30% of all on-road combustion-engine vehicles — including motorcycles, passenger cars and trucks, buses, refuse trucks and short- and long-haul trucks — with electric versions, it would annually save more than 1,000 lives and over $10 billion, according to a new Northwestern University study. The…
Researchers at Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that has the potential to not only identify sight-threatening eye diseases but also predict general health, including heart attacks, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease. RETFound, one of the first AI foundation models in healthcare,…
