Reporting world updates to you
People’s intuitive perception of biodiversity through visual and audio cues is remarkably accurate and aligns closely with scientific measures of biodiversity. This is according to new research published in the British Ecological Society journal, People and Nature. In a new study led by researchers at the German Centre for Integrative…
Have you ever wondered what kind of video content would most grab the attention of monkeys? A new study of long-tailed macaques suggests the monkeys seem to like some of the same kind of content that humans do: videos featuring aggression and individuals they know. “Humans and macaques are both…
Creatine is popularly known as a muscle-building supplement, but its influence on human muscle function can be a matter of life or death. “Creatine is very crucial for energy-consuming cells in skeletal muscle throughout the body, but also in the brain and in the heart,” said Chin-Yi Chen, a research…
Focusing solely on achieving weight loss for people with a high body mass index (BMI) may do more harm than good, argue experts in The BMJ. Dr Juan Franco and colleagues say, on average, people with high weight will not be able to sustain a clinically relevant weight loss with…
Finding motivation to exercise can be the greatest challenge in working out. This might be part of the reason why less than a quarter of people achieve the activity goals recommended by the World Health Organization. But what if working out could be more enjoyable? One way of achieving this…
During the menopause transition, only 1 in 5 women have optimal scores using the American Heart Association’s health-assessment tool, known as Life’s Essential 8 (LE8). Among the tool’s eight components, four of them — blood glucose, blood pressure, sleep quality and nicotine use — are key in driving future cardiovascular…
A Los Alamos collaboration has replicated an important but largely forgotten physics experiment: the first deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion observation. As described in Physical Review C, the reworking of the previously unheralded experiment confirmed the role of University of Michigan physicist Arthur Ruhlig, whose 1938 experiment and observation of deuterium-tritium fusion…
A fascinating glimpse into how a solar system like our own is born has been revealed with the detection of planet-forming ‘pebbles’ around two young stars. These seeds to make new worlds are thought to gradually clump together over time, in much the same way Jupiter was first created 4.5…
Researchers have found clouds of cold gas embedded deep within larger, superheated gas clouds — or Fermi bubbles — at the Milky Way’s center. The finding challenges current models of Fermi bubble formation and reveals that the bubbles are much younger than previously estimated. “The Fermi bubbles are enormous structures…
“Space ice” contains tiny crystals and is not, as previously assumed, a completely disordered material like liquid water, according to a new study by scientists at UCL (University College London) and the University of Cambridge. Ice in space is different to the crystalline (highly ordered) form of ice on Earth.…
During photosynthesis, an enzyme called rubisco catalyzes a key reaction — the incorporation of carbon dioxide into organic compounds to create sugars. However, rubisco, which is believed to be the most abundant enzyme on Earth, is very inefficient compared to the other enzymes involved in photosynthesis. MIT chemists have now…
Melting glaciers may be silently setting the stage for more explosive and frequent volcanic eruptions in the future, according to research on six volcanoes in the Chilean Andes. Presented today (July 8) at the Goldschmidt Conference in Prague, the study suggests that hundreds of dormant subglacial volcanoes worldwide – particularly…
Fish make hanging motionless in the water column look effortless, and scientists had long assumed that this meant it was a type of rest. Now, a new study reveals that fish use nearly twice as much energy when hovering in place compared to resting. The study, led by scientists at…
The key to sticking to and reaping the rewards of exercise over the long term may be as simple as doing something you enjoy, say the authors of a new study from UCL. Previous research has shown that the personalities of people who engage in different types of organized sport…
Ongoing research into the effect of environmental change on the buzzing of bees reveals that high temperatures and exposure to heavy metals reduces the frequency (and audible pitch) of non-flight wing vibrations, which could have consequences on the effectiveness of bee communication and their role as pollinators. “People have been…
A Smithsonian-led team of researchers have discovered North America’s oldest known pterosaur, the winged reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs and were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight. In a paper published on July 7 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers led by paleontologist Ben Kligman, a…
The Anglo-USA team behind the study named them dark dwarfs. Not because they are dark bodies — on the contrary — but because of their special link with dark matter, one of the most central topics in current cosmology and astrophysics research. “We think that 25% of the universe is…
The language capabilities of today’s artificial intelligence systems are astonishing. We can now engage in natural conversations with systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, and many others, with a fluency nearly comparable to that of a human being. Yet we still know very little about the internal processes in these networks that…
The majority of the Earth’s plant species, including our crop plants, rely on the services of animal pollinators in order to reproduce. Honey bees and other pollinating insects annually contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy, and are responsible for nearly a third of the food that ends up…
UCLA Health researchers have identified four distinct pathways that lead to Alzheimer’s disease by analyzing electronic health records, offering new insights into how the condition develops over time rather than from isolated risk factors. The study, published in the journal eBioMedicine, examined longitudinal health data from nearly 25,000 patients in…
Most patients undergoing “tummy tuck” surgery (abdominoplasty) to remove excess skin and tissue after weight loss continue to lose weight in the months and years after surgery, suggests a follow-up study in the July issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic…
Botanists from the University of Copenhagen and the UK set out to find the best flower combinations for bees and hoverflies. The results make it easier for garden owners and municipalities, among others, to plant the perfect pantries for insects, which also delight the human eye. Flower strips, seed mixtures,…
Most people associate Hong Kong with skyscrapers and shopping malls, but a small population of feral water buffalo calls the marshlands of South Lantau Island home. And they’re sparking a mix of curiosity, concern, and connection among locals. A new study published in People and Nature in July 2025 led…
Like all complex organisms, every human originates from a single cell that multiplies through countless cell divisions. Thousands of cells coordinate, move and exert mechanical forces on each other as an embryo takes shape. Researchers at the Göttingen Campus Institute for Dynamics of Biological Networks (CIDBN), the Max Planck Institute…
Just over 200 years after French engineer and physicist Sadi Carnot formulated the second law of thermodynamics, an international team of researchers has unveiled an analogous law for the quantum world. This second law of entanglement manipulation proves that, just like heat or energy in an idealized thermodynamics regime, entanglement…
When a drummer plays a drum, she sets the drumhead into vibration by hitting it. The vibration contains a signal that we can decode as music. When the drumhead stops vibrating, the signal is lost. Now imagine a drumhead that is ultra-thin, about 10 mm wide, and perforated with many…
An international collaboration featuring the University of Vienna and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) has led to the first-ever chromosome-level genome assembly of a sea spider (Pycnogonum litorale). The genome informs about the development of the characteristic sea spider body plan and constitutes a landmark for revealing the evolutionary history…
Two areas of the brain may work in combination to tell the brain when it’s “feeling” tired. People with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often experience cognitive fatigue. Results of the study may provide a way for physicians to better evaluate and treat people who experience such fatigue. In…
A research study led by Professor Tarani Chandola from the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has revealed that Mondays uniquely drive long-term biological stress, regardless of working status, with implications for heart health. The research has identified a striking biological phenomenon:…
Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have gained unique insight into the mechanisms behind the collapse of Antarctic ice shelves, which are crucial for sea level rise in the Northern Hemisphere. The discovery of old aerial photos has provided an unparalleled dataset that can improve predictions of sea level rise…
