Reporting world updates to you
An international research team including the University of Göttingen has described seven previously unknown species of leaf insects, also known as walking leaves. The insects belong to the stick and leaf insect order, which are known for their unusual appearance: they look confusingly similar to parts of plants such as…
A major red tide event occurred in waters off Southern California in the spring of 2020, resulting in dazzling displays of bioluminescence along the coast. The spectacle was caused by exceedingly high densities of Lingulodinium polyedra (L. polyedra),a plankton species renowned for its ability to emit a neon blue glow.…
A team of computer scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, led by Emery Berger, recently unveiled a prize-winning Python profiler called Scalene. Programs written with Python are notoriously slow — up to 60,000 times slower than code written in other programming languages — and Scalene works to efficiently identify…
Fat is a normal and necessary part of the body. Fat cells store and release energy, as well as play significant roles in hormonal regulation and immunity. In recent decades, a concerning rise in metabolic illnesses — such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and diabetes — has focused scientific…
The mosquito-borne infectious disease malaria resulted in about 241 million clinical episodes and 627,000 deaths in 2020. In young children and pregnant women living in areas where the disease is endemic, a major cause of death is Plasmodium falciparum, the most virulent, prevalent, and deadly human malaria parasite. Scientists are…
University of Michigan researchers have discovered that the same cellular mechanism involved in a form of cystic fibrosis is also implicated in a form of a rare disease called cystinosis. The mechanism cleans up mutated proteins. In cystinosis, a genetic disease, this allows cystine crystals to build up in the…
Plastics — in particular, microplastics — are among the most pervasive pollutants on the planet, finding their way into the air, water systems and food chains around the world. While the prevalence of microplastics in the environment is well known — as are their negative impacts on marine organisms —…
Researchers at Duke University have implemented a quantum-based method to observe a quantum effect in the way light-absorbing molecules interact with incoming photons. Known as a conical intersection, the effect puts limitations on the paths molecules can take to change between different configurations. The observation method makes use of a…
Before heading to work each day, most people have spent the night dreaming. Studies show that on any given morning, about 40 percent of the working population recalls their dreams. New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that when dreams are first recalled, people often draw connections between…
“Every successful medicine has its origin story. And research like this is the soil from which new drugs are born,” says Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Christopher Vakoc. For six years, Vakoc’s lab has been on a mission to transform sarcoma cells into regularly functioning tissue cells. Sarcomas are cancers…
Due to intensifying sea-ice melting in the Arctic, sunlight is now penetrating deeper and deeper into the ocean. Since marine zooplankton respond to the available light, this is also changing their behaviour — especially how the tiny organisms rise and fall within the water column. As an international team of…
While radio waves emitted by radio and television broadcasting and CB radio can disrupt the magnetic compass of migratory birds, those used in mobile communication networks do not because the frequencies are too high to affect their sense of orientation. This was the key finding of a new study published…
Scientists from the University of Birmingham and the University of Cambridge have developed a new method for detecting mid-infrared (MIR) light at room temperature using quantum systems. The research, published today (28th August) in Nature Photonics, was conducted at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and marks a…
Scientists at the University of Sydney have, for the first time, used a quantum computer to engineer and directly observe a process critical in chemical reactions by slowing it down by a factor of 100 billion times. Joint lead researcher and PhD student, Vanessa Olaya Agudelo, said: “It is by…
CNN — Even as Ukrainian forces have breached the first line of Russian defenses on part of the southern front, soldiers taking part in the counteroffensive have revealed just how difficult it is to make more than incremental gains in the face of complex and multi-layered fortifications. Ukrainian units say…
Anyone who’s been caught in an unexpected downpour knows that weather forecasting is an imperfect science. Now, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology are taking aim at one of meteorologists’ biggest blind spots: extremely short-term forecasts, or nowcasts, that predict what will happen in a given location over the next…
Investigators from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai are one step closer to helping individuals catch a sudden cardiac arrest before it happens, thanks to a study published today in the peer-reviewed journal Lancet Digital Health. The study, led by sudden cardiac arrest expert Sumeet Chugh, MD, found that 50%…
A new New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics paper out today describes the 266 fossil species as one of the richest and most diverse groups of three-million-year-old fauna ever found in New Zealand. At least ten previously unknown species will be described and named in future research. Fossil treasure…
Researchers at the University of East Anglia have developed a new way of identifying patients at risk of an irregular heartbeat, known as ‘atrial fibrillation’. While not life threatening, the condition increases people’s risk of having a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or stroke by up to five times. A new…
The UK’s brightest pupils’ chances of getting top GCSE grades are actually lower in grammar schools than in comprehensives, according to a major new piece of research. The study, which was based on test results and other information from all pupils in England, challenges the common belief that high achievers…
A team of researchers is designing novel systems to capture water vapour in the air and turn it into liquid. University of Waterloo professor Michael Tam and his PhD students Yi Wang and Weinan Zhao have developed sponges or membranes with a large surface area that continually capture moisture from…
You may know it as an aromatic spice to add flavor to your dishes or as a soothing herbal remedy to use for upset stomachs, but researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University have uncovered promising findings that Kencur, a tropical plant in the ginger family native to Southeast Asia, possesses anti-cancer…
Bees could become biomonitors, checking their neighbourhoods to determine how far antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has spread, according to research by Macquarie University scientists. At least 700,000 people die each year due to drug-resistant diseases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which estimates that 10 million people will die due…
In a new study in Nature Communications, an international research team including scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology reports that, given the same genetic makeup, individual behavior alone determines whether or not an individual in a social group will contract a disease. Clonal raider ants of the…
CNN — France will ban schoolchildren from wearing abayas ahead of the upcoming academic year, the government has said, the latest in a series of contentious restrictions in the country on clothing associated with Muslims. French Education Minister Gabriel Attal said the long, robe-like garments often worn by Muslim women…
Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives to attend a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine on August 25. Ercin Erturk/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images The coalition aiding Ukraine’s fight against Moscow’s invasion would not support Kyiv if it were to move the hostilities to Russian territory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday. “I believe that this is…
Madrid CNN — In Spain kissing is a widely-accepted custom. Friends and family do it, whether woman to woman, woman to man, or man to man. It can be lips to cheek or a little kissing sound. There are numerous variants, and even strangers greet each other this way. But…
CNN — Russian investigators have confirmed that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was among the 10 people killed when their plane crashed Wednesday, after carrying out genetic tests. Prigozhin, who led a failed uprising against the Kremlin, had previously been named as one of those on board the private plane, which…
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky speaks to the media on the second day of the 2023 NATO Summit on July 12, in Vilnius, Lithuania. Sean Gallup/Getty Images/FILE The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has detained four more employees of military enlistment offices as part of an ongoing crackdown on corruption, the agency said…
CNN — One of only 15 competition prize editions ever published of a rare “Harry Potter” book, which nearly went up in flames earlier this year, will soon go up for auction. In 2012, a then-15-year-old Carina Haouchine, from Scotland, scored a winning copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s…
