Reporting world updates to you
To study the moments when the planet crossed over starspots, researchers relied on the multicolor MuSCAT3 and MuSCAT4 instruments installed on the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) 2-meter telescopes. During February and March 2024, they recorded three separate transits and clearly identified signals produced by the planet passing over these dark…
The Hadean Eon, which stretched from 4.6 to 4.0 billion years ago, represents one of the least understood periods in Earth’s past. This era opened with the birth of the planet and was quickly followed by a dramatic collision with a Mars-sized object. The impact produced the Moon and left…
Scientists from NOAA and NASA report that this year’s ozone hole over Antarctica is the fifth smallest seen since 1992, the year that the Montreal Protocol, a landmark international agreement to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals, began to take effect. During the peak of the 2025 ozone depletion season, from September…
Researchers led by Tzyy-Nan Huang and Ming-Hui Lin at Academia Sinica in Taiwan have found that a low-dose combination of zinc, serine, and branched-chain amino acids may ease behavioral difficulties in three mouse models of autism. The study, published December 2nd in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, reports that these…
A frog with an unexpectedly strong resistance to venom has been identified, and it routinely eats hornets despite the insects’ dangerous stingers. Researchers believe this species may become a useful model organism for exploring how animals develop tolerance to venom. For many people, even glimpsing a hornet’s stinger is enough…
Fever, aching limbs and a runny nose — as winter returns, so too does the flu. The disease is triggered by influenza viruses, which enter our body through droplets and then infect vulnerable cells. A research team from Switzerland and Japan has taken an exceptionally close look at how this…
Recent research has revealed a technique for producing graphene that deliberately incorporates structural defects to enhance its performance. This strategy could help advance several fields, including sensors, batteries and electronics. Scientists from the University of Nottingham’s School of Chemistry, the University of Warwick and Diamond Light Source created a single-step…
Gravitational-wave detectors may soon get a major performance boost, thanks to a new instrumentation advance led by physicist Jonathan Richardson of the University of California, Riverside. In a paper published in the journal Optica, Richardson and his colleagues describe FROSTI, a full-scale prototype that successfully controls laser wavefronts at extremely…
A research group led by the University of Cambridge examined giant anaconda fossils found in South America and determined that these snakes reached their full body size about 12.4 million years ago. According to their analysis, anacondas have remained exceptionally large ever since. During the period from 12.4 to 5.3…
For many people in the United States, spending time indoors does not guarantee protection from harmful air pollution. A new study led by Stanford University and published Dec. 2 in PNAS Nexus reports that gas and propane stoves release significant amounts of nitrogen dioxide. This pollutant has been associated with…
An unusual vaccination rule in Wales has given scientists some of the clearest evidence so far that a vaccine might help protect against dementia. In a new study led by Stanford Medicine, researchers examined health records from older adults in Wales and found that people who received the shingles vaccine…
Astronomers have identified a spiral galaxy that looks strikingly similar to the Milky Way in a period of the Universe when such organized systems were not expected to exist. Two researchers in India spotted this unusually developed galaxy only 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, a timing that calls…
On December 2, 1995, the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) lifted off for what was originally planned as a two-year mission. From a position 1.5 million km away from Earth, located between our planet and the Sun, SOHO has an uninterrupted view of the solar surface. Since launch, it…
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects people across the globe and often progresses to the point where patients rely on routine dialysis to survive. Although the condition is widespread and serious, there are still no approved medications that can actively restore kidney function. A team led by Professor Takaaki Abe at…
Sweat carries a wide range of biological signals, and a growing body of research suggests that pairing it with artificial intelligence and advanced sensor technology could reshape how we track our health and daily physiology. According to a recent study, this combination may provide a powerful new approach for monitoring…
Do not schedule eight AM classes. Communicate with your roommate. Wash your bedding regularly. New college students hear countless tips as they prepare for campus life. Among them, one warning appears again and again: the idea of the “freshman 15.” Many people treat weight gain in the first year of…
Each rocket launch sends valuable materials into the sky that cannot be recovered, while also releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases and chemicals that damage the ozone layer. A new paper published December 1 in the Cell Press journal Chem Circularity examines how familiar ideas like reducing, reusing, and recycling…
Earth’s ancient sky may have played a larger role in the beginnings of life than scientists once believed. According to a study published Dec. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from CU Boulder and their collaborators report that billions of years ago, the young planet’s…
Ant societies behave like tightly integrated “superorganisms,” where thousands of individuals work together in a way that resembles the coordinated activity of cells in a body. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have found that terminally ill ant brood release a distinctive odor, similar to the…
A multinational group of scientists has identified a previously unknown tubular structure within Profftella, a symbiotic bacterium linked to a major pest that affects citrus crops around the world. The finding was made possible through advanced microscopy techniques and could influence future approaches to pest management as well as research…
Researchers have pinpointed specific areas of the human genome that are unusually susceptible to genetic changes. These altered segments can be inherited by future generations and have important implications for how scientists investigate genetics and disease. The vulnerable regions sit at the beginning of genes, known as transcription start sites.…
A large laboratory investigation of human-made chemicals has revealed 168 substances that are harmful to bacteria normally found in a healthy human gut. These chemicals interfere with the growth of microbes considered essential for maintaining good health. Many of the substances identified in the study are expected to enter the…
Over the last 70 years, hydralazine has been an indispensable tool in medicine — a front-line defense against life-threatening high blood pressure, especially during pregnancy. But despite its essential role, a fundamental mystery has persisted: no one knew its “mechanism of action” — essentially how it works at a molecular…
A recent cover article in Aging-US, titled “Sex-specific longitudinal reversal of aging in old frail mice,” highlights a promising new direction in longevity research. The work, led by first author Cameron Kato along with corresponding author and Aging-US Editorial Board Member Irina M. Conboy at the University of California, Berkeley,…
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly one in seven people across the globe lived with a mental illness in 2021, with anxiety disorders and depression occurring most frequently. These conditions often stem from a mix of influences, and genetics play a major part in shaping a person’s risk.…
Patients living with major depressive disorder, including those who have not improved with commonly prescribed antidepressants, may benefit from short-term nitrous oxide treatment, according to a large meta-analysis led by the University of Birmingham. The paper, published in eBioMedicine on November 30, reviewed the strongest available clinical data to explore…
A research team from the University of Vienna and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven has uncovered how the eyes of adult marine bristleworms continue to increase in size throughout their entire lifespan. The work shows that this constant growth is powered by a ring of neural stem cells that…
In the center of the ancient Roman city of Gabii, located about 11 miles east of modern Rome, a research team led by University of Missouri professor Marcello Mogetta has uncovered an extraordinary find: a huge stone-lined basin with portions cut directly into the natural bedrock. Dating to around 250…
White dwarfs are the dense remnants left behind after a star stops producing energy through nuclear fusion, a stage our own sun will reach far in the future. These stellar remnants behave in unusual ways, since their internal structure makes them shrink as they gain mass, which is why they…
Around 12,000 years ago, the last Ice Age drew to a close. Global temperatures rose, the early Holocene began, and human communities gradually shifted toward more permanent settlements. A new study published in Nature Geoscience highlights how the Southern Ocean around Antarctica helped drive this major climate transition. The research…
