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The personalized recommendation systems that curate content on platforms such as YouTube may also interfere with how people learn, according to new research. The study found that when an algorithm decided which information appeared during a learning task, participants who had no background knowledge on the topic tended to focus…
Eric Boyd and his research team investigated how a burst of small earthquakes in 2021 affected the communities of microbes living deep beneath the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field. These microbes inhabit rock and water systems far below the surface, where sunlight never reaches. Instead of relying on photosynthesis, they depend…
A broad mass of unusually warm rock located far below the Appalachian Mountains in the United States may be connected to the separation of Greenland and North America 80 million years ago, according to new findings from researchers at the University of Southampton. The team argues that this deep heat…
A newly identified native bee with tiny devil-like “horns,” named Megachile (Hackeriapis) lucifer, has been documented in Western Australia’s Goldfields. Its discovery reveals how many of Australia’s native pollinators have yet to be studied or even recognized. The unusual species was spotted during targeted surveys of the critically endangered wildflower…
They’re tiny particles — with potentially huge human consequences. Researchers at Aarhus University have uncovered a flaw in how cells form what are known as exosomes, and this defect is associated with a mutation found in some people living with dementia. The discovery may offer new insight into how Alzheimer’s…
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) researchers have uncovered how ribosomes are able to alert the cell when something is wrong. Ribosomes are best known as the cell’s protein builders. They attach to mRNA and travel along it, interpreting the genetic code and linking amino acids to form new proteins.…
New findings from the University of Birmingham suggest that regularly eating foods rich in flavanols, including tea, berries, apples, and cocoa, may help protect men’s blood vessels from the negative effects that occur during long periods of sitting. Sedentary habits are widespread in modern life. Young adults spend an estimated…
Using lasers as precision tools to study how clouds become electrically active may sound futuristic, but researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have turned it into practical laboratory work. By capturing and charging tiny airborne particles with focused beams of light, scientists can watch how their…
Mosses are well known for surviving in places that challenge most life, including the Himalayan peaks, the scorching deserts of Death Valley, the Antarctic tundra, and the cooling surfaces of active volcanoes. Their remarkable durability led researchers to test moss sporophytes, the reproductive structures that hold spores, in an even…
About 3,500 years ago, hunter-gatherer communities began shaping enormous earthen mounds along the Mississippi River at Poverty Point, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northeast Louisiana. Tristram “T.R.” Kidder, the Edward S. and Tedi Macias Professor of anthropology, describes the scale of the undertaking this way: “Conservatively, they moved 140,000…
A new Doctoral Network led by Tampere University has received €4.4 million from the European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) program. Through the High-Power Optical Vortices (HiPOVor) initiative, 15 doctoral researchers will be trained in how to create, strengthen and apply high-power optical vortex beams. The project aims to establish…
A new analysis from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, published in Frontiers in Nutrition, reports that people who follow a vegan diet tend to eat more plant-based foods, even those labeled as “unhealthy” by the plant-based diet index. This shift in eating patterns was associated with more weight loss…
Some tumors remain extremely difficult to treat, and carcinomas are among the most challenging. Unlike many other cancers, these tumors can behave unpredictably. Some even shift their appearance and begin to resemble entirely different types of cells found in the human body, such as those in the skin. This unusual…
A new preclinical study from investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine reports that hypertension disrupts blood vessels, neurons and white matter in the brain long before blood pressure rises to detectable levels. These early disruptions may help explain why hypertension is strongly associated with cognitive disorders, including vascular cognitive impairment and…
At the cellular scale, the way muscle tissue repairs itself becomes surprisingly complex. The body does not respond the same way to all forms of damage. A sudden muscle tear from a sports injury differs greatly from the slow decline in muscle strength seen in conditions such as muscular dystrophy.…
Every year, sea turtles emerge from nests on Florida’s beaches and begin the difficult crawl from the sand to the sea — a journey that plays a major role in whether they survive. Along the way, hatchlings must steer past artificial lighting, scattered debris, and predators such as birds and…
Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have created wheat plants capable of promoting the formation of their own fertilizer, a development that could lower global air and water pollution and reduce farming expenses. The work comes from a research group directed by Eduardo Blumwald, a distinguished professor in the…
Chronic constipation becomes more common with age. Researchers from Mass General Brigham conducted a new study examining whether five widely followed diets could help prevent chronic constipation in middle- and older-age adults. The team monitored more than 96,000 participants for several years to see how long-term eating habits influenced the…
Experts from around the world are raising alarms about the rapid global rise of ultra-processed foods, warning that UPFs are reshaping diets and driving a surge in chronic health problems. A major three paper Series in The Lancet finds that ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are rapidly replacing fresh and minimally processed…
Our fat cells, known as adipocytes, do far more than store extra body weight. They serve as an important energy reserve for the body. Inside each adipocyte, fat is packed into lipid droplets that can be tapped when fuel is needed — for example, during the hours between meals. To…
A complete plano-convex ingot has been uncovered in Sweden for the first time. When researchers at the University of Gothenburg analyzed the object using isotopic and chemical methods, the results were surprising. “Due, in particular, to its shape and size, it seemed to us a Bronze Age artifact, but the…
Forming new social connections is not always easy, even for animals known for their intelligence and communication skills. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati discovered that monk parakeets meeting unfamiliar birds tend to “test the waters” before deciding whether a potential partner is safe to approach. Instead of rushing in,…
Reconstructing Theia’s makeup: A new study in Science identifies the most likely chemical composition of Theia, the ancient planetary body that collided with early Earth. Clues to its birthplace: Theia’s reconstructed composition points to an origin in the inner Solar System and suggests it formed even closer to the Sun…
Researchers at Rutgers Health and collaborating institutions have uncovered why a widely used leukemia medication eventually stops helping most patients and have also identified a possible strategy to reverse this resistance. The team pinpointed a protein that enables cancer cells to alter the shape of their mitochondria, the structures that…
Researchers at Tulane University, working with teams from eight additional institutions, have identified a previously unknown way that nerve cells send messages. This discovery could change how scientists understand pain and may guide the development of safer and more effective treatments. The work was co-led by Matthew Dalva, director of…
Cancer biology, drug safety studies and aging research may all benefit from a fluorescent sensor created at Utrecht University. The new technology gives scientists the ability to watch DNA damage and repair unfold inside living cells in real time. This development, described in Nature Communications, enables types of experiments that…
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have identified a natural process in the brain that can remove existing amyloid plaques in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease while also helping preserve memory and thinking ability. This process relies on astrocytes, star shaped support cells, which can be guided to clear out…
According to scholars of Scandinavian studies, many widely held beliefs about Vikings and Old Norse paganism cannot be confirmed through modern scientific methods. “They are based essentially on reports written by Christian scholars in the High Middle Ages well over a century later, since, besides brief runic inscriptions, no written…
An international group of physicists, including scientists from Washington University in St. Louis, has gathered new measurements that shed light on how black holes draw in surrounding material and release tremendous amounts of radiation and energy. The team directed a balloon-borne telescope known as XL-Calibur toward Cygnus X-1, a well-studied…
University of California, Irvine astronomers have identified an exoplanet located within a star’s habitable zone, a region where temperatures could allow liquid water to exist on the surface. Liquid water is considered essential for every form of life currently known. The planet lies in a relatively nearby part of the…
