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Research led by Earth scientists at the University of Southampton has uncovered evidence of rhythmic surges of molten mantle rock rising from deep within the Earth beneath Africa. These pulses are gradually tearing the continent apart and forming a new ocean. The findings, published in Nature Geoscience, reveal that the…
Biological drugs have improved the lives of many people with severe asthma. However, a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that some immune cells with high inflammatory potential are not completely eradicated after treatment. Biological drugs (biologics) have become an important tool in the treatment of severe asthma.…
The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has unveiled the very first “mega” images of the cosmos obtained thanks to the extraordinary features and wide-field view of its LSST camera — the largest in the world. The camera took nearly two decades to build and involved hundreds of scientists…
For 540 million years, the ebb and flow in the strength of Earth’s magnetic field has correlated with fluctuations in atmospheric oxygen, according to a newly released analysis by NASA scientists. The research suggests that processes deep inside the Earth might influence habitability on the planet’s surface. Earth’s magnetic field…
The central estimate of the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C is 130 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) (from the beginning of 2025). This would be exhausted in a little more than three years at current levels of CO2 emissions, according to the latest Indicators of Global Climate Change study…
Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka scientists have discovered that it takes mere minutes for a species of sex-changing fish to develop dominant behavior after a change in the pecking order. The new study led by the Department of Anatomy and published on Proceedings of the Royal Society B, examines the New Zealand…
The Cambrian explosion was an extraordinary phenomenon in the evolution of life on the planet that led to the emergence of many animal phyla and the diversification of species. During this period, some 530 million years ago, most of the basic body plans of organisms that have survived to the…
A groundbreaking study has revealed that small but mighty zooplankton — including copepods, krill, and salps — are key players in the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb and store carbon. Led by an international team of researchers, and published in Limnology and Oceanography, the study quantifies for the first time…
Your T cells work hard to fight disease. Unfortunately, “friendly fire” from T cells can sometimes harm the body’s healthy tissues. For people with autoimmune disease, T cell reactivity is a big problem. Haywire T cell responses lead to autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory…
Fatty liver disease, caused by the accumulation of fat in the liver, is estimated to affect one in four people worldwide. If left untreated, it can lead to serious complications, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer, making it crucial to detect early and initiate treatment. Currently, standard tests for diagnosing…
An interdisciplinary team of experts in green chemistry, engineering and physics at Flinders University in Australia has developed a safer and more sustainable approach to extract and recover gold from ore and electronic waste. Explained in the leading journal Nature Sustainability, the gold-extraction technique promises to reduce levels of toxic…
Scientists from TU Delft (The Netherlands) have observed quantum spin currents in graphene for the first time without using magnetic fields. These currents are vital for spintronics, a faster and more energy-efficient alternative to electronics. This breakthrough, published in Nature Communications, marks an important step towards technologies like quantum computing…
Optical biosensors use light waves as a probe to detect molecules, and are essential for precise medical diagnostics, personalized medicine, and environmental monitoring. Their performance is dramatically enhanced if they can focus light waves down to the nanometer scale – small enough to detect proteins or amino acids, for example…
Ultra-intense lasers can accelerate electrons to near-light speeds within a single oscillation (or ‘wave cycle’) of the electric field, making them a powerful tool for studying extreme physics. However, their rapid fluctuations and complex structure make real-time measurements of their properties challenging. Until now, existing techniques typically required hundreds of…
Cats prefer to sleep on their left side. This is the conclusion drawn by an international research team that analyzed several hundred YouTube videos of sleeping cats. The researchers see this bias as an evolutionary advantage because it favors hunting and escape behavior after waking up. The team from the…
Compared with a Mediterranean diet, dietary acid load decreased significantly on a low-fat vegan diet and was associated with weight loss, according to a randomized cross-over trial conducted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and published in Frontiers in Nutrition. “Eating acid-producing foods like meat, eggs, and dairy can…
Climate change and habitat loss are affecting animal populations around the world and reptiles such as South Australia’s own endangered pygmy bluetongue are susceptible to higher temperatures and declining long-term rainfall trends. Flinders University scientists are working on securing a sustainable future for the burrow-dwelling endemic skink (Tiliqua adelaidensis) by…
In general, evolution is a long, slow process of tiny changes passed down over generations, resulting in new adaptations and even new species over thousands or millions of years. But when living things are faced with dramatic shifts in the world around them, they sometimes rapidly adapt to better survive.…
Today, all non-Africans are known to have descended from a small group of people that ventured into Eurasia after around 50 thousand years ago. However, fossil evidence shows that there were numerous failed dispersals before this time that left no detectable traces in living people. In a paper published in…
To save elephant populations from extinction, the international community banned the sale of their ivory — but selling mammoth ivory remains legal, and the two are difficult to tell apart, especially for non-experts. This leaves a possible loophole for sellers of poached ivory to exploit. Now stable isotope analysis could…
In the Andes, the rise of agriculture to replace foraging was not the result of hardship and resource scarcity, but instead a time of economic resilience and innovation, according to a study published June 25, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Luis Flores-Blanco of the University of California…
Hot tubs and saunas can both soothe aching muscles and provide welcome warmth, but hot tubs might offer greater health benefits. That’s the takeaway from a new study done by researchers in the Bowerman Sports Science Center at the University of Oregon, which compared the physiological effects of soaking in…
When and where the earliest modern human populations migrated and settled in East Asia are relatively well known. However, how these populations moved between islands on treacherous stretches of sea is still shrouded in mystery. In two new papers, researchers from Japan and Taiwan led by Professor Yousuke Kaifu from…
A new study from the Cellular Ageing and Senescence laboratory at Queen Mary University of London’s Cenfre for Molecular Cell Biology, reveals how caffeine — the world’s most popular neuroactive compound — might do more than just wake you up. The study in the journal Microbial Cell shows how caffeine could…
Inhabiting Mars has long been a futuristic fantasy fueled by science fiction. However, successful landings on our neighboring planet over the past half-century have made this seemingly far-fetched idea increasingly plausible. But don’t start packing just yet. First, we must figure out how to build structures millions of miles from…
Researchers have discovered two new viruses in bats that are closely related to the deadly Nipah and Hendra viruses — pathogens that can cause severe brain inflammation and respiratory disease in humans. The viruses, as well as other new viruses, bacteria, and parasites identified from bat kidneys, were reported this…
For over a century, scientists have puzzled over a fundamental mystery in our evolutionary history: how did mammals go from sprawling like lizards to striding like cats and dogs? This transition — from a sprawled stance (like a lizard) to an upright (parasagittal) posture — marked a pivotal moment in…
In a new paper with implications for preventing Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders, Keith Hengen, an associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, suggests a new comprehensive approach to understanding how the brain works and the rules it must follow to reach…
The skin acts as the body’s first line of defense against external threats. However, as we age, the epidermis — the outermost layer of skin — gradually becomes thinner and loses its protective strength. About 90% of the cells in this layer are keratinocytes, which originate from deeper layers of…
A multinational team of researchers, co-led by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, has developed and tested a new AI tool to better characterize the diversity of individual cells within tumors, opening doors for more targeted therapies for patients. Findings on the development and use of the AI tool, called…
