That dry, bitter taste may be waking up your brain

Astringency is the dry, puckering, rough, or sandpapery feeling people notice when eating foods rich in certain plant compounds called polyphenols. Polyphenols include flavanols, which have long been linked to lower cardiovascular disease risk. Flavanols are especially common in cocoa, red wine, and berries, and research has associated them with…

These 773,000-year-old fossils may reveal our shared human ancestor

Perfectly timed fossils from Morocco reveal a forgotten African population living near the very root of the human family tree. Fossils dated with exceptional precision Sediments at Thomas Quarry I preserve a clear record of a major flip in Earth’s magnetic field that occurred about 773,000 years ago. This natural…

Something supercharged Uranus when Voyager 2 flew past

Scientists at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) say they may have found an answer to a puzzle that has lingered for nearly four decades involving the radiation belts surrounding Uranus. When NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past Uranus in 1986, it made a surprising discovery. Instruments detected an electron radiation belt…

Dark matter could be masquerading as a black hole at the Milky Way’s core

Astronomers say the Milky Way may not contain a supermassive black hole at its center after all. Instead, the galaxy’s core could be dominated by an enormous concentration of dark matter that produces the same powerful gravitational effects. This unseen material, which makes up most of the universe’s total mass,…

How COVID and H1N1 swept through U.S. cities in just weeks

Public health scientists at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health used advanced computer simulations to trace how the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic spread across the United States. Their results show how quickly respiratory pandemics can expand and why stopping them early is so…

Menopause linked to grey matter loss in key brain regions

New findings from the University of Cambridge suggest that menopause is associated with changes in brain structure, along with higher levels of anxiety, depression, and sleep difficulties. Researchers found reduced grey matter volume in several important brain regions among women who had gone through menopause. The study, published in Psychological…

A century of hair shows how lead exposure collapsed

Before the Environmental Protection Agency was formed in 1970, lead pollution was a routine part of daily life across the United States. It came from factories, lead-based paint, drinking water pipes, and most of all from vehicle exhaust. Lead is a toxic metal that builds up in the body over…

Non cambia la data del referendum, il Cdm precisa il quesito – Notizie – Ansa.it

Il Consiglio dei ministri, su proposta del Presidente Giorgia Meloni, vista l’ordinanza dell’Ufficio centrale per il referendum comunicata il 6 febbraio 2026, ha deliberato di proporre al Presidente della Repubblica, per l’adozione del relativo decreto, di precisare il quesito relativo al referendum popolare confermativo già indetto con il decreto del…

Consiglio dei ministri alle 12 sul referendum – Notizie – Ansa.it

 Il consiglio dei ministri, a quanto si apprende oggi a mezzogiorno si riunirà per affrontare il tema del referendum sulla riforma della giustizia che contiene la separazione delle carriere dei magistrati. La riunione è stata convocata all’indomani dell’ordinanza con cui la Corte di Cassazione ha accolto il nuovo quesito referendario…

Partecipare – La parola della settimana – Ansa.it

ANSA – di Massimo Sebastiani. De Coubertin l’ha glorificata come esaltazione dello spirito olimpico (ma la celebre frase, ‘l’importate non è vincere ma partecipare’, in realtà non è sua) ma in ‘partecipare’, come spesso accade c’è qualcosa di non scontato. Prendere parte ma anche dare una parte. Essere uno (una…

New forecasts offer early warning of Arctic sea ice loss

Arctic sea ice plays a major role in shaping Earth’s climate system. By reflecting sunlight and helping cool the planet, it influences ocean circulation, atmospheric behavior, and extreme weather patterns far beyond the polar regions. As climate change accelerates the loss of Arctic ice, scientists increasingly rely on real-time measurements…

Scientists find a missing link between Epstein-Barr virus and multiple sclerosis

Researchers at UC San Francisco have identified new evidence that may help explain how Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) contributes to multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is a long-term autoimmune condition that affects nearly one million people in the United States. The findings were published Feb. 5 in Nature Immunology. The study shows…