From Italy and the World

A new USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology study challenges existing ideas of how buildup of a protein called amyloid beta (Aβ) in the brain is related to Alzheimer’s disease. While buildup of amyloid protein has been associated with Alzheimer’s-related neurodegeneration, little is known about how the protein relates to…

CNN  —  In a dramatic shift, Kevin McCarthy has so far managed to flip 15 votes on Friday in his bid to become the next House speaker, though the California Republican is still short of the support needed to win. The House has voted to adjourn until 10 p.m. ET.…

CNN  —  Weeks after Hawaii’s Mauna Loa erupted for the first time in decades, neighboring volcano Kilauea is showing activity again after a brief pause, according to officials. Kilauea – which had stopped erupting last month for the first time since September 2021 amid Mauna Loa’s own lava eruption and…

The length of a specific generation can tell us a lot about the biology and social organization of humans. Now, researchers at Indiana University can determine the average age that women and men had children throughout human evolutionary history with a new method they developed using DNA mutations. The researchers…

New research has uncovered that pollen preserved in 250 million year old rocks contain compounds that function like sunscreen, these are produced by plants to protect them from harmful ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation. The findings suggests that a pulse of UV-B played an important part in the end Permian mass extinction…

A research team led by Tao Sun, associate professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Virginia, has made new discoveries that can expand additive manufacturing in aerospace and other industries that rely on strong metal parts. Their peer-reviewed paper was published Jan. 6, 2023, in Science Magazine:…

Get more exercise. Eat right. Make new friends. As we compile our lists of resolutions aimed at improving physical and mental health in 2023, new CU Boulder research suggests one addition could have a powerful impact: Gardening. Funded by the American Cancer Society, the first-ever, randomized, controlled trial of community…

A research study led by researchers with the Center for Earth Observation and Modeling at the University of Oklahoma analyzed time series satellite images from 2000 to 2021, revealing the vital role of Indigenous territories and protected areas in forest conservation in the Brazilian Amazon. The study results, recently published…

Using samples from an almost century-old, ongoing survey of marine plankton, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine suggest that rising levels of humanmade chemicals found in parts of the world’s oceans might be used to monitor the impact of human activity on ecosystem health, and may…

As anyone who has ever attended a cocktail party can tell you, shedding inhibitions makes you more talkative and possibly more prone to divulging secrets. Fungi, it turns out, are no different from humans in this respect. Using an approach that simultaneously modifies multiple sites in fungal genomes, Rice University…

Inexpensive iron salts are a key to simplifying the manufacture of essential precursors for drugs and other chemicals, according to scientists at Rice University. They’ve refined the process of producing diazides, building-block molecules in the production of drugs and agricultural chemicals. Iron salts along with processes called radical ligand transfer…

With a new design, lithium-sulfur batteries could reach their full potential. Batteries are everywhere in daily life, from cell phones and smart watches to the increasing number of electric vehicles. Most of these devices use well-known batteries”>lithium-ion battery technology. And while lithium-ion batteries have come a long way since they…

The ancient Romans were masters of engineering, constructing vast networks of roads, aqueducts, ports, and massive buildings, whose remains have survived for two millennia. Many of these structures were built with concrete: Rome’s famed Pantheon, which has the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome and was dedicated in A.D. 128, is…

CNN  —  For much of the Western world, Christmas is celebrated on December 25, according to the Gregorian calendar. Yet in a distinction that dates back centuries, Orthodox Christians follow the Julian calendar and mark the festival on January 7 instead. Orthodox Christmas – and the long-standing rift between the…

CNN  —  The man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in November had thoroughly cleaned the interior and exterior of his car and was also seen wearing surgical gloves multiple times before being apprehended, a law enforcement source tells CNN. Bryan Kohberger, 28, is currently the sole suspect…

Russia Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov speaks during a World Affairs event at the Fairmont Hotel on November 29, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Russia’s ambassador to the United States has criticized Washington for its reaction to Moscow’s proposal for a 36-hour unilateral ceasefire in Ukraine.…

This study, conducted from 2015-19 in the Thunder Basin National Grassland, may be the first to specifically examine the multispecies impacts of a wide-scale plague outbreak, which reduced the area covered by prairie dog colonies from nearly 25,000 acres to only about 125 acres in the study area. The 2017…

In April to May 2019, the coral reefs near the French Polynesian island of Moorea in the central South Pacific Ocean suffered severe and prolonged thermal bleaching. The catastrophe occurred despite the absence of El Niño conditions that year, intriguing ocean scientists around the world. An international research team led…

In a new study involving three volunteers, skin scars began to behave more like uninjured skin after they were treated with hair follicle transplants. The scarred skin harboured new cells and blood vessels, remodelled collagen to restore healthy patterns, and even expressed genes found in healthy unscarred skin. The findings…

Russia Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov speaks during a World Affairs event at the Fairmont Hotel on November 29, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Russia’s ambassador to the United States has criticized Washington for its reaction to Moscow’s proposal for a 36-hour unilateral ceasefire in Ukraine.…

CNN  —  Just seconds after Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field from cardiac arrest on Monday, medical personnel swarmed onto the field in an immediate response that has been widely credited for the player’s steps toward recovery. But one Bills team member in particular – assistant athletic…

CNN  —  The ruling Taliban has signed a deal with a Chinese company to extract oil from northern Afghanistan’s Amu Darya basin as the radical Islamist group attempts to bolster the South Asian nation’s increasingly impoverished and isolated economy. The agreement with China’s Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co…

Britain’s Emma Raducanu retired at 6-0 5-7 in her second-round match against Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova at the WTA 250 Auckland Classic on Thursday after rolling her ankle, casting doubt on her participation at this month’s Australian Open. Former US Open champion Raducanu swept the first set in 22 minutes but…

Air India faced criticism on Thursday, January 5 from the country’s aviation regulator for its handling of an unruly passenger on a flight from New York in November, and also acknowledged that a second similar incident occurred last month on a flight from Paris to New Delhi. Air India had…