Science News
Two of the sky’s more famous residents share the stage with a lesser-known neighbour in this enormous new three gigapixel image from ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST). »
Glutamine supplements can suppress reactivation of herpes simplex virus (HSV) in mice and guinea pigs. »
A scientific breakthrough has taken an emerging biotechnology a step closer to being used to treat wastewater in the developing world. »
A new model on how stars are formed has added weight to the hypothesis that most – if not all – stars are born in a litter with at least one sibling. »
Photosynthetic bacteria and light may offer hope to heart disease patients, a new study suggests. »
Itaipu Binacional, the world's biggest generator of hydroelectric energy, founded the first biomethane plant that uses a mixture of sewage, grass clippings, and restaurant leftover food as raw material. »
A group of 118 researchers from 11 countries working at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Minas Gerais, finished sequencing the genome of the Biomphalaria glabrata, the snail that acts as the intermediary host to the worm that causes schistosomiasis. »
A new study from the University of Iowa shows that a pair of common chemicals that manufacturers use to make plastic food containers, water bottles, and other consumer products do not contribute to obesity to the extent of the chemical it's replacing. »
A Chinese company has unveiled a driverless bus-train hybrid that uses white lines painted on the road to navigate. »
Children born to women with gestational diabetes whose diet included high proportions of refined grains may have a higher risk of obesity by age 7, compared to children born to women with gestational diabetes who ate low proportions of refined grains. »
For the first time, researchers have shown that a marine bird can hear under water. This offers new possibilities for the protection of marine birds in trafficked waters. »
Researchers invented a vibrating device, used with a cold pack, which relieves a child's pain while emergency department caregivers insert an intravenous (IV) catheter, equally as well as the currently used anesthetic, topical lidocaine. »
Contemporary pollutants can reach deep wells that tap fossil aquifers, says a study by an international team of researchers. »
There’s a glimmer of hope for the American bee population. But, according to a new study, the outlook for this critical insect is mostly grim. »
It’s probably not a good idea to decide what to eat based on how many calories your wearable fitness tracker says you’ve burned, according to a new study. »
One snake can be scary enough, but a new study suggests some of the slithering reptiles hunt for prey in groups. »
Scientists from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation have identified eight genetic mutations in the yellow fever virus from the 2017 outbreak. »
Human activities, like nuclear tests and radio transmissions have been changing near-Earth space and weather, and have created artificial radiation belts, damaged satellites and induced auroras. »
An international team of scientists has developed a transistor capable of mimicking some characteristics of neurons, such as counting, remembering and performing simple arithmetic operations. »
Io is the closest thing we have to hell in our Solar System, a Jovian moon that features hundreds of active volcanoes and expansive lakes filled with lava. »
Because of testing inefficiencies, maintenance inadequacies and other factors, cars, trucks and buses worldwide emit 4.6 million tons more harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) than standards allow. »
Enterococci bacteria are the bane of hospitals, causing thousands of multidrug-resistant infections in patients each year. Now, researchers have traced evidence of the bacteria’s evolutionary history back 425 million years. »
A study combining observations from NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes reveals that the distant planet HAT-P-26b has a primitive atmosphere composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. »
Researchers have discovered for the first time that a common marine sponge hosts bacteria that specialize in the production of toxic compounds nearly identical to man-made fire retardants, a finding that could help scientists better understand the human health implications of these common additives. »
Findings of a new study suggest adolescents who consume too much salt have measurable changes in their blood vessels associated with early signs of cardiovascular disease in adults. »
Fossils discovered by The University of New South Wales scientists in 3.48 billion-year-old hot spring deposits in the Pilbara region of Western Australia have pushed back by 580 million years the earliest known existence of microbial life on land. »
Over recent decades, our understanding of hunger has greatly increased, but this new discovery turns things on their head. »
A relatively nearby planetary system is structured remarkably like what ours probably looked like when it was young, the U.S. space agency NASA confirms. »
A series of experiments with men in a space flight program and mice overturns long-held beliefs about thirst and reveals how the body controls its salt and water balance. »
Researchers created a wearable device that measures salt levels in sweat to diagnose patients with cystic fibrosis. The results suggest the device may be useful for noninvasively monitoring the progression of cystic fibrosis and may be adaptable for monitoring other diseases or drug treatments. »
A research group has developed a camera that can film at a rate equivalent to five trillion images per second, or events as short as 0.2 trillionths of a second. This is faster than has previously been possible. »
People living in areas that restrict trans fats in foods had fewer hospitalizations for heart attack and stroke compared to residents in areas without restrictions, according to a new study. »
A type of worm could help solve the growing problem of plastic pollution. »
Grey hair has been linked with an increased risk of heart disease in men. »
A high-fat diet and obesity turn "hero" virus-fighting liver immune cells "rogue", leading to insulin resistance, a condition that often results in type 2 diabetes. »
As NASA's Dawn spacecraft continues exploring Ceres, evidence mounts that the enigmatic dwarf planet retains a significant amount of water ice. »
Researchers found that a seemingly innocuous virus can provoke immune responses to a dietary protein in mice. Patients with celiac disease showed high levels of antibodies to the virus. The results suggest that viruses may play a role in initiating immune responses against gluten. »
Scientists have long wondered what the earliest dinosaur relatives looked like. Most assumed they would resemble miniature dinosaurs, about the size of chickens, and walk on two legs. »
Astronomers discovered an exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth that may be the new holder of the title 'best place to look for signs of life beyond the solar system'. »
New research reveals that short-term memories and long-term memories are formed simultaneously in different parts of the brain, a discovery that challenges our current models of memory formation. »
New research on solar storms finds that they not only can cause regions of excessive electrical charge in the upper atmosphere above Earth's poles, they also can do the exact opposite: cause regions that are nearly depleted of electrically charged particles. »
A relatively large near-Earth asteroid discovered nearly three years ago will fly safely past Earth on April 19 at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers), or about 4.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon. »
The gentle burbling of a brook, or the sound of the wind in the trees can physically change our mind and bodily systems, helping us to relax. New research at Brighton and Sussex Medical School explains how, for the first time. »
Researchers at Belgium’s Ghent University have developed a process that turns grass into biofuel. »
Since the discovery in 2009 that brown fat can be active in adult humans, researchers around the world have worked to unveil ways to switch on this fat. Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have now identified a new route to throw the switch. »
To build a sandcastle here on Earth, the sand needs to be wet so it can stick together. Not so on Saturn’s strange and largest moon Titan, according to a new study. »
Observations using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed stars forming within powerful outflows of material blasted out from supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies. »
An international study spearheaded by Brazilian scientists forecasts the continuation of the deforestation in the Brazilian savanna, known as cerrado. »
A new study suggests that taking a B vitamin supplement may protect against certain epigenetic effects associated with air pollution. »
In an effort to find better depression treatments, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine discovered that inhibiting an enzyme called Glyoxalase 1 relieves signs of depression in mice. »