Other Sciences News

Eliminating Sucrose from Low-Fat Diet Alters Gut Microbiome, Animal Study Suggests

Rasheed Ahmad & Fatemah Bahman revealed that a sucrose-free low-fat diet notably disrupted gut microbial diversity and composition, leading to a depletion of short-chain fatty acid-producing commensal bacteria -- such as Lactobacillus murinus and Lachnospiraceae -- and an enrichment of pro-inflammatory or stress-adapted species, including Helicobacter ganmani, Odoribacter splanchnicus, and Alistipes spp. Image credit: Lourdes Alvarez.
Jun 15, 2026 by News Staff

In a mouse study conducted by scientists at the Dasman Diabetes Institute in Kuwait, rodents fed a sucrose-free diet developed insulin resistance, gut microbial imbalances and signs of fatty liver disease despite maintaining similar body weight. Rasheed Ahmad & Fatemah Bahman revealed that a sucrose-free low-fat diet notably disrupted gut microbial diversity and composition, leading to a depletion of short-chain fatty acid-producing commensal...

read more...
A reconstruction of Homo longi in his habitat. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

Acheulean Toolmakers Chose Their Stone with Surprising Precision

Jun 8, 2026 by News Staff

Geochemical analysis of 780,000-year-old stone tools from Israel suggests Acheulean (or Acheulian) hominins repeatedly sought specific basalt sources,...

Fault-controlled basins and interpreted structural frame in the newly-identified East Antarctic Fan-Shaped Basin Province. Image credit: Armadillo et al., doi: 10.1038/s41561-026-01991-6.

Geoscientists Find Vast Fan-Shaped Structure beneath Antarctica’s Ice

Jun 8, 2026 by News Staff

By combining seismic, gravity and topographic data, a team of researchers from Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom found that several well-known...

Early Earth. Image credit: Peter Sawyer / Smithsonian Institution.

Ancient Oceans Began Losing Oxygen Millions of Years before End-Triassic Mass Extinction

Jun 2, 2026 by News Staff

Chemical traces preserved in ancient rocks indicate that marine environments were deteriorating long before the catastrophe that wiped out vast numbers...

People who drink a glass of 100% fruit juice or a smoothie each day as part of the UK’s 5-a-day healthy eating guidance see improvements in their mental wellbeing. Image credit: Joseph Mucira.

Daily Glass of Fruit Juice May Lift Your Mood: Study

Jun 1, 2026 by Natali Anderson

In a small randomized trial in the United Kingdom, adults who added a serving of 100% fruit juice or a smoothie to a healthier diet reported lower depression...

This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Is Dark Energy Unnecessary? Mathematicians Challenge Standard Cosmological Model of Universe

May 28, 2026 by News Staff

Mathematicians from University College London and the University of California, Davis, have published a mathematical proof that the Universe’s accelerating...

Tomato-soy juice contains high levels of lycopene and soy isoflavones.

Tomato-Soy Drink May Help Fight Chronic Inflammation in Adults with Obesity

May 27, 2026 by News Staff

In a small clinical trial, researchers at the Ohio State University found that a tomato juice rich in lycopene and soy isoflavones lowered several proteins...

Reconstruction of Homo erectus.

Upright Walking and Larger Brains May Explain Why 90% of Humans Favor Their Right Hand

May 22, 2026 by News Staff

New research from the University of Oxford and the University of Reading suggests bipedalism and expanding brain size helped drive the overwhelming dominance...

Lim et al. demonstrate that stromatolites -- the oldest fossil evidence of oxygen-producing microbial life on early Earth -- could have developed within impact craters, based on a detailed investigation of stromatolites and lake sediments in the Hapcheon impact crater, South Korea. Image credit: Lim et al., doi: 10.1038/s43247-026-03206-7.

Ancient Crater Lakes May Have Provided Ideal Conditions for Earth’s Earliest Oxygen-Breathing Life

May 20, 2026 by News Staff

Researchers have discovered stromatolites — layered structures formed by microbial communities — inside a 42,000-year-old asteroid crater in...

Rehn et al. performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the cognitive and behavioral effects of diet reversal in rodent models. Image credit: Steve Buissinne.

Sugary Diets May Cause Long-Term Memory Problems Even after Eating Improves

May 19, 2026 by News Staff

An analysis of 27 animal studies found that switching to a healthier diet improved memory performance, though the effects were far weaker after diets high...

Manzi et al. tested house crickets (Acheta domesticus), among the most widely farmed insects on Earth, for what is thought a key behavioral hallmark of pain: flexible, site-directed self-protection. Image credit: Matthew Lindsey / CC BY 2.0.

Insects May Feel Pain, New Study Suggests

May 18, 2026 by Natali Anderson

When an antenna of the house cricket (Acheta domesticus) is touched with a heated probe, something curious happens: the insect turns its attention to the...

Analysis of Camponotus nicobarensis venom. Image credit: Koch et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aed4078.

Formicine Ants Produce Hidden Arsenal of Venom Peptides, Study Finds

May 18, 2026 by News Staff

Entomologists have discovered that carpenter ants — the largest genus within the stingless ant subfamily Formicinae — produce dozens of previously...

Grape consumption reduces fatty liver, extends lifespan, alters gene expression in the brain, changes metabolism, and has positive effects on behavior and cognition. Image credit: Nicky Pe.

Regular Grape Consumption is Beneficial for Skin Health, New Study Shows

May 18, 2026 by News Staff

Grape consumption may improve the skin’s barrier against environmental damage by rewriting gene activity, according to new research led by Western New...

This is an artist's reconstruction of Homo erectus. Image credit: Yale University.

Homo erectus May Have Co-Existed with Denisovans in East Asia

May 15, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Scientists have extracted and analyzed proteins from the tooth enamel of six Homo erectus individuals who lived in China roughly 400,000 years ago, offering...

An artist’s impression of the ‘Snowball Earth.’ Image credit: Oleg Kuznetsov, http://3depix.com / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ancient Earth Repeatedly Thawed during Catastrophic Ice Ages, New Research Suggests

May 13, 2026 by News Staff

Earth experienced extreme climate swings during the Neoproterozoic epoch (one billion to 538.8 million years ago), including the Sturtian glaciation, when...

A foggy field in Pennsylvania has a little secret: its suspended water droplets form a habitat for helpful bacteria that eat air toxins. Image credit: Thi Thuong Thuong Cao.

Tiny Bacteria in the Fog May Be Helping Clean the Air

May 13, 2026 by News Staff

A study of radiation fog events over Pennsylvania has found that bacteria living inside fog droplets are actively growing and feeding on toxic chemicals...

Location map of the extensional zone within the Central African Plateau of Zambia. The Kafue Rift is connected to the Luano and Luangwa rifts to the NE, and the Western branch of the EARS at the Rukwa rift (RRB) and Rungwe Volcanic Province (RVP). Image credit: Karolytė et al., doi: 10.3389/feart.2026.1799564.

Hidden Rift beneath Zambia May Be Tearing Africa Apart

May 12, 2026 by News Staff

Unusual gases rising from geothermal springs within the Kafue Rift of Zambia suggest a deep fracture in Earth’s crust could mark the early stages of...

Participants with intracranial electrodes listened to two competing, spatially separated conversations. Their neural signals were recorded and fed into a real-time processing system. The system uses a linear regression model to reconstruct the temporal envelope of the attended speech from low-frequency (LF) and high-gamma (HF) neural features. The reconstructed envelope is then compared to the envelopes of the two conversations to determine the listener’s focus, which in turn drives the selective amplification of the attended speaker. Image credit: Choudhari et al., doi: 10.1038/s41593-026-02281-5.

Scientists Build ‘Mind-Reading’ Hearing System for Noisy Environments

May 11, 2026 by News Staff

A team of U.S. researchers has demonstrated, for the first time in human trials, a device that reads brain signals to automatically amplify the voice a...

A cross section of a mouse nose. Image credit: Datta Lab, Harvard Medical School.

Researchers Create Detailed Map of Smell Receptors in Mouse Nose

May 7, 2026 by News Staff

By mapping millions of smell-sensing neurons in mice, scientists discovered precise striped patterns inside the nose, overturning decades-old assumptions...

Suzuki et al. report that S1PC, a bioactive compound derived from aged garlic extract, improved muscle function in aging mice and may point toward a low-cost strategy for combating frailty in older adults. Image credit: Suzuki et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2026.04.006.

Garlic Compound May Hold Clue to Slowing Muscle Aging

May 7, 2026 by News Staff

Researchers in Japan say S-1-propenyl-L-cysteine, a molecule found in aged garlic extract, restored strength and reduced frailty in older mice by activating...

© 2011-2026. Sci.News. All Rights Reserved. | Back to top