Other Sciences News

To create fusion ignition, NIF’s laser energy is converted into X-rays inside the hohlraum, which then compress a fuel capsule until it implodes, creating a high temperature, high pressure plasma. Image credit: National Ignition Facility, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Physicists Achieve Key Milestone in Nuclear Fusion Energy

Dec 13, 2022 by News Staff

Physicists with the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting...

Denisovan DNA Shaped Papuans’ Immune System, New Study Shows

Dec 9, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Modern humans have admixed with multiple species of archaic hominins. Papuans, in particular, owe up to 5% of their genome to Denisovans, a sister group...

Iberian owl-like plaques and local owl species: (a) engraved slate plaque found in Cerro de la Cabeza, Valencina de la Concepción, Sevilla, Spain; (b) wild little owl (Athene noctua) pictured in an agricultural area in Valencina de la Concepción in 2021; (c) slate plaque from Mértola, Alentejo, Portugal; the orifices on the upper part may have been used to insert actual feathers; (d) long-eared owl (Asio otus) with erected ear tufts, pictured in Valencina de la Concepción in 2021. Image credit: Juan J. Negro.

Iberian Owl-Shaped Plaques Were Toys Made by Copper Age Children: Study

Dec 5, 2022 by News Staff

In the Copper Age, around 5,000 years ago, owl-shaped, engraved plaques were produced massively in the southwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula. Researchers...

Varrette et al. run an exploratory study on whether intentionally introduced cognitive behavioral therapy, delivered through the medium of TTRPG groups, could positively affect social skills, reduce anxiety symptoms and behaviors, and enhance the mental well-being of participants. Image credit: Edwin Francisco.

Tabletop Role-Playing Games Reduce Anxiety, New Research Shows

Dec 5, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

In new research, a team of scientists from the Bodhana Group and the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology explored whether intentionally introduced...

In older women, greater habitual dietary flavonoid intake associates with less extensive abdominal aortic calcification. Image credit: Parmenter et al., doi: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.122.318408.

Flavonoid-Rich Diet May Lower Cardiovascular Risks in Older Women

Nov 29, 2022 by News Staff

In a study of 881 elderly women, a team of researchers from Edith Cowan University and elsewhere found that the participants were far less likely to have...

Carter et al. compared postprandial changes in appetite-regulating hormones and self-reported appetite ratings after consuming almonds or an isocaloric carbohydrate-rich snack bar. Image credit: PIRO.

Almond Consumption May Reduce Risk of Obesity: Study

Nov 22, 2022 by News Staff

A snack of 30-50 grams of almonds could help people cut back on the number of calories they consume each day, according to a new study led by University...

Dillard et al. aimed to determine the prevalence of unsafe listening practices from exposure to personal listening devices and loud entertainment venues in individuals aged 12-34 years, and to estimate the number of young people who could be at risk of hearing loss from unsafe listening worldwide. Image credit: Gigxels.

Study: Unsafe Listening Practices Place Over One Billion Young People at Risk of Hearing Loss

Nov 17, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Unsafe listening practices from use of personal listening devices and attendance at loud entertainment venues are common — prevalence estimates 23.81%...

Ahmed et al. showed that oral honey intake reduced fasting glucose, total cholesterol, LDL-C, fasting triglycerides, and ALT and increased HDL-C, IL-6, and TNF-α. Image credit: Fancycrave1.

Honey Consumption Improves Blood Sugar and Cholesterol Levels, Study Suggests

Nov 17, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Honey, especially robinia (also known as acacia honey, a honey from false acacia or black locust trees), clover, and unprocessed raw honey, may improve...

Ancient inhabitants of the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov site in Israel likely used some kind of earth oven that maintained a temperature below 500 degrees Celsius to cook their fish. Image credit: Ella Maru / Tel Aviv University.

Scientists Find Earliest Evidence of Hominins Cooking with Fire

Nov 15, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have found the 780,000-year-old remains of a cooked carp-like fish at the wetland Acheulean site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel. Ancient...

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell infected with the Omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (yellow and green), isolated from a patient sample. Image credit: NIAID.

Coffee Compound Reduces Binding of SARS-CoV-2 Virus to Its Human Target, Study Shows

Nov 15, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

The global spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has called for an urgent need for the identification of compounds...

A hominin footprint at the Matalascañas site in Spain. Image credit: Mayoral et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-22524-2.

296,000-Year-Old Hominin Footprints Found in Spain

Nov 11, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The possible track-makers are individuals from the Neanderthal lineage, according to new research led by Universidad de Huelva paleoanthropologists. The...

Allen et al. developed a new predictive coding model of respiratory brain coupling, in which breathing rhythmically modulates both local and global neural gain. Image credit: Gerd Altmann / Clker Vector Images / Sci.News.

Breathing Impacts Our Emotions, Attention and Cognition, Scientists Say

Nov 9, 2022 by News Staff

A new review of more than a dozen previous studies with rodent, monkey, and human brain imaging demonstrates that the act of breathing exerts a substantive,...

This map shows the size and shape of the ozone hole over the South Pole on October 5, 2022, when it reached its single-day maximum extent for the year. Image credit: Joshua Stevens / NASA’s Earth Observatory.

Antarctic Ozone Hole Continues to Shrink, Researchers Say

Oct 27, 2022 by News Staff

The annual ozone hole over the South Pole reached an average area of 23.2 million km2 (8.9 million square miles) between September 7 and October 13, 2022,...

Christian Matthias Kerskens & David López Pérez believe our brains could use quantum computation. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Neuroscientists May Have Found Signs of Quantum Processes in Human Brain

Oct 20, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience say they may have witnessed entanglement mediated by consciousness-related brain functions. Christian...

A Neanderthal father and his daughter. Image credit: Tom Bjorklund.

Ancient Genomes Provide Insights into Social Organization of Neanderthals

Oct 19, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleoanthropologists have explored the social organization of Neanderthals using ancient nuclear, Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA data from the remains...

El Sidron Neanderthals taste wild mushrooms, pine nuts and forest moss. Image credit: Abel Grau, CSIC Communication.

Study Confirms High Level of Carnivory in Iberian Neanderthals

Oct 18, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleoanthropologists have analyzed zinc, strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotope and trace element ratios in a fossilized Neanderthal tooth as well as animal...

Analyzing data from 168 studies, 496 effect sizes, and 355,173 participants, Hirnstein et al. suggest that a small but robust female advantage in verbal fluency and verbal-episodic memory exists; with respect to verbal fluency, the female advantage emerged only in phonemic fluency, whereas sex/gender differences in semantic fluency appeared strongly category-dependent. Image credit: Pexels.

Women are Better at Verbal Fluency and Verbal-Episodic Memory than Men, Study Suggests

Oct 17, 2022 by News Staff

Textbooks and popular science books claim with certainty that women are better at verbal fluency (sometimes also called word fluency) and verbal memory,...

Neanderthals (University of Utah via kued.org)

Study: Neanderthals and Homo sapiens Co-Existed in France and Spain for at least 1,400 Years

Oct 13, 2022 by News Staff

A new modeling study by Leiden University and University of Cambridge scientists predicts the appearance of Homo sapiens and the Protoaurignacian culture...

Artwork depicting one dinosaur’s experience of the Chicxulub impact. Image credit: Hermann Bermúdez.

Seismic Activity after Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Impact Lasted Weeks to Months: Study

Oct 7, 2022 by News Staff

About 66 million years ago, a massive asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in what is now Mexico. This impact coincides...