Other Sciences News

This is an artist’s impression of Çatalhöyük. Image credit: Dan Lewandowski.

Scientists Have New Theory on Origin of State

Apr 11, 2022 by News Staff

The conventional theory about the origin of the state is that the adoption of farming increased land productivity, which led to the production of food...

Odor preference rankings were collected from nine culturally and geographically diverse populations. These included the three hunter-gatherer groups, Seri from a coastal desert and Maniq and Semaq Beri from tropical rainforest, one shoreline forager, Mah Meri, from a tropical coast; one swidden-horticulturalist, Semelai, from tropical rainforest; one farmer-foraging community, Chachi, from tropical rainforest; one subsistence agriculturalist community, Imbabura Quichua, from temperate highlands; and two urban dwellers from industrial and postindustrial communities of bustling urban settings, Mexican and Thai. The data from these nine communities were then related to available data from a large dataset on odor preference collected from urban dwellers from New York City, the United States. Image credit: Arshamian et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.062.

Culture Plays Minimal Role in Perception of Odor Pleasantness, Says New Study

Apr 5, 2022 by News Staff

Humans share sensory systems with a common anatomical blueprint, but individual sensory experience nevertheless varies. In olfaction, it is not known to...

In two large cohorts of U.S. men and women, Pacheco et al. found inverse associations between avocado consumption and the incidence of cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease events after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors and other dietary variables. Image credit: Briam Cute.

Higher Avocado Consumption Tied to Lower Risk of Cardiovascular and Coronary Heart Diseases

Apr 4, 2022 by Natali Anderson

In two large prospective cohorts of U.S. men and women followed for 30 years, higher intake of avocado (≥2 servings/week) was associated with a lower...

Louge et al. show how water vapor penetrates powders and grains. Image credit: Pexels.

Deserts Inhale and Exhale Water Vapor through Their Surface, Scientists Say

Mar 31, 2022 by News Staff

Using a new probe that detects tiny amounts of moisture on sand grains, a team of researchers from Cornell University, the Ecole Polytechnique de l’Université...

Boolani et al. suggest that energy and fatigue are unique traits that could be defined by distinct bacterial communities not driven by diet. Image credit: Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Distinct Gut Bacterial Communities are Associated with Personality Traits: Study

Mar 31, 2022 by News Staff

New research provides evidence that the four traits (i.e., mental energy and fatigue, physical energy and fatigue) may have unique yet overlapping gut...

Sleep restriction combined with ad libitum food promotes excess energy intake without varying energy expenditure. Image credit: Covassin et al., doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2022.01.038.

Study: Lack of Sleep Predisposes to Abdominal Visceral Obesity

Mar 30, 2022 by News Staff

Visceral fat is deposited deep inside the abdomen around internal organs and is strongly linked to cardiac and metabolic diseases. New research from Mayo...

Sketches illustrating core-mantle helium exchange processes: (a) 3He acquisition during Earth’s accretion by ingassing from the nebular atmosphere and transport through the magma ocean to the proto-core; and (b) 3He transport from the core to the mantle and from the mantle to the ocean after accretion. Image credit: Olson & Sharp, doi: 10.1029/2021GC009985.

Primordial Helium Isotope is Leaking Out of Earth’s Metallic Core: Study

Mar 29, 2022 by News Staff

Each year, about 2 kg of helium-3, a rare isotope of helium gas, escapes from Earth’s interior, mostly along the mid-ocean ridge system. Helium-3 is...

Plums (Prunus domestica). Image credit: Vanessa / K-e-k-u-l-é.

Daily Prune Consumption Improves Bone Health, New Study Finds

Mar 29, 2022 by News Staff

Bone mineral density (BMD) is known to decrease rapidly after menopause and women over the age of 50 are more likely to experience hip fractures, which...

Daytime napping and cognition may drive each other’s changes bidirectionally. Image credit: StockSnap.

Study Finds Bidirectional Link between Daytime Napping and Cognitive Aging

Mar 28, 2022 by News Staff

In a new cohort study, published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, participants tended to nap longer and more frequently with aging; most importantly,...

Octopuses can solve complex puzzles and show a preference for different individuals. Image credit: Edmond Lafoto.

Do Mollusks and Crustaceans Have Emotions?

Mar 25, 2022 by News Staff

If the United Kingdom joins a handful of other nations to recognize the sentience of invertebrates, such as octopuses, crabs, lobsters and crayfish, by,...

Kuitems et al. provide evidence that the Norse were active on the North American continent in the year 1021 CE. Image credit: Oscar C.R.

Increasingly Dry Conditions Contributed to Norse Abandonment of Southern Greenland, Study Shows

Mar 23, 2022 by News Staff

Declining temperature has been thought to explain the abandonment of Norse settlements in southern Greenland in the early 15th century CE, although limited...

Alpha-linolenic acid, a type of omega-3 fatty acid, is found in flaxseed oil as well as canola, soy, perilla, and walnut oils. Image credit: Handwerker / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Plant-Derived Fatty Acid Reduces Heart Disease Risk, New Review Says

Mar 23, 2022 by News Staff

Alpha-linolenic acid, a vegetable omega-3 fatty acid, can benefit heart health and reduce the risk of heart disease, according to a review paper published...

Heiss et al. found daily consumption of cranberries for one month improved cardiovascular function in healthy men. Image credit: Pexels.

Daily Cranberry Consumption Improves Cardiovascular Function: Study

Mar 22, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Daily consumption of whole cranberry powder for one month improves vascular function in healthy men and this is linked with specific metabolite profiles...

Phase diagram of ice: dark blue-, green-, and red-shaded regions denote ice VII, VIIt and X, respectively, and projected phase boundaries separating high-pressure ice phases from our work are shown as solid black lines; ice X phase boundaries connect the measured transition at 30.9 GPa and 300 K to the inflection point in the melt curve, which have been associated with the transition from molecular to ionic fluid; dashed lines show measured melting curves; superionic boundary is highlighted. Image credit: Grande et al., doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.105.104109.

New Form of Ice Discovered: Ice VIIt

Mar 21, 2022 by News Staff

Physicists have observed the transition from a previously known cubic phase, ice VII, to the newly-discovered intermediate, and tetragonal, phase, ice...

Yan et al. designed an acoustic fabric, woven with a fiber that is designed from a piezoelectric material that produces an electrical signal when bent or mechanically deformed: (a) the tympanic membrane is a four-layer construct composed of circumferentially and radially oriented high-modulus collagen fibers, which are key for sound conduction; the tympanic membrane motion is ultimately transmitted to the cochlea through the ossicular chain, wherein short cilia fibers convert pressure waves into electrical signals (ionic), which are picked up by the nervous system; (b) in the acoustic fabric, high-modulus Twaron yarns and cotton yarns are oriented at right angles, mimicking the construction of the tympanic membrane; this construction converts faint audible frequency sound pressure waves into low-order mechanical vibration modes; within that same medium, a single strand of piezoelectric elastomeric fiber transducer is woven, leading to a synergistically coupled fabric, where sound transduction is a collective effect; this results in a fabric capable of operating as a sensitive microphone that detects weak sound signals (for example, human speech) as low as 10-7 atm. Image credit: Yan et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04476-9.

Newly-Developed ‘Acoustic Fabric’ Converts Sounds into Electrical Signals

Mar 18, 2022 by News Staff

Fabrics, by virtue of their composition and structure, have traditionally been used as acoustic absorbers. Inspired by the auditory system, a team of engineers...

Sesso et al. examined whether cocoa extract supplementation decreases total cardiovascular disease among older adults. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Cocoa Flavanols May Help Reduce Cardiovascular Risk

Mar 17, 2022 by News Staff

In the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a team of researchers led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital scientists examined whether...

Use of the reverse phosphorolysis action of acholetin phosphorylase (AchP) provides an efficient method to enzymatically synthesize acholetin, which is a new biodegradable polymeric material. Image credit: Macdonald et al., doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.1c01570.

Scientists Create New Type of Biodegradable Polymeric Material

Mar 16, 2022 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of British Columbia and elsewhere has identified a bacterial enzyme that can make a new type of polysaccharide,...

Locations of four vertical cross sections (thick, solid lines) on two LLSVPs (yellow). Image credit: Yuan & Li, doi: 10.1038/s41561-022-00908-3.

Study: Two Blob-Like Structures in Earth’s Mantle Have Different Densities and Compositions

Mar 14, 2022 by News Staff

Seismic observations have recently revealed two seismic anomalies in Earth’s lowermost mantle, one beneath Africa and the other beneath the Pacific Ocean,...

Photo from fieldwork at the edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet in 2019. Image credit: Pierre Beck.

Enormous Asteroid Crater in Greenland is 58 Million Years Old, Scientists Say

Mar 11, 2022 by News Staff

The 31-km- (19.2-mile) wide Hiawatha impact structure is located beneath Hiawatha Glacier in northwestern Greenland. Photo from fieldwork at the edge of...