Other Sciences News

Pacheco et al. investigated the impact of two levels of avocado allotment, plus a standard nutrition education intervention on the nutritional status of Hispanic/Latino families. Image credit: Sandid.

Study: High Avocado Consumption Improves Family-Level Nutritional Status

Dec 2, 2021 by News Staff

A new clinical trial has demonstrated that a differential allotment of avocados may impact overall self-reported caloric consumption, as well as macro-...

Kriegman et al. show that clusters of cells, if freed from a developing organism, can similarly find and combine loose cells into clusters that look and move like they do, and that this ability does not have to be specifically evolved or introduced by genetic manipulation. Image credit: Kriegman et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2112672118.

Researchers Create Self-Replicating Living Robots

Nov 30, 2021 by News Staff

Professor Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont, and his colleagues from Tufts University and Harvard University’s...

Optical photographs of the recovered amorphous carbon (AC) samples from different conditions: (a) optical photographs of AC-1 synthesized at 20 GPa and 1,000 degrees Celsius; (b) AC-2, 25 GPa and 1,000 degrees Celsius; (c) AC-3, 27 GPa and 1,000 degrees Celsius; (d) AC-4, 27 GPa and 900 degrees Celsius; (e) AC-5, 30 GPa and 870 degrees Celsius; and (f) AC-6, 37 GPa and 450 degrees Celsius. Image credit: Shang et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03882-9.

Researchers Create Ultrahard Diamond Glass

Nov 25, 2021 by News Staff

The new form of carbon glass synthesized by scientists from Jilin University and elsewhere consists of many randomly oriented clusters with diamond-like...

Life reconstruction of Australopithecus sediba commissioned by the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. Image credit: Elisabeth Daynes / S. Entressangle.

Australopithecus sediba Comfortably Walked on Two Legs, But Could Climb Like Ape

Nov 24, 2021 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have discovered and examined the fossil lumbar vertebrae of Australopithecus sediba, a small hominin that lived about 2 million years...

Habitual coffee intake may be a protective factor against Alzheimer’s disease; specifically, increased coffee consumption could contribute to slower cognitive decline potentially by slowing the rate of cerebral Aβ-amyloid accumulation, and in doing so, ameliorate the associated neurotoxicity from Aβ-amyloid-mediated oxidative stress and inflammatory processes. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Higher Coffee Consumption Associated with Slower Cognitive Decline

Nov 24, 2021 by News Staff

A new long-term study led by Edith Cowan University scientists further supports the hypothesis that coffee intake may be a protective factor against Alzheimer’s...

Marcus et al. found that coffee consumption increases ventricular ectopy, increase physical activity, and reduces sleep duration. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Coffee Consumption Has Both Beneficial and Harmful Short-Term Health Effects, Says New Study

Nov 18, 2021 by News Staff

In a new randomized trial, participants who drunk caffeinated coffee for two weeks were more physically active, yet they also had an increased number of...

This diamond from Botswana contains tiny inclusions of davemaoite. Image credit: Aaron Celestian, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

New Mineral Found inside Deep-Mantle Diamond: Davemaoite

Nov 17, 2021 by News Staff

Calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3) is arguably the most geochemically important phase in the Earth’s lower mantle, because it concentrates elements...

Zhang et al. found that drinking coffee and tea separately or in combination were associated with lower risk of stroke and dementia; intake of coffee alone or in combination with tea was associated with lower risk of poststroke dementia. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Study: Coffee and Tea Consumption Lowers Stroke and Dementia Risk

Nov 16, 2021 by News Staff

In a large prospective cohort study published today in the journal PLoS Medicine, a team of researchers from Tianjin Medical University and Yale University...

Yang et al. provide novel preliminary information about the effects of grape intake on the gut microbiome, host cholesterol, and bile acid metabolism. Image credit: Bruno.

Grape Consumption Modifies Gut Microbiome, Lowers Blood Cholesterol Levels: Study

Nov 12, 2021 by News Staff

Consuming grapes significantly increases the diversity of gut bacteria, decreases cholesterol levels as well as bile acids which play an integral role...

Tang Dynasty mural commemorating the victory of General Zhang Yichao over the Tibetans in 848 CE, from Mogao cave 156.

Volcanic Eruptions Contributed to Repeated Collapse of Ancient Chinese Dynasties, Says New Study

Nov 12, 2021 by News Staff

One or more volcanic eruptions preceded the majority (62 of 68) of dynastic collapses in China over the past 2,000 years, according to new research led...

Highly variable neuron size and input-output properties across 10 mammalian species. Image credit: Beaulieu-Laroche et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04072-3.

Human Neurons are Strikingly Different from Those of Other Mammals, Study Says

Nov 11, 2021 by News Staff

Human neurons have a much smaller number of channels that control the flow of ions (such as potassium and sodium) than expected, compared to the neurons...

Tin monosulfide nanosheets possess high photon absorption coefficients, allowing them to be used in making ultrathin soft X-ray detectors with high sensitivity and a rapid response time. Image credit: Shabbir et al., doi: 10.1002/adfm.202105038.

World’s Thinnest X-ray Detector Created

Nov 9, 2021 by News Staff

The structural characteristics of biological specimens, such as wet proteins and living cells, can be conveniently probed in their host aqueous media using...

A reconstruction of Homo naledi’s head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans. The find was announced by the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society and the South African National Research Foundation and published in the journal eLife. Image credit: John Gurche / Mark Thiessen / National Geographic.

Paleoanthropologists Find Fossil Remains of Immature Homo naledi

Nov 5, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of paleoanthropologists has discovered a partial skull and teeth from an immature individual of Homo naledi, a recently-discovered...

An artist’s impression of the Hadean Earth: huge, impact-generated lava lakes coexisted with surface liquid water, under a thick greenhouse atmosphere sustained by lava outgassing. Image credit: Simone Marchi & Dan Durda, Southwest Research Institute.

Extreme Heat Led to Episodic Deluges on Ancient ‘Hothouse’ Earth, Scientists Say

Nov 4, 2021 by News Staff

The distant past of Earth and potentially its future include extremely warm ‘hothouse’ climate states, but little is known about how the atmosphere...

Ordovician sea life. Image credit: Fritz Geller-Grimm / National Museum of Natural History / CC BY-SA 2.5.

New Research Explores Cause of End-Ordovician Mass Extinction

Nov 2, 2021 by News Staff

The end-Ordovician mass extinction, the first of the ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions occurred 445 million years ago and was characterized by the disappearance...

Homo bodoensis had a pan-African distribution with the peripheral range extending into the eastern Mediterranean (Southeast Europe and the Levant) from which it could have contributed to the repopulation of European (and possibly Central and East Asian) demographic sinks after the glaciations. Image credit: Ettore Mazza.

Meet Homo bodoensis, New Species of Human Ancestor

Oct 29, 2021 by News Staff

Homo bodoensis lived in Africa during the early Middle Pleistocene, around 500,000 years ago, and was the direct ancestor of the Homo sapiens lineage;...

DeSilva et al. suggest that patterns of human brain evolution were influenced by collective intelligence, a convergent characteristic of diverse group-living animals. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Human Brains Decreased in Size 3,000 Years Ago, New Study Says

Oct 25, 2021 by News Staff

Human brain size nearly quadrupled in 6 million years since Homo last shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees, but human brains are thought to have decreased...

This artistic conception illustrates large asteroids penetrating Earth’s oxygen-poor atmosphere. Image credit: SwRI / Dan Durda / Simone Marchi.

Archean Asteroid Impacts Delayed Evolution of Earth’s Atmosphere, Study Suggests

Oct 21, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and Austria has analyzed remnants of ancient asteroids and modeled the effects of their violent collisions...

An electrically conductive and durable yarn was sewn onto fabric and became a wearable heater (high temperatures indicated by yellows and reds) when a safe voltage was applied. Image credit: Pattanarat et al., doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c13329.

Researchers Develop Wearable Electric Heater

Oct 21, 2021 by News Staff

Scientists have created a textile-based wearable heater based on highly durable conductive yarns. An electrically conductive and durable yarn was sewn...