Other Sciences News

Reconstruction of Homo floresiensis. Image credit: Kinez Riza / Atelier Elisabeth Daynes, Sangiran Museum.

New Study Examines Chewing Biomechanics of Homo floresiensis

Aug 25, 2021 by News Staff

The feeding biomechanics of Homo floresiensis, a small-bodied hominin lived until about 50,000 years ago on Flores, Indonesia, closely resembled the patterns...

Yang et al. made the first direct observation of atomic motion in liquid water molecules that have been excited with laser light. Image credit: Greg Stewart / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Physicists Directly Observe Atomic Motion in Liquid Water Molecules

Aug 25, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of experimental physicists from the United States and Sweden has made the first direct observation of how hydrogen atoms in water...

The new phosphorescent materials could potentially be used in a wide number of applications, from medical imaging and optical sensing to ‘glow in the dark’ dyes and paints. Image credit: Yuan et al., doi: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2021.100542.

Scientists Create New Phosphorescent Materials

Aug 25, 2021 by News Staff

Inspired by the afterglow room-temperature phosphorescence of natural basswood, researchers have prepared a series of new sustainable phosphorescent materials...

Guarneiri et al. saw an average drop of 5% in total cholesterol and between 6% and 9% in LDL among participants who consumed pecans. Image credit: Jackie Matthews.

Daily Pecan Consumption May Help Reduce Cholesterol Levels

Aug 24, 2021 by News Staff

In a new randomized, controlled trial, participants at risk for cardiovascular disease who ate pecans (Carya illinoinensis) during an eight-week intervention...

Mindfulness-based programs primarily target improved mental health and wellbeing.

Mindfulness May Provide Small But Significant Benefits to Cognition

Aug 20, 2021 by News Staff

While mindfulness is typically geared towards improving mental health and wellbeing, it may also provide additional benefits to brain health, according...

Earth’s magnetic field lines. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Study Provides Further Evidence of 200-Million-Year-Long Cycle in Strength of Earth’s Magnetic Field

Aug 20, 2021 by News Staff

New research shows that the magnetic field of our planet was relatively weak (less than half the strength of the long-term average field) for tens of millions...

The ‘Gould’ violin by Antonio Stradivari.

Stradivari and Guarneri Treated Soundboards with Various Chemicals, Study Shows

Aug 18, 2021 by News Staff

Two renowned violin makers from Cremona, Italy, Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù,’ treated their instruments with various chemicals...

Apis mellifera ligustica. Image credit: Scaccabarozzi et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253838.

Angry Bees Produce Richer, More Protein-Dense Venom, Study Finds

Aug 16, 2021 by News Staff

Chemists have analyzed protein diversity in venom produced by Apis mellifera ligustica in the marri (Corymbia calophylla) ecosystem in southern-western...

Philippine Ayta Magbukon People Have Highest Amount of Denisovan DNA in the World

Aug 12, 2021 by News Staff

New research led by Uppsala University scientists suggests that there were multiple archaic human species that inhabited the Philippines prior to the arrival...

Kennedy et al. found that fetal gut colonization of healthy term infants does not occur before birth. Image credit: Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Fasting Can Protect from Intestinal Bacterial Infections, Study Suggests

Aug 10, 2021 by News Staff

Fasting before and during exposure to invasive food-borne bacteria protects mice from developing a full-blown gastrointestinal infection, in part through...

Si.427, obverse. Image credit: İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri / D.F. Mansfield, doi: 10.1007/s10699-021-09806-0.

3,700-Year-Old Babylonian Clay Tablet is Earliest Known Example of Applied Geometry

Aug 5, 2021 by News Staff

Known as Si.427, the ancient clay tablet was discovered and cataloged along with many other tablets by the 1894 French archaeological expedition at Sippar...

Exercise training rewires the enhancers in regions of our DNA that are known to be associated with the risk to develop disease. Image credit: Sasin Tipchai.

Study: Physical Exercise Improves Health of Brain and Other Organs through Epigenetic Changes

Aug 4, 2021 by News Staff

Some sections of our DNA are genes, which are instructions for building proteins, while other sections — called enhancers — regulate which...

Reconstruction of the West Antarctic mid-Cretaceous temperate rainforest. The painting is based on paleofloral and environmental information inferred from palynological, geochemical, sedimentological and organic biomarker data obtained from cores at the site of PS104_20-2, Antarctica. Image credit: J. McKay / Alfred-Wegener-Institut / CC-BY 4.0.

Decline in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Caused Eocene-Oligocene Cooling, Study Says

Aug 3, 2021 by News Staff

New research shows that mean annual temperatures in southeast Australia gradually declined from 27 degrees Celsius during the Middle Eocene epoch to...

A pure NaK drop exposed to water vapor in vacuum. Image credit: Mason et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03646-5.

Scientists Create Metallic Water Solution

Jul 30, 2021 by News Staff

Insulating materials can in principle be made metallic by applying pressure. In the case of pure water, this is estimated to require a pressure of 48 Mbars...

Condemi et al. analyzed the blood types of Neanderthals and Denisovans by looking at their DNA. Image credit: CNRS.

Researchers Decipher Blood Groups of Neanderthals and Denisovans

Jul 30, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

An analysis of the high-quality nuclear genomes previously published from three Neanderthals and one Denisovan shows that these extinct hominins were polymorphic...

The 65,000-year-old leaf point from Hohle Fels Cave, Germany. Image credit: University of Tübingen.

Neanderthals Hunted with Leaf-Shaped Spears, Archaeologists Say

Jul 28, 2021 by News Staff

Archaeologists say they have found a 65,000-year-old leaf point in a cave in the Swabian Jura, Germany. The 65,000-year-old leaf point from Hohle Fels...

Silicon(IV) with a square-planar configuration represents a transition state. Image credit: Ebner & Greb, doi: 10.1016/j.chempr.2021.05.002.

Researchers Synthesize Square-Planar Silicon-IV

Jul 27, 2021 by News Staff

A duo of chemists from the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg has synthesized and characterized the first species of silicon(IV)...

Pham et al. examined whether habitual coffee consumption is associated with differences in brain volumes or the odds of dementia or stroke. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Excessive Coffee Consumption is Associated with Smaller Brain Volumes, Increased Odds of Dementia

Jul 23, 2021 by News Staff

Coffee is a highly popular beverage worldwide, containing caffeine which is a central nervous system stimulant. In a study of 398,646 UK Biobank participants,...

Continuous monitoring of hydrogen sulfide in human breath for early stage diagnosis of halitosis is of great significance for prevention of dental diseases. Image credit: Shin et al., doi: 10.1021/acsnano.1c01350.

Newly-Developed Portable Device Can Rapidly Detect Bad Breath

Jul 22, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from Korea and the United States has constructed a tiny portable device that directly detects hydrogen sulfide (H2S)...