Other Sciences News

A Minoan clay tablet inscribed with Linear A, which is on display in Crete’s Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. Image credit: Ester Salgarella.

Scientists One Step Closer to Cracking Minoan Linear A Script

Feb 8, 2021 by News Staff

Linear A is a logo-syllabic script used for administrative purposes on Bronze Age Crete. Together with Cretan Hieroglyphic, it is one of two writing systems...

Quartz vial containing 300 micrograms of einsteinium-253. The illumination produced is a result of the intense radiation from einsteinium-253, which alpha decays with a half-life of 20.5 days. Image credit: R.G. Haire, U.S. Department of Energy.

Einsteinium: Scientists Reveal Chemical Secrets of Elusive Transplutonium Element

Feb 4, 2021 by News Staff

Transplutonium elements are a group of metals that lie at the edge of the periodic table. As a result, the patterns and trends used to predict the physics...

A reconstruction of a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

48,000-Year-Old Fossils Hint at Neanderthal-Human Interbreeding

Feb 1, 2021 by News Staff

Several hominin teeth found the Paleolithic site of La Cotte de St Brelade in Jersey may belong to Neanderthal-Homo sapiens hybrids, according to new research...

Laham et al. show that mice form memories of their mother within days after birth and that these memories persist into adulthood. Image credit: Laham et al., doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108668.

Mice Form Memories of Their Mother within Three Days after Birth, Study Shows

Jan 28, 2021 by News Staff

Mouse pups recognize their caregiving mother and distinguish her from novel mothers as newborns and remember them after up to 100 days apart, according...

The first people to reach and disperse across the Americas did so in tandem with their dogs. Image credit: Ettore Mazza.

First People to Settle in Americas were Accompanied by Their Dogs

Jan 27, 2021 by News Staff

A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that dogs were domesticated in Siberia by 23,000 years ago, possibly...

Increased subnetworks in absolute pitch musicians compared to non-musicians obtained in the whole-brain network-based statistic (NBS) analysis for resting-state functional connectivity (A) and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI)-based structural connectivity (B). Abbreviations: ACC - anterior cingulate cortex; AP - absolute pitch; aSMG - anterior supramarginal gyrus; aSTG - anterior superior temporal gyrus; cOp - central operculum; fOp - frontal operculum; FP - frontal pole; HG - Heschl’s gyrus; IFG, po - inferior frontal gyrus, pars opercularis; L - left; MTG - middle temporal gyrus; PCC - posterior cingulate cortex; postCG - postcentral gyrus; preCG - precentral gyrus; pSTG - superior temporal gyrus, posterior division; pOp - parietal operculum; PP - planum polare; PT - planum temporale; ptFG - posterior temporal fusiform gyrus; R - right; toFG - temporal occipital fusiform gyrus; TP - temporal pole. Image credit: Leipold et al., doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1985-20.2020.

Musicians, Regardless of Innate Pitch Ability, Have More Connected Brains than Non-Musicians: Study

Jan 26, 2021 by News Staff

A new study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that long-term musical training is associated with robust changes in large-scale brain...

Blue jet: (a) the cloud-top altitude of the storm cell over the South Pacific on February 26, 2019, at 15:10 UTC, derived from the Japanese Himawari meteorological satellite data and from a radio sounding at Tarawa at a distance of approximately 700 km (435 miles); the green curve is the ISS orbit and the red marker its position at 15:10:05 UTC; the black curves identify the full field of view of the cameras projected to the Earth’s surface, and the white square is the cropped image, downloaded from the ISS and shown in (b); black markers are the lightning locations detected by the GLD360 network between 15:10:00 and 15:11:40 UTC; (b) the cropped, downlinked ASIM image (777.4 nm) of the cloud backlit by internal lightning; the source locations of the five blue flash events detected between 15:10:00 and 15:11:35 UTC are shown with colored markers, time progressing from red to yellow. The flash leading to a blue jet is event number 3. Image credit: Neubert et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-03122-6.

Blue Jet Observed from International Space Station

Jan 26, 2021 by News Staff

Using the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) observatory on the International Space Station (ISS), researchers have observed five intense blue...

Ingredients in oolong tea can stimulate fat oxidation. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Drinking Oolong Tea May Help Reduce Body Fat

Jan 13, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a study published recently in the journal Nutrients, oolong tea and pure caffeine increased fat breakdown by about 20% in the healthy volunteers; oolong...

Cartoon illustration of the device design, where a thin hBN layer (blue) with selectively etched areas is used to avoid contact of the Pd electrodes (yellow) with the edges of the monolayer WTe2. The stack of graphite (gray)/hBN (blue)/monolayer WTe2 (red), shown in the cross-sectional view, is further stacked onto the bottom part with the electrodes, as indicated by the arrow. Inset: an image of device 1; the dashed red line highlights the monolayer edges and the white squares denote the contact regions. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-03084-9.

Physicists Observe Unexpected Quantum Phenomenon in Two-Dimensional Insulator

Jan 12, 2021 by News Staff

A team of physicists from the United States and Japan has experimentally observed a phenomenon called quantum oscillation in a two-dimensional topological...

2-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools Unearthed in Tanzania

Jan 11, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has discovered a large collection of 2-million-year-old stone tools, fossilized bones...

Chen et al. established the world’s first integrated quantum communication network, combining over 700 optical fibers on the ground with two ground-to-satellite links to achieve quantum key distribution over a total distance of 4,600 km for users across China. Image credit: University of Science and Technology of China.

Chinese Scientists Create Integrated Quantum Communication Network

Jan 7, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers in China has demonstrated an integrated space-to-ground quantum communication network that combines a large-scale fiber network of...

Light-responsive artificial chromatophores may suggest a new concept for various engineering applications such as camouflage interfaces, biophotonic devices, and flexible displays. Image credit: Han et al., doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c17623.

Newly-Developed Artificial Chromatophores Change Color in Response to Light

Jan 6, 2021 by News Staff

Artificial chromatophores that change color when exposed to light may lead to new military camouflage, soft robotics, and flexible displays. This invention...

Rewards are often uncertain and infrequent, but learning may nevertheless have the potential to boost happiness. Image credit: Pexels.

Learning Boosts Happiness, New Study Suggests

Jan 6, 2021 by News Staff

New research from University College London suggests that how we learn about the world around us can be more important for how we feel than rewards we...

Scanning electron microscope image of the ellipsoidal colloids. Inset shows a confocal microscopy image, highlighting the core-shell structure. Scale bar - 5 μm. Image credit: Roller et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2018072118.

Researchers Discover New State of Matter: Liquid Glass

Jan 6, 2021 by News Staff

Using a technique called confocal microscopy, a team of scientists from Germany and the Netherlands has found that suspensions of ellipsoidal colloids...

Chen et al. suggest that travel and tourism can be an important life domain affecting how people evaluate their overall quality of life. Image credit: Joshua Woroniecki.

Frequent Travelers are More Satisfied with Their Life than Non-Travelers, Study Says

Jan 4, 2021 by News Staff

Frequent travelers are about 7% happier than people who don’t travel at all, according to a study carried out in Taiwan. Chen et al. suggest that travel...

Postmenopausal women who ate a half cup of Ataulfo mangoes 4 times a week saw a 23% decrease in deep wrinkles after 2 months and a 20% decrease after 4 months. Image credit: Liwan Chun.

Mangoes May Help Reduce Facial Wrinkles in Women

Jan 2, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

According to a clinical pilot study published in the journal Nutrients, regular intake of modest amounts of Ataulfo mangoes may improve facial wrinkles...

This 3D model of a polymer desalination membrane shows water avoiding dense spots in the membrane and slowing flow; red above the membrane shows water under higher pressure and with higher concentrations of salt; the gold, granular, sponge-like structure in the middle shows denser and less-dense areas within the salt-stopping membrane; silver channels show how water flows through; and the blue at the bottom shows water under lower pressure and with lower concentrations of salt. Image credit: Ganapathysubramanian Research Group / Iowa State University / Gregory Foss, Texas Advanced Computing Center.

Researchers Make Progress Toward High-Performing Water Desalination Membranes

Jan 1, 2021 by News Staff

Biological membranes can achieve remarkably high permeabilities while maintaining ideal selectivities by relying on homogeneous internal structures in...

Differences in brain activity between connected and disconnected states of consciousness studied with positron emission tomography imaging. Activity of the thalamus, anterior (ACC) and posterior cingulate cortices (PCC), and bilateral angular gyri (AG) show the most consistent associations with the state of consciousness (A = general anesthesia, B = sleep). The same brain structures, which are deactivated when the state of consciousness changes to disconnected in general anesthesia or natural sleep (cool colors in the left columns), are reactivated when regaining a connected state upon emergence from anesthesia (warm colors in the right columns). Image credit: Scheinin et al., doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0775-20.2020.

Neuroscientists Identify Brain Network Critical for Consciousness

Dec 30, 2020 by News Staff

The loss and return of consciousness is linked to the same core brain network for both sleep and anesthesia. Differences in brain activity between connected...

Illustration of one of the early settlers in the Caribbean. Image credit: Tom Björklund.

Ancient DNA Reveals Genetic History of Caribbean World

Dec 27, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study of the genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean, researchers analyzed genome-wide DNA data from 174 ancient individuals who lived in...