Other Sciences News

Photographs of the two engraved bone fragments from the site of Lingjing, China. Image credit: F. d’Errico & L. Doyon.

115,000-Year-Old Engraved Bones Found in China

Jul 19, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists digging at an early hominin site in China have discovered two engraved bone fragments that date back nearly 115,000 years. Photographs of...

Array of 1 mm magnetic droplets: fluorescent green droplets are paramagnetic without any jammed nanoparticles at the liquid interface; red are paramagnetic with nonmagnetic nanoparticles jammed at the interface; brown droplets are ferromagnetic with magnetic nanoparticles jammed at the interface. Image credit: Xubo Liu et al / Berkeley Lab.

Researchers 3D Print Ferromagnetic Liquid Droplets

Jul 19, 2019 by News Staff

Using a modified 3D printer, an international team of researchers led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has made a new material that is both liquid...

Resveratrol May Protect against Muscle Atrophy Induced by Martian Gravity

Jul 19, 2019 by News Staff

In a study done in rats, a moderate daily dose of resveratrol — a natural antioxidant found in more than 70 species of plants such as grapes, cranberries,...

The fastest people need about 50 moves to solve a Rubik’s cube. Image credit: Steve Zylius / University of California, Irvine.

DeepCubeA: New Deep Learning Algorithm Solves Rubik’s Cube Much Faster than Humans

Jul 18, 2019 by News Staff

DeepCubeA, a deep reinforcement learning algorithm created by a team of scientists at the University of California, Irvine, can find the solution for the...

The Castle Bravo nuclear weapon test on Bikini Atoll. Image credit: U.S. Department of Energy.

Northern Marshall Islands More Radioactive than Chernobyl and Fukushima, New Research Finds

Jul 18, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

From 1946 to 1958, the U.S. tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, a remote constellation of atolls in the Pacific Ocean that was then a U.S....

Vibrational motions of N-methyl morpholine. Image credit: Brown University.

Scientists Observe Molecular Motions in Real Time

Jul 17, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by Brown University has used ultra-high-speed X-ray pulses to image subtle motions of a molecule of N-methyl morpholine. Vibrational...

Australopithecus africanus, a mother with an infant. Image credit: Jose Garcia & Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Southern Cross University.

Australopithecus Mothers Breastfed Their Infants for Year after Birth

Jul 17, 2019 by News Staff

A high-resolution trace-element analysis of 2.6-2.1-million-year-old teeth from an extinct hominin called Australopithecus africanus has revealed that...

Matcha tea. Image credit: Dung Thuy Vu Nguyen.

Matcha Tea Has Anti-Anxiety Properties, New Study Shows

Jul 16, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a study done in mice, a team of researchers at Kumamoto University, Japan, demonstrated that Matcha tea powder exerts strong and synergistic anxiolytic...

Earth’s internal structure: dense solid metallic core, viscous metallic outer core, mantle and silicate based crust. Image credit: NASA.

Material from Earth’s Core Has Been Leaking into Mantle for Billions of Years

Jul 12, 2019 by The Conversation

Earth’s magnetic field protects and makes our planet habitable by stopping harmful high-energy particles from space, including from the Sun. The source...

Artist’s reconstruction of an Asian caveman. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Enigmatic Skull Found in Greece Suggests Early Homo sapiens Reached Europe 210,000 Years Ago

Jul 11, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A 210,000-year-old partial skull found in southern Greece about four decades ago has been identified as the earliest example of anatomically modern Homo...

Schematic for the fabrication of the eggshell microparticle-reinforced hydrogels and cell encapsulation in 3D. Image credit: Wu et al, doi: 10.1039/C9BM00230H.

Eggshell Particle-Reinforced Hydrogel Can Help Grow and Repair Bones

Jul 11, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Lowell has found that chicken eggshell microparticles inserted into a hydrogel matrix can be used...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neanderthals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Modern Asians Acquired Rare Dental Trait from Denisovans: Study

Jul 10, 2019 by News Staff

A 3-rooted lower molar, a rare trait primarily found in modern Asian lineages, was previously thought to have evolved after Homo sapiens dispersed from...

Nighttime exposure to blue light causes glucose intolerance in diurnal rodents, with a stronger effect in males when they were fed high caloric diet. Image credit: Nicholas Robb.

Nighttime Exposure to Blue Light Increases Sugar Consumption, Animal Study Finds

Jul 10, 2019 by News Staff

Nocturnal exposure to light containing short wavelength emissions (450-500 nm) — the kind of light produced by the screens of many devices —...

Yu et al report a method to translate amino acid sequences into audible sound, use the representation in the musical space to train a neural network, and then apply it to generate protein designs using artificial intelligence. Image credit: Yu et al, doi: 10.1021/acsnano.9b02180.

Researchers Translate Proteins into Musical Compositions, and Back

Jul 8, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists at MIT has developed a system for converting protein sequences into audible sound that resembles musical passages. Then, reversing...

Surface meltwater in Greenland. Image credit: Winnie Chu, Stanford University.

Geoscientists Find 56 New Subglacial Lakes beneath Greenland Ice Sheet

Jul 5, 2019 by News Staff

A new analysis of data from NASA’s Operation IceBridge airborne science mission has revealed 56 previously uncharted subglacial lakes beneath the Greenland...

Short bursts of exercise directly boost the function of a gene that increases connections between neurons in the hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with learning and memory. Image credit: Matan Ray Vizel.

Brief Periods of Exercise Enhance Brain Function, Animal Study Shows

Jul 5, 2019 by News Staff

In a study done in mice, a team of researchers found that short-term bursts of exercise — the human equivalent of a weekly game of pickup basketball,...

Nolden et al assessed the ability of common beverages to reduce oral burn from capsaicin. Image credit: Jill Wellington.

Milk is Best Choice to Mitigate Oral Burn from Chili Peppers: Study

Jul 4, 2019 by News Staff

Capsaicin, a chemical compound derived from chili peppers, is classically considered an irritant, due to the warming and burning sensations it causes....

Scheiman et al found Veillonella bacteria in the microbiome of elite athletes. Image credit: Composita.

Researchers Find Performance-Enhancing Bacteria in Gut Microbiome of Marathon Runners

Jul 3, 2019 by News Staff

In a study published online in the journal Nature Medicine, an international team of researchers identified a link between members of the bacterial genus...

Diet that restricts glucose may help brain function. Image credit: Cattalin.

Atkins-Style Diet May Improve Brain Function and Memory in Older Adults

Jul 2, 2019 by News Staff

A modified Atkins diet (very low carbohydrates and extra fat) may improve brain function and episodic memory, according to a small study of 14 older adults...