Other Sciences News

Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was positively associated with mortality primarily through cardiovascular disease mortality and showed a graded association with dose. Image credit: Raw Pixel.

Sugar-Sweetened Beverages May Be Associated with Increased Risk of Mortality

Mar 27, 2019 by News Staff

Frequently drinking sugar-sweetened beverages (carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks, and sports drinks) was associated...

A 3D image of a supercrystal from phase-field simulations. Image credit: L-Q Chen Group, Penn State.

Physicists Create Stable ‘Supercrystals’

Mar 26, 2019 by News Staff

Stimulation with ultrafast light pulses can realize and manipulate states of matter with emergent structural, electronic and magnetic phenomena. According...

Weekend recovery sleep doesn’t prevent weight gain or reduce insulin sensitivity. Image credit: Wok & Apix.

Study: Weekend Snoozes Don’t Fully Make Up for Weekday Sleep Loss

Mar 25, 2019 by Sam Sander Effron

Sleeping in a few extra hours on the weekends might not be enough to combat the self-incurred damage from weekday sleep deprivation. According to a study...

Depiction of the Jarijari (Nyeri Nyeri) people near Merbein engaged in recreational activities, including a type of Aboriginal football, by William Blandowski & Gustav Mützel, 1857.

Hepatitis B DNA Helps Trace History and Movement of First Australians

Mar 21, 2019 by News Staff

It’s widely accepted that continental Sahul, the combined landmass of Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania, was settled very early in human history. But...

Wang et al report a strong, specific human brain response to ecologically-relevant rotations of Earth-strength magnetic fields. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

First Neuroscientific Evidence that Humans Have Geomagnetic Sense

Mar 19, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of neuroscientists and geoscientists from Caltech, the University of Tokyo, Princeton University and Tokyo Institute of Technology...

Green tea polyphenols have the potential to improve skeletal muscle metabolism in obese mice by improving glucose homeostasis, reducing lipid peroxidation, and increasing rate limiting enzymes of oxidative phosphorylation. Image credit: Andi Ketaren.

Green Tea Consumption Improves Metabolism, Overall Health in Obese Mice: Study

Mar 19, 2019 by News Staff

In a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, mice fed a diet of 2% green tea extract fared far better than those that ate a diet without...

Paleolithic edge-to-edge bite (top) and a modern overbite/overjet bite (bottom) and how ‘f’ sounds are produced in a biomechanical model. Image credit: Timea Bodogan / Scott Moisik.

Post-Neolithic Diet-Induced Dental Changes Led to Introduction of ‘F’ and ‘V’ Sounds

Mar 18, 2019 by News Staff

A class of speech sounds that is now present in nearly half of the world’s languages — labiodentals, produced by positioning the lower lip against...

Dabas et al explored the anti-inflammatory potential of colored avocado seed extract. Image credit: Tookapic.

Avocado Seed Extract Shows Anti-Inflammatory Activity

Mar 14, 2019 by News Staff

Anti-inflammatory medications such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and steroids are commonly used to treat various diseases. According...

An artist’s illustration of events on the Sun changing the conditions in near-Earth space. Image credit: NASA.

Solar Super-Storm Hit Earth 2,610 Years Ago

Mar 12, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Evidence of an enormous solar storm that struck the Earth around 2,610 years ago has been found in ice cores from Greenland. An artist’s illustration...

Close-up view of an iceberg near Mawson Station, November 20, 1988, much of it covered by snow. At the far left is bubbly blue-white glacier ice; the center of the picture shows the clear, dark green, bubble-free marine ice. The boundary between glacier ice and marine ice is nearly vertical. Image credit: Warren et al, doi: 10.1029/2018JC014479.

Study: Color of Green Icebergs is Caused by Iron-Oxide Minerals

Mar 5, 2019 by News Staff

Pure ice is blue because ice absorbs more red light than blue light. Most icebergs appear white or blue when floating in seawater, but since the early...

Injectable photoreceptor-binding nanoparticles with the ability to convert photons from low-energy to high-energy forms allow mice to develop infrared vision without compromising their normal vision and associated behavioral responses. Image credit: Ma et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.01.038.

Injectable Nanoparticles Give Mice Infrared Vision

Mar 4, 2019 by News Staff

Humans and other mammals are limited to seeing a range of wavelengths of light called visible light, which includes the wavelengths of the rainbow. But...

The popular view that music enhances creativity has been challenged by Threadgold et al. Image credit: William Iven.

Background Music Stints Creativity, Says New Study

Feb 28, 2019 by News Staff

In a series of three experiments, a team of psychologists from Lancaster University, the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Gävle...

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

Neanderthals Had Fully Upright Posture: Study

Feb 27, 2019 by News Staff

19th and early 20th century postural reconstructions of Neanderthals, and particularly the extensive one of the partial skeleton of an elderly male Neanderthal...

Christou et al conducted the first ever analysis of circadian rhythms in human fat taken from people isolated from daily environmental changes. Image credit: Bruce Blaus, Blausen.com / CC BY 3.0.

Study: White Fat Cells Have Their Own Internal Clocks

Feb 26, 2019 by News Staff

White fat cells (white adipose tissue) in the human body exhibit circadian rhythms affecting critical metabolic functions, according to a new study from...

Mice and rats have a rich repertoire of around 20 kinds of calls. Image credit: Alice Gray.

DeepSqueak: Deep Learning-Based System Decodes Rodent Chatter

Feb 21, 2019 by News Staff

Deep learning has recently revolutionized the field of machine hearing and vision, by allowing computers to perform human-like activities including seeing,...

Exercise elicits circadian phase-shifting effects.

Exercise Can Help You Counter Effects of Shift Work, Jet Lag, Other Disruptions to Circadian Clock

Feb 21, 2019 by News Staff

The circadian clock is the 24 hour cycle that regulates many physiological processes including sleeping and eating. Many factors affect this internal clock...

Gestures of our primate cousins may be more similar to our own language than previously thought. Image credit: Republica.

Chimpanzees’ Gestural Communication Follows Same Laws as Human Language: Study

Feb 14, 2019 by News Staff

According to a new study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, gestures of chimpanzees follow the same mathematical patterns — known...

Weiler et al show that, for postural hand control, even the fastest spinal feedback pathway can produce efficient corrective responses, forcing a re-evaluation of how the nervous system derives the control laws that support motor behavior. Image credit: Medium69 / Jmarchn.

Study: Spinal Cord Contributes to Sophisticated Hand Function

Feb 13, 2019 by News Staff

It is well known that neural circuits in the spinal cord control seemingly simple things like the pain reflex in humans, and some motor control functions...

Just 114 miles from the recently-discovered Hiawatha impact crater under the ice of northwest Greenland, lies a possible second impact crater. The 22.7-mile-wide feature would be the second crater found under an ice sheet, and if confirmed, would be the 22nd-largest crater on Earth. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Jefferson Beck.

Scientists Find Possible Second Subglacial Impact Crater in Northwest Greenland

Feb 12, 2019 by News Staff

Following the discovery of the 19.2-mile (31 km) wide Hiawatha impact crater beneath the northwest margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet, Dr. Joe MacGregor...