Other Sciences News

Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, unknown date (16th century), Giovan Ambrogio Figino, red chalk or sanguine drawing. Image credit: Museum of Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy / Ministero dei Beni e delle Attivita’ Culturali e del Turismo.

Leonardo da Vinci Suffered from Ulnar Neuropathy, Study Says

May 7, 2019 by News Staff

Leonardo da Vinci suffered a disease in his late career that affected his ability to hold palettes and brushes to paint with his right hand; although this...

The normal form of amyloid beta has been tagged with a yellow marker in these cells, making healthy cells a uniform pale yellow (left). Contact with prion forms of amyloid beta -- for example in extracts from human brain tissue -- forces these yellow proteins into the sticky prion form as well, leading to the formation of bright yellow clumps (right). Image credit: Prusiner Lab / UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Alzheimer’s Amyloid-Beta and Tau Proteins Act as Prions, New Research Finds

May 7, 2019 by News Staff

Prions are misfolded versions of a protein that can spread like an infection by forcing normal copies of that protein into the same self-propagating, misfolded...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

160,000-Year-Old Denisovan Jawbone Discovered in Tibetan Cave

May 2, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

In 1980, a Buddhist monk found the right half a fossilized hominin jawbone in Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau, Xiahe, China. An analysis of...

A carrier bag labeled as biodegradable after three years in the marine environment. Image credit: Napper & Thompson, doi: 10.1021/acs.est.8b06984.

Biodegradable Bags Survive 3 Years in Soil and Marine Environment

Apr 30, 2019 by News Staff

According to a new study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, biodegradable plastic bags are capable of carrying full loads...

Propionates are potent inhibitors of molds that are widely used as a food preservative.

Propionate Consumption Increases Levels of Obesity- and Diabetes-Associated Hormones

Apr 30, 2019 by News Staff

Propionates, salts of a short-chain fatty acid called propionic acid, are widely used in baked goods, animal feeds and artificial flavorings. Although...

STEVE: Researchers Identify Mechanisms that Cause Rare Atmospheric Phenomenon

Apr 29, 2019 by News Staff

STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) is a thin ribbon of pinkish-red or mauve-colored light stretching from east to west, farther south...

A brain-machine interface created Anumanchipalli et al can generate natural-sounding synthetic speech by using brain activity to control a virtual vocal tract. Image credit: University of California San Francisco.

Speech Synthesized from Brain Signals

Apr 29, 2019 by News Staff

A team of neuroscientists at the University of California San Francisco used brain signals recorded from epilepsy patients to program a computer to mimic...

Zhang et al explained the enigmatic phenomenon of triboelectricity and why it occurs. Image credit: Alexandre Dulaunoy / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Researchers Uncover Cause of Triboelectric Charging

Apr 26, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Curtin University, the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales has demonstrated that the breaking...

$Overview of observed standardized regression coefficients (b values) for the associations between total body fat and fractional anisotropy (FA)- and mean diffusivity (MD)-based DTI tracts for men and women. Standardized regression coefficients reflect the standard deviation (SD) change in FA and MD, respectively, per standard deviation (6.5% in women and 5.5% in men) change in total body fat. Results were adjusted for age, ethnicity, Townsend deprivation index, assessment center (baseline visit and imaging visit), smoking, alcohol use, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and intracranial volume. Image credit: Dekkers et al, doi: 10.1148/radiol.2019181012.$

Excessive Body Fat Linked to Smaller Gray Matter Volume, New Study Says

Apr 25, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers in the Netherlands has found that higher levels of body fat are associated with differences in the form and structure of the brain,...

Shively et al aimed to determine the effects of humanlike Western and Mediterranean diets on caloric intake, obesity, metabolism, and hepatosteatosis in an established nonhuman primate model of obesity. Image credit: Moira Nazzari.

Mediterranean Diet May Protect against Overeating and NAFLD

Apr 24, 2019 by News Staff

In a study on crab-eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis), a team of researchers at Wake Forest University found that the primates on a humanlike Mediterranean...

In order to make artificial nacre, Spiesz et al use bacteria to create alternating thin layers of crystalized calcium carbonate and sticky polymer. Image credit: J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester.

Biologists Use Bacteria to Make Artificial Mother-of-Pearl

Apr 23, 2019 by News Staff

Natural materials such as tooth enamel, nacre (also known as mother-of-pearl), or bone attain their impressive mechanical properties from combining organic...

Large (left), medium (center), and small (right) fabellae (a small bone to the right of each image) in the right knees of three female subjects. Image credit: Berthaume et al, doi: 10.1111/joa.12994.

Fabella: Humans Were Losing Osteoarthritis-Linked Knee Bone, Now It’s Making Comeback

Apr 23, 2019 by News Staff

The fabella (Latin for ‘little bean’), a small bone in a tendon behind the knee, was once rare in humans. Now, a team of researchers from the Department...

The Landscape (Paesaggio), inv. 8P, by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci was Ambidextrous, Researchers Say

Apr 19, 2019 by News Staff

Leonardo da Vinci was left-handed, but he wrote and painted with both hands, according to new research from the Opificio delle Pietre Dure of Florence,...

Snow-TENG: (a) harnessing and sensing biomechanical movements by attaching a snow-TENG to different locations of the human body; (b) measurement of the electrical output from a snow-TENG device that uses a snowfall mode when attached on the (i) shoulder, (ii) wrist, and (iii) knee; (c-i) a photograph of the snow-TENG device assembled and attached to the bottom of a snow boot as a self-powered biomechanical sensor; (c-ii) electrical outputs from the snow-TENG as the wearer performs different movements -- running, jumping, walking, and marching. Image credit: Ahmed et al, doi: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.03.032.

Researchers Develop Snow-Based Energy Harvester

Apr 16, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from the United States, Canada, Egypt and Ireland has developed a snow-based triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that...

Left: topography of the predominantly contralateral beta oscillatory activity during rest periods predictive of micro-offline learning, indicated by the LME (linear mixed effects) model coefficient. Right: frontoparietal beta activity predicted micro-offline gains throughout the duration of early-learning rest periods. Image credit: Bönstrup et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.049.

Study: Human Brain Uses Short Rest Periods to Strengthen Memories

Apr 16, 2019 by News Staff

In a study published in the journal Current Biology, a team of researchers from the United States, Switzerland and Israel found that taking short breaks,...

Coles et al provide the strongest evidence to date that facial expressions can influence our feelings. Image credit: Sasin Tipchai.

Smiling Can Make Us Feel Little Bit Happier, Review Says

Apr 15, 2019 by News Staff

According to a review of previous studies, published in the Psychological Bulletin, emotional facial expressions — such as smiling — can influence...

Two Independent Denisovan Lineages Contributed to Modern Papuan Genomes: Study

Apr 12, 2019 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Cell, modern Papuans carry hundreds of gene variants from two Denisovan lineages — distinct from...

Tilles et al observed a possible new way that lightning forms called fast negative breakdown.

Fast Negative Breakdown Triggers Lightning Flashes, New Observations Show

Apr 12, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of New Hampshire Space Science Center, the Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research, Earth Networks and NASA’s...

An archaic hominin. Image credit: Ninara / CC BY 2.0.

Homo luzonensis: New Species of Ancient Human Discovered

Apr 11, 2019 by News Staff

An early human species with a unique mix of primitive (that is, Australopithecus-like) and derived (that is, Homo sapiens-like) morphological features...