Other Sciences News

MacLean et al suggest that smoking status is associated with poor diet quality. Image credit: Quick Fix / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Smokers Have Worse Quality Diets than Former Smokers or Non-Smokers, Says New Study

Apr 5, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Fairfield University and Yale University has evaluated data from 5,293 U.S. adults and found that smokers consumed around 200...

Neanderthals consumed plants, too. Image credit: University of Utah via kued.org.

Fluted Spear Points Prove Early Native Americans Liked to Travel

Apr 3, 2018 by News Staff

Analyses of numerous spear points with fluted edges found in northern Alaska and Yukon, and artifacts from further south in Canada, the Great Plains,...

Xu et al achieved a breakthrough, inventing a stretchy new material modeled after both squid skin and Hollywood dinosaurs with remarkable properties. Image credit: Xu et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aar5191.

Scientists Create Infrared Camouflage Material

Apr 2, 2018 by News Staff

Thermal vision cameras detect differences in temperature by sensing infrared wavelengths. If a coating could be developed that showed dynamic tuning of...

An aqueous spiral, 6.8 cm long, thread thickness 100 μm, in silicone oil. Scale bar - 2 mm. Image credit: Forth et al, doi: 10.1002/adma.201707603.

Researchers 3D Print All-Liquid Objects

Mar 30, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and China has found a way to print 3D structures composed entirely of liquids. The team’s all-liquid material...

Ashwanikumar et al have developed a drug delivery system using cell-penetrating self-assembling peptide nanomaterials (CSPNs); these drilled-shaped nanomaterials traverse cellular membranes to deliver drugs and can be fine-tuned into different shapes to optimize delivery. Image credit: Ashwanikumar et al, doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2018.02.041.

Scientists Develop Drug-Delivering ‘Nanodrills’ that Penetrate Cell Membranes

Mar 30, 2018 by Zvi Cramer

Researchers have created new drill-shaped nanomaterials that infiltrate cellular membrane and deliver drugs inside the cell, providing a versatile means...

The team’s model reproduces key features of melting snowflakes that have been observed in nature: first, meltwater gathers in any concave regions of the snowflake’s surface; these liquid-water regions merge as they grow and eventually form a shell of liquid around an ice core, finally developing into a water drop. Image credit: Free-Photos.

Researchers Develop First-Ever 3D Numerical Model of Melting Snowflake

Mar 30, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has developed a numerical 3D model for the melting of single snowflakes. A better understanding of how snow melts can...

The interstitium is seen here beneath the top layer of skin, but is also in tissue layers lining the gut, lungs, and urinary systems, as well as those surrounding blood vessels and the fascia between muscles; the organ is a body-wide network of interconnected, fluid-filled compartments supported by a meshwork of strong, flexible proteins. Image credit: Jill Gregory / Mount Sinai Health System.

Interstitium: ‘New’ Organ Found in Human Body

Mar 28, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from New York University School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research...

Millimeter-scale transient-electroluminescent device. Top row, from left to right: schematic of a millimeter-scale device, showing the grid source electrode structure to increase active emission area; photographs of a packaged, 3 mm x 2 mm, device in the off and on state. Bottom row: photograph of a millimeter-scale transparent device; photograph of a large area (3 mm x 2 mm) transparent device in the off and on state. Image credit: Lien et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03218-8.

New Electroluminescent Device Opens Possibility for ‘Invisible’ Displays, Light-Emitting Tattoos

Mar 28, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has developed a bright-light emitting...

Periods of extreme cold winter weather and perilous snowfall could be linked to the solar cycle. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Extreme Cold Winter Weather Can Be Linked to Solar Cycle

Mar 26, 2018 by News Staff

Pioneering new research from the University of Exeter, UK, has revealed when the 11-year solar cycle is in its ‘weaker’ phase, there are warm spells...

Adipose tissue. Image credit: Blausen.com Staff / Medical Gallery of Blausen Medical 2014 / WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2), doi: 10.15347/wjm/2014.010.

Study: Low Temperatures Activate ‘Good’ Fat Formation at Cellular Level

Mar 26, 2018 by News Staff

A new study from the University of Nottingham, UK, shows that the way in which fat is made within the body is not ‘pre-programmed’ during the early...

2-Billion-Year-Old Sea Salt Captures Earth’s ‘Great Oxidation’

Mar 23, 2018 by News Staff

An international research team led by a Princeton University scientist has found that the rise in oxygen that occurred about 2.3 billion years ago (Paleoproterozoic...

Cellulose nanofibrils affect the colloidal network structure of ice cream. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

Cellulose Nanofibers from Banana Plant Waste Could Be Key to Ideal Ice Cream

Mar 22, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from Colombia and Canada has found that adding a fibrous extract from banana fruit stems (rachis) to ice cream could...

Neanderthals in a cave. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

Researchers Uncover Genetic History of Late Neanderthals

Mar 22, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has sequenced the genomes of five Neanderthals who lived around 47,000 to 39,000 years ago (that is, late Neanderthals),...

Parkinson’s disease. Image credit: Blausen Gallery 2014 / Wikiversity Journal of Medicine, doi: 10.15347/wjm/2014.010.

Gene Mutation Associated with Parkinson’s Initiates Disease Outside of Brain

Mar 22, 2018 by News Staff

A mutation in the leucine rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene — the most common cause of inherited Parkinson’s disease — alters cells circulating...

A new 4D printing technique could one day allow manufacturers to produce electronic devices and their wiring in a single process. Image credit: Lutz Peter.

Pioneering 4D Printer Developed

Mar 21, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and the Singapore University of Technology and Design has developed a powerful new 4D printer...

Empathy is the ability to recognize and respond to the emotional states of other individuals. Image credit: John Hain.

Our Genes Play Role in Empathy: Study

Mar 21, 2018 by News Staff

How empathic we are is partly a result of our genes, according to the results of the largest genome-wide association study of its kind. Empathy is the...

Ramsey et al identified eight components of lavender and tea tree oils as endocrine disruptor chemicals. Image credit: Ilona Couleur.

Study: Lavender and Tea Tree Oils Contain Hormone-Disrupting Components

Mar 20, 2018 by News Staff

A new study from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences lends new evidence to a suspected link between regular exposure to lavender oil...

Retoucher from the early hominin Lingjing site, China; white brackets indicate the areas where impact scars are present. Scale bars - 1 cm. Image credit: Doyon et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194318.

Archaeologists Unearth 115,000-Year-Old Bone Tools in China

Mar 19, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers led by Université de Montréal’s Dr. Luc Doyon has found seven bone soft hammers at the early hominin Lingjing...

The first evidence of human life in the Olorgesailie Basin comes from about 1.2 million years ago. For hundreds of the thousands of years, people living there made and used large stone-cutting tools called handaxes (left). According to three new studies, early humans in East Africa had -- by about 320,000 years ago -- begun using color pigments and manufacturing more sophisticated tools (right) than those of the Early Stone Age handaxes, tens of thousands of years earlier than previous evidence has shown in eastern Africa. The sophisticated tools (right) were carefully crafted and more specialized than the large, all-purpose handaxes (left). Many were points designed to be attached to a shaft and potentially used as projectile weapons, while others were shaped as scrapers or awls. Image credit: Human Origins Program, Smithsonian.

320,000-Year-Old Stone Tools Push Back Origins of Human Innovation

Mar 16, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of anthropologists has discovered that early humans in East Africa had — by about 320,000 years ago — begun trading with...