Other Sciences News

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

Cellulose nanofibrils affect the colloidal network structure of ice cream. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.
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 slow melting, increase shelf life and potentially replace fats used to make the tasty treat. Cellulose nanofibrils affect the colloidal network structure of ice cream. Image credit: Jonny Lindner. Despite its popularity, ice cream does have some drawbacks that food scientists have struggled to overcome. Most...

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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...

Hunter-gatherers. Image credit: T.P.S. Dave.

Humans Interbred with Denisovans Twice in History, Researchers Discover

Mar 16, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Washington and Princeton University has found that the genomes of two groups of modern humans with Denisovan...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthal Healthcare Was Widespread and Effective, Research Reveals

Mar 13, 2018 by News Staff

Our ancient cousins, Neanderthals have an unwarranted image as brutish and uncaring, but new research has revealed just how knowledgeable and effective...

Diamond from South Africa. Image credit: James St. John / CC BY 2.0.

Small Inclusions of Unique Ice in Diamonds Indicate Water Deep in Earth’s Mantle

Mar 12, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from the United States and Canada has discovered the first direct evidence that aqueous pockets may exist as far as...

For a substance that is ubiquitous on Earth, three quarters of our planet is covered with it, scientists can still be surprised by some of water’s properties. Image credit: Brisch27.

Scientists Observe Mysterious Phase Transition in Supercooled Water

Mar 9, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of researchers, led by Arizona State University chemist C. Austen Angell and University of Amsterdam’s Dr. Sander Woutersen, has...

Memory content could be reliably decoded during sleep spindle increase. Image credit: Kai Kalhh.

Study: Memory Content Could Be Decoded from Brain Waves during Sleep

Mar 9, 2018 by News Staff

Recently acquired information is thought to be ‘reactivated’ in the sleeping brain. Sleep spindles — the short bursts of activity in the brain...

Young neurons (green) decrease in the human hippocampus across the lifespan, vs more mature neurons (red). Image credit: Sorrells et al.

Neurogenesis in Human Hippocampus Ends in Childhood, Neuroscientists Say

Mar 8, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of neuroscientists has shown that in the hippocampus — a brain region important for learning and memory and one of the key...

A well-preserved scale extracted from a lake sediment core. Image credit: Montoro Girona et al, doi: 10.3389/fevo.2018.00002.

Fossil Moth Scales Can Uncover Prehistoric Secrets, Scientists Say

Feb 23, 2018 by News Staff

A groundbreaking new technique for studying lake sediments can tell scientists more about the frequency and intensity of past and future insect epidemics,...

La Pasiega Cave, section C, cave wall with paintings: the ladder shape composed of red horizontal and vertical lines (center left) dates to older than 64,000 years and was made by Neanderthals. Image credit: P. Saura.

Iberian Peninsula’s Earliest Cave Paintings Were Made by Neanderthals: Study

Feb 23, 2018 by News Staff

A new study shows that paintings in three cave sites on the Iberian Peninsula — a red linear motif in Cave of La Pasiega, a hand stencil in Maltravieso...

Light-controlled neuron activation using optogenetics allows modulation of specific circuits but is invasive and requires genetic engineering. Researchers from the University of Chicago have developed a silicon-based nanowire that allows light modulation of neurons without genetic engineering, paving the way for optical control of neural activity to other neurological models. Image credit: Gerry Shaw / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Develop Nanowiring for Optical Control of Neuron Activation

Feb 23, 2018 by Zvi Cramer

Researchers have designed silicon nanowires that allow modulation neuronal activity using light, allowing manipulation of specific neural circuits without...

In the new technique, an additional hexagonal ring of carbon atoms is fused to the zigzag edge of an existing carbon-rich molecule in two quick steps. Image credit: Igor Alabugin.

Chemists Find New Way to Synthesize ‘Olympic Ring’ Molecule

Feb 21, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers at Florida State University has unlocked a new strategy for synthesizing of olympicene (a molecule consisting of five rings that...

Cheddar Man’s facial reconstruction. Image credit: University College London / Natural History Museum, London / Tom Barnes / Channel 4.

Cheddar Man’s Face Revealed

Feb 20, 2018 by News Staff

Cheddar Man — a hunter-gatherer who lived 10,000 years ago — had blue eyes, dark colored curly hair and ‘dark to black’ skin pigmentation,...

This high-resolution scanning electron microscope image shows an unusual tube-like structural form that is less than 1/100th the width of a human hair in size found in the Martian meteorite ALH84001. Image credit: NASA.

How Will Humanity React to Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life?

Feb 20, 2018 by News Staff

How will humans react to the discovery of alien life? Speculation on this topic abounds, but empirical research is practically non-existent. In a paper...

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