Other Sciences News

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

Neanderthals Made Leather-Working Tools from Bison and Aurochs Ribs

May 11, 2020 by News Staff

Neanderthals selected rib bones from specific animals to make the lissoirs (French for ‘smoothers’), which are bone tools that have been intentionally...

Lin et al suggest that the use of green tea can be combined with a balanced and healthy diet and regular physical exercise in the management of obese patients. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Green Tea May Help Fight Obesity, Says New Study

May 8, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

Green tea supplementation is associated with a decrease in body weight and body mass index in obese patients, according to a new systematic review and...

Wang et al built a detailed map of the mouse brain from tiny virtual 3D blocks, or voxels. Image credit: Benedicte Rossi.

Neuroscientists Create High-Resolution 3D Atlas of Mouse Brain

May 7, 2020 by News Staff

Neuroscientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science have released the third version of their Allen Mouse Brain Common Coordinate Framework (CCFv3). Wang...

Zhang et al show an association between the reported cure rates for COVID-19 and selenium status. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

New Study Identifies Link between Dietary Selenium and COVID-19 Cure Rate

Apr 30, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study, a team of researchers from the UK, the United States and China investigated possible links between selenium levels in the body and cure...

Metasurface laser produces super-chiral light with orbital angular momentum up to 100. Image credit: University of the Witwatersrand.

Newly-Developed Metasurface-Enhanced Laser Emits Super-Chiral Light

Apr 28, 2020 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand, Harvard University and the National University of Singapore has come up with a new metasurface-enhanced...

Huang et al reveal region-specific transcriptional dependencies for astrocytes and identify astrocytic NFIA as a key transcriptional regulator of hippocampal circuits. Image credit: Huang et al, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.03.025.

Study Reveals New Role of Astrocytes in Brain Function

Apr 27, 2020 by News Staff

Astrocytes play a direct role in the regulation of neuronal circuits involved in learning and memory, according to new research from Baylor College of...

Lava streaming from an active vent during the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea volcano. Image credit: U.S. Geological Survey.

Extreme Rainfall Triggered 2018 Eruption of Kilauea Volcano, Researchers Say

Apr 23, 2020 by News Staff

The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii was likely initiated by prolonged, and at times extreme, rainfall in the months leading up to the event,...

An artistic cross-section through forming Earth’s crust approximately 3-4 billion years ago. Image credit: Alec Brenner, Harvard University.

Earth’s Plate Tectonics Began Over 3.2 Billion Years Ago

Apr 23, 2020 by News Staff

An analysis of rocks from the Honeyeater Basalt of the East Pilbara Craton, a stable block of crust in Western Australia, provides strong evidence that...

Auditory dorsal and ventral pathway strength and lateralization in macaques, chimpanzees and humans. Left: bar plots showing the individual results and mean fiber counts for the left and right dorsal and ventral pathways for each of the three species. Right: schematic summary of the dorsal (purple) and ventral (dark green) pathway results in macaques, chimpanzees and humans, overlaid on previous observations (light yellow and light green). Image credit: Balezeau et al, doi: 10.1038/s41593-020-0623-9.

Human Brain’s Language Pathway Much Older than Thought

Apr 22, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by Newcastle University Medical School has discovered an earlier evolutionary origin to the human language pathway...

Fjaeldstad & Fernandes provide the first evidence of how coffee impacts short-term taste sensitivity and consequently the way we sense and perceive food following coffee consumption, an important insight in the context of gastronomy as well as in chemosensory testing procedures. Image credit: Katie175.

Coffee Alters Perception of Taste, New Study Shows

Apr 21, 2020 by News Staff

A new study by Aarhus University researchers demonstrates that coffee — regular or decaffeinated — alters the subsequent perception of taste,...

Heavier iron isotopes migrate toward lower temperatures into the mantle, while lighter iron isotopes circulate back down into the core. Image credit: L. O’Dwyer Brown, Aarhus University.

Earth’s Core May Be Leaking Iron, Geoscientists Say

Apr 16, 2020 by News Staff

Earth’s molten core may be leaking heavy isotopes of iron, according to a study led by geoscientists from Aarhus University and the University of California,...

Neolithic rock art in Tassili n’Ajjer National Park, Sahara, Algeria. Image credit: Patrick Gruban, Munich, Germany / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Neolithic East African Pastoralist Societies Consumed Milk

Apr 16, 2020 by News Staff

New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides the first evidence for diet and subsistence practices of Neolithic...

Reconstructed sagittal 5-mm orthogonal midline images in the brain using the sagittal 3D T1-weighted data set: (left) preflight baseline image and (right) matching postflight image (postflight day 1) in the same astronaut; the black arrowheads show upward expansion of the anterior, middle, and posterior superior margins of the lateral ventricle with associated narrowing of the marginal sulcus of the cingulate sulcus (white arrowhead); there is subtle expansion of the third ventricle (indicated by a 3), which has displaced the thalamus (T) from midline, making it less visible; there is thickening of the intermediate signal scalp soft tissues (arrows). Image credit: Kramer et al, doi: 10.1148/radiol.2020191413.

Study: Long-Duration Spaceflight Affects Brain Volume

Apr 16, 2020 by News Staff

A new study led by Professor Larry Kramer from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston suggests that the impact of microgravity is far-reaching,...

The Mediterranean diet emphasizes consumption of whole fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, fish, and olive oil, as well as reduced consumption of red meat and alcohol. Image credit: Julia Pastel100.

Mediterranean Diet May Help Preserve Cognitive Function

Apr 15, 2020 by News Staff

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet correlates with higher cognitive function, according to a new study led by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of...

With wall thicknesses of about 160 nm, a closed-cell, plate-based nanolattice structure is the first experimental verification that such arrangements reach the theorized limits of strength and stiffness in porous materials. Image credit: Cameron Crook & Jens Bauer, University of California, Irvine.

Newly-Developed Carbon Nanolattices are Stronger than Diamonds

Apr 14, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has created carbon nanolattices — constructed from closed-cell plate-architectures — that are stronger...

Intracortical grafts of human long-term self-renewing neuroepithelial-like stem (lt-NES) cell-derived cortical neurons project extensively in stroke-injured rat brain: (A) location of illustrated areas; (B-D) fibers immunoreactive for human cytoplasmic marker STEM121 in the transplant core (B), corpus callosum (C), and peri-infarct area (D). Scale bar - 200 μm. Image credit: Palma-Tortosa et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2000690117.

Scientists Restore Mobility and Sensation of Touch in Stroke-Injured Rats

Apr 13, 2020 by News Staff

In a new experiment on rats, a team of researchers at Lund University has shown that by transplanting human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived...

DLR researchers spotted an unusual ozone mini-hole over the Arctic. Image credit: DLR / BIRA / ESA.

Researchers Spot Ozone Mini-Hole over Arctic

Apr 10, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the Tropomi instrument on ESA’s Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite (also known as Sentinel-5P), a team of scientists from the...

The paper device is folded and unfolded in steps to filter the nucleic acids of pathogens from wastewater samples, then a biochemical reaction with preloaded reagents detects whether the nucleic acid of SARS-CoV-2 infection is present; the results are visible to the naked eye: a green circle indicating positive and a blue circle negative. Image credit: Cranfield University.

Paper-Based Device Could Detect SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus in Wastewater

Apr 6, 2020 by News Staff

An approach called the wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), which is already recognized as an effective way to trace illicit drugs and obtain information...

This is an artist's reconstruction of female Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia. Image credit: Elisabeth Daynes, via tabula.ge.

Homo erectus Existed 200,000 Years Earlier than Previously Thought

Apr 3, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of paleoanthropologists has unearthed a 2-million-year-old skull of Homo erectus, the first of our ancestors to be nearly human-like...