Other Sciences News

While it is well known that cacao is a major source of flavonoids, this is the first time the effect has been studied in human subjects to determine how it can support cognitive, endocrine and cardiovascular health. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Dark Chocolate Consumption May Reduce Depression Symptoms

Aug 7, 2019 by News Staff

A new study, published recently in the journal Depression and Anxiety, provides evidence that consumption of chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, may...

Park et al revealed large-scale associations between industries and people across the globe: (a) the large-scale organization of geo-industrial clusters in the labor flow network; each circle represents a geo-industrial cluster, with size proportional to its number of employees; the colors represent the highest-level community membership; (b-e) two examples of hierarchical sub-structures in the labor flow network are illustrated; each circle represents a firm and the bar charts show the reduction in industry and region entropy within the cluster as a proportion of the parent cluster’s entropy: (b, c) the organization of banking and financial geo-industrial clusters are affected more by industries than geography; (d, e) the geo-industrial clusters in U.S. Midwest and South region form strong geographical clusters. Image credit: Park et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11380-w.

Scientists Create Global Map of Labor Flow

Aug 5, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Indiana University and the professional network LinkedIn has created the first global map of labor flow. Park et al revealed...

Hindley et al created artificial cells that sense calcium ions and respond by fluorescing. Image credit: Zehua Hu / Imperial College London.

Scientists Create Artificial Cells Capable of Sensing and Responding to Changes in Their Environment

Aug 5, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at Imperial College London, UK, has created micromachines that sense and respond to external chemical signals through activation...

Using satellite data and models, Barkley et al identified a previously underestimated source of soluble phosphorus: biomass burning aerosol transported from southern Africa that can supply phosphorus to the Amazon, Tropical Atlantic and Southern oceans. Image credit: Scite / University of Miami.

Smoke from African Fires is Fertilizing Amazon Rainforest, Atlantic and Southern Oceans: Study

Aug 2, 2019 by News Staff

Smoke from fires in southern Africa is the largest contributor of phosphorus — an important agricultural fertilizer — to the Amazon rainforest,...

Reconstruction of Homo floresiensis. Image credit: Kinez Riza / Atelier Elisabeth Daynes, Sangiran Museum.

Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

Jul 29, 2019 by News Staff

As anatomically modern Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa and around the rest of the world, they met and interbred with at least four different hominin...

Pericosine A did not cause skin or eye irritation and was highly effective at deodorizing skunk-spray secretions when formulated to include adjunctive cosmetic ingredients. Image credit: Skeeze.

Natural Compound Safely and Effectively Neutralizes Skunk Spray Odor

Jul 29, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas at San Antonio has found that a fungal-derived compound called pericosine...

Littered cigarette filters reduce growth and alter short-term primary productivity of terrestrial plants. Image credit: Green et al, doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.109418.

Study: Littered Cigarette Butts Significantly Reduce Plant Growth

Jul 24, 2019 by News Staff

Most cigarette butts contain a filter made of cellulose acetate fiber, a type of a bioplastic. Around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year,...

Before-bedtime bathing can significantly increase your chances of getting a good night’s rest. Image credit: Michelle Maria.

Bathing One-Two Hours before Bedtime Can Improve Sleep, New Review Says

Jul 23, 2019 by News Staff

Bathing 1-2 hours before bedtime in water of about 104-108.5 degrees Fahrenheit (40-42.5 degrees Celsius) can significantly improve the quality and efficiency...

Photographs of the two engraved bone fragments from the site of Lingjing, China. Image credit: F. d’Errico & L. Doyon.

115,000-Year-Old Engraved Bones Found in China

Jul 19, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists digging at an early hominin site in China have discovered two engraved bone fragments that date back nearly 115,000 years. Photographs of...

Array of 1 mm magnetic droplets: fluorescent green droplets are paramagnetic without any jammed nanoparticles at the liquid interface; red are paramagnetic with nonmagnetic nanoparticles jammed at the interface; brown droplets are ferromagnetic with magnetic nanoparticles jammed at the interface. Image credit: Xubo Liu et al / Berkeley Lab.

Researchers 3D Print Ferromagnetic Liquid Droplets

Jul 19, 2019 by News Staff

Using a modified 3D printer, an international team of researchers led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has made a new material that is both liquid...

Resveratrol May Protect against Muscle Atrophy Induced by Martian Gravity

Jul 19, 2019 by News Staff

In a study done in rats, a moderate daily dose of resveratrol — a natural antioxidant found in more than 70 species of plants such as grapes, cranberries,...

The fastest people need about 50 moves to solve a Rubik’s cube. Image credit: Steve Zylius / University of California, Irvine.

DeepCubeA: New Deep Learning Algorithm Solves Rubik’s Cube Much Faster than Humans

Jul 18, 2019 by News Staff

DeepCubeA, a deep reinforcement learning algorithm created by a team of scientists at the University of California, Irvine, can find the solution for the...

The Castle Bravo nuclear weapon test on Bikini Atoll. Image credit: U.S. Department of Energy.

Northern Marshall Islands More Radioactive than Chernobyl and Fukushima, New Research Finds

Jul 18, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

From 1946 to 1958, the U.S. tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, a remote constellation of atolls in the Pacific Ocean that was then a U.S....

Vibrational motions of N-methyl morpholine. Image credit: Brown University.

Scientists Observe Molecular Motions in Real Time

Jul 17, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by Brown University has used ultra-high-speed X-ray pulses to image subtle motions of a molecule of N-methyl morpholine. Vibrational...

Australopithecus africanus, a mother with an infant. Image credit: Jose Garcia & Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Southern Cross University.

Australopithecus Mothers Breastfed Their Infants for Year after Birth

Jul 17, 2019 by News Staff

A high-resolution trace-element analysis of 2.6-2.1-million-year-old teeth from an extinct hominin called Australopithecus africanus has revealed that...

Matcha tea. Image credit: Dung Thuy Vu Nguyen.

Matcha Tea Has Anti-Anxiety Properties, New Study Shows

Jul 16, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a study done in mice, a team of researchers at Kumamoto University, Japan, demonstrated that Matcha tea powder exerts strong and synergistic anxiolytic...

Earth’s internal structure: dense solid metallic core, viscous metallic outer core, mantle and silicate based crust. Image credit: NASA.

Material from Earth’s Core Has Been Leaking into Mantle for Billions of Years

Jul 12, 2019 by The Conversation

Earth’s magnetic field protects and makes our planet habitable by stopping harmful high-energy particles from space, including from the Sun. The source...

Artist’s reconstruction of an Asian caveman. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Enigmatic Skull Found in Greece Suggests Early Homo sapiens Reached Europe 210,000 Years Ago

Jul 11, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A 210,000-year-old partial skull found in southern Greece about four decades ago has been identified as the earliest example of anatomically modern Homo...

Schematic for the fabrication of the eggshell microparticle-reinforced hydrogels and cell encapsulation in 3D. Image credit: Wu et al, doi: 10.1039/C9BM00230H.

Eggshell Particle-Reinforced Hydrogel Can Help Grow and Repair Bones

Jul 11, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Lowell has found that chicken eggshell microparticles inserted into a hydrogel matrix can be used...