Tiny lasers light up immune cells
A team of researchers from the School of Physics at the University of St Andrews have developed tiny lasers that could revolutionise our understanding and treatment of many diseases, including cancer.
Last update Will algorithms predict your future?, 3 minutes ago
Spotlight Science News
Embryological study of the skull reveals dinosaur-bird connection
Birds are the surviving descendants of predatory dinosaurs. However, since the likes of Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor, some parts of their anatomy have become radically transformed. The skull, for instance, is now toothless, ...
Reduction in wood burning by rural people in China results in less fine particulate matter pollution
A team of researchers from China, the U.S. and Norway has found that urging rural residents to switch from burning wood and grasses to cleaner fuels for cooking has resulted in less fine particulate matter being spewed into ...
Tracking an epidemic requires computer models—but what if those models are wrong?
Whether they're tracking the future spread of an epidemic, or determining where best to distribute a vaccine during an outbreak, today's disease researchers depend on reliable computer models.
Sugar-sweetened beverages are harmful to health and may be addictive, researchers suggest
Just as we might have guessed, those tasty, sugar-sweetened beverages that increase risk of diabetes and other chronic diseases may actually be addictive. Youth between 13 and 18 years of age who were deprived of sugary drinks ...
New immunotherapy improves MS symptoms
A world-first clinical trial of a new cellular immunotherapy for multiple sclerosis (MS) has improved symptoms and quality of life for the majority of patients.
A study suggests that epigenetic treatments could trigger the development of aggressive tumours
To predict the future, the brain has two clocks
That moment when you step on the gas pedal a split second before the light changes, or when you tap your toes even before the first piano note of Camila Cabello's "Havana" is struck. That's anticipatory timing.
A toxic bullet involved in bacterial competition found by researchers
A bacterial toxin that allows an infectious strain of bacteria to defeat its competitors has been discovered by Imperial College London scientists.
Bio jet fuels good for the climate, but technologies need tweaking
Norwegian aviation executives like to joke among themselves that when God created aviation, he was thinking of Norway.
Climate change will likely cause darker tropical forests, researchers say
Observable effects of climate change that scientists had predicted in the past are now a reality: Glaciers are shrinking, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner.
Regulating the immune system's 'regulator'
A research team at the Academy of Immunology and Microbiology, within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has discovered a possible therapeutic target that pulls the reins of immunity. In Nature Communications, the scientists ...
Ground and stream water clues reveal shale drilling impacts
Chemical clues in waters near Marcellus Shale gas wells in rural Pennsylvania can identify new drilling-related sources of methane contamination, according to scientists.
Encouraging prospects for moon hunters
Astrophysicists of the University of Zürich, ETH Zürich and the NCCR PlanetS show how the icy moons of Uranus were born. Their result suggests that such potentially habitable worlds are much more abundant in the Universe ...
New study highlights complexity of warming and melting in Antarctica
In a study released on Nature Climate Change's website today, scientists draw from recent findings to underscore the multifaceted dynamics of surface melting in Antarctica. The study authors come from Columbia University's ...
Plant characteristics shaped by parental conflict
Different subpopulations of a plant species can have distinct traits, varying in size, seed count, coloration, and so on. The primary source of this variation is genes: different versions of a gene can lead to different traits. ...
White matter pathway and individual variability in human stereoacuity
Researchers in the Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology and Osaka University have identified a human white matter pathway associated with ...
Researchers hope to be able to replace dysfunctional brain cells
A new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet supports the theory that replacement of dysfunctional immune cells in the brain has therapeutic potential for neurodegenerative diseases like ALS and Alzheimer's disease. ...
Researchers examine 3-D printers' particle emissions, safety tips
Desktop 3-D printers are no longer a big novelty and can be found in offices and in homes. A current concern is their particle emissions.
Redefining colorectal cancer subtypes
Real-time feedback makes hotel guests slash shower power
Providing hotel guests real-time feedback on the power they use in the shower sharply curbs the amount of energy consumed even though they do not pay for it, according to new research released Monday.
Frogs breed young to beat virus
Frogs from groups exposed to a deadly virus are breeding at younger ages, new research suggests.
'Druggable' cancer target found in pathway regulating organ size
It's known that cancer involves unchecked cell growth and that a biological pathway that regulates organ size, known at the Hippo pathway, is also involved in cancer. It's further known that a major player in this pathway, ...
Explaining the plummeting cost of solar power
The dramatic drop in the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, which has fallen by 99 percent over the last four decades, is often touted as a major success story for renewable energy technology. But one question has never ...
Proposed cancer treatment may boost lung cancer stem cells, study warns
Epigenetic therapies—targeting enzymes that alter what genes are turned on or off in a cell—are of growing interest in the cancer field as a way of making a cancer less aggressive or less malignant. Researchers at Boston ...
Efficient and stable emission of warm white light from lead-free halide double perovskites
One-fifth of global electricity consumption is based on lighting; efficient and stable white-light emission with single materials is ideal for applications. Photon emission that covers the entire visible spectrum is, however, ...
WaveGlow: A flow-based generative network to synthesize speech
A team of researchers at NVIDIA has recently developed WaveGlow, a flow-based network that can generate high-quality speech from melspectrograms, which are acoustic time-frequency representations of sound. Their method, outlined ...
Doomed star in Milky Way threatens rare gamma-ray burst
University of Sydney astronomers, working with international colleagues, have found a star system like none seen before in our galaxy.
'Magnetic topological insulator' makes its own magnetic field
A team of U.S. and Korean physicists has found the first evidence of a two-dimensional material that can become a magnetic topological insulator even when it is not placed in a magnetic field.
The scoop on how your cat's sandpapery tongue deep cleans
Cat lovers know when kitties groom, their tongues are pretty scratchy. Using high-tech scans and some other tricks, scientists are learning how those sandpapery tongues help cats get clean and stay cool.
Now Available: COMSOL Multiphysics 5.4
Just released, COMSOL Multiphysics 5.4 features two new products and updates bringing more powerful modeling tools and faster solvers. Check out the release highlights to learn more.
Will algorithms predict your future?
A report from Cardiff University reveals the extent to which public service provision is now being influenced by data analytics.
Combining real, virtual worlds improves driverless vehicle testing
Augmented reality technology can accelerate testing of connected and automated vehicles by 1,000 to 100,000 times, and reduce additional testing costs—beyond the price of physical vehicles—to almost zero, according to ...
New fingertip sensors to help veterans feel through their prosthetics
Today's prosthetic limbs are tools – literal attachments to the body.
Your riding position can give you an advantage in a road cycling sprint, research shows
Many professional road cycling events are hundreds of kilometres long, but the final placings are often decided by what happens in the last few seconds of any race stage.
Responses of waterbirds to climate change is linked to their preferred wintering habitats
A new scientific article shows that 25 European waterbird species can change their wintering areas depending on winter weather. Warm winters allow them to shift their wintering areas northeastwards, whereas cold spells push ...
Oil extraction likely triggered mid-century earthquakes in L.A.
World War II-era oil pumping under Los Angeles likely triggered a rash of mid-sized earthquakes in the 1930s and 1940s, potentially leading seismologists to overestimate the earthquake potential in the region, according to ...
Sunset Crater, San Francisco Volcanic Field
The San Francisco Volcanic Field is a 4,700 square kilometers (1,800 square miles) area in the southern boundary of the Colorado Plateau. The field contains more than 600 scoria cones active in the past six million years. ...
Fungal spores are a primary source of sodium salt particles in Amazon air
Tiny particles of sodium salt float in the air over the pristine Amazon basin. Why? The only explanation before now has been that winds blow marine particles hundreds of miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. An international ...
Air pollution is shaving years from people's lives, study finds
WASHINGTON—People could add years to their lives in smog-plagued parts of the world if authorities could reduce particulate pollution—soot from cars and industry—to levels recommended by the World Health Organization, ...
Do interactions in molecular and cellular networks follow the same principles as human social interplay?
To decode the underlying laws that govern the organization of life into molecules, cells and tissues are the great scientific challenges of our time. Dr. Carlo Vittorio Cannistraci from the Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) at ...
Chemists determine how to avoid byproducts in the synthesis of perovskites
A RUDN professor, together with his colleagues from other Moscow universities, has described the mechanism of byproducts produced in the course of the synthesis of perovskites—minerals that have numerous prospective applications, ...
Reducing water scarcity by restoring contaminated groundwater aquifers
The fight against water scarcity is becoming one of the main 21st century challenges, with securing a clean supply key to efforts. The REGROUND project has developed a novel, green ground water-innovation and is ready to ...
Siemens to build new London Underground trains
German manufacturing conglomerate Siemens will build almost 100 new trains to replace the decades-old rolling stock on London Underground's Piccadilly Line, the group said in a statement Tuesday.
Sugar-sweetened beverages are harmful to health and may be addictive, researchers suggest
Just as we might have guessed, those tasty, sugar-sweetened beverages that increase risk of diabetes and other chronic diseases may actually be addictive. Youth between 13 and 18 years of age who were deprived of sugary drinks ...
New immunotherapy improves MS symptoms
A world-first clinical trial of a new cellular immunotherapy for multiple sclerosis (MS) has improved symptoms and quality of life for the majority of patients.
A study suggests that epigenetic treatments could trigger the development of aggressive tumours
A study headed by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and published in the journal Nature Cell Biology examined whether the opening of chromatin (a complex formed by DNA bound to proteins) is the factor ...
Stopping superbugs with friendly microbes
Newborn Baby Jane in Sacramento, California, might have access to the best, most modern medical care, but she's likely missing something else: Friendly gut microbes. Uniquely adapted to human breast milk, these microbes provide ...
Researchers develop new method to diagnose, monitor chronic wounds
Researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a new approach to diagnosing and monitoring chronic skin wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers and pressure wounds.
Infrared sauna is no better for your health than traditional sauna: Busting a common wellness myth
If you follow wellness trends, you might've come across the claim that an infrared sauna, which heats the body with light, is better for you than a traditional sauna, which uses radiant heat from a stove.
MS relapse drops during pregnancy but rises after
(HealthDay)—Rates of multiple sclerosis (MS) relapse decrease during pregnancy but increase postpartum, according to a study published online Oct. 23 in Neurology.
A new atlas of the thalamus nuclei to better understand the brain
A multidisciplinary study led by BCBL, a Basque research centre, opens the door to the investigation of the structure and functions of human thalamic nuclei and their involvement in Alzheimer's, dyslexia, epilepsy, Huntington's ...
Research addresses replicability problem in psychological science
A Victoria University of Wellington researcher has led part of a just-published major international study that replicates 28 classic and contemporary psychology experiments to test their accuracy.
Is spanking ever right? Pediatricians say no
Is it ever good to spank your children—or shame or humiliate them—to try and correct their behavior? The new answer from the American Academy of Pediatrics is an unequivocal "no."
Epilepsy and the social stigma surrounding it
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, making it one of the most common neurological diseases.
Health utility values improve after septorhinoplasty
(HealthDay)—Patients with nasal airway obstruction have health utility values (HUVs) below the mean Australian norm, with improvement noted after open septorhinoplasty, according to a study published online Nov. 15 in JAMA ...
Cap'n crunch cereal recalled due to Salmonella scare
(HealthDay)—A small number of boxes of Cap'n Crunch's Peanut Butter Crunch are being recalled due to potential Salmonella contamination, Quaker Oats says.
How your moving brain sees the world
What we see is not only determined by what is really there, but also depends on whether we are paying attention, whether we are moving, excited or interested. In a new study published in Nature Communications, scientists ...
Patient education ups VTE prophylaxis in hospital setting
(HealthDay)—A patient-centered education bundle intervention can reduce nonadministration of venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis, according to a study published online Nov. 16 in JAMA Network Open.
Impaired cellular force transmission a cause for valvular heart disease
About three per cent of the world's population is affected by valvular heart diseases. It is also the most common cause of heart surgery, as no drug-based treatment is available. Recent research has shed light on the molecular ...
Regulating the immune system's 'regulator'
A research team at the Academy of Immunology and Microbiology, within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has discovered a possible therapeutic target that pulls the reins of immunity. In Nature Communications, the scientists ...
To predict the future, the brain has two clocks
That moment when you step on the gas pedal a split second before the light changes, or when you tap your toes even before the first piano note of Camila Cabello's "Havana" is struck. That's anticipatory timing.
White matter pathway and individual variability in human stereoacuity
Researchers in the Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology and Osaka University have identified a human white matter pathway associated with ...
Researchers hope to be able to replace dysfunctional brain cells
A new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet supports the theory that replacement of dysfunctional immune cells in the brain has therapeutic potential for neurodegenerative diseases like ALS and Alzheimer's disease. ...
Redefining colorectal cancer subtypes
There is a long-standing belief that colorectal cancer (CRC), which causes some 50,000 deaths in the United States each year, can be categorized into distinct molecular subtypes. In a paper published recently in the journal Genome ...
'Druggable' cancer target found in pathway regulating organ size
It's known that cancer involves unchecked cell growth and that a biological pathway that regulates organ size, known at the Hippo pathway, is also involved in cancer. It's further known that a major player in this pathway, ...
Study sheds light on low asthma rates in rural children
Researchers Oluwafemi Oluwole and Joshua Lawson have shed light on findings from previous studies that indicated rural children are less likely to have asthma. Without investigating diagnostic explanations, those studies ...
Proposed cancer treatment may boost lung cancer stem cells, study warns
Epigenetic therapies—targeting enzymes that alter what genes are turned on or off in a cell—are of growing interest in the cancer field as a way of making a cancer less aggressive or less malignant. Researchers at Boston ...
Cessation fatigue predicts which smokers making a quit attempt are likely to relapse
Although there is good news about smoking—only 14 percent of Americans smoke, the lowest number ever, according to a 2017 National Health Interview Survey—challenges remain. In a given year, more than 40 percent of smokers ...
Sponsored account
Did you know? You can become a Phys.org sponsor and enjoy all our sci-tech
content without ads! Simply donate any amount and not only will you experience
our site ad-free, but you will be part of the Science X community mission to
promote science and technology knowledge.
Amazon HQ expansion means tough fight for talent
When tech giants like Amazon expand, other companies don't just worry about losing business. They also fret about hanging on to their employees.
EasyJet logs soaring annual profit
EasyJet's annual net profit jumped by almost a fifth on strong sales and record passenger numbers, the British no-frills airline announced on Tuesday.
Reduced pollution can add a year to the lives of Copenhageners in 2040
Copenhagen has been struggling with air pollution for many years now. Pollution from lorries, vans, buses and cars each year costs lives. Now, research conducted by the University of Copenhagen and a series of collaborators ...
Instagram ousting fake followers from accounts
Instagram on Monday said it is booting fake followers, likes, and comments generated by applications tailored to make accounts appear more popular than they actually are.
Student loan debt still crippling burden for millions of Americans
Michael Bloomberg's record $1.8 billion donation for financial aid to Johns Hopkins University highlights the problem of student debt in America, which can still be a burden even years after graduation.
Canada rig accident spills 250,000 liters of oil into Atlantic
A surveillance aircraft and six ships were dispatched Monday to assess a spill of 250,000 liters of oil from a drilling platform off Canada's Atlantic coast, officials said.
California wildfire pollution paralyzes San Francisco region
The sidewalk cafes of this Silicon Valley city, usually packed at lunchtime with workers from Google and other high-tech companies, were mostly abandoned Monday afternoon.
Scientists work to save wild Puerto Rican parrot after Maria
Biologists are trying to save the last of the endangered Puerto Rican parrots after more than half the population of the bright green birds with turquoise-tipped wings disappeared when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and ...
Star to fallen idol: The Japanese rise and fall of Carlos Ghosn
Carlos Ghosn's status as an outsider in Japan brought him huge success, as his maverick style blew a gale through a musty corporate world, but his disregard of business norms may ultimately prove his undoing.
Twitter CEO Dorsey sparks India social media storm
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been accused of inciting hate against India's highest caste after being photographed holding a poster declaring "smash Brahminical patriarchy" during a visit to the country.
S. Korea's Jeju Air in $4.4 bn 40-plane Boeing order
South Korean budget carrier Jeju Air has ordered 40 airplanes from US manufacturer Boeing for $4.4 billion, the airline said on Tuesday, one of the country's largest-ever aircraft purchases.
Nissan shares plunge as Ghosn faces ouster after arrest
Nissan and Mitsubishi shares plunged Tuesday, as the automakers prepared to oust chairman Carlos Ghosn a day after he was arrested for alleged financial misconduct.
Depressed people have an increased risk of atrial fibrillation
Depressed people have an increased risk of atrial fibrillation, according to a study published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) journal. Medication was not responsible ...
Improving dementia care and treatment saves thousands of pounds in care homes
Improving staff training in care homes and reducing reliance on harmful medications saves thousands of pounds per year, as well as improving quality of life and reducing agitation in dementia, new research has demonstrated.
Many patients diagnosed with adenomas may not receive colonoscopies in recommended time frame
Patients who are diagnosed with adenomas, a possible precursor of colorectal cancer, often do not receive subsequent colonoscopies within the recommended time frame.
Does air pollution raise autism risk?
Traffic-related air pollution may play a role in development of autism, new research suggests.
To resolve inflammation, location matters
Health conditions that involve inflammation run the gamut, from multiple sclerosis and lupus to arthritis, diabetes, and cancer. While inflammation can serve as a normal response to help the body deal with injury or infection, ...
MDMA makes people cooperative, but not gullible
New research from King's College London has found that MDMA, the main ingredient in ecstasy, causes people to cooperate better—but only with trustworthy people. In the first study to look in detail at how MDMA impacts cooperative ...
Widely used reference for the human genome is missing 300 million bits of DNA
For the past 17 years, most scientists around the globe have been using the nucleic acid sequence, or genome, an assembly of DNA information, from primarily a single individual as a kind of "baseline" reference and human ...
How the brain switches between different sets of rules
Cognitive flexibility—the brain's ability to switch between different rules or action plans depending on the context—is key to many of our everyday activities. For example, imagine you're driving on a highway at 65 miles ...
Mutation that causes autism and intellectual disability makes brain less flexible
About 1 percent of patients diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability have a mutation in a gene called SETD5. Scientists have now discovered what happens on a molecular level when the gene is mutated ...
Human images from world's first total-body scanner unveiled
EXPLORER, the world's first medical imaging scanner that can capture a 3-D picture of the whole human body at once, has produced its first scans.
RNAi therapy mitigates preeclampsia symptoms
A collaboration of scientists from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Western Sydney University, have shown that an innovative new type of therapy using small interfering ...
Aspirin and omega-3 reduce pre-cancerous bowel polyps
Both aspirin and a purified omega-3, called EPA, reduce the number of pre-cancerous polyps in patients found to be at high risk of developing bowel cancer, according to new research.
Skeletal imitation reveals how bones grow atom-by-atom
Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have discovered how our bones grow at an atomic level, showing how an unstructured mass orders itself into a perfectly arranged bone structure. The discovery offers ...
Signal peptides' novel role in glutamate receptor trafficking and neural synaptic activity
Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain, and the postsynaptic expression level of glutamate receptors is a critical factor in determining the efficiency of information transmission and the activity ...
New insights into how an ordinary stem cell becomes a powerful immune agent
How do individual developing cells choose and commit to their "identity"—to become, for example, an immune cell, or a muscle cell, or a neuron?
A molecule for fighting muscular paralysis
Myotubular myopathy is a severe genetic disease that leads to muscle paralysis from birth and results in death before two years of age. Although no treatment currently exists, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), ...
Study measures effectiveness of online communication tools in combatting depression among socially isolated seniors
Imagine your family has moved across the state or across country. You're retired, and your spouse has passed away. Lacking the social connections previous generations once found in church or fraternal organizations, it doesn't ...
Response to daily stressors could affect brain health in older adults
Taking typical daily annoyances such as a long wait at the doctor's office or a traffic jam on the freeway in stride may help preserve brain health in older adults, while emotional reactions could contribute to declines in ...
Scientists identify novel target for neuron regeneration and functional recovery in spinal cord injury
Restoring the ability to walk following spinal cord injury requires neurons in the brain to reestablish communication pathways with neurons in the spinal cord. Mature neurons, however, are unable to regenerate their axons ...
For Down syndrome adults, death and dementia often come together
(HealthDay)—Seven in 10 people with Down syndrome show evidence of dementia when they die, new research from Britain reveals.
Scientists trained a computer to classify breast cancer tumors
Using technology similar to the type that powers facial and speech recognition on a smartphone, researchers at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have trained a computer to analyze breast ...
In-person, but not online, social contact may protect against psychiatric disorders
In-person social contact seems to offer some protection against depression and PTSD symptoms, but the same is not true of contact on Facebook, suggests a study by Veterans Affairs Portland Health Care System and Oregon Health ...
Healthcare providers—not hackers—leak more of your data
Your personal identity may fall at the mercy of sophisticated hackers on many websites, but when it comes to health data breaches, hospitals, doctors offices and even insurance companies are oftentimes the culprits.
Emotional abuse may be linked with menopause misery
Smoking, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle have long been linked to heightened symptoms of menopause. Now, a study headed by UC San Francisco has identified another factor that may add to menopause torment: an emotionally ...
'Boomeranging' back to a parents' home negatively affects young adults' mental health
The number of young adults living in their own household has dropped dramatically in the last decades in the United States for a number of economic and social reasons. In a study that will soon be published in the peer-reviewed ...
More of today's stories
Solution for next generation nanochips comes out of thin air
22 hours ago
0
Astronomers discover giant relic of disrupted Tadpole galaxy
23 hours ago
0
Sensual fresco discovered in ancient Pompeii bedroom
22 hours ago
0
Making X-ray microscopy 10 times faster
23 hours ago
1
Monitoring real time changes during cell division
22 hours ago
0
Find more news articles via sort by date page
