Today's Science News
May 12, 2024
You might have missed: infanticide in parrotlets; Mustafar-like exoplanet; elephants say hi; alopecia - You might have missed: infanticide and adoption common in parrotlets; Mustafar-like volcanic exoplanet; how elephants say hello; and alopecia treatment.Scientists could make blazing-fast 6G using curving light rays - Researchers have discovered a way to curve data-carrying terahertz signals around obstacles, paving the way for ultrafast 6G.
James Webb telescope detects 1-of-a-kind atmosphere around 'Hell Planet' in distant star system - Using the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have discovered evidence of a carbon-rich atmosphere around the hellish world 55 Cancri e. This marks the best evidence yet of an atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet.
JWST finds best evidence yet for rocky exoplanet atmosphere - NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected the best evidence to date for the existence of an atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet.
Massive study of 8,000 cats reveals which breeds live longest - TKTKBirman and Burmese cats live the longest, while Sphynx cats die the youngest, a giant new study of U.K. cats found.
Giant 'rogue waves' of invisible matter might be disrupting the orbits of stars, new study hints - New research shows how disruptions to binary star systems could be the key to detecting space's most confounding substance — dark matter.
In the race for space metals, companies hope to cash in - Mining asteroids could reduce the burden on Earth’s resources.
32 strange places scientists are looking for aliens - From planets and moons in our solar system to dying stars and parallel universes, here are some of the far-out places scientists are searching for alien life.
Monster galactic outflow powered by exploding stars - Star death and birth both contribute to driving material out of a galaxy.
'Extreme' solar storms cook up sweet Mother's Day auroras for Moms everywhere - Want to save all the calories from Mother's Day brunch?
Space photo of the week: 'God's Hand' leaves astronomers scratching their heads - A new space photo captures "God's Hand", a cometary globule in the Gum Nebula, where stars are being born.
Why can't we see the far side of the moon? - Spacecraft have visited and photographed the far side of the moon, but why can't we see it from Earth?
Use AI to correct race, culture bias in AI suggests expert - Prominent AI applications are showing racial biases and a lack of diversity and cultural sensitivity.
Hope for rare mountain chicken frog thanks to London-bred froglets - Frantic efforts are being made to save the endangered mountain chicken frog, native to just two Caribbean islands.
May 11, 2024
The man who took on the coal industry to save a forest - and won - Alok Shukla has spent years fighting to protect a key Indian forest from mining companies.Study first to show that climate conditions could initiate some earthquakes - By Jennifer Chu MIT News When scientists look for an earthquake’s cause, their search often starts underground.
The stormy sun erupts with its biggest solar flare yet from a massive sunspot — and it's still crackling (video) - Just when we think we’ve seen the most powerful of flares from a colossal sunspot, the sun unleashed kicked off the strongest eruption of the weekend yet and is still crackling with solar storms.
Study highlights need for improvement of patient safety in outpatient settings - Over the last several decades, research has brought nationwide awareness to issues of patient harm in the “inpatient” setting, where patients receive care as part of an overnight stay at a hospital.
Supermassive Black Holes Got Started From Massive Cosmic Seeds - One longstanding mystery in astronomy is how supermassive black holes got so heavy so early.
A fragment of human brain, mapped - Harvard and Google researchers achieved a groundbreaking 3D reconstruction of a human brain fragment with AI.
New origami robot crawls like a caterpillar - Combining the ancient art of paper folding with modern materials, researchers have created a new caterpillar-like soft robot which bends and twists through mazes.
32 of the most colorful birds on Earth - Birds are some of the most colorful animals on Earth, with a palette of rainbow tones to feast your eyes on.
NOAA says ‘extreme’ Solar storm will persist through the weekend - So far disruptions from the geomagnetic storm appear to be manageable.
Houston, we have an encore: ISS virtual reality experience 'The Infinite' returns - What do you do for an encore after you have virtually transported thousands of Houstonians to the International Space Station?
Meta just stuck its AI somewhere you didn't expect it — a pair of Ray-Ban smart glasses - Ray-Ban smart glasses will now use Meta AI virtual assistant software so that wearers can speak with their smart glasses and ask questions about what they're looking at.
Total solar eclipse 2027: A complete guide to the 'eclipse of the century' - Discover the 'eclipse of the century' with this comprehensive total solar eclipse 2027 guide.
Worker rights are one of the least protected human rights - A new report has found that worker rights – including the right to form a trade union and the right to bargain collectively – are among the least protected human rights globally.
Future Pandemics Will Have The Same Human Causes As Ancient Outbreaks - The changes that came with the transition from foraging to farming paved the way for disease
This Week In Space podcast: Episode 110 —Voyager 1's Brush with Silence - On Episode 110 of This Week In Space, Rod and Tariq talk with Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist, about the recent rescue of Voyager 1 from beyond the solar system.
Northern Lights stun UK in spectacular display - A rare solar storm made the aurora borealis visible across the UK, including across the south.
DARPA's autonomous 'Manta Ray' drone can glide through ocean depths undetected - Northrop Grumman Corporation has built its Manta Ray uncrewed underwater vehicle, which will operate long-duration missions and carry payloads into the ocean depths in partnership with DARPA.
Sarcastic fringehead: The angry little fish that engages in mouth-to-mouth combat - This curiously named sea-dweller lives along the Pacific coast, eats squid eggs and fights by opening its mouth wide.
Papua New Guineans, genetically isolated for 50,000 years, carry Denisovan genes that help their immune system, study suggests - Genes inherited from Denisovans, extinct human relatives, may help Papua New Guineans in the lowlands fight off infection, while mutations to red blood cells may help highlanders live at altitude.
'World's purest silicon' could lead to 1st million-qubit quantum computing chips - Scientists engineer the 'purest ever silicon' to build reliable qubits that can be manufactured to the size of a pinhead on a chip and power million-qubit quantum computers in the future.
Jaw-dropping northern lights from massive solar flares amaze skywatchers around the world. 'We have a very rare event on our hands.' (photos) - An aurora show like no other is playing out in the night sky this weekend, spawned by intense solar storms that are painting the sky spectacular hues of pinks, purples and greens.
Is dark matter’s main rival theory dead? - There’s bad news from the Cassini spacecraft and other recent tests.
AI Therapy Bots Have Risks and Benefits and More Risks - Therapy chatbots are increasingly popular and may benefit some people, but it's dangerous to trust AI during a mental health crisis
Quantum breakthrough: World’s purest silicon brings scientists one step closer to scaling up quantum computers - More than 100 years ago, scientists at The University of Manchester changed the world when they discovered the nucleus in atoms, marking the birth of nuclear physics.
How the Moon got a makeover - The Moon's former surface sank to the depths, until volcanism brought it back.
NASA's Chandra spacecraft spots supermassive black hole erupting in the Milky Way's heart - NASA's Chandra X-ray space telescope has spotted the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy erupting, proving even quiet black holes like Sagittarius A* need to vent sometimes.
Dogma-challenging telomere findings may offer new insights for cancer treatments - A new study led by University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center researchers shows that an enzyme called PARP1 is involved in repair of telomeres, the lengths of DNA that protect the tips of chromosomes, and that impairing this process can lead to telomere shortening and genomic instability that can cause cancer.
Longevity for heart failure patients improves with COVID jabs - A big Korean analysis of people with heart failure has revealed substantial positive impacts of getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
Rock art of boats and cattle found in the middle of Sudanese desert - A pair of archaeologists have uncovered a strange series of rock art carvings that show boats and cattle – both vitally in need of water to work properly – in
Why getting in touch with our ‘gerbil brain’ could help machines listen better - Macquarie University researchers have debunked a 75-year-old theory about how humans determine where sounds are coming from, and it could unlock the secret to creating a next generation of more adaptable and efficient hearing devices ranging from hearing aids to smartphones.
Expert reaction: AstraZeneca withdraws its COVID-19 vaccine - AstraZeneca developed the first vaccine for COVID-19, beating the competition, but this week they’ve announced they’re withdrawing the jab worldwide following a drop in demand.
Island fights back grey squirrel invasion - A conservationist is on a mission to keep a Welsh island a sanctuary for native red squirrels.
NASA wants a cheaper Mars Sample Return—Boeing proposes most expensive rocket - "To reduce mission complexity, this new concept is doing one launch."
May 10, 2024
If You’ve Never Seen An Aurora Before, This Might Be Your Chance! - Tonight and the rest of the weekend could be your best chance ever to see the aurora.How Do People Get Parasitic Brain Worms like the One RFK, Jr., Had? - Experts explain how certain worms can infect the brain and why they are an important global public health problem
Small pump for kids awaiting heart transplant shows promise in Stanford Medicine-led trial - A small, implantable cardiac pump that could help children await heart transplants at home, not in the hospital, has performed well in the first stage of human testing.
More children gain hearing as gene therapy for profound deafness advances - The therapy treats a rare type of deafness, but experts hope it's a "jumping point."
Lighting Up the Moon’s Permanently Shadowed Craters - The Moon’s polar regions are home to permanently shadowed craters.
NASA Invites Media to Expedition 70 Crew Visit at Marshall - NASA will host four astronauts at 10 a.m. CDT Tuesday, May 14, for a media opportunity at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Sols 4182-4183: We Reached the South Side of Pinnacle Ridge… What’s Next? - We planned quite a drive on Wednesday, with lots of twists and turns over very bumpy terrain, so the team was delighted to learn everything completed as planned when we received our downlink at ~4 am Pacific Time this morning!
NASA Awards Expand Research Capabilities at Institutions Nationwide - NASA is awarding approximately $45 million to 21 higher-education institutions to help build capacity for research.
Why do loved ones with dementia sometimes ‘come back’ before death? - Yen Ying Lim, Monash University and Diny Thomson, Monash University Dementia is often described as “the long goodbye”.
Rare and Endangered, These Non-Parasitic Lampreys Are Far From Home - Learn why the researchers discovered the lampreys far from their supposed home.
How you can make cold-brew coffee in under 3 minutes using ultrasound - A "sonication" time between 1 and 3 minutes is ideal to get the perfect cold brew.
Here’s Where China’s Sample Return Mission is Headed - Humanity got its first look at the other side of the Moon in 1959 when the USSR’s Luna 3 probe captured our first images of the Lunar far side.
Carrington-Level Cluster of Sunspots May Send a ‘Cannibal CME’ Hurtling Toward Earth - A giant sunspot cluster rivaling the one that caused the Carrington Event in 1859 could trigger a cannibal coronal mass ejection.
Exploration-focused training lets robotics AI immediately handle new tasks - Maximum Diffusion Reinforcement Learning focuses training on end states, not process.
That’s Refreshing - An American flamingo takes a moment to drink water in the Indian River at Haulover Canal on Merritt Island on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024.
Iridium workaround could speed up green hydrogen industry - Combining one of the world’s rarest metals with a comparatively abundant element could help accelerate green hydrogen production, with a Japanese research
Tunnel of love? Cautious adders get a helping hand - The local wildlife trust hopes the tunnels will boost the reptile's numbers by encouraging mating.
NASA Invites Media to Annual Lunabotics Competition - NASA’s 2024 Lunabotics Challenge offers more than 40 college teams from across the country the chance to design, build, and operate their own lunar robots,
NASA’s New Mobile Launcher Stacks Up for Future Artemis Missions - The foundation is set at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launching crewed missions aboard the agency’s larger and more powerful SLS (Space Launch
Why Hot Jupiters Spiral into Their Stars - Exoplanets are a fascinating astronomy topic, especially the so-called “Hot Jupiters”.
Does the Milky Way Have Too Many Satellite Galaxies? - The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are well known satellite galaxies of the Milky Way but there are more.
Chemical tweaks to a toad hallucinogen turns it into a potential drug - Targets a different serotonin receptor from other popular hallucinogens.
How Does The Brain Think? - Thinking builds neural networks, which is why practice improves performance
ADHD Can Carry into Adulthood, and Could Lead to Depression and Anxiety - Learn why attention deficit hyperactivity disorder starts in childhood, but some people don’t outgrow it.
A Buffer Zone for Trees - How frosty pockets in valleys could help protect some trees against climate change.
A Novel Panic Pathway in the Brain - A neural pathway driving panic-like behaviors in mice points to new therapeutic targets.
Hubble Celebrates the 15th Anniversary of Servicing Mission 4 - Fifteen years ago, human hands touched NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope for the last time.
Photograph Collection Finds ‘Tragic Beauty’ in Shorelines Marred by Climate Change - A stunning photograph collection underlines how climate change is altering the world’s coastal and lakeside environments
The wasps that tamed viruses - Some insects have transformed wild viruses into tiny biological weapons.
What’s Your Story? Contest Finalists - Your guide to the most essential developments in life sciences
Analyst on Starlink’s rapid rise: “Nothing short of mind-blowing” - Starlink's estimated free cash flow this year is about $600 million.
Biotium Launches Novel Membrane Dyes Designed for Superior Pan-EV Labeling Over PKH and Other Membrane Dyes - New ExoBrite™ True EV Membrane Stains offer strong signal and near-complete staining of extracellular vesicles.
Humans Shaped Ancient History Across 3 Ages: The Stone, Bronze, and Iron Age - The three ages of the ancient world — Stone, Bronze, and Iron — encompass the formative years of human history in most regions.
The Anthropology of Past Disease Outbreaks Can Help Prevent Future Ones - Three factors determine whether a society experiences disease outbreaks—and how we can fight them
New process results in near complete destruction of PFAS chemicals - US researchers have discovered a new strategy to clean up “forever chemicals” from contaminated water and importantly, it can do so at room temperatures.
Accelerating material characterization: Machine learning meets X-ray absorption spectroscopy - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have developed a new approach that can rapidly predict the structure and chemical composition of heterogeneous materials.
NASA Glenn Looking to Lease Facilities - As NASA advances its aviation and spaceflight missions, its facilities and infrastructure need to evolve along with them.
Hubble Glimpses a Star-Forming Factory - The celestial object showcased in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the spiral galaxy UGC 9684, which lies around 240 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Boötes.
AI systems are already skilled at deceiving and manipulating humans - Many artificial intelligence (AI) systems have already learned how to deceive humans, even systems that have been trained to be helpful and honest.
ONe novae stellar explosion may be source of our phosphorus - Astronomers have proposed a new theory to explain the origin of phosphorus, one of the elements important for life on Earth.
How the brain is flexible enough for a complex world (without being thrown into chaos) - Many neurons exhibit 'mixed selectivity,' meaning they can integrate multiple inputs and participate in multiple computations.
Outdoing the dinosaurs: What we can do if we spot a threatening asteroid - Someday, an NEO will pose a threat to us.
Will Mexico City Run Out of Drinking Water? - More huge cities are facing Day Zero—the date water taps go dry—just as Cape Town, South Africa, did
Ocean warming triggers Indo-Pacific heatwaves - Warming of the Indian Ocean is behind the current heatwave in the Indo Pacific region, say scientists.
Is Earth Safe from a Nearby Supernova? - An exploding star is a catastrophe on a cosmic scale, but here on Earth we’re safe from such astral disasters—for now
Chemists shows hemoprotein catalysis is way more complicated than we thought - Sometimes, serendipity—or just plain luck—still plays a pivotal role in scientific discovery.
Elusive worm-lizards sport weird, spooky skulls - CT scans of these mysterious creatures turned up bizarre internal features.
Evolutionary algorithm generates tailored 'molecular fingerprints' - A team led by Prof Frank Glorius from the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the University of Münster has developed an evolutionary algorithm that identifies the structures in a molecule that are particularly relevant for a respective question and uses them to encode the properties of the molecules for various machine-learning models.
Ghana reduces malaria deaths by 90 per cent - Malaria mortality in Ghana has fallen by 90 per cent since 2012 thanks to a national action plan and vaccine rollout.
Mosquitoes found across Scotland as temperatures rise - One of the most common types of mosquito has been identified for the first time in locations across Scotland.
Kenya floods prompts calls for warning systems - Kenya’s most severe flooding in decades show the need for AI- and nature-based mitigation, say climate scientists.
Researchers find unprecedented deep oxidative desulfurization with precisely designed Ti sites - In a study published in the journal National Science Review, a material synthesized by Dr. Shen Yu was used to introduce hydroperoxide into the synthesis system of titanium silicates.
Fight to save African penguin goes to law - Every year there are fewer African penguins and soon there may be none at all, scientists warn.
First Dream Chaser spaceplane needs more work when it gets to launch site - The rest of Dream Chaser's heat shield tiles will be installed at Kennedy Space Center.
May 9, 2024
Super runners live longer than the rest of us: study - Once upon a time, no one thought anyone could run a mile (1.6km) in four minutes or less, and if they could, it was believed the health consequences of the super-human feat would be dire.Astronomers are on the Hunt for Dyson Spheres - There’s something poetic about humanity’s attempt to detect other civilizations somewhere in the Milky Way’s expanse.
NASA Invites Social Creators for Launch of NOAA Weather Satellite - Registration is open for digital content creators to attend the launch of NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) GOES-U (Geostationary
Solid-state polymer heat pump gets rid of the heat itself - Polymer changes temperature, shape when charged, moving to where the heat needs to be.
Australian study reveals surprising genetics of African leopards - New Australian-led research has unravelled the evolutionary history of the African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus).
We Need to Consider Conservation Efforts on Mars - Astrobiology is the field of science that studies the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the Universe.
Largest fragment of the human brain mapped - Researchers from Harvard University and Google published the largest synaptic-resolution and 3D reconstruction of a piece of human brain to date.
The Aztecs Sacrificed Humans to Repay Gods, and Other Reasons - Why did the Aztecs sacrifice humans to the gods?
In a First, JWST Confirms an Atmosphere on a Rocky Exoplanet - Milestone observations from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal signs of an atmosphere on the inhospitably hot super-Earth 55 Cancri e
Elon Musk’s Neuralink reports trouble with first human brain chip - It's unclear what caused the retraction or how many threads have become displaced.
Turning trash into treasure: Exploring biotic and abiotic methods for PET plastic upcycling - A paper published in Eco-Environment & Health introduces innovative biotic and abiotic methods for recycling and upcycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
How Leaky Datasets Undermine AI Math Reasoning Claims - Questions over tests of AI math abilities suggest we may never know how capable intelligent machines computers can become.
How To Tell If A Conspiracy Theory Is Probably False - Conspiracy theories can muddle people’s thinking
Squeezed by neighbors, planet glows with molten lava - Astrophysicists discovered that an exoplanet is covered with so many active volcanoes that seen from a distance it would take on a fiery, glowing-red hue.
A fragment of human brain, mapped in exquisite detail - Researchers have created the largest synaptic-resolution, 3D reconstruction of a piece of human brain to date, showing in vivid detail each cell and its web of neural connections in a piece of human temporal cortex about half the size of a rice grain.
Why Is the Ocean Salty? - Salt journeys around the planet, leaving its mark at every step — before it's ultimately deposited into the ocean.
Viruses Keep Mice from Stressing Out - Gut viruses influence behavioral responses in mice and may be important players in the gut-brain axis.
Lung Cancer Is The Deadliest, Screening Could Save Many Lives - Lung cancer screening can save lives, but it isn’t accessible to everyone at risk of developing the disease
Game Theory Can Make AI More Correct and Efficient - Researchers are drawing on ideas from game theory to improve large language models and make them more consistent.
Hot compression bonding helps achieve seamless CLAM steel joint - China low activation martensitic (CLAM) steel, as a typical reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steel, is the main candidate structural material for fusion reactors due to its low activation, high mechanical properties, irradiation resistance and corrosion resistance.
How Melting Ice Has Altered Time-Keeping - Climate change could upend how we synchronize global clocks forever.
Will Better Superconductors Transform the World? - Scientists are pursuing materials that can conduct electricity with perfect efficiency under ambient conditions.
Gut Bacteria Slip into the Eye - A gene mutation causes porous gut and retinal barriers, allowing bacteria to travel from one to the other, triggering retinal degeneration in mice.
Learning New Skills Can Help You Think Further Ahead - Recent research sheds light on how you can train your brain to think further ahead.
How Bird Flu Caught the Dairy Industry Off Guard - Understanding how avian influenza jumped into cows can help shape the path to stopping the virus’s spread
“Living fossil” found 1,400 km north of where it’s meant to be - A lamprey fish has been found living in the coastal rivers of Queensland, Australia, about 1,400 km north of the species’ usual range.
A better way to control shape-shifting soft robots - A new machine-learning technique can train and control a reconfigurable soft robot that can dynamically change its shape to complete a task.
New Rhizobia-diatom symbiosis solves long-standing marine mystery - Scientists have discovered a new partnership between a marine diatom and a bacterium that can account for a large share of nitrogen fixation in vast regions of the ocean.
NASA confirms “independent review” of Orion heat shield issue - "There's no guarantee that changing the trajectory is the answer," says the Artemis II pilot.
Why Did Ancient Romans Make this Baffling Metal Dodecahedron? - A mysterious 12-sided object called a dodecahedron discovered in England has archaeologists both excited and baffled
Laser printing on fallen tree leaves produces sensors for medical and laboratory use - Fabrication of sensors by 3D printing combines speed, freedom of design, and the possibility of using waste as a substrate.
Has the Term 'Keystone Species' Lost Its Meaning? - More than 50 years after Bob Paine’s experiment with starfish, hundreds of species have been pronounced “keystones” in their ecosystems
Weird Exoplanets Fill the Cosmos. Here’s How Astronomers Find Them - Alien worlds that glow like lightbulbs or harbor molten-rock rain are revealing planets’ profound cosmic diversity—and pointing the way toward finding those that truly resemble our own familiar Earth
Liberals and conservatives differ on climate change beliefs -- but are relatively united in taking action - The division between liberals and conservatives on both climate-change beliefs and related policy support is long-standing.
2D all-organic perovskites: potential use in 2D electronics - Perovskites are among the most researched topics in materials science.
Generative AI that imitates human motion - Walking and running is notoriously difficult to recreate in robots.
Astrophysicists discover a novel method for hunting the first stars - A recent study has discovered a novel method for detecting the first-generations stars, known as Population III (Pop III) stars, which have never been directly detected.
It’s Time for a Nature Preserve—On the Moon - The far side of the moon holds the keys to the future of radio astronomy.
Artificial intelligence is making it hard to tell truth from fiction - Experts worry that by making it harder to tell what’s true, AI can threaten people’s reputations, health, fair elections and more.
Getting dirty to clean up the chemical industry's environmental impact - The global chemical industry is a major fossil fuel consumer and climate change contributor; however, new Curtin University research has identified how the sector could clean up its green credentials by getting dirty.
It’s not just hotter temps – changing currents, disease threaten world’s corals - Shifting ocean circulation patterns driven by climate change are potentially pushing the world’s coral reefs to the brink, a new study warns.
One Great Shot: Curious Creature in the Kelp - On a sunny day in May 2023, I was waiting on a damp boat deck in Rivers Inlet, on British Columbia’s central coast, with other members of the Hakai Institute dive team.
Soaring North: Monitoring and Protecting Migrating Song and Shore Birds - Protect bird migrations in honor of Global Big Day.
Venus’s lack of water could be due to H escape - The reason Venus missed the chance to be a water-filled planet might boil down to chemical reactions in the planet’s atmosphere allowing hydrogen to flee.
SGCI Botswana partnership to lift science and research - A new research fund in Botswana will enable it to partner with other countries on research projects.
Study finds activated carbon from palm kernel shells enhances methane storage - In a significant development for clean energy, researchers at Universiti Teknologi MARA have made an advance in the field of methane storage technology.