The rate that emerging wildlife diseases infect humans has steadily increased over the last three decades. Viruses, such as the global coronavirus pandemic and recent monkeypox outbreak, have heightened the urgent need for disease ecology tools to forecast when and where disease outbreaks are likely. A University of South Florida assistant professor helped develop a methodology that will do just ...

Research has established that there are traces of Neandertal DNA in the genome of modern humans. Now an exploratory study that assessed the facial structure of prehistoric skulls is offering new insights, and supports the hypothesis that much of this interbreeding took place in the Near East – the region ranging from North Africa to Iraq. “Ancient DNA caused a ...

Thousands of never-before-seen young stars spotted in a stellar nursery called 30 Doradus, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, called Tarantula Nebula owing to its appearance in dusty filaments. The nebula has long been a favorite for astronomers studying star formation and the  Webb has been revealing beautiful distant background galaxies, as well as the detailed structure and composition ...

Boosting physical activity levels and curbing sitting time are highly likely to lower breast cancer risk, finds research designed to strengthen proof of causation and published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The findings were generally consistent across all types and stages of the disease, reveals the Mendelian randomisation study, prompting the researchers to recommend a stronger focus on ...

Exposure to air pollution in the first six months of life impacts a child’s inner world of gut bacteria, or microbiome, in ways that could increase risk of allergies, obesity and diabetes, and even influence brain development, suggests new CU Boulder research. “This study adds to the growing body of literature showing that air pollution exposure, even during infancy, may ...

Tokyo Institute of Technology researchers have invented a new method that predicts smell based on  the odor impression instead of predicting the smell from molecular features. As the sense of smell is one of the basic senses of animal species, it is critical to finding food, realizing attraction, and sensing danger. Humans detect smells, or odorants, with olfactory receptors expressed ...

Babies and children under three years old are less likely to develop croup if their mothers took fish oil and vitamin D supplements during pregnancy, according to new results from a clinical trial. Croup is a viral chest infection that affects young children. It causes a characteristic ‘barking’ cough, a hoarse voice and difficulty breathing. Croup is common and usually ...

An international team led by researchers at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) has engineered a system for creating remote controlled cyborg cockroaches, equipped with a tiny wireless control module that is powered by a rechargeable battery attached to a solar cell. Despite the mechanic devices, ultrathin electronics and flexible materials allow the insects to move freely. These achievements, ...

At the tail end of winter in 2015, the ground in the Wimmera in northeastern Victoria had been a little, dry but conditions weren’t too bad for farmers. The crop season was going well. The start of September looked promising. It was cool, and there were decent rains A few weeks later, summer weather had arrived early. At the start ...

Ah, the Australian summer. When the temperatures top 40℃ and only the bravest or most foolhardy would venture outside in bare feet, there’s a cherished old saying: “It’s so hot outside, you could fry an egg on the footpath!” But what does the science say? Does this claim stack up, or it half-baked? To answer this question, we need to ...

Key takeaways: Roving the Red Planet. Perseverance landed on Mars in February 2021 and has been gathering data on the planet’s geology and climate and searching for signs of ancient life.​​​​​​ What lies beneath. The rover’s subsurface radar experiment, co-led by UCLA’s David Paige, has returned images showing unexpected variations in rock layers beneath the Jezero crater. Probing the past. The variations could indicate ...

Key takeaways: World’s water tainted. Synthetic PFAS, which have been linked to cancer and other diseases, have contaminated nearly every drop of water on the planet. Unbreakable bond. These chemicals contain a carbon-fluorine bond that is almost impossible to break, making it extremely difficult to eradicate them from water supplies. Off with their heads! Researchers devised a “guillotine” solution that uses moderate heat ...

The agency’s newly upgraded “Eyes on the Solar System” visualization tool includes Artemis I’s trajectory along with a host of other new features. NASA has revamped its “Eyes on the Solar System” 3D visualization tool, making interplanetary travel easier and more interactive than ever. More than two years in the making, the update delivers better controls, improved navigation, and a ...

Gene variants associated with a person’s blood type may be linked to their risk of early stroke, according to a new meta-analysis published in the latest online issue of Neurology. Non-O blood types have previously been linked to a risk of early stroke, but the new findings by University of Maryland School of Medicine study showed a stronger link between ...

Scientists develop a simple, fast, and energy-efficient synthesis method for producing exceptional carbon nano-onions from fish scales. Thanks to their low toxicity, chemical stability, and remarkable electrical and optical properties, carbon-based nanomaterials are finding more and more applications across electronics, energy conversion and storage, catalysis, and biomedicine. Carbon nano-onions (CNOs) are certainly no exception. First reported in 1980, CNOs are ...

The discovery of Mbiresaurus in Zimbabwe has led the group of researchers to propose a new theory on dinosaur migration, as Africa was once part of the supercontinent called Pangea. The climate across ancient Pangea continent is thought to have been divided into strong humid and arid latitudinal belts, with more temperate belts spanning higher latitudes and intense deserts across ...

The unearthing of one of the earliest dinosaurs ever found is a major win for the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe. The Mbiresaurus skeleton is almost complete, making it a perfect reference material for further finds. It is also the first sauropodomorph find of its size from Zimbabwe, where most of the earlier sauropodomorph finds are usually of medium- to ...

An international team of paleontologists led by Virginia Tech has discovered a skeleton of new long-necked dinosaur Mbiresaurus raathi, that fills a critical geographic gap in the fossil record of the oldest dinosaurs. The skeleton, mostly intact, was first found by a graduate student in the Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences and other paleontologists during two excavations over the course ...

Changes in cell chemistry from blue light exposure observed in fruit flies could also potentially cause detrimental effects on our body, including accelerated aging. Too much screen use has been linked to obesity and psychological problems. Now a new study has identified a new problem – a study in fruit flies suggests our basic cellular functions could be impacted by ...

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the first clear evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. This observation of a gas giant planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away provides important insights into the composition and formation of the planet. The finding, accepted for publication in Nature, offers evidence that in ...