Top Sciences Discovery

  • Swirling polar vortices likely exist on the Sun
    on November 11, 2024 at 8:52 pm

    Like the Earth, the Sun likely has swirling polar vortices, according to new research. But unlike on Earth, the formation and evolution of these vortices are driven by magnetic fields.

  • Storm in a laser beam: Physicists create 'light hurricanes' that could transport huge amounts of data
    on November 11, 2024 at 5:33 pm

    The discovery, centred around controlling tiny hurricanes of light and electromagnetic fields, could revolutionise how much information we can deliver over cables.

  • Einstein's equations collide with the mysteries of the Universe
    on November 11, 2024 at 5:31 pm

    Why is the expansion of our Universe accelerating? Twenty-five years after its discovery, this phenomenon remains one of the greatest scientific mysteries. Solving it involves testing the fundamental laws of physics, including Albert Einstein's general relativity. Researchers compared Einstein's predictions with data from the Dark Energy Survey. Scientists discovered a slight discrepancy that varies with different periods in cosmic history. These results challenge the validity of Einstein's theories for explaining phenomena beyond our solar system on a universal scale.

  • Secret behind the corpse flower's famous stench
    on November 11, 2024 at 5:28 pm

    A new study on titan arum -- commonly known as the corpse flower for its smell like rotting flesh -- uncovers fundamental genetic pathways and biological mechanisms that produce heat and odorous chemicals when the plant blooms. The study provides insight into the flower's ability to warm up just before blooming through a process known as thermogenesis, an uncommon trait in plants that is not well understood. The researchers also identify a new component of the corpse flower's odor, an organic chemical called putrescine.

  • Deep ocean clues to a million-year-old ice age puzzle revealed in new study
    on November 8, 2024 at 4:34 pm

    A new study challenges theories regarding the origins of a significant transition through the Earth's ice ages. The research provides fresh insights into the ocean's role in climate during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, an enigmatic interval of change in climate cycles that began about one million years ago.

  • New insights into the Denisovans: New hominin group that interbred with modern day humans
    on November 8, 2024 at 4:33 pm

    Scientists believe individuals of the most recently discovered 'hominin' group (the Denisovans) that interbred with modern day humans passed on some of their genes via multiple, distinct interbreeding events that helped shape early human history. Scientists outline evidence suggesting that several Denisovan populations, who likely had an extensive geographical range from Siberia to Southeast Asia and from Oceania to South America, were adapted to distinct environments. They further outline a number of genes of Denisovan origin that gave modern day humans advantages in their different environments.

  • Scarlet Macaw parents 'play favorites,' purposefully neglect younger chicks
    on November 8, 2024 at 4:32 pm

    Researchers have discovered that scarlet macaws purposefully neglect feeding the youngest chicks in most broods, even when resources are plentiful. This results in only one or two chicks being able to fledge -- the process in which parents teach their young to fly and survive on their own -- even though broods may contain up to four chicks.

  • Elephant turns a hose into a sophisticated showering tool
    on November 8, 2024 at 4:32 pm

    Tool use isn't unique to humans. Chimpanzees use sticks as tools. Dolphins, crows, and elephants are known for their tool-use abilities, too. Now a report highlights elephants' remarkable skill in using a hose as a flexible shower head. As an unexpected bonus, researchers say they also have evidence that a fellow elephant knows how to turn the water off, perhaps as a kind of 'prank.'

  • Chimpanzees perform better on challenging computer tasks when they have an audience
    on November 8, 2024 at 4:32 pm

    When people have an audience watching them, it can change their performance for better or worse. Now, researchers have found that chimpanzees' performance on computer tasks is influenced by the number of people watching them. The findings suggest that this 'audience effect' predates the development of reputation-based human societies, the researchers say.

  • New study maps dramatic 100-million-year explosion in color signals used by animals
    on November 8, 2024 at 12:32 am

    A recent study finds that color vision evolved in animals more than 100 million years before the emergence of colorful fruits and flowers. And there has been a dramatic explosion of color signals in the last 100 million years.

  • Memories are not only in the brain, new research finds
    on November 8, 2024 at 12:31 am

    It's common knowledge that our brains -- and, specifically, our brain cells -- store memories. But a team of scientists has discovered that cells from other parts of the body also perform a memory function, opening new pathways for understanding how memory works and creating the potential to enhance learning and to treat memory-related afflictions.

  • DNA evidence rewrites story of people buried in Pompeii eruption
    on November 7, 2024 at 9:09 pm

    Researchers have used ancient DNA to challenge long-held interpretations of the people of Pompeii. Contrary to physical appearances, the DNA evidence revealed unexpected variations in gender and kinship, revising the story as written since 1748. The genetic data also underlined the cosmopolitan nature of the Roman Empire, showing that Pompeians were mainly descended from immigrants from the eastern Mediterranean.

  • Astrophysicists use echoes of light to illuminate black holes
    on November 7, 2024 at 9:07 pm

    Researchers have developed an innovative technique to search for black hole light echoes. Their novel method, which will make it easier for the mass and the spin of black holes to be measured, represents a major step forward, since it operates independently of many of the other ways in which scientists have probed these parameters in the past.

  • How plants grow thicker, not just taller
    on November 7, 2024 at 9:06 pm

    Using a computer model that reveals how plants grow thicker over time, biologists have uncovered how cells are activated to produce wood tissue. Understanding the genetic and molecular signals behind this growth, they hope to advance forestry practices and carbon dioxide storage in trees.

  • Off-the-shelf thermoelectric generators can upgrade CO2 into chemicals: The combination could help us colonize Mars
    on November 7, 2024 at 4:52 pm

    Readily available thermoelectric generators operating under modest temperature differences can power CO2 conversion, according to a proof-of-concept study by chemists. The findings open up the intriguing possibility that the temperature differentials encountered in an array of environments -- from a typical geothermal installation on Earth to the cold, desolate surface of Mars -- could power the conversion of CO2 into a range of useful fuels and chemicals.

  • Finding function for noncoding RNAs using a new kind of CRISPR
    on November 7, 2024 at 4:50 pm

    Genes contain instructions for making proteins, and a central dogma of biology is that this information flows from DNA to RNA to proteins. But only two percent of the human genome actually encodes proteins; the function of the remaining 98 percent remains largely unknown. One pressing problem in human genetics is to understand what these regions of the genome do -- if anything at all. Historically, some have even referred to these regions as 'junk.' Now, a new study finds that some noncoding RNAs are not, in fact, junk -- they are functional and play an important role in our cells, including in cancer and human development.

  • Plastics pollution worsen the impacts of all Planetary Boundaries
    on November 7, 2024 at 4:50 pm

    Plastic pollution exacerbates the impacts of all planetary boundaries, including climate change, ocean acidification and biodiversity loss, a new paper shows. Ahead of the final negotiations of the international Plastics Treaty, researchers urge decision-makers to stop viewing plastics pollution as merely a waste management problem.

  • Climate change parching the American West even without rainfall deficits
    on November 7, 2024 at 12:03 am

    Higher temperatures caused by anthropogenic climate change turned an ordinary drought into an exceptional one that parched the American West from 2020--22. A study has found that evaporation accounted for 61% of the drought's severity, while reduced precipitation accounted for 39%. The research found that since 2000, evaporative demand has played a bigger role than reduced precipitation in droughts, which may become more severe as the climate warms.

  • Five minutes of extra exercise a day could lower blood pressure
    on November 7, 2024 at 12:03 am

    New research suggests that adding a small amount of physical activity -- such as uphill walking or stair-climbing -- into your day may help to lower blood pressure.

  • How gophers brought Mount St. Helens back to life in one day
    on November 6, 2024 at 10:19 pm

    When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, lava incinerated anything living for miles around. As an experiment, scientists dropped gophers onto parts of the scorched mountain for only 24 hours. The benefits from that single day were undeniable and still visible 40 years later.

  • Sleepiness during the day may be tied to pre-dementia syndrome
    on November 6, 2024 at 10:19 pm

    Older people who are sleepy during the day or lack enthusiasm for activities due to sleep issues may be more likely to develop a syndrome that can lead to dementia, according to a new study.

  • Scientists calculate predictions for meson measurements
    on November 6, 2024 at 10:18 pm

    Calculations of charge distribution in mesons provide benchmark for experimental measurements and validate widely used 'factorization' method for imaging the building blocks of matter.

  • Use of 'genetic scissors' carries risks
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:26 pm

    The CRISPR tool is capable of repairing the genetic defect responsible for the immune disease chronic granulomatous disease. However, researchers have now shown that there is a risk of inadvertently introducing other defects.

  • Interstellar methane as progenitor of amino acids?
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:24 pm

    Gamma radiation can convert methane into a wide variety of products at room temperature, including hydrocarbons, oxygen-containing molecules, and amino acids, reports a research team. This type of reaction probably plays an important role in the formation of complex organic molecules in the universe -- and possibly in the origin of life. They also open up new strategies for the industrial conversion of methane into high value-added products under mild conditions.

  • Newly discovered neurons change our understanding of how the brain handles hunger
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:23 pm

    A new cell type provides a missing piece of the neural network regulating appetite.

  • What happens in your brain while you watch a movie
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:22 pm

    By scanning the brains of people while they watched movie clips, neuroscientists have created the most detailed functional map of the brain to date. The fMRI analysis shows how different brain networks light up when participants viewed short clips from a range of independent and Hollywood films including Inception, The Social Network, and Home Alone. The team identified different brain networks involved in processing scenes with people, inanimate objects, action, and dialogue. They also revealed how different executive networks are prioritized during easy- versus hard-to-follow scenes.

  • Quantum vortices confirm superfluidity in supersolid
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:22 pm

    Supersolids are a new form of quantum matter that has only recently been demonstrated. The state of matter can be produced artificially in ultracold, dipolar quantum gases. A team has now demonstrated a missing hallmark of superfluidity, namely the existence of quantized vortices as system's response to rotation. They have observed tiny quantum vortices in the supersolid, which also behave differently than previously assumed.

  • Imaging nuclear shapes by smashing them to smithereens
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:22 pm

    Scientists have demonstrated a new way to use high-energy particle smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) to reveal subtle details about the shapes of atomic nuclei. The method is complementary to lower energy techniques for determining nuclear structure. It will add depth to scientists' understanding of the nuclei that make up the bulk of visible matter.

  • New haptic patch transmits complexity of touch to the skin
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:22 pm

    Thin, flexible device could help people with visual impairments 'feel' surroundings. Device comprises a hexagonal array of 19 actuators encapsulated in soft silicone. Device only uses energy when actuators change position, operating for longer periods of time on a single battery charge.

  • Researchers have uncovered the mechanism in the brain that constantly refreshes memory
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:22 pm

    Researchers have discovered a neural mechanism for memory integration that stretches across both time and personal experience.

  • Breakthrough in energy-efficient avalanche-based amorphization could revolutionize data storage
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:21 pm

    Researchers have developed a new method for disrupting the crystal structure of a semiconductor that requires as little as one billion times less power density. This advancement could unlock wider applications for phase-change memory (PCM) -- a promising memory technology that could transform data storage in devices from cell phones to computers.

  • Asteroid grains shed light on the outer solar system's origins
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:21 pm

    Tiny grains from asteroid Ryugu are revealing clues to the magnetic forces that shaped the far reaches of the solar system over 4.6 billion years ago. The findings suggest the distal solar system harbored a weak magnetic field, which could have played a role in forming the giant planets and other objects.

  • Mighty radio bursts linked to massive galaxies
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:21 pm

    Researchers have uncovered where FRBs are more likely to occur in the universe -- massive star-forming galaxies rather than low - mass ones.

  • The egg or the chicken? An ancient unicellular says egg
    on November 6, 2024 at 6:21 pm

    Chromosphaera perkinsii is a single-celled species discovered in 2017 in marine sediments around Hawaii. The first signs of its presence on Earth have been dated at over a billion years, well before the appearance of the first animals. A team has observed that this species forms multicellular structures that bear striking similarities to animal embryos. These observations suggest that the genetic programs responsible for embryonic development were already present before the emergence of animal life, or that C. perkinsii evolved independently to develop similar processes. Nature would therefore have possessed the genetic tools to 'create eggs' long before it 'invented chickens'.

  • Despite its impressive output, generative AI doesn't have a coherent understanding of the world
    on November 6, 2024 at 12:18 am

    Large language models can achieve incredible performance on some tasks without having internalized a coherent model of the world or the rules that govern it, researchers find. This means these models are likely to fail unexpectedly if they are deployed in situations where the environment or task slightly changes.

  • Groundbreaking study provides new evidence of when Earth was slushy
    on November 5, 2024 at 10:47 pm

    At the end of the last global ice age, the deep-frozen Earth reached a built-in limit of climate change and thawed into a slushy planet. Results provide the first direct geochemical evidence of the slushy planet -- otherwise known as the 'plume-world ocean' era -- when sky-high carbon dioxide levels forced the frozen Earth into a massive, rapid melting period.

  • Bio-based fibers could pose greater threat to the environment than conventional plastics
    on November 5, 2024 at 4:43 pm

    New research has shown that bio-based fibers caused higher mortality, and reduced growth and reproductivity, among earthworms -- a species critical to the health of soils globally -- than conventional plastics. It has led scientists to suggest that materials being advocated as alternatives to plastic should be tested thoroughly before they are used extensively in a range of products.

  • Towards a hydrogen-powered future: Highly sensitive hydrogen detection system
    on November 5, 2024 at 4:41 pm

    Hydrogen, a promising fuel, has extensive applications in many sectors. However, its safe and widespread use necessitates reliable sensing methods. While tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) has proved to be an effective gas sensing method, detecting hydrogen using TDLAS is difficult due to its weak light absorption property in the infrared region. Addressing this issue, researchers developed an innovative calibration-free technique that significantly enhances the accuracy and detection limits for sensing hydrogen using TDLAS.

  • Deaf male mosquitoes don't mate
    on November 5, 2024 at 4:38 pm

    Romance is a complex affair in humans. There's personality, appearance, seduction, all manner of physical and social cues. Mosquitoes are much more blunt. Mating occurs for a few seconds in midair. And all it takes to woo a male is the sound of a female's wingbeats. Imagine researchers' surprise when a single change completely killed the mosquitoes' libidos.

  • New trigger proposed for record-smashing 2022 Tonga eruption
    on November 4, 2024 at 8:06 pm

    Fifteen minutes before the massive January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, a seismic wave was recorded by two distant seismic stations. The researchers propose that the seismic wave was caused by a fracture in a weak area of oceanic crust beneath the volcano's caldera wall. That fracture allowed seawater and magma to pour into and mix together in the space above the volcano's subsurface magma chamber, explosively kickstarting the eruption.

  • The secrets of baseball's magic mud
    on November 4, 2024 at 8:06 pm

    The unique properties of baseball's famed 'magic' mud, which MLB equipment managers applied to every ball in the World Series, have never been scientifically quantified -- until now. Researchers now reveal what makes the magic mud so special.

  • Did the world's best-preserved dinosaurs really die in 'Pompeii-type' events?
    on November 4, 2024 at 8:05 pm

    Extraordinarily well preserved fossils of feathered dinosaurs and other creatures got that way after being frozen in time by by volcanic eruptions, researchers have long suggested. Not so fast, says a new study.

  • Fossil of huge terror bird offers new information about wildlife in South America 12 million years ago
    on November 4, 2024 at 4:23 pm

    Evolutionary biologists report they have analyzed a fossil of an extinct giant meat-eating bird -- which they say could be the largest known member of its kind -- providing new information about animal life in northern South America millions of years ago.

  • Dance of electrons measured in the glow from exploding neutron-stars
    on November 4, 2024 at 4:22 pm

    The temperature of elementary particles has been observed in the radioactive glow following the collision of two neutron stars and the birth of a black hole. This has, for the first time, made it possible to measure the microscopic, physical properties in these cosmic events. Simultaneously, it reveals how snapshot observations made in an instant represents an object stretched out across time.

  • Synthetic genes engineered to mimic how cells build tissues and structures
    on November 4, 2024 at 4:22 pm

    Researchers have developed synthetic genes that function like the genes in living cells. The artificial genes can build intracellular structures through a cascading sequence that builds self-assembling structures piece by piece. The discovery offers a path toward using a suite of simple building blocks that can be programmed to make complex biomolecular materials, such as nanoscale tubes from DNA tiles. The same components can also be programmed to break up the design for different materials.

  • Astronomers discover the fastest-feeding black hole in the early universe
    on November 4, 2024 at 4:20 pm

    Astronomers have discovered a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang that is consuming matter at a phenomenal rate -- over 40 times the theoretical limit. While short lived, this black hole's 'feast' could help astronomers explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the early Universe.

  • Revolutionary high-speed 3D bioprinter hailed a game changer for drug discovery
    on November 1, 2024 at 4:38 pm

    Biomedical engineers have invented a 3D printing system, or bioprinter, capable of fabricating structures that closely mimic the diverse tissues in the human body, from soft brain tissue to harder materials like cartilage and bone.

  • Indigenous cultural burning has protected Australia's landscape for millennia, study finds
    on November 1, 2024 at 4:37 pm

    Ancient cultural burning practices carried out by Indigenous Australians limited fuel availability and prevented high intensity fires in southeastern Australia for thousands of years, according to new research.

  • NASA's Hubble, Webb probe surprisingly smooth disk around Vega
    on November 1, 2024 at 4:35 pm

    Teams of astronomers used the combined power of NASA's Hubble and James Webb space telescopes to revisit the legendary Vega disk.

  • Restricting sugar consumption in utero and in early childhood significantly reduces risk of midlife chronic disease, study finds
    on October 31, 2024 at 10:53 pm

    Children who experienced sugar restrictions during their first 1,000 days after conception had up to 35% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes and as much as 20% less risk of hypertension as adults. The researchers used contemporary data from the U.K. Biobank, a database of medical histories and genetic, lifestyle and other disease risk factors, to study the effect of those early-life sugar restrictions on health outcomes of adults conceived in the U.K. just before and after the end of wartime sugar rationing.

  • First blueprint of the human spliceosome revealed
    on October 31, 2024 at 7:18 pm

    Researchers have created the first blueprint of the human spliceosome, the most complex and intricate molecular machine in human biology. The vast majority of human genes -- more than nine in ten -- are edited by the spliceosome. The sheer number of components involved has meant the scientific feat took more than a decade to complete. The research reveals many new drug targets that could benefit a wide spectrum of diseases including most types of cancer, neurodegenerative conditions and genetic disorders.

  • Violating Bredt's rule: Chemists just broke a 100-year-old rule and say it's time to rewrite the textbooks
    on October 31, 2024 at 7:18 pm

    According to Bredt's rule, double bonds cannot exist at certain positions on organic molecules if the molecule's geometry deviates too far from what we learn in textbooks. This rule has constrained chemists for a century. Chemists have now shown how to make molecules that violate Bredt's rule, allowing chemists to find practical ways to make and use them in reactions.

  • Echolocating bats use an acoustic cognitive map for navigation
    on October 31, 2024 at 7:17 pm

    Echolocating bats have been found to possess an acoustic cognitive map of their home range, enabling them to navigate over kilometer-scale distances using echolocation alone.

  • New findings on animal viruses with potential to infect humans
    on October 31, 2024 at 5:03 pm

    Scientists investigating animal viruses with potential to infect humans have identified a critical protein that could enable spillover of a family of organisms called arteriviruses. In a new study, researchers identified a protein in mammals that welcomes arteriviruses into host cells to start an infection. The team also found that an existing monoclonal antibody that binds to this protein protects cells from viral infection.

  • Why elephants never forget but fleas have, well, the attention span of a flea
    on October 31, 2024 at 4:44 pm

    Researchers have developed a model to calculate how quickly or slowly an organism should ideally learn in its surroundings. An organism's ideal learning rate depends on the pace of environmental change and its life cycle, they say.

  • Low-level lead poisoning is still pervasive in the US and globally
    on October 30, 2024 at 9:19 pm

    Chronic, low-level lead poisoning is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease in adults and cognitive deficits in children, even at levels previously thought to be safe, Low-level lead poisoning is a risk factor for preterm. Annually 5.5 million deaths from cardiovascular disease attributed to low-level lead poisoning; accounts for a loss of 765 million IQ points in children.

  • It's not to be. Universe too short for Shakespeare typing monkeys
    on October 30, 2024 at 7:08 pm

    It would take far longer than the lifespan of our universe for a typing monkey to randomly produce Shakespeare, a new study reveals.

  • Alcohol consumption among non-human animals may not be as rare as previously thought, say ecologists
    on October 30, 2024 at 7:08 pm

    Anecdotes abound of wildlife behaving 'drunk' after eating fermented fruits, but despite this, nonhuman consumption of ethanol has been assumed to be rare and accidental. Ecologists now challenge this assumption. They argue that since ethanol is naturally present in nearly every ecosystem, it is likely consumed on a regular basis by most fruit- and nectar-eating animals.

  • One of the fastest-spinning stars in the Universe
    on October 30, 2024 at 7:04 pm

    New research in our Milky Way has revealed a neutron star that rotates around its axis at an extremely high speed. It spins 716 times per second, making it one of the fastest-spinning objects ever observed.

  • Solar-powered animal cells
    on October 30, 2024 at 7:02 pm

    Energy-making chloroplasts from algae have been inserted into hamster cells, enabling the cells to photosynthesize light, according to new research in Japan. It was previously thought that combining chloroplasts (chlorophyll containing structures in the cells of plants and algae) with animal cells was not possible, and that the chloroplasts would not survive or function. However, results showed that photosynthetic action continued for at least two days. This technique could be useful for artificial tissue engineering. Tissues can struggle to grow due to a lack of oxygen, but adding chloroplast-infused cells could enable oxygen and energy to be supplied through light exposure and photosynthesis.

Sarah Ibrahim