A general anesthetic has been found to have the potentially added benefit of stimulating a neuroprotective effect against Alzheimer’s disease. Xenon is a colorless, odorless noble gas used for many purposes in science, but a recent study in mice found it stimulated the brain’s re … | Continue reading
From the depths of the engineering department at California Technical Institute comes a big one: a new class of matter. Though scientists are trained not to be, maybe laboratory director Chiara Daraio was being hyperbolic when she described the new material as such, but she and t … | Continue reading
Though GNN has reported that several sickle cell disease patients have already been successfully treated with CRISPR gene editing technology, a new method of addressing this debilitating condition has been successfully demonstrated. Braden Baptiste has had sickle cell crises sinc … | Continue reading
76 million years ago, a young pterosaur dropped down from the skies to the water’s edge. Perhaps looking for a snack in the form of a prehistoric fish, the juvenile almost ended up becoming a meal itself. Or it may actually have, we’ll never know for certain, but a punctured vert … | Continue reading
A new British study reveals the mysterious mounds found on Mars were formed by ancient water. Thousands of mounds and hills in the Red Planet’s barren northern plains are full of clay minerals, providing evidence that the rocks here were once soaked with water. These mounds are a … | Continue reading
In the search for better and better treatments for breast cancer, medical researchers at the Univ. of Illinois have synthesized a remarkable substance. In small tumors, a single dose of ErSO-TFPy eliminated them entirely, while the same dose significantly shrank large tumors. In … | Continue reading
In a proud moment for our heritage, researchers have found evidence that Stone Age humans carved a map of their territory into the floor of a cave in modern France. Chipping away to create indentations for basins, these pioneering cartographers then cut grooves into the cave floo … | Continue reading
An anti-fungal agent produced naturally by carrots has been suggested in a new study to substantially aid in the regulation of blood sugar. The authors suggest that carrots may be a useful, low-cost, non-pharmaceutical diabetes treatment, although as the study was only conducted … | Continue reading
An international team of scientists in the Antarctic has successfully extracted what is believed to be the world’s oldest ice—a historic milestone for climate science. They drilled down almost two miles to extract 2.8-km of ice core, reaching the actual bedrock beneath the Antarc … | Continue reading
A family woke up and found their car windshield with a hole in it, but their curious son soon cracked the mystery. Paul Butler and his family were watching TV the night before when they heard a loud bang outside, but dismissed the noise as holiday fireworks and went to bed. The n … | Continue reading
A team at Northwestern University has transformed an industrial waste product into a battery for storing sustainable energy. While many iterations of these batteries are in production or being researched for grid-scale applications, using a waste molecule, in this case, triphenyl … | Continue reading
Wearable electronic textiles can be both sustainable and biodegradable, shows a new study. A research team led by the University of Southampton and UWE Bristol in the UK tested a new sustainable approach for fully inkjet-printed, eco-friendly e-textiles. Named SWEET—for Smart, We … | Continue reading
Observing individual stars halfway across the observable universe has generally been regarded as impossible in astronomy, akin to trying to use binoculars to see individual grains of dust in the Moon’s craters—yet that’s exactly what the James Webb Space Telescope just accomplish … | Continue reading
The last 15 years have seen a remarkable change in the clinical considerations of coffee. Studies examining the caffeinated beverage for its potential effects on more than several different biological systems, from the kidneys to mood, have pinned it as something like a health dr … | Continue reading
(Originally published by Knowable Magazine—Written by Bob Holmes) Everyone loves to watch hummingbirds—tiny, brightly colored blurs that dart about, hovering at flowers and pugnaciously defending their ownership of a feeder. But to the scientists who study them, hummingbirds offe … | Continue reading
Mysterious radio bursts from outer space first discovered in 2007, last only a millisecond but can carry an enormous amount of energy—enough to briefly outshine entire galaxies. Since that first fast radio burst, or FRB, astronomers have detected thousands more, whose locations r … | Continue reading
A new way of treating common inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema is on the horizon, according to a new study. American researchers discovered that a compound called SYM2081 inhibited certain cells that drive inflammation in mice and human skin samples. They say it paves t … | Continue reading
It’s not an alignment, but the January sky will be lit up with the lights of our solar system neighbors. As the eight planets move about our star along the plane of the ecliptic, certain periods of certain years offer extra-special opportunities to see them shining bright. This J … | Continue reading
A study looking at the bearers of artificial hearts found that a subset of them can regenerate heart muscle tissue—the first time such an observation has ever been made. It may open the door to new ways to treat and perhaps someday cure heart failure, the deadliest non-communicab … | Continue reading
Scientists investigating Alzheimer’s disease have made a key breakthrough, identifying a vital cellular mechanism driving the most common cause of dementia. The research from the City University of New York (CUNY) provides a promising target for drug therapies that could slow, an … | Continue reading
A matrix of squid bone and cotton cellulose offers a low-cost, scalable solution to global microplastic poisoning according to a new study from China. Attempting to find a material that would address all common concerns with microplastic filtration, the scientists’ cotton-squid s … | Continue reading
Using a pair of satellites, the European Space Agency is set to be able to create artificial solar eclipses on-demand to study one of the most important features of our Sun. Lost in the sheer brightness of the star, the corona, or crown of the Sun, is hotter and larger than the S … | Continue reading
One of the least respected but most important ecosystems on Earth are seagrass meadows, and a pioneering robotic solution is helping marine scientists restore these underwater gardens. The ReefGen Grasshopper can plant dozens of seagrass seeds per minute. Not only is this faster … | Continue reading
Meet the little buggie that’s going to take the nation Down Under, up and over. This is the ‘Roo-ver’, Australia’s first major contribution to robotic space exploration as the first Lunar rover ever launched by the prosperous country. A consortium of 21 different private firms, u … | Continue reading
Just in time for the holidays, a new version of the so-called “Christmas tree cluster” shows a green-tinged image of young stars that resembles the grumpy Grinch character. The Grinchy Christmas tree cluster, named NGC 2264, is a group of young stars between one and five million … | Continue reading
Tens of millions of people worldwide affected by infertility due to fallopian tube obstruction may soon benefit from a tiny robotic screw capable of clearing the pathway. Researchers at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) developed the innovative solution using … | Continue reading
In one of the more fascinating pieces of Christmas news you’ll read this year, scientists studying the skull of the real man who became St. Nicholas, found that his facial proportions match pretty well with those described in Twas the Night Before Christmas. Using 3D digital faci … | Continue reading
From New York comes the story of a complete adult mastodon jaw unearthed during yard work. The jaw, along with additional bone fragments and teeth, was recovered by researchers from the New York State Museum and are scheduled for carbon dating and comprehensive analysis to determ … | Continue reading
Orange cats have won a reputation for being energetic rascals. In Italy, it’s said the red cat is always the leader. That’s probably because red/orange cats are almost always males, and now we know why thanks to two teams of scientists probing the genetic lineage of the orange co … | Continue reading
Scientists have invented a set of tiny sensors that can help tailor rehabilitation programs for those recovering from broken bones. Proper rehabilitation is key to ensuring the natural repair process is carried out correctly, and the devices offered crucial feedback that sped up … | Continue reading
In 2017, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft sent data back to Earth from the dwarf planet Ceres, located in our solar system’s main asteroid belt, that the body contained deposits of organic compounds. At first, it was hypothesized that these were deposited by comet or asteroid impact, but a … | Continue reading
Imagine a world in which a vaccine is a cream you rub onto your skin instead of a needle a health sector worker pushes into one of your muscles. Even better, it’s cheap, entirely pain-free, and not followed by fever, swelling, redness, or a sore arm. No standing in a long line to … | Continue reading
Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have made a critical breakthrough that promises better outcomes for pregnancies threatened with pre-eclampsia, a condition that arises due to insufficient blood flow to the placenta, resulting in high maternal blood pressure and restric … | Continue reading
In a US study of 192,000 participants, five servings of dark chocolate a week was associated with a lower risk of developing type-2 diabetes. This was in direct contrast to milk chocolate consumption, which was not associated with any protective effect, and rather was linked to h … | Continue reading
During work on the E45 motorway in Denmark, archaeologists uncovered a large ‘weapon sacrifice’ consisting of hundreds of bladed weapons from the late Iron Age. Alongside the iron armaments, an incredibly valuable chainmail cuirass and other artifacts were also interred, indicati … | Continue reading
American scientists have proposed a new method for recruiting trillions of microscopic sea creatures and their insatiable appetites for the fight against climate change. The technique harnesses the animals’ daily habits to essentially accelerate the ocean’s natural cycle for remo … | Continue reading
Not far off the Kenyan coast, maritime archaeologists believe they have found the wreckage of a galleon belonging to Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese navigator who found the route to India around Africa. While the true provenance of the vessel is unclear, the discovery would be of m … | Continue reading
Last year GNN reported on two Louisiana high schoolers who used trigonometry to properly demonstrate Pythagoras’ Theorum, a mathematical concept that remained unsolved for more than 2,000 years. Ne’Kiya Jackson and Calcea Johnson made national headlines, won their school a large … | Continue reading
Dogs first became “man’s best friend” at least 12,000 years ago, suggests new research. Indigenous people in the Americas began forming close relationships with the ancestors of today’s dogs around 2,000 years earlier than previously recorded on the continent, based on remains fo … | Continue reading
Skin is the largest organ of the human body, measuring on average two square meters. It provides a protective barrier, regulates our body temperature and can regenerate itself. But I bet you didn’t know that skin develops in the sterile environment of the womb, with all hair foll … | Continue reading
A minimally invasive procedure provided significant relief from knee pain and may prevent the need for knee replacement surgery in people with osteoarthritis, according to a new study. Osteoarthritis, a chronic, degenerative, and progressive condition, is the most common cause of … | Continue reading
From Texas comes a bio-technology interface nearly impossible to believe: tattoos that double as brain sensors. The engineers of this technology explain how for almost 100 years, the electroencephalogram (EEG) has been the standard method for monitoring brain activity, but along … | Continue reading
It’s new news; it’s old news; it’s news that can never be repeated too often: spending time in nature reduces emotional distress among troubled 10 to 12-year-olds. The Canadian researchers behind the new study say their findings suggest that an inexpensive school-based, nature-bo … | Continue reading
In a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the nature of the Sombrero galaxy seems completely different. When seen in visible light, the galactic core whites out the inner disk, while the outer disk roils with dust and gas. But when seen under Webb’s mid-infrared view … | Continue reading
In western Syria, archaeologists believe they have unearthed evidence of the earliest use of an alphabet in the world. The site, called Tell Umm el-Marra was an important urban center in Syria and one of the first to ever pop up in the region. It’s been under excavation for 16 ye … | Continue reading
Vitamin K is found in leafy greens and is crucial for blood coagulation and calcium synthesis in tissues—but may also cure prostate cancer. Not vitamin K specifically, but a precursor called menadione, which was found in a recent trial to interfere with the survival process of tu … | Continue reading
Everyone who knows the first thing about constellations can find Orion’s belt. For the vast majority of the Northern Hemisphere, those three unmissable stars in a slightly curved row can be seen on almost any night. This month, an excellent opportunity will present itself to view … | Continue reading
Footprints dating back 1.5 million years made by two different species of human ancestors have been found at the same spot—a fossil first—and the individuals likely passed within an hour from each other. More than a million years ago, on a hot savannah teeming with wildlife near … | Continue reading