A team of researchers has found evidence of natural-selection-based evolutionary changes to people living in Europe over the past 2,000 to 3,000 years. In their paper published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group describes their comparative study of people living in the U.K. today, with those living across Europe over the past several thousand years. Noting that few studies have been conducted with the goal of learning more about evolutionary changes in...
It started as a desire to spend less time on social media. Hyunsung Cho, a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, noticed she was spending more and more time looking at apps including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. She would initially open the app with a purpose such as messaging a friend or scrolling through posts of accounts she follows. "But sometimes I would get sucked into this randomly recommended content," Cho said....
Young children's ability to laugh and make jokes has been mapped by age for the first time using data from a study involving nearly 700 children from birth to 4 years of age, from around the world. The findings, led by University of Bristol researchers and published in Behavior Research Methods, identifies the earliest age humour emerges and how it typically builds in the first years of life. Researchers from Bristol's School of Education sought...
Lung autopsy and plasma samples from people who died of COVID-19 have provided a clearer picture of how the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads and damages lung tissue, Medical Xpress reports. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health and their collaborators say the information, published in Science Translational Medicine, could help predict severe and prolonged COVID-19 cases, particularly among high-risk people, and inform effective treatments. Although the study was small – lung samples from 18 cases and plasma samples from six of...
A team of scientists has identified an additional force that likely contributed to a mass extinction event 250 million years ago. Its analysis of minerals in southern China indicate that volcano eruptions produced a "volcanic winter" that drastically lowered earth's temperatures – a change that added to the environmental effects resulting from other phenomena at the time, reports Phys.org. The research, which appears in the journal Science Advances, examined the end-Permian mass extinction (EPME), which was...
Two theoretical physicists, Charles Downing from the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) and David Zueco from the University of Zaragoza (Spain), have developed a quantum theory explaining how to engineer non-reciprocal flows of quantum light and matter. The research may be important for the creation of quantum technologies which require the directional transfer of energy and information at small scales. Reciprocity, going the same way backward as forward, is a ubiquitous concept in physics....
During infection, HIV places copies of its genome into the DNA of cells, creating what is known as a viral reservoir. In this state, the virus effectively hides from anti-HIV drugs and the body's immune response. In most people, new viral particles are constantly made from this reservoir. Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) can prevent the new viruses from being made but cannot eliminate the reservoir, necessitating daily treatment to suppress the virus. Some people, known...
Despite scientists all over the globe working to better understand malaria, about a half-million children in Africa die from the parasite each year. However, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have taken a significant step by finding an important difference between naturally acquired immunity and immunity following vaccination. "The antibodies which the body produces when you have been infected with malaria look different from those produced by the body when you have been vaccinated. And...
SpaceX expanded its constellation of low Earth orbit satellites on Saturday with the launch of 53 Starlink satellites from Florida, reports Phys.org. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7:19 a.m. EST and deployed the satellites about 16 minutes after launch. The rocket's reusable first stage, which has been used for multiple launches, including the first crewed test flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, successfully returned and landed on...
Since 1971, when the U.S. government made defeating cancer a goal and put major funding behind it, death rates for many cancers have plummeted, but some are increasing, according to a new American Cancer Society report. Death rates for all cancers combined have declined since passage of the National Cancer Act of 1971, according to the report. For example, in 2019, deaths from lung cancer were down 44% from the 1993 peak. But death rates were higher than...
