The Art Institute of Chicago teamed up with Argonne National Laboratory to help unravel a decades-long debate among art scholars about what kind of paint Picasso used to create his masterpieces. The results published last month in the journal Applied [...]
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Roots of Earth’s fiery end may already be in play
A University of Utah seismologist analyzed seismic waves that bombarded Earth’s core, and believes he got a look at the earliest roots of Earth’s most cataclysmic kind of volcanic eruption. But don’t worry. He says [...]
Turning repulsive feelings into desires
Hunger, thirst, stress and drugs can create a change in the brain that transforms a repulsive feeling into a strong positive “wanting,” a new University of Michigan study indicates. The research used salt appetite to [...]
Tiny capsule effectively kills cancer cells
A tiny capsule invented at a UCLA lab could go a long way toward improving cancer treatment. Devising a method for more precise and less invasive treatment of cancer tumors, a team led by researchers [...]
11,000 elephants slaughtered in national park
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced today that a national park, once home to Africa’s largest forest elephant population, has lost a staggering 11,100 individuals due to poaching for the ivory trade. The shocking figures [...]
Evidence moles can smell in stereo
Most mammals, including humans, see in stereo and hear in stereo. But whether they can also smell in stereo is the subject of a long-standing scientific controversy. Now, a new study shows definitively that the [...]
It Takes a Thief: The Evolution of Selfishness
The kindness of mankind most likely developed from our more sinister and self-serving tendencies, according to University of Arizona and Princeton University research that suggests society’s rules against selfishness are rooted in the very exploitation [...]
Enigmatic ‘Ribbon’ Of Energy Explained
After three years of puzzling over a striking “ribbon” of energy and particles discovered by NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) at the edge of our solar system, scientists may be on the verge of cracking [...]
When the cell’s two genomes collide
Diseases from a mutation in one genome are complicated enough, but some illnesses arise from errant interactions between two genomes: the DNA in the nucleus and in the mitochondria. Scientists want to know more about [...]
Tendency to fear is strong political influence
It’s no secret that fear is a mechanism often used in political campaigns to steer public opinion on hot-button issues like immigration and war. But not everyone is equally predisposed to be influenced by such [...]
Alcohol + diet drinks may increase intoxication
An individual’s breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) following alcohol intake is influenced by several factors, including food. While it is known that food delays the stomach emptying, thus reducing BrAC, only recently has the role of [...]
Air pollution primes children for asthma-related cockroach allergy
An allergic reaction to cockroaches is a major contributor to asthma in urban children, but new research suggests that the insects are just one part of a more complex story. Very early exposure to certain [...]
Does probability come from quantum physics?
Ever since Austrian scientist Erwin Schrodinger put his unfortunate cat in a box, his fellow physicists have been using something called quantum theory to explain and understand the nature of waves and particles. = But [...]
Vitamin D, omega-3 may help clear amyloid plaques found in Alzheimer’s
A team of academic researchers has pinpointed how vitamin D3 and omega-3 fatty acids may enhance the immune system’s ability to clear the brain of amyloid plaques, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. In [...]
Chest pain prior to a heart attack can protect the heart
Patients who experience chest pain in the 24 hours preceding a heart attack, also called preinfarction angina, have smaller heart attacks and improved cardiac function in the contemporary cardiac stenting era, researchers found in a [...]
Women in 50s have most empathy
Looking for someone to feel your pain? Talk to a woman in her 50s. According to a new study of more than 75,000 adults, women in that age group are more empathic than men of [...]
$288 the price to stop risky sex?
Studies have found that conditional cash transfer programs, in which governments pay citizens if they consistently practice societally beneficial behaviors, have improved pediatric health care and education in Mexico, increased HIV testing in Malawi, and [...]
Researchers: You like Polar Bears? Act now to save them
A University of Alberta polar bear researcher along with eleven international co-authors are urging governments to start planning for rapid Arctic ecosystem change to deal with a climate change catastrophe for the animals. U of [...]
Affectionate, less controlling mothers have strongest relationships with their children
Researchers long have evaluated the roles parents play in children’s development. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that mothers’ directiveness, the extent to which they try to control the content and pace [...]
E-cigarettes could help reduce smoking
Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), or e-cigarettes, debuted in China in 2003 and have since become available globally, particularly through the Internet. While they resemble traditional tobacco cigarettes, they produce fewer toxins in the vapor [...]
Little House books’ Mary Ingalls probably did not go blind from scarlet fever
In the beloved American stories of the Little House on the Prairie, author Laura Ingalls Wilder writes emotionally about how scarlet fever robs her big sister Mary of her sight. But in a new study [...]
Broken-window policing not cause of crime drop in 1990s NYC
New York City experienced a historic decline in crime rates during the 1990s, but it was not due to the implementation of CompStat or enhanced enforcement of misdemeanor offenses, according to an analysis by New [...]
Low rainfall and extreme temperatures doubles risk of baby elephant deaths
Extremes of temperature and rainfall are affecting the survival of elephants working in timber camps in Myanmar and can double the risk of death in calves aged up to five, new research from the University [...]
Scientists notch a win in war against antibiotic-resistant bacteria
A team of scientists just won a battle in the war against antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” — and only time will tell if their feat is akin to the bacterial “Battle of Gettysburg” that turns the tide [...]
Does the functionality of your small finger determine your ability to master the violin?
After the recorder, the violin is the instrument most commonly offered to children by state schools in the UK. The violin is a challenging instrument. Rapid, independent motion of the digital joints in the left [...]
New tools needed to map disease outbreaks
Since the mid-nineteenth century, maps have helped elucidate the deadly mysteries of diseases like cholera and yellow fever. Yet today’s global mapping of infectious diseases is considerably unreliable and may do little to inform the [...]
Mechanism found to halt cancer cell growth
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) researchers have uncovered a technique to halt the growth of cancer cells, a discovery that led them to a potential new anti-cancer therapy. When deprived of a key protein, [...]
Nasal rescue kits cut opioid OD deaths
In a study of communities in Massachusetts with high numbers of opioid overdose deaths, the implementation of overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) was associated with a significant reduction in opioid overdose death rates. Led [...]
Genetically modified tobacco produces antibodies to treat rabies
Smoking tobacco might be bad for your health, but a genetically altered version of the plant might provide a relatively inexpensive cure for the deadly rabies virus. In a new research report appearing in The FASEB [...]
Growing old artistically
The creation of art requires a complex interplay between brain and body. Indeed, the appearance of a finished piece is intimately linked to both the subjective experiences and mental processes of the artist. Scientists are [...]