To most physicists, time is a relative construct. A clock changes position in three real dimensions, the earth rotates. If the effects in the real world change, like gravity, so does the perception of time. That does not make time a 'fourth' dimension outside stories.

Yet a few theoretical physicists argue that because time does march on, it is like an arrow. This 'arrow of time' would move into the future, and to bolster their idea they invoke the second law of thermodynamics: the principle that microscopic arrangements of physical systems tend to increase in randomness, moving from order to disorder. The more disordered a system becomes, the more difficult it is for it to find its way back to an ordered state, and the stronger the arrow of time.

The history of humans is a history of expansion, from the recesses of Africa outward across the world. No one is really a native and yet everyone is, because all humans were first an invasive species but if you are born in a place, you are then native. 

Some will claim their ancestors lived in a place 12,000 years ago, but unless they had an individual genomic analysis it's no more valid than saying they were descended from Genghis Khan, yet science is converging on ways to go beyond the silly '12 percent Irish' claims based on 23andMe or Ancestry and really determine if your ancestors were as close to the first humans as can exist.

If you get sleepy in the middle of hot days, you are not alone. You are not even alone in the animal kingdom.

Biology may be behind it.

We know that many people have a harder time sleeping in the summer and be slow to get out of bed on colder mornings and new study hopes to connect sensory neurons and neurons that control this cycle.

The work is only in fruit flies, so it goes in the exploratory pile despite the hyper-coverage such studies get in corporate media, but they found that fruit flies are pre-programmed to take a nap in the middle of the day. They believe there is a brain thermometer only active in hot temperatures.

There is concern about US states making their own abortion laws in the US, but in Germany most abortion is illegal. It is only allowed for medical or criminal reasons within 12 weeks of conception, and lack of body autonomy may be why most Germans are fine with mandatory COVID-19 vaccines.

The molecular mechanism that drives the disease-causing effects of the most common genetic risk factor for lupus,  HLA-DRB1*03:01, has been revealed in a new study.

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a common, incurable autoimmune disease that affects millions of individuals worldwide, with a particularly high prevalence among women. The genetic variant HLA-DRB1*03:01 is the greatest risk factor for the condition, which involves inflammation in many vital organs, and can lead to severe disability and death.

In the study, investigators found that a protein coded by that HLA variant triggers a cascade of molecular and cellular effects that can cause the inflammatory symptoms seen in lupus patients.

Hot on the heels of COVID-19, Monkeypox is in the news for an alarming spread among people who engage in risky sexual behavior, because it is transmitted primarily through direct contact with infectious sores, scabs, or body fluids.

Healthcare professionals, particularly those in general practice, gastroenterology, and colorectal surgery, are going to need to discuss sexual behavior to make patients better informed. A new analysis of survey results finds that applies to young heterosexual women as well.