News Articles

News Account

News Account

News Releases From All Over The World, Right To You
RSS Feed
Explosive Volcanoes Fueled By Water

Explosive Volcanoes Fueled By Water

A new analysis of water and other elements contained in olivine-rich basalt samples gathered from cinder cone volcanoes that surround Lassen Peak in Northern California, at the southern edge of the Cascade chain, shows water is key for how magma forms deep underground and produces explosive volcanoes in the Cascade Range.

Is Loki The Missing Link In The Evolution Of Complex Cells?

Is Loki The Missing Link In The Evolution Of Complex Cells?

A new study and a new microbe provides a new understanding of how, billions of years ago, the complex cell types that comprise plants, fungi, but also animals and humans, evolved from simple microbes, according to a new paper.
Cells are the basic building blocks of all life on our planet. Yet, whereas the cells of bacteria and other microbes are small and simple, all visible life, including us humans, is generally made up of large and complex cell types.
The origin of these complex cell types has long been a mystery to the scientific community, but now researchers writing in Nature detail discovery of a new group of microorganisms that represents a missing link in the evolutionary transition from simple to complex cells.

MESSENGER Revealed Mercury's Magnetic Field Secrets As A Last Science Gift

MESSENGER Revealed Mercury's Magnetic Field Secrets As A Last Science Gift

New data from the spacecraft that orbited Mercury for four years before crashing into the planet a week ago reveals Mercury's magnetic field is almost four billion years old. The discovery helps scientists piece together the history of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun and one about which we knew very little before MESSENGER. 
NASA's MESSENGER probe left Earth in 2004, reached Mercury in 2008 and has orbited the planet since 2011, sending data back .  Researchers used data obtained by MESSENGER in the fall of 2014 and 2015 when the probe flew incredibly close to the planet's surface - at altitudes as low as 15 kilometers, and a new study detailing the planet's ancient magnetic field was published in Science Express.

Generic Transplant Drugs Are Fine, But Patients Still Worry

Generic Transplant Drugs Are Fine, But Patients Still Worry

Generic drugs are the same as a name brand. The only difference is that a generic company does not research or clinical trials and since the product is outside patent, they only have the cost of manufacturing, so costs are lower and the product is cheaper.
Yet we are increasingly in a precautionary principle world, in everything from vaccines to food, so it is little surprise that patients prefer name brand drugs more. Though large pharmaceutical companies are being attacked in a culture war, they are still considered more trustworthy than a generic, which most people equate with lower quality materials.

What Would Optimus Prime Do? 3 Important Leadership Lessons Transformers Taught 1980s Kids

What Would Optimus Prime Do? 3 Important Leadership Lessons Transformers Taught 1980s Kids

According to a new paper, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the impact of Saturday morning cartoons, in particular the popular 1980s cartoon series "The Transformers", and what it did to shape children's perceptions of what behaviors are associated with effective leadership.
"The Transformers" started in 1984 with a toy line of transforming factions of alien robots fighting a civil war that spread to Earth -- the "good" Autobots, seeking peace, and the "bad" Decepticons, vying for galactic domination. The franchise has grown to include animation, comic books, video games and films, grossing more than $1 billion, whereas their competitors at the time, the Go-Bots, have been left behind.

Ethanol Refining Linked To More Pollutants Than Previously Thought

Ethanol Refining Linked To More Pollutants Than Previously Thought

Ethanol fuel refineries could be releasing much larger amounts of some ozone-forming compounds into the atmosphere than previous estimates. 
Ethanol, a government mandated and subsidized renewable transportation fuel made from corn, now constitutes approximately 10 percent of the fuel used in gasoline vehicles in the U.S., according to the new study. The renewable fuel mandate was a successful environmental effort to increase the use of ethanol and other renewable fuels aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and petroleum imports, while encouraging development and expansion of the U.S. renewable fuels sector, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Neuronal Network 3-D Models Reveal Organizational Principles Of Sensory Cortex

Neuronal Network 3-D Models Reveal Organizational Principles Of Sensory Cortex

Researchers have succeeded in reconstructing the neuronal networks that interconnect the elementary units of sensory cortex, called cortical columns. A key challenge in neuroscience research is identifying organizational principles of how the brain integrates sensory information from its environment to generate behavior. One of the major determinants of these principles is the structural organization of the highly complex, interconnected networks of neurons in the brain.
To help, researchers constructed anatomically-realistic 3D models of such neuronal networks in the rodent brain. 

Mutations In 2 Genes Linked To Familial Pulmonary Fibrosis And Telomere Shortening

Mutations In 2 Genes Linked To Familial Pulmonary Fibrosis And Telomere Shortening

Mutations in two genes cause a fatal lung scarring disease known as familial pulmonary fibrosis and can cause excessive shortening of the ends of chromosomes, known as telomeres. Telomeres are repetitive sequences of DNA that protect the ends of chromosomes from deteriorating. Think of them like the plastic ends of shoelaces, which protect shoelaces from fraying. 

5 Ways To Keep Marijuana Out Of The Hands Of Kids

5 Ways To Keep Marijuana Out Of The Hands Of Kids

As the realities of legalized marijuana take hold in four states and the District of Columbia, legislators and regulators could learn a lot from the successes (and failures) of the tobacco and alcohol industries in keeping their harmful products out of the hands of children and adolescents.

Insomnia Linked To Greater Pain Sensitivity

Insomnia Linked To Greater Pain Sensitivity

People with insomnia and other sleep problems also report increased sensitivity to pain, reports a new study.
The study included more than 10,400 adults from a large, ongoing Norwegian health study. Each subject underwent a standard test of pain sensitivity--the cold pressor test--in which subjects are asked to keep their hand submerged in a cold water bath.The effect on pain tolerance appears strongest in people who suffer from both insomnia and chronic pain, who may benefit from treatments targeting both conditions.  

Thinspirational Images On Social Media: Motivation Or Harmful?

Thinspirational Images On Social Media: Motivation Or Harmful?

America is the fattest developed country on earth and psychologists say that positive images and societal reinforcement make losing weight easier - obese people are more likely to have obese friends and family, the same way alcoholics and drug addicts do.Yet such 'thinspiration' images are also considered body shaming of overweight people by some. The 'Objectification' hypothesis of cultural body standards goes both ways.The Social Cognitive hypothesis also proposes that people learn from modeled behaviors and that 'thinspiration' content may be particularly important because such pictures are likely to get more positive reinforcement than unflattering pictures.