Tag Archives: ScienceAlert

The appearance of strange ‘islands’ bristling with reeds on the drying playa of Utah’s Great Salt Lake may finally have an explanation. A vast, natural network of underground plumbing emerges from the depths, piping in fresh water that feeds mounds where plant life can thrive, according to extensive surveys conducted by scientists over several years. This opens a new window …

Severed arms and brutalized skeletal remains recovered from pits at two 6,000-year-old archaeological sites in northeastern France suggest the region’s inhabitants turned torture into a public spectacle to celebrate their victories. A study on the remains offers evidence that the severed upper arms may have been taken as war trophies, while the excessively mutilated bodies were savagely slaughtered in a …

The annual clock of the seasons – winter, spring, summer, autumn – is often taken as a given. But our new study in Nature, using a new approach for observing seasonal growth cycles from satellites, shows that this notion is far too simple. We present an unprecedented and intimate portrait of the seasonal cycles of Earth’s land-based ecosystems. This reveals …

Our bodies are colonized by a teeming, ever-changing mass of microbes that help power countless biological processes. Now, a new study has identified how these microorganisms get to work shaping the brain before birth. Researchers at Georgia State University studied newborn mice specifically bred in a germ-free environment to prevent any microbe colonization. Some of these mice were immediately placed …

An international team of researchers has discovered a new configuration of nuclear particles that decays by kicking out individual protons. With 85 protons and just 103 neutrons, the atomic nucleus is both the heaviest known to break down this way and the lightest known isotope of the element astatine (At). Astatine itself only occurs on Earth as a decay product …

There’s something about the female brain that makes it more susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease. A new study suggests that ‘healthy’, unsaturated fats, like omega-3, may partly explain that discrepancy. Compared to men, women typically have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, but in the current analysis, women with Alzheimer’s showed a surprising dearth in these lipid molecules. Related: This Mysterious …

Vitamin D supplements could help protect the caps on our chromosomes that slow aging, sparking hopes the sunshine vitamin might keep us healthier for longer, a recent study suggests. The researchers discovered that taking 2,000 IU (international units, a standard measure for vitamins) of vitamin D daily helped maintain telomeres – the tiny structures that act like plastic caps on …

A new study has identified a link between mental health and the stomach, a region of the gut rarely covered in research on the complex interplay between the central nervous system and the digestive tract. Both the stomach and the brain have a constant pattern of electrical waves pulsing through them, on a low level, and it was found that …

The rare Antrodia cinnamomea fungus (also known as Taiwanofungus camphoratus) is only found in Taiwan, and is associated with one particular type of endangered tree. Long used for herbal medicines, the fungus has now been linked to cancer-fighting capabilities through a specific kind of sugar molecule. Researchers from the National Taiwan University and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in …

This week in science: The US puts together new guidelines for blood pressure; sections of the seafloor found to be strangely upside down; the brightest radio flash ever detected; and much more! Wax moldings of faces and body parts, in jars at a museum. (Matthew Hatcher/AFP) The Mütter medical museum in the US will no longer accept donations of unidentified …