Cancerous vocal fold lesions could exert a subtle influence over the sound of a person’s voice, which could help catch laryngeal cancer earlier than current methods. While the distinction is impossible to detect with the human ear, scientists have found that machine learning algorithms can tell them apart. Across the world, around 1.1 million cases of laryngeal or ‘voice box’ …
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Recent generations of AI have proven handy for restaurant recommendations and writing emails, but as a source of medical advice they’ve had some clear drawbacks. Case in point: a man who followed a chatbot’s health plan ended up in hospital after giving himself a rare form of toxicity. The story began when the patient decided to improve his health by …
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Scientists may have identified a way to naturally regulate blood sugar levels and sugar cravings in a similar fashion to drugs like Ozempic. In mice and humans, the key to unlocking this natural process was found to be a gut microbe and its metabolites – the compounds it produces during digestion. By increasing the abundance of this one gut microbe …
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A tiny blob of gelatinous tissue sitting in a dish represents a giant leap forward in human brain research. Known as an organoid, it’s a living 3D model of a human organ; one of the first to constitute multiple different regions of the brain. Moreover, those regions connect up with each other and light up with neuronal activity, comparable to …
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Fast radio bursts (FRBs) last around a millisecond and in doing so encode otherwise unattainable information on the plasma which permeates our Universe, providing insights into magnetic fields and gas distributions. In a paper authored by Manisha Caleb from the University of Sydney, the team report upon the discovery of FRB 20240304B which lies at a redshift of 2.148 +/- …
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Drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro (known as semaglutide and tirzepatide) have changed the way clinicians manage diabetes and obesity around the world. Collectively known as GLP-1 agonists, these drugs mimic the hormone GLP-1. This limits both hunger and interest in food, helping users lose weight, and helps control blood sugar levels. But two new studies published today show …
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With just a splash of color, the red planet’s horizons can look remarkably like our own – blue skies and all. A 360-degree panorama, taken by the Perseverance Rover on Mars, could just as easily have been snapped in a rocky desert somewhere here on Earth. The difference lies in a subtle tweak to the color contrast. Related: Sold: Largest …
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The genes of great white sharks defy scientific explanation. An animal’s genome can be deeply revealing, but ever since researchers started decoding great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) DNA more than 20 years ago, their discoveries have raised more questions than answers. In 2024, a study confirmed that, contrary to common thought, this fierce ocean predator does not belong to a …
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Air conditioning can feel heaven-sent on hot summer days. It keeps temperatures comfortable and controls humidity, making indoor environments tolerable even on the most brutally warm days. But some people avoid using air conditioning (AC) no matter how hot it gets outside, out of fear that it will make them sick. While this may sound far-fetched to some, as a …
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Don’t let the brilliant Moon deter you from enjoying the best meteor shower of the year: the 2025 Perseids. It’s that time of year once again. August sees warm nights, with late summer campers out awaiting that ‘Old Faithful’ of annual meteor showers: the August Perseids. While 2025 also sees the shower peaking right around Full Moon; with a little …
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