Tag Archives: ScienceAlert

Obsessive, intrusive thoughts about eating – known as food noise – can be quieted through semaglutide drugs such as Ozempic, new research has revealed, further boosting the effectiveness of these treatments for weight loss. These drugs are known as receptor agonists, triggering cell responses to mimic the body’s natural glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) hormone, and reduce appetite and slow digestion. We …

The constant ebb and flow of hormones that guide the menstrual cycle don’t just affect reproductive organs – they also reshape the brain, and a 2023 study gives us insight into how this happens. Led by neuroscientists Elizabeth Rizor and Viktoriya Babenko of the University of California, Santa Barbara, a team of researchers tracked 30 women across their menstrual cycles, …

Ghostly lights dancing in midair in swamps, forests, and even graveyards have been reported by cultures all over the world, for centuries. According to a new study, there could be a logical explanation after all: a strange form of ‘microlightning’. Often called will-o’-the-wisps, jack-o’-lanterns, or ignis fatuus, these bizarre floating flames have understandably inspired many a colorful back story. They’re …

Astronomers have discovered a stunning dual-ring system deep in the cosmos – the most powerful and most distant odd radio circle (ORC) to date. It may shed literal light on the processes that can forge these mysterious structures. In light that has traveled for 7.7 billion years to reach us, a collaboration between citizen scientists and professional astronomers has identified …

Determining the passage of time in our world of ticking clocks and oscillating pendulums is a simple case of counting the seconds between ‘then’ and ‘now’. Down at the quantum scale of buzzing electrons, however, ‘then’ can’t always be anticipated. Worse still, ‘now’ often blurs into a haze of vagueness. A stopwatch simply isn’t going to work for some scenarios. …

It’s been a tough time for sunscreens recently. Earlier this year, testing on behalf of consumer organisation Choice found several sunscreens were not delivering the sun protection you’d expect. One product claimed a sun protection factor (SPF) of 50+, but when tested had an SPF as low as 4. This triggered a series of events. Some sunscreen manufacturers paused or …

Phage therapy, where viruses are used to kill bacteria, became common in the 1920s, before antibiotics arrived to offer easier and more effective ways of treating infections. However, with antibiotic resistance now a growing problem, phage therapy might be set for a dramatic comeback. We know that bacteria are continually evolving to put up better defenses against the drugs we’re …

Burning calories isn’t the only way that exercise leads to weight loss. A new study on mice, led by researchers at Stanford University and Baylor College of Medicine, has shown that intense physical activity can also naturally suppress appetite. Scientists found the bloodstreams of mice subjected to bouts of hard exercise were filled with a metabolite called Lac-Phe. In mouse …

We spend a third of our lives asleep. And a quarter of our time asleep is spent dreaming. So, for the average person alive in 2022, with a life expectancy of around 73, that clocks in at just over six years of dreaming. Yet, given the central role that dreaming plays in our lives, we still know so little about …

A new study finds autism and schizophrenia may lie at the crux of what makes humans uniquely intelligent. “Our results suggest that some of the same genetic changes that make the human brain unique also made humans more neurodiverse,” says Stanford University neuroscientist Alexander Starr. While both autism and schizophrenia are neurodevelopmental brain differences that can have a mix of …