Culture
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are among the most enigmatic and powerful events in the cosmos. Around 80 of these events--intensely bright millisecond-long bursts of radio waves coming from beyond our galaxy--have been witnessed so far, but their causes remain unknown.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - In a world of sympathetic villains and flawed heroes, people still like fictional characters more when they have a strong sense of morality, a new study finds.
Researchers found that people best liked the heroes they rated as most moral, and least liked villains they rated as most immoral.
Antiheroes and morally ambiguous characters like Walter White - the chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin in the show Breaking Bad - were more complicated for people to rate on likability.
Baltimore, MD--How do the communities of microbes living in our gastrointestinal systems affect our health? Carnegie's Will Ludington was part of a team that helped answer this question.
For nearly a century, evolutionary biologists have probed how genes encode an individual's chances for success--or fitness--in a specific environment.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Military veterans exposed to combat were more likely to exhibit signs of depression and anxiety in later life than veterans who had not seen combat, a new study from Oregon State University shows.
The findings suggest that military service, and particularly combat experience, is a hidden variable in research on aging, said Carolyn Aldwin, director of the Center for Healthy Aging Research in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU and one of the study's authors.
Beryllium, a hard, silvery metal long used in X-ray machines and spacecraft, is finding a new role in the quest to bring the power that drives the sun and stars to Earth. Beryllium is one of the two main materials used for the wall in ITER, a multinational fusion facility under construction in France to demonstrate the practicality of fusion power. Now, physicists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and General Atomics have concluded that injecting tiny beryllium pellets into ITER could help stabilize the plasma that fuels fusion reactions.
DURHAM, N.C. -- A typical child plays many roles, such as friend, neighbor, son or daughter. Simply reminding children of that fact can lead to better problem-solving and more flexible thinking, finds new research from Duke University.
"This is some of the first research on reminding kids about their multi-faceted selves," said lead author Sarah Gaither, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke.
"Such reminders boost their problem-solving skills and how flexibly they see their social worlds - all from a simple mindset switch."
Carolyn "Lindy" McBride is studying a question that haunts every summer gathering: How and why are mosquitoes attracted to humans?
Few animals specialize as thoroughly as the mosquitoes that carry diseases like Zika, malaria and dengue fever.
When governments and institutions deploy epidemic forecast models when facing an outbreak, they sometimes fail to factor in human behavior and over-allocate precious resources as a result. Thanks to new research authored by a Texas A&M University engineering professor, that may no longer be the case.
Most people know that regular exercise is good for your health. New research shows it may make you smarter, too.
Neuroscientists at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, working with mice, have discovered that a short burst of exercise directly boosts the function of a gene that increases connections between neurons in the hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with learning and memory.
The research is published online in the journal eLife.
Scientists working on unravelling the mysteries of star cluster formation have found an innovative way of sharing their work with the general public. Taking inspiration from a 19th century magic trick, researchers from the University of Leeds have developed 3D holograms that allow people to watch massive stars forming before their eyes.
Dr Anne Buckner will be demonstrating the holograms at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Lancaster on 1- 4 July 2019.
'Back to school asthma'--a seasonal peak in cases associated with the start of the school year in September--is linked to a tripling in the rate of family doctor (GP) appointments across England, reveals research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
The phenomenon seems to particularly affect the under 5s and boys, national monitoring data show.
UK politicians (MPs) at Westminster are more likely to have mental health issues than either the general public or other people in comparable professions/managerial posts, suggest the responses to a survey of parliamentarians, published in the online journal BMJ Open.
What's more, awareness of confidential parliamentary support services or how to access them is low, as is a willingness to open up about their mental health to either appointed party officials (Whips) or fellow MPs, the responses indicate.
A consensus is building that air pollution can cause neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, but how fine, sooty particles cause problems in the brain is still an unanswered question. Now a team of Penn State researchers, using mice, have found a possible way, but more research is still needed.
The researchers looked at how cerebrospinal fluid, the liquid that flows around the brain and spinal cord, flows out through the nose, and what happens when the flow of fluid is stopped.
City College of New York-led researchers have published a breakthrough in understanding previously unknown inner workings related to the lateralization of speech processing in the brain. Their study, headed by biologist Hysell V. Oviedo of CCNY's Division of Science and published in the journal "Nature Communications," could shine a light on miswiring of brain circuits in neurodevelopmental communication disorders.
People with both physical illnesses and mental disorders visit the emergency department more frequently than people with multiple physical illnesses or mental illness alone, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).