ScienceNews

Blueberry concentrate improves brain function in older people

Drinking concentrated blueberry juice improves brain function in older people, according to research by the University of Exeter. In the study, …

The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate – or is it?

Five years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three astronomers for their discovery, in the late 1990s, that the universe is expanding at …

Artificial intelligence: computer says YES (but is it right?)

Computers that learn for themselves are with us now. As they become more common in ‘high-stakes’ applications like robotic surgery, terrorism …

First working eggs made from stem cells points to fertility breakthrough

Scientists have for the first time shown that fully mature egg cells can be grown in the lab, raising hope for new infertility treatments. Until now, …

How the Universe Could Annihilate Itself at the Speed of Light

Time now for a very cute video about a rather terrible prospect—the very grim possibility of the universe spawning a lethal bubble of pure vacuum …

Three ways organic electronics is changing technology as we know it

One day, your latest gadget won’t be in your pocket like a phone or even wrapped around your wrist like a smartwatch, but stuck to your skin like a …

Who stole all the stars?

Investigating the millions of missing stars from the centres – or cores – of two big galaxies, astronomers at Swinburne University of Technology say …

After our universe’s cosmic dawn, what happened to all its original hydrogen?

When our universe first blasted into existence with a Big Bang almost 14 billion years ago, it looked much different than it does today. Instead of …

Cosmological mystery solved by largest ever map of voids and superclusters

A team of astrophysicists at the University of Portsmouth have created the largest ever map of voids and superclusters in the Universe, which helps …

In a first, brain computer interface helps paralyzed man feel again

Imagine being in an accident that leaves you unable to feel any sensation in your arms and fingers. Now imagine regaining that sensation, a decade …

Jumping spiders can hear at a distance, new study proves

While jumping spiders are known to have great vision, a new Cornell study proves for the first time that spiders can hear at a distance. The …

Tatooine worlds orbiting 2 suns often survive violent escapades of aging stars

Planets that revolve around two suns may surprisingly survive the violent late stages of the stars’ lives, according to new research out of the NASA …

New record for fusion

On Friday, Sept. 30, at 9:25 p.m. EDT, scientists and engineers at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center made a leap forward in the pursuit of clean …

Noise-Canceling Optics

Engineers at Caltech have created the visual analogue of noise-canceling headphones—a camera system that can obtain images of objects obscured by …

Physicists explore exotic states of matter inspired by Nobel-winning research

The 2016 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, three theoretical physicists whose …

The animals that sniff out TB, cancer and landmines

<i>Rats can smell tuberculosis. Dogs can smell cancer. Now they’re being trained to save your life. Emma Young reports.</i><p>In a small, hot room in a …

Eying exomoons in the search for E.T.

When I was young, the only planets we knew about were the ones in our own solar system.<p>Astronomers presumed that many of the other stars in the night …

Five-dimensional black hole could ‘break’ general relativity

Researchers have shown how a bizarrely shaped black hole could cause Einstein’s general theory of relativity, a foundation of modern physics, to …

When machines can do any job, what will humans do?

Rice University computer scientist Moshe Vardi expects that within 30 years, machines will be capable of doing almost any job that a human can. In …

Clues about human migration to Imperial Rome uncovered in 2,000-year-old cemetery

Isotope analysis of 2000-year-old skeletons buried in Imperial Rome reveal some were migrants from the Alps or North Africa, according to a study …

A metal that behaves like water

Graphene is going to change the world — or so we’ve been told.<p>Since its discovery a decade ago, scientists and tech gurus have hailed graphene as the …

Scientists prove feasibility of ‘printing’ replacement tissue

Using a sophisticated, custom-designed 3D printer, regenerative medicine scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have proved that it is …

This Prosthetic Arm Can Be Controlled With the Mind

A new kind of prosthetic limb is revolutionizing the way amputees can move. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory and …

The aliens are silent because they’re dead

Life on other planets would likely be brief and become extinct very quickly, say astrobiologists from The Australian National University (ANU).<p>In …

Weaving a new story for COFS and MOFs

There are many different ways to make nanomaterials but weaving, the oldest and most enduring method of making fabrics, has not been one of them – …

Scientists manipulate consciousness in rats

Scientists showed that they could alter brain activity of rats and either wake them up or put them in an unconscious state by changing the firing …

Black holes could grow as large as 50 billion suns before their food crumbles into stars

Black holes at the heart of galaxies could swell to 50 billion times the mass of the sun before losing the discs of gas they rely on to sustain …

NuSTAR finds clumpy doughnut around black hole

The most massive black holes in the universe are often encircled by thick doughnut-shaped disks of material. This doughnut material ultimately feeds …

Best space photographs of 2015

Large Hadron Collider sees tantalising hints of a new particle that could revolutionise physics

At the start of December a rumour swirled around the internet and physics lab coffee rooms that researchers at the Large Hadron Collider had spotted …