Science Alert
Did the prevalence of gonorrhea in early humans lead to long-living and protective grandmothers?
The arms race between the human immune system and gonorrhea might have had the useful side effect of promoting healthy ...
What causes ‘growing pains’? Little is known about this childhood rite of passage
The term 'growing pains' has been used for hundreds of years to describe aching sensations many children experience in the ...
What’s in our genes that explains why some lifelong smokers never get cancer?
Without a doubt, the safest way to protect yourself against lung cancer is to avoid smoking cigarettes, and yet, at ...
South Korean twins separated early in life suggest environment may play larger role in human differences than previously thought
Researchers have taken advantage of a rare opportunity to study identical (aka monozygotic) twins who were separated early in life, ...
Could a simple blood test reveal risks of developing some mental illnesses?
Mental health disorders including depression, schizophrenia, and anorexia show links to biological markers detected in routine blood tests, according to ...
3 million base pairs: Human genome now fully mapped
Scientists have filled in millions of missing pieces of human DNA, yielding the most complete, gapless sequence of the human ...
Why ‘better looking’ people may be genetically programmed to be healthier as well
An extensive new study has found evidence that links physical attractiveness to the functioning of the immune system. While there ...
Totally paralyzed but able to walk? Spinal cord implants and electrical stimulation performing miracles
In 2017, Michel Roccati was in a motorbike accident that left his lower body completely paralyzed. In 2020, he walked ...
Moderate drinking is good for your health? Massive study of 333,000 people challenges belief that a few drinks a week protects you from heart problems
Red wine has antioxidants, we've been told, so a few glasses are apparently 'good for you'. Other studies have suggested ...
It’s alive! 3-D printers can produce biological blobs for medical and industrial uses
In a new study, scientists have outlined a new type of 'living ink' or bioink made from programmed Escherichia coli ...
Viagra could cut risk of Alzheimer’s disease by as much as 70%
Usage of the medication sildenafil – better known to most as the brand-name drug Viagra – is associated with dramatically ...
98.6°F: American body temperatures have been dropping for 200 years. Why?
Early last year, researchers in the United States combed Civil War veteran records and national health surveys and found temperatures ...
Theory of mind debate: At what age do children fully comprehend how others see the world?
For decades now, psychologists have largely agreed that a human child acquires a ‘theory of mind’ during preschool. Experiments indicate ...
There are 7,000 spoken languages — and almost all share certain structural elements. Could that be driven by genetics?
There are around 7,000 human languages that we know of worldwide, and while they're all unique, they're also more similar ...
How a blobby, brainless, bright yellow slime mold is redefining our understanding of human cognition
This slime mold species has thrived, more or less unchanged, for a billion years in its damp, decaying habitats. And, ...
How tall will your children be? Here are the nature versus nurture factors
We often consider our height as being unchangeable, determined by our genetic make-up from when we were conceived. After all, ...
Is Emotional Intelligence a real and measurable quality?
Emotional intelligence, the ability to regulate and perceive emotions, is the subject of much debate amongst scientists and the public ...
Dunbar’s number: Is the human brain’s capacity for friends really limited to 150?
It's called Dunbar's number: an influential and oft-repeated theory suggesting the average person can only maintain about 150 stable social ...
Video: What the lungs of newborns look like when they take their first breaths
[U]sing a delicate sensor-belt wrapped around the chests of full-term newborns moments after their delivery, a team of researchers from ...
Video: Developing embryos show an immune response
Incredible new research has shown that long before the development of organs or specialized immune cells, this simple protective layer, ...
Are we headed toward developing a super-intelligent AI…that could spin out of control?
The idea of artificial intelligence overthrowing humankind has been talked about for many decades, and scientists have just delivered their ...
Could Alzheimer’s actually be three different diseases?
Postmortem, RNA sequencing has revealed three major molecular subtypes of [Alzheimer’s] disease, each of which presents differently in the brain ...
People with certain DNA sequences are much likelier to get severe COVID. Is that you?
A new study of thousands of COVID-19 patients has revealed eight genetic sequences that are more common in people who ...
Does being born first help in life? Yes, but just a little bit
An analysis of a longitudinal study that tracked 3,763 Americans across 50 years found no evidence that birth order is linked to the ...
New tool allows researchers to map complexity and intensity of dreams
Before the twenty-first century, we used to think dreams only occurred during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, but more recent ...
Gynandromorph: Spectacular bird found with male plumage on one side and female on the other
Split down the middle, with one side flaunting yellow 'wing pits', and the other side rocking a pink underwing, researchers ...
Have humans hit an evolutionary wall? Top scientists offer their views
Our Stone Age ancestors who were faster runners avoided being trampled by mammoths and were more likely to have children ...
Freud was right – dreams are a distorted continuation of reality
Whereas ancient civilisations may have interpreted dreams as having supernatural or spiritual origins, in modern society, we're more likely to ...
