Science News
Gut bacteria from thin people fails to help obese people lose weight in study
Changing your gut microbes may not help you lose belly fat. In a preliminary study, obese people got either capsules ...
PTSD and other psychological traumas may increase risk of cardiovascular disease
People coping with psychological trauma have a heightened risk of developing cardiovascular disease, a large-scale study finds. Researchers used national ...
Can genetics predict a baby’s risk of becoming an obese adult?
There’s a new way to predict whether a baby will grow into an obese adult. Combining the effect of more ...
Meet 5 RNA ‘movers and shakers’ including one that may protect against Alzheimer’s
RNAs, composed of strings of genetic letters called nucleotides, are best known for ferrying instructions from the genes in our ...
How mass shootings and other traumas could impact mental health, suicide risk
Two teenagers who survived the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., took their own lives ...
Why Nobel laureate David Baltimore doesn’t support moratorium on CRISPR babies
Some scientists have recently proposed a temporary moratorium on editing that would result in babies that carry heritable changes. … Science ...
Viewpoint: Esketamine promises to boost depression treatments—but we don’t know enough about long-term effects
With great fanfare, a new antidepressant entered the U.S. market in March [2019], the first fundamentally new medicine for depression ...
How does our immune system distinguish between friendly gut bacteria and deadly pathogens?
Observations in mice show that certain filamentous microbes use a hooklike appendage to send messages that researchers believe are aimed ...
Crime scene conundrum: Your DNA can wind up on something you never even touched
A 10-second handshake could transfer a person’s DNA to an object that the person never touched. In handshaking experiments, people ...
‘Humble beginnings’: Newly discovered T. rex ancestor was quite small
A new dinosaur shows that even Tyrannosaurus rex had humble beginnings. Dubbed Moros intrepidus, or “the harbinger of doom,” the new species is one of ...
Brain implants could soon join fight against severe depression
With powerful computational methods, scientists have recently zeroed in on some key features of depressed brains. Those hallmarks include certain ...
Early diagnosis of children with anxiety, depression key to better treatment
Researchers wanted to see if the movements during a scary situation differed between children diagnosed with depression or anxiety and ...
Does gum disease causes Alzheimer’s? We are a long way from an answer, researcher says
Do you floss regularly? A study published January 23 in Science Advances — and the news stories that it inspired — might ...
Sleep deprived brains might be more susceptible to Alzheimer’s
A sleep-deprived brain is awash in excess amounts of not one but two proteins whose bad behavior is implicated in ...
Inside the cave where Neanderthals and Denisovans may have shared a home
Mysterious ancient hominids known as Denisovans and their evolutionary cousins, Neandertals, frequented a southern Siberian cave starting a surprisingly long ...
Rodent-targeting gene drive could be delivered through CRISPR
Scientists are getting closer to creating a genetic pest-control measure against rodents. Female mice engineered to carry a genetic cut-and-paste machine ...
Peering into the brain: New technology allows unprecedented access to brain cells
By mixing and matching powerful advances in microscopy and cell biology, researchers have imaged intricate details of individual nerve cells ...
Whether you prefer coffee or tea may depend on your DNA
Whether people prefer coffee or tea may boil down to a matter of taste genetics. People with a version of ...
Can loneliness and isolation damage the brain?
Mice yanked out of their community and held in solitary isolation show signs of brain damage. After a month of ...
Using virtual reality to treat social anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders
Researchers have been developing virtual reality systems that help people overcome specific phobias since the 1990s. VR therapy has since ...
Good news for young pot-muddled brains. Study shows impairment is reversible
Taking a monthlong break from pot helps clear away young people’s memory fog, a small study suggests. The results show ...
Appendix removal reduces risk of Parkinson’s disease, study suggests
The appendix, a once-dismissed organ now known to play a role in the immune system, may contribute to a person’s ...
Speeding up drug research through ‘visionary’ cryptographic crowdsourcing
A new cryptographic system could allow pharmaceutical companies and academic labs to work together to develop new medications more quickly ...
‘There is no gay gene’: But study suggests genetics may play role in choosing same sex partner
In a large study of more than 490,000 men and women in the United States, United Kingdom and Sweden, researchers ...
Mystery of the mind: How autism got its start in the developing brain
Here are some of the key points [neuroscientist Kevin] Pelphrey made on how autism may get its start in the ...
Plant domestication takes decades. With CRISPR it could take two years
Gene editing can speed up plant domestication, taming wild vines, bushes and grasses and turning them into new crops. Editing ...
How do you make a lab-grown burger?
In July, [the alternative-meat] movement passed a new milestone: In a packed auditorium in suburban Maryland, the FDA convened the ...
Artificial intelligence could predict where earthquake aftershocks will strike
A new artificial intelligence is turning its big brain to mapping earthquake aftershocks. Scientists trained an artificial neural network to ...