Misophonia is an aversive reaction to specific sounds that emerges in childhood, most often with annoyance that quickly turns to anger. (Credit: mamaza/Shutterstock)
It was the salads that got me. On nights when my parents started off dinner with some leafy greens, I left the room. The habit quickly became a ritual, and to my family’s credit – or not – no one ever remarked on it. It was just another quirk, like biting fingernails, or sticking your tongue out when you c ...read more
This artist's concept captures the catastrophic collision that destroyed the parent body, which was bigger than any known asteroid break-up in the past 3 billion years.
(Credit: Don Davis/Southwest Research Institute.)
A giant collision between two asteroids may have triggered a global ice age that hit Earth some 466 million years ago. The cosmic crash — which took place between Mars and Jupiter and destroyed an asteroid some 93 miles (150 km) wide — created a thick plume of dust ...read more
(Credit: ValentinaKru/Shutterstock)
It’s been more than a decade since the first lab-grown organ (a more-or-less functional replacement bladder) was successfully implanted into a human body. But in the time since tens of thousands of people have been added to the organ donor waiting list in America alone.
Scientists are still figuring out how to grow organs at a scale — and price — that can meet the needs of thousands of patients a year. One of the big challenges to crea ...read more
A patient breathes into the eNose, a tool designed to determine effective cancer treatments for lung cancer patients. (Credit: Amsterdam University Medical Centers)
The newest cancer sniffer might not be as cute as a sharp-nosed canine, but it could give doctors a new way to determine the best treatment for patients using just the melange of compounds in their breath.
The eNose can detect with 85 percent accuracy if a person will respond to immunotherapy say researchers in a paper publis ...read more
The space agency hopes Lunar Gateway can serve as a jumping off point for exploring the Moon. First, NASA plans to test out the space station’s intended orbit. (Credit: NASA)
NASA hopes to put humans back on the moon by 2024, starting with an orbiting space station dubbed Lunar Gateway. And the space agency is already showing signs of prepping for the upcoming missions. Recently, the organization announced it will partner with Advance Space, an aerospace company from Colorado, to d ...read more
Cranium 5, a skull found at Sima de los Huesos and thought to be either a late Homo heidelbergensis or an early Neanderthal. (Credit: Rept0n1x/Wikimedia Commons)
There’s a murky chapter in human evolution, one that occurs right before our species entered the scene.
Over 1 million years ago our ancestors belonged to the primitive-looking species Homo erectus. Jump to 300,000 years ago and Earth is home to at least three lineages of big-brained humans: Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and D ...read more
Particles of black carbon have been found inside the placenta, raising questions of health risks to fetuses. (Credit: Africa Studio/Shutterstock)
Many of us don’t give much thought to the air we breathe. But if you live in a city, near a major road, next to an industrial plant or even just have a wood burning stove, that air is often laced with miniscule pollutants. After we inhale, those particles can lodge in our lungs and travel throughout the body. For pregnant women, this may put t ...read more
The Gemini Observatory in Hawaii caught this first-ever color image of the interstellar comet and its faint tail. (Credit: Composite image by Travis Rector. Gemini Observatory/NSF/AURA)
Astronomers are in a frenzy to learn more about the newest
visitor to our solar system, comet C/2019 Q4. While it hasn’t yet been
officially confirmed, they’re largely convinced the object originated outside
our solar system.
“I will say there is no debate at this point,” said Quanz ...read more
Adding seaweed to cows' diet would help tamp down their methane emissions. (Credit: Jan K/ Shutterstock)
Every morning, Breanna Roque goes out to the barn to feed the cows. But this isn’t your typical farm – in fact, it’s a laboratory. The University of California, Davis graduate researcher spends her time among bovines, tweaking their diets so that they burp less. Why? Less burps means less methane. And less methane, on a global scale, could mean slowing down climate change ...read more
Our blue-marble planet, imaged by the DSCOVR spacecraft. Life maintains a stubborn balance here--but for how long? (Credit: NOAA/EPIC)
James Lovelock has a lot to
celebrate. The renowned British futurist and environmentalist just enjoyed a
100th birthday party with his wife and friends. Over his long career
he has seen his once-controversial Gaia hypothesis steadily gain significant acceptance
among his colleagues. And capping all that, he has just published Novacene, a book that predicts th ...read more
