Every day, around 29 million people in the U.S. take a low dose of aspirin as a blood thinner to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes. Aspirin prevents blood clots by stopping thrombocytes, also called platelets, from clumping together. Current research suggests aspirin may have another pharmacological benefit — the prevention of cancer progression.Previous studies have shown that people taking low-dose aspirin had lower chances of metastasis in breast, ...read more

We all get old. It’s a given. And the longer we live, the more likely we are to experience the decline and deficits of aging. But is there a way to slow down the aging process? Scientists think there may be, and they’ve taken some promising steps in that direction. The Complexities of Aging Sounds like a simple question, right? But like a lot of questions, it’s more complex than you might think. Aging is a complex process that scientists are just beginning to understand, explains Kenneth ...read more

By the time we notice signs of cognitive decline due to aging, it’s often too late to effectively treat it. But taking a look at the brain during the “critical window” between the ages of 40 and 59 could provide a chance to prevent or slow conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The study suggests that patients in that “window” undergo functional MRI (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). Those imaging tests c ...read more

Archaeologists have dug up a collection of mass-produced bone tools, the earliest ever discovered, suggesting that hominins systematically made tools out of bone around 1 million years earlier than previously thought. Described in a Nature study, the collection contains 27 fossilized tools that were fashioned around 1.5 million years ago. According to the archaeologists, this tool “factory” indicates that hominins exhibited advanced abstract thought early on in their history.“The tools sho ...read more

Tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets are sitting around, just waiting to be translated. It’s not an easy job; the ancient language is based on wedge-shaped pictograms and includes more than 1,000 unique characters that vary by era, geography, and individual writer.But decoding the pictograms could be a culturally and historically significant task. Cuneiform arose about 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq. It is one of four known pristine languages — writing systems with no ...read more

Earthquakes and secondary disasters like landslides and tsunamis can devastate regions, leaving lasting impacts for years. Beyond the immediate harm to individuals and infrastructure, these events disrupt essential services, alter landscapes, and place a significant economic burden on affected areas.Major earthquakes in the last two decades, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2011 Japan earthquake, and the 2023 Turkey - Syria earthquake, have highlighted the ...read more

Not that long ago, the idea of a robot performing surgery on a human was something out of science fiction. Today, it’s routine. Robotic surgery increased from 1.8 percent to 15 percent of all surgeries from 2012 to 2018, according to the American College of Surgeons. Today, it’s used for around 22 percent of surgeries, according to several estimates. And no wonder the method is catching on. Robotic surgery (more accurately described as robotic-assisted surgery) offers less bleeding, less ti ...read more

Of all the animals facing a major mass extinction event 252 million years ago, it is perhaps appropriate that frog-like creatures were able to bounce back.The amphibious nature of proto-frogs called temnospondyls provided a food-seeking edge, according to a study in the journal Royal Society Open Science.Surviving a Mass-Extinction EventConditions during the Early Triassic were harsh. Repeated volcanic activity triggered long periods of global warming, aridification, reductions in atmospheric ox ...read more

Those living in colder climates are no strangers to the occasional heavy snowfall, but few would be remotely prepared for 16 billion tons of snow dropping down in just a few days. As unthinkable as it sounds, this surplus of snow hit Greenland in March 2022 — all from a single storm.According to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, this extreme snowfall event can be explained by atmospheric rivers — narrow bands in the atmosphere that carry moisture and heat outside of Eart ...read more

Spite takes many forms. You might take a little longer at the self-checkout when someone is waiting. You might increase the TV volume when someone complains about the sound. And you might turn to conspiracy theories. According to a new study in the Journal of Social Issues, that’s a distinct possibility, as spitefulness plays an important part in conspiracy thinking. “Spite is the desire to ‘level the playing field’ by trying to knock someone else down,” said David Gordon, a study auth ...read more