News
- Health & Medicine
This itch-triggering protein also sends signals to stop scratching
The TRPV4 protein’s dual nature, found in studies with mice, may complicate the hunt for human itch treatments
- Health & Medicine
Meds like Ozempic could ease arthritis
A study in mice and people with osteoarthritis suggests semaglutide can bulk up cartilage between bones, though bigger trials are needed to confirm.
- Climate
Halting irreversible changes to Antarctica depends on choices made today
Antarctic Peninsula projections show accelerating ice loss, warming oceans and global sea level impacts tied to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Chemistry
Machine learning streamlines the complexities of making better proteins
The framework predicts how proteins will function with several interacting mutations and finds combinations that work well together.
- Climate
Snowball Earth might have had a dynamic climate and open seas
Sediments from Scotland hint that ocean-atmosphere interactions continued more than 600 million years ago despite widespread ice.
- Paleontology
A mouth built for efficiency may have helped the earliest bird fly
A flexible tongue, sensitive beak and teethlike cones in the mouth may have helped Archaeopteryx generate enough energy to fly.
- Animals
Some dog breeds carry a higher risk of breathing problems
Research reveals more short-snouted dogs besides pugs and bulldogs that struggle with breathing. Pekingese and Japanese Chins topped the study's list.
- Animals
Regeneration of fins and limbs relies on a shared cellular playbook
The findings strengthen the case that regeneration is an old trait, offering insights into how complex tissues rebuild themselves.
- Physics
Physicists dream up ‘spacetime quasicrystals’ that could underpin the universe
Quasicrystals are orderly structures that never repeat. Scientists just showed they can exist in space and time.
- Animals
Some snakes lack the ‘hunger hormone.’ Experts are hungry to know why
The complex biology of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, has researchers wondering how its absence helps snakes last a long time with no food, if at all.
- Artificial Intelligence
Real-world medical questions stump AI chatbots
Subtle shifts in how users described symptoms to AI chatbots led to dramatically different, sometimes dangerous medical advice.
- Oceans
Evolution didn’t wait long after the dinosaurs died
New plankton arrived just a few millennia — maybe even decades — after the Chicxulub asteroid, forcing a rethink of evolution's catastrophe response speed.
