News
- Psychology
People will take pain over being left alone with their thoughts
Evidence suggests that people dislike solitary thought so much that some prefer electric shocks.
- Health & Medicine
Supercooling makes livers for transplants last longer
Supercooling a rat liver for transplant greatly increased an organ’s survival time outside the body, potentially opening the door for global allocation of human organs.
- Neuroscience
Autism may carry a benefit: a buffer against Alzheimer’s
Brain plasticity of people with autism may protect them from Alzheimer’s disease, scientists propose.
- Life
Tibetans live high life thanks to extinct human relatives
DNA shared by modern-day Tibetans and extinct Denisovans suggests people picked up helpful genes through interbreeding with other hominids.
- Psychology
Tablet devices help kids with autism speak up
Talking iPads may help break the near-silence of some kids with autism.
- Environment
Plastic goes missing at sea
A survey of the world’s oceans finds far less polymer trash than expected, and researchers don’t know where the rest of the plastic is.
- Life
Near reefs, microbial mix dictated by coral and algae
A reef’s dominant organism, coral or algae, may determine what kind of bacteria live there.
- Neuroscience
Alzheimer’s disease may come in distinct forms
Mouse experiments, if confirmed in people, imply that Alzheimer’s disease treatment should be personalized.
- Astronomy
Magnetic bubbles could shield astronauts from radiation
With help from plasma and a magnet, solar storms' dangers would lessen on long space trips.
- Animals
Mysterious neurotoxin may help flatworms kill prey
Tetrodotoxin, the deadly chemical in pufferfish, could help flatworms transform their earthworm prey into puddles of goo.
- Neuroscience
Busy brain hubs go awry in disorders, study suggests
Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and other brain disorders may occur when the brain’s most active hubs are damaged.
- Life
HIV hides in growth-promoting genes
The discovery that HIV can trigger infected cells to divide means scientists may need to rethink strategies for treating the virus that causes AIDS.
