Physicists are investigating whether unexplained disruptions in the Large Hadron Collider proton beam could serve as an indirect detector for passing dark matter. According to University of British Columbia physicists Xunyu Liang and Ariel Zhitnitsky, microscopic beam-loss events known as unidentified falling objects might be triggered by acoustic shock waves from macroscopic dark matter passing … Read more
Theoretical physicists Andrew J. S. Hamilton of the University of Colorado Boulder and Tyler McMaken of the University of Mary have proposed in a new paper that black hole singularities are flat, three-dimensional surfaces rather than the zero-dimensional points of infinite density long taught in textbooks. According to the research set to be published in … Read more
Babies exposed to less sugar before and after birth face lower risks of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and anxiety decades later, according to a study published in npj Aging. Researchers analyzing health data from UK Biobank participants found that individuals whose first 1,000 days coincided with sugar rationing experienced a significantly reduced incidence of these … Read more
According to research published in Nature Mental Health by investigators at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, visceral fat—the fat stored deep around abdominal organs—is directly linked to faster brain aging and white matter damage, whereas body mass index and total body weight fail to capture these distinct neurological risks. Visceral Fat vs. BMI: Why Where … Read more
Atmospheric physicist Gourav Mahapatra of Delft University in the Netherlands and his colleagues have published findings in The Planetary Science Journal detailing concentric polarization rings discovered in 2010 Venus observations. According to the study, computer simulations indicate these invisible daytime rings may stem from atmospheric gravity waves causing 5 to 10 percent density variations in … Read more
The NASA Psyche spacecraft completed a close flyby of Mars on May 15, passing approximately 4,600 kilometers from the planet’s surface at a speed exceeding 19,848 kilometers per hour, according to mission officials. The maneuver used Mars as a gravitational slingshot to alter the spacecraft’s trajectory toward its ultimate destination, a metal-rich asteroid in the … Read more
Researchers at Northeastern University and Harvard Medical School have developed a new framework to identify existing drugs that can be repurposed for anti-aging research, according to a study published in Nature Aging. By mapping 1,250 aging-related genes onto the human interactome, the team discovered that these genes cluster around specific biological hallmarks, leading them to … Read more
Men who frequently watch television in midlife show smaller brain volumes in regions vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease and higher markers of cerebrovascular damage, according to a study published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. Researchers tracking 1,712 adults over nearly 24 years found that passive, prolonged sedentary behaviors like TV watching carry … Read more
Creatine, a cellular energy booster best known for building muscle, may soon help train the human immune system to fight cancer, according to a study published in iScience by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles. While standard immunotherapies successfully target tumors in only 20 to 40 percent of patients, the new research shows … Read more
Infected ant workers of the species Temnothorax nylanderi live up to ten times longer than their uninfected nestmates and receive royal treatment—including grooming, feeding, and transport—after consuming tapeworm (Anomotaenia brevis) eggs found in woodpecker droppings, according to a study published in the journal BMC Genomics. While the parasite radically alters host physiology to ensure it … Read more