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+3 +1
Thinking in a second language drains the imagination of vividness
It is fascinating to wonder how these effects might play out in the real world, particularly in international politics. By Christian Jarrett
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+2 +1
Babies in Mexico City Show Signs of Alzheimer’s. Blame Air Pollution.
A study published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Research found symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in babies less than a year old in Mexico City—suggesting not only that the disease takes shape earlier on than previously suspected but that environmental factors may be to blame. The researchers, led by Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas at the University of Montana, investigated the autopsies of 203 Mexico City residents between the ages of 11 months and 40 years old.
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+12 +3
What if humans weren't the first civilization on Earth?
Is it possible that modern humans aren't the first civilization on Earth? This is the insanely interesting question probed by "The Silurian Hypothesis", a new paper authored by Gavin A. Schmidt and Adam Frank, two NASA scientists. As they point out, if an industrialized civilization existed in the deep past, it's not clear there'd be easily recognizable traces of it. Our geologic record doesn't go back any further than the Quaternary period of about 2.6 million years ago.
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+18 +4
The Quest for the Next Billion-Dollar Color
The trail may start with YlnMn, the first blue created in two centuries.
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+29 +8
Bold and Aggressive Behavior Means Birds Thrive in Cities
Birds living in urban areas rarely get any peace and must cope with almost constant disturbance from both humans and their pets
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+38 +8
The 100th Meridian, Where the Great Plains Begin, May Be Shifting
Two new papers find that the line that divides the moist East and arid West is edging eastward due to climate change—and the implications for farming and other pursuits could be huge.
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+16 +7
The Shellfish Gene
One strange piece of mobile DNA has spread itself throughout the oceans, claiming real estate in the genomes of clams, fish, and more
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+6 +1
Cold Temp Exposure Causes Epigenetic Changes in Fat Cells
Perhaps the enduring wintry weather that has consumed much of North America well into springtime could have some positive effects on the human body. New evidence from investigators at the University of Tokyo and Tohoku University in Japan has revealed a molecular mechanism that controls how lifestyle choices and the external environment affect gene expression. This mechanism includes potential targets for next-generation drug discovery efforts to treat metabolic diseases, including diabetes and obesity.
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+18 +5
Antarctica Continues To Melt In Winter Despite Subzero Winter Temperatures
As much as 25 percent of Antarctica’s annual ice melt is occurring during the winter months despite subzero temperatures averaging -48°C (56°F) during the continent’s coldest months
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+7 +1
Publisher Helps To Keep Sci-Hub In The Public Eye By Trying To Bully It Into Submission Using Ineffectual Legal Remedies
As Techdirt has pointed out a number of times, attacking the huge free online repository of academic papers, Sci-Hub, is wrong from a number of viewpoints. It's wrong because Sci-Hub is not a site aiming to profit from the labor of others, but is...
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+20 +3
Biologists Discover Pathway That Protects Mitochondria
MIT biologists have discovered the first cellular response targeted at helping mitochondria when their protein import goes wrong.
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+10 +3
Official: Barrier wouldn't have stopped tsunami
An employee of Tokyo Electric Power Company says even a flood barrier would not have prevented tsunami from inundating the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following the huge earthquake in 2011. The employee was testifying at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday in the trial of 3 former TEPCO executives, including former chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata. The 3 are accused of professional negligence resulting in death and injury, in connection with the nuclear accident.
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+20 +2
How Do Athletes’ Brains Control Their Movements?
A pair of neuroscientists are working with Major League Baseball to help measure the mental aspects of a batter’s swing.
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+23 +1
Earth’s mammals have shrunk dramatically, and humans are to blame
In a few centuries, the planet's largest animal might be a cow, a new study says.
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+20 +4
80 New Genes Identified in Hunt for Depression's DNA Roots
Depression affects approximately 322 million people worldwide, making it the largest contributor to global disability. However, the fact that depression is an actual illness rather than a mood is only beginning to gain traction. Advances in the genetic basis of depression is helping that happen: In 2015 scientists discovered the first two genetic markers linked to the development of major depressive disorder, and on Monday, researchers reported in a new study that the genetic link is even more profound.
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+27 +13
All of the World's Yeast Probably Originated in China
Baker’s yeast, brewer’s yeast, yeast that lives in infected toenails—they all descended from a common ancestor.
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+33 +12
Holocaust Is Fading From Memory, Survey Finds
Thirty-one percent of respondents believed that two million or fewer Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and 41 percent didn’t know what Auschwitz was.
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+32 +7
Why archaeologists are arguing about sweet potatoes
At some point, sweet potatoes crossed the Pacific. This much we know. As for the rest—How? When? Why?—we’re just not sure. Or, to be more clear, some people are sure they’re sure, and others disagree. Sweet potatoes have been at the center of a massive archaeological debate for many decades now, and a new paper has only stoked the flames.
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+16 +2
1 in 4 New York City mice carry drug-resistant bacteria, study finds
More than a third of mice examined in a new report contained potentially harmful bacteria.
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+36 +9
Birds Can See Earth's Magnetic Fields, And We Finally Know How That's Possible
The mystery behind how birds navigate might finally be solved: it's not the iron in their beaks providing a magnetic compass, but a newly discovered protein in their eyes that lets them
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+21 +7
Sitting is Bad for Your Brain, Not Just Your Heart or Metabolism
A new study reports people who sit down too much during middle to older age show signs of thinning in the medial temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with the formation of new memories.
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+23 +9
A sperm race to help save one of New Zealand’s threatened birds, the sugar-lapping hihi
Inbreeding and male infertility could be impeding the recovery of one of New Zealand's threatened birds - the stitchbird, or hihi. Hihi sperm might hold the answer, and help raise funds for conservation.
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+21 +7
Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84,000 alternative
Exclusive: 71 million people stand to benefit from reduced price treatment for virus which can lead to liver cirrhosis, cancer and death
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+37 +7
Late to Bed, Early to Die? Night Owls May Die Sooner
Bad news for "night owls": Those who tend to stay up late and sleep in well past sunrise are at increased risk of early death, a new study suggests.
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+25 +5
4 in 10 millennials don't know 6 million Jews were killed in Holocaust, study shows
NEW YORK -- More than one-fifth of millennials in the U.S. -- 22 percent -- haven't heard of, or aren't sure if they've heard of, the Holocaust, according to a study published Thursday, on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day. The study, which was commissioned by The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and conducted by Schoen Consulting, also found that 11 percent of U.S. adults overall haven't heard of the Holocaust or aren't sure if they did.
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+35 +4
‘We’re Out of Options’: Doctors Battle Drug-Resistant Typhoid Outbreak
An aggressive typhoid strain, resistant to five types of antibiotics, is expected to replace other endemic strains worldwide. It could evolve to become untreatable.
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+17 +4
Peptide-based biogenic dental product may cure cavities
Researchers at the University of Washington have designed a convenient and natural product that uses proteins to rebuild tooth enamel and treat dental cavities.
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+15 +4
We’ve found the cells norovirus targets—we just don’t know what they do
Targeting a small population of cells seems to be enough for some big effects.
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+21 +3
New Guidelines Redefine Birth Years for Millennials, Gen-X, and 'Post-Millennials'
And one generation was erased completely.
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+14 +1
The illusion of time
Andrew Jaffe probes Carlo Rovelli’s study arguing that physics deconstructs our sense of time.
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+31 +10
Scientists have figured out a way to make diamonds in a microwave
Synthetic diamonds account for a small portion of the current market, but with growing interest in ethical diamonds, that could change.
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+17 +2
Physicists Just Broke a Quantum Record, Taking Entanglement to a Spooky New Level
If we want quantum computers, we're going to need a complex system of quantum entangled particles - particles that are intrinsically linked so that whatever happens to one instantaneously affects another.
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+8 +1
Decades-Old Graph Problem Yields to Amateur Mathematician
By making the first progress on the “chromatic number of the plane” problem in over 60 years, an anti-aging pundit has achieved mathematical immortality. By Evelyn Lamb.
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+12 +2
Disastrous refurbishment turned Grenfell Tower into a 'tinderbox'
A report prepared as part of the police investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire has uncovered calamitous deficiencies in the installation of the windows, cavity barriers and cladding system, and their failure to meet building regulations. The 210-page interim document, by fire investigation experts BRE Global, is set to dramatically assist the Metropolitan police in their wide-ranging investigation. It was leaked exclusively to the Standard and recounts in forensic detail how the original concrete building was turned from a safe structure into a tinderbox by the refurbishment between 2014 and 2016.
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+9 +1
Teens May Not Know That All JUUL Vapes Contain Addictive Nicotine
That's according to a new survey of young people who said they use the devices.