Starting schools before 8:30 a.m. shows a tragic disregard for both the mental health of children and for science.

New research from USC has uncovered a previously unknown genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The study provides insights on how these conditions, and other diseases of aging, might one day be treated and prevented. The research from the Cohen Lab at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology sheds new light on the protective role of a naturally occurring mitochondrial peptide, known as humanin.

Scientists say they have taken a potentially important — and possibly controversial — step toward creating human eggs in a lab dish. A team of Japanese scientists turned human blood cells into stem cells, which they then transformed into very immature human eggs. The eggs are far too immature to be fertilized or make a baby. And much more research would be needed to create eggs that could be useful — and safe — for human reproduction.

The seafloor is one of the last unexplored regions of our watery planet. On a recent expedition dubbed Deep Search 2018, a group of ocean researchers discovered 85 miles of deep-sea coral reef off the coast of the southeastern US. "Good news is too rare these days, and this is a victory that we can all share. We have found a pristine coral reef in our own backyard," Erik Cordes, the chief scientist on the expedition and a deep-sea ecologist at Temple University, wrote in a mission summary.

Mammals are unique in many ways. We're warm-blooded and agile in comparison with our reptilian relatives. But a new study, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and led by Harvard University researchers Stephanie Pierce and Katrina Jones, suggests we're unique in one more way -- the makeup of our spines. The researchers describe their finding in a paper published this week in the journal Science.

It’s the first step toward being able to mass produce human eggs using other people’s body tissues or blood.

An enormous future particle detector is now within closer reach. The first data from a prototype experiment hint that scientists may have what it takes to build the planned neutrino detector. Known as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE, the experiment will use 70,000 metric tons of liquefied argon to study the secrets of these neutrinos — bizarre, nearly massless particles that may help reveal why matter is common in the universe but antimatter is rare. DUNE will eventually detect the tracks of charged particles, including electrons and their heavier cousins, muons, that are produced when neutrinos interact.

A new type of battery developed by researchers at MIT could be made partly from carbon dioxide captured from power plants. Rather than attempting to convert carbon dioxide to specialized chemicals using metal catalysts, which is currently highly challenging, this battery could continuously convert carbon dioxide into a solid mineral carbonate as it discharges.

A Silicon Valley startup called New Age Meats offered us a taste of the world's first pork sausage made in a lab without killing any animals. Here's how the cultured meat cooked, smelled, and tasted.

Decades spent studying peer review, publication bias, and more have challenged the status quo, but journalologists say they have a long way to go

Scientists at the Cincinnati Children’s Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine (CuSTOM) are working to create the entire human gastrointestinal system in a laboratory now report using pluripotent stem cells to grow human esophageal organoids. This study could offer new ways to study birth defects and diseases that affect millions of people with gastrointestinal disorders, such as gastric reflux, cancer, etc.

Although depression is one of the leading psychiatric disorders in Germany, its cause remains unclear. A recent study at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (MPI CBS) in Leipzig, Germany, and the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University Clinic in Leipzig found that those affected by depressive disorder have a larger hypothalamus compared to their healthy counterparts.

It had been hiding in plain sight. The original letter — long thought lost — in which Galileo Galilei first set down his arguments against the church’s doctrine that the Sun orbits the Earth has been discovered in a misdated library catalogue in London. Its unearthing and analysis expose critical new details about the saga that led to the astronomer’s condemnation for heresy in 1633.

Japan's space agency (JAXA) has made history by successfully landing two robotic explorers on the surface of an asteroid. The two small "rovers", which were despatched from the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft on Friday, will move around the 1km-wide space rock known as Ryugu. The asteroid's low gravity means they can hop across it, capturing temperatures and images of the surface.

Oval-shaped Dickinsonia lifeform existed at least 20m years before the ‘Cambrian explosion’ of animal life

The latest entree to join the Army’s roster of M.R.E. field rations is a Sicilian-style slice that stays fresh for years and took decades to develop.

Targeted engineering projects to hold off glacier melting could slow down the collapse of ice sheets and limit sea-level rise, according to a new study published in the European Geosciences Union journal The Cryosphere. While an intervention similar in size to existing large civil engineering projects could only have a 30% chance of success, a larger project would have better odds of holding off ice-sheet collapse. But study authors Michael Wolovick and John Moore caution that reducing emissions still remains key to stopping climate change and its dramatic effects.

​Diets like intermittent fasting are proving wildly popular for their rapid weight-loss effects, but scientists are also starting to uncover how they might benefit the body in other ways. A molecule produced during fasting has now been found to apply the brakes to aging of the vascular system.

Physicists took a deeper look at the Leidenfrost effect, which you’ve likely experienced when you’ve dripped water into a pan to test its temperature.

We love to categorize ourselves and others into personality types. Maybe you’re a “Type A.” Or maybe the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator, versions of which many have taken on Facebook, labels you a “Protector” (ISFJ). But how distinct are these types? Is everyone clearly Type A or Type B, with no one in between? Or do people fall on a spectrum? If there’s a spectrum, are there two clumps with a few people between, or one clump in the middle with a few people at the extremes?

Hugging is a particularly intimate and intense way to express emotions. Through a hug we can convey joy or sorrow, we can say to a person that can count on us unconditionally and understand his state of mind without speaking. But the fact is that embraces not only help us connect with others and express what we feel, also have a very positve effect on the emotional balance and brain health.

The universe is filled with billions of massive celestial objects, from stars to planets to comets to asteroids. But what happens when lines start to blur between these classifications, and we just can’t place an object in any major category? Well, brown dwarfs know this better than anyone. They’re far too massive to be planets, but not massive enough for hydrogen atoms to fuse in their cores and become stars.

From making biofuels to eating up harmful plastics, fungi could help us build a greener planet. Fungi could not just help rid the planet of plastic by degrading it, but by making it obsolete it, too. Research in the Kew report suggests that naturally made materials using fungal mycelia are being used increasingly often instead of more harmful materials such as polystyrene and leather.

A new paper has taken a ingenious route towards treating cocaine addicted mice – by developing a CRISPR-powered skin grafts that produce an anti-cocaine enzyme.

A trio of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. and Canada has found evidence that suggests nuclear material beneath the surface of neutron stars may be the strongest material in the universe. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, M. E. Caplan, A. S. Schneider, and C. J. Horowitz describe their neutron star simulation and what it showed.

A study in mice hints at a new approach for thwarting neurodegenerative diseases—but many questions remain.

Scientists agree that the story of the universe began 13.8 billion years ago, when everything — all the matter and energy and even space itself — emerged from the extraordinarily hot, dense cauldron known as the Big Bang. But ask a scientist what came before that first moment, and you’re likely to get a shrug. To many, thinking about a time before the beginning of time makes no sense.

Just a cosmic hop, skip and jump away, an Earth-size planet orbits the closest star to our sun, Proxima Centauri. Ever since the discovery of the exoplanet—known as Proxima Centauri b—in 2016, people have wondered whether it could be capable of sustaining life. Now, using computer models similar to those used to study climate change on Earth, researchers have found that, under a wide range of conditions...

Humans looking back on this period of history in future will be astonished by the huge amount of plastic this generation left behind – because rubbish waste is now so prolific it will become fossilised, a scientist has said. Dr Dan Parsons, professor of sedimentology at Hull University, says that it is inevitable there will be a record of the thousands of tonnes of plastic waste we generate as microplastics are already seeping into the earth and into the food chain.

Those who take on the global industry that traps research behind paywalls are heroes, not thieves, says George Monbiot

History and literature are filled with warnings about the danger of seeking eternal life. But in the latest episode of Crazy/Genius, some scientists say that a dramatic expansion of human lifespans is within reach.

A space observatory at the centre of swirling alien conspiracy theories has asked for “patience” as it continues to be locked down. The Sunspot Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico caught the attention of the world when it was shut down by FBI agents who reportedly swooped on the facility after arriving in elite Blackhawk helicopters. It led immediately to suggestions the advanced technology inside of the facility spotted something it shouldn’t – such as proof of extraterrestrials, UFOs or even some baseless speculation that the observatory had spotted that the sun has started dying.

A strange thing has happened to men over the past few decades: We've become increasingly infertile, so much so that within a generation we may lose the ability to reproduce entirely.

Scientists are hoping archaeology, carbon dating, and tree rings together can help solve the mystery.

As a type of immune cell, it has always been considered one of the good guys. But in a stunning breakthrough in schizophrenia research, scientists say the "macrophage" immune cell can go rogue, causing havoc in the brain. "Macrophage" means "big eaters" in Greek and is a fitting name for the cell because - when behaving - it digests cellular debris and foreign substances.