Curated News: Featured: DailyWire

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A giant cloud escaping from a warm, Neptune-mass exoplanet is reported in this week’s Nature. Depicted in an image by Mark Garlick and issued by the University of Warwick, it has been suggested that low-mass exoplanets orbiting close to their parent stars could have had some fraction of their atmospheres ‘burnt off’ by extreme irradiation from the star, but confident measures of such losses have been lacking until now.

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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered an immense cloud of hydrogen dispersing from a warm, Neptune-sized planet orbiting a nearby star. The enormous comet-like tail of the planet is about 50 times the size of the parent star. The findings will be published in the June 25 issue of the journal Nature.

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Ten weeks of intensive reading intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder was enough to strengthen the activity of loosely connected areas of their brains that work together to comprehend reading, University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have found.

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In late 2013, when the neutron star at the heart of one of our galaxy’s oddest supernovae gave off a massive burst of X-rays, the resulting echoes — created when the X-rays bounced off clouds of dust in interstellar space — yielded a surprising new measuring stick for astronomers.

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The same gene that creates elaborate head crests in domestic rock pigeons also makes head and neck feathers grow up instead of down in domesticated doves to give them head crests, although theirs are much simpler and caused by a different mutation, University of Utah researchers found.

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Scientists working to find treatments for a rare and severe form of diabetes known as Wolfram syndrome have identified a gatekeeper in cells that prevents harmful molecules from spilling and triggering cell death. The researchers, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, also have found that the gatekeeper — an enzyme — may be a good treatment target not only for diabetes but for heart problems, Parkinson’s disease and other disorders.

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Our brains track moving objects by applying one of the algorithms your phone’s GPS uses, according to researchers at the University of Rochester. This same algorithm also explains why we are fooled by several motion-related optical illusions, including the sudden “break” of baseball’s well known “curveball illusion.”

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A team of researchers from Stony Brook University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) have discovered 854 “ultra-dark galaxies” in the Coma Cluster by analyzing data from the 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope. The new discovery, published in the June 2015 edition of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, surpasses the 2014 discovery of 47 mysterious dark galaxies by more than 800 and suggests that galaxy clusters are the key environment for the evolution of these mysterious dark galaxies.

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Researchers at the University of North Carolina and NC State have created the first “smart insulin patch” that can detect increases in blood sugar levels and secrete doses of insulin into the bloodstream whenever needed.

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The new study, co-led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator David Reich at Harvard Medical School and Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, provides the first genetic evidence that humans interbred with Neanderthals in Europe.

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CGRP monoclonal antibodies appear to significantly reduce the frequency of migraine in human clinical trials, potentially changing the landscape for migraine treatment. Headache specialist Sid Kapoor, MD, discusses the enormous potential -- and pitfalls-- facing the drug class' road to FDA approval.

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An amino acid whose role in the body has been all but a mystery appears to act as a potent seizure inhibitor in mice, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins.

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University of Florida IFAS researchers are building new homes for the feral bees to save the birds.

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Astronomers used Hubble Space Telescope's near-infrared vision to uncover the mysterious early formative years of quasars, the brightest beacons in the universe. Hubble's sharp images unveil chaotic collisions between galaxies that gave birth to quasars by fueling supermassive central black holes. Join the live Hubble Hangout discussion at 3:00 pm EDT on Thurs., June 18, to learn even more about these dust-reddened quasars and the Hubble Space Telescope. To join, visit http://hbbl.us/z7F .

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We can alter our facial features in ways that make us look more trustworthy, but don’t have the same ability to appear more competent, a team of NYU psychology researchers has found.

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Scientists from the UNC School of Medicine provide the first direct experimental evidence for how primordial proteins developed the ability to accelerate the central chemical reaction necessary to synthesize proteins and thus allow life to arise not long after Earth was created.

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New research conducted by archaeologists from the University of York and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in collaboration with members of Tel Aviv University, reveals striking insights into the living conditions and dietary choices of those who lived during the Middle Pleistocene some 300,000 - 400,000 years ago.

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If you get a warm, fuzzy feeling after watching cute cat videos online, the effect may be more profound than you think, according to research from The Media School at Indiana University.

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By manipulating the activity of Activin receptors in the brain, researchers were able to increase or decrease cocaine-taking and relapse behavior in animal models. The study focused on receptors in regions of the brain involved in pleasure and reward.

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Astronomers using ALMA have measured the mass of the supermassive black hole at the center of NGC 1097 -- a barred spiral galaxy located approximately 45 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Fornax

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To sort out the biological intricacies of Earth-like planets, astronomers have developed computer models that examine how ultraviolet radiation from other planets’ nearby suns may affect those worlds, according to new research published June 10 in Astrophysical Journal.

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Migraine researchers and clinicians are excited about a new class of drugs called Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) monoclonal antibodies, which are showing promise in preventing attacks in high-frequency episodic migraine and chronic migraine. Numerous studies on these medications are being presented at this week's American Headache Society scientific meeting.

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New research in theoretical physics shows that black holes aren't the ruthless killers we've made them out to be, but instead benign--if imperfect--hologram generators.

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Routine communications blackouts, between a re-entry spacecraft and ground control, can cause anxiety, as there is no way to know or control the location and state of the spacecraft from the ground, but researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China have proposed a new way to maintain communication with spacecraft as they re-enter the atmosphere. The approach might also be applied to other hypersonic vehicles such as futuristic military planes and ballistic missiles.

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Improving air quality — in clean and dirty places — could potentially avoid millions of pollution-related deaths each year. That finding comes from a team of environmental engineering and public health researchers who developed a global model of how changes in outdoor air pollution could lead to changes in the rates of health problems such as heart attack, stroke and lung cancer. The researchers were surprised to find the importance of cleaning air not just in the dirtiest parts of the world — which they expected to find — but also in cleaner environments like the United States, Canada and Europe.

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University of California, Riverside researchers argue that some of the most important developments in immigration policy are now occurring at the state level.Their findings appear in the latest installment of Policy Matters, a public policy journal of the UCR School of Public Policy.

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Climate and plant community instability may have hampered the success of dinosaurs in the tropics during the Late Triassic Period (235-201 million years ago), according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). This finding was reached by co-author Alan H. Turner, PhD, of Stony Brook University, and an international team of scientists by examining the sedimentary rocks and fossil record preserved in the Chinle Formation in northern New Mexico to investigate the environment in tropical latitudes during the Late Triassic.

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A remarkably detailed picture of the climate and ecology during the Triassic Period explains why dinosaurs failed to establish dominance near the equator for 30 million years.

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Up to 80 percent of individuals with a past history of depression will get depressed again in the future. However, little is known about the specific factors that put these people at risk. New research suggests that it may be due to the things you pay attention to in your life.

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The computer brains inside autonomous vehicles will be fast enough to make life-or-death decisions. But should they? A member of UAB's national championship-winning Bioethics Bowl team — and the team's coach, a renowned bioethicist — weigh in on a thorny problem of the dawning robot age.

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Chemists have witnessed atoms of one chemical element morph into another for the first time ever—a feat that produced an unexpected outcome that could lead to a new way to safely treat cancer with radiation.

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Led by James Hone’s group at Columbia Engineering, a team of scientists from Columbia, SNU, and KRISS demonstrated—for the first time—an on-chip visible light source using graphene, an atomically thin and perfectly crystalline form of carbon, as a filament. They attached small strips of graphene to metal electrodes, suspended the strips above the substrate, and passed a current through the filaments to cause them to heat up. (Nature Nanotechnology AOP June 15)

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A decade of work at Johns Hopkins has yielded a computer formula that predicts which mutations are likely to have the largest effect on the activity of "genetic dimmer switches," suggesting new targets for diagnosis and treatment of many complex diseases.

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New release reports correlation between incidences of rheumatoid arthritis and giant cell arteritis with solar cycles.

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Humans are unlikely to be the only animal capable of self-awareness, a new study has shown.

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From the adventures of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider to the apocalyptic drama of Fallout - new research from the University of Warwick has revealed the secret to how some of the world’s most iconic video games were created.

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Deciding how often and when to use prescribed fire can be tricky, especially when managing for rare butterflies, University of Florida scientists say. That realization stems from a UF Institute of Food and Agricultural study in which researchers experimented with pupae -- insects in their immature form between larvae and adults -- of butterflies known to frequent fire-prone habitats of Florida.

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A series of immersive virtual reality experiments has confirmed that the human brain’s internal navigation system works in the same fashion as the grid cell system recently found in other mammals.

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Brain tumor stem cells can resist treatment and regrow tumors, but scientists have identified a vulnerability in these cells that could lead to a new approach in battling deadly brain tumors.

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Adults who use proton pump inhibitors are between 16 and 21 percent more likely to experience a heart attack than people who don't use the commonly prescribed antacid drugs, according to a massive new study by Houston Methodist and Stanford University scientists.

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An international team of scientists has found that the climatic events that ended the ice age before last are surprisingly different to those of the last ice age.

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Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences report that the common antibiotic azithromycin kills many multidrug-resistant bacteria very effectively — when tested under conditions that closely resemble the human body and its natural antimicrobial factors. The researchers believe the finding, published June 10 by EBioMedicine, could prompt an immediate review of the current standard of care for patients with certain so-called “superbug” infections.

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A colorful Hubble telescope image of galaxy NGC 6503 shows bright red patches of gas scattered through its spiral arms, blue regions containing newly forming stars, and dark brown dust lanes snaking across its arms and center. The galaxy lies at the edge of what some astronomers call the Local Void.

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A research paper published in The Lancet Oncology showed that a single dose of the human papillomavirus vaccine Cervarix® may prevent HPV-related cervical cancer.

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In a study published today in ACS Central Science, a research team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison Chemistry Professor Timothy Bertram peels back the mysteries of the structures of tiny aerosol particles at the surface of the ocean. The work shows how the particles’ chemical composition influences their abilities to take in moisture from the air, which indicates whether the particle will help to form a cloud — a key to many basic problems in climate prediction.

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Brain inflammation caused by chronic nerve pain alters activity in regions that regulate mood and motivation, suggesting for the first time that a direct biophysical link exists between long-term pain and the depression, anxiety and substance abuse seen in more than half of these patients, UC Irvine and UCLA researchers report.

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A University of Maryland School of Social Work researcher joins with colleagues at William & Mary to probe a possible connection between fermented foods, which contain probiotics, and social anxiety symptoms.

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The witness on the stand says he saw the accused at the scene of the crime. Is he sure? How sure? The jury’s verdict could hinge on that level of certainty. Many decisions we make every day are influenced by our memories and the confidence we have in them. But very little is known about how we decide whether we can trust a memory or not. Cedars-Sinai researchers have identified a unique set of neurons in the medial temporal lobe, an area of the brain where memories and memory-based decisions are processed. They show that the activity of these neurons is indicative of the confidence by which a memory will be retrieved.

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The 50 hospitals in the United States with the highest markup of prices over their actual costs are charging out-of-network patients and the uninsured, as well as auto and workers’ compensation insurers, more than 10 times the costs allowed by Medicare, new research suggests. It’s a markup of more than 1,000 percent for the same medical services.

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ALMA’s Long Baseline Campaign produced spectacular images of the distant, gravitationally lensed galaxy called HATLAS J090311.6+003906, otherwise known as SDP.81. New analyses of these images reveal details never before seen in a galaxy so remote, including phenomenally massive yet concentrated clumps of star-forming material.