Curated News: Staff Picks

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As Healthy Aging Month is underway this September, Florida State University researchers have found the companionship of a pet after the loss of a spouse can help reduce feelings of depression and loneliness in older adults.The study, funded by The Gerontological Society of America and the WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition and published in The Gerontologist, examined depressive symptoms and loneliness among people age 50 and older who experienced the loss of a spouse through death or divorce.

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New Cornell University research has found that people are more inclined to be swayed by positive recommendations posted online by attractive reviewers.

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A new study from a UT Dallas assistant professor affiliated with the Infant Brain Imaging Study network that included infants later diagnosed with autism suggests that all children benefit from exposure to rich speech environments from their caregivers.

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Hearing casual chatter of birds after predator call reassures squirrels to come off high alert

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Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs on the planet, had an air conditioner in its head, suggest scientists from the University of Missouri

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People with hand amputations experience difficult daily life challenges, often leading to lifelong use of a prosthetic hands and services.

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The pending deal for Altria to purchase 35% of Juul Labs should serve as a “wake-up call” for the careful monitoring of competition in the nicotine delivery market, and for evaluating how regulations and policies impact cigarette and non-cigarette firms selling alternative nicotine delivery products, says a Georgetown University professor.

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A new Columbia Engineering study indicates that the world will experience more frequent and more extreme drought and aridity than currently experienced in the coming century, exacerbated by both climate change and land-atmosphere processes.

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A new study from Binghamton University, State University of New York finds that viewing wealth and material possessions as a sign of success yields significantly better results to life satisfaction than viewing wealth and possessions as a sign of happiness.

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Late in the prehistoric Silurian Period, around 420 million years ago, a devastating mass extinction event wiped 23 percent of all marine animals from the face of the planet. For years, scientists struggled to connect a mechanism to this mass extinction, one of the 10 most dramatic ever recorded in Earth’s history. Now, researchers from Florida State University have confirmed that this event, referred to by scientists as the Lau/Kozlowskii extinction, was triggered by an all-too-familiar culprit: rapid and widespread depletion of oxygen in the global oceans.

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With wildfires from the Arctic to the Amazon, the issue of wildfires, and the resulting smoke, is in the news. Dr. Cora Lynn Sack, a UW Medicine pulmonologist, comments.

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What factors affect how human touch perceives softness, like the feel of pressing your fingertip against a marshmallow, a piece of clay or a rubber ball? By exploring this question in detail, UC San Diego researchers discovered clever tricks to design materials that replicate different levels of perceived softness.

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Researchers from Sweden, Germany, Brazil and the USA have developed a financial mechanism to support the protection of the world's natural heritage.

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New research by Vanderbilt marketing professor Kelly Haws helps explain why we match our friends' orders at a restaurant—but not exactly.

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New research finds Arctic Ocean currents and storms are moving bacteria from ocean algae blooms into the atmosphere where the particles help clouds form.

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Alcohol biosensors suitable for use by everyday drinkers are a step closer, following a positive study of prototype devices published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Keeping track of alcohol intake can be challenging, given variation in standard drink sizes and impaired awareness as blood alcohol levels rise. Discreet devices that track alcohol levels could help people make more informed decisions about when to stop drinking and could potentially reduce alcohol-related road deaths.

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Study shows link between longer NFL career and higher risk of cognitive, mental health problems Risk persisted over time, even 20 years following injury.

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A new map synthesized from more than 250 archaeologists worldwide, including from the University of Washington, argues that the human imprint on our planet's soil goes back much earlier than the nuclear age.

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The quantum internet promises absolutely tap-proof communication and powerful distributed sensor networks for new science and technology.

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By analysing the fossilised teeth of some of our most ancient ancestors, a team of scientists led by the universities of Bristol (UK) and Lyon (France) have discovered that the first humans significantly breastfed their infants for longer periods than their contemporary relatives.

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Nine-month-old brains-in-a-dish and the brains of premature newborn babies generate similar electrical patterns, as captured by electroencephalogram (EEG) — the first time such brain activity has been achieved in a cell-based laboratory model.

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Research shows food presentation can affect eating behaviors

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When Friederike Gründger and her team cracked open the long, heavy cylinders of black sediment drawn from the ocean floor, they were surprised to find pockets of yellowish-green slime buried within two of the samples.

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Crows can voluntarily control the release and onset of their calls, suggesting that songbird vocalizations are under cognitive control, according to a study published August 27 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Katharina Brecht of the University of Tübingen, and colleagues.

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People in England were using balance weights and scales to measure the value of materials as early as the late second and early first millennia BC.

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A team of researchers led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory projected that the combination of climate change and increased wildfires will cause the iconic evergreen conifer trees of Alaska to get pushed out in favor of broadleaf deciduous trees, which shed their leaves seasonally.

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A UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP) study assessed the sharp rise in handgun purchasing in 2012 after Sandy Hook and the re-election of President Obama, across 499 Californian cities. It found that these spikes in handgun purchases have been linked to a 4% increase in firearm injury in California.

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A new study, published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, suggests that the time adolescents are spending on their phones and online is not that bad.

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Caregivers of people with dementia lose between 2.5 to 3.5 hours of sleep weekly due to difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep — a negative for them and potentially for those who receive their care, according to a Baylor University study published in JAMA Network Open.

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A new study indicates that some exoplanets may have better conditions for life to thrive than Earth itself has.

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A global study comparing 2,062 birds finds that, in highly variable environments, birds tend to have either larger or smaller brains relative to their body size. Birds with smaller brains tend to use ecological strategies that are not available to big-brained counterparts. Instead of relying on grey matter to survive, these birds tend to have large bodies, eat readily available food and make lots of babies.

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Owning a pet may help maintain a healthy heart, especially if that pet is a dog, according to the first analysis of data from the Kardiozive Brno 2030 study. The study examines the association of pet ownership — specifically dog ownership — with cardiovascular disease risk factors and cardiovascular health. The results are published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes.

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Researchers from Queen’s University Belfast have developed a test that may be able to detect ovarian cancer up to two years earlier than current approaches.

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An Alabama woman suffered an internal decapitation when the ATV she was driving hit a barb wire fence. The story of her recovery is remarkable.

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With sea level rise and extreme weather threatening coastal communities, it's no longer a question of whether they are going to retreat; it's where, when and how. In a new paper, researchers advocate for a managed and planned retreat, not a short-term spur of the moment reaction to a massive storm.

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American auto companies are still manufacturing the majority of their vehicles in the U.S., according to the 2019 Kogod Made in America Auto Index, released by an American University professor.

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Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have discovered the mechanism through which ultraviolet radiation, given off by the sun, damages our skin.

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New radio wave images made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) provide a unique view of Jupiter’s atmosphere down to fifty kilometers below the planet’s visible (ammonia) cloud deck.

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An international team of researchers who analyzed data across multiple ethnicities has produced the largest genetic study to date associated with common childhood obesity. The Early Growth Genetics Consortium added to evidence that genetic influences on obesity operate across the lifespan.

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Using the largest database of real-time recordings of the effects of common and commercially available cannabis products in the United States (U.S.)

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To walk or run with finesse, roaches or robots coordinate leg movements via signals sent through centralized systems. Though their moving parts are utterly divergent, researchers have devised handy principles and equations to assess how both beasts and bots locomote and to improve robotic gait.

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34 million years ago the warm 'greenhouse climate' of the dinosaur age ended and the colder 'icehouse climate' of today commenced.

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Dozens of countries lack important legal protections against children doing work that could be harmful or interfere with their education, according to a study by the WORLD Policy Analysis Center at UCLA.

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Incidents related to methanol and counterfeit alcohol are increasing around the world. A leading international Wine & Spirits distributor is taking proactive steps to promote awareness and insure their popular liquor and wine brands are authentic and safe.

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Researchers at the George Washington University developed a mapping model, the first of its kind, to track how online hate clusters thrive globally. They believe it could help social media platforms and law enforcement in the battle against hate online.

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The growing number of children arriving at Texas schools unvaccinated makes the state increasingly vulnerable to measles outbreaks. A 5% further decrease in vaccination rates that have been on a downward trend since 2003 would increase the size of a potential measles outbreak by up to 4,000%.

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Voters may form false memories after seeing fabricated news stories, especially if those stories align with their political beliefs, according to research in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

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An international team of scientists, including climate scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, found that accounting for phosphorus-deficient soils reduced projected carbon dioxide uptake by an average of 50% in the Amazon, compared to current estimates based on previous climate models that did not take into account phosphorus deficiency.

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-- A drug used to slow cognitive decline in adults with Alzheimer's disease appears to reverse brain inflammation and neuron damage in rats exposed to alcohol during adolescence.