Startup lands $17m to advance noninvasive approach where nanoparticles act as ‘antennae’ to communicate signals in and out of the brain.
D1-and D2-expressing striatal neurons encode separate parts of a learned reward distribution, paralleling modern approaches in machine learning.
Here’s more evidence that your drinking water may be unsafe.
A new analysis out of Sweden reports that disinfecting water with chlorine creates chemical byproducts that can increase the risk of bladder cancer by 33% and colorectal cancer by 15%.
The culprit appears to be trihalomethanes (THMs), which are made up of four compounds — chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane and bromoform. THMs are found in nearly all public water systems in the US and European Union.
What exercises can future astronauts on long-term missions to the Moon or Mars conduct to help mitigate the effects of cartilage damage resulting from microgravity? This is what a recent study published in npj Microgravity hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated the health benefits of future astronauts performing jumping workouts during long-duration space missions. This study holds the potential to help astronauts, mission planners, and the public better understand the risks and strategies for long-duration space missions, especially as human exploration expands to the Moon and Mars.
“Think about sending somebody on a trip to Mars, they get there, and they can’t walk because they developed osteoarthritis of the knees or the hips and their joints don’t function,” said Dr. Marco Chiaberge, who is a research scientist at Johns Hopkins University and lead author of the study. “Astronauts also perform spacewalks often. They serviced the Hubble Space Telescope five times, and in the future, they will need to spend more time in space and the Moon, where we will build larger telescopes to explore the universe and where they will need to stay as healthy as possible.”
For the study, the researchers conducted a nine-week study with mice to ascertain the benefits of jumping exercises three times a week compared to limited movement regarding cartilage growth and sustainability. In the end, the researchers found that not only did the mice who participated in jumping exercises exhibit a 26 percent increase in cartilage compared to 14 percent reduction for the non-movement mice, but the jumping mice also displayed 110 percent thicker cartilage. Additionally, the jumping mice were found to exhibit 15 percent greater bone mineral density due to the jumping exercises.
For the study, the researchers used NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope to observe Sagittarius A* to better understand its activity. After conducting several observations between 2023 and 2024, the researchers found that Sagittarius A* exhibited near-endless flare activity, ranging from faint flashes lasting a few seconds to massive eruptions occurring every day. Since Sagittarius A* interacts with the massive disk of gas and dust that comprises our galaxy, these results could help researchers better understand the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes throughout the universe.
“Flares are expected to happen in essentially all supermassive black holes, but our black hole is unique,” said Dr. Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, who is a professor at northwestern University and lead author of the study. “It is always bubbling with activity and never seems to reach a steady state. We observed the black hole multiple times throughout 2023 and 2024, and we noticed changes in every observation. We saw something different each time, which is really remarkable. Nothing ever stayed the same.”
NASA has raised the chances of the city-killing asteroid hitting Earth once again — sparking a huge meltdown on social media.
2.4 billion years from now there will be a black hole colliding with the Milky Way.
A supermassive black hole hidden in the Large Magellanic Cloud is on a collision course with the Milky Way! Scientists discovered it using hypervelocity stars, and in 2.4 billion years, it will merge with Sagittarius A at our galaxy’s center. This event could reshape our galaxy and trigger gravitational waves! 🌌 Want to know what happens next? Watch the full video to explore the science behind this cosmic collision. Don’t miss it—subscribe now for more space discoveries! 🚀
Paper link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.
Exciting news is coming out of Baylor College in the fight against breast cancer as they announce two ground breaking advancements that could revolutionize patient care. FOX 26’s Melissa Wilson spoke with Dr. Alastair Thompson to hear more details.
Based on a systematic analysis of environmental exposures associated with aging and mortality in the UK Biobank, the relative contributions of such exposures and genetic risk for mortality and a range of age-related diseases were compared, highlighting the potential beneficial effects of environment-focused interventions.