31 December, 2018

French physicists conclude that the unique taste and aroma of champagne is due to the fluid dynamics of the CO2 bubbles


Eight-dimensional octonions may hold the clues to solve fundamental mysteries.


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Eight-dimensional octonions may hold the clues to solve fundamental mysteries.

Intellectual curiosity and confidence made children more adept to take on math and reading than diligence and perseverance, suggesting that children’s personalities may influence how they perform in math and reading, according to a new study.


Geologists have used a new technique to measure the age of cobalt-copper ore in Central Africa—showing the deposits are 150 million years younger than previously thought. The findings could lead to the discovery of more sources of cobalt around the world.


Cannabis resin and herbal cannabis have significantly increased in potency and in price from 2006 to 2016, according to the first study to investigate changes in cannabis across Europe.


Cobra cannibalism more prevalent than previously thought. Researchers found that every cannibalism event found in Cape cobras was a male eating another male. Suggesting the practice might have come secondary to fights over resources or mating.


The established colonies of invasive tawny crazy ants in the United States found to be more genetically similar. Thus, the colonies lack rigid boundaries and display less aggression towards each other forming supercolonies that each span up to 2000 km.


Health data standards and practices make it hard to apply machine learning effectively (BMJ Editorial)


Why being fit for surgery makes all the difference


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Why being fit for surgery makes all the difference

Male birds sing less to females on antidepressants. The researchers studied the birds at sewage works where they flock to feed all year round. The worms, maggots and flies at sewage treatment plants have been found to contain many different pharmaceuticals, including Prozac.


Scientists Just Melted a Hole Through 3,500 Feet of Ice to Reach a Mysterious Antarctic Lake


How ancient DNA may rewrite prehistory in India


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How ancient DNA may rewrite prehistory in India

Political scientists qualify the perception of Hitler as one of the most influential speakers in history through their extensive analysis of Adolf Hitler's election campaign appearances and election results between 1927 and 1933.


Psychedelic Mushrooms: Oregon Considering Legalizing Psilocybin


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Psychedelic Mushrooms: Oregon Considering Legalizing Psilocybin

Previous research has found that messages with moral-emotional words are more likely to go viral on social media. Now, a new study on the diffusion of political messages on Twitter has found that conservatives — including Donald Trump — enjoyed a greater moral contagion effect than liberals in 2016.


A study of 175 years of stock market activity reveals innovation and speculation drives bubble activity. The study is the first to look at the occurrence of bubbles in association with a large set of specific innovations introduced across nearly two centuries


Up to 93% of green turtle hatchlings could be female by 2100, as climate change causes “feminisation” of the species, new research published on 19 December 2018 suggests.


30 December, 2018

Having seven or fewer alcoholic drinks a week was associated with increased survival in older adults with newly diagnosed heart failure compared with patients who abstained from alcohol after accounting for other potential mitigating factors.


Polycystic ovary syndrome could be triggered for AMH hormone before birth


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Polycystic ovary syndrome could be triggered for AMH hormone before birth

New research, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, found that higher levels of physical activity boost mood and energy levels. The benefits were particularly noticeable in people with bipolar disorder.


‘For 30 years I’ve been obsessed by why children get leukaemia. Now we have an answer’ Newly knighted cancer scientist Mel Greaves explains why a cocktail of microbes could give protection against disease


Your brain rewards you twice when you eat, finds new research: first when the food is ingested and again when the food reaches the stomach. The study highlights interactions between the brain and digestive system, and might provide a clue as to why we sometimes overeat the food we crave most.


Chinese scientist who allegedly created the first genetically engineered babies is being detained


Isaac Asimov predicts 2019 in 1984


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Isaac Asimov predicts 2019 in 1984

In three days New Horizons will fly within 2,220 miles of #UltimaThule, an object ~1 billion miles past Pluto.


A made-in-Singapore solution to the world's plastic waste problem


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A made-in-Singapore solution to the world's plastic waste problem

Isotretinoin, a form of vitamin A, reduces oil production in the skin, which helps prevent acne from forming. But new research has uncovered a previously unknown benefit of the medication. It shifts the skin microbiome of acne patients to more closely resemble that of people with normal skin.


Research reveals dangerous midlife switch of ditching activity to sit still. People in the study who were between the ages of 38 and 50 dropped their activity rates over the next decade by an average of a half an hour a day and replaced it with doing something sedentary.


Parents who positively engage with their children during play time — and gently steer them to clean up afterward — may help toddlers with low-self regulation have lower body mass indexes (BMIs) later on as preschoolers.


Long-term exercise, particularly moderate intensity, performed 2 to 3 times per week, is associated with a reduction in falls, injurious falls, and probably fractures in older adults, finds a new meta-analysis of 40 long-term randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of 21,868 participants.


An effortless way to improve your memory


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An effortless way to improve your memory

‘For 30 years I’ve been obsessed by why children get leukaemia. Now we have an answer’ | Science | The Guardian


Men with borderline personality disorder, who are prone to becoming furious at small provocations due to so-called “fast emotional biases” that lead them to overreact, may have deficiencies in the area of the brain known as the lateral prefrontal cortex, finds a new brain imaging study.


Tweets that included a combination of moral and emotional words tended to have more retweets, not just emotional language by itself, suggesting that the inclusion of moral language was key, based on a new study of tweets sent by politicians leading up to the 2016 election.


Evaluating the causes of cost reduction in photovoltaic modules


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Evaluating the causes of cost reduction in photovoltaic modules

News analysis of the Chinese CRISPR babies: This could cause a genetic arms race, super soldiers, longevity, and more... Please have a read and discuss some of the ideas explored in the article, more discussions of this sort need to be had from now on.


Ibuprofen alters human testicular physiology to produce a state of compensated hypogonadism. - PubMed


29 December, 2018

Researchers found that increases in physical activity tended to be followed by increases in mood and perceived energy level. This beneficial effect was even more pronounced for a subset of the study subjects who had bipolar disorder.


According to a new study, higher levels of physical activity enhances mood and energy levels alleviating depressive symptoms, significantly in individuals with bipolar disorder.


Scientists extract record of Earth's magnetic field changes from Iron Age African burnt clay huts, which locked in a record of the magnetic field from those times - results confirm the current 'South Atlantic Anomaly' has happened before as well


When younger adults make financial decisions on behalf of others, they take more risks even when the decisions put the others at a disadvantage. For seniors, they make similar choices for themselves and when they act for others, finds a new Singaporean study.


Distinguishing between students who guess and those who know - Measuring the knowledge of students in online courses poses a number of challenges. Researchers have made improvements to the model for assessing academic achievements.


Scientists have discovered two successful therapies that slowed the progression of pediatric leukemia in mice. The next step will be to combine the treatments from the past two years of research into a pediatric leukemia “super drug” to test on humans in a clinical trial.


A study has found that changes in relationships have links to physical activity. Being male or female seems to change the impact. n the study, 1051 participants had valid pedometer data in 2007 and 2011.


Researchers have devised a new model for the Universe - one that may solve the enigma of dark energy. Their new article, published in Physical Review Letters, proposes a new structural concept for a universe that rides on an expanding bubble in an additional dimension.


Scientists developed a new method using a dirhodium catalyst to make an inert carbon-hydrogen bond reactive, turning cheap and abundant hydrocarbon with limited usefulness into a valuable scaffold for developing new compounds — such as pharmaceuticals and other fine chemicals.


Hundreds of meters below the ocean’s surface, giant waves of warm water are surging up into Greenland’s fjords, coming in contact with the ice sheet and causing melting even in winter.


NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft heads for New Year’s encounter with distant world


Researchers have devised a new model for the Universe - one that may solve the enigma of dark energy. Their new article, published in Physical Review Letters, proposes a new structural concept, including dark energy, for a universe that rides on an expanding bubble in an additional dimension.


Bees can count with just four nerve cells in their brains. Researchers propose that this clever behaviour makes the complex task of counting much easier, allowing bees to display impressive cognitive abilities with minimal brainpower.