How does your brain know when to take a breath, stabilize your blood pressure, or fight off an infection? The answer lies in interoception, a lesser-known process through which the nervous system constantly monitors the body’s internal signals to keep essential functions running. Now, a collaborative team from Scripps Research and the Allen Institute has…
Some inherited diseases, including cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, and Tay Sachs disease, involve multiple genetic mutations within a person’s DNA. Even two individuals with the same condition may have different sets of mutations. Because of this complexity, creating gene therapies that work broadly across all patients with a given disorder has been extremely difficult. A New…
For the first time, scientists have directly witnessed a subduction zone — the place where one tectonic plate plunges beneath another — in the midst of breaking apart. The finding, published in Science Advances, provides an unprecedented view of how Earth’s surface changes over time and adds new insight into the potential for future earthquakes…
If you’ve never kept a reptile, you might be surprised to learn that many of them actually “pee” in crystal form. In a study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers examined the solid urine of more than 20 different reptile species and found that all contained tiny spheres made of uric…
For the first time, researchers at Tel Aviv University have predicted what might be discovered by detecting radio waves that originated in the early Universe. Their results suggest that during the “cosmic dark ages,” dark matter gathered into dense clumps across space, pulling in hydrogen gas that emitted intense radio waves. This new approach could…
Deep within your gut lives a bustling world of microbes, each playing a role in digesting your food. Among them is one unusual microbe that produces methane — a gas more often associated with cows and landfills than humans. According to new research from Arizona State University (ASU), this methane-making microorganism may influence how many…
Having lower cholesterol levels may help protect against dementia, according to a large-scale international study led by the University of Bristol. The research, involving data from more than one million participants, found that people with genetic traits that naturally reduce cholesterol are less likely to develop dementia. The work was led by Dr. Liv Tybjærg…
An international team of paleontologists has identified a previously unknown dinosaur species named Khankhuuluu, believed to be the closest-known ancestor of the giant Tyrannosaurs. The discovery, led by Jared Voris and Dr. Darla Zelenitsky from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Science, has been published in Nature. Voris, a PhD candidate in the Department of…
For the first time, researchers have directly seen and measured the protein clusters thought to spark Parkinson’s disease, marking a major milestone in understanding the world’s fastest-growing neurological condition. These microscopic clusters, known as alpha-synuclein oligomers, have long been suspected as the starting point for Parkinson’s, but they have remained undetectable in human brain tissue…
After spending six months exploring the rugged landscapes of New Guinea, a young Czech doctoral student from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the University of South Bohemia has made an extraordinary find. František Vejmělka is the first researcher to observe and scientifically document Mallomys istapantap in its natural environment. This…
