Children commonly face new, worsening health problems months after critical illness from sepsis
Even months after critical illness for sepsis, children are at risk for new or worsening medical conditions, a study suggests.
Science & Technology
Strengthening cold ocean current buffers Galápagos Islands from climate change
New research shows that a cold equatorial ocean current — which provides a buffer for the Galápagos Islands against an otherwise warming Pacific Ocean — has been getting stronger for decades. It’s encouraging news, and another reason to safeguard thi…
Chemists boost eco-friendly battery performance using catalysts with unconventional phase nanostructures
The metal-carbon dioxide battery is a promising and environmentally friendly technology, but its energy efficiency is limited. Recently, a research team has discovered an innovative way to overcome this problem by introducing an unconventional phase na…
Heaviest element yet detected in an exoplanet atmosphere
Astronomers have discovered the heaviest element ever found in an exoplanet atmosphere — barium. They were surprised to discover barium at high altitudes in the atmospheres of the ultra-hot gas giants WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b — two exoplanets, planet…
People in the UK have higher probabilities of dying early than predicted
Men and women in the UK are dying faster than predicted, a new report has found. The findings, compiled across 21 high-income countries over a period of 50 years, show that, following decades of improvement in life expectancy and in the probability of …
Smelling in VR environment possible with new gaming technology
An odor machine, so-called olfactometer, makes it possible to smell in VR environments. First up is a ‘wine tasting game’ where the user smells wine in a virtual wine cellar and gets points if the guess on aromas in each wine is correct. The new techno…
Animals in national parks impacted by even just a few people
A new study has found that even in remote, rarely visited national parks, the presence of even just a few humans impacts the activity of wildlife that live there. Nearly any level of human activity in a protected area like a national park can alter the…
Are women really better at finding and remembering words than men? Large study settles score
Women are thought to fare better in verbal abilities, especially in verbal-fluency and verbal-memory tasks. However, the last meta-analysis on sex/gender differences in verbal fluency dates from 1988. Although verbal memory has only recently been inves…
Red alert: Massive stars sound warning they are about to go supernova
Astronomers have devised an ‘early warning’ system to sound the alert when a massive star is about to end its life in a supernova explosion.
Tiny particles work together to do big things
Taking advantage of a phenomenon known as emergent behavior, engineers have designed simple microparticles that can collectively generate complex behavior. Working together, the microparticles can generate a beating clock that oscillates at a very low …