For The Better

A single oral dose of the antibiotic azithromycin can reduce the risk of postpartum sepsis and early death among women who deliver vaginally by one-third, according to a large multi-country clinical trial.

Along the shores of Africa’s Lake Victoria in Kenya roughly 2.9 million years ago, early human ancestors used some of the oldest stone tools ever found to butcher hippos and pound plant material, according to new research. The study presents what are l…

A new system represents the first time that the capabilities of conventional beam-scanning lidar systems have been combined with those of a newer 3D approach known as flash lidar. The nonmechanical 3D lidar system is compact enough to fit in the palm o…

A large international study has identified 27 loci in the human genome with genetic variants that increase the risk of ADHD. This is more than twice as many as previous studies have found.

In a first of its kind randomized controlled trial an international team of researchers shows that caloric restriction can slow the pace of aging in healthy adults. The CALERIE™ intervention slowed pace of aging measured from participants’ blood DNA me…

Researchers have calculated the carbon footprint for the full life cycle of fertilisers, which are responsible for approximately five percent of total greenhouse gas emissions — the first time this has been accurately quantified — and found that carb…

Microexons, tiny fragments of genes that are just 3-27 nucleotides long, are known to play a ‘tiny but mighty’ role in neuronal cells. Through RNA splicing, microexons sculpt the surfaces of proteins in a highly precise manner, performing microsurgery …

Engineers report progress toward lithium-metal batteries that charge fast — as fast as an hour. This fast charging is thanks to lithium metal crystals that can be seeded and grown — quickly and uniformly — on a surprising surface. The trick is to us…

Researchers have developed a special type of amplifier that uses a technique known as squeezing to amplify quantum signals by a factor of 100 while reducing the noise that is inherent in quantum systems by an order of magnitude. Their device is the fir…