For The Better

Why do we need sleep? New research takes a step towards solving this mystery by discovering a mechanism of sleep in zebrafish, with some supporting evidence in mice.

Researchers are using generative adversarial networks (GANs) — technology best known for creating deepfake videos and photorealistic human faces — to improve brain-computer interfaces for people with disabilities. The team successfully taught an AI t…

Cells in your body cannot see, but they can feel their surroundings and their own shape. Scientists now showed via both – experiments and theory – how cells can sense the curvature of tissue around them and how this influences their inner workings.

Scientists have used glowing chemicals and other techniques to create a 3D map of the blood vessels and self-renewing ‘stem’ cells that line and penetrate a mouse skull. The map provides precise locations of blood vessels and stem cells that scientists…

Researchers have new evidence that could help rapidly boost efforts to scale-up the adoption of clean cooking with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in sub-Saharan Africa. The new study suggests that supply-side interventions such as shortening the distanc…

Safe, cheap and sustainable technology for energy storage has been developed. It is based on two major breakthroughs: the manufacture of wood-based electrodes in rolled form, and a new type of water-based electrolyte.

Bubbles are common in nature and can form when ocean waves break and when raindrops impact surfaces. When bubbles burst, they send tiny jets of water and other materials into the air. A new study examines how the interplay between bubble surfaces and w…

Immune checkpoint inhibitors strengthen the immune response against cancer cells, but the medications are ineffective against certain tumors. Results from a new clinical trial indicate that adding radiation may overcome this resistance to immune checkp…

An international research team has developed a new imaging technology. In the future this technology could not only improve the resolution of neutron measurements by many times but could also reduce radiation exposure during x-ray imaging.

Researchers conducted a head-to-head test of the second-generation vaccine CV2CoV compared with CVnCoV. The scientists assessed the vaccines’ ability to provoke an immune response as well as their protective efficacy against COVID-19 in non-human prima…

Joining the global effort to curb air pollution, researchers have developed computational tools to accurately assess the footprint of certain organic atmospheric pollutants. Their simulation could help government agencies keep a closer check on human-m…

The heady days of rapidly rising prosperity may be coming to an end, according to an interdisciplinary group of scientists. Developed democracies in particular look to be first in line for a long-run economic slowdown through the 21st century, and that…

Both rare and commonly observed differences in the DNA letters strung along a person’s chromosomes can explain about a third of the risk for being diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), according to a new study.

An active metabolite of vitamin D (not the over-the-counter version) is involved in shutting down inflammation, new research shows.

Companies in the digital technology industry are significantly underreporting the greenhouse gas emissions arising along the value chain of their products. Across a sample of 56 major tech companies surveyed, more than half of these emissions were excl…

Two-dimensional MXene has been a rising star in the energy world as this material can store energy fast. But their unstable voltage output limits their applications. A collaborative research team has recently developed battery-like electrochemical Nb2C…

Alexander disease is a progressive and rare neurological disorder with no cure or standard course of treatment. But a new study involving a rat model of the disease offers a potential treatment for the typically fatal condition.

Broad-based scientific team from government, academia and industry joins forces to identify new opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of polyurethane — one of the most widely used but little recycled plastic materials.

Some ancestral rodents likely had repeated infections with SARS-like coronaviruses, leading them to acquire tolerance or resistance to the pathogens, according to new research. This raises the possibility that modern rodents may be reservoirs of SARS-l…

Physicists have confirmed that as atoms are chilled and squeezed to extremes, their ability to scatter light is suppressed, making them less visible. The findings show the Pauli exclusion principle, or Pauli blocking, applies not just to electrons but …