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Most recent 10 articles
The real ‘paleo diet’ may have been full of toxic metals
You’ll be healthier if you ate as your ancestors did. At least that’s the promise of some modern fads such as the “caveman” or paleo diet—characterized by avoiding processed food and grains and only eating things like meat, fish, and seeds. But a new study suggests the food some early humans in …
Dogs hear words the same way we do
Say “sit!” to your dog, and—if he’s a good boy—he’ll likely plant his rump on the floor. But would he respond correctly if the word were spoken by a stranger, or someone with a thick accent? A new study shows he will, suggesting dogs perceive spoken words in a sophisticated way long thought uniq…
Mosquitoes armed with bacteria beat back dengue virus
NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND—In a handful of cities around the world, mosquitoes have been armed with a microscopic weapon against disease. The bacterium Wolbachia pipientis blocks the insects’ ability to spread fearsome viruses such as dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. Since 2011, researchers have be…
High-performance subambient radiative cooling enabled by optically selective and thermally insulating polyethylene aerogel
Recent progress in passive radiative cooling technologies has substantially improved cooling performance under direct sunlight. Yet, experimental demonstrations of daytime radiative cooling still severely underperform in comparison with the theoretical potential due to considerable solar absorpt…
New drug forces flu virus into ‘error catastrophe,’ overwhelming it with mutations
Scientists often warn about the dangers of pandemic pathogens spreading quickly around the globe. But one virus already sweeps across the world every year, causing tens of millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths: influenza. Now, a new drug that has shown promise in ferrets may…
Kids these days: Why the youth of today seem lacking
In five preregistered studies, we assess people’s tendency to believe “kids these days” are deficient relative to those of previous generations. Across three traits, American adults (N=3,458; Mage = 33-51 years) believe today’s youth are in decline; however, these perceptions are associated with…
Sequential replay of nonspatial task states in the human hippocampus
Electrophysiological recordings in rats and mice have shown that specific hippocampal neuronal activity patterns are sequentially reactivated during rest periods or sleep. Does the human hippocampus also replay activity sequences, even in a nonspatial task, such as, for example, decision-making?…
Pre-conception maternal helminth infection transfers via nursing long-lasting cellular immunity against helminths to offspring
Maternal immune transfer is the most significant source of protection from early-life infection, but whether maternal transfer of immunity by nursing permanently alters offspring immunity is poorly understood. Here, we identify maternal immune imprinting of offspring nursed by mothers who had a …
Fluid-induced aseismic fault slip outpaces pore-fluid migration
Earthquakes generated from fluid injections sometimes appear to occur much faster than would be expected from the speed of fluid migration. Bhattacharya and Viesca used observations from a controlled fluid injection to develop a model to understand the behavior of fluids and aseismic slip. They …
Genetically engineered immune cells wipe out lupus in mice
Lupus can be a stubborn disease to treat. Although many struck by the autoimmune condition live relatively normal lives, some suffer from kidney failure, blood clots, and other complications that can be deadly. Now, scientists have found that a novel treatment that wipes out the immune system’s …