Natural history specimens have never been so accessible

Researchers have painstakingly taken computed topography (CT) scans of more than 13,000 individual specimens to create 3D images of more than half of all the world's animal groups, including mammals, fishes, amphibians and reptiles.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240311145734.htm

Blood-based marker developed to identify sleep deprivation

A blood test that can accurately detect when someone has not slept for 24 hours has been developed.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240310194811.htm

Pushing the boundary on ultralow frequency gravitational waves

A team of physicists has developed a method to detect gravity waves with such low frequencies that they could unlock the secrets behind the early phases of mergers between supermassive black holes, the heaviest objects in the universe.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240308142750.htm

Optimizing boosters: How COVID mRNA vaccines reshape immune memory after each dose

COVID-19 vaccines elicit strong T-cell responses, but clonal-resolution analyses of these responses have not previously been performed. To address this gap, a team of researchers investigated the T- cell receptor sequence and tracked it using trammer analysis, uncovering key insights into the dynamics of T-cell responses. This study can lead to improved next-generation vaccines.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240308123303.htm

Good news for coral reef restoration efforts: Study finds 'full recovery' of reef growth within four years

While the majority of the world's reefs are now under threat or even damaged potentially beyond repair, a new study offers some encouraging news: efforts to restore coral reefs not only increase coral cover, but they can also bring back important ecosystem functions, and surprisingly fast.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240308123248.htm

Children with 'lazy eye' are at increased risk of serious disease in adulthood

Adults who had amblyopia ('lazy eye') in childhood are more likely to experience hypertension, obesity, and metabolic syndrome in adulthood, as well as an increased risk of heart attack, finds a new study.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240307212445.htm

Interstellar signal linked to aliens was actually just a truck

Sound waves thought to be from a 2014 meteor fireball north of Papua New Guinea were almost certainly vibrations from a truck rumbling along a nearby road, new research shows. The findings raise doubts that materials pulled last year from the ocean are alien materials from that meteor, as was widely reported.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240307165128.htm

Children surpass a year of HIV remission after treatment pause

Four children have remained free of detectable HIV for more than one year after their antiretroviral therapy (ART) was paused to see if they could achieve HIV remission, according to new research. The children, who acquired HIV before birth, were enrolled in a clinical trial in which an ART regimen was started within 48 hours of birth and then closely monitored for drug safety and HIV viral suppression. The outcomes reported today follow planned ART interruptions once the children met predefined virological and immunological criteria.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240307110740.htm

More than half of American Indian youth may have abnormal or high cholesterol

More than 70% of American Indian young adults aged 20-39 and 50% of American Indian teens have cholesterol levels or elevated fat in the blood that put them at risk for cardiovascular disease, a new study suggests. In some cases, these levels -- specifically high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, often thought of as 'bad cholesterol,' -- were linked to plaque buildup and cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240306150704.htm

Consuming refined carbs might be linked to perceived facial attractiveness

In a new study, participants' levels of consumption of refined carbohydrates were statistically linked with their facial attractiveness as rated by heterosexual volunteers of the opposite sex.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240306150457.htm

Can you tell AI-generated people from real ones?

If you recently had trouble figuring out if an image of a person is real or generated through artificial intelligence (AI), you're not alone. A new study found that people had more difficulty than was expected distinguishing who is a real person and who is artificially generated.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240306003456.htm

Key advance toward removing common herbicide from groundwater

Chemists are closing in on a new tool for tackling the global problem of weedkiller-tainted groundwater.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240305204445.htm

Research explores the cooling effects of 'scuba-diving' in lizards

Anoles are the scuba-diving champions of the lizard world, able to stay underwater for more than 16 minutes. For animals whose body temperature depends on the environment, time spent in a cool running stream can have some tradeoffs, according to new research.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240305204443.htm

Harmful 'forever chemicals' removed from water with new electrocatalysis method

Scientists have developed new electrochemical approaches to clean up pollution from 'forever chemicals' found in clothing, food packaging, firefighting foams, and a wide array of other products. A new study describes nanocatalysts developed to remediate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240305165911.htm

For a healthy fruit snack, what would you choose?

Next time you're packing lunch for your kid or reaching for a healthy afternoon bite, consider this: only three types of packaged fruit snacks -- dried fruit, fruit puree and canned fruit with juice -- meet the latest recommendations for high-nutrition snacks set by federal dietary guidelines, according to food scientists.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240305165908.htm

Using light to precisely control single-molecule devices

Researchers flip the switch at the nanoscale by applying light to induce bonding for single-molecule device switching.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240305134359.htm

New method measures the 3D position of individual atoms

Since more than a decade it has been possible for physicists to accurately measure the location of individual atoms to a precision of smaller than one thousandth of a millimeter using a special type of microscope. However, this method has so far only provided the x and y coordinates. Information on the vertical position of the atom -- i.e., the distance between the atom and the microscope objective -- is lacking. A new method has now been developed that can determine all three spatial coordinates of an atom with one single image.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240305134352.htm

Shortcut to Success: Toward fast and robust quantum control through accelerating adiabatic passage

Researchers achieved the acceleration of adiabatic evolution of a single spin qubit in gate-defined quantum dots. After the pulse optimization to suppress quasistatic noises, the spin flip fidelity can be as high as 97.5% in GaAs quantum dots. This work may be useful to achieve fast and high-fidelity quantum computing.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240305134315.htm

Sweetened drinks linked to atrial fibrillation risk

An analysis of health data in the UK Biobank found a 20% higher risk of irregular heart rhythm, known as atrial fibrillation, among people who said they drank two liters or more per week (about 67 ounces) of artificially sweetened drinks. The risk was 10% higher among people who said they drank similar amounts of sugar-sweetened beverages.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240305134303.htm

Waist-to-height ratio detects fat obesity in children and adolescents significantly better than BMI

An inexpensive measure of obesity in children and adolescents that could replace body mass index (BMI) has been identified in a new study as waist circumference-to-height ratio. This measure detected excess fat mass and distinguished fat mass from muscle mass in children and adolescents more accurately than BMI.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240305134243.htm