This is no puff piece. Researchers have uncovered the fact that a popular food dye used in Cheetos can turn mice’s skin completely transparent — making their organs visible. Tartrazine, the yellowing agent for the “dangerously cheesy” snack, was tested on the stomachs and heads of mice — with surprising results. Tartrazine, the yellowing agent for … Read more
Let’s hope this air-brained scheme never takes off. Researchers at the University of Cambridge announced a pie-in-the-sky plan to get the aviation industry to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 — by mandating longer flight times. Air travel isn’t harsh punishment enough these days, apparently — witness the recent American Airlines flight was rerouted to its … Read more
Your beer glass might soon become smaller — and this time, it’s not about shrinkflation. A group of scientists in the UK — interested in finding innovative ways to encourage the public to cut back on excessive drinking — have released findings of a study involving a dozen pubs, bars and restaurants where pint glasses were swapped out … Read more
She’s giving you a piece of her mind. Emily McDonald, an Arizona-based neuroscientist and mindset coach, is sharing four ways to boost the birth of new brain cells — a process known as neurogenesis. Most of our 100 billion brain cells were created before birth — the brain can still produce new cells, called neurons, as we age. … Read more
He really did gogh the extra mile. “The Starry Night,” the 1889 hallmark artwork by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, is remarkably congruent to the astronomic principles of our sky, atmospheric scientists recently discovered. It also alludes to the artist being well ahead of the scientific minds of the 19th century. Scientists believe that van … Read more
Michael Kahana, a University of Pennsylvania psychologist, has been studying memory for over 30 years: how it works, and what’s going on when it doesn’t. He’s not just fascinated with memory loss caused by traumatic brain injury — which affects more than 5 million people in this country — or the nearly 7 million Americans … Read more
A bee in your bonnet has nothing on a wasp in your belly. Mississippi scientists have discovered a new species of wasp that lays eggs in living flies so the babies burst out of their bellies, Nature reports. “At the time we didn’t think it was real,” the study’s lead author Logan Moore, a biologist … Read more
They can’t all be stars. Researchers using the James Webb Telescope have discovered six distant “rogue” worlds that may have peculiar origins. What’s uncommon is that none of the planet-sized bodies, all between five and 15 times Jupiter’s mass, orbit a star, as the Earth does to the sun. New images from the James Webb … Read more
This discovery is anything but Tutan-khamun. Archeologists in Egypt have discovered “the first and largest astronomical observatory,” nearly half a mile long, dating to the 6th century BC. A sundial and other items were found inside a building that was designed with slanted architecture to measure shade and solar movement, according to the Egyptian Ministry … Read more
The dodo wasn’t as daffy a duck as we once thought. Despite their dim reputation, evolutionary biologists have learned that the infamously extinct bird, hunted out of existence by humans in the 1600s, was impressively “exceptionally powerful,” according to new insights published last week in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. “Was the dodo … Read more
The scientific community has been electrified by this new theory. The inception of life on Earth may have been the result of chemical reactions sparked by lightning strikes, a new study from Harvard suggests. “The origin of life is one of the great unanswered questions facing chemistry,” said senior author George M. Whitesides. Lightning may … Read more
Cut! That’s a study. If you’ve ever wondered why even the smallest sliver of paper can slice up your fingers, you’re not alone. It’s a painful riddle that plagued researcher Kaare Jensen enough to launch a scientific study. The study showed that paper thickness of 65 micrometers slicing at an angle was the perfect storm … Read more
Wails from The Crypt? Scientists have revealed the possible cause of death for a legendary mummy whose face is frozen in a permanent “scream.” Dubbed the “Screaming Woman” due to her Edvard Munch-evoking look of perpetual horror, the crypt-ic cadaver was first unearthed in 1935 near Luxor, Egypt. “The mummy’s screaming facial expression in this … Read more
One giant beep for mankind. Scientists have proposed a radical new method for sniffing out potential alien life on other planets — send AI into space and see if any little green men respond. The science fiction-worthy suggestion — recalling the Netflix hit show “3 Body Problem” — was recently put forward in an essay published by Scientific … Read more
This will take your breath away. New research on elements found in the gaseous clouds of Venus could be a sign of life for what was thought to be an uninhabitable planet. The skies of the scorching second planet from the sun consist of caustic sulfuric acid, damning any chance for life. Or so was … Read more
WASHINGTON — New blood tests could help doctors diagnose Alzheimer’s disease faster and more accurately, researchers reported Sunday – but some appear to work far better than others. It’s tricky to tell if memory problems are caused by Alzheimer’s. That requires confirming one of the disease’s hallmark signs — buildup of a sticky protein called beta-amyloid — with a … Read more
The secret to life on Earth could be deeper than we thought. Scientists have discovered that metal nodules on the ocean floor are producing oxygen in total darkness without any aid from living organisms, which could upend our understanding of the origin of life. This eye-opening revelation was revealed in a groundbreaking study in the … Read more
They’re digitally raising the dead. Scientists put the “animation” in “reanimation” after virtually reconstructing the face of a mysterious mummy who lived 1,500 years ago, as detailed in the journal “Anthropologie – International Journal of Human Diversity and Evolution.” Known as the gilded lady because of her golden headdress, the mummy belonged to a woman … Read more
This humanoid robot has a mind of its own. Researchers at Tianjin University in China have created a robot that is controlled by human brain cells in a first-of-its-kind breakthrough in biocomputation. The South China Morning Post ominously reported that it could lead to “the development of hybrid human-robot intelligence.” A new robot runs on … Read more
Don’t count men out just yet. New research is challenging recent reports that sperm count in men is on the decline globally. In a study published in the journal Human Reproduction on June 5, researchers at the University of Manchester, Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada and Cryos International, a sperm bank based in Denmark, collected … Read more