Science Trends

Led by researchers at the Field Museum and the University of Glasgow, the study was made possible by Northwestern University's atom-probe tomography facility, which "nailed down" the age of the oldest crystal in the sample. By revealing the age of these telltale zircon crystals -- found hidden within dust collected from the Moon -- researchers were able to piece together the timeline of the Moon's formation. The study was published today (Oct. 23) in the journal  Geochemical Perspectives Letters. "This study is a testament to immense technological progress we have made since 1972 when the last manned Moon mission returned to Earth," said Northwestern's Dieter Isheim, who co-authored the study. "These samples were brought to Earth half-a-century ago, but only today do we have the necessary tools to perform microanalysis at the requisite level, including atom-probe tomography." The atom-by-atom analysis enabled researchers to count how many atoms...

  Ötzi was balding, dark-skinned and didn’t have ancestors from the Caspian steppe A new look at the Iceman’s DNA reveals that his ancestors weren’t who scientists previously thought. In 2012, scientists compiled a complete picture of  Ötzi’s genome ; it suggested that the frozen mummy found melting out of a glacier in the Tyrolean Alps had ancestors from the Caspian steppe ( SN: 2/28/12 ). But something didn’t add up. The Iceman is about 5,300 years old. Other people with steppe ancestry didn’t appear in the genetic record of central Europe until about 4,900 years ago. Ötzi “is too old to have that type of ancestry,” says archaeogeneticist Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The mummy “was always an outlier.” Krause and colleagues put together a new genetic instruction book for the Iceman. The old genome was  heavily contaminated  with modern people’s DNA, the researchers report August 16 in  Cell Genom...

A recent study from SMU psychologist Sarah Kucker and a student she mentored at Oklahoma State University suggests shyness can influence a child's performance in language assessments, depending on the level of social interaction required to complete the test. Shy children tend to be reserved in everyday life, including communicating with others. The study concludes that the behavior can make accurately assessing a child's language abilities more challenging since shy children find it harder to verbally engage with clinicians and teachers than during less socially demanding tests. The research by Liesl Melnick, now a graduate student at Eastern Illinois University ,  and Kucker was published in the  Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research , and involved 122 children of varying temperaments between the ages of 17 and 42 months. Each child underwent a series of three language tasks that required different levels of social interaction: a looking task, a pointing task, an...

  A group of international scientists have mapped the genetic, cellular, and structural makeup of the human brain and the nonhuman primate brain. This understanding of brain structure, achieved by funding through the National Institutes of Health's   Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies ® Initiative, or The BRAIN Initiative®, allows for a deeper knowledge of the cellular basis of brain function and dysfunction, helping pave the way for a new generation of precision therapeutics for people with mental disorders and other disorders of the brain. The findings appear in a compendium of 24 papers across   Science ,   Science Advances , and   Science Translational Medicine . "Mapping the brain's cellular landscape is a critical step toward understanding how this vital organ works in health and disease," said Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health. "These new detailed cell atlases of the human brain a...

  People who carry three gene variants that have bene inherited from Neanderthals are more sensitive to some types of pain, according to a new study co-led by UCL researchers. The findings, published in  Communications Biology , are the latest findings to show how past interbreeding with Neanderthals has influenced the genetics of modern humans. The researchers found that people carrying three so-called Neanderthal variants in the gene  SCN9A , which is implicated in sensory neurons, are more sensitive to pain from skin pricking after prior exposure to mustard oil. Previous research has identified three variations in the  SCN9A  gene -- known as M932L, V991L, and D1908G -- in sequenced Neanderthal genomes and reports of greater pain sensitivity among humans carrying all three variants. However, prior to this study the specific sensory responses affected by these variants was unclear. An international team led by researchers at UCL, Aix-Marseille University, Univ...

Women who engage in sexual activity weekly or monthly have a lower risk of entering menopause early relative to those who report having some form of sex less than monthly, according to a new UCL study. The researchers observed that women, who reported engaging in sexual activity weekly, were 28% less likely to have experienced menopause at any given age than women who engaged in sexual activity less than monthly. Sexual activity includes sexual intercourse, oral sex, sexual touching and caressing or self-stimulation. The research, published in  Royal Society Open Science , is based on data from the USA's Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). It's the largest, most diverse and most representative longitudinal cohort study available to research aspects of the menopause transition. First author on the study, PhD candidate Megan Arnot (UCL Anthropology), said: "The findings of our study suggest that if a woman is not having sex, and there is no chance of pregna...

Hot weather reduces workers' productivity -- even if their workplace is air conditioned, new research shows. The study, led by the University of Exeter, tracked outdoor temperatures and worker productivity at a high-tech factory in China. Despite climate-controlled conditions inside the factory, productivity dropped by 0.83% for every 1°C increase in outdoor temperature. The research team found that night-time heat (which can affect sleep) caused some of the decline in productivity -- but daytime heat affected productivity even after cool nights. It is not clear why this happens, but the researchers say their findings are a "cautionary tale" as governments and businesses adapt to rising global temperatures. "We usually think about climate change in terms of its impacts at huge scales, but it also affects individuals," said Dr Jingnan Chen from the University of Exeter. "Previous research has shown that -- unsurprisingly -- hot conditions reduce productivity...

When we're married or in a long-term romantic relationship, we may eventually come to take each other for granted and forget to show appreciation. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign finds that it doesn't have to stay this way. The study examined why perceived gratitude from a spouse or romantic partner changes over time, and whether it can be improved through relationship intervention programs. "Gratitude almost seems to be a secret sauce to relationships, and an important piece to the puzzle of romantic relationships that hasn't gotten much attention in research studies until recently. And in couple relationships, it's not just about being appreciative  for  your partner but also about feeling appreciated  by  your partner. Gratitude for couples is very interpersonal and something that is exchanged between partners," said Allen Barton, assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, part of the College ...

  Source: American Academy of Neurology Summary: People who take acid reflux medications called proton pump inhibitors for four-and-a-half years or more may have a higher risk of dementia compared to people who do not take these medications, according to new research. This study does not prove that acid reflux drugs cause dementia; it only shows an association. People who take acid reflux medications called proton pump inhibitors for four-and-a-half years or more may have a higher risk of dementia compared to people who do not take these medications, according to new research published in the August 9, 2023, online issue of  Neurology ® , the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. This study does not prove that acid reflux drugs cause dementia; it only shows an association. Acid reflux is when stomach acid flows into the esophagus, usually after a meal or when lying down. People with acid reflux may experience heartburn and ulcers. People with frequent acid refl...

  Source: Us ( Fresh Science Trends ,  https://freshsciencetrends.blogspot.com ) Most Important Browser Usage Statistics Market Share and Browser Usage Statistics 1. Google Chrome is the most popular web browser in the world with a 63.55% global market share. 2. Chrome has approximately 3.2 billion active users. 3. Safari is closer to Chrome in the United States than in Europe. 4. 92.3% of internet users browse the web using mobile. 5. 88% of mobile internet usage is spent on apps, not browsers. 6. Chrome has been downloaded more than 10 billion times from the Play Store. 7. Excluding Safari, Chrome is the most popular browser on the Apple App Store 8. QQ and 360 Safe are unique to the Chinese market with over 6% market share each. 9. Just 0.18% of people still use Internet Explorer. 10. With a 1% market share, UC Browser is the least popular mainstream mobile browser. 11. However, UC Browser is still the most searched browser on Google. 12. More Xbox gamers are using Edge th...