SciGlow | All Science News In One Place
SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
Its authors, from Imperial College London, the Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA), and Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, estimate that strengthening smoke-free legislation between 2000 and 2016 in Brazil averted over 15,000 deaths in children under one year old. The new research is published today, World Health Organisation World No Tobacco Day, in the … Read more
Researchers from Japan have demonstrated that a long-elusive kind of laser diode based on organic semiconductors is indeed possible, paving the way for the further expansion of lasers in applications such as biosensing, displays, healthcare, and optical communications. Long considered a holy grail in the area of light-emitting devices, organic laser diodes use carbon-based organic … Read more
African mole-rats are insensitive to many different kinds of pain. As an international research team led by the MDC’s Gary Lewin reports in Science, this characteristic has even allowed mole-rats to populate new habitats. Thanks to a genetic change, the highveld mole-rat is able to live alongside venomous ants with painful stings that other mole-rats avoid. … Read more
A collaborative study led by archaeologists, geneticists and museum curators is providing answers to previously unsolved questions about life in sub-Saharan Africa thousands of years ago. The results were published online in the journal Science Thursday, May 30. Researchers from North American, European and African institutions analyzed ancient DNA from 41 human skeletons curated in the National … Read more
Led by researchers at NYU School of Medicine, the study is the first of its kind, say the authors, to analyze pollution-related coughing and breathing difficulties, and recovery times upon returning home, in healthy, young adults traveling internationally. Published earlier this month in the Journal of Travel Medicine, the finding is timely given that the number … Read more
Northern and Central Asia have been neglected in studies of early human migration, with deserts and mountains being considered uncompromising barriers. However, a new study by an international team argues that humans may have moved through these extreme settings in the past under wetter conditions. We must now reconsider where we look for the earliest … Read more
A new hypothesis for Neanderthal extinction supported by population modelling is put forward in a new study by Anna Degioanni from Aix Marseille Université, France and colleagues, published May 29, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. The lack of empirical data allowing testing of hypotheses is one of the biggest challenges for researchers studying Neanderthal … Read more
Physicists and mathematicians use the classical Stefan problem to explain the principles of crystal formation, such as snowflakes . Researchers in the University of Helsinki and Aalto University have now adapted the same principles to explain how tooth enamel gets distributed over the crown during growth. The newly published work provides a theoretical basis for … Read more
In the not-so-distant future, researchers may be able to build atoms to your specifications with the click of a button. It’s still the stuff of science fiction, but a team at the University of Colorado Boulder reports that it is getting closer when it comes to controlling and assembling particles called “big atoms.” The new … Read more
Elephants are essential to savannah and forest ecosystems and play an important role in ecotourism in Africa – yet poaching has contributed to a rapid decline in elephant populations in recent decades. An international research team has now released a study presenting a more positive perspective: Severin Hauenstein and Prof. Dr. Carsten Dormann from the … Read more