If the modern age of astronomy could be summarized in a few words, it would probably be “the age of shifting paradigms.”
Thanks to next-generation telescopes, instruments, and machine learning, astronomers are conducting deeper investigations into cosmological mysteries, making discoveries, and shattering preconceived notions.
A review on the health effects of microplastics has some scientists suspecting the worst.
The tiny synthetic particles that are found in our air, food, and water may be causing fertility issues, colon cancer, and poor lung function in humans, according to researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).
Picking out some of the strongest evidence on microplastics published between 2018 and 2024, the team has identified several health risks to the digestive, reproductive, and respiratory systems of animals.
A new study identifies 18 genome regions that influence tooth size and shape, of which 17 have not been linked to our chompers before – and shows how genetic variation affects tooth dimensions across ethnicities.
One of the variants, in the gene HS3ST3A1, could have been inherited from Neanderthals, according to the international team of scientists. It was only found in study participants of European origin, with thinner incisors.
British researchers have unearthed some 200 dinosaur footprints dating back 166 million years in a find believed to be the biggest in the UK.
Teams from Oxford and Birmingham Universities made the “exhilarating” discovery at a quarry in Oxfordshire in central England after a worker came across “unusual bumps” as he was stripping clay back with a mechanical digger, according to a new BBC documentary.
The site features five extensive trackways, with the longest continuous track stretching more than 150 metres (490 feet) in length.
People around the world suffered an average of 41 extra days of dangerous heat this year because of human-caused climate change, according to a group of scientists who also said that climate change worsened much of the world’s damaging weather throughout 2024.
The analysis from World Weather Attribution and Climate Central researchers comes at the end of a year that shattered climate record after climate record as heat across the globe made 2024 likely to be its hottest ever measured and a slew of other fatal weather events spared few.
There’s still so much we don’t know about Alzheimer’s disease, but the link between poor sleep and worsening disease is one that researchers are exploring with gusto.
In a study published in 2023, scientists found that using sleeping pills to get some shut-eye could reduce the build-up of toxic clumps of proteins in fluid that washes the brain clean every night.
Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis found people who took suvorexant, a common treatment for insomnia, for two nights at a sleep clinic experienced a slight drop in two proteins, amyloid-beta and tau, that pile up in Alzheimer’s disease.
New tactics in controlling infection are sorely needed, with antibiotic-resistant bacteria expected to claim as many as 2 million lives each year by 2050.
US and Spanish researchers have now discovered at least some bacteria pay a steep price for their resistance – a cost that we may be able to exploit to fight infection.
“We discovered an Achilles heel of antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” says molecular biologist Gürol Süel from the University of California, San Diego.For those that don’t want to read the article, they discovered that antibiotic-resistant bacteria require higher levels of magnesium to function, as their antibiotic-resistant proteins are less energy-efficient. This is a very clever avenue of research, and may actually work better than antibiotics because it doesn’t hurt unmutated bacteria (such as healthy gut flora), reducing the collateral damage of antibiotic treatments as well.
We know there’s a link between cannabis use and psychosis, though the odds vary widely from study to study. But it’s still unclear exactly how the drug triggers psychosis, which can progress to schizophrenia.
Genes, drug potency, and age of use all appear to play a role, and scientists in Canada have just uncovered another important factor: brain connectivity.
A quantum state of light has been successfully teleported through more than 30 kilometers (around 18 miles) of fiber optic cable amid a torrent of internet traffic – a feat of engineering once considered impossible.
The impressive demonstration by researchers in the US may not help you beam to work to beat the morning traffic, or download your favourite cat videos faster.
However, the ability to teleport quantum states through existing infrastructure represents a monumental step towards achieving a quantum-connected computing network, enhanced encryption, or powerful new methods of sensing.
New tactics in controlling infection are sorely needed, with antibiotic-resistant bacteria expected to claim as many as 2 million lives each year by 2050.
US and Spanish researchers have now discovered at least some bacteria pay a steep price for their resistance – a cost that we may be able to exploit to fight infection.
“We discovered an Achilles heel of antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” says molecular biologist Gürol Süel from the University of California, San Diego.tl;dr:
One of the main things that antibiotics can target is the bacterial ribosome: if you can shut down a cell’s ability to create proteins, you’ve hindered its growth if not signed its death warrant entirely. (Our ribosomes are safe from these antibiotics, since they’re quite different structurally.)
Some strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have ribosomes that aren’t as impacted by the shut-down, allowing them to survive despite the antibiotic; however, they also grab onto magnesium atoms and hold them really tight. Since free magnesium is necessary for ATP (the energy cells use) to function, the antibiotic-resistant bacteria with these magnesium-greedy ribosomes are working with fundamentally less energy than normal bacteria. It’s a tradeoff: in an antibiotic-free environment, the normal bacteria will outcompete the antibiotic-resistant ones, especially if the environmental magnesium is low. But in an antibiotic-filled environment, the normal bacteria will die off.
The researchers in this article believe that by limiting magnesium in an environment, you can keep these magnesium-hungry antibiotic-resistant bacteria from growing without having to use more or different antibiotics. While this exploit doesn’t apply to antibiotic-resistant bacteria other than the magnesium-hungry ones, the shift in how we approach antibiotic resistance- targeting the tradeoff in their resistance mechanism- will help us tackle the problem as a whole.
Good article and some really promising outlook! It’s definitely worth a closer read.