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Generous paternal leave policies improve maternal and newborn health, family finances and workplace equality
When our second child was born, my spouse had several weeks of paternity leave under his parental leave policy at work.
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Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.
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'It is something we must know before we go where no man has gone before': Readers react to NASA's Roman telescope mission
Moving toward Lagrange point L2 around a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is about to begin its study of our universe. Launched on Aug. 30, the space telescope has already released its first images before its 300-megapixel camera is fully calibrated, capturing clusters of stars as blurry green rings. Once Roman's Wide Field Instrument is fully functional, the telescope should produce images as crisp as those from the Hubble Space Telescope but encompassing an area 100 times larger in each snap, NASA has stated. Experts hope to use these images to uncover more information about dark energy and possible habitable exoplanets. With Roman...
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Mating-related chemical changes in New World screwworm identified
Researchers at the University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have discovered that mating changes the chemical coating on the New World screwworm, a fly species with maggots that can cause serious tissue destruction and deadly diseases in livestock and other animals. The findings may help scientists better understand how the insects recognize mates and could provide leads for future monitoring and control methods.
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Faded cave glyphs offer fresh clues to Teotihuacan's ancient writing system
In a shallow cave high on a cliff in Chalcatzingo, Mexico, scientists documented three red glyphs in the 1980s, but the paintings received relatively little attention. Fast forward to the present day, and researchers have returned to the cave to take a closer look at what the ancient painted symbols mean.
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The joy of song: Where songbirds came from and why we should listen to them
In 2001, I had an epiphany while making my first trip to Australia. Walking across a remote sheep station in the dusty west, my ears were suddenly filled with the rich, spirited song of three pied butcherbirds.
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Magnetism may have helped kick-start our solar system
Ancient meteorites reveal a powerful magnetic field that may have helped feed the growing sun.
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Surprising result seen in primordial matter inside atom smasher
Physicists at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider on Long Island have seen hints of a phase transition from the early universe
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Diabetes study finds keeping blood sugar too steady may come at a price
People with diabetes reported better quality of life after days when their glucose stayed largely within a healthy range, even when levels fluctuated more than usual. The unexpected finding suggests that pursuing extremely tight glucose control may sometimes come with a hidden lifestyle burden.
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Scientists just discovered what coffee really does to your gut and brain
A new study suggests coffee may influence mood and brain function by changing the activity of microbes in the gut. Both caffeinated and decaf coffee were linked to lower stress, depression, and impulsivity, while also producing measurable changes in gut bacteria and metabolites. Decaf was associated with better learning and memory, while caffeinated coffee appeared to reduce anxiety and improve attention.
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Peru’s penguins are on the brink. A super El Niño could make it worse.
Avian flu, overfishing, and a super El Niño have decimated Peru’s largest colony of Humboldt penguins. Scientists are holding out hope that their numbers will bounce back.
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A 72-year-old photo is revealing new clues about 'Meretneith,' a powerful woman who may have ruled Egypt 5,000 years ago
A new analysis of a decades-old photo is revealing new details about a powerful woman who ruled Egypt 5,000 years ago, a new study finds.The woman, named Meretneith (also spelled Merneith or Meret-Neith), reigned during the first dynasty, a time not long after Egypt was united under a single ruler, according to the new research. The study, published in the September issue of the journal Prague Egyptological Studies, enhanced an old photo of a now lost artifact revealing that Meretneith's name was written in a way reserved for a ruler for Egypt. The finding was more than 70 years in the making. In the 1940s, archaeologist William B. Emery found 13 mud stoppers, or seals that identify an objec...
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Blood tests reveal why astronauts get constipated in space
Spaceflight may dramatically change the gut within weeks, causing bacteria to break down more protein as food moves more slowly through the intestines. The shift could help explain astronaut constipation and may have wider effects on health, making it an important concern for future missions to Mars.
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SpaceX’s Starship lifts off in make-or-break orbital test flight
The world’s largest rocket successfully entered orbit for the first time—a milestone for SpaceX and a relief for future NASA moon missions
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Scientists were wrong about this strange mammal for nearly 40 years
A beautifully preserved fossil from Mongolia’s Gobi Desert has solved a mystery that puzzled paleontologists for nearly 40 years. Tamirkhan balcarceli shows that zhelestids were not early relatives of modern placental mammals, despite having teeth that seemed to suggest they were. Instead, the rabbit-like animal belonged to a separate lineage of small Cretaceous mammals.
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James Webb reveals why planet formation is a race against time
JWST has revealed that young planetary systems lose their planet-building gas through a changing mix of powerful jets, molecular winds, and radiation-driven outflows. As the disks age and their gas disappears, giant planets face a shrinking window to build massive atmospheres.
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'The right diagnosis is unbelievably powerful': It can take years to diagnose rare diseases, and scientists are trying to fix that
Millions of Americans are diagnosed with common conditions like cancer and diabetes — but some 10% of the population live with rare diseases that doctors often struggle to diagnose. On average, those with rare diseases will spend five to seven years searching for answers and see 12 specialists before they arrive at a diagnosis.In the process, they may be subject to incorrect, ineffective or even harmful treatments."Any medicine that you prescribe has a one-third chance of working, a one-third chance of doing nothing, and a one-third chance of hurting you," said Dr. Ada Hamosh, a geneticist and the center director for the Johns Hopkins Medicine-Kennedy Krieger Institute National Organization ...
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13,000-year-old butchered bones of long-tusked beast found in Chile give more evidence of early first Americans
Bones from extinct elephant-like creatures discovered along the shore of Lake Tagua Tagua in central Chile bear human-made cut marks and were found alongside stone tools, revealing that some of the first humans to live there were killing and eating these animals 13,000 years ago, new research shows. Archaeological excavations carried out over the past two years in the basin of the ancient lake revealed a large concentration of megafauna remains and stone tools, according to a Sept. 24 statement from the Catalan Institute for Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA). Several bones from gomphotheres, an extinct group of tusked mammals related to modern elephants, displayed clear ...
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Pomegranate compound improves heart function by up to 80% in study
A compound the body can make after eating pomegranates, walnuts, and some berries improved measures of heart function by up to 80% in animal models of a difficult-to-treat form of heart failure. Urolithin A helped stiff heart tissue relax and reduced scarring and abnormal enlargement. It also improved relaxation in engineered human heart tissue.
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Battersea Shield: A 2,000-year-old Celtic shield that may have been 'sacrificed' in a ritual in the River Thames
The Battersea Shield was pulled out of the River Thames in 1857. (Image credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)QUICK FACTSName: Battersea ShieldWhat it is: Bronze facing of a shieldWhere it is from: River Thames, LondonWhen it was made: Between 350 and 50 B.C.This masterpiece of ancient Celtic weaponry was discovered by a laborer who was working on a bridge over the River Thames in 1857. Named the Battersea Shield after the London neighborhood near where it was found, the bronze artifact shows no signs of use, leaving archaeologists wondering how it ended up at the bottom of the river.According to the British Museum, which acquired the shield directly from ...
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Donor hearts may take on the age of their new bodies
After transplant, young hearts in both mice and humans showed signs of accelerated aging in older bodies, while older hearts in younger bodies seemed rejuvenated