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Circadian rhythms, sometimes called the “biological clock,” are the cellular processes that rule sleep-wake cycles. Jet lag, nighttime snacking, lack of sleep, or irregular work schedules can mess up circadian rhythms. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), disrupted circadian rhythms are a probable carcinogen as a result of both population and laboratory-based findings. Published in the high-impact journal Science Advances, the latest study describes that when the circadian clock gets off track it implicates a cancer-signature gene known as HSF1 that can trigger lung tumors....

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft fired up its ion engine on Friday, October 23, to begin its journey toward its fourth and final science orbit at dwarf planet Ceres. The spacecraft completed two months of observations from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers) and transmitted extensive imagery and other data to Earth. The spacecraft is now on its way to the final orbit of the mission, called the low-altitude mapping orbit....

When employees lack power at work, they can feel vulnerable and paranoid. In turn, that paranoia can cause people to lash out against colleagues or family members and even seek to undermine their organization’s success, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management. The study, forthcoming in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, is available online now. “History is filled with examples of individuals with little power being subjugated and objectified, causing many people to associate low power with vulnerability,” says Min-Hsuan Tu, PhD, assistant professor of organization and human resources in the UB School of Management....

The BioNTech/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has demonstrated high levels of efficacy. Pre-approval studies revealed the vaccine to be capable of preventing more than 90 percent of symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections just one week after the second dose. The vaccine’s efficacy was later confirmed in observational, population-based studies. This efficacy notwithstanding, infections will occasionally develop in vaccinated individuals. But what might explain the occurrence of larger outbreaks in care homes whose residents have been fully vaccinated?...

Like the antlers on a stag, a pronounced brow ridge was a permanent signal of dominance and aggression in our early ancestors, which modern humans traded in for a smooth forehead with more visible, hairy eyebrows capable of a greater range of movement. Mobile eyebrows gave us the communication skills to establish large, social networks; in particular to express more nuanced emotions such as recognition and sympathy, allowing for greater understanding and cooperation between people....

There’s a reason why people are spending money on television show DVDs and Blu-rays that are essentially reruns, but this behavior is more complicated than previously thought. Cristel Antonia Russell, a marketing professor at American University, and Sidney J. Levy, a marketing professor at the University of Arizona, published their findings in the Journal of Consumer Research. People use familiar entertainment to measure how their lives changed in positive ways....

Amid dry weather and strong winds, thousands of firefighters raced to put out fires that burned through forests in coastal South Korea in early March 2022. In NASA satellite data, the first signs of the fires began to appear on March 3-4, 2022, in the coastal areas of Uljin and Samcheok. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured the natural-color image shown above on March 5....

The research, published in the journal Current Biology, revealed that these ancient animals ate bacteria and algae sourced from the ocean floor, providing a deeper understanding of their ability to consume and digest food. The scientists analyzed ancient fossils containing preserved phytosterol molecules — natural chemical products found in plants — that remained from the animals’ last meal. By examining the molecular remains of what the animals ate, the researchers were able to confirm the slug-like organism, known as Kimberella, had a mouth and a gut and digested food the same way modern animals do....

The research, published today in Nature Communications, was conducted as part of Yale’s Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena (CRISP), and led by Judy Cha, the Carol and Douglas Melamed Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, and Jan Schroers, professor of mechanical engineering & materials science. Metallic glasses are a relatively new class of materials made from complex, multicomponent alloys. They have the moldable pliability of plastics, but the strengths of metals....

The researchers said that, to their knowledge, it is the first study of its kind to be conducted in areas with very high air pollution levels. “There is a lack of studies investigating the association between air pollution and fetal overgrowth,” said Yawei Zhang, M.D., associate professor at YSPH. “We analyzed data from Lanzhou Birth Cohort Study to investigate the hypothesis that exposure to high levels of PM10 during pregnancy increases the risk of abnormal fetal growth, including both undergrowth and overgrowth, to determine if and how expectant mothers could protect themselves from possible contributing pollutants....

Fossil evidence suggests that this infection has been occurring for at least 48 million years. Research seems to indicate that different species of fungi might specialize in infecting different groups of ants worldwide. Closer examination of the infected ant corpses revealed that these fungi are often parasitized by other fungi. Ophiocordyceps fungi depend on ants to reproduce and spread. Infected ants behave like zombies, walking randomly and displaying convulsions that make them fall down and preclude them from returning to the dry tree canopy....

The galaxy, dubbed CQ 4479, shows characteristics that normally don’t coexist: An X-ray luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) and a cold gas supply fueling high star formation rates. “Massive galaxies, such as our own Milky Way, host a supermassive black hole at their hearts — these are black holes that grow by accreting interstellar gas onto themselves to become more massive,” said Kevin Cooke, lead author and postdoctoral researcher in KU’s Department of Physics & Astronomy....

New study deploys advanced tools to retrace 1,000 years of African pastoralist cattle breeding, identifying traits to help cattle survive blistering heat, drought, and advancing diseases. Scientists announced today (September 28, 2020) the discovery of a new set of detailed genetic markers and information in African cattle that are associated with valuable traits, such as heat and drought tolerance, the capacity to control inflammation and tick infestations, and resistance to devastating livestock diseases like trypanosomiasis....

A new study greatly surprised the research team, who discovered that the valleys took just hundreds of years to form as they transported vast amounts of meltwater away from under the ice and out into the sea. This new understanding of when the vast ice sheets melted 20,000 years ago has implications for how glaciers may respond to climate warming today. The results were published on October 5, 2022, in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews....

New research has found that a group of genes that reduces the risk of developing severe COVID-19 by around 20% is inherited from NeanderthalsThese genes, located on chromosome 12, code for enzymes that play a vital role in helping cells destroy the genomes of invading virusesThe study suggests that enzymes produced by the Neanderthal variant of these genes are more efficient which helps protect against severe COVID-19This genetic variant was passed to humans around 60,000 years ago via interbreeding between modern humans and NeanderthalsThe genetic variant has increased in frequency over the last millennium and is now found in around half of people living outside Africa...

“Our primary goal was to shed light on Beethoven’s health problems, which famously include progressive hearing loss, beginning in his mid- to late-20s and eventually leading to him being functionally deaf by 1818,” said Johannes Krause from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. “We were unable to find a definitive cause for Beethoven’s deafness or gastrointestinal problems,” Krause says. “However, we did discover a number of significant genetic risk factors for liver disease....

3D-printing food could address global challenges in food supply and nutrition. But there are hurdles involved in adapting additive manufacturing to produce edible materials. In the journal Physics of Fluids, from AIP Publishing, University of Ottawa researchers Ezgi Pulatsu and Chibuike Udenigwe identify a range of factors that affect the print quality and shape complexity of food created with additive manufacturing. Accounting for these features can increase food quality, improve control, and speed up printing....

Sailors’ yarns about the Kraken, a giant sea monster lurking in the abyss, may have an element of truth. In 1857, the Danish naturalist Japetus Steenstrup linked the tell tales of ships being dragged to the ocean floor to the existence of the giant squid: A ten-armed invertebrate, that is credibly believed to grow up to 13 meters (43 feet) and weigh over 900 kg (2,000 lb). Now, more than 160 years later, an international team of scientists have sequenced and annotated the genome of a giant squid....

Scientists have isolated an elusive human gene that causes a common form of Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a relatively rare but devastating type of early-onset blindness. The newly found LCA gene is called NMNAT1. Finding the specific gene mutated in patients with LCA is the first step toward developing sight-saving gene therapy. LCA is an inherited retinal degenerative disease characterized by reduced vision in infancy. Within the first few months of life, parents usually notice a lack of visual responsiveness and unusual roving eye movements known as nystagmus....

Brighter than a shimmering ghost, faster than the flick of a black cat’s tail, the Sun cast a spell in our direction, just in time for Halloween. This imagery captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory covers a busy few days of activity between October 25-28 that ended with a significant solar flare. From late afternoon October 25 through mid-morning October 26, an active region on the left limb of the Sun flickered with a series of small flares and petal-like eruptions of solar material....