Neuroscie
Why Viruses Make You Sneeze: COVID Proteins Directly Hijack Sensory Nerves
Summary: Neuroscientists have discovered that SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins directly activate pain-sensing nerves in the airways to trigger sneezing, coughing, and body aches, overturning the long-held view that symptoms stem solely…
Irregular Sleep Schedules Tied to Depression & Loneliness
Summary: A large-scale wearable data study reveals that erratic daily sleep and wake times are strongly linked to worse depression, anxiety, and loneliness. The analysis of 23,000 adults over five…
3D Genome Atlas Reveals Early Roots of Schizophrenia
Summary: In a landmark study published in Cell, an NIH BRAIN Initiative consortium co-led by UCLA neuroscientists has mapped the molecular and 3D genomic development of the human basal ganglia…
Brain Moves Its Touch Center to Keep Feeling Sensation
Summary: Biomedical engineers at Penn State have solved a major hurdle in neuroprosthetics and sensory rehabilitation: sensory habituation, where the brain gradually stops perceiving continuous artificial electrical stimulation. In a…
Life
Nature
Newfound bat skeletons are the oldest on record
Two fossilized bat skeletons unearthed in western Wyoming represent a new species and are the oldest set of bat bones yet discovered, researchers say. The incredibly complete fossils of Icaronycteris…
Astronomy
Asteroid 2024 YR4 was Earth’s first real-life defense test
Artist’s depiction of an asteroid floating in space. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), Martin Kornmesser (ESA), Serge Brunier (ESO), Nick Risinger (Photopic Sky Survey) At this point in…
How do you fire someone into the sun?
Firing our villain straight at the Sun results in a big miss. Credit: Michael Brown, CC BY To point a rocket directly at the sun and hit would require great…
Cosmic ray puzzle resolved as scientists link ‘knee’ formation to black holes
LHAASO experiment. Credit: LHAASO Collaboration Milestone results released by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) on November 16 have solved a decades-old mystery about the cosmic ray energy…
If the supernova standard candle is wrong, it could solve the Hubble tension
An illustration showing how Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs) expand with the universe. Credit: Gabriela Secara, Perimeter Institute CC-BY-4.0 Last time I wrote about new data that overturns the standard cosmological…
