Neuroscie

Antidepressants May Safeguard Against Preterm Birth Risks

Summary: An extensive population-based study involving over 1.2 million births has clarified the complex impact of SSRI antidepressant use during pregnancy. The research found that while SSRIs are associated with…

New Drug Target Could Freeze Alzheimer’s in Its Tracks

Summary: Researchers discovered a powerful new drug target that could revolutionize how we treat Alzheimer’s disease. By focusing on an enzyme called IDOL, researchers found they could substantially reduce the…

Taming Tumor Chaos: Researchers Uncover Key to Improving Glioblastoma Treatment

Summary: Researchers have identified a key molecule, miR-181d, that regulates the “chaos” within glioblastoma tumors. By administering this molecule, they successfully reduced the variability between cancer cells, making the tumor…

Hippocampus Predicts Rewards by Reorganizing Memories

Summary: A new preclinical study reveals that the hippocampus does more than just store memories; it actively reorganizes them to predict future rewards. By tracking brain activity over several weeks,…

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…