One of the hottest topics at this year’s XXVIIth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil involves the study of the astrophysical conditions favourable for the development and survival of primordial life. New research shows that compared to middle-aged stars like the Sun, newly formed stars spin faster generating strong magnetic fields that res...

Comets have contained vast amounts of liquid water in their interiors during the first million years of their formation, a new study claims. The watery environment of early comets, together with the vast quantity of organics already discovered in comets, would have provided ideal conditions for primitive bacteria to grow and multiply. So argue Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleagues a...

A study in the journal Sleep indicates that self-reported worsening in initiating and maintaining sleep over a five-year period was significantly associated with poorer mental quality of life, and increasing daytime sleepiness symptoms were associated with both poorer physical and mental quality of life. Adjusted models show that an increase in difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep was signi...

Progressive resistance strength training not only helps older adults become stronger but also makes their everyday life easier, a Cochrane Review suggests. Muscle strength decreases naturally as people age. This reduction in muscle strength could affect older adults carrying out daily activities. Progressive resistance strength training is a type of strength training that uses free weights, exerci...

As more and more news appears on the Internet as well as in print, it becomes possible to map the global flow of news by observing it online. Using this strategy, Cornell computer scientists have managed to track and analyze the "news cycle" — the way stories rise and fall in popularity. Jon Kleinberg, the Tisch University Professor of Computer Science at Cornell, postdoctoral rese...

Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have discovered that specific microRNAs (non-coding RNAs that interfere with gene expression) reduce HIV replication and infectivity in human T-cells. In particular, miR29 plays a key role in controlling the HIV life cycle. The study suggests that HIV may have co-opted this cellular defense mechanism to help the virus hide from the imm...

Earth`s 4.5-billion-year history is filled with several turning points when temperatures changed dramatically, asteroids bombarded the planet and life forms came and disappeared. But one of the biggest moments in Earth`s lifetime is the Cambrian explosion of life, roughly 540 million years ago, when complex, multi-cellular life burst out all over the planet. While scientists can pinpoint this pivo...

The giant monoliths of Easter Island are worn, but they have endured for centuries. New research suggests that a compound first discovered in the soil of the South Pacific island might help us stand the test of time, too. On July 8, in the journal Nature, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and two collaborating centers reported that the Easter Island compound – call...

Anyone who wants to can now produce their own vehicle in a factory on the “Second Life” Internet platform. They can program the industrial robots, and transport and assemble the individual parts themselves. Learning platforms provide relevant background information. In the “transparent factory”, car enthusiasts can watch vehicles being assembled part by part, and a new syst...

Thanks to the skills of artists who work on cold case investigations, people have a chance to see what the University of Chicago’s mummy Meresamun may have looked like in real life. A Chicago forensic artist and a police artist in Maryland prepared the images, which depict an engaging woman in her late 20s as she would have looked in 800 B.C. Both artists, though working independently, produ...