Microbial regulation of microRNA expression in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex

There is growing evidence for a role of the gut microbiome in shaping behaviour relevant to many psychiatric and neurological disorders. Preclinical studies using germ-free (GF) animals have been essential in contributing to our current understanding of the potential importance of the host microbiome for neurodevelopment and behaviour. In particular, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that manipulation of the gut microbiome modulates anxiety-like behaviours.

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Power company kills nuclear plant, plans $6 billion in solar, battery investment

On Tuesday, power provider Duke Energy Florida announced a settlement with the state’s public service commission (PSC) to cease plans to build a nuclear plant in western Florida. The utility instead intends to invest $6 billion in solar panels, grid-tied batteries, grid modernization projects, and electric vehicle charging areas. The new plan involves the installation of 700MW of solar capacity over four years in the western Florida area.

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Houston’s flooding shows what happens when you ignore science and let developers run rampant

The city's gung-ho approach to development has destroyed the area's natural ability to drain away hurricane floodwaters.

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ESPN Football Analyst Walks Away, Disturbed by Brain Trauma on Field

Ed Cunningham, who called games for ESPN and ABC, said: “I just don’t think the game is safe for the brain. To me, it’s unacceptable.”

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Nanomachines that drill into cancer cells killing them in just 60 seconds developed by scientists

Nanomachines which can drill into cancer cells, killing them in just 60 seconds, have been developed by scientists. The tiny spinning molecules are driven by light, and spin so quickly that they can burrow their way through cell linings when activated. In one test conducted at Durham University the nanomachines.

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Scientists have spiders producing enhanced web that can hold a human

Scientists have found a way to make spider silk five times stronger.

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Hubble delivers first hints of possible water content of TRAPPIST-1 planets

An international team of astronomers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to estimate whether there might be water on the seven earth-sized planets orbiting the nearby dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. The results suggest that the outer planets of the system might still harbour substantial amounts of water. This includes the three planets within the habitable zone of the star, lending further weight to the possibility that they may indeed be habitable.

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Welcome to the future, where your phone can fix its own smashed screen

Smashed screens, broken circuits, water damaged keyboards – we send millions of tonnes of broken electronics to the dump every year. But what if our phones and laptops could fix themselves? This month, it emerged that smartphone company Motorola had filed a patent for a self-healing phone display. The design includes a “shape memory polymer”, which the patent application says would at least partly reverse damage when exposed to heat. In theory, at least, users could hit a “repair” button and wait for their cracked screens to mend.

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What Is Considered Personal Data Under GDPR?

Have you looked around for a definitive list of attributes considered personal data by the GDPR?  If you have a database, have you had difficulty working ...

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These microscopic tubes may one day help turn seawater to drinking water

Scientists have created tiny carbon nanotubes that can filter water very efficiently, and could one day help turn seawater into drinkable water. The nanotubes work similarly to certain biological proteins used to filter water in living cells, but they’re six times more efficient, according to a study published today in Science. Though the nanotubes weren’t used to desalinate actual seawater, the researchers showed that they can successfully filter water that’s just as salty.

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A heartbeat-like vibration can reduce the anxiety associated with public speaking

All those public speaking nerves could be about to be calmed by a new study's findings. In their paper The calming effect of a new wearable device during the anticipation of public speech, researchers tried out a new wearable piece of technology called the doppel, 'a wearable device that delivers heartbeat-like tactile stimulation on the wrist'.

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Elon Musk could be about to spend $100m linking human brains to computers

A company set up by Elon Musk to develop advanced biotechnology enhancements for the human brain has raised $27m (£20.9m) from 12 investors, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. 

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A new t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

The technology took years to develop, and now a Chinese firm is using it in a massive new US factory that will churn out 1.2 million t-shirts per year.

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FDA Deems MDMA, Banned Since 1985, a 'Breakthrough Therapy'

The designation should speed the drug's approval as a prescription medicine, which could happen as soon as 2021.

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The New Science of Sex and Gender

Why the new science of sex & gender matters for everyone

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Airplane Trick Shots

Foam airplanes are the jam.

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How 12,000 Tonnes of Dumped Orange Peel Grew Into a Landscape Nobody Expected to Find

An experimental conservation project that was abandoned and almost forgotten about, has ended up producing an amazing ecological win nearly two decades after it was dreamt up.

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Molecules Chilled Close to Absolute Zero Just Smashed a New Physics Record

A two-step cooling process using lasers has allowed physicists to push molecules of calcium monofluoride down to a record low temperature, busting a barrier that until now has been impassable.

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Oil and water may mix under extreme pressure

They say that oil and water do not mix … but now scientists have discovered that – under certain circumstances – it may be possible. A new study suggests that some oily molecules – which normally repel water – can be forced to dissolve in water when the two substances are squeezed together under extreme pressure. Researchers at Edinburgh applied high pressure to tiny containers filled with water and methane, creating conditions similar to the intense pressure found on the ocean floor or inside the planets Uranus and Neptune.

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Meet the young woman that Harvard believes is the next Einstein

Being compared to geniuses like Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein is not something that happens to the average person. So when we tell you that Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski is far from your average human, we mean it. At the age of just 23, Paterski has already accomplished more than most of us ever will in our lifetime. When she was only 14-years-old, the Chicago native, constructed her own single engine airplane - by herself.

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Ytterby: The Village That Chemists Love

What do the following ten chemical elements have in common? Yttrium, Ytterbium, Terbium, Erbium, Gadolinium, Thulium, Scandium, Holmium, Dysprosium and Lutetium. The answer is that the all the ten elements were isolated from a single mineral ore extracted from a modest mine in the small village of Ytterby on the Swedish island of Resarö. All of these elements are rare earth elements, which means that they are very difficult to separate. It took many chemists and scientists decades of research to discover them all. At least four of these elements— Yttrium (Y), Erbium (Er), Terbium (Tb), and Ytterbium (Yb)—are named after the village.

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Life-saving fruit and vegetable diet need only be three portions – study

New research reveals daily dose of just 375g of fruit, vegetables and beans are sufficient to reduce risk of stroke, heart disease or premature death, and could help low-income consumers.

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'Sea dragon' fossil is 'largest on record'

The fossil of a marine reptile ''re-discovered'' in a museum is the largest of its kind on record, say scientists. The ''sea dragon'' belongs to a group that swam the world's oceans 200 million years ago, while dinosaurs walked the land. The specimen is the largest Ichthyosaurus to be described, at more than three metres long.

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How Does Two Feet of Rainfall Become Ten Feet of Flooding?

Hurricane Harvey and its remnants have managed to dump likely record-setting amounts of rainfall across Texas. The Weather Channel expects that some locations could see accumulation totals of 50 inches before the weather finally lets up. Some locations around and outside of Houston have already have seen floods higher than 15 feet.

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What Led Benjamin Franklin to Live Estranged From His Wife for Nearly Two Decades?

A stunning new theory suggests that a debate over the failed treatment of their son's smallpox was the culprit

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Collection of letters by codebreaker Alan Turing found in filing cabinet

The correspondence, dating from 1949 to 1954, was found by an academic in a storeroom at the University of Manchester

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Driverless lorries could mean 600,000 lost jobs. It's time we took a universal basic income seriously.

With trials for self-driving commercial lorries to take place in the UK within the next twelve months, the work days of thousands of Britain’s long-haul drivers may soon be numbered. Of course, these are only preliminary tests – it may well be a decade or more before driverless deliveries and long-distance haulage are an everyday reality. However, with the beginnings already upon us, a boom in automated jobs is surely coming sooner rather than later.

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SUPERFORMULA!

Super Formula Is Back! To get different shapes, change the numbers or move the sliders on the right by click and drag. (superformula.org)

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With a Drop of Saliva, Family Histories Are Rewritten

Widespread DNA testing has shed light on the ancestry of millions of Americans. But these services have limitations, and the results can be uncertain.

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How to live to 100 and be happy (by those who have done it!)

There are now a record number of centenarians in the UK. We asked six of them what they most enjoyed and most regretted in their eventful lives – and what tips they have for the rest of us to join them in the 100 club.

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Japan stubbornly sticks to coal

Shaken by the Fukushima nuclear accident, Japan has launched plans to open 49 new coal-fired power plants in the next decade to replace nuclear, even as electricity demand drops and other developed countries shift to renewables. Japan is also looking to export their technology, which poses a serious threat to Asia’s environment as well as economy.

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Better educated parents have children who are more relaxed, outgoing and explorative

Exactly how parents shape their children is a matter of controversy, especially since Judith Rich Harris’ book The Nurture Assumption popularised the behavioural genetics position that the “shared environment” (so-called because it’s shared by siblings) – including the family home and parents’ methods of upbringing – has scant influence on how children turn out. But the debate is far from settled, and now a team chiefly from Florida State University has investigated whether more educated parents produce offspring with particular personality characteristics.

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Ecstasy could be ‘breakthrough’ therapy for soldiers, others suffering from PTSD

For Jon Lubecky, the scars on his wrists are a reminder of the years he spent in mental purgatory. He returned from an Army deployment in Iraq a broken man. He heard mortar shells and helicopters where there were none. He couldn’t sleep and drank until he passed out. He got every treatment offered by Veterans Affairs for post-traumatic stress disorder. But they didn’t stop him from trying to kill himself — five times.

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One Plus One: Dava Sobel

Dava Sobel is an American author whose books unravel great mysteries of space and time. Recently she’s revealed the little-known story of a group of women in the development of modern astronomy.

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Prepare for rise of 'killer robots' says former defence chief

The rise of military ‘killer robots’ is almost inevitable and any attempt at an international ban will struggle to stop an arms race, according to a former defence chief who was responsible for predicting the future of warfare.

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Could a heroin vaccine cure the west’s drug epidemic?

The effect of heroin has been described as “a warm blanket on the brain”. Within seconds of the drug entering the bloodstream, it hits receptor molecules in the brain’s neurons that induce a surge of euphoria, followed by a prolonged sense of tranquillity. Yes, it feels good – and that’s the problem. But what if you took heroin and felt nothing? What if there was a treatment that cancelled its effects on the brain? Who then would bother to take it?

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The concept of schizophrenia as a distinct disease is coming to an end -- but what come next?

The concept of schizophrenia is dying. Harried for decades by psychology, it now appears to have been fatally wounded by psychiatry, the very profession that once sustained it. Its passing will not be mourned. Today, having a diagnosis of schizophrenia is associated with a life-expectancy reduction of nearly two decades. By some criteria, only one in seven people recover. Despite heralded advances in treatments, staggeringly, the proportion of people who recover hasn’t increased over time. Something is profoundly wrong.

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Why Elon Musk might be right about his artificial intelligence warnings

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly said society needs to be more concerned about safety with the increased use of artificial intelligence. "If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be," Musk recently tweeted.

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High school popularity may not lead to happiness, study finds

Although high school students may think popularity is of the utmost importance, a new study found that it may not lead to long-term happiness. What mattered more, according to the study published in the journal Child Development, is whether the teens had close friendships they maintained over time.

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Switch to Renewables Would Save 7 Million Lives Per Year, Create 24 Million Jobs

Californian scientists said a fossil fuel phase-out is achievable that would contain climate change, deliver energy entirely from wind, water and sunlight to 139 nations, and save up to 7 million lives each year. They said it would also create a net gain of 24 million long-term jobs, all by 2050, and at the same time limit global warming to 1.5°C or less.

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Feeling Anxious or Depressed. Go to an Art Exhibition

Strolling around the Venice Biennale not long ago I observed how calm people were. They were moving slowly and rhythmically, speaking quietly or not at all, gazing intently at the work on show. Sure they may have been slightly soporific due to 30+ degree temperatures but I am certain that there is something more powerful at work here and research on the well-being benefits of art supports this.

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Melting glacier reveals bodies of dead hikers on Mont Blanc

Italian mountain rescue crews said they have recovered the remains of two or three hikers on a glacier on Mont Blanc's southern face likely dating from the 1980s or 1990s. Alpine rescue commander Delfino Viglione said Friday the bodies were discovered this week by a hiker who was searching the area for artifacts from decades-old plane crashes, including one in the 1960s that killed more than 100 people.

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Were the Babylonians better mathematicians than us?

A small clay tablet that's 3,700 years old may be about to make studying trigonometry much easier, thanks to the work of an Australian mathematician. Daniel Mansfield from University of New South Wales said the palm-sized tablet, covered in rows of tiny numbers in angular cuneiform script, simplifies the study of triangles from using angles and irrational numbers to simple ratios.

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Hear What Your Voice Sounds Like To Others

When I was in college, I got a job as a DJ for our campus radio station. Over Christmas break they played back old shows to fill the time, and one morning I managed to actually tune into myself on the radio. It took me a few moments to realize that the person talking was me, and my first thought was a surprised “Oh no, do I really sound like that?”

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Elon Musk’s Neuralink Gets $27 Million to Build Brain Computers

Neuralink Corp., the startup co-founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has taken steps to sell as much as $100 million in stock to fund the development of technology that connects human brains with computers. The San Francisco-based company has already gotten $27 million in funding, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk said via Twitter on Friday that Neuralink isn’t seeking outside investors. A spokesman didn’t respond to questions about the source of the funds.

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3,700-year-old Babylonian tablet rewrites the history of maths - and shows the Greeks did not develop trigonometry

A 3,700-year-old clay tablet has proven that the Babylonians developed trigonometry 1,500 years before the Greeks and were using a sophisticated method of mathematics which could change how we calculate today. The tablet, known as Plimpton 332, was discovered in the early 1900s in Southern Iraq by the American archaeologist and diplomat Edgar Banks, who was the inspiration for Indiana Jones.

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'Golden Record 2.0' could let space probe communicate with aliens

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft could end up bearing a message for intelligent aliens, just as the agency's venerable Voyager probes are doing. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 famously carry copies of the "Golden Record," which are loaded with photos, music, sounds and other data designed to teach any extraterrestrials who might encounter the probes about humanity and its home planet.

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Mathematical mystery of ancient Babylonian clay tablet solved

UNSW Sydney scientists have discovered the purpose of a famous 3700-year old Babylonian clay tablet, revealing it is the world's oldest and most accurate trigonometric table, possibly used by ancient mathematical scribes to calculate how to construct palaces and temples and build canals.

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Chemicals used in furniture and gym mats could be making women infertile, study suggests

Flame-retardant chemicals used on furniture and other products could be making women infertile, a new study suggests. Researchers in the US found more than 80 per cent of women having fertility treatment at the Massachusetts General Hospital had traces of three types of chemicals known as PFRs in their urine. And those with high levels of the chemicals were 38 per cent less likely to have a child after a cycle of IVF treatment than those with low levels. While the study does not prove the chemicals are causing infertility, it highlights a possible link.

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Despite Advance Directive, Dementia Patient Denied Last Wish, Says Spouse

Oregon court says Alzheimer’s patient Nora Harris must be spoon-fed. But her husband says she never wanted to live like this.

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