← Feed

Posts

• View post

  Crescent Island, a ~ 1.7 km2 island in Kenya's Lake Naivasha, had its link to the mainland cut in 2020, isolating populations of impala, waterbuck, zebra, dik dik, wildebeest, giraffes, and hippopatami, without any large predators. The result has been overgrazing, proliferation of invasive plants, declining plant diversity, habitat degradation, and possible rising disease prevalence. Summary: https://www.iflscience.com/for-over-5-years-animals-have-been-trapped-on-a-predator-free-island-in-...

• View post

  Out-hallucinating the AI interviewer: https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-job-interview-llm-prompt-hacking-haywire Everybody should do this. #AI #NoAI

• View post

  A stroke can lead to cavities in the brain where tissue has died. A new rat study injected these cavities with extracellular vesicles collected from astrocytes in vitro, and bound to a porous hydrogel. Immune cells, blood vessels, and nerve tissue then migrated into the cavities, and the rats regained lost motor function. Summary: https://scitechdaily.com/new-stroke-treatment-turns-brain-cavities-into-repair-hubs/ Original paper: https://www.cell.com/cell-biomaterials/fulltext/S3050-5623(26)0...

• View post

  Wings of the tobacco hawkmoth have been found to have chemosensory pores that can detect airborne pyrrolidine and piperidine, which are released by nightshade plants that the moths prefer for laying eggs. Summary: https://phys.org/news/2026-07-moth-wings-reveal-unexpected-ability.html Original paper: https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/229/14/jeb252047/372157/Noses-on-the-wing-the-olfactory-capacity-of #Science #Biology #Olfaction #Hawkmoth

• View post

  Re-wetting drained peatlands restores their carbon-capture ability but eliminates their value as cropland. Installing solar panels provides a substitute income. Monitoring of bird calls showed that bird biodiversity subsequently increased, and included not just peatland species but also other species that benefit from the presence of the solar panels. https://eos.org/articles/for-the-birds-solar-panels-over-peatlands-may-increase-avian-biodiversity https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

• View post

  A study of 112 men, briefly shown faces with differently emphasized male and female features, found that men with larger body sizes (height, weight, BMI) were less able to identify the sex of somewhat ambiguous faces, but were more sensitive to differences in male than female faces. The hypothesized reason is that more formidable men face less risk from misjudging other men. Summary: https://www.psypost.org/bigger-men-are-less-sensitive-to-gendered-facial-features-study-finds/ Original paper:...

• View post

  Analysis of 500,000 records of the French Forest Inventory from 2015-2023 finds associations between premature tree death and climate variability, including three different drought patterns and increasing pest populations. Summary: https://phys.org/news/2026-07-europe-trees-dying.html Original paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-74613-9 #Science #Trees #ClimateChange #Drought #Forests

• View post

  Weekly monitoring of 368 Finnish children through the first year of life found that those from families with dogs had fewer respiratory infections and required fewer courses of antibiotics. Three dog-associated bacterial genera explained 25% of the protective effect. Protection may also be provided by aspects of the dog-owning lifestyle. Summary: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-early-dog-exposure-babies-infections.html Original paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pai.70...

• View post

  Cognitive test scores of over 1.2 million Swedish people (mostly men) recorded during military enlistment were combined with tax records on charitable giving, voting records, and vehicle registrations. Those with the highest cognitive scores were more likely to contribute to charities, to vote, and to own an eco-friendly car. Summary: https://www.psypost.org/intelligence-predicts-prosocial-behaviors-like-voting-and-charitable-giving-in-m/ Original paper: https://academic.oup.com/ej/article/13...

• View post

  GPS tracking of 13 pygmy falcons during the breeding season for three years found that each pair foraged over less than 1 km^2. This is only 1/14th that of the Lesser Kestrel, but consistent with expectations from allometry. Summary: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1133639 Original paper: https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-raptor-research/volume-60/issue-3/jrr2553/Breeding-Home-Range-of-the-Pygmy-Falcon--The-Smallest/10.3356/jrr2553.full Researchers have yet to determine definit...

• View post

  @kakape@mas.to It's not a fatal complication, so arguably less deserving of attention, but I hope that somebody is also looking into lower limb lymphedema following mRNA vaccination.

• View post

  A new study that takes advantage of a change in availability of the shingles (*Herpes zoster*) vaccine in Wales finds that vaccination reduces dementia symptoms in those already diagnosed with the disease, and reduced deaths from dementia by approximately 30% over the following nine years. Summary: https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/shingles-vaccine-dementia Original paper: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)01256-5?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii...

• View post

  A prospective study that followed almost 40,000 people for 15 years found that egg consumption was inversely associated with the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Eating one egg per day for five days a week reduced the risk of Alzheimer's by 27%. Summary: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1126842 Original paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022316626001902 #Science #Health #Alzheimers #Eggs #Diet

• View post

  A new hypothesis to explain the Cambrian 'explosion' suggests that continually increasing complexity of the biotic and abiotic environment put selective pressure on development of more complex sensory systems and central nervous systems, followed by more specialized and differentiated physiology, and ultimately, greater diversity of species. Summary: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-brain-scientist-rethinks-cambrian-explosion.html Original paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/do...

• View post

  Five years ago I posted a plot of the number of new programming languages by year, since 1970. Here's an updated version: https://dblog.vitumbre.tech/dart/the-twilight-of-programming-language-development-revisited/ 2025 is the first year since 1970 with no new programming languages identified. #Programming

• View post

  A retrospective study of death certificates in the U.S. found that the suicide rate among those 15-34 years old fell below the expected rate after the rollout of the national 998 suicide and crisis hotline. Summary: https://www.statnews.com/2026/04/22/988-hotline-linked-11-percent-drop-youth-suicide-jama-study/ Original paper: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2848066?guestAccessKey=e44e29be-7891-45b3-a22d-128a80e60dad #Suicide

• View post

  A mouse study found that early-life stress and alcohol intake showed impaired learning and brain changes common to dementia disorders in late life, even after an extended period of abstinence. Summary: https://scitechdaily.com/drinking-alcohol-to-cope-in-your-20s-could-damage-your-brain-for-life/ Original paper (not open access): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acer.70273 #Science #Alcohol #Cognition #Stress #Dementia

• View post

  RE: https://helvede.net/@jwcph/116464749424150795 This is a wonderful piece of smart scholarship and compelling presentation. Here is, also, a link to a PDF of her slides. They alone do not do justice to the presentation, but allow a more measured read of some of the slides and the references: https://bit.ly/EMB-Katz

• View post

  New studies in mice and people find a mechanistic link between production of inflammatory forms of glycogen by a suite of gut bacteria and neuroinflammation characteristic of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia. Summary: https://www.sciencealert.com/gut-bacteria-could-be-a-hidden-trigger-for-neurodegenerative-diseases Original paper: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(25)01678-X?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS...

• View post

  Climate funding that addresses water and energy availability reduces, in a dose-responsive manner, intra-national conflicts over resource usage. Summary: https://scienceblog.com/climate-money-can-quietly-stops-wars/ Original paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14693062.2026.2645656#supplemental-material-section #Science #ClimatePolicy

• View post

  A new take on the Wankel rotary engine is more compact and 30% more fuel-efficient than conventional gasoline engines, and may have a future in hybrid electric vehicles. https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/rotary-engines-liquidpiston-f055e6fb?st=NidKHv #Engineering #Engines #FuelEfficiency #Wankel

• View post

  Two studies in the U.S. and one in the U.K. examined the relationship between political affiliation and factual knowledge on climate related issues. Consistently, left-leaning participants showed greater factual knowledge than conservatives. Summary: https://www.psypost.org/research-links-environmental-policy-support-to-factual-knowledge/ Original paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494425001239 #Science #Psychology #Politics #Climate

• View post

  A series of experiments finds that people's names are remembered better when their faces are memorable. Summary: https://www.psypost.org/new-psychology-research-reveals-your-face-might-determine-how-easily-people-remember-your-name/ Original paper (not open access): https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-47968-001?doi=1 #Science #Psychology #Memory #Faces

• View post

  Another new study finds that AI chatbots are terrible at answering medical questions. Also, none can produce an error-free reference list. Summary: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-ai-health-wrong-convincing.html Original paper: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/16/4/e112695 Grok, of course, is the worst. #Science #Health #AI #LLMs #Chatbots #Gemini #DeepSeek #ChatGPT #Grok

• View post

  From https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/quantum-6

• View post

  A new study evaluated blood perfusion in the brain, and cortical thickness, in relation to self-reported alcohol consumption in adults aged 22-70 (45 for cortical thickness, 27 for perfusion). Higher alcohol consumption and greater age were associated with cortical thinning and lower perfusion. Summary: https://www.sciencealert.com/even-low-levels-of-alcohol-could-damage-your-brain-study-finds Original paper (not open access): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S07418329260...

• View post

  The three-body advantage: modeling of the evolution of gas disks around binary stars finds that, far enough from the stars, formation of giant planets may be more common than in single-star systems. Summary: https://phys.org/news/2026-04-suns-planets-binary-stars.html Original paper: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/548/3/stag476/8661676?login=false #Science #Astrophysics

• View post

  A randomized clinical trial of Vitamin D supplementation in 80 women undergoing chemotherapy in preparation for breast cancer surgery found that, in the treatment group, 43% of the cancers disappeared, whereas only 24% of the cancers disappeared in the control group. Summary: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260428004119.htm Original paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01635581.2025.2480854 #Science #WomensHealth #BreastCancer #Cancer #VitaminD

• View post

  Modeling using new data on dark energy and a cosomological constant < 1 predicts that the Big Crunch--the end of the universe--will happen in only 33 billion years. Summary: https://www.livescience.com/space/cosmology/the-universe-may-end-trillions-of-years-sooner-than-we-thought Original paper (preprint): https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.24011v2 It is later than you think Sadly later than you think Far, far later than you think. -- Robert Service #Science #Cosmology

• View post

  A critique of the linear non-threshold model used by the U.S. EPA to assess cancer risk: https://www.acsh.org/news/2026/04/28/assessing-cancer-risk-its-time-follow-science-50084 As noted in the article, this is a politically contentious topic. The author has had a long career in both the public and private sector, and does not appear to have a political agenda. #Toxicology #RiskAssessment #Cancer #Environment #EnvironmentalToxicology #USEPA