Wake Up & Smell the Tech: New Devices Use Scents to Help You Rise or Snooze

 Posted on January 15, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  334 words  |  Fernande Dalal

LAS VEGAS — You might not think that your sense of smell could have anything to do with how much sleep you get, but several new devices aim to harness certain scents to both help you sleep and wake you up. Although it remains to be seen just how effective the devices really are — they have not been tested by independent scientists — some studies do support the idea that scents can modify sleep. [Read More]

A New Lung Cancer Drug Is Shaking Up Treatment: How Does It Work?

 Posted on January 14, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  692 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A drug that acts on the immune system appears to help extend the lives of patients with advanced lung cancer when given alongside standard chemotherapy, a new study finds. But how, exactly, does this drug work to help fight cancer? The study, which included more than 600 people, found that patients with a common type of lung cancer who received the so-called immunotherapy drug in combination with chemotherapy were 51 percent less likely to die over a period of 10. [Read More]

Exotic Monkey Is Extra Sensitive to Warming

 Posted on January 14, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  341 words  |  Patria Henriques

Monkeys called wild drills, already an overhunted species, may see a dramatic population decline if their forest home dries out and vegetation becomes sparser amid warming temperatures, researchers report. Closely related to baboons and mandrills, endangered wild drills (Mandrillus leucophaeus) are found in the African equatorial rainforest. Researchers studied DNA from 54 drill samples, most of which were poop collected in the Cross-Sanaga-Bioko Coastal forests that stretch across portions of Nigeria, Bioko Island (equatorial Guinea) and Cameroon. [Read More]

Giant, Extinct Kangaroos Probably Didn't Hop

 Posted on January 14, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  842 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

The ancestors of modern-day kangaroos, giant marsupials with rabbitlike faces, may have walked upright on two feet, sans any hopping, a new study finds. These enormous creatures, part of the extinct family of sthenurine kangaroos, once roamed the Australian outback from about 100,000 to 30,000 years ago. But they were likely bad hoppers, said lead researcher Christine Janis, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University in Rhode Island. [Read More]

Is the Placebo Effect Real?

 Posted on January 14, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  379 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

The placebo effect when people taking so-called "dummy pills" begin to experience the side effects expected for the real pills is a controversial phenomenon that seems to show that when it comes to some things, it really is mind over matter. A placebo, also known as a sugar pill, is a treatment that is often given to study participants as a control to compare the effects of "nothing" to the effects of an actual treatment. [Read More]

People Smell Great! Human Sniffers Sensitive as Dogs'

 Posted on January 14, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  902 words  |  Fernande Dalal

As you read this, take a whiff. What smells do you detect? How do these smells affect how you feel? It's rare that people consciously take in the smells around them, but a new review argues that the human sense of smell is more powerful than it's usually given credit for, and that it plays a bigger role in human health and behavior than many medical experts realize. "The fact is the sense of smell is just as good in humans as in other mammals, like rodents and dogs," [Read More]

Religious People More Likely to Think They're Addicted to Porn

 Posted on January 14, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  714 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Feel like you're addicted to porn? Your religion could have something to do with your answer. Compared with their less spiritual peers, people who identified as very religious were more likely to have a perceived Internet pornography addiction, no matter how much porn they actually consumed, according to a new study. "We were surprised that the amount of viewing did not impact the perception of addiction, but strong moral beliefs did," [Read More]

The Future of Evolution: What Will We Become?

 Posted on January 14, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  909 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Editor's Note: This is the last in a 10-part LiveScience series on the origin, evolution and future of the human species and the mysteries that remain to be solved. The past of human evolution is more and more coming to light as scientists uncover a trove of fossils and genetic knowledge. But where might the future of human evolution go? There are plenty of signs that humans are still evolving. However, whether humans develop along the lines portrayed by hackneyed science fiction is doubtful. [Read More]

The World's Plants Are Going Extinct About 500 Times Faster Than They Should, Study Finds

 Posted on January 14, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  572 words  |  Fernande Dalal

If you're the sort of person who just can't keep a plant alive, you're not alone — according to a new study published June 10 in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution(opens in new tab), the entire planet seems to be suffering from a similar affliction. After analyzing the populations of more than 330,000 seed-bearing plants around the world, the study authors found that about three plant species have gone extinct on Earth every year since 1900 — a rate that's roughly 500 times higher than the natural extinction rate for those types of plants, which include most trees, flowers and fruit-bearing plants. [Read More]

This Huge, Ancient Whale Would Have Ripped You to Shreds

 Posted on January 14, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  461 words  |  Fernande Dalal

This ancient, gummy whale is breaking all the rules. The weird marine beast, called Llanocetus denticrenatus, lived about 34 million years ago. It was big. It was an early ancestor of modern humpbacks and blue whales. And (this is the maverick, rule-breaking bit for a whale of its type) it had thick gums studded with teeth. Today, all the biggest whales are filter feeders, while only small whales of the odontocetl group (including belugas, sperm whales, and all dolphins and porpoises) still chew their food. [Read More]