Galactic bones inside Milky Way's skeleton are a magnetic mess
Posted on January 5, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 672 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
(opens in new tab)Astronomers have produced the most detailed map yet of the magnetic field within a part of one of the Milky Way's spiral arms called a galactic bone — a long filament of dense gas and dust that forms down the middle of the arm of a spiral galaxy. The new map reveals a random mess of magnetic lines, contradicting established magnetic properties seen across the rest of the Milky Way's skeleton.
[Read More]Has Science Cured Gray Hair?
Posted on January 5, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 447 words
| Trudie Dory
Gray hair — one of the classic signs of aging that can lead to a midlife crisis for some — may some day be a thing of the past, much to the chagrin of hair-dye manufacturers and Corvette salesmen.
A team of European researchers claims to have found not only the root cause of gray hair, but also a treatment for the condition. Additionally, their treatment may help people with vitiligo, a condition that causes the loss of pigment in patches of skin, they say.
[Read More]Italian Physicists Wrote a 'Perfect Pizza' Equation, Because Not All Heroes Wear Capes
Posted on January 5, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 638 words
| Arica Deslauriers
If you'd like to eat the world's most scientifically perfect pizza, you have two options: One, fly to Rome and order a Margherita pizza fresh from the brick oven; or, two, solve a long thermodynamic equation to simulate that glorious Italian pizza in your pathetic electric oven at home.
That's the basic premise of a new paper titled "The Physics of Baking Good Pizza," published earlier this year in the preprint journal arXiv.
[Read More]Migraine-Fighting Arm Patch Shows Small Effect
Posted on January 5, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 885 words
| Arica Deslauriers
People who have migraines may one day get help from an experimental new device that is worn like a patch around the upper arm and stimulates the nerves, a new preliminary study suggests.
Researchers in Israel found that 64 percent of participants who used the device reported that it reduced their migraine pain by at least half. For comparison, 26 percent of people who used the placebo treatment said the same, according to the findings released today (March 1) in the journal Neurology.
[Read More]New iPhone Lacks Headphone Jack: Are Bluetooth Headphones Safe?
Posted on January 5, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 857 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Apple's new iPhone 7 will not have a headphone jack, and so people who want to avoid holding their phones up to their ears must now rely on Bluetooth ear buds(opens in new tab).
That has raised a question for those who are wary of radiation: Is Bluetooth safe?
It turns out that there is no evidence that Bluetooth does any harm. In addition, there are no plausible physics mechanisms by which Bluetooth could cause damage to a person's cells, said John Moulder, a professor emeritus and radiation biologist at Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
[Read More]New Ligament Found in Human Knee
Posted on January 5, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 415 words
| Fernande Dalal
Humans have been studying their own bodies for centuries, piecing together what all the parts are and how they work and interact, but apparently one tiny piece in the human knee has gone undiscovered until now.
Belgian researchers have for the first time described a new ligament in the human knee, termed the anterolateral ligament (ALL).
The researchers conducted in-depth examinations of 41 cadaver knees, and found the new ligament in all but one of them.
[Read More]North America's Oldest Mummy Sheds Light on Ancient Migrations
Posted on January 5, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 720 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Dressed in moccasins and a rabbit-skin shroud, a man was laid to rest in a cave in Nevada about 10,600 years ago. Now, his mummy is helping scientists fill in the fuzzy picture of how humans first migrated into the Americas.
Scientists have sequenced the genome of the Spirit Cave Mummy — the oldest human mummy found in North America — along with 14 other ancient individuals from the Americas. The genome revealed the mummy's Native American ancestry, which has allowed his living descendants to properly bury him.
[Read More]Power Up! Playing Video Games May Boost Your Brain
Posted on January 5, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 562 words
| Fernande Dalal
Video game players who don't want to put down the controller may have a new excuse to keep the game going: A small new study finds that gaming may boost the amount of gray matter in parts of a person's brain, indicating that the brain may have better control over small movements in the body.
In the study, researchers found that video game players had more gray matter in two areas of the brain associated with learning motor skills, compared with people who did not play video games.
[Read More]Why We Itch
Posted on January 5, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 616 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Itchy skin fires up nerves and drives sufferers to scratch themselves raw, some even in their sleep. But the mechanisms behind aggravating itches are not entirely understood, and a new finding makes the whole problem seem even more complex.
One of the worst culprits of itching is dermatitis, a skin condition caused by anything from laundry detergent to gold that can irritate the skin. In the United States, 6.4 million people with dermatitis scratch their way to the dermatologist's office each year, according to a National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
[Read More]Why You Probably Shouldn't Waste Your Money on DNA-Based Diets
Posted on January 5, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 860 words
| Fernande Dalal
Sure, it seems like a good idea: Lose weight following a diet that's tailored to your own unique genetic makeup instead of trying a one-size-fits-all approach. In fact, it's an idea that's taken off in recent years, with companies promoting "DNA diets" that will help you shed pounds.
But according to a new study, a person's genes don't actually have an effect on how well certain diets might work, which runs contrary to what some "
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