Scientists finally crack the secret to perfect chocolate flavor Researchers have identified key factors that influence the flavor of chocolate during the cocoa bean fermentation process, a discovery that could offer chocolate producers a powerful tool to craft consistently high-quality, flavor-rich chocolate. Scientists from the University of Nottingham’s School of Biosciences examined how cacao bean…
Scientists solve 30-year mystery of a hidden nutrient that shields the brain and fights cancer An international team of scientists, co-led by researchers at the University of Florida and Trinity College Dublin, has cracked a decades-old mystery in human biology: how our bodies absorb a micronutrient that we rely on for everything from healthy brain…
A safe painkiller? New research raises concerns about Tylenol’s safety in pregnancy Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen may increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in children. The study, published on August 14 in BMC Environmental Health,…
Astronomers stunned by the strangest supernova ever seen An international team of scientists, led by Northwestern University astrophysicists, has detected a never-before-seen type of exploding star, or supernova, that is rich with silicon, sulfur and argon. When massive stars explode, astrophysicists typically find strong signatures of light elements, such as hydrogen and helium. But the…
Ancient solar system crash may explain Bennu and Ryugu’s origin A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) review of data collected from near-Earth asteroids Bennu and Ryugu supports the hypothesis that they were originally part of the Polana collisional family in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The study compared spectroscopy data…
Voyager missed it, but James Webb Just Found Uranus’ hidden moon Southwest Research Institute led a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) survey, discovering a previously unknown tiny moon orbiting Uranus. A team led by SwRI’s Dr. Maryame El Moutamid discovered the small object in a series of images taken on Feb. 2, 2025, bringing Uranus’…
How hidden cosmic highways feed the Universe’s biggest stars The size of our universe and the bodies within it is incomprehensible for us lowly humans. The sun has a mass that is more than 330,000 that of our Earth, and yet there are stars in the universe that completely dwarf our sun. Stars with masses…
Scientists may have found the tiny DNA switch that made us human Research from scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have shed new light on an age-old question: what makes the human brain unique? The team’s discovery comes from their investigation of human-accelerated regions (HARs) — sections of the human genome…
Mexican cave stalagmites reveal the deadly droughts behind the Maya collapse A drought lasting 13 years and several others that each lasted over three years may have contributed to the collapse of the Classic Maya civilization, chemical fingerprints from a stalagmite in a Mexican cave have revealed. A detailed analysis of oxygen isotopes in the…
The ocean’s fragile fortresses are crumbling under climate pressure A research team from the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) has published a study in Communications Biology showing how ocean acidification and warming — two of the main consequences of global climate change — can simultaneously affect the structure, mineral composition, and microbiome of bryozoans,…
