Science Breakthroughs

A surge in brain connections fine-tunes visual responses within days of eyes opening, study finds

Neurons gained nearly five times more connections in the first days of seeing.

Plants may experience 'optical illusions' that affect their direction of growth

Sunflower seedlings can bend toward a weaker light after stronger beams cancel out.

Deep-sea mussels trade tidal rhythms for a 24-hour cycle in the lab

Deep-sea mussel cells kept a 24-hour clock after more than three years in culture.

To restore attention, reach out to nature

Children near trees and parks scored better on attention tests in a study of 12,000 kids.

Reducing hallucinations in schizophrenia with focused ultrasound: First-in-human clinical trial begins

A first-in-human trial is testing whether sound waves can quiet voices in schizophrenia.

No neuralyzer needed: The molecular pathways and circuit that trigger forgetting in C. elegans

One tiny worm can forget one learned smell while keeping another memory intact.

A single protein that helps drive responses to touch, temperature, pain and itch could offer a new drug target

One protein helped mice sense touch, heat, cold, pain and itch.

Magnetic nanocomposites could help shrink the components that power computer chips

The new chip-sized inductors produced more than twice the inductance without a magnetic core.

Exactly solvable model reveals how trapped light can create magnetic order in one-dimensional spin chains

Cavity light can make a spin chain form magnetic order where it otherwise cannot.

How an innate immune protein can control cholesterol, tumor growth and response to cancer therapy

Restoring one immune protein slowed tumor growth and reversed drug resistance in tests.

European flounder can complete whole life cycle in freshwater

Lake Pulmanki flounders can reproduce in freshwater, unlike others of their kind.

Are we overfertilizing our fields? Researchers challenge conventional soil testing

Alfalfa drew up to nearly four times more potassium than soil tests predicted.

Molecular dinitrogen anions pave the way for low-temperature ammonia synthesis

A new catalyst made ammonia at 300 °C without relying on precious metals.

According to science, you may be more likely to gain respect and status by helping others

In Norway, people gained respect through useful problem-solving, not intelligence alone.

From wild to mild: Friendly foxes show changes in brain region

After just six generations, friendly foxes had fewer aggression-linked brain cells.

Hereditary lung and liver disease successfully treated for the first time using gene correction

Gene correction has reportedly treated this inherited lung and liver disease for the first time.

A new way to make better use of ruthenium in single-atom catalysts

A new catalyst method aims to get more chemical-making power from rare ruthenium.

Targeting hormone receptors reduces lupus-related kidney damage in mice

A receptor tweak cut lupus-related kidney harm in mice while sparing helpful immune cells.

Ultrashort laser pulses can slice lab-grown diamond along useful crystal plane

Ultrashort laser pulses can slice lab-grown diamond along a valuable crystal plane.

Fossilised red blood cells found in 115m-year-old dinosaur’s bone, say scientists

A 115-million-year-old dinosaur bone may hold traces of red blood cells.