Science

Financial incentives are found to be three times more effective than e-cigarettes and other stop-smoking aids, in a University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine-led study. Halpern et al showed that among unselected smokers, workplace smoking-cessation programs yielded low rates of smoking abstinence and that offering free cessation aids or …

A duo of astrophysicists is proposing a new model for the invisible material that makes up most of the Universe: it’s possible that a small fraction (less than 1%) of dark matter particles may have a tiny electrical charge — a million times smaller than the charge on the electron. …

A multicenter clinical trial of DCVax-L, a personalized vaccine that targets the aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma, has indicated improved patient survival rates. The results appear in the Journal of Translational Medicine. A personalized vaccine targeting glioblastoma may improve survival for some patients. Image credit: Angelo Esslinger. Personalized vaccines are specifically …

Ghrelin, a hormone synthesized by endocrine cells of the stomach, may be a new promising target developing novel medications for alcohol use disorder, according to a recent study. The hormone ghrelin affects alcohol-seeking behavior. Image credit: Michal Jarmoluk. Ghrelin is known as the ‘hunger hormone’ given its role in increasing …

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is maneuvering to its lowest-ever orbit for a close-up examination of the dwarf planet Ceres. This artist’s concept shows NASA’s Dawn spacecraft arriving at Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech. In early June, Dawn will reach its lowest-ever and final orbit above Ceres. Soon after, the spacecraft …

Neutron stars are the smallest, densest stars known to exist. But their small size, and the fact that they often don’t emit light in the visible spectrum, can make them difficult to see. The circumstances under which we can see neutron stars are rather complex — we know of about …

Until last year, the  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) was making do with some fairly ancient weather satellites. The 1990s era hardware wasn’t up to the task of gathering the data scientists want, but the agency deployed the first of its new generation GOES-R satellites in 2016. Earlier this …

Dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula) provide more grooming to those groupmates who contribute more to sentinel behavior — acting as a raised guard to look out for danger, according to new research from the University of Bristol, UK. Group of dwarf mongooses in which different cooperative acts are exchanged even with …

A set of three nearly identical genes found only in humans, NOTCH2NL, appears to play a critical role in the development of our large brains, according to a pair of studies published this week in the journal Cell. The NOTCH2NL genes are found exclusively in humans and appeared between 3 …

Wind-blown dunes are known on Earth, Mars, Venus, Saturn’s moon Titan, and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko — and, now on Pluto, according to a team of planetary researchers led by a University of Plymouth scientist. This Pluto mosaic was made from New Horizons LORRI images taken on July 14, 2015, from a …