Gigantic ring system around J1407b much larger, heavier than Saturn's

Artist's conception of the extrasolar ring system circling the young giant planet or brown dwarf J1407b is shown. The rings are shown eclipsing the young sun-like star J1407, as they would have appeared in early 2007. The best fit model is consistent with a system of at least 30 rings, and there are gaps where satellites ("exomoons")...

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Girls lead boys in academic achievement globally

An international study shows that girls outperform boys in educational achievement in 70 percent of the countries they studied -- regardless of the level of gender, political, economic or social equality. Considerable attention has been paid to how boys' educational achievements in science and math compare to girls' accomplishments...

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3-D view of Greenland Ice Sheet opens window on ice history

This is a cross-section of the age of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Layers determined to be from the Holocene period, formed during the past 11,700 years, are shown in green. Layers accumulated during the last ice age, from 11,700 to 115,000 years ago, are shown in blue. Layers from the Eemian period, more than 115,000 years old, are shown...

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Family voices, stories speed coma recovery

When patients in the study heard the voice of a family member calling their names out loud and reciting stories while they were in an MRI, their brains showed increased neural activity. "We saw changes in the blood oxygen level in their brain regions associated with retrieving long-term memory and understanding language," Pape said....

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Why all-nighters don't work: How sleep, memory go hand-in-hand

Understanding how sleep and memory are connected in a simple system, like Drosophila, can help scientists unravel the secrets of the human brain. Want to ace that test tomorrow? Here's a tip: Put down the coffee and hit the sack. Scientists have long known that sleep, memory and learning are deeply connected. Most animals, from...

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Climate affects development of human speech

Dry land (stock image). Many languages of the world use tone or pitch to give meaning to their words. Linguist Caleb Everett and his collaborators have uncovered that languages with complex tones -- those that use three or more tones for sound contrast -- are much more likely to occur in humid regions of the world, while languages with...

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Scientists slow down the speed of light travelling in free space

Scientists have long known that the speed of light can be slowed slightly as it travels through materials such as water or glass. However, it has generally been thought impossible for particles of light, known as photons, to be slowed as they travel through free space, unimpeded by interactions with any materials. In a new paper...

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Telomere extension turns back aging clock in cultured human cells, study finds

A new procedure can quickly and efficiently increase the length of human telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that are linked to aging and disease, according to scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Treated cells behave as if they are much younger than untreated cells, multiplying with abandon...

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New research re-creates planet formation, super-Earths and giant planets in the laboratory

New laser-driven shock compression experiments on stishovite, a high-density form of silica, provide thermodynamic and electrical conductivity data at unprecedented conditions and reveal the unusual properties of rocks deep inside large exoplanets and giant planets. New laser-driven compression experiments reproduce the conditions...

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Early human ancestors used their hands like modern humans

Human and ape joining hands (stock image). Researchers examined the trabeculae of hand bones of humans and chimpanzees. They found clear differences between humans, who have a unique ability for forceful precision gripping between thumb and fingers, and chimpanzees, who cannot adopt human-like postures. New research suggests pre-Homo...

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Rosetta Comet 'pouring' more water into space

Image acquired by the navigation camera on the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft orbiting Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. There has been a significant increase in the amount of water "pouring" out of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the comet on which the Rosetta mission's Philae lander touched down in November 2014. The...

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Exploring the use of alcohol-interactive prescription medication among US drinkers

Approximately 71 percent of American adults drink alcohol. While alcohol interacts negatively with a number of commonly prescribed medications, little is known on a population level about the use of alcohol-interactive (AI) prescription medication among US drinkers. A new study has found that almost 42 percent of drinkers in the US population have used one or more alcohol-interactive prescription medications. Results...

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Sleep difficulties in adolescents can predict alcohol, drug problems

A new study has found that sleep difficulties and hours of sleep can predict a number of specific problems, including binge drinking, driving under the influence of alcohol, and risky sexual behavior. Sleep difficulties and insufficient sleep are common among American youth. Prior research has shown that poor sleep can predict alcohol-related...

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Genes, environment contribute to personal, peer drinking during adolescence and beyond

Alcohol use typically begins during adolescence, within social contexts, and is often correlated with the drinking of one's peers. A new study of how a person's drinking is related to the alcohol use of their peers from early adolescence through to early adulthood has found that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the correlation between one's own drinking and peer drinking. Results will be published...

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Pre-sleep drinking disrupts sleep

For individuals who drink before sleeping, alcohol initially acts as a sedative -- marked by the delta frequency electroencephalogram (EEG) activity of Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) -- but is later associated with sleep disruption. Significant reductions in EEG delta frequency activity and power also occur with normal development between the ages of 12 and 16; likewise this is a time when alcohol is commonly consumed for the first...

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Investigations and complaints procedures have a serious impact on doctors' health, risk harming patients, study suggests

Doctors who are the subject of complaints procedures or investigation by the General Medical Council experience high rates of serious depression and anxiety as well as suicidal thoughts, according to a new study. Four out of five doctors also reported changing the way they treat their patients as a result of either complaints against themselves, or observing a colleague go through a complaints process. The authors of...

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Three nearly Earth-size planets found orbiting nearby star: One in 'Goldilocks' zone

This artistic impression shows NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft operating in a new mission profile called K2. A multinational, multi-institution team of researchers led by University of Arizona scientist Ian Crossfield has found a star with three planets, one of which may have temperatures moderate enough for liquid water --...

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