3+ day, 10+ hour ago   (1013+ words) Star formation has fallen by more than half over 4.5 billion years, even as the universe’s supply of atomic hydrogen has barely declined. Stars are being born across the universe at less than half the rate they were 4.5 billion years ago....

4+ day, 17+ hour ago   (1077+ words) A soft jumping robot that twists itself tight under an infrared lamp, snaps its tail on the ground, and resets in mid-air to jump again. An origami paper frog jumps once. Then a hand has to pick it up, fold…...

4+ day, 16+ hour ago   (795+ words) Memory and consciousness may be encoded in the chemistry of the mesh packed around brain cells, not in the signals passing between them. Twenty years after you last heard it, a song comes on and the memory arrives with the…...

4+ day, 18+ hour ago   (989+ words) After 30 minutes of play, preschool children performed better on some tasks but struggled more when the next task demanded focus and self-control. For parents and teachers, one everyday moment can be harder than it looks: a preschooler finishes an exciting…...

5+ day, 12+ hour ago   (1143+ words) Switching off a cluster of cells in the mouse brainstem eased nerve pain, and restoring one receptor reversed months of hypersensitivity. The brain runs a painkiller of its own. At the base of the skull, a small cluster of cells…...

1+ week, 17+ hour ago   (1052+ words) Higher progesterone was linked to less distinct brain signals during emotion control and to lower mood in women. Progesterone and estradiol change across the menstrual cycle and are linked with mood. How they relate to emotional control in the brain…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (1175+ words) Physicists including Roger Penrose observed gravity’s effect on a falling quantum object for the first time, confirming Einstein’s theory holds up in the quantum world. Jump off a diving board and you feel weightless on the way down. Einstein made…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (1122+ words) The human body depends on cells passing information to one another. Heart cells need to work together, nerve cells need to carry signals, and many other tissues depend on cells knowing what nearby cells are doing. This raises a basic…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (1193+ words) A simple spring-powered robot can pinch, twist, hook and grasp with just two air inputs, outperforming the human hand in some movements. Robot designers have long tried to copy the human hand, rebuilding its fingers and joints one piece at…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (1227+ words) Everyday cooking, cleaning, and scented products can fill indoor air with trillions of invisible nanoparticles, even in homes using electric appliances. Indoor air can look clean even when it contains huge numbers of particles that are too small to see....