Eating about ½ cup of walnuts every day for two years modestly lowered levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, known as “bad cholesterol,” and reduced the number of total LDL particles and small LDL particles in healthy, older adults, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation. Walnuts are a rich source […]

What transpires in comedies and cartoons when a character has a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other is not far off from people’s perceptions of the real world, finds a new study from the University of Waterloo. Intended to illustrate the characters’ decision-making dilemma with comedic results, the moral character and […]

Our society is awash in data, and people in all fields are clamoring for better ways to use it. How can we use data to better predict which convicted criminals are most likely to commit crimes again … or which hospitalized neurology patients are most likely to have a seizure … or which manholes in […]

Years of cognitive development research have uncovered a wealth of knowledge about what children need to grow, thrive and learn — but it’s also important to translate those insights into real-world applications. A new paper led by Penn State graduate Brenna Hassinger-Das, now an assistant professor of psychology at Pace University-NYC, and Jennifer Zosh, professor […]

Funded by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jaime Grunlan, the Leland T. Jordan ’29 Chair Professor in the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, is applying water-based nanocoatings to military clothing, adding protective properties like fire and UV-light protection, as well as chemical recognition capabilities. Military clothing is […]

Batteries are widely used in everyday applications like powering electric vehicles, electronic gadgets and are promising candidates for sustainable energy storage. However, as you’ve likely noticed with daily charging of batteries, their functionality drops off over time. Eventually, we need to replace these batteries, which is not only expensive but also depletes the rare earth […]

Steep declines in delta variant outbreaks in India and, more recently, the U.K., are likely not due to the nations reaching “herd immunity” or viral behavior, but rather because of shifts in human behavior prompted by mounting cases and deaths, Harvard experts say. Those outbreaks appeared to follow similar courses: a rapid increase in cases […]

Cutting 20 percent of sugar from packaged foods and 40 percent from beverages could prevent 2.48 million cardiovascular disease events (such as strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrests), 490,000 cardiovascular deaths, and 750,000 diabetes cases in the U.S. over the lifetime of the adult population, reports a study published in Circulation. A team of researchers from […]

Next Tuesday, August 31 at 7 p.m. on Zoom, Dr. Heidi B. Hammel will bring you up to date on Uranus and Neptune, discussing her results from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Keck 10-m telescope, and many other observatories. Dr. Hammel will also review the plans for ice giant system exploration with NASA’s newest telescope […]

A commonly-used pesticide could be partially responsible for the global obesity epidemic, says a study led by McMaster University scientists. Researchers discovered that chlorpyrifos, which is banned for use on foods in Canada but widely sprayed on fruits and vegetables in many other parts of the world, slows down the burning of calories in the […]