Combining certain meds with ibuprofen can permanently injure kidneys

Anyone who is taking a diuretic and a renin-angiotensin system (RSA) inhibitor for high blood pressure should be cautious about also taking ibuprofen, according to new research. Diuretics and RSA inhibitors are commonly prescribed together for people with hypertension and are available under various pharmaceutical brand names. Painkillers such as ibuprofen are available over-the-counter in […]

Read More

Asia and Africa have similar aging burden as the west

In a study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center researchers have devised a new metric, the “Health-Adjusted Dependency Ratio” (HADR) as an alternative to the most commonly used aging metric, the old-age dependency ratio (OADR). The research suggests that age-related health burden is distinct from […]

Read More

Poor sleep may undermine people’s attempts to keep weight off

New research being presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Maastricht, Netherlands (4-7 May), finds that not getting enough good quality sleep undermines people’s attempts to keep weight off after dieting, and suggests that around two hours of vigorous physical activity per week can help maintain better sleep. The study is by […]

Read More

Rapid Adaptation of Deep Learning Teaches Drones to Survive Any Weather

To be truly useful, drones—that is, autonomous flying vehicles—will need to learn to navigate real-world weather and wind conditions. Right now, drones are either flown under controlled conditions, with no wind, or are operated by humans using remote controls. Drones have been taught to fly in formation in the open skies, but those flights are usually conducted […]

Read More

Researchers Use Electric Shock to Change Biofilm Demographics

Clusters of microscopic bacteria exist all around us. These invisible communities, known as biofilms, are found in habitats ranging from our skin surface to sewer pipes and play integral roles in environments spanning healthcare to agriculture. Molecular biologists and physicists at the University of California San Diego have joined forces to develop a novel method […]

Read More

“Black Widow” Star Devours Its Rapidly Circling Companion

In black widow star systems, a rapidly spinning dead star, called a pulsar, blasts its orbiting companion with radiation, slowly evaporating it. Like their namesake spiders, the pulsars take advantage of their lower-mass companions before destroying them, by harnessing material and energy from the doomed partner stars. A new study published in the journal Nature reports a […]

Read More

Wastewater from battery recycling plants mined for water-splitting catalysts

An international team of researchers has developed a new concept for managing the wastewater from industrial battery recycling facilities. It involves an electrodeposition process to create an electrode material from metal species in the wastewater, which is subsequently used as an electrocatalyst for splitting the same wastewater and generating hydrogen. ‘Critical transition metals, for example, […]

Read More

Freeze–thaw cycles could explain how ancient RNA replicated without enzymes

Prebiotic RNA molecules could have copied themselves with the help of cycles of freezing and thawing. The finding offers another clue to solve a longstanding puzzle surrounding the ‘RNA world’ model of life’s origins: how RNA strands could self-replicate without the help of enzymes. Jack Szostak’s group at Harvard University, US, had previously shown that […]

Read More

Unpacking black-box models

Modern machine-learning models, such as neural networks, are often referred to as “black boxes” because they are so complex that even the researchers who design them can’t fully understand how they make predictions. To provide some insights, researchers use explanation methods that seek to describe individual model decisions. For example, they may highlight words in […]

Read More