People would rather spend their money on a charitable cause than simply give to it, a new study suggests. You may wonder: What’s the difference?  The answer is control. Researchers found that donors feel like they have more control over their donation when they are told they’re actively spending their money on an important cause, […]

Scientists have developed a promising new method to combat the age-related losses in muscle mass that often accompany immobility after injury or illness. Their technique, demonstrated in mice, arrests the process by which muscles begin to deteriorate at the onset of exercise after a period of inactivity. They report their findings in the Journal of […]

On 25 July 2000, a Concorde jet crashed upon take-off in Paris, killing 113 people. The cause of the accident was later identified as a metal strip on the runway that had fallen off another plane. When the jet ran over it, its tyre burst and shredded pieces caused a fuel tank to rupture, resulting […]

Researchers in the US have combined desirable characteristics of aliphatic and aromatic groups to create a family of polyolefins with thermal stabilities and energy densities that outperform commercially available polymers. The concept resists traditional approaches to synthesising dielectric polymers and creates materials that could eventually find use in aerospace systems and wind turbines. ‘When choosing […]

They are back! Neil deGrasse Tyson is once again spouting total crap about the history of mathematics and has managed to stir the HISTSCI_HULK back into butt kicking action. The offending object that provoked the HISTSCI_HULK’s ire is a Star Talk video on YouTube entitled Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Zero. The HISTSCI_HULK thinks that the title should read Neil […]

MIT.nano has announced its next round of seed grants to support hardware and software research related to sensors, 3D/4D interaction and analysis, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and gaming. The grants are awarded through the MIT.nano Immersion Lab Gaming Program, a four-year collaboration between MIT.nano and NCSOFT, a digital entertainment company and founding member of […]

University of Kansas (KU) chemistry professor Feng ‘Franklin’ Tao, who was arrested in 2019 under the US Department of Justice’s controversial ‘China Initiative’, was convicted of three wire fraud counts and making false statements by a federal jury on 7 April. He now faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 (£192,000) fine […]

Rhesus macaques are able to perceive their own heartbeats, according to a new study from the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis, and Royal Holloway, University of London. The research, published April 11 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences creates a first-of-its-kind animal model of interoception. Interoception refers to […]

The US-headquartered pharmaceutical company Catalent has bought Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC) that is under construction in Oxfordshire, UK. The government-supported facility was intended to be the country’s first non-profit vaccine producer. Catalent plans to invest £120 million to finish building the centre, which is expected to employ more than 400 people when it […]

Kindness is powerful and does not just affect the recipient’s feelings – kindness can also impact an entire family’s brain health. A cross-disciplinary team of researchers and clinicians from Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas sought to understand whether an online kindness training program improves preschooler’s prosocial behaviors and their parents’ resilience during […]