The approach could one day be delivered via a mask worn at home
pocketlight/Getty Images
Inhaling high levels of carbon dioxide intermittently for half an hour flushes proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease out of the brain, a small study has found. Exposure to the gas changes how blood vessels in the brain constrict and dilate while we’re awake, mimicking activity that occurs during deep sleep. This then turbocharges the glymphatic system to remove the build-up of waste products that could cause harm.
Reformulated prompts, wait time, and supportive classroom cues help novice teachers encourage participation without undermining student autonomy. Credit: Professor Eunseok Ro, Pusan National University, Republic of Korea
Classrooms often fall silent when the teacher poses a question. The pause is not always due to a lack of knowledge. Students may be hesitant, unsure, shy or simply unwilling to participate, and these feelings are often shown through subtle cues such as gaze aversion, delayed responses, posture, facial expressions or quiet laughter.
Researchers from Manchester and Canada have shown that the claim by the authors of a study published earlier this year that most of its participants had experienced parental alienating behaviors during childhood is seriously misleading. Claims in the study that people affected by parental alienating behaviors showed greater signs of stress, PTSD and depression are also challenged by the team from The University of Manchester and the University of New Brunswick.
In everyday life, people often joke about "stalking" someone on social media or describe someone's behavior as a bit "stalky." But these casual uses of the word can blur the reality of stalking as a serious crime.
The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. In the enlarged section, the nematosomes—which are key to the immune system of these invertebrates—are highlighted. Credit: HHU/Nida Kaya
Researchers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and Kiel University (CAU) have examined immune system function in an early-branching animal—a sea anemone. They discovered that the immune systems of these animals can selectively distinguish between different microorganisms, protecting beneficial bacteria from harmful bacteria—an ability that has been attributed only to vertebrates to date. So-called "nematosomes" play an important role in this process.
A new study suggests that linking hotel charges to guests' environmental impact could encourage stronger intentions to behave more sustainably. Credit: Hanyang University and Professor Hakseung Shin
Hotels have long encouraged guests to reuse towels, limit linen changes and conserve energy. Yet tourism remains a significant source of carbon emissions, and voluntary sustainability programs often struggle to achieve lasting behavior change. New research suggests a different approach may be more effective: connecting the environmental impact of a stay directly to what travelers pay.
Amrit Kaur Purba and colleagues argue that social media restrictions operate within a wider system of adolescents, families, schools, governments and commercial actors—and therefore should be treated as complex systems interventions rather than isolated behavioral policies.
Just as this country celebrated its 250th birthday, some geneticists were celebrating America, too. At the end of June, the National Institutes of Health announced its "All of Us" Research Program had become the world's largest database of integrated health and genomic information. The project, launched in 2015 under the Obama administration, aimed to collect comprehensive genetic information and health records from at least a million Americans. Eleven years later, they're approaching that goal, with 747,000 volunteers sharing their whole genomes, lifelong health records or both.
Imagine shining a flashlight across a dark room. You can predict exactly what the light will do: travel in a straight line from one point to another. That seems obvious because, in the world we see around us, light appears to follow a single, clear path.
A pregnant naked mole rat queen (left) and worker (right) sniff each other
Felix Petermann, Max Delbrück Center
There’s one scent to rule them all – and we now know what it is. A series of experiments has shown that a single molecule released by the queen of naked mole rat colonies prevents all the other females in a colony from breeding.
