Alzheimer’s disease is hard to diagnose. But proteins in the blood might provide clarity. A series of recent findings, presented at the annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia and in research papers, raise the possibility of a simple blood draw to help doctors figure out if a person’s cognitive problems are caused by Alzheimer’s — or something else. Decades ago, the only definitive way to get a diagnosis was an autopsy. Since then, scientists have figured out how to see the disease in living people. Spinal taps reveal levels of key proteins associated with the disease. And brain scans…
Author: houssem23
Black holes can’t be formed from pure light. Quantum physics would curb their creation under any foreseeable conditions, a new study suggests. Typically, matter is responsible for black holes. They’re often formed when a star’s core implodes at the end of its life. But matter isn’t necessarily required to form a black hole. According to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, black holes could form from concentrated energy alone. A black hole formed from electromagnetic energy — that is, light — is called a kugelblitz. That concept has been jangling around in physicists’ brains for decades. But actually producing a kugelblitz seems to…
An extraordinary heat wave last week toppled thousands of temperature records across Asia, from Iran to Japan. In Iran’s highlands, the city of Isfahan, at the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, sweltered in temperatures up to 43.8° Celsius (110.8° Fahrenheit). Japan, which saw at least 120 deaths due to heatstroke in July, issued more heat stroke warnings August 9, as temperatures climbed to 39° C (102.2° F). As what’s “normal” for temperatures continues to tick upward, it’s important to note that we can’t just adapt our way out of climate change, scientists have warned (SN: 2/28/22). A concerted, global effort…
Something strange is happening at Earth’s center. Decades of earthquake data show that Earth’s inner core has been rotating slower than its mantle and surface since around 2010, researchers report June 12 in Nature. The study appears to confirm a controversial finding from last year that the inner core may have reversed its rotation relative to the mantle and surface, a shift that might occur every 35 years or so (SN: 1/23/23). The new study also suggests that something has been interfering with the most recent turnaround, says geophysicist John Vidale of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.…
Stonehenge had a hard Scottish heart, a new study suggests. The ancient site’s central stone, a large slab known as the Altar Stone, consists of rock transported at least 750 kilometers from northeastern Scotland to southern England, say geoscientist Anthony Clarke of Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and colleagues. An analysis of the age and chemical makeup of three types of mineral grains in two Altar Stone fragments identified a close match to corresponding measures for a Scottish rock formation known as the Orcadian Basin, the researchers report August 14 in Nature. Using the same measures, they ruled out other…
For millennia, humans have seen inexplicable things in the sky. Some have been beautiful, some have been terrifying, and some — like auroras and solar eclipses before they were understood scientifically — have been both. Today’s aircraft, balloons, drones, satellites and more only increase the chances of spotting something confounding overhead. In the United States, unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, came into the national spotlight in the late 1940s and early ’50s. A series of incidents, including a supposedly crashed alien spaceship near Roswell, N.M., generated something of an American obsession. The Roswell UFO turned out to be part of…
Nuclear power of the future is going to need fuel. That has governments, energy companies and nuclear engineers clamoring to get their hands on HALEU: high-assay low-enriched uranium. HALEU (pronounced like “Hey, Lou”) was previously a niche material, used mainly in nuclear reactors conducting scientific research. But now, multiple companies in the United States have proposed newfangled types of nuclear reactors that they claim will generate electric power more efficiently and safely. Such reactors, many of which will run on HALEU, are a key part of the United States government’s plan to meet future demands for clean energy (SN: 12/14/22).On June 10,…
Earth’s most famous killer asteroid came from the outer reaches of the solar system, researchers report in the Aug. 16 Science. About 66 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into the sea just off Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, forming the Chicxulub crater. That powerful impact may have triggered a mass extinction event on Earth, killing off more than 60 percent of the planet’s species, including all nonbird dinosaurs (SN: 1/25/17). The impact left geochemical fingerprints, such as elevated levels of the element iridium, in a thin layer of rock found in multiple countries around the globe (SN: 9/8/84). Now, new…
An appetite-stimulating protein can reverse anorexia in mice. Mice with lack of appetite and weight loss — symptoms similar to people with anorexia — that were genetically tweaked to secrete a protein called ACBP ate more food and weighed more than anorexic animals with an ACBP deficit, researchers report August 14 in Science Translational Medicine. The finding points to a potential treatment target for people with the eating disorder. “Anorexia is a whole brain and body illness” that is difficult to treat, says psychiatrist and neuroscientist Rachel Ross, who wasn’t involved with the new work. “One of the major challenges…
To leave a lasting trail, meteors need to aim low. A new survey of shooting stars shows that meteors that blaze through 90 kilometers up in the sky leave a persistent afterglow, unlike those that burn up at greater heights. Meteors are normally blink-and-you’ll-miss-it events. A particle of space dust leaves a fiery trail of light as it zips through the atmosphere, and then it’s gone. But sometimes, a meteor leaves a lingering afterglow. Astronomers have noted these persistent trains for more than a century, but questions remained about their origins. Now, the first systematic survey of persistent trains has…