New Atlas

Medical Audio available

Heart-healing fish may help humans do the same

Ben Coxworth November 21, 2018

After a heart attack, the heart's damaged muscle tissue is replaced by non-beating scar tissue. Unfortunately, this leaves the muscle permanently weakened. There could be new hope, however, as scientists have taken strides toward understanding how a fish is able to heal its own heart.

The blind, cave-dwelling variant of the Astyanax Mexicanus tetra

Medical Audio available

Scientists engineer a virus to take out cancer cells and their accomplices

Nick Lavars November 19, 2018

Scientists have developed a pioneering two-pronged virus that targets cancerous cells and the healthy neighboring cells that can aid and abet them, a new tool they describe as the first of its kind.

Scientists have given an engineered virus some new cancer-fighting abilities

Science Audio available

Oxford study finds screen time doesn't disrupt children's sleep

Rich Haridy November 7, 2018

Perhaps one of the biggest dilemmas faced by parents in the 21st century is how much screen time their child should be allowed. A new study from the University of Oxford may set some parent’s minds at ease, finding screen time has little to no effect on the duration of a child’s sleep.

The University of Oxford study found almost no difference in overall sleep duration between children who ...

Biology

Scientists witness crows building tools from various parts for the first time

Nick Lavars October 25, 2018

Crows and their close relatives ravens are known to be quite intelligent. New research has now uncovered a previously unknown ability, with crows being observed building tools from multiple parts for the first time ever.

Birds of the corvid family are known to be smart, but scientists have now uncovered a ...

Science

An ancient virus may be responsible for some addictive behaviors

Rich Haridy September 25, 2018

Researchers have revealed that an ancient retrovirus, found in between 5 and 10 percent of the world’s population, is significantly associated with addiction. The study uncovered a connection between the retrovirus and a gene that could make individuals prone to a variety of addictive behaviors.

Intriguing results suggest a retrovirus increases expression of a gene that makes individuals more disposed to ...

VR

VR therapist helps patients overcome fear of heights in Oxford study

Rich Haridy July 12, 2018

A new study has used a VR-based treatment to help people overcome a fear of heights. The treatment is the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of a completely automated therapy guided by a computer-generated virtual therapist that responds to the patient's voice.

This is the first treatment that removes the need for a real-life therapist to guide a ...

Medical

Ultrasound remotely bursts heat-sensitive capsules, delivering drugs directly to tumors

Rich Haridy July 10, 2018

A promising new cancer drug delivery system has successfully passed early human safety trials. The treatment delivers cancer drugs in heat-activated capsules to tumors in the liver and then uses a focused ultrasound beam to remotely trigger the targeted release of their drug payload.

Heat-sensitive capsules were warmed up using ultrasound to release their chemotherapy drug payload in the liver

Space

Uranus smells like rotten eggs

David Szondy April 24, 2018

If you could sniff a planet, what would it smell like? According to an international team of scientists,if you could get a whiff of the planet Uranus, it would have the pungent odor of rotten eggs due to the presence of the noxious gas hydrogen sulfide.

Already the subject of much schoolyard sniggering, spectroscopic analysis now indicates that Uranus smells like rotten ...

Science

Ancient amber seals away first direct evidence of dinosaur blood-sucking ticks

Nick Lavars December 12, 2017

Scientists have long suspected that ticks feasted on the blood of dinosaurs. Preserved in a 99 million-year-old chunk of amber lies a hard tick grasping the feather of a dinosaur, suggesting that the parasitic insects did indeed harbor a penchant for prehistoric plasma.

A hard tick clutches at a dinosaur feather in a 99-million-year-old piece of fossilized amber

Health & Wellbeing

X-ray shield lets researchers look in worms for cancer clues

Michael Franco October 3, 2017

Studying how stem cells move in the body is a critical step to understanding cancer. Researchers have just provided a window into this process by building a machine that beams flatworms with x-rays that kill just enough stem cells to allow the others to move freely around while being tracked.

Planarians, or flatworms, are valuable research subjects because of their ability to regenerate