Uppsala University

For women on the oral contraceptive pill, mood changes are common and can be a reason why they stop taking it. A new study has found a link between taking the combined oral contraceptive pill and the risk of depression, especially in younger women.

Good sleep and good nutrition are the cornerstones of good health. We know how diet can affect general health, but what effect does what we eat have on how well we sleep? A new study has looked at how diet can directly affect sleep quality.

Amber is amazing at preserving insects and small creatures, but now it might have some competition – fossilized feces. A hapless beetle has become the first species discovered and described after being preserved in poo for 230 million years.

Most of us know the four classical states of matter – solid, liquid, gas and plasma – but there’s a whole world of exotic states out there. Now, physicists have identified a new one named “self-induced spin glass,” which could be used in AI platforms.

A new type of experimental proton battery is built with entirely organic components, making it much more environmentally friendly than most. On top of that, it can also be charged in a matter of minutes and can function at very low temperatures.

Throughout the densely-populated country of Bangladesh, a lack of access to clean drinking water is responsible for a variety of debilitating and often-lethal infections. Soon, however, residents could filter virtually all harmful microbes out of their water, using paper derived from algae.

While dinosaurs were the biggest land animals ever, mammals were mostly rat-sized critters running around underfoot. But now palaeontologists have described a mammal ancestor from the Triassic Period that grew to the size of an elephant, giving those early dinosaurs a run for their money.

Waiting for water to boil is a minor inconvenience that we’ve all experienced. Maybe next time try the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, which has now been used to boil water to 100,000° C in 75 millionths of a billionth of a second, turning it into a new plasma-like state of matter in the process.

Researchers have found human-like footprints dating back 5.7 million years – a time when our ancestors were thought to still be getting around on ape-like feet. More mysteriously, these prints were found in the Greek islands, implying hominins left Africa much earlier than previously thought.

Museum specimens may have already been “discovered,” but important new details can still turn up on closer study. A new investigation into an old plesiosaur skeleton in a German museum discovered that not only did the bones belong to a new species, but the animal was the oldest of its kind.

Taking and storing liquid blood samples is expensive and time consuming. To bring down costs and broaden the use of samples, researchers are studying the potential for using millimeter-wide drops of dried blood on filter paper as an alternative means of collecting and storing samples.

Death by supervolcano is not what most people have in mind when they talk about going out in a blaze of glory. But these magma cauldrons exist among us and they are very much alive. A new study tells us what might trigger one of these sleeping giants.