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Movies and television often show romance sparking when two strangers meet. Real-life couples, however, are far more likely to begin as friends. Two-thirds of romantic relationships start out platonically, a new study in Social Psychological and Personality Science finds. This friends-first initiation of romance is often overlooked by researchers. Examining a sample of previous studies on how relationships begin, the authors found that nearly 75 percent focused on the spark of romance between strangers....

Researchers at UCLA say it’s not just what you eat that makes those pants tighter — it’s also genetics. In a new study, scientists discovered that body-fat responses to a typical fast-food diet are determined in large part by genetic factors, and they have identified several genes they say may control those responses. The study is the first of its kind to detail metabolic responses to a high-fat, high-sugar diet in a large and diverse mouse population under defined environmental conditions, modeling closely what is likely to occur in human populations....

The authors hypothesized that the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in lockdowns and social distancing measures, may have led to an increase in UFO sightings. The reasoning behind this hypothesis was that with more people staying home and spending time outdoors, there may have been an increase in available free time, which could result in more UFO sightings. Additionally, the authors tested the idea that increased feelings of anxiety and uncertainty may have led to heightened attention to the environment, which could have caused people to more often notice unusual phenomena and make sense of what they experienced by connecting it with UFOs....

For many years astronomers have known that young ‘protostars’ drive supersonic jets of gas from their north and south poles. However, this is the first time that so many of them have been detected at once. The results come from a five year survey undertaken with the UK Infra-Red Telescope and are expected to prompt significant changes in the understanding of the planetary nebulae population in the Galaxy, as well as the properties of jets ejected from young forming stars....

The worms are C. elegans, tiny roundworms common in soil and research labs around the world. Each of the 959 cells in the animals’ transparent, 1-millimeter-long bodies has been identified, named, and mapped, including their 302 nerve cells. Scientists completed the first map of the C. elegans nervous system in 1986 and have been improving it ever since. More recent projects include OpenWorm, an ongoing global effort to design a cell-by-cell and behaviorally accurate virtual C....

Stars that wander too close to a black hole are ripped apart by the incredible tidal forces of the black hole in what is known as a tidal disruption event (TDE). Approximately 1% of these cause jets of plasma and radiation to be ejected from the poles of the rotating black hole. In 1971, the black hole pioneer John Wheeler[1] introduced the concept of jetted-TDEs as “a tube of toothpaste gripped tight about its middle,” causing the system to “squirt matter out of both ends....

The Great Lakes have been unusually ice-free so far this winter. In fact, as of February 14, 2023, ice covered only 6.6 percent of the five freshwater lakes. This is significantly less than the 35-40 percent ice cover that is typical for mid-February, according to data published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL). When the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-20 satellite acquired this image on February 13, ice cover on the lakes was 7 percent....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Biology Letters. Chemicals in the tobacco leaves are known to repel parasitic mites. Researchers examined the nests of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) and house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus), measuring the amount of cellulose acetate, a component of cigarette butts. The more there was of it, the fewer parasitic mites were found. Heat traps were used to see whether the repellent effect of cigarette butts was related to their nicotine content or other features....

The University of Wisconsin’s Connor Wood and his colleagues used passive acoustic monitoring to survey Barred Owl populations over two years, deploying audio recorders over an area spanning more than 6,000 square kilometers (2,300 square miles) across two national forests in northern California. Locating owl calls in the audio data allowed them to determine which sites were and were not occupied by owls. They found a 2.6-fold increase in the amount of territory occupied by Barred Owls between 2017 and 2018, and the old forest habitat preferred by Spotted Owls was the most likely to be colonized....

New study findings ‘are clear, unambiguous and concerning,’ UCLA researcher says. The risk that both tobacco and electronic cigarettes can pose to regular smokers’ health has been well documented, but a new UCLA study illustrates just how quickly vaping can affect the cells of even healthy younger nonsmokers. The findings, published on Monday, August 9, 2021, in JAMA Pediatrics, show that a single 30-minute vaping session can significantly increase cellular oxidative stress, which occurs when the body has an imbalance between free radicals — molecules that can cause damage to cells — and antioxidants, which fight free radicals....

Researchers at Harvard University and the University of British Columbia (UBC) have provided visual evidence that atmospheric particles — which are ubiquitous, especially above densely populated areas — separate into distinct chemical compositions during their life cycle. The observations could have important implications for modeling global climate change and predicting air quality conditions. The tiny particles, which form part of an airborne chemical mix above cities, play a role in pollution (by providing a surface for chemical reactions) and in climate (by reflecting and absorbing solar radiation and by acting as seed surfaces for water condensation and cloud formation)....

Two of three key signs of changes expected to occur at the boundary of interstellar space have changed faster than at any other time in the last seven years, according to new data from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft. For the last seven years, Voyager 1 has been exploring the outer layer of the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself. In one day, on July 28, data from Voyager 1’s cosmic ray instrument showed the level of high-energy cosmic rays originating from outside our solar system jumped by five percent....

Commercial dishwashers are a convenient way to quickly clean and dry plates, glasses, and cutlery in various settings such as restaurants, schools, and barracks. However, a recent study conducted by researchers at the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF), an associated institute of the University of Zurich (UZH) has revealed that these appliances come with a risk. The study found that an ingredient in commercial rinse agents has a toxic effect on the gastrointestinal tract....

Dogs in tropical Africa run the risk of contracting canine trypanosomosis if they are bitten by bloodsucking tsetse flies carrying trypanosomes – microscopic, single-celled organisms found in the bloodstream. In dogs, this disease runs a severe course and is often fatal; “white eyes” or corneal cloudiness is one of the characteristic and obvious signs of the disease. Sick dogs suspected of trypanosomosis are frequently brought to the University of Nigeria Veterinary Teaching Hospital (UNVTH) in Nsukka, where diagnosis relies on examination of a blood smear under the microscope....

The new electrochemical transistor is compatible with both blood and water and has the ability to amplify significant signals, making it highly beneficial for biomedical sensing. This transistor could make it possible to develop wearable devices that can perform on-site signal processing right at the biology-device interface. Some potential applications include monitoring heart rate and levels of sodium and potassium in the blood, as well as tracking eye movements to study sleep disorders....

Until about 50 years ago, all known superconductors were metals. This made sense, because metals have the largest number of loosely bound “carrier” electrons that are free to pair up and flow as electrical current with no resistance and 100 percent efficiency – the hallmark of superconductivity. Then an odd one came along – strontium titanate, the first oxide material, and the first semiconductor found to be superconducting. Even though it doesn’t fit the classic profile of a superconductor – it has very few free-to-roam electrons – it becomes superconducting when conditions are right, although no one could explain why....

A recent study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis may shed light on how excessive weight contributes to diabetes and offer researchers a target for preventing or delaying the onset of the disease in at-risk individuals. The research suggests that many individuals with high insulin levels, a sign of increased diabetes risk, also have impairments in an enzyme essential for processing a crucial dietary fatty acid. The research was recently published in the journal Cell Metabolism....

According to international research led by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), the surface of ice when in contact with a solid object melts and creates a self-perpetuating lubricant layer. This lubricant layer makes the ice slipperier, and therefore more likely to cause accidents involving skating or cars. The study, which was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, involved the use of computer simulations to analyze the movement of solid objects over the surface of ice at the atomic level....

Perhaps you think first of the atomic bomb, estimated to have killed as many as 200,000 people when the United States dropped two on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But another weapon is responsible for far more deaths – numbering up into the millions. It’s the Kalashnikov assault rifle, commonly known as the AK-47. Originally developed in secrecy for the Soviet military, an estimated 100 million AK-47s and its variants have been produced to date....

The results of a field study of more than 1,200 people attending multi-day arts and music festivals in the United States and United Kingdom confirm previous laboratory research indicating that psychedelic substances enhance feelings of social connectedness and improve mental well-being, the authors say. “Our results show that people who take psychedelics ‘in the wild’ report positive experiences very similar to those observed in controlled laboratory studies,” said Yale’s Matthias Forstmann, postdoctoral fellow and first author of the paper....