A common sleep disorder called sleep apnea may pave the way for dementia and Alzheimer's disease later in life. Getting proper treatment for the condition, however, may help protect against the development of these tragic diseases, according to a new study from the Univerity of Michigan's Michigan Medicine. That's based on data from more than 50,000 people.
Antipsychotics, a type of medication that is usually prescribed to treat psychotic disorders, may have a protective effect against COVID-19. That's according to a new study from the University of Seville, which reports that people who take antipsychotics were less likely to contract the virus and that among those who did, the odds of reaching a severe life-threatening state were lower.
A new study from the University of Helsinki's Obesity Research Unit has found that fat tissue's energy 'powerplants' are knocked out of tune in obese individuals, making it harder to lose weight and keep it off -- in addition to paving the way for a variety of health problems. Though similar changes were found in the muscle tissue of obese individuals, the change wasn't as drastic.
When it comes to harm reduction, switching from smoking cigarettes to vaping an electronic cigarette may be ideal for helping protect your health, at least according to a new study from Imperial Brands. That's not to say that vaping is a healthy activity, but when compared to smoking combustion cigarettes, the new research found good news when it comes to DNA damage potential.
Johnson & Johnson's single-shot COVID-19 vaccine is being investigated by the European Medicines Agency over blood clot concerns, the second coronavirus vaccine to fall under the microscope for potentially fatal side-effects. The EMA's safety committee, PRAC, recommended continued use of the University fo Oxford and AstraZeneca's vaccine earlier this week, though required possible blood issues be added to the list of rare risks.
GE is working on tiny sensors that could spot the COVID-19 virus, small enough to integrate into smartphones, wearables, and other surfaces as a digital watchdog for potential routes of infection. The electronic nano-sensors distill down what would traditionally demand large and complex lab equipment into something far smaller, focused on detecting a specific thing such as coronavirus.
One of the challenges with capturing green solar energy is in being able to store that energy for use in times when the sun is unavailable. While the cost of harvesting solar energy has declined significantly in recent years, the cost to store that energy via battery packs and other methods hasn't come down as quickly. Researchers from Cornell have been exploring low-cost materials to create rechargeable batteries to make energy storage more affordable.
Elon Musk is most notably the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, but he has his fingers in several other pies. Musk has never been afraid to take to Twitter and drop tidbits of information about future products and technology from any of the companies he operates. He recently took to Twitter to talk about Neuralink, a company working on brain implanted interfaces for humans.
NICER, the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer, is a NASA telescope that operates from the ISS, and it has made an interesting discovery. NICER has discovered X-ray surges emanating from the Crab Nebula alongside radio bursts from the pulsar. The bursts are called giant radio pulses, and they release far more energy than previously believed.
The skull you're looking at was in pieces when it was discovered. After a whole heck of a lot of work, the physical remnants were put together again for this photo. But it's the tiniest of pieces we care about today. It's the DNA this 45,000 year old skull provided that's placed it in the headlines this week.
Elon Musk's Neuralink may be busy implanting brain chips in animals, but the co-founder of the brain-computer interface startup is also thinking of rather more outlandish experiments, including a real-life "Jurassic Park." Unlike the movie, the goal wouldn't be resurrecting ancient dino DNA, however, and fingers-crossed it also wouldn't involve loosed-lizard rampages.
Brown dwarfs are also known as failed stars and can spin at extremely high velocities. Scientists know that a brown dwarf can spin as fast as 200,000 mph, but researchers believe there may be a limit to how fast they can rotate. NASA scientists have used data from the Spitzer Space Telescope to identify the three fastest-spinning brown dwarf stars ever discovered.