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Medical Xpress / Addiction and appetite along the gut-brain axis: Vagus nerve may play a crucial role in the dopamine reward pathway

Dopamine—a neurotransmitter responsible for influencing motivation, pleasure, mood and learning in the brain—has experienced a bit of fame in recent years, acting as a sort of buzzword to describe a fleeting satisfaction ...

Feb 4, 2026 in Neuroscience
Phys.org / Study links daily mental sharpness to 30 to 40 extra minutes of work

A new U of T Scarborough study finds that being mentally sharp can translate into a productivity boost equivalent to about 40 extra minutes of work each day.

Feb 5, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / When gigantism shapes the diet of a superpredator: The Japanese giant salamander's spectacular transition

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Liège on a large population of Japanese giant salamanders—one of the largest amphibians in the world—reveals that above a certain size, a spectacular transition occurs ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Live-cell tracking reveals dynamic interaction between protein folding helpers and newly produced proteins

Proteins are the molecular machines of cells. They are produced in protein factories called ribosomes based on their blueprint—the genetic information. Here, the basic building blocks of proteins, amino acids, are assembled ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / When lasers cross: A brighter way to measure plasma

Measuring conditions in volatile clouds of superheated gases known as plasmas is central to pursuing greater scientific understanding of how stars, nuclear detonations and fusion energy work. For decades, scientists have ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Tuning topological superconductors into existence by adjusting the ratio of two elements

Today's most powerful computers hit a wall when tackling certain problems, from designing new drugs to cracking encryption codes. Error-free quantum computers promise to overcome those challenges, but building them requires ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Poop as medicine? A Roman vial's chemistry backs up ancient medical texts

When some ancient Romans were feeling a little under the weather, they were treated with human feces. While this practice was mentioned in ancient Greco-Roman medical texts by figures such as Pliny the Elder, there was no ...

Feb 4, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / The Amaterasu particle: Cosmic investigation traces its origin

Cosmic rays are extremely fast, charged particles that travel through space at nearly the speed of light. The Amaterasu particle was detected in 2021 by the Telescope Array experiment in the U.S. It is the second-highest-energy ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / 'Red Potato' galaxy discovered by astronomers

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new massive and quiescent red galaxy, which they dubbed "Red Potato." The discovery was reported in a research paper published ...

Feb 4, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Medical Xpress / Mental health and heart attacks: What a 22-million-person review suggests

The Department of Medicine at University of Calgary led an analysis comparing several clinical mental disorders with risk of acute coronary syndrome, a term that includes heart attack and emergency chest pain resulting from ...

Feb 4, 2026 in Psychology & Psychiatry
Phys.org / Ancient bird routes mapped via plant diversity

It's not what they intended to do or expected to find. They're not even all that interested in birds. When Andre Naranjo and his colleagues began work on a new study published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / How superconductivity arises: New insights from moiré materials

How exactly unconventional superconductivity arises is one of the central questions of modern solid-state physics. A new study published in the journal Nature provides crucial insights into this question. For the first time, ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Physics