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Medical Xpress / A neural basis for dumb decisions: Why paying more or waiting in line for an item increases its value in our minds

Ahab hunting down Moby Dick. Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner. Learning Latin. Walking over hot coals. Standing in a long line for boba tea or entrance to a small, overpriced clothing retail store. Forking up for luxury ...

1 hour ago in Neuroscience
Phys.org / Cell surface glycoRNA clusters found to fine-tune growth factor signaling

The recent discovery of glycoRNAs on the cell surface upended the world of cell biology. These glycoRNAs were found to form highly organized clusters with cell surface RNA binding proteins (csRBPs), but their purpose remained ...

1 hour ago in Biology
Phys.org / Cells' built-in capacity limit for copying DNA could impact cancer treatment

For almost 60 years, scientists have tried to understand why DNA doesn't replicate wildly and uncontrollably every time a cell divides, which happens constantly. Without this process, we would die. These essential, ongoing ...

1 hour ago in Biology
Phys.org / Laser beam flips a ferromagnet's polarity without heating the material

Researchers at the University of Basel and the ETH in Zurich have succeeded in changing the polarity of a special ferromagnet using a laser beam. In the future, this method could be used to create adaptable electronic circuits ...

1 hour ago in Physics
Phys.org / Chip-sized optical amplifier can intensify light 100-fold with minimal energy

Light does a lot of work in the modern world, enabling all types of information technology, from TVs to satellites to fiber-optic cables that carry the internet across oceans. Stanford physicists recently found a way to make ...

1 hour ago in Physics
Phys.org / New light-based platform sets the stage for future quantum supercomputers

A light has emerged at the end of the tunnel in the long pursuit of developing quantum computers, which are expected to radically reduce the time needed to perform some complex calculations from thousands of years down to ...

1 hour ago in Physics
Medical Xpress / Glowing bacterial sensors detect gut illness in mice before symptoms emerge

University of British Columbia researchers have engineered gut bacteria that dim their fluorescent glow in the presence of illness. Their findings could improve how we diagnose problems in the gut by using bacteria that already ...

1 hour ago in Gastroenterology
Medical Xpress / Interferon signal reprograms macrophage mitochondria to promote inflammation resolution, finds study

When our body fights an infection, the immune system must quickly activate defenses and trigger a beneficial inflammatory response. But it is just as important to resolve that inflammation and return to homeostasis. Macrophages ...

1 hour ago in Immunology
Medical Xpress / Berberine shows no advantage over placebo for reducing liver and belly fat

A multicenter research effort in China conducted clinical trial testing of oral berberine for six months in diabetes-free adults with obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. Visceral adipose ...

3 hours ago in Overweight & Obesity
Phys.org / The infant universe's 'primordial soup' was actually soupy, study finds

In its first moments, the infant universe was a trillion-degree-hot soup of quarks and gluons. These elementary particles zinged around at light speed, creating a "quark-gluon plasma" that lasted for only a few millionths ...

3 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / How dangling moss saves blue manakin eggs from hungry birds

If something exists in nature, there is most likely a very good reason for it. While there are exceptions, many features "selected" by evolution serve a purpose. Take the blue manakin, a small bird commonly found in southeastern ...

3 hours ago in Biology
Phys.org / Probing the jet base of M87's supermassive black hole

Some galaxies eject powerful streams of charged particles—jets—from their centers into space. The prominent jet of Messier 87 (M87) in the constellation Virgo is visible over distances of 3,000 light-years and can be ...

4 hours ago in Astronomy & Space