The universe is still accelerating, but closer to home, a series of new studies are quietly reshaping what we know about the risks hiding in our medicine cabinets, kitchens, and even our dogs. Let's start with the biggest picture. An international team of astrophysicists has pushed back against last year's claim that cosmic expansion might be slowing down, reaffirming that the universe is still speeding up for reasons we don't understand. It is a humbling reminder that dark energy remains one of science's most stubborn mysteries.
On Earth, the news is more immediately actionable. Two popular substances just took a reputational hit. A new study presented at a major cardiology conference found that long-term melatonin use is linked to a 90% higher risk of heart failure among people with chronic insomnia. Separately, researchers have tied xylitol, a common sweetener found in gum, toothpaste, and yogurt, to an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks. If you are reaching for either of these as a "healthy" alternative, it is worth reconsidering the trade-offs. On a more hopeful note, scientists are making progress on a one-time gene edit that lowered heart-clogging cholesterol by roughly 50% in a small human trial, offering a potential lifetime fix for high cholesterol.
Meanwhile, the biology of aging is getting a new best friend. New data from the Dog Aging Project suggests that dogs and humans share similar biological patterns tied to lifespan, which could give researchers a powerful new model for studying longevity. And in the lab, Virginia Tech researchers have cracked a tough problem by turning PVC, one of the hardest plastics to recycle, into a high-performance engine lubricant. It is a clever piece of chemistry that could give a notoriously wasteful material a second life.
Finally, the space race is shifting gears. SpaceX is dramatically cutting Falcon 9 launches from Florida, ending the Space Coast's decade-long run as the world's busiest spaceport as missions move to California. And in a political move, President Trump awarded the Artemis II crew the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and signed an executive order to create a U.S. Space Academy, signaling a push to formalize a national space workforce.
Melatonin and xylitol under fire
New studies link long-term melatonin use to heart failure and xylitol to strokes, challenging their safety profiles.
Gene editing slashes cholesterol
A one-time gene snipping reduced cholesterol by 50% in a small human trial, hinting at a permanent fix for heart disease.
Dogs as aging research models
Shared biological aging patterns between dogs and humans could unlock new insights into longevity for both species.
PVC turned into engine oil
Scientists transformed hard-to-recycle PVC into a high-performance lubricant, offering a new path for plastic waste.
CNN reports that "A one-time snip of a key gene lowered heart-clogging cholesterol by about 50% over an entire year with no adverse effects, scientists have reported." The overwhelmingly positive results were found in...
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A common sweetener used in products such as chewing gum, toothpaste, jam, yoghurts and ice-cream has been linked to an increased risk of strokes, heart attacks and...
Virginia Tech chemist and chemical engineer Guoliang "Greg" Liu and his research team have developed a method for transforming polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into polyalphaolefin, an important ingredient used in lubricants...
An international team of astrophysicists says the universe is still expanding at an accelerating rate, rejecting recent claims that cosmic expansion may have begun to slow. The researchers challenged a study published...
Dogs and humans may share some of the same biological patterns tied to lifespan, according to new research from the Dog Aging Project. The finding could give scientists a useful new way to investigate how aging works in...
Long-term use of melatonin, a widely used sleep supplement, was linked to a higher risk of heart failure, hospitalization for heart failure, and death from any cause among people with chronic insomnia, according to...
SpaceX is significantly reducing Falcon 9 launches from Florida this year, ending the Space Coast's decade-long run as the world's busiest spaceport as more missions shift to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California...
Could subtle changes during sleep reveal vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease years before memory problems become noticeable? Researchers at ULiège, supported by the Stop Alzheimer's Foundation, are investigating...
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified a molecular mechanism that appears to restrict the ability of injured neurons to regrow damaged axons. The findings, published in the journal...
Researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) have identified a potentially important source of low-emission energy beneath Western Australia, where vast iron-rich formations may be capable of generating naturally...
President Trump awarded the four-member Artemis II crew the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and signed an executive order directing the creation of a new U. S. Space Academy. The proposed academy would train...
Walking through the savanna-woodland landscape of Boé National Park, Guinea-Bissau, you might encounter a tree covered in gnarled scars, with an accumulation of rocks surrounding its base. The chimpanzees may have left...
Photoreceptor degeneration is behind several major causes of blindness, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Together, these disorders affect about 200 million people worldwide...
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now just two days from launch, marking the arrival of the agency's next flagship astrophysics mission after the James Webb Space Telescope. University of Arizona faculty and...
Rock glaciers look very different from conventional glaciers. Instead of exposed ice, they resemble sprawling fields of loose rock, while potentially concealing large quantities of ice below the surface. These...
Soil supports the food we eat, stores water, carbon and nutrients, and provides habitat for an enormous share of life on Earth. Scientists estimate that more than half of global biodiversity exists below the surface...
For millennia, people have transformed landscapes, forcing wildlife to adjust to cities, farms, roads, and other human activity. But new research suggests animals are responding not only to the environments we build,...
A large survey of plant-based foods and beverages sold in the UK has found that mycotoxins, toxic compounds naturally produced by fungi, are widespread across vegetarian and vegan products. Researchers analyzed 212...
Washington State University researchers have used artificial intelligence to identify a faster and less costly way to 3D print a high-performance metal alloy, avoiding the need to manually test more than 100 million...
Deep inside the brain, a small group of nerve cells helps control how strongly pain signals are felt. Under normal conditions, this system can suppress pain traveling through the spinal cord. After nerve damage,...
Nearly 90 years ago, Werner Heisenberg predicted a strange quantum effect known as vacuum birefringence, in which seemingly empty space can change the way light behaves. According to the idea, even a perfect vacuum is...
NASA's Starling mission has reached another milestone in autonomous spaceflight by demonstrating a system that can determine a satellite's orbital position using other objects in space as reference points rather than...
A recently proposed form of magnetism known as altermagnetism could eventually help researchers make computer memory smaller, faster, and more efficient. Now, scientists have found evidence that ruthenium dioxide, a...
Glioblastoma is considered the most aggressive type of brain cancer. One reason it is so difficult to treat is that cancer cells spread into nearby brain tissue. That makes complete surgical removal extremely...
The rise of complex ecosystems on land was one of the major turning points in the history of life. As organisms expanded beyond the oceans, terrestrial environments became home to increasingly diverse communities...
A faint background of extremely low frequency gravitational waves detected through networks of pulsars could contain clues to events that unfolded more than 13 billion years ago, including the emergence of some of the...
Astronomers now have their strongest evidence yet that Betelgeuse, one of the best-known stars in the night sky, has a stellar companion. A team led by French astronomer Miguel Montargès used the European Southern...
As the global population grows and climate change places increasing pressure on food systems, researchers and policymakers are looking more closely at alternative sources of nutrition. Insects are one possible option. A...
A French court has for the first time recognized cosmic radiation as a contributing occupational factor in a flight attendant's breast cancer, alongside passive smoking and years of night work. The landmark ruling could...
Severe stress during childhood can increase a person's vulnerability to anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders when new challenges arise later in life. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in...
An international team led by the University of Bern has found evidence that a single asteroid collision may have dramatically reshaped Deimos, the smaller of Mars' two moons. By combining detailed computer simulations...
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now one major step closer to liftoff. On Aug. 21, teams enclosed the observatory inside the protective fairing of its SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at the Payload Hazardous...
Pangolins look almost prehistoric. These medium-sized mammals, found only in Africa and Asia, have long, powerful tails, large curved claws, and bodies covered in overlapping scales that resemble a pinecone. Those...
An international team of researchers, led in part by the University of Ottawa, has documented a major calving event at Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland. On August 4, 2026, the glacier released a 76.4 km 2 ice...
Reducing calorie intake has extended lifespan in animals including mice, rhesus monkeys, and fruit flies. In some studies, the animals also remained healthier for longer. But severe calorie restriction can come with...
fahrbot-bot shares a report from Smithsonian Magazine: The brain is one of the first organs to begin decomposing after death. Yet archaeologists have discovered more than 4,400 preserved human brains around the world,...