Experimental pill dramatically reduces ‘bad’ cholesterol

Researchers have known for decades that LDL cholesterol causes cardiovascular disease. Cholesterol-containing particles deposit in blood vessel walls, a process called atherosclerosis, which can then cause heart attacks and strokes. Consequently, lowering LDL cholesterol is a cornerstone of preventing cardiovascular disease.

A new comet was just discovered. Will it be visible in broad daylight?

A newly discovered comet has astronomers excited, with the potential to be a spectacular sight in early April.

Capturing gravity waves: Scientists break ‘decades of gridlock’ in climate modeling

Unlike gravitational waves, which distort the fabric of space-time, atmospheric gravity waves form around strong convective storms or when a pocket of air hits a mountain or other obstacle. The pocket moves up until it becomes denser than the surrounding air, then sinks back down. Like a pebble dropped into a pond, that sinking air creates a ripple outward.

Peppermint oil plasma coating could cut catheter infections without releasing drugs

Researchers first tested the coating on urinary catheters—devices frequently associated with infection and patient discomfort.

Hannibal’s famous war elephants: Single bone in Spain offers first direct evidence

Historical accounts of the Punic Wars—and many other ancient wars—often paint a picture of soldiers riding in on imposing “war elephants.” Yet, no skeletal remains of these war elephants had ever been found from the Punic War period and region.

A ‘crazy’ dice proof leads to a new understanding of a fundamental law of physics

Right now, molecules in the air are moving around you in chaotic and unpredictable ways. To make sense of such systems, physicists use a law known as the Boltzmann distribution, which, rather than describe exactly where each particle is, describes the chance of finding the system in any of its possible states.

Dark matter, not a black hole, could power Milky Way’s heart

They believe this invisible substance—which makes up most of the universe’s mass—can explain both the violent dance of stars just light-hours (often used to measure distances within our own solar system) away from the galactic center and the gentle, large-scale rotation of the entire matter in the outskirts of the Milky Way.

Statins don’t cause most of the side effects on package warnings, study finds

Far fewer people who could benefit from statins actually take the cholesterol-lowering drugs now. Many who start taking them stop. The long list of side effects, detailed in fine print on package inserts and discussed in exam rooms over the years, pose barriers to many patients, doctors say.

Fungi turn shredded mattress foam into lightweight building insulation

Mattresses are one of the hardest household items to recycle. The team grew a common fungus together with shredded mattress foam to create a new material that is solid and lightweight.

Why snakes can go months between meals: A genetic explanation

Snakes may well be one of nature’s greatest predators, capable of eating whole deer or even crocodiles, but just as impressive is that they can go months, or even a whole year, without a single meal.

Not an artifact, but an ancestor: Why a German university is returning a Maori taonga

For the Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, the pou is neither a historical artifact nor a work of art in the Western sense. It is the material presence of an ancestor, Hinematioro, who was an ariki (high-ranking leader). The pou is part of a living social order, not a testimony to a distant past.

A hearing test for the world’s rarest sea turtle

Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are among the most endangered species of sea turtles in the world. They reside along the east and Gulf coasts of North America, alongside some of the world’s most active shipping lanes.

Accurately predicting Arctic sea ice in real time

Arctic sea ice has large effects on the global climate. By cooling the planet, Arctic ice impacts ocean circulation, atmospheric patterns, and extreme weather conditions, even outside the Arctic region.

== lots of maybes
Did we just see a black hole explode?

Physicists think so—and it could explain (almost) everything

== yjc
What the hell is Moltbook, the social network for AI agents?

What happens when you let the AI slop pretend to be human.

== lengthy
Russian Spy Satellites Have Intercepted EU Communications Satellites

European security officials believe two Russian space vehicles have intercepted the communications of at least a dozen key satellites over the continent.

== yjc, lengthy
Everyone is stealing TV

alk the rows of the farmers market in a small, nondescript Texas town about an hour away from Austin, and you might stumble across something unexpected: In between booths selling fresh, local pickles and pies, there’s a table piled high with generic-looking streaming boxes, promising free access to NFL games, UFC fights, and any cable TV network you can think of.

== yjc, lot’s of Beethoven cds and lps in the house, lengthy
Trial, Triumph, and the Art of the Possible: The Remarkable Story Behind Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”

That year, he began — though he did not yet know it, as we never do — the long gestation of what would become not only his greatest creative and spiritual triumph, not only a turning point in the history of music that revolutionized the symphony and planted the seed of the pop song, but an eternal masterwork of the supreme human art: making meaning out of chaos, beauty out of sorrow.

Former F1 engineer prints batteries to fit almost anywhere

A superpowered Formula 1 car, a buzzing drone, a soldier’s pack, and a wearable smart device have this in common: They all need batteries. Ideally, those batteries could fit into oddly shaped nooks, curves, and voids, something that today’s cylindrical or rectangular cells struggle to do.

== might work for adults?
Saline nasal spray alone resolves sleep-disordered breathing in nearly one-third of children,

Obstructive breathing during sleep, also called obstructive sleep-disordered breathing (OSDB), is common in childhood and is associated with significant comorbidity.

A century of hair samples proves leaded gas ban worked

Governments around the world cracked down on lead-based products—including lead paint and leaded gasoline—in the 1970s because of its toxic effects on human health.

== sort of a repeat
How a new, more sustainable lithium mining process could kick off the industry in Western Canada

Direct lithium extraction technology is inching closer to commercial viability.

== paywall?, opinion piece
What we’ve been getting wrong about AI’s truth crisis

What would it take to convince you that the era of truth decay we were long warned about—where AI content dupes us, shapes our beliefs even when we catch the lie, and erodes societal trust in the process—is now here?

== paywall?, lengthy
Microbes could extract the metal needed for cleantech

Amid rising demand, miners are turning to biotech firms to help them squeeze more metal out of aging mines.

== repeat?
Not a fan of the gym? Why you should try ’exercise snacking’

Join the gym, run up a mountain, sign up for spin classes. We are constantly being told to go to great lengths - and get very sweaty - to get fit. What if you just don’t have the time or inclination?

Procrastinating isn’t a sign of laziness or ’lack of willpower

Procrastination shouldn’t be a source of shame — it’s really just a signal from your brain that something is not working quite right at the moment.

My, what big tentacles

When we think of tentacled animals, we usually think of marine creatures. But many other species have them too. For example, the eyestalks of slugs and snails are actually specialised types of tentacles. So which creatures have the longest tentacles?

== paywall?, lengthy
How Wi-Fi sensing became usable tech

After a decade of obscurity, the technology is being used to track people’s movements.

Fungus could be the insecticide of the future

Exterminators keep getting calls for a reason. Wood-devouring insects, such as beetles, termites, and carpenter ants, are constantly chewing through walls or infecting trees and breaking them down. The fight against these insects usually involved noxious insecticides; but now, at least some of them can be eliminated using a certain species of fungus.

Scientists just mapped the family tree of all 11,000 bird species-and you can explore it

Understanding avian ancestry, what scientists call phylogeny, is a fundamental aspect that underpins most ornithology research. But with more than 11,000 bird species in the world, organizing the available phylogenetic trees into a single synthetic depiction, and keeping it current, has long challenged ornithologists

Previously unknown bacterial component in kidney stone formation discovered

There are several subsets of kidney stones and while one rare stone type is known to contain bacteria, by far the most common stone is calcium oxalate (CaOx), comprising almost 80% of kidney stone cases, which have not been previously known to contain bacteria.

Microbes In Space Mutated and Developed a Remarkable Ability

A box full of viruses and bacteria has completed its return trip to the International Space Station, and the changes these ‘bugs’ experienced in their travels could help us Earthlings tackle drug-resistant infections.

Spider spinneret evolution: How a genome duplication event 438 million years ago set the stage

Spinnerets enable spiders to produce spider silk, one of the strongest known natural materials: ten times tougher than Kevlar and five times stronger than steel of the same weight. The silk also has remarkable tensile strength with high elasticity. However, little is known about the organ’s evolutionary origins.

Tesla turbine-inspired structure generates electricity using compressed air

The demand for energy is ever-increasing across various industries. In recent decades, scientists have explored the electrostatic potential of particulate matter as a highly promising avenue for energy harvesting.

Scientists marvel at a Galapagos seabird that wandered 3,000 miles to California

The yellow-billed bird with black button eyes, which can have an 8-foot (2.4-meter) wingspan and spends much of its life airborne over the ocean, also came with a mystery: Researchers wonder how and why a species known to breed in the Galapagos Islands—roughly 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) away—ventured so far north.

New satellite method maps ‘creeping drought’ in Canada’s mountain snow

Researchers at Concordia have developed a new method of measuring the amount of usable water stored in snowpacks. The comprehensive technique, known as snow water availability (SWA), uses satellite data and climate reanalysis techniques to calculate snow depth, snow density, and snow cover across a wide swath of Canada and Alaska.

Why are Tatooine planets rare?

Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around single stars, but few around binary stars—even though both types of stars are equally common. Physicists can now explain the dearth.

Scientists Found a Way To Cool Quantum Computers Using Noise

Quantum computers need extreme cold to work, but the very systems that keep them cold also create noise that can destroy fragile quantum information.

== well, perhaps an exaggeration?
‘Reverse Solar Panel’ Generates Electricity at Night

It produces only a little power, but its innovative approach could support hardware that operates during lengthy periods of total darkness, such as deep-space satellites.

NASA used Claude to plot a route for its Perseverance rover on Mars

Since 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover has achieved a number of historic milestones. Now, nearly five years after landing on the Red Planet, it just achieved another feat. This past December, Perseverance successfully completed a route through a section of the Jezero crater. Perseverance drove approximately 400 meters (about 437 yards) through a field of rocks on the Martian surface.

== only 5 miles return trip, but capable of going further
UK’s First Rapid-Charging Battery Train Ready For Boarding

Great Western Railway service recharges in three and a half minutes between trips on west London line.

== yjc
We’ve already been to the moon, so why are we going again?

On July 20, 1969, the world watched with bated breath as two American astronauts — Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — glided across the surface of the moon, with command module pilot Michael Collins watching from above. It was supposed to usher in a new era: the space age. Humans escaping the “surly bonds of Earth” and expanding out into space.