Data from Poland, Indonesia and Nepal indicate that affectionate behavior is associated with higher relationship satisfaction - though cultural differences impact how affection is displayed and percei

"Boomerang" made from mammoth tusk is likely one of the oldest known in Europe at around 40,000 years old, per analysis of this artifact from a Polish Upper Paleolithic cave Article URL: https://plos.io/43ScZex Article title: Boomerang and bones: Refining the chronology of the Early Upper Paleolithic at Obłazowa Cave, Poland Author countries: Italy, Canada, Switzerland, Poland, U.K., Germany. Funding: This research was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement ...

Cod used to be giants. With their impressive size — over a metre in length and weighing up to 40 kilograms — and abundance, they, alongside herring, were the backbone of the Baltic fishery. Today, a fully grown cod would fit neatly on a dinner plate. That is, if fishing them were still permitted: due to the collapse of the stock, a ban on targeted cod fishing has been in place since 2019. The shrinking of the cod population, in terms of both number and in size, is the result of human influence. In their new study, scientists from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel have demonstrated ...

Even low levels of nitrate—a common agricultural runoff and drinking water contaminant—are associated with increased risks of preterm birth and low birthweight babies, according to a new study published June 25 in PLOS Water by Jason Semprini of Des Moines University College of Health Sciences, US. Nitrate is a naturally occurring compound increasingly found in inorganic fertilizers and, through runoff, in groundwater. When consumed by humans, nitrates can interfere with the blood’s capacity to ...

When and where the earliest modern human populations migrated and settled in East Asia are relatively well known. However, how these populations moved between islands on treacherous stretches of sea is still shrouded in mystery. In two new papers, researchers from Japan and Taiwan led by Professor Yousuke Kaifu from the University of Tokyo simulated methods ancient peoples would have needed to accomplish these journeys, and they used period-accurate tools to create the canoes to make the journey themselves. Evidence suggests that around 30,000 ...

Babies as young as eight months old can adapt their learning style to changing situations, according to research by Francesco Poli of the Donders Institute at Radboud University. This is the first time that babies have been shown to learn in such a flexible way. “The conventional wisdom is that eight-month-old babies passively absorb knowledge,” says neuroscientist Francesco Poli. New research now shows that this is not the case. 'We see that babies are able to adapt their learning strategies to their environment from a very young age. Monster here, monster there Poli investigated this by showing babies a screen displaying a colourful ...

An almost universal phenomenon in humans is the use of child-directed speech, where caregivers communicate with children often involving a particular speech style also termed “baby-talk”. Numerous studies have linked the amount of child-directed speech children hear to better learning outcomes (e.g. vocabulary size or literacy skills). This practice seems to facilitate the acquisition of language. But how did this trait evolve? To explore this, researchers from the University of Zurich (UZH) and the University of Neuchâtel (UNINE), members of the NCCR Evolving Language, and colleagues from universities in France, Germany ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — New findings by a team of molecular biologists at Brown University on the critical role of a protein called AIMP3 in heart function could inform new treatments for heart disease. In a study published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, the researchers showed that removing AIMP3 from heart cells in mice led to severe heart problems, including inflammation, scarring and fatal heart failure. “AIMP3 is a protein that had never been studied in the heart and was of unclear function,” said study author Federica Accornero, an associate professor of biochemistry at Brown who ...

University of Mississippi researchers have linked exposure to high levels of black carbon in the air to an increase in respiratory-related hospital admissions in Mississippi’s capital city, according to a study published in Environmental Pollution.   Courtney Roper, assistant professor of environmental toxicology, found in a 2023 study that Jackson’s air contains the state’s highest concentration of black carbon, commonly referred to as soot. In a new study published this summer, her team found that this pollutant may be contributing to a rise in hospital visits for respiratory issues among older adults.  “We can see that ...

It can be found inside gas giants such as Jupiter and is briefly created during meteorite impacts or in laser fusion experiments: warm dense matter. This exotic state of matter combines features of solid, liquid and gaseous phases. Until now, simulating warm dense matter accurately has been considered a major challenge. An international team led by researchers from the Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) in Germany and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has succeeded in describing this state of matter much more accurately than before using a new computational method. The approach ...

About The Article: This Viewpoint discusses how physicians should counsel patients on vaccine safety in the wake of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to remove COVID-19 vaccinations as a recommended vaccine for children and pregnant women.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Amos Grünebaum, MD, email agrunebaum@northwell.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.11328) Editor’s ...