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Microplastics are now so ubiquitous we're drinking, eating, and inhaling them. As a result, they're showing up in our poop, placentas, reproductive organs, and brains. Now these fossil-fuel-derived particles, less than 5 mm in size, have been found deep within our bones. A new review of 62 studies suggests microplastics and smaller nanoplastics are impacting our skeletal health in multiple ways. "A significant body of research suggests that microplastics can reach deep [...]

Dinosaur life wasn't all peaches and cream before the Chicxulub asteroid struck Earth. Some were plagued by much smaller dangers long before. A new study has found evidence that a potentially deadly bone disease endangered the lives of numerous long-necked dinosaurs in what is now Brazil, roughly 80 million years ago. These are some of South America's largest dinosaurs, and yet they faced a very tiny enemy. Scientists have now described the ancient skeletons of six sauropods [...]

Preliminary results presented at the FAPESP Week France health conference suggest the venom from an Amazon rainforest scorpion (Brotheas amazonicus) might be able to help treat breast cancer. An aging global population, as well as greater exposure to pollutants and stressed-out ecosystems, means we are seeing increasing rates of cancer, dementia, and other diseases. So, in the endless search for more treatment options, some researchers are looking in unlikely places – like a [...]

Scientists are looking at ways to tackle Alzheimer's and dementia from all kinds of angles, and a new study has identified the molecule hevin (or SPARCL-1) as a potential way of preventing cognitive decline. Hevin is a protein naturally produced in the brain by cells called astrocytes. These support-worker cells look after the connections or synapses between neurons, and it's thought that hevin plays a role in this essential work. In this new study, researchers from the Federal [...]

Twenty years ago, the US Congress instructed NASA to find 90 percent of near-Earth asteroids threatening Earth. They've made progress finding these asteroids that orbit the Sun and come to within 1.3 astronomical units of Earth. However, they may have to expand their search since astronomers are now finding asteroids co-orbiting Venus that could pose a threat. New research tries to understand how many more may co-orbit Venus and how we can detect them. They can be hidden in the [...]

A bad day and a dead end for a Cretaceous ant has parlayed into some pretty spectacular science some 113 million years later. The tiny insect, fossilized in a chunk of limestone in Brazil, is the oldest known ant specimen ever identified. Even better, it's a member of an extinct subfamily called Haidomyrmecinae – more affectionately known as 'hell ants' – that have vertically articulated, scythe-like mandibles used for spearing and pinning their prey. It's a [...]

Brazil's bats are harboring a vast and diverse pool of coronaviruses, a new study finds, including a newly identified strain that may pose a danger to human health in the years to come. Scientists are taking the threat seriously and will soon conduct testing in a secure lab to see if the variant really could spill over to our own species. The discovery is cause for concern because the strain is eerily reminiscent of the bat-borne virus behind Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) [...]

Humans speak more than 7,000 languages today. As different as they all seem, researchers argue in a new review that they all stem from a single linguistic family tree that emerged before our species split into distinct populations 135,000 years ago. By 100,000 years ago, this verbal revolution was cemented into the behavior of Homo sapiens, archeologically visible in our use of symbolism in body decorations and engravings. "Every population branching across the globe has human [...]

Our microplastics problem isn't going away. These tiny fragments of plastic pollution have previously shown up in our lungs, in ancient rocks, and in bottled water. A new study reveals the extent to which they're infiltrating the brain, too. An international team of scientists looked at the olfactory bulbs – the masses of brain tissue that take in smell information from the nose – in 15 deceased humans, and found the presence of microplastics in 8 of them. Researchers [...]