science

In a cosmic first, astronomers have spotted the earliest signs of rocky planet formation around a young star. The discovery offers a rare vision of how Earth-like worlds may begin.

From low-carb ice cream and keto protein bars to "sugar-free" soda, the artificial sweetener erythritol has become a staple for anyone trying to cut calories or carbs.

However, new research suggests the popular sugar substitute may come with serious downsides—including changes in brain blood vessels that could increase the risk of stroke.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees.

The agency’s Office of Research and Development has long provided the scientific underpinnings for EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA said in May it would shift its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that focus on major issues like air and water.

"Earlier this month, the official government websites ... went dark.... At the time, the White House said NASA would house the reports...

Now? "no data from the assessment or the government science office that coordinated the work will be on NASA."

Since a 1990 law requires the reports, they'll need a home.

Scientists at RMIT University have developed a method to harness heavy metals and other contaminants in wastewater to boost green hydrogen production, potentially addressing both water scarcity and clean energy challenges simultaneously. The technology transforms what has traditionally been an environmental liability into a catalyst for sustainable fuel generation.

The research, published in ACS Electrochemistry, demonstrates how platinum, chromium, nickel and other metals naturally present in wastewater can be captured and repurposed to accelerate the water-splitting process that produces hydrogen. This approach eliminates the need for expensive purification steps typically required for hydrogen production.

Analysis of bones from two caves shows prehistoric people butchered the same animals in different ways

Nothing turns up the heat in a kitchen quite like debating the best way to chop an onion. Now researchers have found even our prehistoric cousins had distinct preferences when it came to preparing food.

Archaeologists studying animal bones recovered from two caves in northern Israel have found different groups of Neanderthals, living at around the same time, butchered the same animals in different ways.

“It means that within all the Neanderthal population, you have several distinct groups that have distinct ways of doing things, even for activities that are so related to survival,” said Anaëlle Jallon, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the first author of the research.

We're still months away from these budget bills having a chance to become law.

A budget-writing panel in the House of Representatives passed a $24.8 billion NASA budget bill Tuesday, joining a similar subcommittee in the Senate in maintaining the space agency's funding after the White House proposed a nearly 25 percent cut.

The budget bills making their way through the House and Senate don't specify funding levels for individual programs, but the topline numbers—$24.8 billion in the House version and $24.9 billion the Senate bill—represent welcome news for scientists, industry, and space enthusiasts bracing for severe cuts requested by the Trump administration.

The spending plan passed Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies covers NASA and numerous other federal agencies. The $24.8 billion budget the House seeks for NASA is $6 billion more than the Trump administration's budget proposal, and keeps NASA's funding next year the same as this year.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38711310

Oxford University Press (OUP) will no longer publish a controversial academic journal sponsored by China’s Ministry of Justice after years of concerns that several papers in the publication did not meet ethical standards about DNA collection.

A statement published on the website of Forensic Sciences Research (FSR) states that OUP will stop publishing the quarterly journal after this year.

FSR is a journal that comes from China’s Academy of Forensic Science, an agency that sits under the Ministry of Justice. The academy describes FSR as “the only English quarterly journal in the field of forensic science in China that focuses on forensic medicine”. It has been published by OUP since 2023.

Several papers published in FSR have attracted criticism because they study genetic data from Uyghurs and other heavily surveilled ethnic minorities in China. Critics say subjects in the studies may not have freely consented to their DNA samples being used in the research and that the studies could help to enhance the mass surveillance of those populations.

One study, published in 2020, analysed blood samples from 264 Uyghurs in Ürümqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region in north-west China. The paper states that the people giving the samples consented to the research and that their data was anonymised.

The lead author on the study is affiliated with China’s state security apparatus via the Xinjiang Police College, which provided a research grant.

[...]

Yves Moreau, a professor of engineering at the University of Leuven in Belgium who focuses on DNA analysis, first raised concerns about OUP’s relationship with FSR and about several studies. He said he was grateful for OUP’s decision but that the brief public statement on the matter “fails to address the important issues at stake”.

[...]

In recent years there has been increasing scrutiny about the ethical standards of genetic research papers from China. Last year, a genetics journal from a leading scientific publisher retracted 18 papers from China due to concerns about human rights.

The concerns centre on whether or not vulnerable populations in China can freely refuse to participate, especially when researchers come from organisations, such as the police, affiliated with state security. There are also concerns that this kind of forensic DNA sampling could produce research that enhances the mass surveillance of those populations.

Moreau said: “Forensic genetics is an area where specific caution is needed because this is the research that powers police DNA identification and databases. While DNA identification is a valuable technique to help solve crimes, it can raise privacy and ethical issues.” He added that the mass surveillance of minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet made China a particularly challenging country to enforce international norms about ethical research and human rights.

[...]

An in depth look at a very narrow and specific set of norms, the consequences of which are rarely considered. I love stuff like this.

Still amazing after 18 years ... (this is only part of it)

Ripples in space-time from collision recorded by gravitational wave detector forces a rethink of how the objects form

Scientists have detected ripples in space-time from the violent collision of two massive black holes that spiralled into one another far beyond the distant edge of the Milky Way.

The black holes, each more than 100 times the mass of the sun, began circling each other long ago and finally slammed together to form an even more massive black hole about 10bn light years from Earth.

The event is the most massive black hole merger ever recorded by gravitational wave detectors and has forced physicists to rethink their models of how the enormous objects form. The signal was recorded when it hit detectors on Earth sensitive enough to detect shudders in space-time thousands of times smaller than the width of a proton.