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Brain shrinkage tied to aging 'pauses' as a woman nears menopause, study finds
Science News

Brain shrinkage tied to aging 'pauses' as a woman nears menopause, study finds

The brain undergoes dramatic changes during puberty and pregnancy, but during menopause, the organ's structure remains remarkably stable, a new study suggests. The research, published Sept. 8 in the journal Nature Communications, examined the brain's gray matter, which mostly includes the wrinkled outer surface of the organ, called the cerebral cortex. Past studies have found that the volume of gray matter shrinks markedly during puberty and pregnancy, likely reflecting a fine-tuning of neural circuits during those periods.There's also a gradual decline in gray matter during adulthood that's seen as a normal part of aging, said study co-author Sophie van't Hof, a doctoral student in psychiat...

📅 2026-09-11 11:00:00    •    Live Science
Swarovski CL Companion compact binocular review
Science News

Swarovski CL Companion compact binocular review

The CL Companion is Swarovski's dedicated compact binocular, originally introduced 15 years ago, but has now been redesigned in 2026 to appeal to a wider, younger audience. RSPB research found an increase of around 1,000% in birdwatching among Gen Z in the UK since 2018, with a similar boom now happening in the US. The CL Companion sits between the pocket-size CL Pocket and full-size EL and NL ranges, making it the perfect mid-range model that combines portability with excellent optical prowess. The Companion is a grab-and-go, "take it anywhere and everywhere" binocular that is perfect for many different activities, whether that's spotting birds, scoping out your hiking trail or sweeping acr...

📅 2026-09-11 11:00:00    •    Live Science
Why the Swift telescope was so special
Science News

Why the Swift telescope was so special

NASA’s formidable gamma-ray burst hunter is doomed to soon reenter Earth’s atmosphere, leaving a glaring gap in our view of the high-energy sky

📅 2026-09-11 10:45:00    •    Scientific American
Blue light breaks long-standing chemistry rule, unlocking 3D drug building blocks
Science News

Blue light breaks long-standing chemistry rule, unlocking 3D drug building blocks

For more than a century, pharmaceutical companies have relied on flat structures called aromatic rings, which can help drugs bind to target sites in the body. They include benzene rings and other flat, nitrogen-containing rings. But there are limits to their usefulness.

📅 2026-09-11 10:40:01    •    Phys.org
Finland's largest Viking Age silver hoard discovered by metal detectorist — and it has thousands of coins and pieces of jewelry
Science News

Finland's largest Viking Age silver hoard discovered by metal detectorist — and it has thousands of coins and pieces of jewelry

The largest hoard of Viking Age silver ever found in Finland — which contains almost 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) of coins and jewelry — has been unearthed by a metal detectorist about 95 miles (150 kilometers) north of Helsinki. The hoard had been divided into two deposits and buried in birch-bark containers. Although the coins and jewelry likely date to between A.D. 1000 and 1050, it's unknown exactly when they were buried, Esko Tikkala, an archaeologist at the Lahti Historical Museum who excavated the hoard, told Live Science in an email.The hoard has not yet been fully cleaned, separated and counted yet, but there are thousands of pieces, Tikkala said. "There are quite a lot of coins in thi...

📅 2026-09-11 10:00:00    •    Live Science
'Every time it gets excited — boom — it collapses': How dogs with narcolepsy helped scientists understand the disorder
Science News

'Every time it gets excited — boom — it collapses': How dogs with narcolepsy helped scientists understand the disorder

Many people are familiar with melatonin, a hormone that helps ready the body for sleep. But there's another, lesser-known chemical in the brain, called orexin, that tips the scale in the other direction: waking the body up. In 1999, two scientists independently uncovered the function of orexin and published papers about it. Dr. Masashi Yanagisawa, a molecular biologist and physician now at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, came across orexin while studying the interaction of receptors and chemicals in the brain. Dr. Emmanuel Mignot, now the director of the Stanford Center for Narcolepsy, homed in on orexin while studying narcoleptic dogs. (His Chihuahua, named Watson, has narcolepsy, and h...

📅 2026-09-11 09:00:00    •    Live Science
Researchers eye AI revolution in natural disaster forecasts
Science News

Researchers eye AI revolution in natural disaster forecasts

A revolution in forecasting natural disasters is underway, say researchers in Switzerland who are training AI models using vast troves of NASA climate data to produce potentially lifesaving data at lightning speed.

📅 2026-09-11 07:53:40    •    Phys.org