Research News

Scientists say that underdog wins, like when Leicester City beat 5000-to-1 odds against them to take the 2016 Premier League, may be a thing of the past as matches become more predictable.

European soccer matches have become predictable, study finds. Salary caps might help

5:01am December 17, 2021

After analyzing some 88,000 European soccer matches, scientists say games have become more predictable over time and hypothesize that salary caps could help revive the surprise.

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Researchers are learning that the coronavirus can infect neurons and may cause lasting damage in some cases.

From blood clots to infected neurons, how COVID threatens the brain

3:26pm December 16, 2021

by Jon Hamilton

The virus that causes COVID-19 can cause strokes, inflammation, oxygen deprivation and infection in the brain. And each of these may lead to long-term neurological problems.

Science

Do you have to be really smart to be a scientist or a surgeon? Not necessarily

6:51am December 16, 2021

In what may be a relief to some, a new study from the British Medical Journal showed that neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers have similar cognition levels as the rest of us.

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Maryland National Guard Spc. James Truong administers a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on May 21 in Wheaton, Maryland. People vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine likely need a booster to keep up their protection against the new omicron variant of the coronaviru

Omicron evades Moderna vaccine too, study suggests, but boosters help

5:25pm December 15, 2021

by Rob Stein

The Moderna vaccine's ability to shield against infection drops sharply when tested on the omicron variant. But getting a booster pumps the protection back up again, new research suggests.

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Just like humans, groups of baboons sometimes break off relations.

Science

Need to break up with someone? Baboons have found a good way to do it, study finds

8:24pm December 14, 2021

Just like humans, groups of baboons sometimes break off relations. Scientists have studied the dynamics of such breakups and say baboons tend to split up in a cooperative, egalitarian way.

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Science

Why do some couples use baby talk to communicate with each other?

6:06am December 09, 2021

Researcher Ramesh Kaipa at Oklahoma State University says using high-pitched chatter and silly pet names is a way of fulfilling our psychological needs.

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Members of the Black Equity Coalition, a grassroots team of researchers and advocates, meet regularly to discuss how they can use data to uncover life-threatening disparities between white and Black Pittsburgh. Clockwise, from top left are Kellie Ware, Ka

Data analysts proved what Black Pittsburgh knew about COVID's racial disparities

1:56pm December 07, 2021

by Christine Spolar

Community leaders saw early in the pandemic that the city's residents of color were being hit hard by COVID-19. They worked with data analysts to show just how hard, where and why.

Science

Scientists have discovered the first self-replicating living robots

6:00am December 06, 2021

A team of scientists from the University of Vermont, Tufts and Harvard took stem cells from a frog and turned them into robots. The tiny robots made copies of themselves.

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The planet-hunting telescope TESS depicted in front of a lava world orbiting a small red star.

Science

Astronomers find a new planet that's mostly made of iron

2:15pm December 02, 2021

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

NASA's TESS telescope finds a small, iron-rich planet which could help explain the origins of Mercury, the innermost planet in our solar system

Researchers used treats to coax young black bears to walk on their hind legs through mud to get footprints to compare to the fossils.

Science

Ancient footprints mistakenly attributed to bears were made by early humans

4:33pm December 01, 2021

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

A new look at nearly 3.7 million-year-old fossil footprints uncovered in Tanzania shows that multiple species of early humans lived together at the same time.