As health care costs balloon in the U.S., experts say it may be important to analyze whether those costs translate into better population health. A new study analyzed existing data to find a dividing line - or ''threshold - for what makes a treatment cost-effective or not.

Solar power has shown immense potential as a futuristic, 'clean' source of energy. No wonder environmentalists worldwide have been looking for ways to advance the current solar cell technology. Now, scientists have put forth an innovative design for the development of a high-power transparent solar cell. This innovation brings us closer to realizing our goal of a sustainable green future with...

North America's beloved Monarch butterflies are known for their annual, multi-generation migrations in which individual insects can fly for thousands of miles. But Monarchs have also settled in some locations where their favorite food plants grow year round, so they no longer need to migrate. A new study of specimens collected over the last two centuries shows how wing length evolves in response...

Researchers find COVID-19 super-spreading events, in which one person infects more than six other people, are much more frequent than anticipated, and that they have an outsized contribution to coronavirus transmission.

Scientists have discovered the fastest way to identify potent, neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The method -- as well as a trio of successful animal studies on an antibody called 'Ab1' -- are described today in a new study. Ab1 is on track for human clinical trials by early next year.

What are the secrets behind one of the most successful fantasy series of all time? How has a story as complex as 'Game of Thrones' enthralled the world and how does it compare to other narratives? Researchers from five universities across the UK and Ireland came together to unravel 'A Song of Ice and Fire', the books on which the TV series is based.

A new type of soil created by engineers can pull water from the air and distribute it to plants, potentially expanding the map of farmable land around the globe to previously inhospitable places and reducing water use in agriculture at a time of growing droughts.

A new species of extinct lizard, Kopidosaurus perplexus, has just been described. The first part of the name references the lizard's distinct teeth; a 'kopis' is a curved blade used in ancient Greece. But the second part is a nod to the 'perplexing' matter of just where the extinct lizard should be placed on the tree of life.

Reports of racial discrimination against Asians and Asian-Americans have increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, coinciding with an increase in reported negative health symptoms, according to researchers.

New research is adding some clarity on weather's role in COVID-19 infection, with a new study finding that temperature and humidity do not play a significant role in coronavirus spread.

A new study revealed that diversity in Hawaiian corals is likely driven by co-evolution between the coral host, the algal symbiont, and the microbial community.

Neanderthals behaved not so differently from us in raising their children, whose pace of growth was similar to Homo sapiens. Thanks to the combination of geochemical and histological analyses of three Neanderthal milk teeth, researchers were able to determine their pace of growth and the weaning onset time. These teeth belonged to three different Neanderthal children who have lived between 70,000...

A new study shows that norepinephrine-producing neurons in the locus coeruleus produce attention focus and impulse control via two distinct connections to prefrontal cortex.

They can't tell fortunes and they're useless with the stock market but bats are quite skilled at predicting one thing: where to find dinner. Bats calculate where their prey is headed by building on-the-fly predictive models of target motion from echoes, researchers find. The models are so robust, bats can continue to track prey even when it temporarily vanishes behind echo-blocking obstacles like...

Diets high in red and processed meat, refined grains and sugary beverages, which have been associated with increased inflammation in the body, can increase subsequent risk of heart disease and stroke compared to diets filled with anti-inflammatory foods. A separate study assessed the positive effects eating walnuts, an anti-inflammatory food, had on decreasing inflammation and heart disease risk.

A new study reveals that COVID-19 triggers production of antibodies circulating through the blood, causing clots in people hospitalized with the disease.

Scientists developed an A.I. tool using real-world state and regional data from the U.S. and Japan, then tested its forecasts against historical flu data. By incorporating location data, the A.I. system is able to outperform other state-of-the-art forecasting methods, delivering up to an 11% increase in accuracy and predicting influenza outbreaks up to 15 weeks in advance.

Watching a viral infection happen in real time is like a cross between a zombie horror film, paint drying, and a Bollywood epic on repeat. Over a 10-hour span, chemical engineers from Michigan Tech watched viral infections happen with precision inside a microfluidics device and can measure when the infection cycle gets interrupted by an antiviral compound.

The mineral olivine, thought to be a major component inside all planetary bodies, holds secrets about the early formation of the solar system, and a team of researchers has a new way to study it remotely.

A study showed that mothers' vitamin D levels during pregnancy were associated with their children's IQ, suggesting that higher vitamin D levels in pregnancy may lead to greater childhood IQ scores.

For farmers in rural Zambia, payday comes just once a year, at harvest time. This fact impacts nearly every aspect of their lives, but until now researchers hadn't realized the true extent.

Researchers have found that snow cover is on the decline in northeastern US due to climate change and by the end of century, the vernal window, sometimes referred to as mud season, could be two to four weeks longer which means significantly less melting snow that could be detrimental to key spring conditions in rivers and surrounding ecosystems.

The full impact of COVID-19 on alcohol use is not yet known, but rates have been rising during the first few months of the pandemic. There's an urgent need for public health and medical responses to address harmful alcohol use.

Sleep deprivation may pave the way to cocaine addiction. Too-little sleep can increase the rewarding properties of cocaine, according to new research.