Yes, you can have more than 150 friends: New study deconstructs Dunbar's number

An individual human can maintain stable social relationships with about 150 people. This is the proposition known as "Dunbar's number"—that the architecture of the human brain sets an upper limit on our social lives. A new study from Stockholm University indicates that a cognitive limit on human group sizes cannot be derived in this manner.

Loan applications processed around midday more likely to be rejected

Bank credit officers are more likely to approve loan applications earlier and later in the day, while 'decision fatigue' around midday is associated with defaulting to the safer option of saying no.

New norms needed to name never-seen fungi

What's in a name? The importance of accurate fungal taxonomy New Zealand's horticultural and agricultural economy relies on effective biosecurity. This requires keeping major pests and pathogens out of Aotearoa, as well as detailed knowledge about what organisms are already present in our natural and productive ecosystems and whether they are 'good' or 'bad' for the health of those ecosystems.

Impact of COVID-19 behavioral inertia on reopening strategies for New York City transit

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected travel behaviors and transportation system operations, and raised new challenges for public transit. Cities are grappling with what policies can be effective for a phased reopening shaped by social distancing.

Vivendi, Mediaset end feud over failed Netflix rival in Europe

French media conglomerate Vivendi and Italian rival Mediaset have agreed to bury the hatchet in their long-running legal battle over failed plans to set up Europe's answer to US streaming giant Netflix, the two groups said.

Air pollution linked to high blood pressure in children; other studies address air quality and the heart

A meta-analysis of 14 air pollution studies from around the world found that exposure to high levels of air pollutants during childhood increases the likelihood of high blood pressure in children and adolescents, and their risk for high blood pressure as adults. The study is published in a special issue on air pollution in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Mindblowing: advances in brain tech spur push for 'neuro-rights'

As sci-fi thriller "Inception" topped box offices across the world, audiences were delighted and appalled by its futuristic story of a criminal gang invading people's dreams to steal valuable data.

Economic downturn fueling Argentine crypto craze

Argentina's economic downturn, with high inflation, a deflating currency and a shortage of US dollars to invest in, has in fact proved a shot in the arm for one sector: cryptocurrency.

Brazil struggles to deliver COVID vaccine second doses

Shortages of COVID-19 vaccines have forced several large Brazilian cities to suspend administering second doses, officials and media reports said Monday, the latest breakdown in the hard-hit country's troubled immunization drive.

'Last resort' antibiotic pops bacteria like balloons

Scientists have revealed how an antibiotic of 'last resort' kills bacteria.

New York to lift many COVID-19 restrictions

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a major easing of coronavirus restrictions Monday, including the imminent resumption of 24-hour operations on the city subway.

'Horrible' weeks ahead as India's virus catastrophe worsens

COVID-19 infections and deaths are mounting with alarming speed in India with no end in sight to the crisis and a top expert warning that the coming weeks in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people will be "horrible."

India Covid cases soar past 20 million: official data

India's total COVID caseload soared past 20 million on Tuesday, official data showed, as the pandemic continued to wreak havoc on the country's hospitals.

Virus-hit Papua New Guinea starts vaccine roll-out

Papua New Guinea's prime minister launched a nationwide coronavirus vaccine roll-out Tuesday, hoping to quell a runaway outbreak and counter widespread public hesitancy about jabs.

FDA expected to OK Pfizer vaccine for teens within week

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for youngsters ages 12 to 15 by next week, according to a federal official and a person familiar with the process, setting up shots for many before the beginning of the next school year.

Virus cases plunge and LA, San Francisco come back to life

When Angeleno Wine Co. reopened its tasting room, co-owner Amy Luftig Viste teared up seeing old friends reunited for the first time since the pandemic had shuttered so many businesses it left major cities looking like ghost towns.

Development of microsatellite markers for censusing of endangered rhinoceros

Today, the Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is critically endangered, with fewer than 100 individuals surviving in Indonesia on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. To ensure survival of the threatened species, accurate censusing is necessary to determine the genetic diversity of remaining populations for conservation and management plans.

Plastic pollution in the deep sea: A geological perspective

A new focus article in the May issue of Geology summarizes research on plastic waste in marine and sedimentary environments. Authors I.A. Kane of the Univ. of Manchester and A. Fildani of the Deep Time Institute write that "Environmental pollution caused by uncontrolled human activity is occurring on a vast and unprecedented scale around the globe. Of the diverse forms of anthropogenic pollution, the release of plastic into nature, and particularly the oceans, is one of the most recent and visible effects."

One cup of leafy green vegetables a day lowers risk of heart disease

New Edith Cowan University (ECU) research has found that by eating just one cup of nitrate-rich vegetables each day people can significantly reduce their risk of heart disease.

Consumers make decisions based on how and why products are recommended online

As more people go online for shopping, understanding how they rely on e-commerce recommendation systems to make purchases is increasingly important. Penn State researchers now suggest that it's not just what is recommended, but how and why it's recommended, that helps to shape consumers' opinions.

Health ads in users' customized online sites may evoke negative reactions

Tweaking the look of a social media profile may subtly alter a person's reaction to the health messages that appear on that site, according to researchers. They add that these reactions could influence whether the users heed the advice of those messages.

Study examines movement in children with autism

For more than a year, researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso's Stanley E. Fulton Gait Research & Movement Analysis Lab in the College of Health Sciences have been using real-time 3-D animation to investigate motor impairments in children who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Their aim is to understand how children with autism can learn motor skills, so that they can receive effective therapies.

Essay provides context to debate over use of mechanical ventilation for COVID-19

An essay from Harvard University provides context to the debate over mechanical ventilation for COVID-19 patients. The author argues that the good-faith debate that broke out over acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, and Covid-19 at the beginning of the pandemic was the product of increasing dependence on high technologies in the hospital. By learning the history of these technologies, clinicians can understand how diagnoses and treatments came to be, and what unhelpful, questionable, or obsolete assumptions those technologies carry with them. The essay is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Chemical 'nose' sniffs critical differences in DNA structures

Small changes in the structure of DNA have been implicated in breast cancer and other diseases, but they've been extremely difficult to detect—until now.