Europe’s Late Neanderthals descended from a single population

People who witness a street conflict also experience tension and stress themselves. At the same time, they actively seek contact with others in order to feel a sense of closeness.

Today, in a world first, a team of scientists from the BASE experiment at CERN successfully transported a trap filled with antiprotons in a truck across the Laboratory's main site. The team managed to accumulate a cloud of 92 antiprotons in an innovative portable cryogenic Penning trap, then disconnect it from the experimental facility, load it onto a truck and continue experiment operation after transport.

VUB researcher at the forefront of the fight against neurodegenerative diseases . BRUSSELS - An international consortium has achieved a major breakthrough in the diagnosis of neurological diseases. In a recent publication in the scientific journal Nature Medicine , they describe the discovery of a new quantitative biomarker in lumbar fluid (cerebrospinal fluid) that is helping doctors to diagnose Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia more accurately.

AI-generated images and videos pose a threat to democratic processes and undermine trust within society. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now developed chip technology that enables verification of the authenticity of sensor data including images or videos. 

Future lunar missions may rely on a fibre-optic cables to assess vital sub-surface structures. Researchers at ETH Zurich are investigating whether lightweight optical fibres - like those used for internet communication on Earth - could be deployed on the Moon to detect seismic activity and reveal its interior structures.

Some materials behave unexpectedly. They crack differently than expected, or react in ways that are hard to explain. The answer often lies in their atomic structure. Is it neatly arranged, as in a crystal, or disordered, as in glass? Researchers at the University of Twente have now created a material that is both simultaneously. In two directions it is disordered; in the third, perfectly ordered. Their findings have been published in Nature Communications .

Prolonged exposure to microplastics can disrupt vital physiological processes in gorgonians, such as respiration. Although these pollutants do not cause visible damage to tissues and cells, their effects could have an ecological impact on these organisms that structure the seabed, particularly if exposure continues over time occurs alongside other environmental pressures, such as ocean warming, habitat degradation or the growing accumulation of plastics in the marine environment.

A study by UNIGE and EMBL shows how differences in tissue mechanical properties shape the diversity of forms across species.

To increase the biodiversity of meadows, less intensive management is not always enough. Sometimes meadows also need to be actively resown. As part of a research project on the Swiss Plateau, researchers from the University of Bern tested various methods for restoring plant diversity in meadows and demonstrated their effectiveness: After four years, all the methods used had led to effective restoration, with an average increase of 29 percent in the number of plant species present.

.This published research shows that Trinity scientists have discovered a way to "train" the immune system to better fight drug-resistant infections like MRSA and TB. Today is World TB Day 2026.

Global immunity to COVID-19 is likely to offer protection against the emergence of an as yet undiscovered new SARS-type virus, dubbed SARS-CoV-X, ultimately lowering the risk of a future coronavirus pandemic.

When a virus enters the lungs, the immune system has to react fast. The lung maintains its own community of immune cells capable of mounting a local defense on the spot. Researchers from the University of Basel now describe the role of a specialized group of cells that orchestrates this local response, directing neighboring immune cells to work together. Their findings could pave the way for new inhalable vaccines against respiratory viruses such as influenza.

Reading When holidays or pandemics shut down schools, gender differences in children's reading habits widen; boys stop reading, while girls continue, according to a new study from the University of Copenhagen. The researchers say their findings suggest that boys are more dependent on school routines and expectations than girls.

The expansion of modern humans out of Africa likely unfolded differently than previously thought: contrary to earlier assumptions, south-east Arabia was repeatedly inhabited by humans during the late Pleistocene.

Chemistry: A sophisticated process stacks dye molecules in such a way that their luminosity increases significantly as their size grows - a significant step forward for the electronics of tomorrow.