Daniel Osherson, Princeton’s Henry R. Luce Professor in Information Technology, Consciousness, and Culture, Emeritus, known for his  creative scientific explorations with collaborators in many disciplines, died at home on Sept. 4. 

Samsung Electronics issued a rare apology and acknowledged on Tuesday it was facing a "crisis" over its technological competitiveness, reflected in a disappointing profit guidance, despite a global AI boom.

In 1969, three men traveled to the moon cameras documented their every move

ARTICLE: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/civil-war-veterans-come-alive-in-audio-and-video-recordings-97841665/ In this exclusive clip from the 1930s, Confederate veterans step up to the mic and let out their version of the fearsome rallying cry.

More on the crocs at Smithsonian.com: http://j.mp/SWhbxZ The two Cuban crocodiles are the first for the zoo since 1988.

[Harry Carney Home Movies], Ruth Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Collector David Cammack owns three of the 43 remaining cars in existence designed by Preston Tucker, which he puts on display in a secluded museum in Virginia. Editor's Note: We're sad to report that David Cammack passed away on Sunday, April 7, 2013 at the age of 84.

The noisy-but-shy bird, known as the hoiho, has earned the most votes for a second time amid threats to its survival

The baby pygmy hippopotamus in a Thailand zoo has taken the internet by storm, and keepers hope she will help gain momentum for conservation efforts

Unearthed last year, the remains could reveal new information on the extinct sea reptile, which crushed mollusks and shelled creatures with its large, round teeth

Using sound recordings, the team identified the largest known population of the night parrot, a secretive species known as the "Holy Grail of birdwatching"

Unexplored iron-rich magma could help power current and future technologies

A new exhibition in New York City uses more than 200 texts and artifacts to contemplate Lincoln's rise to the nation's highest office

The predatory pod hunts off the coast of Chile and is led by a matriarch called Dakota

Milagra, Spanish for “miracle,” was hatched and raised in captivity by foster condor parents after her mother died of avian flu in April 2023

The Gestapo seized the Impressionist painting from storage after its owners fled from their home in Vienna. Now, the piece has been returned to their granddaughters

The owners inherited the valuable coin from their brother, who kept it locked in a bank vault for decades. He purchased it with his mother in 1978 to provide financial security for the family farm

The critter found in New York represents a new, extinct species of arthropod that could shed light on the evolution of today's insects, crustaceans and spiders

The 237-million-year-old remains are among the oldest silesaurid fossils ever found, adding to paleontologists' understanding of this still-mysterious group of prehistoric reptiles

The bone, described two decades after its discovery, suggests the species might have grown up to 20 percent bigger than other terror birds

Sławomir and Szymon Milewski were searching for a Roman road when they stumbled upon the cache of coins, which is worth more than $120,000

The 1951 artwork, "La Grande Dame (The Cat Woman)," stands over six feet tall and features paintings of "hybrid creatures and lush dreamscapes"

Cenotes in the Yucatán Peninsula are time capsules preserving remnants of Maya culture and fossils of extinct megafauna

A new exhibition at the British Library explores the public, private and spiritual lives of such figures as Joan of Arc, Christine de Pizan and Hildegard of Bingen

A box found in a Saskatchewan attic, potentially holding millions of dollars worth of hockey cards, is going back up for auction after the original winning bidder never paid up, according to the auction company.

A newly discovered protein naturally houses an unusual binding site that can differentiate between rare earth elements, and researchers at Penn State have made it even better. Rare earth elements are key components used in everything from modern tech to gasoline production. The protein, called LanD, enriches neodymium and praseodymium over other similar rare earth elements and has the potential to revolutionize industrial mining, researchers said.

A new analysis of Voyager 2’s flyby of Uranus in 1986 reveals a unique magnetic anomaly caused by a rare solar wind event. Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech found that the solar wind’s impact on Uranus’s magnetosphere was a unique occurrence, influencing measurements of the planet’s magnetic field. The study also suggests that the planet’s outer moons lie within its magnetosphere, potentially aiding future probes in identifying subsurface oceans on these moons.

DOVER, Del. — The Delaware Rare Disease Advisory Council held its inaugural meeting on Tuesday, taking its first steps to address innovation and research, patient care, and affordable and accessible treatment therapies.     Delaware is one of 27 states with a Rare Disease Advisory Council. Established by Senate Bill 55, sponsored by Sen. Nicole Poore […]

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, battered in parliamentary elections last month, has survived a rare runoff vote against the opposition to remain the country's leader but he still faces turmoil ahead. One of his top priorities is dealing with the aftermath of a major corruption scandal in the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in which dozens of lawmakers from the party are alleged to have pocketed profits from event ticket sales as kickbacks. Ishiba also now has a much-emboldened, opposition eager to push through policies long stymied by the LDP. Support ratings for his Cabinet have fallen to about 30%. Here is a look at what's happening in Japan's tumultuous politics, and what it might mean for Ishiba and his government as they prepare to navigate a second term of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Why did the vote in parliament take place? A parliamentary vote for a new leader is mandatory within 30 days of a general election. In the past that was mostly ignored as the head of the LDP usually enjoyed a majority in the Lower House, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. This time, though, because Ishiba's LDP and its junior coalition partner lost its majority in the recent election, the runoff on Monday couldn't be avoided — the first in 30 years. What's next for the prime minister? Opposition's top leader, Yoshihiko Noda, has noted that nearly half of all lower house steering committees are now headed by the opposition. That’s a huge change from the pre-election domination of the LDP, which controlled all but three of the 27 committees. “We are going to have a new landscape in Japanese politics,” Noda said. Twelve of the committees in key areas, including budget, political reforms, national security and legal affairs, will be headed by Noda’s Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and two other main opposition groups. What's certain is that the era of LDP’s one-sided rule is over, for now, and the opposition has a chance to achieve policies long opposed by the ruling conservatives, including on issues like gender equality and diversity. Noda last Friday said a legal committee that is now headed by his party’s gender equality chief, Chinami Nishimura, is aiming to achieve a civil code revision to allow married couples the option of keeping separate surnames. That change has been stalled by LDP conservatives for 30 years despite widespread support by the public and a United Nations panel on discrimination against women. Who is the opposition kingmaker? Yuichiro Tamaki is head of the conservative Democratic Party for the People, which quadrupled its seats to 28 in the election. The vote elevated his party from a fringe group to a major player. He is now being cast as a potential key to Ishiba’s survival. A Harvard-educated former Finance Ministry bureaucrat, the 55-year-old Tamaki has seen success by pushing for the raising of a basic tax-free income allowance and an increase of take-home wages. His messages on social media have appealed to younger voters, who have long been ignored by LDP policies catering to conservative elderly. Ishiba apparently seems to find Tamaki’s 28-member DPP an attractive partner to secure a majority. The two parties, which have common ground in some areas — including support for greater nuclear energy use and a stronger military — have started policy talks. Ishiba met with both Tamaki and Noda on Monday but Tamaki may be cautious about moving too close to a scandal-plagued LDP ahead of another election next year. Noda is struggling to form a unified opposition to force a change of government, which he says is his next goal. What does this mean for Ishiba's government? For Ishiba, the “hung parliament” requires him to win over opposition forces so he can push his policies. While considered unstable, it might also provide a chance for a more consensus-based policy making process, experts say. “I’m taking the current situation positively as a chance to get our opposition voice heard more carefully,” Tamaki said. Ishiba also faces challenges of restoring unity in his own party. A number of senior LDP lawmakers are waiting to overthrow Ishiba, though their priority is to resolidify their footholds, not infighting — and nobody is eager to do damage control at this difficult time anyway. “The [Ishiba] administration is quite unstable. ... He will have to get opposition parties' cooperation every time he wants to get a bill approved, which could stall policies,” said University of Tokyo political science professor Yu Uchiyama. And even if Ishiba survives politically in the coming months, there could be a call for his replacement ahead of next elections. “Japan is likely to return to a period of short-lived government,” Uchiyama said. How does this affect Japan's diplomacy, security and ties with Trump? Ishiba congratulated Trump hours after his victory and in a brief telephone conversation, they agreed to closely work together to further elevate their alliance. While experts say Trump understands the importance of U.S.-Japan relations, he may — as he did in his first administration — pressure Japan to pay more for the cost of 50,000 U.S. troops in Japan or to buy more expensive American weapons. Trump's possible tariff proposals could also hurt Japanese exporters. Ishiba on Saturday renewed his pledge to pursue an ongoing military buildup plan under a strategy that calls for a counter-strike capability with long-range cruise-missiles. He has long advocated a more equal Japan-U.S. security alliance but could face difficulty pursuing those plans. ‘’It will be a fantastic experiment to see if a national unity government can get Japan through until the next election,” said Michael Cucek, an expert in Japanese politics at Temple University in Japan.  

GENEVA — The U.N. weather agency is predicting that the phenomenon known as La Nina is poised to last through the end of this year, a mysterious “triple dip” — the first this century — caused by three straight years of its effect on climate patterns like drought and flooding worldwide. The World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday said La Nina conditions, which involve a large-scale cooling of ocean surface temperatures, have strengthened in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific with an increase in trade winds in recent weeks. The agency’s top official was quick to caution that the “triple dip” doesn’t mean global warming is easing. “It is exceptional to have three consecutive years with a La Nina event. Its cooling influence is temporarily slowing the rise in global temperatures, but it will not halt or reverse the long-term warming trend,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said. La Nina is a natural and cyclical cooling of parts of the equatorial Pacific that changes weather patterns worldwide, as opposed to warming caused by the better-known El Nino — an opposite phenomenon. La Nina often leads to more Atlantic hurricanes, less rain and more wildfires in the western United States, and agricultural losses in the central U.S. Studies have shown La Nina is more expensive to the United States than the El Nino. Together El Nino, La Nina and the neutral condition are called ENSO, which stands for El Nino Southern Oscillation, and they have one of the largest natural effects on climate, at times augmenting and other times dampening the big effects of human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas, scientists say.

A camera trap at an Australian nature refuge has captured a boisterous interaction between a northern hairy-nosed wombat and an echidna

Kew scientists use paramotorists to collect rare plant species from Peruvian desert oases

Understanding how the world’s largest-known collection of pink diamonds came to the surface in Australia around 1.3 billion years ago could help us find hidden deposits elsewhere in the world

In a wetland on the south coast of England, archaeologists dug up one of the oldest and most complete wooden tools ever found in Britain, which is around 3500 years old

Title: Afinitor Disperz Approved for Rare Pediatric Cancer
Category: Health News
Created: 8/29/2012 6:05:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/30/2012 12:00:00 AM

Title: Experimental Drug Shows Promise for Rare Genetic Disorder
Category: Health News
Created: 8/29/2013 12:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/30/2013 12:00:00 AM

Title: Promacta Approval Expanded to Kids With Rare Blood Disorder
Category: Health News
Created: 8/24/2015 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/25/2015 12:00:00 AM

Title: Impotence Drug Aids Treatment of Rare Lung Disease: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 8/26/2015 12:00:00 AM
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Title: Hopes Dashed for Rare Bone Cancer Treatment
Category: Health News
Created: 8/26/2016 12:00:00 AM
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Title: Serious Reactions to Vaccines Rarely Recur: Review
Category: Health News
Created: 8/28/2017 12:00:00 AM
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Title: Rare 'Brain Vein' Strokes Are on the Rise
Category: Health News
Created: 8/26/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/27/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Large-Scale Pandemics Aren't as Rare as You Think: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 8/25/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/25/2021 12:00:00 AM

For clean-room technologies such as isolators and restricted access barrier systems (RABS), decontamination using hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is increasingly attractive to fulfill regulatory requirements. Several approaches are currently used, ranging from manual wipe disinfection to vapor phase hydrogen peroxide (VPHP) or automated nebulization sanitization. Although the residual airborne H₂O₂ concentration can be easily monitored, detection of trace H₂O₂ residues in filled products is rather challenging. To simulate the filling process in a specific clean room, technical runs with water for injection (WfI) are popular. Thus, the ability to detect traces of H₂O₂ in water is an important prerequisite to ensure a safe and reliable use of H₂O₂ for isolator or clean room decontamination. The objective of this study was to provide a validated quantitative, fluorometric Amplex UltraRed assay, which satisfies the analytical target profile of quantifying H₂O₂ in WfI at low nanomolar to low micromolar concentrations (ppb range) with high accuracy and high precision. The Amplex UltraRed technology provides a solid basis for this purpose; however, no commercial assay kit that fulfills these requirements is available. Therefore, a customized Amplex UltraRed assay was developed, optimized, and validated. This approach resulted in an assay that is capable of quantifying H₂O₂ in WfI selectively, sensitively, accurately, precisely, and robustly. This assay is used in process development and qualification approaches using WfI in H₂O₂-decontaminated clean rooms and isolators.

DNA from mitochondria, the energy powerhouses inside cells, sometimes gets added to our genome – and the number of these mutations in the brain could be linked to ageing

Genetic analysis of a bird flu virus detected in a person in Missouri who didn’t previously have contact with animals offers more details on the case, but experts say there isn’t substantial evidence to suggest human-to-human transmission is happening

A ”once in a lifetime” comet is expected to light up the night sky as it passes by Earth.