Loss of muscle is an inevitable consequence of aging that can lead to frailty, falls or mobility problems. Eating enough protein is one way to remedy it, but it would seem that spreading protein equally among the three daily meals could be linked to greater mass and muscle strength in the elderly. These are the findings of a study conducted …

New research suggests that an extreme global warming event 56 million years ago was driven by massive CO2 emissions from volcanoes, during the formation of the North Atlantic Ocean. The research, published in Nature, used a combination of new geochemical measurements and novel global climate modelling to show that the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was associated with a geologically rapid …

The US Food and Drug Administration announced today that 465,000 pacemakers have a security vulnerability that could be exploited to make the device operate too quickly or deplete its batteries, and these devices need firmware updates to keep them from getting hacked. “Many medical devices – including St. Jude Medical’s implantable cardiac pacemakers – contain configurable embedded computer systems that …

MIT researchers have developed a robot with “socially aware navigation,” that can pace alongside pedestrians, follow the basic traffic rules, and smoothly navigate in crowds without bumping into anyone. Just as drivers observe the rules of the road, most pedestrians follow certain social codes when navigating a hallway or a crowded thoroughfare: Keep to the right, pass on the left, …

Researchers at Stanford have made a nature-inspired breakthrough that could cut the costs of solar energy technology. In a new study, the Stanford team used the insect-inspired design to protect a fragile photovoltaic material called perovskite from deteriorating when exposed to heat, moisture or mechanical stress. The results are published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science (E&ES). “Perovskites are …

Th species found in Stanley Park, known as a magnificent bryozoan or Pectinatella magnifica, normally only dwells east of the Mississippi river. Researchers claim that warming global temperatures may have forced the bizarre organisms north of their normal habitat – but they can’t be sure. Kathleen Stormont, from the Stanley Park Ecology Society, told the Vancouver Courier: “They’re a colony …

A 39-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly tried to abduct a young girl outside a store in Scarborough. Police were called to a plaza near Warden and Eglinton avenues just before 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Police say a mother was shopping with her three children when a man approached her four-year-old daughter in the store and tried to …

The biggest fossil ever found of a dinosaur-era marine reptile called the Ichthyosaurus was pregnant when it died. Scientists say they found an embryo inside the skeleton that includes pieces of vertebrae, ribs, a forefin and a shoulder blade, according to a study in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. Although pieces have been added to the fossil to reconstruct the …

Launched 20 years ago, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft now has less than 20 days for its mission-ending dive into the atmosphere of Saturn. On September 15, after a distant flyby of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, Cassini will descend into the planet itself, burning up while transmitting atmospheric data back to Earth. It will enhance our understanding of the Saturn system until …

Scientists are using carbon nanotubes as a filter to desalinate water, a technique which could prove easier, faster and cheaper than other desalination processes. With the increasing demand for fresh drinking water as populations rise the search to produce sustainable methods to cope have never been greater. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in collaboration with Northeastern University in …

In the coming decades, warming ocean temperatures could stunt the growth of fish by as much as 30 percent, according to a new research in the journal Global Change Biology. The main driver behind this decline in size is that warmer water contains less oxygen. As Nexus Media explains, fish are cold-blooded animals and therefore cannot regulate their own body …