Technology

A new study has provided a deeper insight into the nature of voices inside a person’s head.

According to new research by Durham and Stanford universities, voices in people’s heads are far more varied and complex than previously thought.

One of the largest and most detailed studies to date on the experience of auditory hallucinations, commonly referred to as voice hearing, found that the majority of voice-hearers hear multiple voices with distinct character-like qualities, with many also experiencing physical effects on their bodies.

Scientists have identified nine new dwarf galaxies, which is the largest number ever found at once, in orbit around the Milky Way.

The findings by a team of astronomers from the University of Cambridge , newly-released imaging data taken from the Dark Energy Survey, may help unravel the mysteries behind dark matter, the invisible substance holding galaxies together.

The new satellites were found in the southern hemisphere near the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud, the largest and most well-known dwarf galaxies in the Milky Way’s orbit.

UK is getting ready for the rare phenomenon of supermoon total solar eclipse on March 20, when the moon covers the sun, blocking out its light.

The spectacular display had been predicted to be the biggest solar eclipse for 15 years, since the UK was plunged into darkness in 1999 and until 2026.

The equinox eclipse is expected to cause power disruption in a massive way across the nation since 35,000 MW of power will be lost as people witness the rare phenomenon.

A new study has provided a deeper insight into why Vincent van Gogh’s most prized paintings are turning white.

Researchers at the University of Antwerp, by inspecting the speck under a microscope and using x-ray lasers , were able to determine what minerals it contained.

It was discovered the speck was originally red and contained a lead known as plumbonacrite.

The scientists explained plumbonacrite was one of the first synthetically-made paints known to man and was popular with Van Gogh.

However, unknown to him the time, plumbonacrite degrades colours when exposed to light.

A new study has revealed that while cats ignore our music, they prefer their own beat.

The study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that while, they are highly responsive to “music” written especially for them.

Lead author Charles Snowdon said that they are not actually replicating cat sounds, instead they are trying to create music with a pitch and tempo that appeals to cats.

Male burying beetles that mate more often are more insecure about their social status than those mating less, according to research on the behaviour of the insects.

The study provides new evidence that the social sensitivity of male behaviour is linked to how often male beetles mate.

“What is really fascinating is that this social sensitivity has evolved in response to selection on mating behaviour: males that have more sex really are more insecure about their social status.

After analysing 1.9 million-year-old pelvis and thigh bones of an early human ancestor in Kenya, researchers have revealed greater diversity in the human family tree than scientists previously thought.

According to the team from University of Missouri-Columbia, apart from facial features, these early human species also differed throughout other parts of their skeletons and had distinct body forms.

NASA and other space agencies are preparing for the fourth annual “International Space Apps Challenge” which will be held online at more than 135 locations worldwide April 10-12.

During the three-day event, participants are asked to develop mobile applications, software, hardware, data visualisation and platform solutions that could contribute to space exploration missions and help improve life on Earth, the US space agency said in a statement.

This year, 35 challenges represent NASA mission priorities in four areas: Earth studies, space exploration, human health research and robotics.

A new study has revealed that millions of modern Asian men have descended from 11 powerful dynastic leaders who lived up to 4,000 years ago, including Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan.

The study from the University of Leicester examined the male-specific Y chromosome, which is passed from father to son, in more than 5,000 Asian men belonging to 127 populations.

Most Y-chromosome types are very rare, but the team discovered 11 types that were relatively common across the sample and studied their distributions and histories.

A new study has revealed how blood group O protects against malaria.

A team of Scandinavian scientists explains the mechanisms behind the protection that blood type O provides and suggests that the selective pressure imposed by malaria may contribute to the variable global distribution of ABO blood groups in the human population.

It has long been known that people with blood type O are protected against severe malaria, while those with other types, such as A, often fall into a coma and die. Unpacking the mechanisms behind this has been one of the main goals of malaria research.

Now we may be able to live a healthier and longer life, thanks to the class of drugs that scientists have recently discovered.

The new class of drugs, identified by the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Mayo Clinic and other institutions, and have been termed “senolytics,” dramatically slow the aging process, alleviate symptoms of weakness, improve cardiac function, hence extending a healthy lifespan in animal models.

The first real-time imaging of intact circadian neural networks, courtesy of a fruit fly’s “brain in a jar,” has revealed the inner mechanisms of jet lag.

To do this, UC Irvine researchers used imaging technology to make movies of fruit fly brains kept alive for six days in a petri dish. They captured the activity of individual circadian clocks at single-cell resolution with an extremely sensitive low-light camera in order to determine how the circadian clock circuit is “reset” by light.

Scientists have found the area in brain which is responsible for making us feel pain.

Researchers at the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain used a new brain imaging technique to look at people experiencing pain over many hours. Activity in only one brain area, the dorsal posterior insula, reflected the participants’ ratings of how much the pain hurt.

The results could help detect pain in people with limited communication abilities, such as those in a coma, small children and dementia patients.