In a massive new analysis of findings from 277 clinical trials using 24 different interventions, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have found that almost all vitamin, mineral and other nutrient supplements or diets cannot be linked to longer life or protection from heart disease.

Although they found that most of the supplements or diets were not associated with any harm, the analysis showed possible health benefits only from a low-salt diet, omega-3 fatty acid supplements and possibly folic acid supplements for some people. Researchers also found that supplements combining calcium and vitaminD may in fact be linked to a slightly increased stroke risk. Results of the analysis were published on July 8 in Annals of Internal Medicine.

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Two-qudit gate on a photonic platform achieves massive entangled quantum state. Researchers have built what could be a quantum version of a transistor – with qudits.

Quantum information processing promises to be much faster and more secure than what today’s supercomputers can achieve, but doesn’t exist yet because its building blocks, qubits, are notoriously unstable.

Purdue University researchers are among the first to build a gate – what could be a quantum version of a transistor, used in today’s computers for processing information – with qudits...

Data offer new clues about why stars explode. A team of astronomers at The Ohio State University showed that the satellite survey TESS, could be used to monitor a particular type of supernova, giving scientists more clues about what causes white dwarf stars to explode – and about the elements those explosions leave behind.

“We have known for years that these stars explode, but we have terrible ideas of why they explode,” said Patrick Vallely, lead author of the study and an Ohio State astronomy graduate student...

Want to smooth out your wrinkles, erase scars and sunspots, and look years younger? Millions of Americans a year turn to lasers and prescription drugs to rejuvenate their skin, but exactly how that rejuvenation works has never been fully explained. Now, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that laser treatments and the drug retinoic acid share a common molecular pathway. Moreover, that pathway – which lets skin cells sense loose RNA molecules– is also turned up in mice when they regenerate hair follicles. Results are described in the June 26 issue of Nature Communications.

“Understanding the biology behind how ce...