Review of studies suggests a potentially useful link between gut bacteria and mental disorders. People who experience anxiety symptoms might be helped by taking steps to regulate the microorganisms in their gut using probiotic and non-probiotic food and supplements, suggests a review of studies published today in the journal General Psychiatry.

Anxiety symptoms are common in people with mental diseases and a variety of physical disorders, especially in disorders that are related to stress. Previous studies have shown that as many as a third of people will be affected by anxiety symptoms during their lifetime.

Increasingly, research has indicated that gut microbiota – the trillions of microorganisms in the gut wh...

Researchers are building animal-inspired sensors into the shells of aircraft, cars. Researchers are building ‘spidey senses’ into the shells of autonomous cars and drones so that they could detect and avoid objects better.

Better sensing capabilities would make it possible for drones to navigate in dangerous environments and for cars to prevent accidents caused by human error. Current state-of-the-art sensor technology doesn’t process data fast enough – but nature does.

And researchers wouldn’t have to create a radioactive spider to give autonomous machines superhero...

Earth has a large amount of water and a relatively large moon, which stabilizes Earth’s axis. Both are essential for life to develop on our planet. Scientists have now been able to show that water came to Earth with the formation of the moon.

Planetologists at the University of Münster (Germany) have now been able to show, for the first time, that water came to Earth with the formation of the Moon some 4.4 billion years ago. The Moon was formed when Earth was hit by a body about the size of Mars, also called Theia. Until now, scientists had assumed that Theia originated in the inner solar system near the Earth...

A gassy insulating layer beneath the icy surfaces of distant celestial objects could mean there are more oceans in the universe than previously thought. Computer simulations provide compelling evidence that an insulating layer of gas hydrates could keep a subsurface ocean from freezing beneath Pluto’s icy exterior, according to a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

In July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew through Pluto’s system, providing the first-ever close-up im...