The notion that some level of microbial exposure might reduce our risk of developing allergies has arisen over the last few decades and has been termed the hygiene hypothesis.

Now, an article published in Science Immunology by researchers from Karolinska Institutet challenges this hypothesis by showing that mice with high infectious exposures from birth have the same, if not an even greater ability to develop allergic immune responses than “clean” laboratory mice.

How microbes may prevent allergy has been a topic of great interest in recent times. Studies have suggested that certain infections might reduce the production of inflammatory antibodies to allergens and alter the behavior of T cells involved in allergies...

In research that could jumpstart interest into an enigmatic class of materials known as quasicrystals, MIT scientists and colleagues have discovered a relatively simple, flexible way to create new atomically thin versions that can be tuned for important phenomena. In work reported in Nature they describe doing just that to make the materials exhibit superconductivity and more.

The research introduces a new platform for not only learning more about quasicrystals, but also exploring exotic phenomena that can be hard to study but could lead to important applications and new physics...

Intense flashes of light, not mass, resolve the puzzle of impossible brightness. When scientists viewed the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) first images of the universe’s earliest galaxies, they were shocked. The young galaxies appeared too bright, too massive and too mature to have formed so soon after the Big Bang. It would be like an infant growing into an adult within just a couple years.

The startling discovery even caused some physicists to question the standard model of cosmology, wondering whether or not it should be upended.

In a new study, etripamil, a rapid- and short-acting investigational medication formulated to be delivered via nasal spray, restored a normal heart rhythm in less than 30 minutes in most users with intermittent rapid heartbeats, sparing them a trip to the emergency room to receive intravenous medication.

A fast-acting medication delivered as a nasal spray may someday allow patients with intermittent rapid heartbeats to treat it themselves as soon as they develop symptoms, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the A...