Sea urchins are ecosystem engineers, the marine equivalent of mega-herbivores on land. By grazing and shredding seaweed and seagrass, they control algal growth and promote the survival of slow-growing organisms like corals and some calcifying algae. They are likewise prey for a plethora of marine mammals, fish, crustaceans, and sea stars. However, when they become overabundant, for example when these predators are overhunted or overfished, sea urchins can also inflict substantial damage to marine habits and form so-called ‘urchin barrens’. Now, a study in Frontiers in Marine Science has revealed that over the last four years, an unrecognized pandemic that ...

A new study from Flinders University offers insight into how two of the world’s most popular beverages, coffee and tea, may influence bone health in older women. The research, published in the journal Nutrients, followed nearly 10,000 women aged 65 and older over a decade to explore whether their daily habits of sipping coffee or tea were linked to changes in bone mineral density (BMD), a key indicator of osteoporosis risk. Osteoporosis is a major global health concern, affecting one in three women over 50 and contributing to millions of fractures each year. With coffee and tea consumed daily by billions worldwide, understanding their impact on bone health ...

Free or subsidized school meals lead to modest gains in math and school enrolment, according to a new Cochrane review that examined the global impact of school feeding programs on disadvantaged children in both high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries. The research team, led by scientists from University of Ottawa, found that providing free or subsidized meals in schools slightly improves math achievement and enrolment rates in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and likely contributes to small gains in physical growth indicators such as height-for-age ...

Researchers at UCLA have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can use electronic health records to identify patients with undiagnosed Alzheimer’s disease, addressing a critical gap in Alzheimer’s care: significant underdiagnosis, particularly among underrepresented communities. The study appears in the journal npj Digital Medicine. Disparities in Alzheimer’s and dementia diagnosis among certain populations have been a longstanding issue. African Americans are nearly ...

A new metal free carbon catalyst made from seaweed could offer a greener way to clean antibiotic polluted water, according to a new study in Biochar X. The team reports that its porous carbon material, derived from a common marine polysaccharide and doped with nitrogen and sulfur, rapidly breaks down the antibiotic norfloxacin in water while avoiding the use of toxic metals or sulfur chemicals. Turning seaweed into clean water materials In the study, researchers transformed kappa carrageenan, a sulfated polysaccharide extracted from red algae and widely used as a food thickener, into a highly porous carbon catalyst. By combining the biomass with melamine as a nitrogen ...

Turning a weak process into a strong one PFOA is a widely used perfluorinated compound valued for its durability, but its strong carbon fluorine bonds make it extremely hard to break down once it reaches the environment. Traditional advanced oxidation processes based on ultraviolet light and powerful oxidants often require high temperatures, large doses of chemicals, or long treatment times to partially degrade these molecules.​ In the new work, the research team tested several UV based redox systems and found that a standard UV persulfate setup could only achieve 27 percent ...

A landmark UK study has revealed that acute heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) is placing a significant hidden burden on the NHS, with around £13 million spent annually on hospital admissions and post-discharge care.   The study, led by Dr Bassel Wattar of Anglia Ruskin University and published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health journal, is the first UK-based multicentre study to evaluate the prevalence of acute HMB and number of women requiring red blood ...

Slow tapering of antidepressants combined with psychological support prevents depression relapse to a similar extent as remaining on antidepressants, and is much more effective than fast tapering or sudden stopping of the medication, finds the most rigorous review and meta-analysis on the topic to date, involving over 17,000 adults. The researchers estimated that slow tapering of antidepressants plus psychological support could prevent one relapse in every five individuals compared with abrupt stopping or fast tapering – offering a clinically meaningful benefit. However, ...

Teenagers who are unhappy with their bodies are more likely to develop symptoms of eating disorders and depression in early adulthood, according to a new study led by University College London (UCL) researchers. The research, believed to be the first of its kind, followed more than 2,000 twins born in England and Wales. It found that higher body dissatisfaction at age 16 predicted greater symptoms of eating disorders and depression well into the twenties, even after taking into account family background and genetics. Researchers say the findings strengthen evidence that negative body image is ...

Societal and behavioral shifts including growing recognition of children displaying harmful sexual behaviors and links to extremism, violence and financial scams are driving child sexual exploitation and abuse online according to a new report. A new Prevention Framework -- the WeProtect Global Alliance’s Global Threat Assessment 2025 --launched by WeProtect Global Alliance is a comprehensive synthesis of globally available data, expert analysis, youth and survivor perspectives and case studies from organizations tackling technology-facilitated sexual abuse.  The assessment provides a practical tool for technology companies, governments, civil society ...

UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL 19:01 US ET ON WEDNESDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2025 / 00:01 UK (GMT) ON THURSDAY 11TH DECEMBER 2025   The Vatican’s eco-friendly farm, recently inaugurated by the first ever Augustinian pope, echoes his order’s forgotten early history, new research argues. Dr Krisztina Ilko challenges major assumptions about the medieval Catholic Church and early Renaissance.   A scorched cherry twig miraculously sprouting; a diseased swamp restored to ‘peak fertility’; ...

A new study published in Addiction has identified genetic factors that influence both a person’s risk of developing an addiction and their educational attainment. Researchers found that some genetic variants affect both traits in opposite directions, meaning that a higher genetic risk for addiction is associated with an increased likelihood of lower educational attainment. Lead author Dr. Judit Cabana-Domínguez from the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) explains: “We have long known that substance use problems and school difficulties often appear together and make each other worse.  ...

A combination of missed prevention opportunities and health inequalities can result in the early deaths of people living with epilepsy and intellectual disabilities, a study has shown. Around 1.2million people in England have some form of intellectual disability, with epilepsy estimated to impact 20-25% of them – up to 300,000 people – compared to just 1% of the general population. However, until now there has been no national-level population-based evidence on the risks and protective factors specifically contributing to epilepsy-related deaths in people with intellectual disability. This new research aims to ...

A major international survey of people receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has found that most patients are not asked about the childhood adversities or recent life stressors that they believe caused their difficulties.  The survey findings, published in the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, suggest that people are prescribed ECT, often against their will, without the underlying causes of their mental health problems being recognised and addressed by other therapeutic means.  The ...

Researchers at Duke University used CRISPR technologies to discover previously unannotated stretches of DNA in the ‘dark genome’ that are responsible for controlling how cells sense and respond to the mechanical properties of their local environment. Understanding how these DNA sequences affect cellular identity and function could give researchers new therapeutic targets for illnesses that involve changes to mechanical properties of tissues, including fibrosis, cancer and stroke, as well as long-term issues such as neurodegeneration and even aging. This work appears online on September 25 in the journal Science. The ...

Today at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), researchers presented the initial findings from a major multi-year collaboration between the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) and Caris Life Sciences® (Caris) focused on transforming recurrence risk assessment in early-stage breast cancer through artificial intelligence (AI). The public-private partnership pairs ECOG-ACRIN’s extensive clinical trial expertise and biorepository resources with Caris’ comprehensive MI Cancer Seek® whole exome and whole transcriptome profiling, whole slide imaging, ...

The March 28, 2025, Myanmar earthquake is giving scientists a rare look into how some of the world’s most dangerous fault systems behave, including California’s San Andreas Fault. Earthquakes are notoriously messy and complex, but this one struck along an unusually straight and geologically “mature” fault, creating near-ideal conditions for researchers to observe how the Earth releases energy during a major continental rupture. An international team of researchers led by The University ...

Florida State University researchers have created a new crystalline material with unusual magnetic patterns that could be used for breakthroughs in data storage and quantum technologies. In a study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the research team showed that when two materials with neighboring chemical compositions but different structure types are combined, they can form a new material that exhibits a third structure type with highly unusual magnetic properties. Atoms in magnetic materials act as extremely small magnets, ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A new Mayo Clinic study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has uncovered that an off-the-shelf, dual-antibody therapy can generate deep and durable responses in extramedullary multiple myeloma — one of the most aggressive and treatment-resistant forms of the disease.  "We are seeing powerful responses in a disease that historically has resisted every therapy," says Shaji Kumar, M.D., a Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center hematologist and senior author of the study. "By recruiting T cells ...

A noninvasive blood test to detect genetic material shed by tumors may help clinicians identify adverse events related to treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs, investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have found. In a Dec. 11 letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers described how they measured cell-free DNA to identify tissue damage to nine organs in a study involving 14 patients with solid tumors who received immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, a treatment that helps boost the immune system’s ability to attack cancer. The test determined that the six patients in the cohort who had immune-related adverse events ...

The American College of Cardiology is launching an early cardiovascular disease prevention education program to honor the contributions of Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, MACC, and his lifelong commitment to establishing a culture of prevention in children. The Fuster Prevention Forum is an in-person educational course that will teach clinicians effective ways to educate children, parents and educators in their communities on nutrition, physical activity and emotional well-being. “Valentin Fuster has a legacy of promoting heart healthy behaviors early ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2025 Highlights: A new guideline by the American Academy of Neurology says psychological interventions are possibly effective in helping people achieve freedom from functional seizures. Functional seizures, previously known as psychogenic nonepileptic seizures or non-epileptic attack disorder, can look or feel like seizures from epilepsy or fainting, but they have their own typical features. The guideline says appropriate treatment may decrease the frequency of functional seizures, decrease anxiety and improve quality of life. The guideline recommends that antiseizure ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2025 Highlights: GLP-1 drugs show a potential link to reduced epilepsy risk in people with type 2 diabetes. People taking GLP-1 drugs were 16% less likely to develop epilepsy than those on DPP-4 inhibitors. Semaglutide showed the strongest association with lower epilepsy risk among the GLP-1 drugs studied. The study is preliminary and does not prove causation; randomized, controlled trials are needed to confirm these findings. The drug tirzepatide was not included as it was introduced during the study period. MINNEAPOLIS — A preliminary study of people with diabetes suggests ...

A collaborative team of researchers (that includes students and senior researchers at Arizona State University (ASU), Coastal Carolina University, The University of the South in the US and researchers in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, The University of the West Indies at Cave Hill (Barbados), University of Cape Town (South Africa), Institut Pasteur (France) have identified two previously unknown circoviruses in short-finned pilot whales and orcas from the Caribbean region of the North Atlantic Ocean. The findings represent the first detection of cetacean circoviruses in this region and ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The cannabis marketplace continues to grow and evolve, offering consumers new ways to use cannabis — and new ways to combine it with other substances, such as alcohol. That practice can be particularly detrimental to adolescents, who are known to use both substances in high numbers. And when it comes to cannabis use and binge drinking among high school seniors, modality matters, according to new research from the University at Buffalo finding that differing modes of cannabis consumption may be associated with risky alcohol use behaviors in this population. The study is among the first to evaluate modes of cannabis use on binge drinking outcomes ...