Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a new approach that directly combats the progression of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).  In these devastating illnesses, proteins misfold and clump together around brain cells, which ultimately leads to cell death. The innovative new treatment effectively traps the proteins before they can aggregate into the toxic structures capable of penetrating neurons. The trapped proteins then harmlessly degrade in the body. The “clean-up” strategy significantly ...

When biting into a chili pepper, you expect a fiery sensation on your tongue. This spiciness is detected because of capsaicinoid compounds. But for some peppers, despite high levels of capsaicinoids, the heat is mysteriously dull. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry have identified three compounds that lessen peppers’ pungency. These results challenge the reliability of the century-old Scoville scale, which traditionally bases its rating on two capsaicinoids. “The discovery of natural dietary compounds that reduce pungency presents promising opportunities ...

New Haven, Conn. — Apples-to-apples comparisons in the distant universe are hard to come by. Whether the subject is dwarf galaxies, supermassive black holes, or “hot Jupiters,” astronomers can spend months or years searching for comparable objects and formations to study. And it is rarer still when those objects are side-by-side. But a new Yale study offers a road map for finding “twin” planetary systems — showing whether binary stars that orbit each other, and that were born at the same time and place, tend to host similar ...

[Strasbourg, 14 May 2025] The “How Equitable Is It?” tool, designed to assess the equity of scholarly communication models, has been officially launched today in its updated version following a comprehensive review of community feedback. Originally introduced as a beta version in September 2024 at the OASPA conference, this refined version of the tool incorporates significant improvements based on input from across the scholarly publishing ecosystem. Developed by a multi-stakeholder Working Group, comprising librarians, ...

New data from a national project led by McGill University researchers shows that redesigning youth mental health services can significantly cut wait times and connect more young people to care. The ACCESS Open Minds project was launched in 2014 to address gaps in access to quality mental health care, especially for Indigenous, remote and underserved communities. Findings published in Jama Psychiatry provide the first assessment of the program’s outcomes across Canada. “We focused on transforming existing programs in clinics, schools and youth centres to make them more accessible, youth-friendly and culturally appropriate,” said ...

New research by ESMT Berlin and the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) shows that private equity (PE) acquisitions lead to substantial operational efficiency gains in hospitals, challenging common public concerns. The study reveals that hospitals acquired by PE firms significantly reduce costs and administrative staff without increasing closure rates or harming patient care.    The paper “Private Equity in the Hospital Industry” is co-authored by Merih Sevilir (ESMT and Halle Institute for Economic Research), Janet Gao (McDonough School of Business, Georgetown), and Yongseok Kim (Freeman School of Business, ...

Research Highlights: The risk of death or complications from the stress-related heart condition associated with stressful events, such as the death of a loved one — called Takotsubo cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome — was high and unchanged from 2016 to 2020, according to data from a national study that included nearly 200,000 U.S. adults. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy was found to be more common in women in this analysis. However, men with the condition were twice as likely to die. The rate of complications, such as heart failure, atrial fibrillation, ...

Global warming is already very tough for animals in the wild, but it may be toughest for creatures like fish, whose body temperatures are controlled by the water temperatures around them. Fish have to evolve to handle higher water temperatures, if they can’t move to areas with colder water.  But what if adapting to warmer water has other unwanted consequences? In a new publication in Nature Climate Change, researchers looked at zebrafish that they had specially bred over 7 generations to tolerate ...

Researchers at the University of Tokyo and their collaborators have developed a digital laboratory system that fully automates the material synthesis and the structural and physical property evaluation of thin-film samples. With the digital laboratory, or dLab, the team can autonomously synthesize thin-film samples and measure their material properties. The system demonstrates advanced automatic and autonomous material synthesis for data- and robot-driven materials science. The current research is published in the journal Digital Discovery. Machine learning, robotics and data are deemed vital to the discovery of ...

While breastfeeding has many benefits for a mother and her baby, it has one major drawback: It’s incredibly difficult to know how much milk the baby is consuming. To take the guesswork out of breastfeeding, an interdisciplinary team of engineers, neonatologists and pediatricians at Northwestern University has developed a new wearable device that can provide clinical-grade, continuous monitoring of breast milk consumption.  The unobtrusive device softly and comfortably wraps around the breast ...

Osaka, Japan – Tissues consist of a heterogenous mixture of different cell types, complicating our understanding of their biological functions and studies of disease. Now, a multi-institutional team led by The University of Osaka has developed and provided proof-of-concept of a new technology to visualize the distribution of components within a single cell, paving the way for a much greater understanding of disease in complex biological samples. t-SPESI (tapping-mode scanning probe electrospray ionization) is a technique that allows analysis of the spatial layout of molecules in a sample. Multiple micro-samples of different regions of ...

There is no significant difference in the effectiveness of how autistic and non-autistic people communicate, according to a new study, challenging the stereotype that autistic people struggle to connect with others.    The findings suggest that social difficulties often faced by autistic people are more about differences in how autistic and non-autistic people communicate, rather than a lack of social ability in autistic individuals, experts say.  Researchers hope the results of the study will help reduce the stigma surrounding autism, and lead to more effective ...

Paul Wilcox, a geologist at the University of Innsbruck, has discovered the first land-based evidence of meltwater pulses from the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the last ice age about 20,000 years ago. The age of the cave sediments was constrained via optical dating techniques, which is crucial to help piece together the sequence of climate events leading to a warming planet. The results were published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Around 20,000 years ago, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet in western North America reached its maximum extent. This was followed by warming climate conditions, causing the ice-sheet to melt. While it is generally accepted ...

A new study in the European Heart Journal shows that people who develop type 1 diabetes in adulthood have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death, and that those diagnosed later in life do not have a better prognosis than those diagnosed earlier. The study, conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, points to smoking, poor glucose control and obesity as the main risk factors. Type 1 diabetes used to be called childhood diabetes but can start at any time during life. However, research on adult-onset type 1 diabetes is limited. The researchers behind the current study wanted to investigate the ...

1. Background and purpose of the study Aircraft emit nanoparticles (<50 nm Note 1 in diameter) into the atmosphere, from the ground to the upper troposphere. Studies in Europe, the U.S., and Japan have reported high concentrations of particles in and around airports Ref 1, and there is worldwide concern regarding the effects on human health. The atmospheric heating effects by contrails generated from aircraft exhaust particles are also known, and research is being conducted to assess their potential impacts on climate. Particle ...

Scientists studying chimpanzees in Budongo Forest, Uganda, have observed that these primates don’t just treat their own injuries, but care for others, too — information which could shed light on how our ancestors first began treating wounds and using medicines. Although chimpanzees elsewhere have been observed helping other community members with medical problems, the persistent presence of this behavior in Budongo could suggest that medical care among chimpanzees is much more widespread than we realized, and not confined ...

Nylon-based products such as clothing and fishing nets are notoriously slow to degrade, especially in marine environments, contributing significantly to global ocean pollution. A Korean research team has now developed an innovative material that can be produced using existing manufacturing infrastructure and effectively addresses this problem. A joint research team led by Dr. Hyun-Yeol Jeon and Dr. Hyo-Jeong Kim at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Senior Researcher Sung-Bae Park, Professor Dong-Yeop Oh at Inha University, and Professor Je-Young ...

Palaeontologists at the Manitoba Museum and Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have discovered a remarkable new 506-million-year-old predator from the Burgess Shale of Canada. The results are announced in a paper in the journal Royal Society Open Science. Mosura fentoni was about the size of your index finger and had three eyes, spiny jointed claws, a circular mouth lined with teeth and a body with swimming flaps along its sides. These traits show it to be part of an extinct group known as the radiodonts, which also included the famous Anomalocaris canadensis, a meter-long predator that shared ...

A new study of wild Sumatran orangutans by researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) has found that mothers consistently differ in their maternal behaviors toward their infants, even after controlling for biological, social, and environmental factors. Mothers also consistently vary from one another in how flexibly they adjust their parenting as their infants grow. For this study, the researchers analysed data on six maternal behaviors collected over 15 years. “Our study shows that Sumatran orangutan mothers are not all the same when it comes to parenting behaviors,” said Revathe Thillaikumar, a postdoctoral researcher at MPI-AB and ...

Scientists have found that X-Ray scanning reveals secrets of fossil formation without disturbing the decay of buried carcasses   A new study published in Palaeontology has confirmed that X-ray computed tomography (XCT scanning) can be used to monitor decomposing organisms without altering the natural decay process – a vital step for understanding how fossils form.   A research team from the University of Birmingham entombed dead zebrafish within sediment to test whether repeatedly zapping decaying specimens with X-rays would change how they decompose. Their findings suggest this non-invasive imaging technique allows scientists to watch decay happen in real-time without disturbing ...

Physical activity in early childhood, especially taking part in organised sports,may ward off several mental health disorders in later childhood and adolescence, suggests research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. But there seem to be clear sex differences in the observed protective effects, depending on the condition, the findings indicate. The prevalence of mental ill health among children and teens has risen sharply worldwide, with a heightened vulnerability to stress thought to partially explain the increase, note the researchers. Physical activity ...

Long working hours may alter the structure of the brain, particularly the areas associated with emotional regulation and executive function, such as working memory and problem solving, suggest the findings of preliminary research, published online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine. Ultimately, overwork may induce neuroadaptive changes that might affect cognitive and emotional health, say the researchers. Long working hours have been linked to heightened risks of cardiovascular disease, ...

University of Bath Press Release Lower taxes on Heated Tobacco Products are subsidising tobacco industry – new research Governments missing out tax revenues, hampering health policy   Governments which impose lower taxes on heated tobacco products in the hope of encouraging smokers away from conventional cigarettes are effectively subsidising the tobacco industry, missing out on much-needed tax revenues and hampering their own public health initiatives, new research from the University of Bath shows. Researchers examined ...

Being appreciated by colleagues can help employees cope with negative experiences at work, according to a new study involving the University of East Anglia (UEA). Researchers found that employees experience ‘embitterment’ - an emotional response to perceived workplace injustice - on days when they are assigned more unreasonable tasks than usual. This negative emotion not only affects their work but also spills over into their personal lives, leading to an increase in rumination, the repetitive dwelling on negative feelings and their causes. ...

A first-in-human study of an investigational once-daily oral treatment for obesity (SYNT-101) demonstrated positive preliminary data for the safe and effective redirection of nutrient absorption into the lower intestine, the weight loss and metabolic management mechanism behind gastric bypass surgery. In the study, being presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga, Spain (11-14 May), participants were surveyed for adverse events, tolerability markers, as well as modulation of satiety hormones ...