The chemical basis for life can form in interstellar ice

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In 2024, more than 50 million people in the United States lived in counties with no air-quality monitoring, according to a new study from researchers in the Penn State College of Health and Human Development. Rural counties — especially counties in the Midwest and South — were less likely to have an air-quality monitoring site. Air quality measures are used to estimate people’s exposure to air pollution, which makes monitoring a critical public health tool, according to Nelson Roque, assistant professor of human development and family studies and ...

DDT residues persist in trout in some Canadian lakes 70 years after insecticide treatment, often at levels ten times that recommended as safe for the wildlife which consumes the fish     Article URL: https://plos.io/4lp9Fhx Article title: Legacy DDT and its metabolites in Brook Trout from lakes within forested watersheds treated with aerial applications of insecticides Author countries: Canada Funding: This research was supported by funding from the New Brunswick Wildlife Trust Fund (JK; F000-201; www.nbwtf.ca), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Capitalizing on the flexibility of tiny cells inside the body’s smallest blood vessels may be a powerful spinal cord repair strategy, new research suggests. In mouse experiments, scientists introduced a specific type of recombinant protein to the site of a spinal cord injury where these cells, called pericytes, had flooded the lesion zone. Once exposed to this protein, results showed, pericytes change shape and inhibit the production of some molecules while secreting others, creating “cellular bridges” that support regeneration of axons – the long, slender extensions of nerve cell bodies that transmit messages. Researchers ...

Honolulu, Hawaii — The Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) are proud to announce the recipients of the prestigious PAS Trainee Travel Grants, recognizing 33 exceptional trainees for their contributions to pediatric research. Each award includes complimentary registration to the PAS 2025 Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, and a $500 travel grant to support their participation. These awards aim to encourage emerging talent and recognize excellence in pediatric research. Awardees were selected based on the quality of their submitted abstracts, with ...

Lucid dreaming is a surreal phenomenon in which people are consciously aware that they are in a dream. Çağatay Demirel, from Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Medical Center, and colleagues shed light on the neural correlates of lucid dreaming in their JNeurosci paper.   The researchers used a rigorous processing pipeline as they collected and assembled data from multiple labs to create what is, according to the authors, the largest sample size to date for this field of research. Comparisons of brain activity during lucid dreaming, rapid eye movement sleep, and wakefulness revealed distinct activity patterns for ...

One in ten people will have at least one seizure in their life, but effective treatments for seizures remain very limited, in part due to incomplete understanding of the brain mechanisms involved. Now, research in fruit flies has uncovered a role for two specific brain proteins that are necessary during brain development to prevent seizures. The two proteins, Imp and Sdc, are found in the developing brains of both flies and mammals, and are involved in the growth and development of neurons and brain circuits. A reduction of either protein during development makes flies prone to seizures without otherwise affecting their ability to move, the researchers found. ...

Tracing its roots to fundamental research conducted at Princeton, a new startup is upending decades-old approaches for the way the world extracts lithium and other materials, including nitrate and potash, that power today’s clean energy technologies and support modern agriculture. The company, Princeton Critical Minerals (formerly PureLi), which emerged from the University’s ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship, has developed a technology for boosting minerals production from evaporation ponds. These ponds currently generate around 40% of the world’s lithium and most of its naturally occurring nitrate. The technology is a black disc with a special, ...

There has been a troubling rise in adolescent mental health struggles and suicide rates over the past decade, with a dramatic increase following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis has been accompanied by an increased demand for pediatric inpatient psychiatry units (IPUs) across the United States. However, despite the growing need, which has reached the point of bed shortages, the effectiveness of IPUs on teen mental health outcomes remains understudied. This study, led by Dr. Patricia Ibeziako from Boston Children’s Hospital, reviewed the electronic medical records ...

Newly published results of a randomized, controlled clinical trial in Japan among more than 170 children aged 1 to 6 who underwent surgery, show that by using EEG readings of brain waves to monitor unconsciousness, an anesthesiologist can significantly reduce the amount of the anesthesia administered to safely induce and sustain each patient’s anesthetized state. On average the little patients experienced significant improvements in several post-operative outcomes, including quicker recovery and reduced incidence of delirium. “I think the main takeaway is that in kids, using the EEG, we can reduce the amount of anesthesia we give them and maintain the same level of unconsciousness,” ...

For the first time, wild chimpanzees have been pictured eating and sharing fruit containing alcohol. A research team led by the University of Exeter set up cameras in Guinea-Bissau’s Cantanhez National Park. Footage of chimps sharing fermented African breadfruit – confirmed to contain ethanol (alcohol) – raises fascinating questions about if and why chimps deliberately seek out alcohol. Humans are believed to have consumed alcohol far back into our evolutionary history, with benefits for social bonding. And the new study suggests our closest relatives might be doing something ...