A rose by any other name? Not necessarily—how words sound aesthetically correlates with their memorability, study finds

The odds of iron deficiency in adolescent girls are almost 14 times higher among those who experience heavy menstruation and follow a meat-restricted diet, compared to girls with normal menstruation who eat an omnivorous diet Article URL: https://plos.io/4883ZTd Article title: Exploring the effect of menstrual loss and dietary habits on iron deficiency in teenagers: A cross-sectional study Author countries: Canada, Sweden. Funding: Open access funding provided by Karolinska Institutet. This study was funded by the Southern Health ...

Male infertility is a major issue worldwide and its causes remain unclear. Now, an international team of researchers led by Hiroki Shibuya at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan has discovered a key structure in the germ cells of male mice that, when disturbed, leads to deformations in sperm flagellum—the tail that allows sperm to swim. Made possible by the first observation of the mouse flagellar base structure using ultrastructure expansion microscopy, this finding could explain some forms of infertility in human men. The study was published in the scientific journal Science ...

Bumblebees respond to physical disturbance of their nest with a sequence of defensive behaviors that lasts up to 10 minutes, according to a study by Sajedeh Sarlak at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and colleagues, publishing December 3, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One. Although we often think of bumblebees as docile, friendly garden visitors, they will fiercely defend their nest if needed. Bumblebees are important pollinators for both wild plants and crops, and they are often kept in commercial greenhouses, so understanding their defensive behavior is important for both conservation and ...

Cedars-Sinai scientists have developed an experimental drug that repairs DNA and serves as a prototype for a new class of medications that fix tissue damage caused by heart attack, inflammatory disease or other conditions. Investigators describe the workings of the drug, called TY1, in a paper published in Science Translational Medicine. “By probing the mechanisms of stem cell therapy, we discovered a way to heal the body without using stem cells,” said Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai and the study’s senior author. “TY1 ...

Tackling a common childhood virus could open the door to preventing bladder cancer, according to new research funded by Kidney Research UK and York Against Cancer. The study, published in Science Advances by Dr Simon Baker and colleagues at the University of York, suggests that a virus most people pick up in childhood can trigger the type of DNA damage that can lead to bladder cancer later in life. In laboratory studies using the human tissue that lines the urinary tract (urothelium), the team observed DNA damage patterns caused by the cell’s antiviral defences after controlled exposure to BK virus- the childhood infection identified ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Since the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was identified in 1983, roughly 91.4 million people around the world have contracted the virus and an additional 44.1 million have died from related causes. Currently, nearly 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV-1, the version of the virus that causes more than 95% of infections. While significant progress has been made in HIV vaccine research, according to Penn State Professor Dipanjan Pan, there is currently no approved vaccine for HIV. Research is ongoing, though, he ...

In one of the largest African hunter-gatherer ancient-DNA studies to date, population geneticists from Uppsala University in Sweden, and a cognitive archaeologist from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, analysed the DNA of 28 people who lived in southern Africa between 1200 and just a few hundred years ago. It contributes further evidence that southern African hunter-gatherers were some of the earliest human groups with a unique Homo sapiens genetic ancestry tracing back to about 300 000 years ago. This could be done by peering behind the veil of recent migrations, providing a direct window into the region’s ...

In nearly 60 years, heart transplantation has transformed from a daring vision to an established surgical procedure. Since the first adult heart transplant in the United States was performed at Stanford Hospital in 1968, the field has made significant strides. However, challenges remain, including a shortage of donor organs and socioeconomic disparities. A recent review, led by researchers from the Stanford Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in collaboration with Germany's Helios Hospital, examines the current state, challenges, and future directions of adult heart transplantation in ...

As the scientific community embraces open science principles, the American Physical Society is launching a new open access journal designed to meet the moment. With submissions opening in late February 2026, APS Open Science will publish a diverse range of research outputs while upholding the trusted, rigorous review processes that define APS standards. “Researchers need high-quality options for sharing reliable findings across every stage of the scientific process,” said Jessica Thomas, executive editor at APS. “APS ...

It’s no surprise that dogs benefit people’s mental health. In a paper publishing in the Cell Press journal iScience on December 3, researchers point to a reason as to why: dogs prompt changes in the collection of microbes that live in and on our bodies, resulting in an increase in mental health.  “Raising dogs has beneficial effects, especially for adolescents, and these effects may be mediated ...