Almost 1-in-3 American adolescents has diabetes or prediabetes, with waist-to-height ratio the strongest independent predictor of prediabetes/diabetes, reveals survey of 1,998 adolescents (10-19 years

Researchers have investigated the role of a certain enzyme in regulating energy in muscle and exercise performance for decades, but a new study by Virginia Tech scientists has identified more precisely than ever how this mechanism works. Scientists working at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC focused on a triggering event that leads to the activation AMPK, which is a master energy senso known as Adenosine Monophosphate-Activated Protein Kinase. It is a regulator of energy production in response to the tremendous energetic demands of exercise. The study, published Wednesday, Feb. 25, in Science Advances, confirmed role of AMPK phosphorylation ...

Many therapeutic molecules used in cancer treatments are highly toxic, often harming healthy tissues and causing significant side effects. This creates a critical need for strategies that localize their toxic activity to tumors. What if cancer drugs could stay dormant until they reach cancer cells? A new study by Syracuse University researchers demonstrates a promising chemistry-based strategy that could do just that. Xiaoran Hu, assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences (A&S), and his team introduced a prototyping “lock-and-key” system that holds therapeutic drugs in an inactive, caged form until a separate chemical trigger ...

February 25, 2026--  Benzodiazepine treatment declined among U.S. adults between 2018 and 2022, with the steepest drop among adults ages 56 and older, according to a new study by researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Despite the overall decrease, co-prescribing with other central nervous system (CNS) depressants — including opioids — remains common, particularly among adults in poor health or experiencing serious psychological distress. The ...

Dining on the moon or Mars might seem like a fantasy reserved for science fiction, but researchers are investigating how it could become a reality. Their efforts to recycle plant and human waste into a fertilizer material — turning the barren surfaces of the moon and Mars into fertile fields that might be suitable for extraterrestrial agriculture — are described in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. “In lunar and Martian outposts, organic wastes will be key to generating ...

When artificial intelligence systems began acing long‑standing academic assessments, researchers realized they had a problem: the tests were too easy. Popular evaluations, such as the Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU) exam, once considered formidable, are no longer challenging enough to meaningfully test advanced AI systems. To address this gap, a global consortium of nearly 1,000 researchers, including a Texas A&M University professor, created something different — an exam so broad, so challenging and so deeply rooted in expert human knowledge that current AI systems consistently fail it. “Humanity’s Last Exam” (HLE) introduces ...

Quantum technologies are anticipated to transform computing, communication and sensing by harnessing the unusual behavior of matter at the atomic scale. Translating quantum’s promise into practical devices will require physical systems that have desirable quantum properties and can be easily manufactured. Silicon, the material behind today’s computer chips, is highly attractive as a platform because it plays to the strengths of the trillion-dollar semiconductor industry that has already been built. Identifying quantum building blocks — qubits —in silicon is, therefore, an important frontier research ...

How many fossils does it take to accurately train an image-based AI algorithm? According to a new study co-authored by Bruce MacFadden, UF Distinguished Professor Emeritus and retired curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, the answer is somewhere around 250. This number is much lower than the amount scientists previously thought was needed. This is a new spin on an old question that paleontologists have contended with for years. The amount of information that can be gleaned from a single fossil is limited to a few bare facts. If they’re ...

Bio-based polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are considered one of the most promising sustainable alternatives to fossil-derived plastics. Poly[(D-lactate)-co-(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] (LAHB) is an environmentally biodegradable microbial copolyester, and its lactate (LA) content significantly influences its properties. A new study shows how reinforcing the gene expression of the LA-polymerizing enzyme in a recombinant strain of Cupriavidus necator improves the LA fraction. The LA-enriched LAHB maintained a high molecular weight and displayed a balance of strength and elongation ...

MIT researchers have discovered that two common genetic mutations that cause Rett syndrome each set off a molecular chain of events that compromises the structural integrity of developing brain blood vessels, making them leaky. The study traces the problem to overexpression of a particular microRNA (miRNA-126-3p), and shows that tamping down the miRNA’s levels helps to rescue the vascular defect. Rett syndrome is a severe developmental disorder affecting both the brain and body. It is caused by various mutations in the widely expressed MECP2 ...

Scientists have identified how specific genetic changes function in cells to influence disease risk and other human health traits. By probing regions of DNA previously linked to disease, the work has created high resolution maps of DNA variant activity, helping pinpoint the exact changes that shape blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood sugar and other complex human traits. The study, published today in Nature and led by researchers from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX), the Broad Institute, and Yale University, takes on a long-standing challenge in human genetics. Scientists have known for years that ...