Science
press releases.

Science5 Aug 2025

New study raises questions about how Ozempic affects muscle size and strength

As use of the popular anti-diabetic and weight-loss drug Ozempic skyrockets, so have concerns about the medication’s side effects. One such side effect is loss of “lean mass”—body weight that isn’t fat—raising concerns that Ozempic could be reducing muscle mass and strength. New research in mice suggests that muscle mass changes less than expected, but muscles may still get weaker, pointing out an urgent need for clinical studies to pin down the full effects of the popular medications. “If we want to really help the individuals ...

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Science5 Aug 2025

Racial differences in screening eligibility by breast density after state-level insurance expansion

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that policies for insurance coverage of supplemental screening based on breast density may have limited ability to improve early detection for Black women. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Anne Marie McCarthy, ScM, PhD, email annemcc@pennmedicine.upenn.edu. (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.25216) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, ...

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Science5 Aug 2025

Dancing against the current: Microbial survival strategy

What looks like a microscopic dance battle is actually a life-or-death strategy. In scalding hot water rushing through narrow channels, some bacteria have evolved a surprising survival technique: they cling to surfaces, stand upright, and sway rhythmically—like tiny street dancers fighting the flow. Watch the video of the bacterial “reverse-flow dance”: https://youtu.be/JDN28g-aE78 This dramatic behavior was captured for the first time on video by a team led by Dr. Daisuke Nakane, Associate Professor at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, in collaboration with Professors Masatada Tamakoshi and Ryota Morikawa at ...

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Science5 Aug 2025

EMBARGOED until 00:01 AEST, 6 August 2025: Great Barrier Reef more volatile with sharp declines in coral cover

The Great Barrier Reef has experienced the largest annual decline in coral cover in two of the three regions since AIMS began monitoring 39 years ago. This was predominantly driven by climate change-induced heat stress leading to coral mortality from the 2024 mass bleaching event, but also by the impacts of cyclones and crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks. Coral cover dropped over the year: in the northern region (Cape York to Cooktown) by a quarter (from 39.8% to 30%) in the central region (Cooktown to Proserpine) by 13.9% ...

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Science5 Aug 2025

Solving a dirty problem with sunlight and oil

Wastewater often contains a cocktail of organic pollutants, ranging from pesticides to pharmaceutical residues. These are difficult to remove using conventional purification methods. However, a recent doctoral thesis from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) presents a creative method to get rid of them. “We can break down the harmful chemicals in the water using sunlight and small droplets of oil,” said NTNU’s Zygimantas Gricius. “Gricius and his colleagues have studied the purification of industrial wastewater. They looked at the breakdown of naphthenic acids, which can be found in wastewater from ...

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Science5 Aug 2025

Lupus Research Alliance announces 2025 Empowering Lupus Research Award recipients to support breakthroughs

NEW YORK, NY, Aug. 5 --Today, the Lupus Research Alliance (LRA), the world’s largest private funder of lupus research, announced the recipients of the 2025 Empowering Lupus Research (ELR) Career Development Award and Postdoctoral Award. These awards support exceptional early-career scientists advancing groundbreaking research to improve outcomes for people living with lupus – and ultimately, to find a cure. This year, five recipients were selected for their innovative studies – from exploring the role of gut bacteria and immune cells to identifying predictors of chronic pain and targeting inflammatory ...

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Science5 Aug 2025

Extinction in Macaronesia

Because their relative isolation encourages speciation, oceanic islands are hotspots of biodiversity. Yet their relatively small size, atypically defenseless animals and plants, and ecological vulnerability to the effects of introduced species has also made them hotspots of extinction. Jairo Patiño, José María Fernández-Palacios and colleagues chronicle every known terrestrial extinction in Macaronesia—an area in the Atlantic Ocean comprising the volcanic archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, the Canaries, and Cabo Verde. The survey uncovered 220 extinctions representing 3.1% of the Macaronesian endemic species, of which ...

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Science5 Aug 2025

Beyond pesticides: Discovering nature's own pest control with bush basil companion plants

Agricultural practices to improve the production of food crops have undergone a drastic transformation in recent years. Owing to the chemical-free production process, organically grown food crops are popular among both consumers and farmers. While greener alternatives to fertilizers have been explored, there remains a critical need for sustainable pest management practices to improve food productivity. Moreover, chemical-based pesticides have the potential to negatively impact the environment, biodiversity, and ecosystems. To address the lack of natural pest ...

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Science5 Aug 2025

Progress toward a population screening test for COPD

The possibility of having a tool that facilitates population screening for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is getting closer. A multicenter study involving leading hospitals across Spain, led by Hospital del Mar and its research institute, has confirmed that people with COPD show altered levels of specific metabolites in their blood. This finding may make it possible to use these biomarkers to identify, at an early stage, those likely to have COPD. The study, conducted with researchers from the CIBER Respiratory ...

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Science5 Aug 2025

You’re better at spotting malware than you think

When it comes to cybersecurity, humans are often seen as the weakest link, but new research suggests that with a little help, people can do a surprisingly effective job at identifying malware. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers from the University of Waterloo’s Cheriton School of Computer Science teamed up with University of Guelph cybersecurity experts to test how users, ranging from tech novices to experts, can respond to real-time legitimate and malicious software download requests ...

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Science5 Aug 2025

For Mexican American millennials, personal success includes providing for parents

For many first-generation Mexican American college graduates, the definition of success includes paying their parents’ bills or even buying them a home. Lifting the social or financial status of their elders is a goal that often defines upward mobility for Latinx millennials, especially the children of immigrants, according to a study by UC Merced sociology Professor Daisy Verduzco Reyes. Reyes, a researcher in the Latina Futures 2050 Lab at UCLA, spent 14 years developing the study, which tracked the life paths of 61 millennials (a demographic defined ...

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Science5 Aug 2025

How Aussie skinks outsmart lethal snake venom

A University of Queensland-led study has found Australian skinks have evolved molecular armour to stop snake venom from shutting down their muscles. Professor Bryan Fry from UQ’s School of the Environment said revealing exactly how skinks dodge death could inform biomedical approaches to treating snakebite in people. “What we saw in skinks was evolution at its most ingenious,” Professor Fry said. “Australian skinks have evolved tiny changes in a critical muscle receptor, called the nicotinic ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

Turning down the dial on inflammation to protect against lupus nephritis

At the time when patients with lupus, or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), are diagnosed, approximately 15% to 30% will already have the inflammation-caused kidney disease lupus nephritis, which compromises kidney function and can lead to kidney failure. Between 30% and 50% of SLE patients will ultimately go on to develop lupus nephritis, and half of them will eventually develop end-stage renal disease. A Medical University of South Carolina research team led by Jim Oates, M.D., director of the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology and vice chair for Research in the Department of Medicine, is developing ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

It’s not just how many – it’s when: Global study reveals people judge a potential partner’s sexual history by timing, not total number

It’s not just how many – it’s when: global study reveals people judge a potential partner’s sexual history by timing, not total number A major international study has found that when it comes to choosing a long-term partner, people across the globe consider not just how many sexual partners someone has had, but also when those encounters took place. This is the first time researchers have explored the timing of sexual history alongside quantity – offering a fresh perspective on human mating psychology. Led by Swansea University, the study surveyed more than 5,000 participants from 11 countries across five continents. It found that ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

UofL research shows combined exposure to alcohol and “forever chemicals” increases liver damage

Have you ever wondered why some people who drink alcohol develop serious liver problems while others don't? A study from University of Louisville researchers published in May in Toxicological Sciences suggests that the answer might be hidden in everyday sources such as drinking water, food packaging or even non-stick cookware. Scientists at UofL, along with colleagues from Boston University and the University of Massachusetts Lowell, have identified perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) as a potential environmental factor that worsens alcohol-associated liver disease. PFOS is a man-made chemical belonging to the group known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), often referred to ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

Midwestern butterfly count: Big data yields bad news and clues

While analyzing the mountains of data harvested from three decades of butterfly counting in the Midwest, a Michigan State University PhD candidate had seen enough studies to be braced for bad news. But, as reported in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finding that none of the 136 species of butterflies’ populations increased over that time took Wendy Leuenberger aback. “We expected to find that at least some species had done well over the past 32 years,” she said. Leuenberger ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

Organized scientific fraud is growing at an alarming rate

From fabricated research to paid authorships and citations, organized scientific fraud is on the rise, according to a new Northwestern University study. By combining large-scale data analysis of scientific literature with case studies, the researchers led a deep investigation into scientific fraud. Although concerns around scientific misconduct typically focus on lone individuals, the Northwestern study instead uncovered sophisticated global networks of individuals and entities, which systematically work together to undermine the integrity of academic publishing. The problem is so widespread that the publication of fraudulent science is ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

Revolutionizing lactation support and outcomes

PHILADELPHIA (August 1, 2025) – Faculty and doctoral students at Penn Nursing are at the forefront of advancing human milk feeding through a series of research studies, featured in the current issue of MCN The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing. The issue, edited by Penn Nursing's Diane L. Spatz, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN, FAWHONN, the Helen M. Shearer Professor of Nutrition and Professor of Perinatal Nursing in the Department of Family and Community Health, highlights articles showcasing critical strategies to enhance lactation care and improve outcomes for families. These investigations highlight critical strategies, from empowering frontline healthcare providers and fostering ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

New review highlights significant need for comprehensive care for gun violence survivors

A new review article published in JAMA underscores the critical need for comprehensive long-term medical care for patients treated for firearm injuries, which has become an epidemic in the U.S. fueled by years of rising gun violence. More than 48,000 people died of firearm injuries in the U.S. in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with 120,000 suffering from gunshot wounds that they recover from. While emergency care protocols are well established, long-term recovery pathways for survivors—particularly in the outpatient setting—remain poorly defined and inconsistently applied, according to the review paper ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

Can botox be used to alleviate pain in a jaw disorder?

Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) limits jaw function and is so painful that it lessens the quality of life. Botulinum toxin—also known as botox—is emerging as an effective treatment option, but there are concerns about side effects, like muscle dysfunction. Eungyung Kim and Yu Shin Kim, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, led a study using a mouse model of TMD to explore the possibility of using botox as a treatment. In their JNeurosci paper, the researchers discovered that injecting botox directly into the male mouse temporomandibular joint (TMJ) instead of surrounding muscle tissue reduced TMD-related ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist eligibility among US adolescents and young adults

About The Study: This study found that nearly 17 million adolescents and young adults were eligible for glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) therapy. One in 5 young adults eligible for GLP-1RAs were uninsured and one-third denied having a routine place for health care—a barrier to identifying, treating, and preventing cardio-kidney-metabolic diseases. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Ashwin K. Chetty, BS, email ashwin.chetty@yale.edu. To ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

National Science Foundation renews Brown’s national mathematics institute with $16.5 million

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new $16.5 million award from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) will enable Brown University’s Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM) to continue its mission of supporting groundbreaking research at the intersection of computation and mathematics for the next five years. “Progress is made in mathematics when people come together to share ideas,” said ICERM Director Brendan Hassett, a professor of mathematics at Brown. “For 15 years, ICERM has sponsored programs that not only spur progress in math, but also make important connections with computer ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

Tomatoes in 3D: Breakthrough in plant monitoring

A team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has developed a low-cost, non-invasive method to estimate total leaf area in dwarf tomato plants using 3D reconstruction from standard video footage. The study applies structure-from-motion techniques and machine learning to predict plant growth with remarkable accuracy. This innovative approach eliminates the need for expensive sensors or destructive sampling, making precision agriculture more accessible. The method holds promise for scaling crop monitoring across greenhouses and open fields alike. [Hebrew University ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

A novel highly porous dual-phase high-entropy ultrahigh-temperature ceramic with outstanding properties

Due to rapid advancement of aerospace industry, severe aerodynamic heating phenomenon results in the service temperature of thermal insulation component above 2000°C. However, common oxide thermal insulation materials cannot survive in elevated ultrahigh temperature due to their relatively low melting points. Hence, it is urgent and necessary to develop new ultrahigh-temperature insulation materials with low density, high strength, extremely low thermal conductivity, and outstanding thermal stability. As is well known, ultrahigh-temperature ceramic (UHTC) is a series of promising ultrahigh-temperature thermal ...

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Science4 Aug 2025

New study: Powerboats can impact lakes below the surface

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (08/04/2025) — Large surface waves produced by powerboats are a mainstay for recreational watersports. A new study from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities shows that beneath the surface, factors such as propeller thrust and other types of waves can impact delicate lakebed ecosystems. Researchers at the University of Minnesota's St. Anthony Falls Laboratory built on previous research to study the effects of powerboats on lake ecosystems over the 2022 and 2023 field seasons. The team placed acoustic-based sensors that measured pressure and velocities through the water column ...

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