Science
press releases.

Science10 Jun 2025

Baby talk is real: Adults speak differently to babies in at least 10 different languages

Tokyo, Japan - There are many factors that contribute to infant language development, not least of which is baby talk—the modified speech mothers and other adults often use when speaking to infants. Baby talk is more formally referred to as infant-directed speech (IDS) and often differs from adult-directed speech (ADS) in both pitch and vocabulary. One component of IDS that remains controversial, however, is the exaggeration or hyperarticulation of vowel sounds. Some experts contend that vowel exaggeration produces clearer speech sounds ...

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Science10 Jun 2025

Why epigenetic clocks may fail to measure anti-aging effects

“It is not easy to distinguish Type 1 from Type 2, but a clock based on a mixture of Type 1 and Type 2 methylation is likely to produce inconsistent and misleading results, when applied to anti-aging technologies.” BUFFALO, NY — June 10, 2025 — A new research perspective was published in Aging (Aging-US) Volume 17, Issue 5, on May 5, 2025, titled “Methylation clocks for evaluation of anti-aging interventions.” In this perspective article, Dr. Josh Mitteldorf explores how current epigenetic clocks—used ...

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Science10 Jun 2025

Cracking the spatial code: A new chapter in bone and muscle research

Understanding how genes behave within their native tissue environment is unlocking new frontiers in medical science. A recent review highlights how spatial transcriptomics—a technique that visualizes gene activity in situ—is reshaping the study of bones, muscles, and connective tissues. By linking gene expression patterns to their precise spatial locations, researchers can now explore how cellular environments influence development, disease, and healing. This new approach offers unprecedented resolution in musculoskeletal research, enabling ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Even bumble bee queens need personal days, too

Some queens don’t rule nonstop. A new study from the University of California, Riverside shows that even bumble bee queens, the sole founders of their colonies, take regular breaks from reproduction—likely to avoid burning out before their first workers arrive. In the early stages of colony building, bumblebee queens shoulder the entire workload. They forage for food, incubate their developing brood by heating them with their wing muscles, maintain the nest, and lay eggs. It’s a high-stakes balancing act: without the queen, ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Fostering Integration: SELINA’s 5th project Workshop on the Azores unites partners to strengthen collaboration

Between 12–15 May 2025, the SELINA partners, including scientists, decision-makers, and ecosystem service experts, gathered in Ponta Delgada, Azores for the 5th SELINA thematic Workshop, hosted at the University of the Azores. The event brought together approximately 80 in-person attendees and 10 online participants, marking the first in-person SELINA Consortium meeting in nearly a year, a timely and welcome opportunity to reconnect and refocus the project’s collaborative efforts. The central theme of the ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Creatine is safe, effective and important for everyone, longtime researcher says

Creatine, the supplement popular with athletes for its ability to help build strength and power, is increasingly being recognized for its broad health benefits. The compound’s usefulness extends well beyond the gym, according to Dr. Richard Kreider, professor and director of the Exercise & Sport Nutrition Lab at Texas A&M University. Kreider has spent more than 30 years investigating the effects of creatine, a naturally occurring compound stored in the muscle that combines with phosphate to form creatine phosphate, which ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Research alert: laying the groundwork for potential age-related macular degeneration therapies

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major cause of blindness, especially in older adults. A key feature of early AMD is the formation of drusen, clumps of debris made of lipids and proteins that collect between two layers at the back of the eye — the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and Bruch’s membrane (BrM). These drusen are not just signs of the disease; they actively contribute to vision loss by damaging the retina above them. Scientists suspect that lipoproteins — fat-protein complexes like high density lipoprotein (HDL) — play a big role in forming drusen. However, it wasn’t clear why these lipoproteins get stuck in BrM in the first place. This ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

It’s not the game, it’s the group: Sports fans connect the most over rituals

University of Connecticut professor of anthropology Dimitris Xygalatas is a scientist and self-declared rational thinker. But he’s also a lifelong soccer fan, and he fully admits that when his Greek home team finally won their league in 2019, he cried tears of joy. “Not what you might call a rational organism’s behavior,” he jokes. But his reaction is in keeping with his latest study, to be published online Monday, June 9, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which shows that the intense feelings of joy, ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Anthropologists map Neanderthals’ long and winding roads across Europe and Eurasia

Recent scholarship has concluded that Neanderthals made a second major migration from Eastern Europe to Central and Eastern Eurasia between 120,000 and 60,000 years ago. But the routes they took have long been a mystery—primarily because there are few archaeological sites connecting the two regions. In a new analysis, a team of anthropologists—using computer simulations—has offered a map of possible pathways, which concludes Neanderthals likely used river valleys as natural highways and traveled during warmer periods to move approximately 2,000 miles (3,250 km) in less than 2,000 years. “Our findings show that, despite obstacles like mountains ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Investigating how stress may cause sleep and memory deficits

Stress worsens sleep quality and can impair memory. Shinjae Chung, from the University of Pennsylvania, led a study to explore a neural pathway in male mice that stress may influence to cause sleep and memory disturbances. In their JNeurosci paper, the researchers artificially activated neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) that were previously linked to stress. This experimental manipulation made mice sleep less and impaired how well mice performed in a memory task. Notably, when mice were stressed, artificially inhibiting these PVN neurons reduced stress-related memory ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Researchers find thousands of pediatric firearm deaths linked to more permissive state gun laws

Guns are now the leading cause of death for youth in the United States. Researcher from Mass General Brigham investigated whether firearm mortality rates among U.S. children ages 0-17 changed in the 13 years following a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that applied the Second Amendment to state and local governments. In states with the most permissive firearm laws, they found evidence of 6,029 more pediatric deaths due to firearms than would have been expected based on the existing demographic trends—and more than 1,400 excess ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Lizards of Madagascar

Kyoto, Japan -- After the island of Madagascar drifted away from India 88 million years ago, isolating it from all other landmasses, its flora and fauna evolved in seclusion. As these transformed into plants and animals completely unique to their island, Madagascar became a biodiversity hotspot unlike anywhere else on Earth. An important facet of this biodiversity is an ecological process called endozoochory, which is when animals eat plant seeds and then poop them out somewhere else, aiding in the spread of the plants. Most research on endozoochory has focused on the roles of ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Firearm laws and pediatric mortality in the US

About The Study: The results of this study demonstrate that permissive firearm laws contributed to thousands of excess firearm deaths among children living in states with permissive policies. Future work should focus on determining which types of laws conferred the most harm and which offered the most protection. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, MS, email jsfaust@bwh.harvard.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.1363) Editor’s ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Use of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at national, regional, and state levels

About The Study: The findings of this cross-sectional study suggest that although 988 has been contacted more than 16 million times since its launch in July 2022, there remains opportunity to increase 988 use. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jonathan Purtle, DrPH, MSc, email jonathan.purtle@nyu.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.14323) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Location of firearm suicides in the United States

About The Study: This study found that nearly 1 in 5 firearm suicides in the U.S. occurred outside the home, highlighting the potential to enhance intervention strategies by extending them to broader community settings. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Camerin A. Rencken, PhD, ScM, email crencken@uw.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.14423) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Screen time and emotional problems in kids: A vicious circle?

Spending too much time on screens may cause emotional and behavioral problems in children – and those problems can lead to even more screen use, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. Conducted by an international team of researchers, the study systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed 117 studies, encompassing data from over 292,000 children worldwide. The findings were published in the journal Psychological Bulletin. “Children are spending more and ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

UC San Diego researchers find evidence of accelerated aging in children with multiple sclerosis

Researchers from University of California San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that children living with multiple sclerosis (MS) show signs of accelerated biological aging, even in their teenage years. The research published online recently in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, is the first to examine whether MS causes early aging in a pediatric population — offering new insight into the disease and its long-term progression. “We found evidence that children living with MS experience accelerated biological aging,” said ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Out of the string theory swampland

String theory has long been touted as physicists’ best candidate for describing the fundamental nature of the universe, with elementary particles and forces described as vibrations of tiny threads of energy. But in the early 21st century, it was realized that most of the versions of reality described by string theory’s equations cannot match up with observations of our own universe. In particular, conventional string theory’s predictions are incompatible with the observation of dark energy, which appears to be causing ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Who gets targeted in online games? Study maps harassment risk by gender, age, and identity

Sexual harassment in online gaming is not an isolated phenomenon—it’s part of many players’ daily experience. According to the GamerVictim research project, led by the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) in Spain, one in five gamers has experienced sexual victimization in online gaming environments. The study also reveals that women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and older players are the most affected groups across various forms of harassment. GamerVictim found that sexual victimization affects approximately 20% of a sample of over 1,800 Spanish gamers. Regarding hate-motivated incidents, such as insults based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

Pregnant and bearing the burden of measles outbreaks in Canada

Measles is on the rise in Canada and poses serious risks to pregnant people and their newborns, yet discussion about how to protect this vulnerable group is notably lacking. An article on measles and pregnancy by physicians working directly with measles outbreaks in Ontario summarizes key points for clinicians https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.250606. Measles in pregnancy increases the risk of infection with pneumonia, hepatitis, and even death, and increases the risk of miscarriage and premature birth. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) given up to six days after a measles exposure ...

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Science9 Jun 2025

TikTok teen skin-care routines are harmful

Girls ages 7 to 18 use an average of six products for average cost of $168 per regimen As summer nears, authors caution only 26% of daytime skin care regimens contain sunscreen Videos ‘emphasize lighter, brighter skin’ and set a high standard of beauty CHICAGO --- It turns out when teens on TikTok say, “Get ready with me,” it can be more harmful than they might realize. In the first peer-reviewed study to examine the potential risks and benefits of teen skin-care routines posted on social media, scientists at Northwestern Medicine found girls ages ...

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Science7 Jun 2025

Bubbles are key to new surface coating method for lightweight magnesium alloys

Tokyo, Japan – A team led by a researcher from Tokyo Metropolitan University has devised a new way of coating magnesium alloys to improve their corrosion resistance. Instead of costly, unwieldy, and slower coating techniques under vacuum, they used liquid-based chemical conversion coating with the addition of cavitation bubbles. The resulting thick coating helped improve corrosion resistance to chlorides and mechanical properties. The team’s new technology is aimed at reinforcing lightweight materials ...

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Science6 Jun 2025

Biologists target lifecycle of deadly parasite

Chagas disease is often called a silent killer because many people don’t realize they have it until complications from the infection kill them. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati are exploring ways to interrupt the lifecycle of the parasite behind the illness, offering hope of developing a cure. The disease is spread by parasites found in kissing bugs, which suck the blood of people when they are sleeping. The bugs typically bite victims around their faces, which gives them their ironically sweet-sounding name. The bugs transmit the internal parasites in their poop, which infects the bloodstream of human hosts through the bite wounds. The study was published ...

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Science6 Jun 2025

nTIDE June 2025 Jobs Report: Employment of people with disabilities holds steady in the face of uncertainty

East Hanover, NJ – June 6, 2025 – The latest National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) report shows that people with disabilities maintain connection to the workforce as the economy slows and the supply chains brace for the potential impact of tariffs. nTIDE is issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability. Month-to-Month nTIDE Numbers (comparing April 2025 to May 2025) Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Jobs Report released today, the employment-to-population ratio for people with disabilities (ages ...

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Science6 Jun 2025

Why some kids respond better to myopia lenses? Genes might hold the answer

New genetic research is shedding light on why some children benefit more than others from orthokeratology lenses—an increasingly popular method to slow the progression of myopia. In the largest genome-wide study of its kind, scientists discovered that children who responded better to treatment carried a higher number of nonsynonymous mutations in genes associated with retinal diseases. Among the key players identified were RIMS2 and LCA5, genes involved in retinal function and visual processing. These insights not only reveal a biological basis for the variability in treatment outcomes but also pave the way for using genetic screening to personalize ...

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