Science
press releases.

Science3 Jun 2025

Scientists propose new approach for classifying processed foods

Recent years have seen growing scrutiny and debate around processed foods, but researchers have struggled to pin down what aspects of food processing are most relevant to health. Now, scientists have developed a system for classifying processed foods based on information about the health impacts associated with particular ingredients. The new approach was developed by WISEcode, creator of an app that provides consumers with information about the food ingredients found in packaged goods. “WISEcode’s approach is more nuanced and objective than previous classification ...

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Science3 Jun 2025

First direct observation of the trapped waves that shook the world

In September 2023, a bizarre global seismic signal was observed which appeared every 90 seconds over nine days – and was then repeated a month later. Almost a year later, two scientific studies proposed that the cause of these seismic anomalies were two mega tsunamis which were triggered in a remote East Greenland fjord by two major landslides which occurred due to warming of an unnamed glacier. The waves were thought to have become trapped in the fjord system, forming standing waves (or seiches) that undulated back and forth, causing the mystery signals. However, ...

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Science3 Jun 2025

Online game, developed at Harvard, proven to reduce partisan animosity

Algorithmically-driven social media has split red and blue America into separate information environments. But a new online tool, developed at Harvard, can bring citizens back together. The virtual quiz game Tango pairs Democrats and Republicans on common teams, where bipartisanship quickly emerges as their competitive superpower. “It’s really the opposite of the nasty, divisive posting you find on social media,” offered Tango co-creator Joshua D. Greene, a professor of psychology and co-author of new study measuring the game’s impact. The ...

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Science3 Jun 2025

African swine fever not recently imported to Europe, has been around for years

A new study in Genome Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford University Press, finds that the African Swine Fever virus, currently circulating in Europe, is not the result of a recent introduction. Instead, the virus has been present in the region since 2007. Its current dramatic spread appears to be driven largely by people within Europe traveling longer distances. African Swine Fever virus is a highly virulent DNA virus that causes a severe hemorrhagic disease of the same name affecting both domestic pigs and wild boars. The disease is characterized by high mortality rates, leading to significant economic losses in the pork industry. According to estimates ...

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Science3 Jun 2025

Being in nature can help people with chronic back pain manage their condition

ing time in or around nature can provide people suffering from chronic lower back pain with a degree of escapism that helps them better manage their physical discomfort, a new study has shown. The research, published in The Journal of Pain, is the first of its kind to ask people experiencing chronic lower back pain – in some cases for almost 40 years – about the role nature plays in any coping strategies they employ to help manage their condition. The researchers found that people able to get out in nature said it enabled them to connect with ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Research spotlight: regional disparities in opioid overdose mortality persist despite national decline

Sarah Wakeman, MD, Senior Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder at Mass General Brigham, is the co-senior author and Will Oles, BS, of Harvard Medical School, is a corresponding author of a paper published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, “Geographic Trends in Opioid and Polysubstance Overdose Deaths in the US, 2014-2023.” Q: How would you summarize your study for a lay audience? In May 2024, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced a national decline in the ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Set it and forget it: Autonomous structures can be programmed to jump days in advance

Researchers have created dynamic structures that leap into the air on a predetermined schedule without intervention from computers or external stimuli. Precisely when these “metashells” jump, and how high they jump, is engineered into the physical structure of the materials. “There are structures that ‘jump’ immediately when loading is removed – such as when a coiled spring is released,” says Jie Yin, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University. “We wanted to create a structure that does not rely on external stimuli and allows us to dictate the timing ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Canadian researcher receives funding from ARIA to unlock potential of plants

Imagine a world where crops can thrive regardless of climate or disease and provide all the essential nutrients our bodies need. Researchers at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry are now part of a U.K.-based initiative to explore that very possibility. The Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), the U.K.’s research and development funding agency, announced June 2 that Schulich Medicine & Dentistry professor Bogumil Karas has been named ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Investigating cocaine addiction using fruit flies

In a new JNeurosci paper, Adrian Rothenfluh and colleagues from the University of Utah developed a fruit fly model of cocaine self-administration that can be used to explore the genetic underpinnings of cocaine addiction. To model voluntary cocaine intake in fruit flies, or Drosophila melanogaster, the researchers first assessed cocaine consumption and preferences of this insect. Cocaine was innately aversive to fruit flies because it activated their bitter-sensing receptors. In other words, the fruit flies did not like cocaine’s ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Fruit flies on cocaine could reveal better therapies for addiction

For the first time, researchers have created genetically modified fruit flies that can become addicted to cocaine. The flies will self-administer cocaine if given the option. The new model could prove immensely valuable for the development of new therapies to prevent and treat cocaine use disorder, a growing and deadly concern that affects about 1.5 million people nationwide. Heredity strongly impacts the risk of developing cocaine use disorder, but the large number of genes implicated in addiction risk has made it difficult to determine which might be the best targets for therapeutics. With their new fruit fly model ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

New data shows MMR vaccination rate decline across US

A new county-level dataset from Johns Hopkins University researchers reveals a national decline in the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination rate among U.S. children since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of 2,066 studied counties, 1,614 counties, 78%, reported drops in vaccinations and the average county-level vaccination rate fell 93.92% pre-pandemic to 91.26% post-pandemic—an average decline of 2.67%, moving further away from the 95% herd immunity threshold to predict or limit the spread of measles. Only four of the 33 states in studied—California, ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Trends in county-level MMR vaccination coverage in children in the United States

About The Study: This county-level dataset complements the state and national-level Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, confirming a widespread decline in measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination rates in the U.S. after the COVID-19 pandemic while revealing significant heterogeneity in vaccination patterns within and across states. This dataset can be used in spatial and statistical analyses to identify factors associated with low or declining MMR rates in U.S. counties and help inform targeted vaccination strategies to reduce the risk of measles outbreaks. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Lauren M. ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

New study casts doubt on the likelihood of a Milky Way – Andromeda collision

Scientists from Helsinki, Durham and Toulouse universities used data from NASA’s Hubble and the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescopes to simulate how the Milky Way and Andromeda will evolve over the next 10 billion years. The two galaxies are currently heading towards each other at a speed of about 100 kilometres per second. A collision would be devastating for both galaxies which would be destroyed, leaving behind a spheroidal pile of stars known as an elliptical galaxy. The team ran 100,000 simulations of both galaxies based on the latest observational ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

E-cigarette warnings lower vaping interest and raise quit intentions

Chapel Hill, NC — Electronic-cigarette warnings are effective in discouraging vaping, with warnings specific to health harms being generally more effective than warnings about e-cigarette addiction, according to a meta-analysis of 24 studies conducted by University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers and their colleagues. The researchers also found no negative unintended consequences of e-cigarette warnings, such as encouraging people to smoke cigarettes instead of vaping. The results will be published in JAMA Internal Medicine on June 2. “This is the first meta-analysis that has tested the effectiveness of e-cigarette warnings ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Record high: Study finds growing cannabis use among older adults

Marijuana use among older adults in the US has reached a new high, with 7 percent of adults aged 65 and over who report using it in the past month, according to an analysis led by researchers with the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at the NYU School of Global Public Health. Their findings, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, also show that the profile of those who use cannabis has changed in recent years, with pronounced increases in use by older adults who are college-educated, married, female, and have higher incomes. “Our study shows that ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Trends in past-month cannabis use among older adults

About The Study: Between 2021 and 2023, prevalence of current cannabis use increased among adults age 65 or older nationally, with key demographic subgroups experiencing marked increases. Adults with the highest incomes initially had the lowest prevalence of cannabis use vs other income levels, but by 2023, they had the highest prevalence, which may indicate better access to medical cannabis given its costs. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Benjamin H. Han, MD, email b2han@health.ucsd.edu. To ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Salamanders suffering from rising temperatures

FRANKFURT. Habitat loss, diseases, pollution, and climate change are already massively affecting amphibians – frogs, salamanders, and the caecilians native to tropical regions. The new study from the Institute for Ecology, Evolution and Diversity shows that extreme weather events serve as an additional stress factor, further intensifying this crisis. For this purpose, the scientists analyzed global weather data from the past 40 years. They compared regions with significantly increased heat waves, droughts, and cold spells with the geographical ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Researchers recreate ancient Egyptian blues

PULLMAN, Wash.--A team of Washington State University-led researchers has recreated the world's oldest synthetic pigment, called Egyptian blue, which was used in ancient Egypt about 5,000 years ago. Reporting in the journal, NPJ Heritage Science, the researchers used a variety of raw materials and heating times to develop 12 recipes for the pigments, providing useful information for archaeologists and conservation scientists who study the ancient Egyptian materials. The work was done in collaboration with Carnegie Museum of ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

S2302 Pragmatica-Lung reports out as model for faster, leaner, more representative trials

The SWOG S2302 Pragmatica-Lung trial, which broke new ground with its streamlined pragmatic design, unusually broad eligibility criteria, and reduced data collection, has quickly answered its primary question, finding that the investigational combination it tested did not significantly extend overall survival compared to standard of care treatments. Importantly, the phase 3 trial’s rapid development and implementation, coupled with its successful enrollment of a group of patients broadly representative of the larger U.S. population, establish Pragmatica-Lung as a paradigm-shifting model for the design and conduct of future large randomized studies. Results will be presented ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Circadian preference is associated with impulsivity in adolescents

DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting found that adolescents who prefer to sleep and wake up later (“night owls”) reported greater impulsivity than those who prefer to sleep and wake up earlier (“morning larks”). Results show that adolescents with self-reported evening preference, or “night owl” tendencies, reported greater negative urgency and lack of perseverance, which are two aspects of impulsivity. This means that they were more likely to act impulsively when experiencing negative emotions and quit difficult tasks. In contrast, ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Why forests aren’t coming back after gold mining in the Amazon

Forests in the Peruvian Amazon aren’t growing back after gold mining — not just because the soil is damaged from toxic metals, but because the land has been depleted of its water. A common mining method known as suction mining reshapes the terrain in ways that drain moisture and trap heat, creating harsh conditions where even replanted seedlings can’t survive. The findings, published in Communications Earth & Environment, revealed why reforestation efforts in the region have struggled. One of the study’s co-authors is Josh West, professor of Earth sciences and environmental studies at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “We’ve ...

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Science2 Jun 2025

Board game enables autistic people to create stories about their condition

A board game through which players use images on cards to develop and tell their own stories could be particularly appreciated among people with autism as it offers a means to explain their thoughts and feelings, a new study has shown. Dixit, an award-winning game published by the French company Libellud, invites participants to select one of 84 illustrated cards which they feel matches a title suggested by the designated storyteller. For this study, researchers asked 35 autistic participants – split into groups of between five and eight – to place a card that they felt best described autism, and then being asked to explain the reasoning ...

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Science1 Jun 2025

Endophytic fungi from halophyte Sesuvium portulacastrum enhance maize growth and salt tolerance

This research provides key insights into how microbial inoculants can offer a cost-effective, eco-friendly strategy to enhance crop resilience in saline soils. Soil salinization is a major global challenge that severely impacts agricultural productivity, with over 3% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface affected. It threatens food security by causing osmotic, ionic, and oxidative stress, which can reduce crop yields by more than 50%. Traditional remediation methods, such as physical and chemical interventions, are often prohibitively expensive. However, ...

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Science30 May 2025

Transforming the certification process of 3D-printed critical components

At present, it takes an average of 18 months for a supercomputer to evaluate a single 3D part and accurately predict its lifespan or expected date of failure. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Structures Uniquely Resolved to Guarantee Endurance (SURGE) program has tasked grantees with compressing this evaluation time to three days and significantly simplifying the process so that it can be performed on a laptop computer. Four members of the Texas A&M University faculty have responded to that ...

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Science30 May 2025

AADOCR announces new SCADA/Dentsply Sirona Research Award

Alexandria, VA – AADOCR and the Student Competition for Advancing Dental Research and its Application (SCADA) Alumni Association are pleased to announce the AADOCR SCADA/Dentsply Sirona Research Award. The new award was created to support dentist-scientists, including SCADA program alumni, in their research careers. The award’s immediate goal is to support early-stage dentist-scientists such as post-doctoral scholars and pre-tenure faculty members, with a long-term objective of increasing the number of successfully funded dentist-scientists ...

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