Science
press releases.

Science29 Apr 2025

Reasons why anxiety and depression promote low self-belief revealed

Researchers at UCL have uncovered why individuals who experience anxiety and depression often struggle with persistent low self-belief in their abilities. A new study, published in Nature Communications, examined two large groups of people (230 and 278 participants) to measure their “confidence” when doing individual jobs and their “self-belief” when judging their overall performance of these individual jobs collectively. They found that those with symptoms of anxiety and depression tended to build their overall self-belief by focusing their attention on jobs where ...

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Science29 Apr 2025

Synchrotron in a closet: Bringing powerful 3D X-ray microscopy to smaller labs

Images For the first time, researchers can study the microstructures inside metals, ceramics and rocks with X-rays in a standard laboratory without needing to travel to a particle accelerator, according to a study led by University of Michigan engineers. The new technique makes 3D X-ray diffraction—known as 3DXRD—more readily accessible, potentially enabling quick analysis of samples and prototypes in academia and industry, as well as providing more opportunities for students. 3DXRD reconstructs 3D images using X-rays taken at multiple angles, similar to a CT scan. Instead of the imaging device rotating about ...

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Science29 Apr 2025

China’s EV ultrafast charging stations: Challenges, solutions, and costs

A new study published in Engineering delves into the future of ultrafast charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs) in China, exploring charging patterns, grid impacts, solutions, and upgrade costs. As the global EV market continues to expand rapidly, with China leading the way in EV adoption, understanding these aspects is crucial for sustainable development. The research team, led by Yang Zhao, Xinyu Chen and Michael B. McElroy, analyzed real-world charging data from over 15,000 EVs at ...

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Science29 Apr 2025

AcrOSS platform: Advancing safe UAS operations in critical areas

In a recent development in the field of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), a research team from the University of Salento in Italy has designed and tested a novel platform named AcrOSS. The details of this platform are published in Engineering, aiming to enhance the safety and efficiency of UAS operations in critical areas. The widespread use of UAS in civil airspace, especially for beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations, faces numerous challenges. The AcrOSS project, funded by the Italian Ministry for Research, focuses on developing ...

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Science29 Apr 2025

A scientific method for flawless cacio e pepe

WASHINGTON, April 29, 2025 – The beloved Italian pasta cacio e pepe is perhaps best known for two things: being delicious and being frustratingly difficult to cook. At first glance, it looks like a simple recipe, containing only three ingredients: pasta, pecorino romano cheese, and black pepper. But as anyone who has tried to make it will know, the cheese will often clump when added to the hot pasta water, turning what is supposed to be a smooth, creamy sauce into a stringy, sticky mess. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Barcelona, the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, the University of Padova, and the Institute of Science ...

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Science29 Apr 2025

Nursing 2025: No relief in sight as burnout, stress and short staffing persist

Cross Country Healthcare (NASDAQ: CCRN), a leader in workforce solutions and tech-enabled staffing, recruitment and advisory services, today released its fourth annual survey, “Beyond the Bedside: The State of Nursing in 2025” report. In partnership with Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, the study paints a sobering picture of a profession at a breaking point – where stress, burnout and chronic short staffing continue to jeopardize the well-being ...

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Science29 Apr 2025

Sugar signalling applications could boost wheat yields by up to 12%

Long term field study confirms effectiveness of new technology Oxford & Harpenden, UK. 29 April 2025. Enhancing wheat plants’ sugar signalling ability could deliver increased yields of up to 12%, according to researchers from Rothamsted, Oxford University and the Rosalind Franklin Institute in a study published today in the journal Nature Biotechnology. That is an order of magnitude greater than annual yield increases currently being achieved through breeding. The effect was achieved by applying a Trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) pre-signalling molecule to the plants. T6P is a signalling molecule that ...

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Science29 Apr 2025

Rainfall triggers extreme humid heat in tropics and subtropics

Scientists believe they have found a way to improve warning systems for vulnerable communities threatened by humid heatwaves, which are on the rise due to climate change and can be damaging and even fatal to human health. The team, from the University of Leeds and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has provided the first ever analysis of how patterns of recent rainfall can interact with dry or moist land conditions to influence the risk of extreme humid heat in the global tropics and subtropics. The ...

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Science29 Apr 2025

Teenage years crucial for depression intervention, study finds

Depression in young teens could be easier to treat than in adulthood due to the symptoms being more flexible and not yet ingrained, a study shows. Researchers found that interactions between depressive symptoms – like sadness, fatigue and a lack of interest – are less predictable in teens but become more fixed in adults, which can lead to persistent depression. The findings highlight the importance of targeting depression at an early age, when symptoms are still changing, experts say. Depression is a complex condition, characterised by a range of connected symptoms. Current interventions treat overall depression severity and do not consider ...

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Science29 Apr 2025

Risk-factor changes could prevent the majority of sudden cardiac arrests

Philadelphia, April 29, 2025 – A new study identifying 56 non-clinical risk factors associated with sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), spanning lifestyle, physical measures, psychosocial factors, socioeconomic status, and the local environment, offers compelling evidence that improving these unfavorable profiles could prevent up to 63% of SCA cases. The article appearing in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, published by Elsevier, provides new insights into how lifestyle and environmental factors can contribute to SCA prevention. SCA is a global ...

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Science29 Apr 2025

Interview opportunity: Women are overtaking men in the most extreme sports events

Much of the work devoted to exploring potential sex-specific differences in exercise or sports performance has been derived from laboratory-based studies. While these studies are typically well-controlled and guide our understanding of physiological mechanisms, they may lack pragmatic or practical relevance to the ‘real world’. Shrinking performance gaps between the sexes in sport and extreme challenges In 1967, Katherine V Switzer, the daughter of a US Army officer, became the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon as an officially ...

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Science29 Apr 2025

Researchers discover accelerated reaction between Criegee intermediates and water via roaming mechanism

Criegee intermediates (CIs)—highly reactive species formed when ozone reacts with alkenes in the atmosphere—play a crucial role in generating hydroxyl radicals (the atmosphere's "cleansing agents") and aerosols that impact climate and air quality. The syn-CH3CHOO is particularly important among these intermediates, accounting for 25-79% of all CIs depending on the season. Until now, scientists have believed that syn-CH3CHOO primarily disappeared through self-decomposition. However, in a published in Nature Chemistry, a team led ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

Billion-year-old impact in Scotland sparks questions about life on land

New Curtin University research has revealed that a massive meteorite struck northwestern Scotland about 200 million years later than previously thought, in a discovery that not only rewrites Scotland’s geological history but alters our understanding of the evolution of non-marine life on Earth. Previously believed to have occurred 1.2 billion years ago, the impact created the Stac Fada Member, a layer of rock that holds vital clues to Earth’s ancient past, including how meteorite strikes may have influenced the planet’s environment and life. Lead author Professor Chris Kirkland, from Curtin’s Frontier Institute for Geoscience Solutions within ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

Sexual trauma during military service linked to higher risk of suicide and overdose death later in life

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 28 April 2025 Follow @Annalsofim on X, Facebook, Instagram, threads, and Linkedin Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

Toward defining problematic media usage patterns in adolescents

About The Article: This Viewpoint proposes an analogous taxonomy for digital media use that identifies patterns of use, irrespective of content, that could be problematic but, at a minimum, should be flagged as warranting further evaluation and potential remediation. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH, email dimitri.christakis@seattlechildrens.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.6113) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

Dopamine signals when a fear can be forgotten

Dangers come but dangers also go and when they do, the brain has an “all-clear” signal that teaches it to extinguish its fear. A new study in mice by MIT neuroscientists shows that the signal is the release of dopamine along a specific interregional brain circuit. The research therefore pinpoints a potentially critical mechanism of mental health, restoring calm when it works, but prolonging anxiety or even post-traumatic stress disorder when it doesn’t. “Dopamine is essential to initiate fear extinction,” said Michele Pignatelli di Spinazzola, co-author ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

Some dogs, cats bred to evolve same ‘smushed’ faces

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 3PM ET ON MONDAY, APRIL 28 IN PNAS ITHACA, N.Y. – Through intensive breeding, humans have pushed breeds such as pug dogs and Persian cats to evolve with very similar skulls and “smushed” faces, so they’re more similar to each other than they are to most other dogs or cats. For the first time, scientists at Cornell University and Washington University have uncovered examples of how selection pressures from breeding cats and dogs have led to “convergence” – the tendency of unrelated animals and plants to evolve similar characteristics under similar environmental conditions. In this case, the researchers found ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

Sexism undermines teams by disrupting emotional synchrony’s role in performance

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 3:00 PM U.S. EDT ON MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2025 In a world where innovation and progress depend on effective teamwork, a new study reveals how sexist behavior within teams sabotages not just individuals, but the very fabric of collaboration. Researchers found that exposure to sexist comments significantly alters how women interact emotionally during teamwork, increasing a key ingredient of successful collaboration: emotional synchrony. Emotional synchrony—shared, temporally aligned facial ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

A new method identifies rancid hazelnuts without removing them from the bag

No more rancid hazelnuts: a research team at the URV has developed a method that can identify nuts that have gone bad due to oxidation. The technique uses infrared light to determine the chemical composition of hazelnuts without even removing them from their shells. The new system overcomes the limitations of traditional methods and makes it possible to identify the condition of all the hazelnuts in a packet in a single analysis, without the need to prepare or destroy the sample. The authors argue that the application of this technology would help to improve packaging techniques and distribution ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

Flower strips could save apple farmers pest control costs

Planting wildflowers in apple orchards could save farmers up to £3,000 per hectare a year, according to a new study. Flower strips create a home for a team of helpful insects – like ladybirds, hoverflies, and lacewings – that eat harmful pests such as aphids. This natural team of pest controllers helps keep apple trees healthy with less need for chemical sprays. This study, published in Journal of Agricultural Economics, builds on previous research from a University of Reading team that found flower strips can ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

Rats are more motivated to help their friends

Why are some people more helpful than others? In a new JNeurosci paper, Inbal Bartal, from Tel Aviv University, and colleagues used rats to explore why some individuals may be more receptive to the distress of others and how this information leads to helpful behavior. During a task the researchers previously developed, they observed the behaviors and brain activity of helpful rats compared to less helpful rats. In this task that probes helping behavior, rats are given the option to release a distressed peer trapped in a restrainer. Rats were more ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

$1M gift to keep Soybean Innovation Lab operational after USAID closure

URBANA, Ill. -- In February, the USAID-funded Feed the Future Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was told to stop work, bringing an abrupt end to 12 years of progress toward developing a global soybean value chain supporting Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. SIL director Pete Goldsmith cobbled together funding from the university to keep the lab afloat until April 15, which was to be its last day. At the eleventh hour, Founders ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

Updated equestrian helmet ratings system adds racing and high-speed events

Falling off a horse at high-speed changes the impact to the rider’s head and the parameters for a quality helmet, according to new research from the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab. Published on April 28 in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering, the findings from researchers Steve Rowson and Lauren Duma indicate that head impacts during falls at high speed generate unique head rotation, which in turn, directly affects helmet behavior. “Rotational motion of the head is very important,” said Rowson, helmet lab director. “While our testing already incorporated rotational head motion, falling off a horse at high speed can put a large force across the helmet ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

Topological breakthrough: Non-reciprocal coulomb drag in chern insulators

Peking University, April 24, 2025: He Qinglin’s group at the Center for Quantum Materials Science, School of Physics, has reported the first observation of non-reciprocal Coulomb drag in Chern insulators. This breakthrough opens new pathways for exploring Coulomb interactions in magnetic topological systems and enhances our understanding of quantum states in such materials. The work was published in Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58401-5). Background Coulomb drag arises when a current in one conductor induces ...

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Science28 Apr 2025

All-cause mortality and life expectancy by birth cohort across US states

About The Study: Cohort-specific patterns across states reveal wide disparities in mortality. Some states have experienced little or no improvements in life expectancy from the 1900 to 2000 birth cohorts. Understanding how mortality patterns vary by birth cohort within each state can inform decision-making around resource allocation and public health interventions. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Theodore R. Holford, PhD, email theodore.holford@yale.edu. To ...

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