Science
press releases.

Science12 Mar 2025

Poor sleep may fuel conspiracy beliefs, according to new research

A new study from the University of Nottingham has revealed that poor sleep quality may increase susceptibility to conspiracy beliefs, with depression likely playing a key role in this relationship. Experts from the University’s School of Psychology examined the link between sleep quality and conspiracy beliefs in two studies involving over 1,000 participants. Their findings, published in the Journal of Health Psychology, indicate that individuals with poorer sleep quality over the past month were more likely to endorse conspiracy theories, particularly after exposure to conspiratorial content. Conspiracy theories claim that powerful, secretive ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Exciting moments on the edge

Scientists have long suspected that phosphorene nanoribbons (PNRs) – thin pieces of black phosphorus, only a few nanometres wide – might exhibit unique magnetic and semiconducting properties, but proving this has been difficult. In a recent study published in Nature, researchers focused on exploring the potential for magnetic and semiconducting characteristics of these nanoribbons. Using techniques such as ultrafast magneto-optical spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance they were able to demonstrate the magnetic behaviour of PNRs at room temperature, and show how these magnetic properties can interact with light. The ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

MD Anderson Research Highlights for March 12, 2025

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Study offers insights into evolutionary process driving pancreatic cancer Read summary | Read study in Nature Pancreatic cancer is hard to treat because ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

SwRI-led PUNCH constellation launches

SAN ANTONIO — March 12, 2025 — Four small suitcase-sized spacecraft, designed and built by Southwest Research Institute headquartered in San Antonio, launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on March 11. NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, or PUNCH, constellation has spread out in a low-Earth orbit along the day-night line, providing a clear view in all directions for its two-year primary mission. “The PUNCH spacecraft are now drifting into perfect position to study the solar corona, the Sun’s outer ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Thirty-three centers join new Bronchiectasis and NTM Care Center Network

Miami (March 12, 2025) – The Bronchiectasis and NTM Association has accepted 27 Care Center and six Clinical Associate Center sites in 23 states and the District of Columbia into the new Bronchiectasis and NTM Care Center Network (CCN). The CCN aims to facilitate access to specialized care and support for the hundreds of thousands of people with bronchiectasis and nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) lung disease. “As the prevalence of bronchiectasis and NTM lung disease grows, it is even more important for us to create this Care Center Network to improve ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Effects of ethanol on the digestive system

Excessive alcohol consumption is a significant public health concern, responsible for approximately 6% of all deaths and contributing to 5.1% of the global disease burden. Alcohol use is a major risk factor for over 200 diseases, including liver cirrhosis, pancreatitis, and esophageal cancer, with a particularly high incidence of gastrointestinal diseases. More than 50% of alcohol-related deaths are caused by gastrointestinal diseases, highlighting the importance of understanding how ethanol affects the digestive system. This review aims to provide an overview of ethanol ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Entwined dwarf stars reveal their location thanks to repeated radio bursts

An international team of astronomers led by Dr Iris de Ruiter, now at the University of Sydney, has shown that a white dwarf and a red dwarf star orbiting each other every two hours are emitting radio pulses. Thanks to follow-up observations using optical and x-ray telescopes, the researchers were able to determine the origin of these pulses with certainty. The findings explain the source of such radio emissions found across the Milky Way galaxy for the first time. The results are published in Nature Astronomy. In recent years, better analysis techniques have given researchers the ability ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

A new name for one of the world's rarest rhinoceroses

A new study revealed significant differences in the appearance and behaviour of the two one-horned Asiatic rhinoceros species, challenging long-standing classifications and supporting a re-evaluation of their status. The study, led by zoologist Francesco Nardelli and paleontologist Kurt Heißig, highlights how millions of years of evolutionary pressures have shaped the distinct adaptations of the Indian (Rhinoceros unicornis) and Sundaic (Rhinoceros sondaicus) rhinoceroses. The critically endangered Sundaic rhinoceros has a slender skull, a broader and lower back of the head, and a shorter nose and teeth suited for browsing leaves. In contrast, the ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Why do children use loopholes? New research explains the development of intentional misunderstandings in children

Most people are familiar with loopholes. When your boss, landlord, partner, customer, or government asks you to do something you don’t want to do, and yet you can’t say “no,” you may resort to malicious compliance – doing what someone asked, but not actually what they meant. Most parents are probably familiar with such “little lawyer” behavior too: if a parent says, “Time to put the tablet down,” a child might physically put the tablet down on the table – and then keep playing on it. While such ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Are you just tired or are you menopause tired?

CLEVELAND, Ohio (March 12, 2025)—Multiple menopause symptoms can make women feel fatigued. Hot flashes, sleep problems, pain, and depression are just a few. A new study suggests that heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding may increase fatigue, which helps to explain why midlife women are two-to-four times more likely to experience debilitating forms of syndromic fatigue. Results of the study are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. Most women transitioning through ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Fluorescent dope

Kyoto, Japan -- We're all familiar with Pavlovian conditioning, in which a reward-anticipatory behavior follows a reward-predicting stimulus. Perhaps you experience it yourself when passing a café or restaurant and catching a whiff of something delectable. Behind this mechanism is dopamine released within the striatum, the largest structure of the subcortical basal ganglia, which links motor movements and motivation. Yet it has remained unclear exactly what kind of dopamine signal is transmitted to the striatum to cause this behavior in primates. In order to understand this dopamine signal, a team of researchers from Kyoto University ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Integrating stopping smoking support into talking therapies helps more people quit – new study

Research from the University of Bath, funded by Cancer Research UK, published on No Smoking Day 2025, shows that integrating smoking cessation support into NHS Talking Therapies for depression and anxiety increases quit rates. This is an important step in addressing the high rates of smoking in this population. Led by Dr Gemma Taylor at the University of Bath, alongside researchers from several other institutions, the study published in Addiction also found that adding smoking support to mental health treatment didn’t disrupt therapy. Instead, it offered a practical way to tackle mental and physical health together. About the Study The trial was conducted across four NHS ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Routine asthma test more reliable in the morning and has seasonal effects, say doctors

A lung function test used to help diagnose asthma works better in the morning, becoming less reliable throughout the day, Cambridge researchers have found. Using real world data from 1,600 patients, available through a database created for speeding up research and innovation, the team also found that its reliability differs significantly in winter compared to autumn. Asthma is a common lung condition that can cause wheezing and shortness of breath, occasionally severe. Around 6.5% of people over six years old in the UK are affected by the condition. Treatments include the use of inhalers or nebulisers to carry ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

Nature-inspired 3D-printing method shoots up faster than bamboo

Charging forward at top speed, a garden snail slimes up 1 millimeter of pavement per second. By this logic, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology researchers’ new 3D printing process speeds past existing methods — at a snail’s pace. Researchers in Beckman’s Autonomous Materials Systems Group created “growth printing,” which mimics tree trunks’ outward expansion to print polymer parts quickly and efficiently without the molds and expensive equipment typically associated with 3D printing. Their work appears in the journal Advanced Materials. “Humans ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

MSU researchers use unique approaches to study plants in future conditions

As major changes continue for our planet’s climate, scientists are concerned about how plants will grow and adapt. Researchers in the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, or PRL, Sharkey lab are studying changes in plant metabolism that occur when plants are grown in high light, high CO2 (HLHC) conditions. They found that under these conditions, plants photosynthesize more, which can lead to larger plants, and potentially larger crop yields. However, there are tradeoffs; scientists also found that plants lose carbon under these conditions, which they need to make food. This ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

More than marks: How wellbeing shapes academic success

With Australia’s National Assessment Program (NAPLAN) beginning today, new research from the University of South Australia highlights a critical but often overlooked factor in student success – wellbeing. In a world first* study of more than 215,000 students, UniSA researchers found that while standardised tests measure academic skills, different dimensions of wellbeing - emotional wellbeing, engagement, and learning readiness - can play a crucial role in performance. Specifically, the study found that learning readiness ­- which includes foundational skills such as perseverance, confidence, and engagement ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

Butterflies choose mates because they are more attractive, not just easier to see

A simple neural change alters mating preferences in male butterflies, aiding rapid behavioral evolution, Nicholas VanKuren and Nathan Buerkle at the University of Chicago, US, and colleagues, report March 11th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. Heliconius are a group of tropical butterflies known for their wide variety of wing patterns and colors, which act as a warning to predators. Because wing coloration is crucial for their survival, males have evolved a preference for females with the same wing color. But the sensory and neurological mechanisms behind these preferences are poorly understood. Researchers ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

Advancing catalysis: Novel porous thin-film approach developed at TIFR Hyderabad enhances reaction efficiency

Catalytic function and its efficiency play a significant role in industrial reactions, and consistent reforms are made in the methodology to enhance the large-scale synthesis of drugs, polymers, and other desired products. Available catalysts can be homogeneous, which means that they possess the same phase as the reactants and products, making them difficult to separate from the reaction mixture. On the other hand, heterogeneous catalysts are a preferred choice for such reactions because of their ease of separation and reusability. The past decade has seen the emergence of porous ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

USPSTF statement on screening for food insecurity

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for food insecurity on health outcomes in the primary care setting. According to survey data, 12.8% of households experienced food insecurity in 2022, with 7.7% of households experiencing low food security and 5.1% experiencing very low food security. Nearly one-third of households with incomes below the federal poverty threshold are food insecure. Food insecurity is one among a multitude of medical, psychological, and social conditions ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

Scientists discover new heavy-metal molecule ‘berkelocene’

A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has discovered “berkelocene,” the first organometallic molecule to be characterized containing the heavy element berkelium. Organometallic molecules, which consist of a metal ion surrounded by a carbon-based framework, are relatively common for early actinide elements like uranium (atomic number 92), but they are scarcely known for later actinides like berkelium (atomic number 97). “This is the first time that evidence for the formation of a chemical bond between berkelium and carbon has been obtained. The discovery provides ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

Over 1 in 3 adults in households with guns do not store all in locked locations

PHILADELPHIA – Since 2017, firearm-related injuries in the United States have been the most common cause of death from injury among children through young adults, ages 1 to 24, surpassing motor vehicle accidents, according to a 2022 study. Access to firearms in one’s home increases the risk of suicide and accidental death. But over a third of Americans with guns in their homes say they do not store all of them in a locked location (37%), according to the latest health survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

People with COPD and arthritis have an increased risk of death

Miami (March 11, 2025) – People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and arthritis have a higher risk of death than people with arthritis who do not have COPD, according to a new study. The study is published in the January 2025 issue of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal. COPD is an inflammatory lung disease, comprising several conditions, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and can be caused by genetics and irritants like smoke or pollution. The disease affects more than 30 million Americans and is the fourth leading cause of death ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

PNAS announces six 2024 Cozzarelli Prize recipients

WASHINGTON, DC – The Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has selected six papers published by PNAS in 2024 to receive the Cozzarelli Prize, an award that recognizes outstanding contributions to the scientific disciplines represented by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Papers were chosen from more than 3,200 research articles that appeared in the journal last year and represent the six broadly defined classes under which the NAS is organized. Additionally, the Editorial Board has recognized six papers—one ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

AMS Science Preview: Data deserts, Federal science, malaria prediction

The American Meteorological Society continuously publishes research on climate, weather, and water in its 12 journals. Many of these articles are available for early online access–they are peer-reviewed, but not yet in their final published form. Below are some recent examples. JOURNAL ARTICLES Climate Change Increases Energy Demand and Cost in Texas Weather, Climate, and Society Climate change is driving large increases in electricity demand and costs in Texas’ ERCOT market. Compared to a 1950–1980 baseline climate, ERCOT electricity demand in 2023 was 1.9 ...

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Science11 Mar 2025

Endocrine Society elects Santoro as 2026-2027 President

WASHINGTON—Endocrine Society members elected Nanette Santoro, M.D., of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colo., as its 2026-2027 President. She will serve as President-Elect for a year beginning in July 2025 before becoming President in June 2026. Santoro has served as E. Stewart Taylor Chair of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine since 2010. She is a well-recognized practitioner, dedicated mentor and leading researcher on studies of women with premature and age-appropriate menopause. She has held many roles with the Endocrine Society, including serving as Vice President of Clinical Science, an author ...

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