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Science

Half a Million People, 55 Studies: Spirituality's Protective Effect on Substance Use Is Real

Screening more than 20,000 published studies on spirituality and health, Harvard researchers identified 55 rigorous longitudinal studies covering over half a million people. The meta-analysis found a consistent 13% reduction in hazardous substance use risk associated with spiritual practices, rising to 18% for those attending religious services weekly - with consistent effects across alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and illicit drugs.

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Science

A Short Amino Acid Motif Explains How a Key Symbiosis Gene Does What Its Relatives Cannot

A study from the University of Tsukuba's Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences found that the NIN transcription factor - essential for legume root nodule formation and nitrogen fixation - binds a broader range of DNA sequences than its close relatives because it carries a short amino acid sequence called the FR motif. This motif predates rhizobial symbiosis, suggesting NIN evolved by repurposing an existing molecular feature.

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Science

280 Studies Confirm: Natural Selection Acts on Groups, Not Just Individuals

A bibliometric review of 280 scientific studies co-authored by researchers at Binghamton University finds consistent empirical evidence that natural selection operates simultaneously at multiple levels of biological organization - individuals, groups, and sometimes higher levels. The review challenges the decades-old consensus that group selection is either rare or reducible to individual-level mechanisms.

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Science

65 Unprovoked Shark Bites Worldwide in 2025, Down From Recent Peaks

The Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File recorded 65 unprovoked shark bites worldwide in 2025, slightly below the 10-year average of 72. Nine were fatal. The U.S. accounted for 38 percent of global incidents - a notable drop from years when it exceeded 50 percent. Volusia County, Florida, recorded 6 bites, well under its 2021 spike of 17.

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Science

Small Network Clusters Amplify System-Wide Shocks, Study Finds

A study published in PNAS by researchers from Florida Atlantic University, the University of Oldenburg, and UC Merced shows that small recurring interaction patterns - network motifs - often control how strongly a complex system reacts immediately after a disturbance, even when the rest of the network is stable. The findings apply to power grids, epidemics, and ecosystems alike.

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Science

How Actin Rings Spin Themselves Into Existence Without Any Blueprint

A team from Chiba University combined purified actin with a plant motor protein and ATP - and watched stable, spinning ring structures form without any template. Computer simulations confirmed that the key is the curved path the motor drives each filament along. The finding may point toward new approaches in bioengineering and agricultural science.

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Science

Oral Semaglutide's Helper Ingredient SNAC Raises Gut and Inflammation Questions in Animal Study

Salcaprozate sodium (SNAC), the absorption enhancer that makes oral semaglutide tablets work, produced a cluster of biological changes in a 21-day animal study from Adelaide University: lower beneficial gut bacteria, reduced short-chain fatty acids, higher blood inflammatory markers, increased liver weight, and reduced brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels. The findings do not prove harm in humans, but researchers say long-term daily SNAC exposure warrants systematic evaluation as oral GLP-1 drugs expand.

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Science

SeaCast Generates 15-Day Mediterranean Forecasts in 20 Seconds on a Single GPU

SeaCast, a graph-based neural network developed by CMCC and the University of Helsinki, produces high-resolution Mediterranean Sea forecasts at roughly 4 km spatial resolution in about 20 seconds on a single GPU - compared to 70 minutes on 89 CPUs for the equivalent operational model. Trained on 35 years of reanalysis data, it integrates both ocean and atmospheric variables and consistently outperforms the Copernicus 10-day operational forecast.

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Science

Waiting Until Fever Clears Before UTI Ultrasound Cuts False Positives in Children

A study of about 300 children hospitalized for febrile UTIs across five US pediatric hospitals found that renal and bladder ultrasounds done within 24 hours of fever produced significantly more false-positive abnormal findings. Waiting until closer to discharge did not prolong hospital stays, suggesting a practical change in imaging timing could reduce unnecessary catheter-based VCUG testing in infants and young children.

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Science

Southern California Gains Access to 50+ Pregnancy Trials as UC San Diego Joins MFMU Network

UC San Diego Health has joined the NIH's Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network as a satellite site affiliated with UCSF, bringing access to more than 50 active clinical trials on pregnancy complications to Southern California patients. The network has enrolled over 160,000 births annually across the US and produced evidence that changed standards of care for preterm steroids and labor induction.

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Science

More Than 40% of Musicians Live with Tinnitus, Large Meta-Analysis Finds

A systematic review of 67 studies covering more than 28,000 musicians across 21 countries found tinnitus in 42.6% of musicians versus 13.2% of controls, hearing loss in 25.7% versus 11.6%, and hyperacusis in 37.3% versus 15.3%. Classical and rock musicians showed no significant difference in auditory damage rates, suggesting genre is less important than individual exposure factors.

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Science

Ketamine's hallucinogenic effects do not drive its benefit for alcohol use disorder

Secondary analysis of the KARE randomized controlled trial, involving 96 adults with moderate-to-severe alcohol use disorder, finds that the intensity of psychoactive effects during intravenous ketamine infusions - including altered reality, out-of-body sensations, and perceptual distortions - did not predict abstinence rates over six months. The therapeutic mechanism appears to lie elsewhere, possibly in neural network alterations.

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Science

Radon risk maps prompt action in high-risk areas but may backfire in low-risk ones

A 2,000-participant online survey study in British Columbia found that seeing a radon risk map significantly increased testing intentions for people in medium-high and high-risk areas, regardless of which map format they viewed. In low-risk areas, however, the same maps had no effect or slightly reduced intentions - suggesting uniform map-based communication strategies need risk-level calibration.

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Science

Rotator cuff tears on MRI are nearly universal after 40 - and often irrelevant

A population-based study published in JAMA Internal Medicine finds rotator cuff abnormalities were present on MRI in nearly all participants over age 40, yet showed poor concordance with actual shoulder symptoms. The findings suggest most rotator cuff findings on MRI represent age-related changes rather than disease, calling into question routine imaging for atraumatic shoulder pain.

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Science

CNN model detects and classifies lung nodules with 98.4% accuracy in CT scan study

A retrospective study applied a convolutional neural network (CNN) to 10,496 CT scan slices from 82 patients in the LIDC-IDRI database, achieving 98.7% sensitivity, 97.5% specificity, and 98.4% overall accuracy for pulmonary nodule detection and classification. The researchers acknowledge that single-database validation and a relatively small patient sample limit how broadly the results can be extrapolated before testing on independent datasets.

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Science

Sugary drinks and anxiety in adolescents: a consistent link across multiple studies

A systematic review published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics found a consistent association between high sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and anxiety symptoms in adolescents across multiple studies. Researchers from Bournemouth University are careful to note the association does not establish causation - anxiety may drive increased sugary drink consumption as much as the reverse - but call the connection significant given rising rates of adolescent mental health disorders.

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Science

Water insecurity is not only a developing-world problem - it is growing in the United States

A panel at the AAAS Annual Meeting organized by ASU's Arizona Water for All project is highlighting data showing that water insecurity is an expanding problem in high-income countries. Rural communities along the US-Mexico border, in Appalachia, and in Tribal nations are among those most affected, while urban areas show rising water quality violations and growing distrust of tap water.

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