Science
press releases.

Science10 Jan 2025

Unveiling the secrets of bone strength: the role of biglycan and decorin

A recent study has uncovered the essential roles of two proteoglycans, biglycan and decorin, in maintaining bone mass, water retention, and bulk/in situ mechanical competence. Through the use of genetically modified mouse models, the research demonstrates that while biglycan plays a predominant role in preserving bone structure and toughness, decorin significantly contributes to the bone’s mechanical properties. These findings reveal how these proteins interact with water and other matrix components to regulate the mechanical ...

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Science10 Jan 2025

Sea surface temperatures and deeper water temperatures reached a new record high in 2024

A new study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences has found that ocean warming in 2024 has led to new record high temperatures. The ocean is the hottest it has ever been recorded by humans, not only at the surface temperature but also for the upper 2000 meters. “The broken records in the ocean have become a broken record.” Said Prof. Lijing Cheng with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He led a team of 54 scientists from 7 countries and discussed how ...

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Science10 Jan 2025

Applications, limitations, and prospects of different muscle atrophy models in sarcopenia and cachexia research

With the intensification of global population aging, muscle atrophy, characterized by the loss of muscle mass and function, has become an important health issue affecting the elderly. Researchers have widely used various animal and cellular models to gain a deeper understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of muscle atrophy and develop effective treatment strategies (Figure 1). These models simulate human muscle atrophy through different induction methods, such as natural aging, gene editing, nutritional changes, physical activity, chronic wasting diseases, ...

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Science10 Jan 2025

Hidden transport pathways in graphene confirmed, paving the way for next-generation device innovation

Electron transport in bilayer graphene exhibits a pronounced dependence on edge states and a nonlocal transport mechanism, according to a recent study led by Professor Gil-Ho Lee and Ph.D. candidate Hyeon-Woo Jeong of POSTECH’s Department of Physics, in collaboration with Dr. Kenji Watanabe and Dr. Takashi Taniguchi at Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). The findings were published in the international nanotechnology journal Nano Letters. Bilayer graphene, comprising two vertically stacked graphene layers, can exploit externally applied electric fields ...

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Science10 Jan 2025

Gaza: 64,000 deaths due to violence between October 2023 and June 2024, analysis suggests

An independent study by researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) suggests the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza underreported the death toll due to violence by approximately 41%. The LSHTM study estimated 64,260 traumatic injury deaths in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 compared to the 37,877 reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The findings, published in The Lancet, indicate that approximately 3% of the population of Gaza has died due to violence with an analysis showing ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

Press Registration is open for the 2025 AAN Annual Meeting

MINNEAPOLIS – Press registration is now open for journalists who wish to attend the 77th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). The 2025 AAN Annual Meeting will be held from April 5-9 in San Diego and online. The AAN Annual Meeting brings together thousands of neurologists and neuroscience professionals, offering the latest in scientific discoveries and advances in neurological research. There will be over 3,200 abstracts covering 25 neurology topics and specialties. The meeting will include late-breaking research, key lectures and more than ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

New book connects eugenics to Big Tech

Anita Say Chan, an associate professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has authored a new book that identifies how the eugenics movement foreshadows the predatory data tactics used in today's tech industry. Her book, Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future, was released this month by the University of California Press. Over a century ago, the eugenics movement sought to eliminate "undesirable" traits in society through selective breeding (sterilization). It was biased against marginalized groups ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

Electrifying your workout can boost muscles mass, strength, UTEP study finds

EL PASO, Texas (Jan. 9, 2025) – If building strength and muscle mass is part of your New Year’s Resolution, you may want to add a new routine to your workout. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), or electrical muscle stimulation for short, uses electrical currents to contract muscles. The stimulation devices are easy to use and widely available on the market, according to Sudip Bajpeyi, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Kinesiology at The University of Texas at El Paso, but he has often wondered, “Can these stimulators offer ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

Renewed grant will continue UTIA’s integrated pest management program

The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) has received a $210,000 grant from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to support ongoing integrated pest management (IPM) programs across Tennessee. An environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that emphasizes affordability and long-term sustainability, IPM practices have been implemented statewide courtesy of UT Extension specialists in fields such as agronomy, weed management, entomology, plant pathology, soil health and pesticide education. The recently ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

Researchers find betrayal doesn’t necessarily make someone less trustworthy if we benefit

Key takeaways Both intuition and past research suggest that whether people deem someone trustworthy depends on that person’s past behavior and reputation for betrayal. In a series of experiments, psychologists found that subjects regarded those who previously exhibited that behavior as less trustworthy. However, when the betrayal benefited them or had no effect on them, participants regarded the betrayer as trustworthy. This pattern was largely consistent across the types of relationships studied: friendships, romantic relationships and professional relationships. Imagine this scenario: Two people cheat on their partners with each other ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

Pet dogs often overlooked as spreader of antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Antibiotic-resistant Salmonella is a serious public health concern that has increased in recent years as the bacteria have developed ways to survive drugs. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people can get Salmonella from eating contaminated food products or from infected people or animals — typically via unintentional contact with feces via touching hands or stroking a pet. However, a team of Penn State researchers have found that household dogs are an overlooked transmission point for zoonotic pathogens such as nontyphoidal Salmonella, which can cause diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps, with some ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

Pioneering new tool will spur advances in catalysis

For decades, catalysts have been unsung heroes in daily life. These workhorses transform a starting material into a product or fuel with lower energy, like the yeast in bread making and human-made catalysts for converting raw materials into fuels more efficiently and sustainably. A promising class of these helpful substances, called single atom catalysts, has emerged, and researchers need new methods to better understand them. More specifically, they want to know how the structure of the sites where chemical reactions occur, called active sites, affects the catalyst’s ability to speed up the chemical reaction rate, known as the activity. In an important step forward, researchers ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

Earth scientist awarded National Medal of Science, highest honor US bestows on scientists

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Richard Alley, Evan Pugh University Professor of Geosciences at Penn State, was awarded the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony on Jan. 3. Alley was one of 23 individuals and two organizations awarded the 2025 National Medals of Science and National Medals of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest honors for achievement and leadership in science and technology. “Dr. Alley is deeply deserving of this most prestigious honor, and it is heartening to know that our nation sees in him what the Penn State community has known for decades,” said Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi. “Dr. ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

Did prehistoric kangaroos run out of food?

Prehistoric kangaroos in southern Australia had a more general diet than previously assumed, giving rise to new ideas about their survival and resilience to climate change, and the final extinction of the megafauna, a new study has found. The new research, a collaboration between palaeontologists from Flinders University and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), used advanced dental analysis techniques to study microscopic wear patterns on fossilised kangaroo teeth. The findings, published in Science, suggest that many species of kangaroos were generalists, able to adapt to diverse diets in response to environmental changes. More ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

HKU Faculty of Arts Professor Charles Schencking elected as Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities

Professor Charles Schencking, Professor of History of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), has been elected as a Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities (the Academy). The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established in 1969 by Royal Charter to advance knowledge of, and the pursuit of excellence in, the Humanities. It is an independent, not-for-profit organisation with a Fellowship of over 730 distinguished humanities researchers, leaders, and practitioners ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

The Balbiani body: Cracking the secret of embryonic beginnings

Researchers have uncovered how egg cells prepare for the creation of life. Their work reveals the secrets of the Balbiani body, a remarkable structure that organizes essential molecules to guide early embryonic development. Using zebrafish models and cutting-edge imaging, the team discovered how this structure transforms from liquid droplets into a stable core, laying the groundwork for life itself. This discovery sheds light on the extraordinary precision of nature’s reproductive process. A new study led by Prof. Yaniv Elkouby and his team, including first co-authors Swastik Kar and Rachael Deis, from the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

Science behind genetic testing for identifying risk of opioid misuse remains unproven

PHILADELPHIA—Opioid misuse and specifically opioid use disorder (OUD), continues to represent a significant U.S. public health threat, with more than 6 million Americans aged 12 and older meeting the criteria for OUD in 2022. Efforts to ease the crisis have included the development of genetic testing to identify individuals most at risk for OUD. New research, out today in JAMA Network Open, questions the usefulness of 15 genetic variants from an algorithm meant to predict OUD risk that was recently granted pre-marketing approval by the Food and Drug Administration. It found that the testing could lead to both false positive and false negative results. The study was led by Christal ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

The extreme teeth of sabre-toothed predators were ‘optimal’ for biting into prey, new study reveals

Sabre-toothed predators – best know from the infamous Smilodon – evolved multiple times across different mammal groups. A new study, published today in Current Biology reveals why: these teeth were ‘functionally optimal’ and highly effective at puncturing prey. The study, led by scientists at the University of Bristol in collaboration with Monash University shows that long, sharp blade-like teeth gave sabre-tooth’s a real advantage as ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Dr. Helen Fisher, and Dr. Judith Allen donate historic archives to the Kinsey Institute

The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University has acquired remarkable archives from three pioneering figures in the study of human sexuality, relationships, and wellbeing: the legendary sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, renowned anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher, and respected feminist historian Dr. Judith Allen. These invaluable collections represent decades of groundbreaking research, education, and cultural contributions that will advance future scholarship and research. “For almost 80 ...

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Science9 Jan 2025

Tesco urged to drop an “unethical” in-store infant feeding advice service pilot

UK supermarket giant Tesco is being urged to drop an “unethical” pilot of an in-store infant feeding advice service in which Danone-funded midwives are expected to wear branded uniforms and undergo training by the formula company, reveals an exclusive news report published by The BMJ today. Critics say that the initiative, running in Tesco’s flagship store and set to be rolled out shortly, is a backward step and reminiscent of the “milk nurses” scandal of the 1970s, where formula industry salespeople dressed as nurses and promoted formula milk to parents. One midwife hired by Danone quit ...

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Science8 Jan 2025

New MSU study explains the delayed rise of plants, animals on land

EAST LANSING, Mich. – If you like the smell of spring roses, the sounds of summer birdsong and the colors of fall foliage, you have the stabilization of the ozone layer to thank for it. Located in the stratosphere where it shields the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation, the ozone layer plays a key role in preserving the planet’s biodiversity. Now, we may have a better idea of why that took more than 2 billion years to happen. Michigan State University researcher Dalton Hardisty contributed to a new Yale University-led study finding that Earth’s early atmosphere hosted a battle royal between ...

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Science8 Jan 2025

UTA becomes one of largest natural history libraries

Thanks to in-kind donations of tens of thousands of rare books, scientific journals, and articles, and reports over the past two years, The University of Texas at Arlington’s Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center (ARDRC) has become one of the largest publicly accessible herpetology libraries in the world. “Thanks to 12 independent donors, including the Joseph Rex Dinardo Jr. Herpetology and Natural History Science Research Trust in Philadelphia, Dr. Jonathan Campbell, William Lamar, Drs. Jay and Rebecca Savage, and Louis Porras, we now have thousands ...

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Science8 Jan 2025

Paul “Bear” Bryant Awards 2024 Coach of the Year finalists named

HOUSTON, January 8, 2025 — Eight active college football coaches make up the American Heart Association’s 2024 Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award finalist list. The award is given each January to a college football coach for contributions that make the sport better for athletes and fans alike by demonstrating grit, integrity and a winning approach to coaching and life – both on and off the field. The Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award is the only college football coaching honor ...

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Science8 Jan 2025

Overcoming spasticity to help paraplegics walk again

Electrical stimulation of the spinal cord is a promising strategy for reestablishing walking after spinal cord injury, recent studies show. But for patients suffering from muscle spasms, the stimulation protocols have a limited effect due to the unpredictable behaviour of involuntary muscle stiffness related to spasticity. Muscle spasticity affects almost 70% of spinal cord injured patients Now, scientists at EPFL, Università San Raffaele and Scuola Sant’Anna have found a promising way to address and reduce muscle spasticity in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury. ...

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Science8 Jan 2025

Scientists uncover key step in how diazotrophs “fix” nitrogen

Nitrogen is an essential component in the production of amino acids and nucleic acids — both necessary for cell growth and function. Although the atmosphere is composed of nearly 80% nitrogen, this nitrogen is in the form of dinitrogen (N2), which cannot be processed by most organisms. Atmospheric nitrogen must first be converted, or “fixed,” into a form that can be used by plants, often as ammonia. There are only two ways of fixing nitrogen, one industrial and one biological. To better understand a key component of the biological process, University of California San Diego Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Akif Tezcan and Assistant Professor of Chemistry ...

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