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press releases.

Science17 Dec 2024

Allen Institute names Julie Harris, Ph.D., as new Vice President of The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group

SEATTLE, WASH.—December 17, 2024—The Allen Institute today announced the appointment of Julie Harris as the new Vice President of The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group. Harris was previously Executive Vice President of Research Management at the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund where she oversaw the funding strategy and research priorities for a ~$29 million grant portfolio in support of the most promising science and scientists working to end the burden of Alzheimer’s disease. Between 2011 and 2020 Harris worked at the Allen Institute for Brain Science as ...

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Science17 Dec 2024

Paranoia may be, in part, a visual problem

New Haven, Conn. — Could complex beliefs like paranoia have roots in something as basic as vision? A new Yale study finds evidence that they might. When completing a visual perception task, in which participants had to identify whether one moving dot was chasing another moving dot, those with greater tendencies toward paranoid thinking (believing others intend them harm) and teleological thinking (ascribing excessive meaning and purpose to events) performed worse than their counterparts, the study found. Those individuals more often — and confidently — claimed one dot was chasing the other when it wasn’t. The findings, published Dec. 17 in ...

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Science17 Dec 2024

SwRI awarded $26 million to develop NOAA magnetometers

SAN ANTONIO — December 17, 2024 —NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently awarded Southwest Research Institute a $26 million contract to develop magnetometers for NOAA’s Space Weather Next (SW Next) program for two missions to be launched in 2029 and 2032. The magnetometers will measure the interplanetary magnetic field carried by the solar wind. “The instruments provide critical data to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center which issues forecasts, warnings and alerts that help mitigate space weather impacts,” said Dr. Roy Torbert, a program director in SwRI’s Earth, Oceans, and Space office ...

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Science17 Dec 2024

Cases of whooping cough growing, but knowledge about it is lacking

PHILADELPHIA – Following a several-year lull during the pandemic, cases of whooping cough are increasing across the United States. As of Nov. 30, early U.S. data show over 28,000 cases reported this year, or six times as many as in the same period in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Whooping cough or pertussis, a highly contagious bacterial infection of the respiratory tract, was one of the most common childhood diseases in the 20th century and a major cause ...

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Science17 Dec 2024

Simulating natural selection in assisted reproduction

A Perspective summarizes the risks of bypassing natural selection when using assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in humans and livestock. The authors call for dialogue between the fields of assisted reproduction and evolutionary biology. Jonathan P. Evans and Francisco Garcia-Gonzalez detail how techniques used in ART, including in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, and intracytoplasmic sperm injection, can stress and damage gametes and embryos and lead to deleterious epigenetic changes in offspring. Some ART techniques also bypass a system of filters in the female reproductive tract that select healthy sperm and may lead to better genetic matches with ...

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Science17 Dec 2024

Almost three quarters of adolescents experience depression or anxiety

Almost three quarters of adolescents in Australia experience clinically significant depression or anxiety symptoms, with most being chronic, according to a new study. And preventive strategies outside our clinics are urgently required to address this considerable public health problem facing the nation. The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and published in The Lancet Psychiatry, found mental health problems were frequently chronic with 64 per cent reporting symptoms three or more times across their adolescent years. MCRI Dr Ellie Robson said the rate and ...

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Science17 Dec 2024

Described in Mallorca the world's oldest ancestor of mammals

Gorgonopsians are an extinct group of synapsids that lived during the Permian, between 270 and 250 million years ago. They belong to the evolutionary lineage that would give rise to the first mammals 50 million years later. They were warm-blooded animals like modern mammals, but, unlike most of them, they laid eggs. They were carnivorous and were the first animals to develop the characteristic saber teeth. They were often the superpredators of the ecosystems in which they lived, and their appearance would be similar to a dog, ...

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Science17 Dec 2024

Researchers demonstrate high accuracy of observation device that can be dropped into typhoon without parachute

Researchers in Japan have demonstrated the high accuracy of their newly developed typhoon observation device, which is designed to drop from an aircraft into the eye of a typhoon. The results were published in the journal Scientific Online Letters on the Atmosphere (SOLA). Dropped from aircraft, the dropsonde, a small, single-use instrument, measures and transmits atmospheric data, including temperature, humidity, and wind speed, as it falls. The new dropsonde, iMDS-17, weighs only 130 grams and is made mainly of a biodegradable ...

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Science17 Dec 2024

Corals depend on near neighbours to reproduce

A new study reveals corals must be within only a few metres of each other to successfully reproduce, leaving them vulnerable in a warming world. The international research, led by The University of Queensland’s Professor Peter Mumby, measured the success of a natural spawning event in March this year. “In what came as a surprise, we saw that corals needed to be within 10 metres of one another, and preferably closer than that for fertilisation to take place,” Professor Mumby said. “We knew corals couldn’t be too ...

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Science17 Dec 2024

$10.8 million grant supports cutting-edge leukemia research

Continuing its role as a leader in leukemia research, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has been awarded a five-year, $10.8 million grant to further its exceptional programs in leukemia and other blood cancers. The grant, from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), renews funding for a prestigious Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in leukemia. The NCI’s SPORE program is designed to support translational research that moves discoveries from the lab to the clinic. The WashU Medicine leukemia SPORE is one of only two SPOREs in leukemia in the country. Siteman Cancer Center, ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Transcendental Meditation most effective at treating PTSD in largest review to date

A Groundbreaking Comparison of Meditation Techniques Researchers from Maharishi International University (MIU) and Augusta University have conducted the largest review and meta-analysis to date on meditation for PTSD treatment. Analyzing 61 studies with over 3,400 participants, the study compared four categories of meditation: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-Based Other techniques (MBO), Other Meditations (OM), and Transcendental Meditation (TM). Effect sizes for the first three categories ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Tiny ancient worm sheds big light on evolution mystery

A groundbreaking fossil discovery in remote South Australia sheds light on one of evolution’s greatest mysteries: the origins of Ecdysozoa, a superphylum of molting animals including insects, crustaceans, and nematodes. Ecdysozoans are the largest, most species-rich animal group on Earth. Although more than half of all animals are ecdysozoans, scientists have long grappled with the lack of evidence of ecdysozoan ancestors in the fossil record, despite molecular evidence suggesting they should exist in the Precambrian. Now, in a new study published in Current ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Research Spotlight: Study shows males spend approximately 52 percent more time in bright light than females

What Question Were You Investigating with this Study? Are there sex-based differences in exposure to light? Light is an important environmental exposure, as it is the primary cue for the circadian system and has other effects on health. Yet there is limited objective evidence characterizing population-wide personal light exposure patterns. What Approach Did You Use? We analyzed real-world light exposure (using wrist-worn devices) collected from 11,314 participants in the 2011 to 2014 U.S.-based National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, with metrics reflecting the duration of and the timing of ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Inaugural ceremony for KIT’s new president, Jan S. Hesthaven

View this album for photos of the event. Hesthaven, a 58-year-old Dane, noted in his inaugural speech that KIT had a duty to be of service to society and that it faced major changes and challenges. “Increased internationalization will play a key role. We need to ensure that KIT attracts talent not only from Germany but also from around the world,” he said. The President named three challenges confronting society: new health technologies for an aging population, the spread of artificial ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Costa and Matsumoto receive funding for hypothesis evaluation and reasoning assistant

Paulo Costa, Director, C5I Center; Dept. Chair Cyber Security Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), and Shou Matsumoto, Research Assistant Professor, C5I Center, CEC, received funding for the project: “HERA: Hypothesis Evaluation and Reasoning Assistant.” Costa and Matsumoto are developing an explainable artificial intelligence (AI) methodology for hypothesis management and an architecture for the proposed solution. They are also supporting Interactive Aptitude, LLC, in defining use cases in one or more domains and identifying data requirements to support hypothesis management. The Mason/Interactive Aptitude team's solution ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Researchers discovered molecular events leading to Rett syndrome

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital and collaborating institutions have gained new insights into the molecular changes leading to Rett syndrome, a severe neurological disorder caused by mutations in the MeCP2 gene encoding methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2). The team reports in the journal Neuron that loss of MeCP2 in adulthood causes immediate progressive dysregulation of hundreds of genes – some are activated while others are suppressed – and these changes occur well before any measurable deficiencies in neurological function. The MeCP2 protein is most highly expressed ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Daily step count and depression in adults

About The Study: In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 33 observational studies involving 96,000 adults, higher daily step counts were associated with fewer depressive symptoms in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in the general adult population. Further prospective cohort studies are needed to clarify the potential protective role of daily steps in mitigating the risk of depression during adulthood. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Estela Jimenez-Lopez, PhD, MPH, email estela.jimenezlopez@uclm.es. To ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation for chronic insomnia disorder

About The Study: The results of this randomized clinical trial suggest that transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation would be safe and effective in treating chronic insomnia. Future multicenter clinical trials with large sample sizes are needed to validate its effectiveness across diverse populations. Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Yu Wang, MD, PhD, (wy8166@126.com) and Peijing Rong, MD, PhD, (drrongpj@163.com). To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Atrial Fibrillation: A Review

EMBARGOED by the Journal of the American Medical Association until 11 a.m. ET, Dec.16, 2024 (Boston)—In the U.S., atrial fibrillation (AF), a heart condition that causes an irregular heartbeat in the upper chambers of the heart, affects up to one in three people in their lifetime. Significant complications associated with this condition include ischemic stroke, heart failure, myocardial infarction, chronic kidney disease, dementia and mortality. In a new review article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center summarize ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Single-stream image-to-image translation (SSIT): a more efficient approach to image translation

Among the many artificial intelligence and machine learning models available today for image translation, image-to-image translation models using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) can change the style of images. These models work by using two input images: a content image, which is altered to match the style of a reference image. These models are used for tasks like transforming images into different artistic styles, simulating weather changes, improving satellite video resolution, and helping autonomous vehicles recognize different lighting conditions, like day and night. Now, researchers ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Flavonoid powerhouse: kaempferol's role in taming allergic responses

Allergic diseases such as asthma, atopic dermatitis, and food allergies have been increasing in frequency over the last few years. Food allergies in particular affect millions of people worldwide—this includes allergies to foods such as milk, peanuts, eggs and shellfish. They are typically caused by the immune system being hypersensitive to harmless substances in foods and the environment. Flavonoids are chemicals present in various fruits and vegetables that are known to have anti-allergic effects and show promise as natural allergic treatments. To better understand how these allergies can be treated, let’s look at an interesting anti-allergic mechanism in our cells. ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Unlocking the journey of gold through magmatic fluids

When one tectonic plate sinks beneath another, it generates magmas rich in volatiles such as water, sulphur and chlorine. As these magmas ascend, they release magmatic fluids, in which sulphur and chlorine bind to metals such as gold and copper, and transport these metals towards the surface of the Earth. As the extreme conditions relevant to natural magmas are very difficult to reproduce in the laboratory, the precise role of the different forms of sulphur in metal transport remains highly debated. However, an innovative approach ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Palliative care may improve quality of life for stroke survivors and their family members

Statement Highlights: About 800,000 people experience a stroke each year in the U.S., and due to recent advances in acute treatment, more people survive. Many stroke survivors experience long-term physical, mental and emotional health challenges. Palliative care is both a specialty and an approach to care that focuses on helping stroke survivors and their caregivers cope with these challenges by offering symptom management and improving communication about goals of care and quality of life. For a variety of reasons, palliative care is often underused, especially among Black, Hispanic and Asian patients. A new scientific statement from the American Heart Association outlining palliative ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Completing the timetree of primates: a new way to map the evolutionary history of life on Earth

The order Primates consists of not only our closest relatives on earth, the seven great apes, but also over 450 species of monkeys, lemurs, lorises, and galagos. Primates are fantastically diverse, from 400-pound gorillas to mouse lemurs (Microcebus) weighing just a single ounce. They exhibit some of the most remarkable behaviors observed in nature; chimpanzees ‘fish’ for termites in hollow logs using specially selected sticks, while orangutans use leaves as gloves to handle spiky durian fruit. They are some of the most intensely studied species on Earth, and yet there is no comprehensive molecular phylogenetic hypothesis of primate evolutionary history that summarizes the pattern ...

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Science16 Dec 2024

Rapid evolution: Researchers discover surprising novelty in mechanisms that determine sex of the African clawed frog

Hamilton, ON, Dec. 16, 2024 – Researchers at McMaster University have uncovered unexpected diversity in the genetic processes that determine the sex of the African clawed frog, a significant discovery in what was already one of the most widely studied amphibians in the world. A genomic analysis has uncovered a total of eight different sex chromosomes in just 11 species of the frog, many or all of which may contain unique and newly evolved genes that trigger male or female sexual differentiation. Previously, researchers had known of only three different sex chromosomes ...

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