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press releases.

Science12 Dec 2024

Genes that determine tooth shape identified

Genetic variants that determine the shape of your teeth – including a gene inherited from Neanderthals – have been identified by a team co-led by UCL researchers. In a new paper published in Current Biology, scientists found substantial tooth differences between ethnicities, potentially due in part to a gene inherited from Neanderthals that was only found in study participants of European origin. Co-lead author Dr Kaustubh Adhikari (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment and The Open University) said: “Teeth ...

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Science12 Dec 2024

Study reveals role of allele dosage in improving sweetpotato traits

Sweetpotatoes are an agricultural powerhouse that feeds millions globally. However, their complex genetics make it challenging for breeders to understand and improve traits like yield, disease resistance, and nutritional content. A new study reveals insights into the significance of leveraging “allele dosages” in sweetpotato breeding practices. “Sweetpotatoes are hexaploid, meaning they have six copies of each chromosome, unlike diploid crops like tomato or rice, which have two," explained Zhangjun Fei, a professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute and one of the study's lead authors. “This genetic ...

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Science12 Dec 2024

National Academy of Inventors partners with PMU to recognize three exceptional innovators

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is proud to announce the recipients of the inaugural Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University (PMU)-National Academy of Inventors International Patent Award. This year’s recipients will be honored at a special ceremony on December 12th, 2024 at PMU’s campus in Al-Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The PMU-NAI International Patent Award was created to recognize and honor distinguished scientists, research institutions, research centers, and universities across the globe for their outstanding patents and inventions that create positive societal ...

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Science12 Dec 2024

Women born prematurely are at greater risk of committing suicide

Not only are they the smallest among us, premature children also face health and life challenges that make them the most vulnerable. Generally speaking, they have a slightly higher risk of mortality due to illness. It is now apparent that they also have a higher risk of unexpected death from so-called external causes: road traffic accidents, substance abuse and suicide. This has been revealed in a major Nordic study led by Professor Kari Risnes from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The researchers have analyzed birth data and causes of death for nearly 37,000 individuals aged between 15 ...

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Science12 Dec 2024

What brings richness to sparkling wines?

“Rich” and “full-bodied” are terms that people often use to describe the taste of wine. They are also the properties that kokumi compounds bring to foods like mature Gouda cheese, though scientists haven’t widely explored them in wines. In ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers now connect the dots and report 11 probable kokumi compounds in sparkling wines. Kokumi is often confused with the better-known term umami. Umami is a savory, meaty flavor and is one of the basic five tastes, along with sweet, ...

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Science12 Dec 2024

World’s smallest molecular machine: reversible sliding motion in ammonium-linked ferrocene

Artificial molecular machines, nanoscale machines consisting of a few molecules, offer the potential to transform fields involving catalysts, molecular electronics, medicines, and quantum materials. These machines operate by converting external stimuli, like electrical signals, into mechanical motion at the molecular level. Ferrocene, a special drum-shaped molecule composed of an iron (Fe) atom sandwiched between two five-membered carbon rings, is a promising foundational molecule for molecular machinery. Its discovery earned the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1973, and it has since ...

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Science12 Dec 2024

Why deep sleep is helpful for memory

It has been known for nearly 20 years that slow, synchronous electrical waves in the brain during deep sleep support the formation of memories. Why that is was previously unknown. Now, writing in the journal Nature Communications, a team of researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin posits an explanation. According to the study, the slow waves make the neocortex, the location of long-term memory, especially receptive to information. The findings could help to optimize the treatment approaches that are intended to support memory formation from outside. How do permanent memories form? Experts believe that while we sleep, our brains replay the events of ...

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Science12 Dec 2024

Ugh, my stomach: Identifying amino acids that prevent sporulation in food poisoning

Food poisoning is a common, yet unpleasant, illness caused by eating contaminated items. It is sometimes caused by Clostridium perfringens, a pathogen widely found in soil and the intestinal tracts of animals. The pathogen multiplies in environments with little oxygen, for example, curry stored in a pot. After ingestion of the pathogen, they form spores in the small intestinal tracts. The toxins produced during spore formation cause diarrhea and abdominal pain, but the underlying mechanism of spore formation has not been fully understood. Associate Professor Mayo Yasugi’s team at Osaka Metropolitan University’s ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Scientists find promising new target for antidepressants—in the gut

Researchers have discovered new connections between the gut and brain that hold promise for more targeted treatments for depression and anxiety, and could help prevent digestive issues in children by limiting the transmission of antidepressants during pregnancy. The study, published in the journal Gastroenterology, shows that increasing serotonin in the gut epithelium—the thin layer of cells lining the small and large intestines—improves symptoms of anxiety and depression in animal studies. The researchers also found ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Antidepressants may act in gut to reduce depression and anxiety

NEW YORK, NY (Dec. 11, 2024)--Most of us have experienced the effects of moods and emotions on our gastrointestinal tract, from “butterflies” in the stomach caused by nervousness to a loss of appetite when we’re feeling blue. A new study in animals suggests that targeting antidepressant medications to cells in the gut could not only be an effective treatment of mood disorders like depression and anxiety but may also cause fewer cognitive, gastrointestinal, and behavioral side effects for patients and their children than current treatments. “Antidepressants like Prozac and Zoloft that raise serotonin levels are important first-line ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

2025 SPIE-Franz Hillenkamp Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to Morgan Fogarty

BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA — SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, has announced Morgan Fogarty, who is expected to receive her PhD in Imaging Science from Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) in February, as the recipient of the 2025 SPIE-Franz Hillenkamp Postdoctoral Fellowship in Problem-Driven Biomedical Optics and Analytics. The annual award of $75,000 supports interdisciplinary problem-driven research and provides opportunities for translating new technologies ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Grants expand roadway safety programs to Native American youth and older drivers

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that in 2023 a staggering 40,990 people died from motor vehicle crashes in the United States, reflecting some of the highest numbers seen in nearly two decades. The Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego is creating programs to improve safety for all roadway users, including drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. With support from two grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) through the NHTSA, the school is developing an educational program geared towards Native American youth as well as new online courses to improve ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Tattoo or not tattoo: Testing the limits of beauty in body art

German survey respondents rated images of tattooed models as less beautiful than images of the same models with no tattoos, however younger people, tattoo artists and those with body art tolerated more ink, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on December 11, 2024 by Selina M. Weiler and colleagues from Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, Germany. Tattoos are a millennia-old practice estimated to adorn up to one in four people in the world today. The 1950s saw a resurgence of this once-marginalized medium in Western culture, with widespread acceptance ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

New study reveals unique insights into the life and death of Stone Age individuals from modern-day Ukraine

A research group led by Johannes Müller at the Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology, at Kiel University, Germany, have shed light on the lives of people who lived over 5,600 years ago near Kosenivka, Ukraine. Published on December 11, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, the researchers present the first detailed bioarchaeological analyses of human diets from this area and provide estimations on the causes of death of the individuals found at this site. The people associated with the Neolithic Cucuteni-Trypilla culture lived across Eastern Europe from approximately 5500 to 2750 BCE. With up to 15,000 inhabitants, some of their mega-sites are ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Feeling itchy? Study suggests novel way to treat inflammatory skin conditions

A new approach to treat rosacea and other inflammatory skin conditions could be on the horizon, according to a University of Pittsburgh study published today in Science Translational Medicine. The researchers found that a compound called SYM2081 inhibited inflammation-driving mast cells in mouse models and human skin samples, paving the way for new topical treatments to prevent itching, hives and other symptoms of skin conditions driven by mast cells. “I’m really excited about the clinical possibilities of this research,” said senior author Daniel Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., professor ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Noninvasive imaging method can penetrate deeper into living tissue

Metabolic imaging is a noninvasive method that enables clinicians and scientists to study living cells using laser light, which can help them assess disease progression and treatment responses. But light scatters when it shines into biological tissue, limiting how deep it can penetrate and hampering the resolution of captured images. Now, MIT researchers have developed a new technique that more than doubles the usual depth limit of metabolic imaging. Their method also boosts imaging speeds, yielding richer and more detailed images. This new technique does not require tissue to be ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

The distinct nerve wiring of human memory

The black box of the human brain is starting to open. Although animal models are instrumental in shaping our understanding of the mammalian brain, scarce human data is uncovering important specificities. In a paper published in Cell, a team led by the Jonas group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and neurosurgeons from the Medical University of Vienna shed light on the human hippocampal CA3 region, central for memory storage. Many of us have relished those stolen moments with a grandparent by the fireplace, our hearts racing to the intrigues of their stories from good old times, recounted with vivid imagery ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Biological diversity is not just the result of genes

How can we explain the morphological diversity of living organisms? Although genetics is the answer that typically springs to mind, it is not the only explanation. By combining observations of embryonic development, advanced microscopy, and cutting-edge computer modelling, a multi-disciplinary team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) demonstrate that the crocodile head scales emerge from the mechanics of growing tissues, rather than molecular genetics. The diversity of these head scales observed in different crocodilian species therefore arises from the evolution of mechanical parameters, such as the growth ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Wiley expands its KnowItAll solutions with new tools for LC-MS analysis, enterprise data management, and additional spectral advances

HOBOKEN, N.J.—Wiley, one of the world’s largest publishers and a global leader in research and learning, today announced the release of the new version of its KnowItAll software, with numerous advances to accelerate spectral analysis and optimize workflows. KnowItAll 2025, the latest version of Wiley’s comprehensive software suite for spectral analysis and analytical data management, introduces a groundbreaking new tool to automate LC-MS analysis, enhanced data management, and numerous other features to streamline analysis across multiple ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

2 U-M faculty members elected to National Academy of Inventors

ANN ARBOR—Two University of Michigan faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors. Robert Bartlett, professor emeritus of surgery at the Medical School, and Zhen Xu, professor of biomedical engineering at the College of Engineering and professor of radiology and neurosurgery at the Medical School, were elected this month to the academy. Bartlett and Xu were nominated for being innovative researchers with extensive work translating discoveries into ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Nanofluidic devices redefining matter manipulation at an unprecedented level

One of the great ambitions in the scientific world is to use tiny objects—such as molecules, viruses, and nanoparticles—as building blocks to construct essential macromolecules and materials, much like constructing intricate designs with LEGO bricks. However, achieving this requires overcoming significant challenges. Molecules in liquid environments move randomly and at extraordinary speeds—approximately many times faster than Usain Bolt at peak velocity—making precise manipulation extraordinarily challenging. To ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

JMIR Aging achieves top ranking, accepted into prestigious science citation indexes

(Toronto, December 11, 2024) JMIR Publications is proud to announce that JMIR Aging has been accepted for inclusion in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). This accomplishment follows a selective re-evaluation process, where a limited number of Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) journals were considered for inclusion. To be eligible, journals needed to rank among the top three in their respective categories based on the latest Journal Citation Reports (JCR) data. JMIR Aging’s acceptance into SCIE and SSCI underscores its exceptional quality and impact, demonstrated by its outstanding performance ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Southwest Research Institute seeks contractors worldwide to support Oil Sampling Program

SAN ANTONIO —December 11, 2024 — Southwest Research Institute seeks support from residents or visitors of countries worldwide to assist with an international oil sampling program. Selected participants will be paid to purchase prequalified oil samples from retail stores and ship them to SwRI’s headquarters in San Antonio. Prequalification for the program will occur via an emailed photo exchange. Participants will purchase four 1-quart or 1-liter containers, or one 1-gallon container, of specified brands ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Religious people are not more generous – with one exception

Religious believers are no more generous than atheists – at least as long as they don’t know what the recipient believes in. Finding this out increases generosity significantly, mainly because people give more to those who share their religion. This is the conclusion of a study carried out at Linköping University, Sweden. Nathalie Hallin is an atheist. Her colleague Hajdi Moche is a Christian. They both have a postdoc position at the Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning at Linköping. Together they wanted to find out if a religious belief makes a person more generous, which research has so far disagreed on and they themselves have ...

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Science11 Dec 2024

Uncovering the pigments and techniques used to paint the Berlin Wall

Street art takes many forms, and the vibrant murals on the Berlin Wall both before and after its fall are expressions of people’s opinions. But there was often secrecy around the processes for creating the paintings, which makes them hard to preserve. Now, researchers reporting in the Journal of the American Chemical Society have uncovered information about this historic site from paint chips by combining a handheld detector and artificial intelligence (AI) data analysis. “The research highlights the powerful impact of the synergy between chemistry and deep learning in quantifying matter, exemplified in this case by pigments that make street ...

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