Science
press releases.

Science10 Oct 2024

Gonzalez receives award to study causes of racial disparities in amputation rates in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS --More than 8 million people, ages 40 and older, living in the U.S. are affected by peripheral arterial disease, a lifelong medical condition and the most common cause of limb amputation in the country. A data scientist, health services researcher and vascular surgeon who studies health equity, Andrew A. Gonzalez, M.D., J.D., MPH, of the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine, has received a 2024 Ralph W. and Grace M. Showalter Research Trust award to conduct a new study, Exploring Causes of Racial Disparities in Amputation Rates in Indiana. Dr. ...

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Science10 Oct 2024

AI-supported dermatology: Now for darker skin tones too, thanks to a new data set

In many countries in Africa, up to nine out of ten children suffer from a skin problem, and there are far too few local dermatologists. Artificial intelligence could help with diagnosis, but needs to be trained with the relevant images, so researchers have created a new data set for dark skin tones. Demand is high, the lack of dermatologists acute: in many countries in Africa, there is less than one dermatology specialist per one million people – compared to the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of ...

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Science10 Oct 2024

To make children better fact-checkers, expose them to more misinformation — with oversight

In an era when online misinformation is seemingly everywhere and objective facts are often in dispute, UC Berkeley psychologists in a new study have presented a somewhat paradoxical partial solution: Expose young children to more misinformation online — not less. Doing so in limited circumstances, and with careful oversight and education, can help children gain the tools they'll need to sort fact from fiction online, said Evan Orticio, a Ph.D. student in UC Berkeley’s Department of Psychology and lead author of a paper published today ...

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Science10 Oct 2024

The hidden costs of free apps – more than personal data

Procrastination, sleep deprivation and reduced focus are part of the price we pay for free mobile apps. This is according to researchers at Linköping University and RISE, who have investigated the costs hidden behind the free apps. Based on their results, they also have some advice for decision-makers. Most of us are becoming aware that our digital attention is hard currency for companies like Google and Facebook. By analysing our digital behaviour patterns, they can target tailored advertising directly to our feeds. Our attention becomes the product that is sold to advertisers. For example, YouTube’s three billion monthly users generated ...

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Science10 Oct 2024

Study reveals 85% of women prefer choice between self-sampling and traditional cervical screening

A new study led by researchers at Queen Mary University of London reveals women would welcome the option to choose between self-sampling and traditional screening done by a nurse or doctor for human papillomavirus (HPV)-based cervical screening. The study, published in the Journal of Medical Screening, assessed a group of 2,300 women aged 24-65 who had collected their own samples alongside having their standard cervical screening in 38 GP practices across England. Participants were asked about their screening preference and their attitudes toward being offered a choice between ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Extreme rainfall linked to heightened risk of death

Extreme rainfall events are associated with an increased risk of death from all causes as well as from heart and lung diseases, finds an analysis of data from 34 countries and regions published by The BMJ today. The health effects of extreme rainfall varied by local climate and vegetation coverage, providing a global perspective on the effect of extreme rainfall events on health. Climate change is intensifying the frequency and severity of short term rainfall events, and emerging evidence suggests a compelling link between rainfall events and adverse health outcomes, particularly transmission ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

New research highlights the overlooked dangers of subtle and covert abuse in intimate relationships

Peer-reviewed – Scoping Review - People New research from the University of East Anglia has uncovered a significant gap in understanding of a harmful form of domestic abuse known as subtle or covert abuse. Unlike more obvious forms of physical or verbal abuse, subtle abuse is less visible but can be just as damaging to victims. The review found that current research on this topic is limited, despite its potentially widespread impact. The findings suggest that subtle abuse ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Snowflake dance analysis could improve rain forecasts

The key to more accurate rainfall predictions may lie in the intricate dance of falling snowflakes, a new study has found. The research, observing the physical motion of falling ice crystals, will help scientists better estimate where and when these crystals will melt into raindrops, a crucial stage in the formation of many types of rain. Published today (Thursday 10 October) in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, the study involved scientists watching how fake snowflakes fell in a substance ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

ASPB welcomes Hong Ma as Society President

ASPB is delighted to welcome its new President, Hong Ma, who was elected in 2023 as President-elect and served in this role starting October 1, 2023. He stepped into his role as ASPB President on October 1, 2024 following the end of now-Past President Leeann Thornton’s term. “A top priority is to support and train young plant biologists toward becoming members of a community with greater diversity, to amplify the voices of diverse members of our society, and to promote diversity and representation in society leadership and society activities,” ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

UC Irvine scientists track and analyze lofted embers that cause spot fires

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 9, 2024 — In the chaos of a wildfire, heat, wind, flames and fuel interact to produce embers that are lofted into surrounding areas, starting new spot fires and spreading destruction and property loss in California’s wildland-urban interface. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have conducted first-of-their-kind field experiments to better understand the physics of these firebrands, and their results can help authorities better model the outcomes of disasters that are happening with greater frequency in a warming climate. In a paper published recently in the journal Physics of Fluids, UC Irvine team members describe their ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Legal system fails to protect people from malicious copyright cases at the cost of sexual privacy, study warns

Changes need to be made to the UK legal system to protect people from exploitative litigation designed to prey on vulnerabilities, a new study warns. Reforms need to be made to protect adults from unfairness during copyright enforcement legal proceedings. This would also help to prevent children being exposed to adult pornography online. The malicious litigation typically involves copyright holders or their agents of online pornographic works obtaining contact details of internet users via a court order to ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Newly discovered Late Cretaceous birds may have carried heavy prey like extant raptors

Newly discovered ancient birds from Late Cretaceous North America were hawk-sized and had powerful raptor-like feet, according to a study published October 9, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Alexander Clark of the University of Chicago, U.S. and colleagues. The most diverse birds during the Cretaceous Period were a now-extinct group called enantiornithines, known from all over the world during this time. However, enantiornithines and other Mesozoic birds are mainly known from Lower Cretaceous deposits, with a relatively poor record ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Sexist textbooks? Review of over 1200 English-language textbooks from 34 countries reveals persistent pattern of stereotypical gender roles and under-representation of female characters across countri

Gender biases around male and female roles and under-representation of female characters appeared in textbooks from around the world, with male-coded words appearing twice as often as female-coded words on average, according to a study published October 9, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Lee Crawfurd from the Center for Global Development, United Kingdom, and colleagues. School textbooks play an important role in shaping norms and attitudes in students—one reason why controversy ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Interview with Lee Crawfurd, Center for Global Development, United Kingdom

Interview with Lee Crawfurd ### What first drew you to study gender bias in school textbooks, and why did you choose to investigate this topic? I was raised by a gay feminist single mother who was a school teacher and loves to challenge gender stereotypes, so this is something I've always been interested in. This personal background, combined with recent advancements in computerized text analysis and the new availability of digital textbooks, led me to this line of research. What are the key findings from your research? It's not really news that there is some ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Why people think they’re right, even when they are wrong

COLUMBUS, Ohio – If you smugly believe you’re right in a disagreement with a friend or colleague, a new study suggests why you may actually be wrong. Researchers found that people naturally assume they have all the information they need to make a decision or support their position, even when they do not. The researchers called it the “illusion of information adequacy.” “We found that, in general, people don’t stop to think whether there might be more information that would help them make a more informed decision,” said study co-author ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

UTIA entomologist elected president of SIP

Juan Luis Jurat-Fuentes, professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, was elected to serve as president of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology (SIP). Jurat-Fuentes officially began his appointment at the society’s 56th annual meeting, held July 28 – August 1 in Vienna, Austria. “Being elected by the SIP members as president is humbling and a great honor. I have big shoes to fill in this role as previous SIP executive councils were led by outstanding leaders,” Jurat-Fuentes said. Jurat-Fuentes has a long history of ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Effects of exposure to alcohol in early pregnancy can be detected in the placenta

A new study led by Pr. Serge McGraw, researcher at CHU Sainte-Justine and professor at Université de Montréal, shows that the effects of alcohol exposure on an embryo prior to implantation in the uterus can be detected in the late-gestation placenta. Using a mouse model well suited for this type of exposure, the researcher and his team observed significant molecular changes in the placenta, including the expression of numerous genes and DNA methylation, an epigenetic marker that influences gene expression by ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Scientists caution no guarantees when it comes to overshooting 1.5°C

Even if it is possible to reverse the rise of global temperatures after a temporary overshoot of 1.5°C, some climate damages inflicted at peak warming, including rising sea levels, will be irreversible, according to a new study published today in Nature. The study is the culmination of a three-and-a-half-year project, backed by the European innovation fund HORIZON2020, looking at so-called ‘overshoot’ scenarios where temperatures temporarily exceed the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Scientists discover viral trapdoor blocking HIV and herpes

Scientists discover viral trapdoor blocking HIV and herpes Ghent, 10 October 2024 – A group of researchers led by Xavier Saelens and Sven Eyckerman at the VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology discovered how a protein linked to the human immune system wards off HIV-1 and herpes simplex virus-1 by assembling structures in the cell that lure in these viruses and then trap them or even take them apart. The research was spearheaded by first author George Moschonas, published in Cell Host and Microbe, and could be used to devise new strategies to combat these viruses. The innate immune system of the human body can sense and respond to viruses by ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Another step towards decoding smell

We often only realize how important our sense of smell is when it is no longer there: food hardly tastes good, or we no longer react to dangers such as the smell of smoke. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn and the University of Aachen have investigated the neuronal mechanisms of human odor perception for the first time. Individual nerve cells in the brain recognize odors and react specifically to the smell, the image and the written word of an object, for example a banana. The results of this study close a long-standing knowledge gap between animal and human odor research and have now been published in the renowned ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Adding vagus nerve stimulation to training sessions may boost how well sounds are perceived

Just as a musician can train to more sharply distinguish subtle differences in pitch, mammals can improve their ability to interpret hearing, vision, and other senses with practice. This process, which is called perceptual learning, may be enhanced by activating a major nerve that connects the brain to nearly every organ in the body, a new study in mice shows. Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, the investigation centers on the vagus nerve, which carries signals between the brain and the heart, digestive system, and other organs. Experts have long explored targeting this nerve with ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

ACS president comments on award of 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9, 2024 — On behalf of the American Chemical Society (ACS), President Mary K. Carroll congratulates today’s winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry: David Baker, of the University of Washington; Demis Hassabis, of Google DeepMind; and John M. Jumper, of Google DeepMind. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize with one half to Baker “for computational protein design” and the other half jointly to Hassabis and Jumper “for protein structure prediction.” “This incredibly complex problem of predicting the 3D structures of proteins from the sequence of amino acids has been one of the biggest challenges ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Frequency of screening and spontaneous breathing trial techniques

About The Study: Among critically ill adults who received invasive mechanical ventilation for more than 24 hours, screening frequency (once-daily vs more frequent screening) and spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) technique (pressure-supported vs T-piece SBT) did not change the time to successful extubation. However, an unexpected and statistically significant interaction was identified; protocolized more frequent screening combined with pressure-supported SBTs increased the time to first successful ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

The secret to slimming? Special ‘skinny genes’ double weight loss

The secret to losing weight could all be down to a combination of 14 ‘skinny genes’, a new study has found. University of Essex researchers discovered they helped people drop twice as much weight when they ran for half an hour three times a week. The team - led by Dr Henry Chung, from the School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences - found those with more of the genes slimmed the most across eight weeks. People with the most markers lost up to 5kg during the study and people without ...

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Science9 Oct 2024

Tiny antibodies to fight the dangerous effects of opioids

Opioid drugs are highly effective at relieving pain but come with severe drawbacks. Their side effects range from dizziness to potentially fatal respiratory depression. Their illegal use contributes to nearly half a million deaths worldwide each year. Researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have discovered a molecule, called nanobody NbE, which binds tightly and durably to the cell receptors that usually bind to opioids, thereby blocking the drugs’ activity. Moreover, the scientists were able to create even smaller molecules that retain the same properties, which could prove far more effective than current treatments in ...

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