Science
press releases.

Science23 Aug 2024

Battelle names Anibal Boscoboinik 'Inventor of the Year'

Anibal Boscoboinik, a materials scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been named an “Inventor of the Year” by Battelle Memorial Institute. Battelle, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, partners with Stony Brook University to form Brookhaven Science Associates, which manages the Lab on behalf of DOE’s Office of Science. Battelle manages or co-manages nine national labs across the country. At Battelle’s yearly Celebration of Solvers, they award Inventor of the ...

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Science23 Aug 2024

People seen as wise share these characteristics, according to a new study

What makes someone seem wise? People view wisdom through the lens of applying knowledge and thinking logically as well as considering others’ feelings and perceptions, finds a new study led by University of Waterloo researchers who looked at perceptions of wisdom across 12 countries and five continents. Researchers examined the underlying principles guiding who we perceive as wise in political leadership, science, and daily life. Across different cultures, participants’ judgements converged on two dimensions: reflective orientation and ...

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Science23 Aug 2024

Intestinal parasite could hold key to scar-free wound healing, study suggests

Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey have discovered that a protein produced by parasitic worms in the gut enhances wound healing in mice. The study, to be published August 23 in the journal Life Science Alliance (LSA), reveals that applying the protein to skin wounds speeds up wound closure, improves skin regeneration, and inhibits the formation of scar tissue. Whether the protein can be harnessed to enhance wound healing in human patients remains to be seen. Skin wounds must be rapidly closed in order to prevent infection, but rapid wound closure can favor the development of scar tissue instead of properly regenerated skin. The balance between scarring ...

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Science23 Aug 2024

New approach for profiling complex dynamics at the single-molecule level

A team of researchers led by Professor Sebastian Deindl at Uppsala University has developed a pioneering method that vastly improves the ability to observe and analyse complex biological processes at the single-molecule level. Their work is set to be published in the upcoming issue of the journal Science. “With our new technique, we can now extend single-molecule biophysics to the genome scale. This advance is expected to significantly deepen our understanding of how nucleic-acid interacting proteins function in ...

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Science23 Aug 2024

Researchers demonstrate metasurfaces that control thermal radiation in unprecedented ways

NEW YORK, August 23, 2024 — In a groundbreaking advancement, researchers with the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) have experimentally demonstrated that metasurfaces (two-dimensional materials structured at the nanoscale) can precisely control the optical properties of thermal radiation generated within the metasurface itself. This pioneering work, published in Nature Nanotechnology, paves the way for creating custom light sources with unprecedented capabilities, ...

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Science23 Aug 2024

Terahertz detection: a novel approach to real-time monitoring of perovskite ageing

Hybrid perovskites have great potential for use in advanced electronic devices like solar cells and LEDs. However, one major issue holding them back is that they don't last as long as needed for widespread commercial use. As these materials age, their performance drops, which is a big problem for both researchers and companies. To tackle this issue, it's important not only to improve the stability of these perovskites but also to develop methods for detecting how they age in real-time. By understanding how these materials degrade over time, we can make them more durable and efficient. In a recent study, researchers led by Prof. Yiwen Sun at Shenzhen University used the terahertz ...

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Science23 Aug 2024

Colorful traits in primates ease tensions between groups

Primate ornamentation plays a crucial role in communication not only within social groups but also between them, according to a new study. The research reveals that the males of species with overlapping home ranges often display vibrant colors or elaborate features, traits that may help reduce intergroup aggression by enabling quick assessments of potential rivals. Ornaments are sexually selected traits that serve as powerful signals, often indicating an individual’s genetic quality, health or physical strength. These differences ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Mosquitoes sense infrared from body heat to help track humans down

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — While a mosquito bite is often no more than a temporary bother, in many parts of the world it can be scary. One mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, spreads the viruses that cause over 100,000,000 cases of dengue, yellow fever, Zika and other diseases every year. Another, Anopheles gambiae, spreads the parasite that causes malaria. The World Health Organization estimates that malaria alone causes more than 400,000 deaths every year. Indeed, their capacity to transmit disease has earned mosquitoes the title of deadliest ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Life after (feigned) death

A new study led by scientists from the University of Bristol has revealed what animals do after they have feigned death in order to avoid being killed by a predator and what the context of this behaviour is. Many animals, as a last-ditch defence, become motionless after being contacted by a predator. This behaviour is so common that it's recognised in such phrases as “playing possum”. It is even said to occur in humans in extreme circumstances. In previous studies, carried out by the same team using antlion larvae, scientists noticed that they become motionless after being individually handled. At one point ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Fisheries research overestimates fish stocks

Many fish stocks around the world are either threatened by overfishing or have already collapsed. One of the main reasons for this devastating trend is that policymakers have often ignored the catch limits calculated by scientists, which were intended to be strict thresholds to protect stocks. But it has now become clear that even these scientific recommendations were often too high. In the European Union (EU), for example, fisheries are primarily managed through allowable catch limits, known as quotas, which are set by the European ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

ARDD 2024 | What can we do before the "cliff" of aging arrives?

When exactly does the aging process start? With the aging mechanisms unclear, no consensus has been reached about aging “cliffs”, where our body functions and biological processes just change dramatically, as if overnight. In 2019, a study published in the authoritative peer-reviewed journal Nature Medicine, based on plasma proteomics data, identified 34, 60, and 78 years old as key time points of aging. In August 2024, Nature Aging, a Nature portfolio journal focusing on aging mechanisms, published the latest findings incorporating comprehensive data including transcriptomics and metabolomics, pinpointing the aging cliffs to the 40s and 60s. In the biomedical field, multi-omics ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Americans face disparities in exposure to tobacco on streaming platforms

Tens of millions of Americans are being exposed to tobacco content on streaming services, according to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The researchers found that the odds of encountering tobacco products being advertised, marketed or promoted on these platforms increased based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and smoking habits. The nationally representative study, published today in JAMA Network, revealed an estimated 12.4% of American adults were exposed to tobacco promotion on streaming services. Exposure was highest among those with a high school education or less (16.4%), Black/African American respondents (19.4%), ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Trends in children’s exposure to food and beverage advertising on television

About The Study: In this repeated cross-sectional study of children’s exposure to food-related television advertisements, exposure via children’s programming decreased substantially. However, most advertisements seen were still for unhealthy products, and exposure from all programming remained substantial. Findings of more than 90% of advertising exposure not from children’s programming and more than 1,000 food-related advertisements seen per year suggest the need for government regulations based on time of day rather than programming. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Lisa M. Powell, PhD, email powelll@uic.edu. To ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Disparities in exposure to tobacco on television or streaming platforms

About The Study: In this study of the prevalence of exposure to tobacco advertisements on TV or streaming platforms among U.S. adults, disparities in exposure by race or ethnicity, education level, and smoking status were identified. These findings underscore the need for targeted public health interventions and regulation to address these disparities and reduce the impact of tobacco advertisements on vulnerable populations. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Sanjay Shete, PhD, email sshete@mdanderson.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.27781) Editor’s ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

How thyroid hormone fuels the drive to explore

Thyroid hormone plays a key role in regulating a range of physiologic functions, including metabolism, temperature, heart rate, and growth. It accomplishes this impressive array of activities by interacting with almost every organ system in the body. Yet despite a long history of research on how thyroid hormone influences different organs, its effects on arguably the most crucial organ — the brain — have remained shrouded in mystery. Now, scientists at Harvard Medical School have gained ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Higher thiazide doses shown to reduce kidney stone events

Higher thiazide doses are associated with greater reductions in urine calcium, which in turn correlate with fewer symptomatic kidney stone events, according to a Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) study published in JAMA Network Open. Thiazide diuretics, commonly prescribed to prevent kidney stone recurrence, are drugs that act directly on the kidneys to promote diuresis (urine flow) by inhibiting the sodium/chloride cotransporter located in the distal convoluted tubule of a nephron ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Bilateral reference framework for high-resolution dichotomous image segmentation

A research team has developed a computer vision technique that can perform dichotomous image segmentation, high-resolution salient object detection, and concealed object detection in the same framework. Their novel bilateral reference framework (BiRefNet) is able to capture tiny-pixel features and holds potential for a wide range of practical computer vision applications. The work is published in the journal CAAI Artificial Intelligence Research on August 22. In computer vision research, ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

New study examines use of opioids for chronic cough

INDIANAPOLIS – Chronic cough, with symptoms lasting more than eight weeks, affects approximately one in 10 adults. Cough is among the most common reasons for seeking medical care in the United States, yet chronic cough is difficult to treat. One of the largest studies of chronic cough and one of the first to explore the use of opioids, which are known to suppress cough, to treat these patients, has found that 20 percent of patients with chronic cough received a prescription for a cough suppressant containing an opioid. With the goals of estimating opioid prescription in the chronic cough population and of informing alternative treatment ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Chronic cough may be hereditary

Chronic cough is among the most common reasons for seeking medical care, with middle-aged women the group most affected. New studies at Uppsala University also show that this condition appears to be a hereditary phenomenon. The studies have been published in ERJ Open Research and PLOS ONE. “More than 10% of the population has a chronic cough, which has been shown to entail several negative consequences: reduced quality of life, reduced ability to work and voice problems. At present, we have insufficient knowledge about ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Investigating the role of interhemispheric pathways in motor recovery

Stroke and spinal cord injuries can severely impair motor functions, and understanding how to promote recovery is a critical challenge. While damaged neurons in the brain and spinal cord have limited ability to regenerate, the brain can form or strengthen alternative neural pathways involving uninjured parts of the brain, enabling functional recovery. Such reorganization of pathways in the brain is called neural plasticity, and identifying the involved pathways and understanding their functions can ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Adaptive-k: A simple and effective method for robust training in label noisy datasets

Training deep learning models on large datasets is essential for their success; however, these datasets often contain label noise, which can significantly decrease the classification performance on test datasets. To address this issue, a research team consisting of Enes Dedeoglu, H. Toprak Kesgin, and Prof. Dr. M. Fatih Amasyali from Yildiz Technical University developed a groundbreaking method called Adaptive-k, which improves the optimization process and yields better results in the presence of label noise. Their research was published on 15 August 2024 in ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Researchers observe floquet states in colloidal nanoplatelets driven by visible pulses

Solution-processed semiconductor nanocrystals are also called colloidal quantum dots (QDs). While the concept of size-dependent quantum effects had been long known to physicists, a sculpture of the theory into real nanodimensional objects remained impossible till the discovery of QDs. The size-dependent colors of QDs are essentially naked-eye, ambient-condition visualization of the quantum size effect. In recent years, researchers across the world have been searching for fascinating quantum effects or phenomena using the material platform of QDs, such as single-photon emission and quantum coherence manipulation. Floquet states (i.e., ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Gut molecule slows fat burning during fasting

LA JOLLA, CA—In a struggle that probably sounds familiar to dieters everywhere, the less a Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) worm eats, the more slowly it loses fat. Now, scientists at Scripps Research have discovered why: a small molecule produced by the worms’ intestines during fasting travels to the brain to block a fat-burning signal during this time. Although the exact molecule they identified in the worms has not yet been studied in humans, the new work helps scientists better ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Suicide rates among doctors have declined, but female doctors still at high risk

Suicide rates among doctors have declined over time, but are still significantly higher for female doctors compared with the general population, finds an analysis of evidence from 20 countries published by The BMJ today. The researchers acknowledge that physician suicide risk varies across different countries and regions, but say the results highlight the ongoing need for continued research and prevention efforts, particularly among female physicians. According to some estimates, one doctor dies by suicide every day in the US, and ...

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Science22 Aug 2024

Calls for cold water swimming to be made safer for women

Cold water swimming is growing in popularity amongst women, but more support is needed to make many wild swimming sites in the UK safer and more accessible, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The research, published in Women’s Health, explored the habits of women who enjoy cold water swimming and was carried out in collaboration with researchers from the University of Portsmouth, University of Sussex, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, University of Plymouth and Bournemouth University. The team surveyed 1,114 women in the UK aged 16 to 80 years ...

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