Science
press releases.

Science3 Jun 2024

Understanding how abnormal embryos self-correct may provide women with a better chance of IVF pregnancy

Berlin, Germany: Aneuploidy (the presence of an abnormal number of chromosomes) in embryos is a major cause of impaired embryo development, leading to conditions such as Down syndrome, as well as to pregnancy loss. The transfer of such embryos in women undergoing IVF is therefore usually avoided because of unfavourable pregnancy outcomes. But mosaic embryos, comprising both genetically normal and abnormal cells, can result in perfectly normal babies. Now, researchers have been able to understand how these mosaic ...

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Science2 Jun 2024

Metformin may be as safe as insulin during pregnancy, 11-year data shows

BOSTON—Metformin is safe to use during pregnancy to manage diabetes, with no long-term adverse effects on the children born and their mothers for at least 11 years after childbirth, according to research presented Sunday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. This is the first study to look at longer term effects of metformin use during pregnancy. “Metformin has been extensively used for managing raised blood glucose values in pregnancy for many decades now. It is the only blood glucose-lowering oral medication approved ...

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Science2 Jun 2024

CDC reports its decade-long efforts in standardizing vitamin D tests

BOSTON—Vitamin D tests certified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Clinical Standardization Programs (CSP) are well calibrated overall, according to a new study presented Sunday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. However, the researchers found some inaccuracies among the assays studied. The blood tests show an “appropriate” level of analytical accuracy, said the study’s lead researcher, Otoe Sugahara, manager of the CDC Vitamin D Standardization-Certification Program (VDSCP) in Atlanta, Ga. Analytical accuracy is the test’s ability to correctly analyze vitamin D in this ...

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Science2 Jun 2024

More women report hip fractures earlier in life

BOSTON—Older women with low bone density are more likely to experience their first hip fracture in their 60s compared to older ages, according to research being presented Sunday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “Older women experience an increased risk of fragility hip fractures. These are hip fractures with minimal trauma or due to a fall from a standing height, and they are often deadly and disabling,” said Avica Atri, M.D., an Internal Medicine resident physician at Jefferson Einstein Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa. “As the population over 60 swells in the United States, a large proportion of women will be ...

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Science2 Jun 2024

New male birth control gel takes effect sooner than similar contraceptive methods

BOSTON—A novel male contraceptive gel combining two hormones, segesterone acetate (named Nestorone) and testosterone, suppresses sperm production faster than similar experimental hormone-based methods for male birth control, according to a new study. Results from an ongoing multicenter phase 2b clinical trial will be presented Sunday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston. “The development of a safe, highly effective and reliably reversible contraceptive method for ...

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Science1 Jun 2024

Childhood stress linked with earlier substance use in male and female teens

BOSTON—Stress during childhood is associated with earlier substance use in male and female adolescents, according to a study presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. Traumatic events may increase substance use risk for males, while environmental stress and early puberty may increase the risk for females, the researchers found. Early life stress is children’s experiences of abuse, neglect and conflict. Approximately 20% of adolescents in the United States have experienced early life stress at some point, and these experiences ...

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Science1 Jun 2024

Childhood sedentariness may cause premature liver damage in young adulthood

BOSTON—Children who are sedentary for more than six waking hours a day have a significantly increased risk of severe fatty liver disease and liver cirrhosis by young adulthood, a new study finds. The research findings will be presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass and published in Nature’s npj Gut and Liver. “We found that this relationship between sedentariness and liver damage is likely causal,” said lead researcher Prof. Andrew Agbaje, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., of the University of Eastern Finland ...

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Science1 Jun 2024

An unlikely hero in evolution: worms

One of Earth’s most consequential bursts of biodiversity—a 30-million-year period of explosive evolutionary changes spawning innumerable new species—may have the most modest of creatures to thank for the vital stage in life’s history: worms. The digging and burrowing of prehistoric worms and other invertebrates along ocean bottoms sparked a chain of events that released oxygen into the ocean and atmosphere and helped kick-start what is known as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, roughly 480 million years ago, according ...

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Science1 Jun 2024

Detecting machine-written content in scientific articles

The recent surge in popularity of AI tools such as ChatGPT is forcing the science community to reckon with its place in scientific literature. Prestigious journals such as Science and Nature have attempted to restrict or prohibit AI use in submissions, but are finding it difficult to enforce because of how challenging it is becoming to detect machine-generated language. Because AI is getting more advanced at mimicking human language, researchers at the University of Chicago were interested in learning ...

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Science1 Jun 2024

Polygenic risk scores give inaccurate and highly inconsistent results in embryo selection

Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) are estimates of an individual’s susceptibility to a specific complex trait obtained by aggregating the effects of dozens, thousands, and potentially millions of genetic variants associated with that specific trait into a single figure. Some private companies now market PRS embryo screening to prospective parents through the use of in vitro fertilisation and pre-implantation genetic testing. While PRS has great potential for prediction in live-born (mostly adult) individuals, its accuracy ...

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Science31 May 2024

Want to be a successful scientist? The McClements family has some tips

The latest book of prolific author David Julian McClements is a family affair. The Distinguished Professor of Food Science, along with his daughter Isobelle Farrell McClements and nephew Jake McClements, have written “How to be a Successful Scientist: A Guide for Graduate Students, Postdocs, and Professors” (Springer, 2024). The three authors offer different perspectives as scientists at different stages in their careers. Julian McClements, who has published more than 1,300 scientific articles and numerous books, is the most highly ...

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Science31 May 2024

Wealthier neighborhoods in Boulder saw lower bee diversity

Community gardens in higher-income Boulder neighborhoods have fewer varieties of bees than their medium-income counterparts, new University of Colorado Boulder research suggests. Scientists suggest that people in these neighborhoods tend to apply more landscaping practices, such as using fertilizers, which could impact bees’ habitats. The finding appeared May 22 in the journal Urban Ecosystems. “Bees are so important for local ecosystems through their pollination services. The landscape would not look the same without our pollinators,” ...

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Science31 May 2024

2024 Mahoney Life Sciences Prize goes to food scientist Lynne McLandsborough

University of Massachusetts Amherst food scientist Lynne McLandsborough has won the 2024 Mahoney Life Sciences Prize for her research that offers a solution to a sticky sanitation and food safety dilemma hounding the peanut butter and chocolate industries. “I was really surprised and excited,” McLandsborough says of winning the prize. “I think our research is innovative and there’s a need in the industry. It was a fun project.” She is already in talks with Mars, the world’s ...

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Science31 May 2024

Clues to mysterious disappearance of North America’s large mammals 50,000 years ago found within ancient bone collagen

50,000 years ago, North America was ruled by megafauna. Lumbering mammoths roamed the tundra, while forests were home to towering mastodons, fierce saber-toothed tigers and enormous wolves. Bison and extraordinarily tall camels moved in herds across the continent, while giant beavers plied its lakes and ponds. Immense ground sloths weighing over 1,000 kg were found across many regions east of the Rocky Mountains. And then, sometime at the end of the Last Ice Age, most of North America’s megafauna disappeared. How and why remains hotly contested. Some researchers believe the arrival of humans was pivotal. Maybe the animals were hunted and eaten, or maybe humans just altered ...

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Science31 May 2024

Do shape-memory alloys remember past strains in their life?

Endowed with the power of memory, certain alloys can magically return to their original shape when heated or deformed. However, the repeated back-and-forth between the original and new configuration may leave permanent imprints on the alloy’s microscopic features, which could then impact its ability to reversibly transform shape. Thus, unraveling the impact of the strain history on these alloys’ functionality is essential to improving predictive capabilities, but it has not received enough attention. To fill this knowledge gap, the National Science Foundation ...

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Science31 May 2024

Researchers identify a genetic cause of intellectual disability affecting tens of thousands

New York, NY [May 31, 2024]—Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and others have identified a neurodevelopmental disorder, caused by mutations in a single gene, that affects tens of thousands of people worldwide. The work, published in the May 31 online issue of Nature Medicine [DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03085-5], was done in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Bristol, UK; KU Leuven, Belgium; and the NIHR BioResource, currently based at the University of Cambridge, UK. The findings will improve clinical diagnostic ...

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Science31 May 2024

Relieving a fear of public speaking

By Alistair Jones SMU Office of Research - If you dread public speaking you are not alone. It is a leading social phobia, one that can cause a state of anxiety that reduces otherwise articulate people to nervous incoherence. A strong fear of public speaking is known as glossophobia. Academic studies estimate it affects 20 per cent of the population, but depending on the sample and methodology, the figure could be as high as 40 per cent. As American writer and humourist Mark Twain said, ...

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Science31 May 2024

European Academy of Sciences honors Rice’s Pol Spanos with prestigious award

HOUSTON – (May 31, 2024) – For his “exceptional contributions to the field of dynamics,” Pol Spanos, the Lewis B. Ryon Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering at Rice University, has been awarded the 2024 Blaise Pascal Medal in Engineering by the European Academy of Sciences. Spanos, who joined the Rice faculty in 1984, was recognized for his “theoretical insights, ranging from equivalent linearization to statistical quadratization, which have significantly advanced our understanding of structural behavior. These insights have not only led to more accurate predictions but have also empowered engineers ...

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Science31 May 2024

Sleep moderates the link between bullying and suicide in teens

DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting found that sleep duration significantly moderates the association between bullying and suicide attempts among adolescents in the U.S. The study revealed that 15% of adolescents reported they were bullied at school, and 16% were bullied electronically; 10.2% reported they had attempted suicide during the past year; and 77.3% did not adhere to sleep duration recommendations. Adolescents who reported 4 hours of sleep or less per night were two times as likely to attempt suicide, and sleep duration significantly moderated the association between bullying ...

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Science31 May 2024

The world’s most powerful anti-fungal chemistries cause fungal pathogens to self-destruct

Scientists have discovered that the most widely-used class of antifungals in the world cause pathogens to self-destruct. The University of Exeter-led research could help improve ways to protect food security and human lives. Fungal diseases account for the loss of up to a quarter of the world’s crops. They also pose a risk to humans and can be fatal for those with weakened immune systems. Our strongest "weapon" against fungal plant diseases are azole fungicides. These chemical products account for to a quarter of the world agricultural ...

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Science31 May 2024

Infants hear significantly more speech than music at home, UW study finds

Speech and music are the dominant elements of an infant’s auditory environment. While past research has shown that speech plays a critical role in children’s language development, less is known about the music that infants hear. A new University of Washington study, published May 21 in Developmental Science, is the first to compare the amount of music and speech that children hear in infancy. Results showed that infants hear more spoken language than music, with the gap widening as the babies get older. “We wanted to get a snapshot of what’s happening in infants’ home environments,” said corresponding author ...

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Science31 May 2024

Enhancement of guided thermal image super-resolution approaches

Researchers of CIDIS at ESPOL Polytechnic University have developed a new method to enhance thermal image super-resolution by employing synthetic imagery. This novel approach utilizes high-resolution images from the visible spectrum to guide the super-resolution of low-resolution thermal images, significantly improving the detail and utility of thermal imaging across various applications. When visualizing thermal images, one typically imagines the blurry, less-detailed outputs common with standard thermal ...

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Science31 May 2024

Virginia Tech scientists develop visual tool to help people group foods based on their levels of processing

Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC scientists studying ultra-processed foods have created a new tool for assessing the rewarding and reinforcing properties of foods that make up 58 percent of calories consumed in the United States. The foods have been linked to a wide range of negative health outcomes. The research, which was published in April in the journal Appetite, provides a collection of carefully curated images of minimally processed and ultra-processed foods matched on 26 characteristics, including macronutrients, sodium, dietary fiber, calories, price, and visual characteristics such as a color and portion size. The work was based on the NOVA classification system ...

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Science30 May 2024

ESA announces recipients of 2024 Awards

The Ecological Society of America is pleased to announce the winners of its 2024 awards, which recognize outstanding contributions to ecology in new discoveries, teaching, sustainability, diversity and lifelong commitment to the profession. These awards are designed to not only reward past achievements, but also to inspire a broad audience of scientists, educators and students, opening the door to new insights and collaborations that will further the impact of ecological research. “The Ecological Society of America is immensely proud to honor this year’s distinguished awardees,” said ESA President ...

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Science30 May 2024

People are altering decomposition rates in waterways

Humans may be accelerating the rate at which organic matter decomposes in rivers and streams on a global scale, according to a new study from the University of Georgia, Oakland University and Kent State University. That could pose a threat to biodiversity in waterways around the world and increase the amount of carbon in Earth’s atmosphere, potentially exacerbating climate change. Published in Science, the study is the first to combine a global experiment and predictive modeling to illustrate how human impacts to waterways may contribute to the global climate crisis. “Everyone in the world needs water,” ...

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