Science
press releases.

Science18 Apr 2024

Association for Chemoreception Sciences (AChemS) 46th Annual Meeting

Media Contact: Dr. Alissa Nolden, Chair - Public Information & Affairs Committee, anolden@umass.edu Bonita Springs, FL— The Association for Chemoreception Sciences (AChemS) stands as a premier organization dedicated to advancing the understanding of chemosensory systems. With a rich history spanning over four decades, AChemS has played a pivotal role in fostering interdisciplinary research and collaboration in the fields of taste, smell, and chemical senses. AChemS provides a platform for scientists, clinicians, and industry members from diverse backgrounds to exchange ideas, present cutting-edge research findings, and address pressing challenges ...

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Science18 Apr 2024

CEOs’ human concern translates into higher stock price

Compassionate leadership has tangible benefits: CEOs’ expressions of empathy correlate with positive stock performance, a study led by the University of Zurich shows. The researchers analyzed data from conference calls between CEOs and financial analysts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted an unprecedented financial crisis. Between 24 February 2020, and 20 March 2020, the value of U.S. companies on the stock market decreased significantly, surpassing the decline during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. At the onset of the pandemic, several CEOs made statements ...

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Science18 Apr 2024

Advancing performance assessment of a spectral beam splitting hybrid PV/T system with water-based SiO2 nanofluid

As the globe grapples with the urgent need to shift from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources, solar power stands as a beacon of hope. However, a significant challenge has been to efficiently capture and utilize the full spectrum of sunlight. Traditional photovoltaic (PV) panels convert sunlight into electricity but can't use the entire solar spectrum, especially the infrared part which is often wasted as heat. To address this, photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) systems have been developed. These hybrid systems ...

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Science18 Apr 2024

Oxygen vacancies mediated ultrathin Bi4O5Br2 nanosheets as efficient piezocatalyst for synthesis of H2O2 from pure water

As an important chemical raw material, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is widely applied in various aspects of industry and life. The industrial anthraquinone method for H2O2 production has the serious flaws, such as high pollution and energy consumption. By using ubiquitous mechanical energy, piezocatalytic H2O2 evolution has been proven as a promising strategy, but its progress is hindered by unsatisfied energy conversion efficiency. Bi4O5Br2 is regarded as a highly attractive photocatalytic material due to its unique sandwich ...

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Science18 Apr 2024

What women want: Female experiences to manage pelvic pain

A new study from the University of South Australia is putting people’s experiences of pelvic pain at the front of pain education to develop better pain management strategies and improved outcomes. Persistent pelvic pain is an umbrella term for pain in the pelvic area (below the belly button) which may be accompanied by symptoms suggestive of gynaecological, lower urinary tract, bowel, sexual, and pelvic floor dysfunction. In Australia, one in two women and people assigned female at birth experience persistent pelvic pain, with one in four reporting that pelvic pain affects their ability to undertake daily activities such as work, study, or exercise. This ...

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Science18 Apr 2024

Mind the gender gap – Met police least trusted by women

Across England, confidence lowest among women and ethnic minorities Tory voters more trusting of police Across all England’s regions, a study out in the journal Policing & Society spotlights London’s Metropolitan Police as the area where women trust the least. Researchers surveyed more than 8,000 men and women between July 2022 and September 2023 and found women generally trust police more than men. But among the nine English regions surveyed, compared with men, women’s trust is at its lowest in London. It comes after a 2023 investigation triggered by outrage at the rape, abduction and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer, uncovered ...

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Science18 Apr 2024

Opioid dependence remains high but stable in Scotland, new surveillance report finds

Opioid dependence in Scotland remains high but largely stable, according to a new University of Bristol-led analysis published in Addiction today [18 April] and by Public Health Scotland. The study is the first to estimate the number of people dependent on opioid drugs (such as heroin), and who are in or could benefit from drug treatment, among Scotland’s population since 2015/2016 estimates were published. Scotland has one of the highest rates of drug-related deaths in Europe, with the number of these more than doubling between 2011 and 2020. At 250-300 per million population in 2021-22, Scotland’s rate of drug-related deaths was ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Rice alumna wins prestigious merit-based fellowship for new Americans

HOUSTON – (April 17, 2024) – Rice University alumna Minjung Kim is one of 30 recipients of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, a merit-based graduate school program for immigrants and children of immigrants. The highly selective award recognizes fellows “for accomplishments that show creativity, originality and initiative [and for] the potential to make meaningful contributions to the United States” in their field of study. Each awardee receives up to $90,000 in funding to support their graduate studies at institutions across the U.S. “This fellowship is a unique experience from the very start — not only did it require me to think ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

First evidence of human occupation in lava tube cave in Saudi Arabia

Recent strides in interdisciplinary archaeological research in Arabia have unveiled new insights into the evolution and historical development of regional human populations, as well as the dynamic patterns of cultural change, migration, and adaptation to environmental fluctuations. Despite the challenges posed by limited preservation of archaeological assemblages and organic remains in arid environments, these discoveries are reshaping our understanding of the region's rich cultural heritage. One such breakthrough led by Griffith University’s Australian ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

New data identifies trends in accidental opioid overdoses in children

The US saw a 22% decline in rates of prescription-opioid overdose related emergency department (ED) visits in children 17 and younger between 2008 and 2019, but an uptick in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Henry Xiang of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, US, and colleagues. The authors also note that rates of pediatric opioid overdoses remain high in many populations. Opioid overdose has been declared a public health emergency in the United States but much of the focus has been on adults. In the new study, researchers analyzed overdoses ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Humans occupied a lava tube in Saudi Arabia for thousands of years

A large lava tube in Saudia Arabia provided valuable shelter for humans herding livestock over at least the past 7,000 years, according to a study published April 17, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Mathew Stewart of Griffith University, Brisbane and colleagues. Research in northern Arabia over the last decade has highlighted a diverse Holocene archaeological record. However, the timing of human occupations and their connections with the nearby Levant remain poorly understood, primarily due to poor preservation of organic remains in the region’s arid conditions. To circumvent this problem, Stewart ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Watching a video could change your attitude to rattlesnakes - though results varied by age, gender, religion and rattlesnake experience

Watching a video could change your attitude to rattlesnakes - though results varied by age, gender, religion and rattlesnake experience ### Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0298737 Article Title: Effects of relational and instrumental messaging on human perception of rattlesnakes Author Countries: USA Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. END ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

East coast mussel shells are becoming more porous in warming waters

Researchers at the American Museum of Natural History have found that over the last 120 years, the porosity—or small-scale holes—in mussel shells along the East Coast of the United States has increased, potentially due to warming waters. The study, which analyzed modern mussel shells in comparison to specimens in the Museum’s historic collection, was published today in the journal PLOS ONE. “Mussels are important on so many levels: they provide habitats on reefs, they filter water, they protect coasts during storms, and they are important commercially as well—I love mussels and I know many other people do, too,” said Leanne Melbourne, ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why

Lost your keys? Can’t remember where you parked the car? If only you had the memory of a mountain chickadee. These half-ounce birds, with brains slightly larger than a pea, stash tens of thousands of food items like seeds in tree bark, under dead leaves and inside pinecones across the mountains. When winter arrives, they can recall the exact locations of their caches, a skill that helps them survive the bitter cold and deep snow. In a new study published April 17 in the journal Current Biology, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and the ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Current police response to intimate partner violence calls for change

April 17, 2024-- Policing of intimate partner violence (IPV) may result in adverse consequences for survivors, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. However, the evidence concerning the generalized consequences of IPV policing has not been comprehensively evaluated until now and the results call into question whether IPV policing benefits survivors. This is the first review on the consequences of IPV policing in the U.S. The findings are published in the journal Aggression and Violent Behavior. IPV, which includes physical violence, sexual violence, psychological abuse, and other forms of coercion between current or former spouses or ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Sink to source: Does what we put into our plumbing end up back in the water supply?

When you see an advertisement for a detergent promising to brighten your clothes, something called a fluorescent whitening compound, or optical brightener, is probably involved. Such material absorbs UV light and emits visible blue light via fluorescence. The result? Brighter whites, vibrant colors. Yes, your clothes are glowing. As it turns out, these brighteners can make their way into the water supply. Luka Vucinic, a lecturer and environmental engineer at Glasgow Caledonian University in London, considers the problem of pollutants like fluorescent whitening compounds, microplastics, ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Making crops colorful for easier weeding

To make weeding easier, scientists suggest bioengineering crops to be colorful or to have differently shaped leaves so that they can be more easily distinguished from their wild and weedy counterparts. This could involve altering the crops’ genomes so that they express pigments that are already produced by many plants, for example, anthocyanins, which make blueberries blue, or carotenoids, which make carrots orange. Then, they say, weeding robots could be trained to remove only the weeds using machine learning. The authors outline their proposed strategy on April 17 in the journal Trends in Plant Science. “To improve ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Storks fly with a little help from their friends

With long legs and large wings, the white stork is a prominent star of the pageant that is animal migration. Flying from Europe towards Africa in autumn, and then back again in spring, birds can be seen taking to the sky in conspicuous flocks that herald the changing of the seasons. Now, a study from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany, has an explanation for how this collective phenomenon forms: the storks are choosing to fly together. With data on lifetime migrations of 158 storks, the study provides the first evidence of the social preference of storks during migration. In a paper, the researchers show that storks chose routes ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Examining sex differences in autism heritability

About The Study: The findings of this study including more than 1 million Swedish children suggest that the degree of phenotypic variation attributable to genetic differences (heritability) differs between males and females, indicating that some of the underlying causes of the condition may differ between the two sexes. The skewed sex ratio in autism spectrum disorder may be partly explained by differences in genetic variance between the sexes. Authors: Benjamin H.K. Yip, Ph.D., of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Sven Sandin, Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, are the corresponding authors. To access the embargoed ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Genetic variant identified that shaped the human skull base

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) and the Universities of Helsinki and Barcelona have identified a single nucleotide change key in the evolution of human skull morphology, affecting TBX1 gene expression and skull base development Tokyo, Japan – Humans, Homo sapiens, have unique features compared with other closely related hominin species and primates, including the shape of the base of the skull. The evolutionary changes underlying these features were significant in allowing the evolution ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Deeper sedation may help find difficult-to-detect polyps during colonoscopy

In patients undergoing colonoscopy to screen for colorectal cancer, deeper sedation using the anesthetic drug propofol may improve detection of "serrated" polyps — a type of precancerous lesion that can be difficult to detect, reports a study in the Online First edition of Anesthesiology, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). "Our study provides the first evidence that monitored anesthesia care with propofol might increase detection of serrated polyps, which are more likely to be missed than adenomatous polyps during colonoscopy," said lead author ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Magneto-pneumatic hybrid-driven soft actuator with bidirectional torsion

The ability of the human wrist to rotate around the forearm axis in 2 directions is crucial for many daily activities. This rotation, limited to a range of approximately [-90°, 90°], restricts the wrist's capacity to execute complex operational tasks. For example, when we open or lock a door with a key, our wrist performs a large rotational movement. When we screw, the wrist needs to twist 180° several times. However, due to the limited rotation angle, the hand needs to leave the key or screwdriver several times to complete the entire work process. In order to realize large rotation ratio in a single actuator, a research team from Zhejiang ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

One million US dollars for mapping the “springs of the spinal fluid”

A research team at DZNE has been awarded around one million US dollars for the development of an innovative, AI-based method to measure the “choroid plexus” three-dimensionally in human brain scans. These finely branched brain structures are the main sources of the “cerebrospinal fluid” and thus of great significance for the function of the brain and spinal cord. It is also assumed that they play a role in various neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s. The research project is funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). The “cerebrospinal fluid” (CSF) is ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Copper beads in pig feed reshape swine gut microbiome

Highlights: In lab experiments, copper shows antimicrobial properties, including against pathogens like Salmonella. Copper beads in animal feeds may improve gut health in pigs. A new bead design effectively delivers copper to the lower intestine. New findings show copper beads influence the microbial makeup in a pig’s gut, but more work is needed to optimize the benefits. Washington, D.C. — April 17, 2024 — Copper is a natural antimicrobial material that, when added to pig feed, may promote the growth and ...

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Science17 Apr 2024

Study finds iron-rich enamel protects, but doesn’t color, rodents’ orange-brown incisors

Chattering squirrels, charming coypus, and tail-slapping beavers — along with some other rodents — have orange-brown front teeth. Researchers have published high-resolution images of rodent incisors in ACS Nano, providing an atomic-level view of the teeth’s ingenious enamel and its coating. They discovered tiny pockets of iron-rich materials in the enamel that form a protective shield for the teeth but, importantly, don’t contribute to the orange-brown hue — new insights that could improve human dentistry. Human and animal teeth are coated in a ...

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