Science
press releases.

Science8 Apr 2024

Americans are bad at recognizing conspiracy theories when they believe they’re true

Conspiracy theorists get a bad rap in popular culture, yet research has shown that most Americans believe conspiracy theories of some sort. Why then, if most of us believe conspiracies, do we generally think of conspiracy theorists as loony? New research from the University of Illinois Chicago found that it’s because people are quite bad at identifying what is or isn’t a conspiracy theory when it’s something they believe. The finding held true whether people self-identified as being liberal ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

Skin pigmentation bias in pulse oximeters to get closer look

By Beth Miller Pulse oximeters send light through a clip attached to a finger to measure oxygen levels in the blood noninvasively. Although the technology has been used for decades — and was heavily used during the COVID-19 pandemic — there is increasing evidence that it has a major flaw: it may provide inaccurate readings in individuals with more melanin pigment in their skin. The problem is so pervasive that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration recently met to find new ways to better evaluate the accuracy and performance of the devices in patients with more pigmented skin. Christine O’Brien, assistant professor of biomedical ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

Gendered recommendations in 19th century list of books for boys and girls set the stage for field of children’s literature today

Children’s literature became a distinct category during the Progressive Era in the United States, largely through the work of professional “book women” like children’s librarians, publishers, and teachers. In a chapter in a new book, researchers examine one of the first attempts to formalize a selection of existing literature into a canon of children’s books, the 1882 pamphlet Books for the Young by Caroline M. Hewins. They also analyze the books selected by Hewins, with a focus on books designated for boys only and for girls only. The ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

MU center projects a dip in farm income for springtime

Another decline in net farm income is projected for the Show-Me State, according to the Spring 2024 Missouri Farm Income Outlook released by the University of Missouri’s Rural and Farm Finance Policy Analysis Center (RaFF). The report offers a state-level glimpse at projected farm financial indicators, including farm receipts, production expenses and other components that affect net farm income. Projections from the report suggest that declining market receipts and lower crop prices play a role in the estimated $0.8 billion decrease in net farm income for 2024. “Although decreased production expenses offer some relief, reduced livestock inventories ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

Preventive angioplasty does not improve prognosis

For heart attack patients, treating only the coronary artery that caused the infarction works just as well as preventive balloon dilation of the other coronary arteries, according to a new large study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and others. The results are published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Heart attack is a common disease with risks of serious complications. It has long been unclear what the best strategy is for treating narrowings in coronary arteries separate from the specific vessel that caused the infarction. A new large Swedish study has investigated ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

Unveiling the world's skin: a map of global land cover from 2000-2020

A new study introduces the Hybrid Global Annual 1-km International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) Land Cover Maps for the period 2000-2020. This innovative dataset, free to access, marks a significant step forward in global land cover mapping, addressing longstanding issues of disagreement and incompatible classification systems among existing land cover products. Global land cover data, essential for environmental research, are plagued by inconsistencies across different datasets, complicating global change studies. The diversity in classification systems and methodologies challenges the creation of a unified, accurate land ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

The World Mitochondria Society keynote speakers announced: Professor Eric Schon and professor Howy Jacobs

Save the Date for the 15th World Mitochondria Society Annua Meeting on October 29-31, 2024, at DoubleTree by Hilton Berlin Ku’damm, Berlin, Germany. The WMS is pleased to announce the participation of two distinguished keynote speakers for the Targeting Mitochondria 2024 conference in Berlin this October. Keynote Speaker of Day 1: Prof. Eric Schon Professor Eric Schon from Columbia University, USA will deliver a presentation titled "Mitochondria in Alzheimer disease: it's not what you think". Prof. Schon challenges the conventional understanding ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

Youths with mood disorders 30 percent less likely to acquire driver’s license than peers

Philadelphia, April 8, 2024 – Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found that teens and young adults with mood disorders, such as depression and bipolar disorder, were 30% less likely to obtain their driver’s license than peers without such disorders. Additionally, those youths with mood disorders experienced a slightly elevated risk of crashing. These findings suggest that these teens and young adults could benefit from guidance on obtaining licensure and accessing training to avoid crashes when they are newly licensed. The findings were published online today ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

More premature babies born following Swedish parental leave policy

The introduction of a policy protecting parental leave benefits in Sweden in 1980 had unintended consequences on child health. The policy led to an increase in premature birth rates. This is shown by a study from researchers at Stockholm University, published in JAMA Pediatrics. The Swedish so-called speed premium policy was introduced in 1980 in order to protect couples’ level of income-based parental leave benefits when they had children in quick succession. The new study from Stockholm University evaluates the health consequences of the policy. The researchers conclude that by ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ above drinking water guidelines in global source water

Per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances – commonly known as PFAS – are a group of over 14,000 human-made chemicals that have been popular since the 1950s for their diverse skills in resisting heat, water, grease and stains. They’ve been commonly found in household products like non-stick frypans, clothing, cosmetics, insecticides, and food packaging, as well as specialty industry products, like firefighting foam. But despite their broad skillset, the chemicals have a dark side: they’re known as ‘forever chemicals’ as once they’re in the environment – ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

An inside look at how plants and mycorrhizal fungi cooperate

For millions of years, underground fungi have lived in symbiosis with plant roots. Plants provide photosynthesized carbon, while fungi deliver water and nutrients. In order to do so, these organisms share space at cellular scale: fungi stretch a network of tendrils called arbuscules into a plant’s root cells, and both organisms rearrange their cells around this structure to facilitate sharing. Recently, researchers have been able to study both sides of this interaction up close, using RNA sequencing to understand gene expression: one of the first cross-kingdom spatially-resolved transcriptomics studies to date. This paper ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

Do opponents’ race, gender, and party impact US congressional fundraising?

Donations for a political candidate can be motivated by support for that candidate or by opposition to the candidate’s opponent. New research published in Social Science Quarterly found that female Democrats and non-white male Democrats in the United States have a fundraising advantage when running against a white male Republican. Female Republicans or non-white male Republicans do not have this advantage when running against white male Democrats. To assess the impact that race, gender, and party ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

First-in-human study demonstrates reduction of hard-to-reach ventricular tachycardias

Berlin, Germany – 8 April 2024: A new technology using ultralow temperature cryoablation (ULTC) has eliminated clinical ventricular tachycardia (VT) in 94% of patients. The late-breaking science is presented at EHRA 2024, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 VT is a leading cause of sudden death in patients with heart failure and a reduced ejection fraction.2 Approximately 30% of patients with ischaemic and non-ischaemic cardiomyopathies develop ventricular arrhythmias including VT.3 Typical therapies to prevent VT include antiarrhythmic medication, such as amiodarone, and an implantable ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

McMaster researchers create first-ever guidelines to help kids build tolerance to food allergens

Researchers with McMaster University have crafted the first-ever guidelines to help prepare families who plan to build their child’s tolerance to common food allergens. These international guidelines, published on April 8, 2024 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, standardize the preparation process for families considering oral immunotherapy, a process that involves giving very small amounts of an allergen, like peanuts, to patients and gradually increasing the amount to build up their tolerance. Until now, ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

Cannabis use during pregnancy linked to increased risk of ADHD, autism and intellectual disability in children

A new study presented at the European Psychiatric Association Congress 2024 reveals a significant association between prenatal cannabis use disorder (CUD) and an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and intellectual disability (ID). Cannabis remains by far the most consumed illicit drug in Europe. Around 1.3% of adults in the European Union (3.7 million people) are estimated to be ...

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Science8 Apr 2024

Ontario’s proposed plan to broaden alcohol sales will harm people

The Ontario government’s plans to broaden alcohol sales to privately operated stores in the province could lead to higher consumption rates and related harms, write commentary authors in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.240069. “These changes will result in a 289% increase in the number of alcohol stores in Ontario (n = 2935 in March 2023, per the Liquor Control Board of Ontario), will likely reduce the price of alcohol, and will represent the biggest shift in decades with respect to how alcohol is sold in Canada,” write Drs. Norman Giesbrecht, Centre for Addiction and ...

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Science7 Apr 2024

Short-term incentives for exercise can lead to sustained increases in activity

Short-term incentives for exercise can lead to sustained increases in activity NIH-supported study shows certain perks can spur long-term behavior change in adults with cardiovascular disease risks Adults with heart disease risks who received daily reminders or incentives to become more active increased their daily steps by more than 1,500 after a year, and many were still sticking with their new habit six months later, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health that published in Circulation. ...

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Science7 Apr 2024

Plozasiran (ARO-APOC3) for severe hypertriglyceridemia

About The Study: This randomized clinical trial demonstrates the potential clinical utility of plozasiran, an investigational APOC3-targeted small interfering–RNA drug, to reduce triglyceride level in patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia. Additional studies will be required to determine whether plozasiran favorably modulates the risk of severe hypertriglyceridemia-associated complications. Authors: Daniel Gaudet, M.D., Ph.D., of the Université de Montréal, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2024.0959) Editor’s ...

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Science5 Apr 2024

Common loons threatened by declining water clarity

The Common Loon, an icon of the northern wilderness, is under threat from climate change due to reduced water clarity, according to a new study authored by Chapman University professor, Walter Piper. The study, published April 1 in Ecology, followed up an earlier paper that showed substantial reproductive decline in the author’s study area in northern Wisconsin. The paper is the first clear evidence demonstrating an effect of climate change on this charismatic species. Specifically, the paper shows that July rainfall results in reduced July water clarity in loon territories. Reduced water clarity, in turn, ...

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Science5 Apr 2024

In the evolution of walking, the hip bone connected to the rib bones

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Before the evolution of legs from fins, the axial skeleton — including the bones of the head, neck, back and ribs — was already going through changes that would eventually help our ancestors support their bodies to walk on land. A research team including a Penn State biologist completed a new reconstruction of the skeleton of Tiktaalik, the 375-million-year-old fossil fish that is one of the closest relatives to limbed vertebrates. The new reconstruction shows that the fish’s ribs likely attached to its pelvis, an innovation thought to be crucial to supporting the body and for the eventual evolution of walking. A paper describing the new ...

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Science5 Apr 2024

"The Fold", a new book from the SCA's Laura U. Marks offers a philosophy for living in an infinitely connected cosmos

From star-stuff to software; hoagies to humans, each entity is alive and occupies its own private place in the cosmos. Grant Strate University Professor in SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts (SCA) Laura U. Marks’ new book The Fold offers a practical philosophy and aesthetic theory for living in an infinitely connected cosmos. Analyzing fiction, film, interactive media, and everyday situations, Marks outlines methods for detecting and augmenting the connections between each living entity and the cosmos. The Fold shows it ...

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Science5 Apr 2024

Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits

By Jade Boyd Special Rice News Rice University physicists have discovered a phase-changing quantum material — and a method for finding more like it — that could potentially be used to create flash-like memory capable of storing quantum bits of information, or qubits, even when a quantum computer is powered down. Phase-changing materials have been used in commercially available non-volatile digital memory . In rewritable DVDs, for example, a laser is used to heat minute bits of material that cools to form either crystals or amorphous clumps. Two phases ...

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Science5 Apr 2024

nTIDE March 2024 Jobs Report: Despite recent declines, people with disabilities remain engaged in the labor market

East Hanover, NJ – April 5, 2024 – March job numbers showed minimal changes for people with disabilities, according to today’s National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) semi-monthly update issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD). Despite small declines in the employment-to-population ratio over the past four months, employment remains at historically high levels for people with disabilities. The small gain in their labor force participation rate is a positive sign that people with disabilities are still engaging in the labor market by looking for ...

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Science5 Apr 2024

UC Irvine-led research team builds first tandem repeat expansions genetic reference maps

Irvine, Calif., April 5, 2024 — A research team led by the University of California, Irvine has built the first genetic reference maps for short lengths of DNA repeated multiple times which are known to cause more than 50 lethal human diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington’s disease and multiple cancers. The UC Irvine Tandem Genome Aggregation Database enables researchers to study how these mutations – called tandem repeat expansions – are connected to diseases, ...

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Science5 Apr 2024

Blast exposure linked to intestinal problems

NEW YORK—A study by New York and Rocky Mountain U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs researchers showed blast exposure can cause intestinal permeability, a condition that can lead to gut bacteria entering the bloodstream and causing problems in other parts of the body. The study was the first to show a connection between blasts and intestinal permeability in a real-world operational setting. Researchers found biomarkers of intestinal permeability and signs of bacteria in the blood in 23 of 30 military breachers who were exposed to controlled, low-level explosive blasts during training. The ...

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