Science
press releases.

Science20 Mar 2024

Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy awarded the Israel Prize for her work to raise awareness of Hamas’ crimes against humanity against Israeli women, children, men, and families

Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem awarded the Israel Prize in the field of Solidarity (Arvut Hadadit) for her tireless work to raise awareness and acknowledgement to the crimes committed by Hamas on and following October 7th against Israeli women, children, men and families. Elkayam-Levy established the “Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children”, aimed at giving voice to the victims and their families and raising awareness of the concerning developments in war crimes against women, children, men and families on and after October 7th and raising support for this cause. Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy: ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

Partisanship influences consumer confidence, spending more than expected

A new study from the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) has found that national elections have a greater impact on consumer sentiment and spending intentions than previously thought, especially during transitions of power between political parties. Led by Hector Sandoval, director of the Economic Analysis Program and research assistant professor at BEBR, the study draws on years of meticulous observation and analysis of monthly sentiments data collected by the UF Survey Research Center. Despite the wealth of data available ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

Researchers add swept illumination to open-top light-sheet microscope

Researchers have incorporated a swept illumination source into an open-top light-sheet microscope to enable improved optical sectioning over a larger area of view. The advance makes the technique more practical for nondestructive 3D pathology. 3D pathology is being explored as an alternative to traditional slide-based histology because it can provide detailed 3D insights into pathological structures and cellular interactions without altering the tissue. This approach makes it possible to analyze complex 3D tissue structures and to image thick tissues, which is not possible with slide-based methods. The researchers used their improved open-top ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

OFC 2024 brings innovations from leading global organizations and cutting-edge tech demonstrations to California

SAN DIEGO—A wave of innovation is hitting California as the Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC) gears up to showcase the latest breakthroughs in optical communications and networking. OFC will take place at the San Diego Convention Center from 24 to 28 March 2024 drawing industry leaders, experts, academia, media, analysts and students from around the world to explore the latest in optical technology. Innovative advancements in industrial technologies, as well as research in 800ZR, Coherent PON, Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO), multicore fiber, AI and ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

The first Neolithic boats in the Mediterranean

More than 7,000 years ago, people navigated the Mediterranean Sea using technologically sophisticated boats, according to a study published March 20, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Juan F. Gibaja of the Spanish National Research Council, Barcelona and colleagues. Many of the most important civilizations in Europe originated on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. During the Neolithic, communities clearly traveled and traded across the water, as evidenced by watercraft in the archeological record and the presence ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

Autism acceptance varies across countries – where should we target support?

Societal acceptance of autism varies considerably across different countries, with lowest levels of acceptance found in Japan and Belgium, new research shows. A survey of 306 autistic individuals from eight countries revealed that around three quarters of respondents do not feel accepted, or only sometimes feel accepted, as an autistic person. Among these countries, participants in Japan and Belgium reported the lowest levels of acceptance, while those in Canada, the UK, and South Africa reported comparatively higher levels. The study, published in PLOS ONE, is the ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

Ancient giant dolphin discovered in the Amazon

Measuring between 3 to 3.5 meters, 16 million years old: Paleontologists from the University of Zurich have announced the discovery of a new species of freshwater dolphin in the Peruvian Amazon region. Surprisingly, its closest living relatives can be found in the river dolphins of South Asia. River dolphins are among the rarest modern cetaceans, with most extant species critically endangered. Despite their similar appearance, however, these animals are not directly related, but represent the late survivors of different cetacean groups that once inhabited our planet. An international ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

Earlier retirement for people with chronic musculoskeletal pain

Frequent musculoskeletal pain is linked with an increased risk of exiting work and retiring earlier, according to a new study from the University of Portsmouth. The paper published this week in open-access journal PLOS ONE found the association between musculoskeletal pain and retiring earlier persisted even after accounting for working conditions, job satisfaction and sex. Dr Nils Niederstrasser and colleagues used data on 1,156 individuals aged 50+ living in England who took part in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Over the course of the 14-year data collection period, 1,073 of the individuals retired. The researchers found that people with musculoskeletal ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

MD Anderson Research Highlights for March 20, 2024

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Recent developments at MD Anderson offer insights into a combination therapy that slows pancreatic cancer progression, an all-oral treatment for older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) unable to receive intensive chemotherapy, novel targets to protect against osteoporosis and bone metastasis, the generation ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

An endless domino effect

If it walks like a particle, and talks like a particle… it may still not be a particle. A topological soliton is a special type of wave or dislocation which behaves like a particle: it can move around but cannot spread out and disappear like you would expect from, say, a ripple on the surface of a pond. In a new study published in Nature, researchers from the University of Amsterdam demonstrate the atypical behaviour of topological solitons in a robotic metamaterial, something which in the future may be used to control how robots move, sense their surroundings and communicate. Topological solitons can be found in many ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

JAMA Network names new editor in chief of JAMA Network Open

Chicago, March 20, 2024 – Eli Perencevich, M.D., M.S., has been named the Editor in Chief of JAMA Network Open. Dr. Perencevich is the Associate Chair for Clinical and Health Services Research and Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and the Director of the Center for Access & Delivery Research and Evaluation (CADRE) at the Iowa City VA Medical Center. With over 20 years of experience studying the epidemiology and outcomes of hospital-acquired infections using mathematical ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

New model clarifies why water freezes at a range of temperatures

NEW ORLEANS, March 20, 2024 — From abstract-looking cloud formations to roars of snow machines on ski slopes, the transformation of liquid water into solid ice touches many facets of life. Water’s freezing point is generally accepted to be 32 degrees Fahrenheit. But that is due to ice nucleation — impurities in everyday water raise its freezing point to this temperature. Now, researchers unveil a theoretical model that shows how specific structural details on surfaces can influence water’s freezing point. The researchers will present their results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2024 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

Does sedentary leisure time affect men’s risk of erectile dysfunction?

Previous research has identified genetic variants linked to sedentary leisure behavior, which includes activities such as watching television, using a computer, and operating a vehicle. In a new analysis published in Andrology, a higher genetic susceptibility to leisure computer usage was associated with a greater risk of erectile dysfunction in men. In the analysis of data on more than 200,000 men, each 1.2 hour increase in leisure computer usage predicted 3.57-fold greater odds of erectile dysfunction. There was no evidence to suggest ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

Does party affiliation affect consumer sentiment and spending intentions after elections?

Consumer sentiment generally refers to consumers’ attitudes and expectations about economic conditions. A new analysis published in Economic Inquiry indicates that U.S. party affiliation has a significant effect on consumer sentiment, and that sentiment, in turn, affects spending intentions. In the study that relied on information dating back to 1991 and focused on data surrounding elections in which the governing party changed, survey respondents from Florida whose party affiliation matched the winning U.S. presidential candidate reported more optimistic views about personal and national economic conditions immediately after the election. In ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

Self-emergence of stational periodic arrangement of dual microdroplets through quasi one-dimensional confinement

Polymer systems composed of multiple components can spontaneously induce emulsion or microdroplets by mechanical mixing, as an intermediate state of macroscopic phase separation. Unfortunately, the size of generated droplets is nonuniform and their spatial-arrangement is rather random. In addition, they tend to grow larger with time (coarsening). To prevent the change of the microdroplet size, researchers have currently attempted to rapidly lower the temperature, but these efforts can never improve the uniformity of the droplets. If uniformly arranged homogeneous droplets entrapping certain substrates such ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

Special efforts needed to allow 988 and 911 Systems to work in concert

Getting the 988 and 911 emergency telephone systems to work in concert requires detailed planning and close cooperation, and such efforts may benefit from having one or two people at the local level who act as champions for interoperability, according to a new RAND report. In order to make sure callers are routed to the appropriate system, efforts need to involve representatives from both 988 and 911 call centers, law enforcement, mobile crisis teams, peer support specialists, behavioral health specialists, and people who have lived experience with crisis services, researchers say. Local champions can aid such efforts by establishing priorities, convening local stakeholders, brokering ...

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Science20 Mar 2024

More hysterectomies can be averted with earlier uterine artery embolization for postpartum hemorrhages

FAIRFAX, Va. (March 20, 2024)—Early intervention with a minimally invasive treatment called uterine artery embolization (UAE) can help women avoid hysterectomy due to severe bleeding after childbirth, according to a new study being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting in Salt Lake City. “These findings are important and may help more women avoid hysterectomy and other very serious complications of uncontrolled hemorrhage,” said lead author Younes Jahangiri, M.D., a third-year resident in the interventional and diagnostic radiology program at ...

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Science19 Mar 2024

Rice researchers develop 3D-printed wood from its own natural components

Researchers at Rice University have unlocked the potential to use 3D printing to make sustainable wood structures, offering a greener alternative to traditional manufacturing methods. Wood has historically been marred by wasteful practices generated during shaping processes, driving up costs and environmental impact. Now researchers in materials science and nanoengineering at Rice have developed an additive-free, water-based ink made of lignin and cellulose, the fundamental building blocks of wood. The ink can be used to produce architecturally ...

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Science19 Mar 2024

Researchers identify key regulators underlying regeneration in Drosophila

Some animals possess the remarkable ability to regenerate lost structures, exemplified by a lizard regrowing its tail. However, this regenerative process must be tightly regulated by the body to ensure proper tissue organization and to prevent abnormal growths, such as cancer. Yet, the precise mechanisms underlying this regulation are not well known. In a recent study published in PLOS Genetics, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have identified an RNA-regulator called Brat as a key player in restraining tissue regeneration through its modulation of downstream growth factors. “There are constraints and protective factors that are important for ...

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Science19 Mar 2024

Cape Lion was genetically diverse prior to extinction, researchers find

Cape lions used to roam the Cape Flats grassland plains of South Africa, in what is now known as Western Cape Providence. When Europeans arrived in South Africa in the mid-1600s, Cape lions, along with many other African carnivores and herbivores, were hunted as agricultural practice to protect livestock and humans. By the mid-1800s, less than 200 years since European arrival, Cape lions had been hunted to extinction. European naturalists described the Cape lion as having a particularly black mane and as being morphologically distinct. However, alternative depictions and descriptions of Cape ...

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Science19 Mar 2024

Pushing the limit of the periodic table with superheavy elements

Scientists from Massey University in New Zealand, the University of Mainz in Germany, Sorbonne University in France, and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) discuss the limit of the periodic table and revising the concept of the “island of stability” with recent advances in superheavy element research. Their work is the cover feature of the February 2024 Nature Review Physics. In addition to the Nature Reviews Physics feature, Physics Reports published a review on the atomic electronic structure theory for superheavy elements. What is the heaviest bound nucleus ...

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Science19 Mar 2024

Synthetic dimension dynamics to manipulate light

In the realm of physics, synthetic dimensions (SDs) have emerged as one of the frontiers of active research, offering a pathway to explore phenomena in higher-dimensional spaces, beyond our conventional 3D geometrical space. The concept has garnered significant attention, especially in topological photonics, due to its potential to unlock rich physics inaccessible in traditional dimensions. Researchers have proposed various theoretical frameworks to study and implement SDs, aiming at harnessing phenomena like synthetic gauge fields, quantum Hall physics, discrete solitons, and topological phase transitions in four dimensions or higher. Those proposals ...

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Science19 Mar 2024

Sexual harassment goes unchecked in many sub-Saharan African newsrooms

As much as 58% of sexual harassment reports lead to no action in sub-Saharan African newsrooms, study finds. Sexual harassment often goes unchecked in sub-Saharan African newsrooms despite many employers having policies in place, according to a study conducted by City, University of London and the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Researchers Dr Lindsey Blumell (City) and Dinfin Mulupi (Maryland) surveyed nearly 600 news professionals and analysed 17 anti-sexual harassment policies in newsrooms across eight sub-Saharan African countries between July and October 2020. The study sampled data from Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, ...

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Science19 Mar 2024

A sneak-peak of the updated human salivary proteome wiki

Alexandria, VA, USA – A Hands-on Workshop introducing the Updated Human Salivary Proteome (HSP) Wiki was presented at the 102nd General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, on March 13-16, 2024, in New Orleans, LA, USA. The information accumulated in the literature about salivary proteins, their expression, function, and role in health and disease has been made available by establishing the Human ...

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Science19 Mar 2024

FGF-2 promotes periodontal healing in an osteoporosis model rat

Alexandria, VA, USA – A study investigating the effects of local application of fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) on periodontal healing in osteoporosis model rats was presented at the 102nd General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, on March 13-16, 2024, in New Orleans, LA, USA. The abstract, “FGF-2 Promotes Periodontal Healing in an Osteoporosis Model Rat” was presented during the “Periodontal ...

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