Science
press releases.

Science13 Mar 2024

Photo project reveals life with a pet while experiencing homelessness

In a new study, people experiencing homelessness with a pet documented their lives in photos and participated in interviews, revealing their experiences and potentially informing support initiatives. Gemina Garland-Lewis of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues present this project in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on March 13, 2024. Having a pet while experiencing homelessness can boost physical and mental health and provide social benefits. However, it can pose unique challenges, such as making it difficult to access medical care, shelters, and other services at facilities ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

The Wim Hof method may reduce inflammation, per systematic review

The Wim Hof method may produce a beneficial anti-inflammatory response characterized by increased epinephrine levels and a reduction in pro-inflammatory cytokines, according to a systematic review published March 13, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Omar Almahayni and Lucy Hammond from the University of Warwick, UK. The Wim Hof method is touted by founder and extreme athlete Wim Hof as a practical way to improve physical and mental health. It consists of three pillars—the Wim Hof breathing method, cold therapy, and commitment. Several studies have assessed the impact of the Wim Hof method on ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Crucial insights into animal defense mechanisms and tradeoffs revealed

New study reveals insights into predator-prey dynamics in the animal kingdom, focusing on sea anemones. The surprising discovery of a native anemone population lacking the Nv1 neurotoxin led to an investigation into its impact on defending against grass shrimp, a native predator. Anemones without Nv1 showed weakened defensive abilities, while the neurotoxin, when present, attracted mummichog fish, natural predators of grass shrimp. This research enhances our understanding of marine ecosystems and the intricate balance of predator-prey interactions and tradeoffs. A new ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

ANYmal can do parkour and walk across rubble

ANYmal has for some time had no problem coping with the stony terrain of Swiss hiking trails. Now researchers at ETH Zurich have taught this quadrupedal robot some new skills: it is proving rather adept at parkour, a sport based on using athletic manoeuvres to smoothly negotiate obstacles in an urban environment, which has become very popular. ANYmal is also proficient at dealing with the tricky terrain commonly found on building sites or in disaster areas. To teach ANYmal these new skills, two teams, both from the group led by ETH Professor Marco Hutter of the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, followed different approaches. Exhausting the mechanical options Working ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Peter Flemings wins Robert R. Berg Outstanding Research Award

Jackson School of Geosciences Professor Peter Flemings is the recipient of the 2024 Robert R. Berg Outstanding Research Award, a top honor bestowed by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, a worldwide professional association. Over the course of his career, Flemings has worked to apply his academic research to effect real-world breakthroughs. His work analyzing how pressure within Earth’s crust is controlled by geology and fluid flow, for example, shaped how oil companies now safely search for hydrocarbons. Flemings and his students explored how the evolution of rock layers controls the flow of fluids within them and the distribution ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Most consumers continue to expect rising food prices

Most U.S. consumers surveyed in February 2024 predicted that they would see an increase in food prices over the next 12 months. Sixty-four percent of respondents predict food prices to rise in the next year, and the average predicted increase is 3.7%, according to the February Consumer Food Insights Report. The survey-based report out of Purdue University’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability assesses food spending, consumer satisfaction and values, support of agricultural and food policies and trust in information sources. Purdue experts conducted and evaluated the survey, which ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Menopause explains why some female whales live so long

Females of some whale species have evolved to live drastically longer lives so they can care for their families, new research shows. The study focussed on five whale species that – along with humans – are the only mammals known to go through menopause. The findings show that females of these whale species that experience menopause live around 40 years longer than other female whales of a similar size. By living longer without extending their “reproductive lifespan” (the years in which they breed), these ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

High resolution imagery advances the ability to monitor decadal changes in emperor penguin populations

Woods Hole, Mass. (March 13, 2024) - Emperor penguin populations have been exceedingly difficult to monitor because of their remote locations, and because individuals form breeding colonies on seasonal sea ice fastened to land (known as fast ice) during the dark and cold Antarctic winter. Now, new research that incorporates very high resolution (VHR) satellite imagery with field-based validation surveys and long-term data has provided the first multi-year time series that documents emperor penguin global population trends. Researchers ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Gilbert H. L. Tang appointed Editor-in-Chief of JACC: Case Reports

Renowned cardiovascular surgeon Gilbert H. L. Tang has been named Editor-in-Chief of JACC: Case Reports, bringing a wealth of experience and expertise to the helm of one of the top cardiovascular journals published by the American College of Cardiology. “I am both honored and humbled to be a cardiac surgeon among the Editor-in-Chiefs in the JACC family of journals,” Tang said. “It is going to be an exciting time for JACC: Case Reports to build on a team of multidisciplinary cardiovascular practitioners with diverse backgrounds and experiences, and at different stages of their professional careers, to enhance the journal’s academic and educational impact globally.” Tang ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Simple trick could improve accuracy of plant genetics research

Researchers have published a simple trick that improves the accuracy of techniques that help us understand how external variables – such as temperature – affect gene activity in plants. “There are really two contributions here,” says Colleen Doherty, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of molecular and structural biochemistry at North Carolina State University. “First, we’re raising the visibility of a problem that many of us in the ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Revolutionizing plant science: a groundbreaking method for expanding in situ root datasets using CycleGAN

The root system is crucial for plants to absorb water and nutrients, with in situ root research providing insights into root phenotypes and dynamics. While deep-learning-based root segmentation methods have advanced the analysis of root systems, they require extensive manually labeled datasets, which are labor-intensive and time-consuming to produce. Current methods of in situ root observation vary in their effectiveness. Moreover, traditional root image recognition methods face challenges such as subjectivity and ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Melissa A. Kelly, MS, CGC receives the 2024 ACMG Foundation Carolyn Mills Lovell Genetic Counselor Award

Melissa A. Kelly, MS, CGC is the recipient of the 2024 ACMG Foundation Carolyn Mills Lovell Genetic Counselor Award. Ms. Kelly received the Lovell award for her platform presentation at the 2024 ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting, “Integrating genomic medicine into healthcare: Experience disclosing >5,000 clinically relevant results within the Geisinger MyCode Community Health Initiative.” Ms. Kelly said, “Thank you to the ACMG Foundation. I am humbled and honored to receive the Carolyn Mills Lovell Genetic Counselor Award. Throughout my career, I have seen many ways in which patients and their families interact with and are impacted ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

ACMG Foundation/Revvity 2024 Travel Award presented to Meena Sethuraman, BS

Meena Sethuraman, BS is the 2024 recipient of the ACMG Foundation/Revvity Travel Award. Ms. Sethuraman was selected to receive the award for her platform presentation, "Characterizing pathogenicity of ACADVL variants in very long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency.” Meena Sethuraman is a third-year medical student in the Physician Scientist Training Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Her research, being conducted with Dr. Jerry Vockley, FACMG, involves studying genetic variants in fatty acid oxidation disorders. Meena previously received her BS in Neurobiology at the University of Washington. Her undergraduate and post-baccalaureate ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Enhancing crop productivity analysis: a novel approach using SIF and PRI for accurate GPP estimation in rice canopies

Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) and the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) have emerged as significant tools in assessing the photosynthetic and carbon sequestration capacities of terrestrial vegetation, particularly for estimating gross primary productivity (GPP). However, the relationship between SIF, PRI, and GPP encounters challenges due to large temporal and spatial variabilities as well as the influence of various observational factors such as canopy structure and physiological state. Despite the potential of multi-angle observations and the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) model to mitigate these ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Breastfeeding mothers who exercise pass on a beneficial hormone to their children

Although women have breastfed since the beginning of time, there is very little scientific research on how exercise affects breast milk. Online forums for pregnant women and new mothers are full of questions about this exact issue: Can exercise cause breast milk to go sour? What happens to breast milk if you do high-intensity interval training? Will strenuous exercise affect your milk supply? “There are so many myths about exercise and breast milk. We simply need more knowledge,” says researcher Trine Moholdt at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She heads several international research projects ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Federal housing programs protect residents from lead exposure

Americans already living in housing supported by federal housing assistance programs have significantly lower blood lead levels than counterparts who would later join these programs, according to new research led by environmental health scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Tufts Medical Center. The findings appear in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives. “Living in federally-supported housing—especially public housing—limited opportunities for residents’ exposure to lead,” says first author MyDzung Chu, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Institute for ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

UNIST researchers uncover revolutionary phenomenon in liquid crystals

A research team, affiliated with UNIST, has unveiled for the first time a new principle of motion in the microworld, where objects can move in a directed manner simply by changing their sizes periodically within a substance known as liquid crystal. Led by Professor Jonwoo Jeong and his research team in the Department of Physics at UNIST, this discovery is poised to have far-reaching implications across various research fields, including the potential development of miniature robots in the future. In their research, the team observed that air bubbles within ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Recreational activities such as golfing, gardening may be associated with increased ALS risk among men

Participation in recreational activities — including golfing, gardening or yard work, woodworking and hunting — may be associated with an increase in a person’s risk for developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a Michigan Medicine study finds. While many activities were associated with increased ALS risk, several were sex specific. The results are published in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences. “We know that occupational risk factors, like working in manufacturing and trade industries, are linked to an increased risk for ALS, and this adds to a growing literature that recreational activities may also represent ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Air quality in Europe shows significant improvements over the last two decades, study finds

A study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), has consistently estimated daily ambient concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and O3 across a large ensemble of European regions between 2003 and 2019 based on machine learning techniques. The aim was to assess the occurrence of days exceeding the 2021 guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) for one or multiple pollutants, referred to as “unclean air days”. The ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

No persistent cough in 4 out of 5 with Tuberculosis

More than 80% of patients with tuberculosis, the world’s most deadly infection, do not have a persistent cough, despite this being seen as a key symptom of the disease. The infection is predominantly transmitted by coughing, but probably also through simply breathing. Research, led by Amsterdam UMC and the Amsterdam Institute for Global Heath and Development, analysed data on more than 600,000 individuals in Africa and Asia and found that 82.8% of those with tuberculosis had no persistent cough and 62.5% had no cough at all. These results ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Progesterone protects babies from preterm birth

Women with a short cervix around 20 weeks of pregnancy have an increased risk of preterm birth. Preventing preterm birth in pregnant women with a short cervix is a crucial step in protecting the health of the child. Research from Amsterdam UMC now shows that, in pregnant women with a short cervix around 20 weeks, Progesterone (a hormone) is better than a cervical pessary at reducing the risk of severe preterm birth. This study was published today in the BMJ. "This is an important improvement that can contribute to the reduction of preterm births and the associated complications, such as an increased risk of infant mortality and long-term health problems for the child," says ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Rice’s Naomi Halas awarded Optica’s C.E.K. Mees Medal

HOUSTON – (March 13, 2024) – Rice University’s Naomi Halas has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the C.E.K. Mees Medal by Optica for “her design, fabrication, and demonstration of nanoparticles with specific optical and physical properties, the widespread application of which enables advances in fields including cancer therapy, water security, and light-driven chemistry.” Halas’ groundbreaking work in nanotechnology has enabled the creation of metal nanoparticles possessing structural ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

UCL Press Release Under embargo until Wednesday 13 March 2024, 00:01 UK Time Imported giant sequoia trees are well adapted to the UK, growing at rates close to their native ranges and capturing large amounts of carbon during their long lives, finds a new study led by UCL researchers with colleagues at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The new research, published in Royal Society Open Science, found that the most massive species of redwood trees, Sequoiadendron giganteum, known as the giant sequoia, can potentially pull an average of 85 kilograms of carbon out ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Who knew that eating poo was so vital for birds’ survival?

We all know that the early bird gets the worm, but new research shows they turn to something far more nutritious for their breakfast. Poo – either their own, or from other birds – provides them with essential nutrients, energy, and helps them adapt to new environments and seasonal variations, especially when they are developing. New research led by the University of South Australia and published in Biological Reviews explains how eating faeces (known as coprophagy) shapes wild birds’ digestive tracts (gut biota), enabling them to absorb lost or deficient nutrients and adjust to seasonal variations in food sources. This ...

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Science13 Mar 2024

Tsetse fly fertility damaged after just one heatwave, study finds

The fertility of both female and male tsetse flies is affected by a single burst of hot weather, researchers at the University of Bristol and Stellenbosch University in South Africa have found. The effects of a single heatwave were even felt in the offspring of heat exposed parents, with more daughters being born than sons. The study, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, helps explain why tsetse are declining in some parts of their range in Africa and has important implications for the disease they spread, particularly sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in cattle. Lead author ...

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