Science
press releases.

Science26 Feb 2024

Many older adults receiving home care do not receive palliative care before death

Many older adults receiving home care do not receive any palliative home care before death, suggesting we need better methods to identify people who need this support, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.221513. "Palliative care is an essential component of a holistic, comprehensive and patient-centred approach to care for all people with a life-limiting illness from the time of diagnosis with the disease," said Dr. Amy Hsu, investigator at the Bruyère Research Institute and faculty in the Department of Family Medicine at the ...

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Science24 Feb 2024

Scientists deliver portable total chemical analysis without pumps and tubes

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have engineered a new micro total analysis system that quantifies a target chemical in a microfluidic chip without pumps, tubes, and expensive detectors. The compound reacts with other chemicals to produce a gas, pushing ink in a connected chamber along a channel. Built-in light detectors help measure the flow speed, allowing measurement of the original chemical. The portability of the new device enables bedside, quantitative clinical analysis. Microfluidics is a revolutionary technology delivering precision chemistry with vastly less chemicals. ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Powering nitrogenases

Nitrogenases are considered promising candidates for the sustainable enzymatic production of ammonia and carbon compounds. Unfortunately, one bottleneck in this complex process, the supply of electrons to the enzymes, has remained a mystery until now. Now a team at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg has discovered two essential electron carriers which play a key role in determining the performance of iron (Fe) nitrogenase, thus opening up new possibilities for elucidating and maximizing nitrogenase's potential. Nitrogenases are catalysts for several industrially relevant ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Cloud clustering causes more extreme rain

Understanding cloud patterns in our changing climate is essential to making accurate predictions about their impact on society and nature. Scientists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and the Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology published a new study in the journal Science Advances that uses a high-resolution global climate model to understand how the clustering of clouds and storms impacts rainfall extremes in the tropics. They show that with rising temperatures, the severity of extreme precipitation events increases. Extreme ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Mindfulness at work protects against stress and burnout

A new study has revealed that employees who are more mindful in the digital workplace are better protected against stress, anxiety and overload. Researchers from the University of Nottingham’s Schools of Psychology and Medicine analysed survey data from 142 employees. The results have been published today in PLOS ONE. PhD student Elizabeth Marsh from the School of Psychology led the mixed methods study and said: “As work is increasingly mediated by digital technology we wanted to find out the impact this is having on people’s health and whether there are ways to mitigate this. We found that being mindfully and confidently digital should be considered important elements ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Common plant could help reduce food insecurity, researchers find

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An often-overlooked water plant that can double its biomass in two days, capture nitrogen from the air — making it a valuable green fertilizer — and be fed to poultry and livestock could serve as life-saving food for humans in the event of a catastrophe or disaster, a new study led by Penn State researchers suggests. Native to the eastern U.S., the plant, azolla caroliniana Willd — commonly known as Carolina azolla — also could ease food insecurity in the near future, according to findings ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Artifact could be linked to Spanish explorer Coronado's expedition across Texas Panhandle

DALLAS (SMU) – It’s a small piece of obsidian, just over 5 centimeters long, likely found on a hard-scrabble piece of ranchland in the Texas panhandle. But when SMU anthropologist Matthew Boulanger looks at it, he gets a mental image of Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado making his way across the plains more than 470 years ago in search of a fabled city of gold. Boulanger believes that the flaked-stone tool with its sharp edge was likely dropped by a member of Coronado’s ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Do’s and don'ts with direct oral anticoagulants

Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are a common treatment for patients with a wide variety of cardiovascular conditions. DOACs are the preferred treatment over vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) for many patients with atrial fibrillation or venous thromboembolism, since the latter would have a higher risk of intracranial bleeding and more complex dosing routine. However, new research suggests that DOACs should not be the first line of treatment for every patient who need to treat or prevent blood clots. A systematic overview from researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of Mass General Brigham, discusses the efficacy ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Childhood factors associated with unnatural death through midadulthood

About The Study: In this urban population-based cohort study of 2,180 participants, no modifiable risk factors of mortality at the level of the individual (e.g., depression or anxiety and substance use) or the family (e.g., household education level) were identified. However, the degree of neighborhood poverty in early childhood was significantly associated with death by unnatural causes (death due to unintentional injury, suicide, and homicide) in early adulthood, suggesting that economic policies are needed to advance health equity in relation to premature mortality. Authors: Holly C. Wilcox, Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Recreational marijuana legalization and workplace injuries among younger workers

About The Study: In this study, recreational marijuana laws that allow recreational marijuana sales were associated with a 10% increase in workplace injuries among individuals ages 20 to 34. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that recreational marijuana impedes cognitive function and care among younger workers. Authors: Joseph J. Sabia, Ph.D., of San Diego State University, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Navigating the depths: Exploration in underwater navigation using acoustic beacons

New exploration in underwater navigation, a team from the Naval University of Engineering in Wuhan, China, has created novel algorithms that rectify inertial errors using sparse acoustic signals. This exploration offers novel method for the issue of underwater navigation , where traditional satellite systems are ineffective due to their signals' inability to penetrate water effectively. The increasing demand for precise underwater Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) due to expanding marine exploration and activities highlights the limitations of traditional Global Satellite Navigation Systems (GNSS) ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Biomolecular condensates – regulatory hubs for plant iron supply

Iron is a micronutrient for plants. Biologists from the Institute of Botany at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) describe in a study, which has now been published in the Journal of Cell Biology, that regulatory proteins for iron uptake behave particularly dynamically in the cell nucleus when the cells are exposed to blue light – an important signal for plant growth. They found that the initially homogeneously distributed proteins relocated together into “biomolecular condensates” in the cell nucleus shortly after this exposure. Both iron deficiencies and excesses are problematic for plants. They ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Using mussels and silkworm cocoons to stop organ bleeding

In recent news, there has been a case where a patient experienced pain due to a surgical procedure involving sutures, resulting in the unintended presence of gauze within the patient's body. Gauze is typically employed to control bleeding during medical interventions, aiding in hemostasis. However, when inadvertently left in the body, it can lead to inflammation and infection. Addressing this issue, recent research has been published by researchers focusing on a hemostatic agent derived from mussels and silkworm cocoons. This hemostatic agent has garnered attention in the academic community due to its efficacy in clotting blood and its safety within ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Killer instinct drove evolution of mammals’ predatory ancestors

The evolutionary success of the first large predators on land was driven by their need to improve as killers, researchers at the University of Bristol and the Open University suggest. The forerunners of mammals ruled the Earth for about 60 million years, long before the origin of the first dinosaurs. They diversified as the top predators on land between 315–251 million years ago. Researchers studied the jaw anatomy and body size of carnivorous synapsids, using these traits to reconstruct the likely feeding habits of these ancient predators and chart their ecological ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Diversifying data to beat bias

AI holds the potential to revolutionize healthcare, but it also brings with it a significant challenge: bias. For instance, a dermatologist might use an AI-driven system to help identify suspicious moles. But what if the machine learning model was trained primarily on image data from lighter skin tones, and misses a common form of skin cancer on a darker-skinned patient? This is a real-world problem. In 2021, researchers found that free image databases that could be used to train AI systems to diagnose skin cancer contain very few images ...

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Science23 Feb 2024

Zinc discovery holds promise for people with cystic fibrosis

University of Queensland researchers have identified an opportunity to reduce infections in people living with cystic fibrosis. Professor Matt Sweet, Dr Kaustav Das Gupta and Dr James Curson from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience have discovered a fault in the bacteria-killing function of immune cells in people with CF and a potential way to get around it. CF is a chronic disease in which defects in the CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) channel cause a build-up of mucus in the lungs, airways and digestive system, leading to ...

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Science22 Feb 2024

Study finds guided parent-child discussions are effective at addressing subtle racism

Study finds guided parent-child discussions are effective at addressing subtle racism When parents discuss racism with their children, negative biases toward Black people are significantly reduced in both parent and child EVANSTON, Ill. --- Experts have long pointed out the need for white parents to have conversations that directly address racism with their children to reduce racial bias. But many parents fail to have these crucial discussions. Psychology researchers at Northwestern University have published ...

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Science22 Feb 2024

Entrepreneurs’ stock losses bruise their businesses

When a recession takes a bite out of an entrepreneur’s personal stock portfolio, does that person’s business suffer more than those of older and larger competitors? New research by Marius Ring, assistant professor of finance at Texas McCombs, finds a link between the wealth of small-business owners and the health of their companies during economic downturns. When their stock portfolios lose value, their businesses suffer ripple effects: less financing and curtailed hiring. “Entrepreneurial wealth follows the ups and downs of economic cycles,” Ring says. “I show that for entrepreneurs whose stock portfolios take a hit, their businesses ...

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Science22 Feb 2024

Cooler, wetter parts of Pacific Northwest likely to see more fires, new simulations predict

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Forests in the coolest, wettest parts of the western Pacific Northwest are likely to see the biggest increases in burn probability, fire size and number of blazes as the climate continues to get warmer and drier, according to new modeling led by an Oregon State University scientist. Understanding how fire regimes may change under future climate scenarios is critical for developing adaptation strategies, said the study’s lead author, Alex Dye. Findings were published today in JGR Biogeosciences. Dye, ...

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Science22 Feb 2024

How discrimination, class, and gender intersect to affect Black Americans’ well-being

URBANA, Ill. – Black Americans experience racial discrimination as a chronic stressor that influences their quality of life. But it exists in conjunction with other social factors that may modify the impact in various ways. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores how discrimination, gender, and social class affect individual well-being and relationship quality for Black Americans. “It’s well documented that discrimination negatively impacts individual quality of life, but research on how it affects relationships is mixed. Some studies find it has a negative effect, others that it has no effect, and some even find a positive effect, ...

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Science22 Feb 2024

Compound vital for all life likely played a role in life’s origin

Compound vital for all life likely played a role in life’s origin A chemical compound essential to all living things has been synthesised in a lab in conditions that could have occurred on early Earth, suggesting it played a role at the outset of life, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The compound, pantetheine, is the active fragment of Coenzyme A. It is important for metabolism - the chemical processes that maintain life. Earlier studies failed to synthesise pantetheine effectively, leading to suggestions that it was absent at life’s origin. In the new ...

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Science22 Feb 2024

Snakes do it faster, better: How a group of scaly, legless lizards hit the evolutionary jackpot

More than 100 million years ago, the ancestors of the first snakes were small lizards that lived alongside other small, nondescript lizards in the shadow of the dinosaurs. Then, in a burst of innovation in form and function, the ancestors of snakes evolved legless bodies that could slither across the ground, highly sophisticated chemical detection systems to find and track prey, and flexible skulls that enabled them to swallow large animals. Those changes set the stage for the spectacular diversification of snakes over the past 66 million years, allowing them to quickly exploit new opportunities ...

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Science22 Feb 2024

Enhanced 3D chemical imaging with phase-modulation

Understanding complex biological and biomedical systems is greatly aided by 3D imaging, which provides much more detailed information than traditional two-dimensional methods. However, live cell and tissue imaging remain challenging due to factors like limited imaging speed and significant scattering in turbid environments. In this context, multimodal microscopy techniques are notable. Specifically, nonlinear techniques like CRS (coherent Raman scattering) use optical vibrational spectroscopy, providing precise chemical imaging in tissues and cells in a label-free way. Furthermore, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) ...

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Science22 Feb 2024

Combination of group competition and repeated interactions promotes cooperation

One of the great unresolved mysteries of human evolution is how pro-social, cooperative behavior could have evolved. What led to the establishment of a behavior that prioritizes the benefit of the community over that of the individual in a world where materially successful individuals reproduce, and others slowly perish? The prevailing theory suggests that this occurred due to repeated interactions. Over generations, humans learned that cooperative behavior pays off in the long run. People collaborate because they anticipate interacting with the same individuals ...

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Science22 Feb 2024

A new beginning: The search for more temperate Tatooines

New Haven, Conn. — Luke Skywalker’s childhood might have been slightly less harsh if he’d grown up on a more temperate Tatooine — like the ones identified in a new, Yale-led study. According to the study’s authors, there are more climate-friendly planets in binary star systems — in other words, those with two suns — than previously known. And, they say, it may be a sign that, at least in some ways, the universe leans in the direction of orderly alignment rather than chaotic misalignment. For the study, ...

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