Science
press releases.

Science3 Jan 2024

Jonathan Stamler, MD, named fellow of the 2023 National Academy of Inventors

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Jonathan Stamler, MD, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Dr. Stamler is the co-founder and president of Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals (UH), and the Robert S. and Sylvia K. Reitman Family Foundation Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Innovation at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Election as an Academy Fellow is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors and the 2023 Class of Fellows ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

UT’s Lenhart honored to deliver the American Mathematical Society’s Gibbs Lecture at Joint Mathematics Meeting

Suzanne Lenhart, Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Mathematics, will join a storied list of honored speakers to deliver the Josiah Willard Gibbs Lecture at the world’s largest annual math gathering, the American Mathematics Society (AMS) Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM2024), taking place January 3–6, 2024, in San Francisco. JMM2024 brings researchers from 20 national and international partner associations to share the latest developments in mathematical thought and application. Lenhart is the ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Even in midlife, disrupted sleep tied to memory, thinking problems later on

MINNEAPOLIS – People who have more disrupted sleep in their 30s and 40s may be more likely to have memory and thinking problems a decade later, according to new research published in the January 3, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that sleep quality causes cognitive decline. It only shows an association. “Given that signs of Alzheimer’s disease start to accumulate in the brain several decades before symptoms begin, understanding the connection ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

New $5 million NIH grant to study how pregnancy affects children with disabilities

CHICAGO --- How does a pregnant person’s environment, diet, stress, medications and social wellbeing affect their pregnancy and — down the road — their child’s health? That will be the focus of a new two-year study from scientists at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, which will examine how environmental factors affect children, including those with a variety of disabilities. The scientists recently were awarded $5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to join a national consortium — theEnvironmental ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Mass General scientists help to solve the mystery of how a rare congenital scalp defect forms

Key Takeaways Researchers have revealed the mechanisms behind mutations that cause a congenital condition called aplasia cutis congenita, in which babies are born without skin along the midline of the scalp The mutations lead to the impairment of cells that normally express growth factors that induce skin formation over the skull BOSTON – Children with the condition aplasia cutis congenita (ACC) are born with the absence of skin along the midline of the scalp. Depending on whether mutations are in the KCTD1 or KCTD15 genes, additional characteristics beyond the scalp—such as kidney or heart problems—are also present. When investigators led by a team ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Mapping of the gene network that regulates glycan clock of ageing

“[...] we were able to confirm the functional role of three genes (MANBA, TNFRSF13B and EEF1A1) in the IgG galactosylation pathway [...]” BUFFALO, NY- January 3, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 24, entitled, “Mapping of the gene network that regulates glycan clock of ageing.” Glycans are an essential structural component of immunoglobulin G (IgG) that modulate its structure and function. However, regulatory mechanisms behind this complex posttranslational ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Researchers improve seed nitrogen content by reducing plant chlorophyll levels

Chlorophyll plays a pivotal role in photosynthesis, which is why plants have evolved to have high chlorophyll levels in their leaves. However, making this pigment is expensive because plants invest a significant portion of the available nitrogen in both chlorophyll and the special proteins that bind it. As a result, nitrogen is unavailable for other processes. In a new study, researchers reduced the chlorophyll levels in leaves to see if the plant would invest the nitrogen saved into other process that might improve nutritional quality. Over the past few decades, researchers ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Survival of the fittest: Words like 'Sex' and 'fight' are most likely to stand the test of time

New research from the University of Warwick reveals that words like 'sex' endure in our language in a ‘survival of the fittest’ way, similar to natural selection. Whilst the recent announcement of Word of the Year explores new words, like ‘rizz’ or ‘situationship’, Professor Thomas Hills’ research delves into why some words survive in our modern linguistic landscape, while others don’t. The study concludes that words with the strongest lasting power are: Words acquired earlier in life Words associated with things people can see ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

UH optometrist receives $1.4 million to map the cornea

Consider the cornea if you will – and most people won’t unless they’re having a problem. It is the transparent front surface of the eye which allows vision by focusing light as it enters. The cornea is densely packed with multi-tasking nerves that mediate pain, blink reflexes and tear production, all indispensable tasks in the proper maintenance of ocular surface health. Because it is highly innervated, meaning it has a lot of nerve connections, the cornea is a key area for understanding sensory functions. But ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Online racial discrimination, suicidal ideation, and traumatic stress in a national sample of Black adolescents

About The Study: This study that included 525 Black adolescents found an association between individual online racial discrimination and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and between posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and suicidal ideation. These risk factors are important to consider in continuing studies of the cause of suicidal ideation for Black adolescents in the U.S. Authors: Brendesha M. Tynes, Ph.D., of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, is the corresponding author. To ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Call for EGU24 General Assembly Abstracts

The General Assembly 2024 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will be held at the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) in Vienna, Austria and online, from 14–19 April 2024. eLTER will organise the following session: BG8.14: Integrated solutions for landscape management of GHG balance and biodiversity in a changing environment Convener: Syed Ashraful Alam, Katri Rankinen, Thomas Dirnböck, Harry Vereecken, Olga Vindušková The session is co-sponsored by eLTER. The abstract submission deadline is Wednesday, 10 January 2024, 13:00 CET. Society is placing increasing and potentially competing demands on our environment. ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Early primates likely lived in pairs

Primates – and this includes humans – are thought of as highly social animals. Many species of monkeys and apes live in groups. Lemurs and other Strepsirrhines, often colloquially referred to as “wet-nosed” primates, in contrast, have long been believed to be solitary creatures, and it has often been suggested that other forms of social organization evolved later. Previous studies have therefore attempted to explain how and when pair-living evolved in primates. More recent research, however, indicates that many nocturnal Strepsirrhines, which are more challenging to investigate, are not in fact solitary but live in pairs of males and females. But ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Study: Acetaminophen use during pregnancy linked to language delays in children

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Acetaminophen is considered the safest over-the-counter pain reliever and fever reducer available during pregnancy. Studies have shown that 50%-65% of women in North America and Europe take acetaminophen during pregnancy. A new study from researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explored the relationship between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and language outcomes in early childhood. It found that increasing acetaminophen use was associated with language delays. The findings are reported in the journal Pediatric ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Some sea cucumbers like it hot

Hydrothermal vents are an unlikely environment for animals to flourish, characterized by rapid changes in temperature and a challenging chemistry: acidic pH, rich in sulfur and methane. Not to mention the high hydrostatic pressure and the darkness of the deep sea. A team of scientists at the Sanya Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering (China) have now sequenced the full genome of a particularly unusual inhabitant of the hydrothermal vent environment: the sea cucumber Chiridota heheva. The research has been published in the Open Science ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

New reasons eating less fat should be one of your resolutions

A UC Riverside study to motivate your new year’s resolutions: it demonstrates that high-fat diets affect genes linked not only to obesity, colon cancer and irritable bowels, but also to the immune system, brain function, and potentially COVID-19 risk. While other studies have examined the effects of a high-fat diet, this one is unusual in its scope. UCR researchers fed mice three different diets over the course of 24 weeks where at least 40% of the calories came from fat. Then, they looked not only at the microbiome, but also at genetic changes in all four parts of the intestines. One group of ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Job ads with wide pay ranges can deter applicants

PULLMAN, Wash. – As more states require employers to list compensation on job ads, a trending strategy to use very wide pay ranges could potentially harm recruitment, according to a Washington State University study. The study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, found that participants in three different experiments were more likely to respond negatively to job ads with very wide pay ranges, viewing those employers as less trustworthy. Prior surveys have found that most people report they would trust organizations that include pay ranges in ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

What makes urine yellow? UMD scientists discover the enzyme responsible

Researchers at the University of Maryland and National Institutes of Health have identified the microbial enzyme responsible for giving urine its yellow hue, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Microbiology on January 3, 2024. The discovery of this enzyme, called bilirubin reductase, paves the way for further research into the gut microbiome’s role in ailments like jaundice and inflammatory bowel disease. “This enzyme discovery finally unravels the mystery behind urine’s yellow color,” said the study’s lead author Brantley Hall, an assistant ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Monetized evaluation of landscape resources of national parks based on the willingness to pay of multiple interest groups

In China, national parks represent the country’s most unique natural landscapes. Scientific evaluation of landscape resources is significant for preserving the authenticity and integrity of national parks. Taking Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Zone as an example, this research investigated the willingness of internal group (residents and administrative staff) and external group (tourists) to pay for a hypothetical market project based on the pilot zone via Contingent Valuation Method to acquire the monetized value of landscape resources in the national park, and applied Logistic Regression to analyze the influencing factors. The results show ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

How big data transforms the insurance sector

In 2022, the insurance industry made a whopping USD 6 trillion globally—more than the entire economy of big countries like Japan and Germany. A new study, published in The Journal of Finance and Data Science, looked at how technology, especially big data, is shaking things up in insurance. Big data means using a lot of information to make better decisions. The study found that by using big data, insurance companies can understand risks better, offer fair prices and keep customers happier. “What's surprising is how fast insurance companies are jumping on the big data bandwagon,” says first ...

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Science3 Jan 2024

Chicken whisperers: humans crack the clucking code

A University of Queensland-led study has found humans can tell if chickens are excited or displeased, just by the sound of their clucks. Professor Joerg Henning from UQ’s School of Veterinary Science said researchers investigated whether humans could correctly identify the context of calls or clucking sounds made by domestic chickens, the most commonly farmed species in the world. “In this study, we used recordings of chickens vocalising in all different scenarios from a previous experiment,” ...

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Science2 Jan 2024

Age-related alterations in the oscillatory dynamics serving verbal working memory processing

“[...] we discuss the implications of these novel findings on our understanding of how healthy aging affects verbal working memory processing.” BUFFALO, NY- January 2, 2024 – A new research paper was published on the cover of Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 24, entitled, “Age-related alterations in the oscillatory dynamics serving verbal working memory processing.” Working memory (WM) is a foundational cognitive function involving the temporary storage of information. Unfortunately, WM ...

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Science2 Jan 2024

Study: From NYC to DC and beyond, cities on the East Coast are sinking

Major cities on the U.S. Atlantic coast are sinking, in some cases as much as 5 millimeters per year – a decline at the ocean’s edge that well outpaces global sea level rise, confirms new research from Virginia Tech and the U.S. Geological Survey. Particularly hard hit population centers such as New York City and Long Island, Baltimore, and Virginia Beach and Norfolk are seeing areas of rapid “subsidence,” or sinking land, alongside more slowly sinking or relatively stable ground, increasing the risk to roadways, runways, building foundations, rail ...

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Science2 Jan 2024

Elusive cytonemes guide neural development, provide signaling ‘express route’

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists found that cytonemes (thin, long, hair-like projections on cells) are important during neural development. Cytonemes connect cells communicating across vast distances but are difficult to capture with microscopy in developing vertebrate tissues. The researchers are the first to find a way to visualize how cytonemes transport signaling molecules during mammalian nervous system development. The findings were published in Cell. “We showed cytonemes are a direct express route for signal transport,” said corresponding author ...

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Science2 Jan 2024

Diversity of bioluminescent beetles in Brazilian savanna has declined sharply in 30 years

At night in the Cerrado, Brazil’s savanna and second-largest biome, larvae of the click beetle Pyrearinus termitilluminans, which live in termite mounds, display green lanterns to capture prey attracted by the bright light. In more than 30 years of expeditions with his students to Emas National Park and farms around the conservation unit in Goiás state to collect specimens, the phenomenon has never been so rare, said Vadim Viviani, a professor at the Federal University of São Carlos’s Science and Technology for Sustainability Center (CCTS-UFSCar) in Sorocaba, São Paulo state. “In the 1990s, we ...

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Science2 Jan 2024

Women’s and girls’ sports: more popular than you may think

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The number of Americans who watch or follow girls’ and women’s sports goes well beyond those who view TV coverage of women’s athletic events, a new study suggests. In fact, just over half of American adults spent some time watching or following female sports in the past year, the results showed. U.S. adults spend about one hour a week consuming female sports content, which may seem higher than expected, according to the researchers. Still, it is only a small fraction of Americans’ overall sports consumption. The study was ...

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