Research announcements from universities, hospitals and scientific institutions. Explore the stories, people and discoveries behind the headlines.
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Three experiments with nearly 600 participants found that dating profiles telling a story, rather than listing traits, trigger empathy that drives romantic interest. The same facts, repackaged as narrative, made potential dates significantly more appealing.
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Lawrence Toll co-discovered nociceptin, the fourth opioid receptor ligand, in 1995. Three decades and nine patents later, the FAU professor has been named a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors for translating pain and addiction science into real therapeutic targets.
Read the releaseHigh alcohol intake raises mortality risk regardless of what you drink. But at low to moderate levels, wine drinkers had significantly lower death rates than those who favored beer, cider, or spirits, a major UK Biobank analysis finds.
Read the releaseWSU geologists traced Idaho's massive silver and cobalt deposits to residual brines left by evaporating shallow seas over 1.2 billion years ago. The salty fluids dissolved metals deep underground and redeposited them in minable veins near the surface.
Read the releaseFor the first time, researchers decoded intended leg movements directly from nerves in above-knee amputees, using implants thinner than a human hair and an AI that speaks the nervous system's own language of electrical spikes.
Read the releaseA Loma Linda University study dismantles the widespread belief that baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than adults, showing adult snakes deliver far more venom and cause substantially worse symptoms.
Read the releaseA University of Michigan poll of Americans over 50 finds that 32% are unpaid caregivers, yet many don't know about respite programs or adult day services that could ease their burden — especially those without their own support networks.
Read the releaseResearchers traced a single molecule, TGF-β1, as the key driver of fibrotic scarring after spinal cord injury. Newborn mice lacking this signal recover fully, while adults form dense scars. Blocking TGF-β1 in adult mice reduced scarring and restored movement.
Read the releasePercutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a standard treatment for significant coronary artery disease. Cardiologists use a catheter to place a stent that opens up the blockage and restores blood flow to the heart. However, dense, calcified atherosclerotic plaque can prevent proper placement or unfolding of stents, resulting in reduced blood flow to the heart even after PCI. Rotational atherectomy (RA) is a specialized technique used to modify heavily calcified plaque before stent placement. A conical burr ablates the calcified plaque, creating ...
Read the releaseSpinal cord injury (SCI) often leads to long-term loss of motor and sensory function, with limited available treatment options to restore the lost function. A major challenge in recovery is the formation of scar tissue at the injury site that prevents damaged nerve fibers from regenerating. Glial scarring has been thoroughly investigated, while fibrotic scar formation has been less studied. Transforming growth factor -β1 (TGF-β1), a signaling molecule that regulates inflammation and tissue repair, has been known to play a critical role in fibrosis in many tissues. Understanding how fibrotic scars form could aid in the ...
Read the releaseStanford and CU Boulder researchers identified pTOS, a gut-bacteria metabolite that surges 1,000-fold in pythons after feeding. Given to obese mice, it cut appetite and drove 9% weight loss in 28 days through a mechanism entirely distinct from GLP-1 drugs.
Read the releasePythons don’t nibble. They chomp, squeeze and swallow their prey whole in a meal that can approach 100% of their body weight. But even as they slither stealthily around the forest, months or even a year may pass between massive mouthfuls. This pattern of extreme feasting and fasting taxes their metabolism far beyond what humans experience on a day-to-day basis. Now researchers at Stanford Medicine and the University of Colorado, Boulder, have found that a metabolite that spikes a thousandfold in pythons after a large meal causes obese laboratory mice to shun their food pellets and lose ...
Read the releaseNearly a third of Americans over age 50 provide regular care to an adult relative or friend with a health issue or disability, a new poll finds. But many of them don’t know about, or use, local resources that could help them with caregiving. And about 20% of these caregivers are like highwire acrobats working without a net, the poll reveals. They’re taking care of someone else with health needs, but without close friends or family members to pitch in if they needed help with their own health concerns. The new findings from the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging could inform caregiver-related policy discussions at state and ...
Read the releaseBaby rattlesnake bites are less dangerous than bites from adult rattlesnakes, according to a new study from Loma Linda University that summarizes the origin, transmission, and prevalence of the longstanding myth that baby rattlesnake bites are more dangerous. The myth that baby rattlesnakes can’t control the release of their venom and therefore release it all when biting is refuted by the study. This incorrect belief has led “to negative consequences, including misinformed risk‐taking by those encountering snakes, unwarranted fear among snakebite victims, ...
Read the releaseWhat has long been interpreted as permanent and irreversible vascular damage may not be exclusively so. In people with Down syndrome—one of the most robust populations for studying Alzheimer’s disease due to the near-universal presence of the characteristic proteinopathies of this dementia from the age of 40—some lesions visible on magnetic resonance imaging do not follow a linear course. A longitudinal study from the Institut de Recerca Sant Pau (IR Sant Pau), published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, shows that these alterations can fluctuate and even decrease over time in the Down syndrome population. This is especially true once the clinical symptoms ...
Read the releaseA research team led by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, has, for the first time, successfully decoded leg movements directly from the remaining nerves in people with above-knee amputations. Using novel implantable neurotechnology and an AI method based on the nervous system’s own “language”, the researchers could do what was previously impossible and interpret detailed movements – even the will to wiggle toes. This technology opens the way to future leg prostheses that feel and act more like a natural part of the body. Helping amputees regain a functional and independent ...
Read the releaseLudwig Kappos, MD, a leading physician-scientist at the University Hospital Basel in Basel, Switzerland has been awarded the 2026 John Dystel Prize for Multiple Sclerosis Research – one of the field’s highest honors. Dr. Kappos serves as director of the Research Center for Clinical Neuroimmunology and Neuroscience Basel and has played a central role in advancing MS research and treatment over the past several decades. Dr. Kappos will deliver the Dystel Prize lecture and formally receive the award at the ...
Read the releaseA report drawing on input from 100+ UK water professionals finds that showering, toilet flushing, and leak reporting are the top behavior change targets - but the sector invests too little in understanding why people do these things the way they do.
Read the releaseAnalyzing a decade of Japanese Pacific League data, researchers found that the designated hitter system does not change whether better teams win - it only changes how rosters are built. The finding arrives as Japan's Central League prepares to adopt the DH in 2027.
Read the releaseResearchers at the Ningbo Institute developed a ruthenium-stabilized nickel-iron anode that survives over 2,000 hours in chloride-rich conditions, where conventional anodes fail within 15 hours, bringing seawater hydrogen production closer to industrial reality.
Read the releaseA randomized trial of 227 Australian gamblers provides the first causal evidence that direct marketing from betting companies increases both spending and gambling-related harm, with those receiving offers reporting 67% more short-term negative effects.
Read the releaseMedieval chess created a rare social space where intellectual prowess mattered more than race or status. A Cambridge study of manuscripts from Spain to Persia shows players of all backgrounds depicted as equals across the board.
Read the releaseA global study finds that 23 UN biodiversity targets could help reverse insect decline, but current monitoring tools cannot detect changes in insect populations. Researchers propose AI cameras, weather radar, and citizen science to close the gap.
Read the releaseA genome-wide analysis of more than 120,000 East Asian individuals found that genetic variants associated with greater height also increase the risk of atrial fibrillation and endometriosis, suggesting height-based polygenic scores could aid early risk screening.
Read the releaseA study of 7,676 adults over age 50 found that significant financial deterioration was linked to memory decline equivalent to roughly five extra months of aging per year, while financial improvement did not consistently protect cognition.
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