Science
press releases.

Science22 Nov 2023

Depression, anxiety, and stress frequently co-occur in Black pregnant individuals

November 22, 2023 — Black pregnant individuals frequently experience more than one mental health concern, according to findings published by Susan Gennaro, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor in the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College, and colleagues in The Nurse Practitioner. They say prenatal screening and treatment for stress is warranted in addition to care of depression and anxiety. The Nurse Practitioner is part of the Lippincott portfolio of Wolters Kluwer. "Prenatal interventions for Black people should aim to address mental health distress and treat high depression, anxiety, and stress," the research ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

Overdose deaths increased in pregnant and postpartum women from early 2018 to late 2021

Drug overdose deaths rose markedly between January to June 2018 and July to December 2021 among 10- to 44-year-old girls and women who were pregnant or pregnant within the previous 12 months, according to a new study by researchers at National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health. Overdose mortality more than tripled among those aged 35 to 44 during the study period, from 4.9 deaths per 100,000 mothers aged 35 to 44 with a live birth in the 2018 period to 15.8 in the 2021 period. Over 60% of these pregnancy-associated overdose deaths occurred outside healthcare settings, ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

From the first bite, our sense of taste helps pace our eating

When you eagerly dig into a long-awaited dinner, signals from your stomach to your brain keep you from eating so much you’ll regret it – or so it’s been thought. That theory had never really been directly tested until a team of scientists at UC San Francisco recently took up the question. The picture, it turns out, is a little different. The team, led by Zachary Knight, PhD, a UCSF professor of physiology in the Kavli Institute for Fundamental ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

Team discovers rules for breaking into Pseudomonas

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers report in the journal Nature that they have found a way to get antibacterial drugs through the nearly impenetrable outer membrane of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that – once it infects a person – is notoriously difficult to treat. By bombarding P. aeruginosa with hundreds of compounds and using machine learning to determine the physical and chemical traits of those molecules that accumulated inside it, the team discovered how to penetrate the bacterium’s defenses. They used this information ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

Developing a new perspective for the EU beekeeping sector: B-GOOD legacy booklet

The aim of the B-GOOD project (Giving Beekeeping Guidance By Computational-Assisted Decision Making) was to pave the way towards healthy and sustainable beekeeping within the European Union by following a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach. By merging data from within and around beehives, as well as wider socioeconomic conditions and by developing and testing innovative tools to perform risk assessments, B-GOOD provided guidance for beekeepers and helped them make better and more informed decisions. The communication of scientific information and the transformation of scientific ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

New remote sensing dataset improves global land change tracking

Tracking unprecedented changes in land use over the past century, global land cover maps provide key insights into the impact of human settlement on the environment. Researchers from Sun Yat-sen University created a large-scale remote sensing annotation dataset to support Earth observation research and provide new insight into the dynamic monitoring of global land cover. In their study, published Oct 16 in the Journal of Remote Sensing, the team examined how global land use/landcover (LULC) has undergone dramatic changes with the advancement of industrialization and urbanization, including deforestation and flooding. “We ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

A Special Collection collaboration between SLAS and SBI2

Oak Brook, IL – The latest issue of SLAS Discovery is a joint Special Collection between SLAS and the Society of Biomolecular Imaging and Informatics (SBI2) to celebrate the 10th Annual SBI2 High-Content Imaging and Informatics meeting. This collaboration features a curated special collection of articles that highlight the significant impact of high-content imaging in basic and translational research. Volume 28, Issue 7 features one perspective, four original research articles and one short communication. Perspective Evolution and Impact of High Content Imaging This ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

Danish researchers puncture 100-year-old theory of odd little 'water balloons'

Quinoa and many other extremely resilient plants are covered with strange balloon-like 'bladders' that for 127 years were believed to be responsible for protecting them from drought and salt. Research results from the University of Copenhagen reveal this not to be the case. These so-called bladder cells serve a completely different though important function. The finding makes it likely that even more resilient quinoa plants will now be able to be bred, which could lead to the much wider cultivation of this sustainable ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

This sea worm’s butt swims away, and now scientists know how

A research team, led by Professor Toru Miura from the University of Tokyo, shows how the expression of developmental genes in the Japanese green syllid worms, Megasyllis nipponica, helps form their swimming reproductive unit called stolon. Life always finds ways to surprise us. The presence of a unique reproductive mechanism of some annelid worms or segmented worms is one such surprise. In a process called stolonization, the posterior body part with gonads of the syllid worm detaches from its original body. The detached part is called the stolon, and it is full of gametes (eggs or sperms). The stolon swims around by itself and spawns when it ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

New study on experience of adopted people as they become parents

Becoming a parent is a key turning point for adopted people Parenting is always challenging, but for adopted people becoming a mum or dad can be extra demanding, as well as extra special – according to research from the University of East Anglia. A new study is the first in to investigate the lived experiences of adopted people in the UK as they become parents. It finds that they are affected by issues that link back to their adoption and to difficult experiences in their past – related to loss, rejection, abuse and neglect. Because of these ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

Rise in people discovered dead and decomposed raises concerns

An exploratory study has raised concerns about the increasing number of people in England and Wales whose bodies are discovered so late that they have decomposed. The study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, has highlighted potential links between growing isolation and such deaths, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was authored by a team led by Dr Lucinda Hiam of the University of Oxford and including histopathology registrar Dr Theodore Estrin-Serlui of Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust. The researchers analysed data from the Office for ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

Strip searching a child without appropriate consent is “sexual abuse,” insists expert

Strip searching a child without appropriate consent is “sexual abuse,” and should attract heavy sanctions—backed up by legislation—for any UK police officer who does it, insists a leading paediatrician in an opinion piece, published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Unless the officer(s) can legitimately justify their actions to an independent panel, they should be instantly dismissed and compelled to sign the Sex Offenders Register, writes paediatrician Professor Andy Bush of Imperial College, London. He cites the “shocking number” of children ...

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Science22 Nov 2023

Skunks’ warning stripes less prominent where predators are sparse, study finds

Striped skunks are less likely to evolve with their famous and white markings where the threat of predation from mammals is low, scientists from the University of Bristol, Montana and Long Beach, California have discovered. Skunks’ iconic black and white colouration signals its toxic anal spray. However some skunks show very varied fur colour ranging from all black to thin or thick black and white bands to all white individuals. Variation is huge across the North American continent. Findings ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

Getting to the root of visceral gut pain

MSU has a satellite uplink/LTN TV studio and Comrex line for radio interviews upon request. Researchers at Michigan State University may have discovered why visceral pain is so common in people who have experienced inflammation in their guts, including patients with irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS. Working with mouse models, MSU physiologists showed that nervous system cells known as glia can sensitize nearby neurons, causing them to send pain signals more easily than they did prior to inflammation. “The glia drop the threshold for activating a neuron,” said MSU Research Foundation Professor Brian Gulbransen, whose research team authored the new report in the ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

Dwarf galaxies use 10-million-year quiet period to churn out stars

Contact: Morgan Sherburne, morganls@umich.edu Images ANN ARBOR—If you look at massive galaxies teeming with stars, you might be forgiven in thinking they are star factories, churning out brilliant balls of gas. But actually, less evolved dwarf galaxies have bigger regions of star factories, with higher rates of star formation. Now, University of Michigan researchers have discovered the reason underlying this: These galaxies enjoy a 10-million-year delay in blowing out the gas cluttering up their environments. Star-forming regions are able to hang on to their gas and dust, allowing more stars to coalesce ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

Unearthing how a carnivorous fungus traps and digests worms

A new analysis sheds light on the molecular processes involved when a carnivorous species of fungus known as Arthrobotrys oligospora senses, traps and consumes a worm. Hung-Che Lin of Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, and colleagues present these findings November 21st in the open access journal PLOS Biology. A. oligospora usually derives its nutrients from decaying organic matter, but starvation and the presence of nearby worms can prompt it to form traps to capture and consume worms. A. oligospora is just one of many species of fungi that can trap and eat very small animals. Prior research has illuminated some of the biology behind this ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

Germany: Sugar tax could save as much as 16 billion euros

A simulation study conducted by a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) demonstrates that a soft drink tax in Germany would have significant positive effects. In all of the simulated variants evaluated, less sugar was consumed and the rate of illness dropped. This would be a way to reduce costs to the national economy and alleviate the burden on the health care system. There is, however, a difference between taxes aimed at reducing soft drink consumption and taxes aimed at bringing about changes in product formulation. Sugary beverages increase the risk of obesity and illnesses such as diabetes. Several countries have therefore introduced taxes on soft drinks. In Germany ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

Most-cited scientists: still mostly men, but the gender gap is closing

An analysis of 5.8 million authors across all scientific disciplines shows that the gender gap is closing, but there is still a long distance to go. The new research by John Ioannidis of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICs) at Stanford University, US, and colleagues, publishes November 21st in the open access journal PLOS Biology. There is a strong gender gap in science which manifests itself in many ways. One of the most prominent ones is the relative representation of men and women among the scientists whose work receive the most attention in the ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

Long in the Bluetooth: Sussex scientists develop a more efficient way to transmit data between our devices

University of Sussex researchers have developed a more energy-efficient alternative to transmit data that could potentially replace Bluetooth in mobile phones and other tech devices. With more and more of us owning smart phones and wearable tech, researchers at the University of Sussex have found a more efficient way of connecting our devices and improving battery life. Applied to wearable devices, it could even see us unlocking doors by touch or exchanging phone numbers by shaking hands. Professor Robert Prance and Professor Daniel ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

Deep-sea mining and warming trigger stress in a midwater jellyfish

The deep sea is home to one of the world's largest communities of animals about which we still know very little. Yet it is already subject to a growing number of human-induced environmental pressures. How do its inhabitants respond to these stressors? A new study led by researchers from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, published today in the scientific journal Nature Communications, provides first insights into the stress response of a deep pelagic jellyfish to ocean warming and deep-sea mining induced sediment plumes. One particular and potentially large environmental stressor for organisms in the deep ocean is the environmental ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

Gender prize gap in science exists as only one in eight female academics win awards named after men

Female academics are significantly underrepresented in winning academic prizes and having awards named after them, a new study shows. Analysis of nearly 9,000 awardees and 346 scientific prizes and medals published today (Tuesday 21 November) in Nature Human Behaviour has found that men win eight prizes for every one won by a woman if the award is named after a man. These awards represent almost two thirds of all scientific prizes. Female academics are however more likely to win awards that have been named after other notable female scientists, with 47% of those awards going to women and 53% to men. Dr Katja Gehmlich, Associate Professor in the Institute ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

How gut microbes help alleviate constipation

Scientists have identified the genes in the probiotic Bifidobacteria longum responsible for improving gut motility. A research team reporting November 21st in the journal Cell Host & Microbe found that B. longum strains possessing the abfA cluster of genes can ameliorate constipation through enhanced utilization of an indigestible fiber called arabinan in the gut. “We established the causal link between a genetic variant—the abfA cluster—to the key functional difference of probiotic B. longum in multiple model organisms, including mice and humans, and provided mechanistic and ecological insights ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

Unstable housing and mortality among veterans receiving dialysis

About The Study: In this study of 25,000 veterans receiving dialysis, unstable housing experienced before starting dialysis was associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality, and risks increased with age. Further efforts are needed to understand the experiences of older adults with unstable housing and to estimate the scope of unstable housing among all individuals receiving dialysis. Authors: Tessa K. Novick, M.D., M.S.W., M.H.S., of the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School in Austin, Texas is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

Study highlights need to keep an eye on the ozone hole

Despite public perception, the Antarctic ozone hole has been remarkably massive and long-lived over the past four years, University of Otago researchers believe chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) aren’t the only things to blame. In a study, just published in Nature Communications, the group analysed the monthly and daily ozone changes, at different altitudes and latitudes within the Antarctic ozone hole, from 2004 to 2022. Lead author Hannah Kessenich, PhD candidate in the Department of ...

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Science21 Nov 2023

CSHL rolls out STEM ‘Bicycle Principles’

Success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) demands keeping up with the latest tools and techniques. The AI boom, for example, has made coding and data management skills integral. But going back to school isn’t an option for most scientists. Short training programs like webinars and boot camps have become a popular alternative among busy STEM professionals. However, these formats can have significant shortcomings. There’s often no guarantee attendees will leave with the skills needed to advance their careers. And they can be exclusionary, preventing learners of all abilities and circumstances from benefiting equally. “We’ve ...

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