Science
press releases.

Science25 Oct 2023

Mystery of the Martian core solved

For four years, NASA’s InSight lander recorded tremors on Mars with its seismometer. Researchers at ETH Zurich collected and analysed the data transmitted to Earth to determine the planet’s internal structure. “Although the mission ended in December 2022, we’ve now discovered something very interesting,” says Amir Khan, a Senior Scientist in the Department of Earth Sciences at ETH Zurich. An analysis of recorded marsquakes, combined with computer simulations, paint ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

ESnet turns on 400G circuits to four DOE national labs, supercharging multi-site scientific research

– By Bonnie Powell Today’s world-changing scientific research is being conducted by collaborators at far-flung national laboratories who require high-speed, low-latency access to high performance computing facilities and specialized instruments. The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is proud to announce that it has supercharged the current and future bandwidth for four of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) national laboratories and user facilities, unleashing 400 Gigabit per second (400G) capability for Argonne National Laboratory, ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

MD Anderson Research Highlights for October 25, 2023

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Recent developments at MD Anderson include positive results from a Phase I trial for patients with TP53-mutant acute myeloid leukemia, a novel machine learning ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

Sperm's secret voltage switch: Scientists unlock the mystery of motility

Researchers at Stockholm University have unveiled the hidden intricacies of how sperm go from passive bystanders to dynamic swimmers. This transformation is a pivotal step in the journey to fertilization, and it hinges on the activation of a unique ion transporter. Imagine sperm as tiny adventurers on a quest to reach the ultimate treasure, the egg. They don't have a map, but they make use of something even more extraordinary: chemo-attractants. These are chemical signals released by the egg that act as siren call, directing and activating the sperm. When these signals bind to receptors on the sperm's surface, it triggers a series of events, starting their movement towards ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

Trauma, severe stress in childhood linked to criminal legal involvement in next generation

A study led by UCLA researchers found that the children of parents who experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)– such as abuse, neglect, violence in the home, or loss of a parent – are at increased risk of arrests and convictions by young adulthood. The authors report that their findings suggest that there is a crucial need for prevention of ACE exposure in the first place, as well as efforts to mitigate the impact of ACEs before they have downstream impacts on the next generation of children who are not yet born. The study appears in JAMA ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

Scientists discover molten layer covering Martian core

NASA’s InSight mission to Mars helped scientists map out Mars’ internal structure, including the size and composition of its core, and provided general hints about its tumultuous formation. But findings from a new paper published in the journal Nature could lead to reanalysis of that data. An international team of researchers discovered the presence of a molten silicate layer overlying Mars’ metallic core—providing new insights into how Mars formed, evolved and became the barren planet it is today. Published on October 25, 2023, the team’s paper details the use of seismic data to locate and identify a thin layer of molten ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

Romance or nomance? Adolescents prefer to see less sex, more friendships, platonic relationships on screen

Key takeaways 47.5% of respondents ages 13–24 feel most TV shows and movie plots don’t need sexual content; 51.5% want to see more focus on friendships and platonic relationships. 56% of those aged 10–24 prefer original content over franchises and remakes. Twice as many adolescents prefer binge releases over weekly drops. Adolescents want to see lives like their own depicted on screen. This year’s Teens & Screens report from UCLA’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers, or CSS, found that teens — plus the 18- to 24-year-old demographic that advertisers typically ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

Screen printed electrodes for measuring endothelial barrier integrity

(LOS ANGELES) – October 25, 2023 - The Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) has developed a novel organ-on-a-chip device for measuring electrical resistance across endothelial barriers. This chip had carbon-based, screen-printed electrodes incorporated into a multi-layered, microfluidic chip fabricated by a simple and cost-effective method. Endothelial cells line blood and lymph vessels of the body and form a barrier layer which controls the flow of fluid and substances to and from the vessels and surrounding tissues. Study of the crucial roles ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

Marketing research is too narrow: Hw the field must change to keep producing relevant, timely knowledge

Researchers from TU Dortmund University and RWTH Aachen University published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines how specific types of marketing knowledge contributions have developed over the past few decades and suggests ways to move the field toward “big picture” theories that will have greater impact. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Conceptual Contributions in Marketing Scholarship: Patterns, Mechanisms, and Rebalancing Options” and is authored by Bastian Kindermann, ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

Sunflower extract fights fungi to keep blueberries fresh

Opening a clamshell of berries and seeing them coated in fuzzy mold is a downer. And it’s no small problem. Gray mold and other fungi, which cause fruit to rot, lead to significant economic losses and food waste. Now, researchers report in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that compounds from sunflower crop waste prevented rotting in blueberries. They suggest the food industry could use these natural compounds to protect against postharvest diseases. Sunflowers are cultivated around the world for their seeds and oil, but the flower stems — known as receptacles — are generally considered to be a waste product. Noting that this crop is particularly ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

The changing face of gun ownership in the United States

Learning how to shoot a handgun at a Las Vegas gun convention had never been on Jennifer Hubbert’s bucket list. But last fall, the professor of anthropology and Asian studies found herself doing just that. “Given my research, it felt like something I needed to do,” she says. Hubbert is currently exploring a novel question regarding gun culture in the United States: “What does it mean to be a liberal gun owner?” The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has recently awarded Hubbert with a grant to support her research and book project: Gun Culture 4.0: Understanding the New Demographics of ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

New evidence explains how warming-up enhances muscle performance

Osaka, Japan – Everybody knows the importance of warming up your muscles before a workout. But what is actually going on when we warm our muscles up, and are all muscles the same? You might be surprised to find out that the science behind this routine activity hasn’t always been clear. Now, in a study recently published in the Journal of General Physiology, a multi-institutional research team, led by Osaka University, The Jikei University School of Medicine and National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology, has revealed how heating affects the contraction of different muscles, and how this might benefit populations in need of improved ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

Public support for extending the 14-day rule on human embryo research indicated by foundational dialogue project

The findings of a foundational UK public dialogue on human embryo research are published today, Wednesday 25th October 2023, as part of the Wellcome-funded Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI). The HDBI is an ambitious scientific endeavour to advance our understanding of human development. The dialogue project, which was co-funded by UKRI Sciencewise programme, engaged a diverse group of the public to consider how early human embryo research can be used to its fullest, the 14-day rule and the fast-paced field of stem cell-based embryo models. Headline findings include: Appetite for review of the 14-day rule: Participants recognised that extending the 14-day rule could open ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

Edward Bluth awarded the Lawrence A. Mack Lifetime Achievement Award by Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound

NEW ORLEANS, La.— Ochsner Health radiologist Edward Bluth, MD, FACR, was recently awarded the 2023 Lawrence A. Mack Lifetime Achievement Award in Washington D.C. by the Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound (SRU) for outstanding achievement in ultrasound research. The Lawrence A. Mack Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest annual award given to a SRU member. The SRU, comprised of radiologists with expertise in ultrasound, works towards advancing science, practice and teaching of the specialty of ultrasound to ensure the professional fulfillment of radiologists performing ultrasound ...

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Science25 Oct 2023

Chelsea Polis awarded the 2023 John Maddox Prize

Dr. Chelsea Polis, Senior Scientist of Epidemiology at the Center for Biomedical Research, has been selected as the Early Career winner of this year’s John Maddox Prize. The John Maddox Prize recognises individuals who stand up for science, despite hostility, to bring evidence to the public. Stories highlighted by the Maddox Prize show the harm done to society when sound scientific evidence and insights are not shared. The prize brings attention to the courage shown by individuals who take responsibility for helping society understand research evidence, and who encourage and inspire others ...

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Science24 Oct 2023

Research Brief: U of M study suggests even more reasons to eat your fiber

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (10/24/2023) — Health professionals have long praised the benefits of insoluble fiber for bowel regularity and overall health. New research from the University of Minnesota suggests even more reasons we should be prioritizing fiber in our regular diets. In a new study published in Nutrients, researchers found that each plant source of insoluble fiber contains unique bioactives — compounds that have been linked to lower incidence of cardiovascular disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes — offering potential health benefits beyond ...

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Science24 Oct 2023

Raining cats and dogs: research finds global precipitation patterns a driver for animal diversity

Since the HMS Beagle arrived in the Galapagos with Charles Darwin to meet a fateful family of finches, ecologists have struggled to understand a particularly perplexing question: Why is there a ridiculous abundance of species some places on earth and a scarcity in others? What factors, exactly, drive animal diversity? With access to a mammoth set of global-scale climate data and a novel strategy, a team from the Department of Watershed Sciences in Quinney College of Natural Resources and the Ecology Center identified several factors to help ...

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Science24 Oct 2023

SDMPH welcomes Charles Parks Richardson, MD

Charles Parks Richardson, MD, has been elected as a Board Member of the Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Richardson is an American physician who is both an accomplished physician and a medical innovator. He has not only been the inventor of several medical devices and pharmaceutical processes but has translated these into successful business ventures in partnership with such prestigious organizations as the American Heart Association. He is currently the CEO of Critical Medical Infrastructure (CMI), KRS Global Biotechnology, and GeneRx, ...

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Science24 Oct 2023

Mass General Brigham names Paul Anderson Chief Academic Officer

Following a national search, Paul Anderson, MD, PhD, has been named Chief Academic Officer for Mass General Brigham. Anderson, who has been serving in this role on an interim basis since January 1, oversees Mass General Brigham’s world-class research and teaching enterprise, which includes two academic medical centers — Mass General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital — and three specialty hospitals. Mass General Brigham is the largest hospital system-based research enterprise in the nation, with an annual ...

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Science24 Oct 2023

New clues to early development of schizophrenia

Philadelphia, October 24, 2023 – Schizophrenia is a severe neuropsychiatric disease that remains poorly understood and treated. Schizophrenia onset is typically in adolescence or early adulthood, but its underlying causes are thought to involve neurodevelopmental abnormalities. Because human prenatal and postnatal brain tissue is exceedingly difficult to procure and therefore study, researchers have had limited opportunities to identify early disease mechanisms, especially during the critical prenatal period. Now, a pair of studies that appear in Biological Psychiatry, ...

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Science24 Oct 2023

What an animated taco reveals about curiosity and patience

DURHAM, N.C. -- Curiosity paradoxically increases people’s patience for an answer, while simultaneously making them more eager to hear it, finds a new study by Duke neuroscientists. The research might help teachers and students alike by describing a side of curiosity that encourages us to stay engaged instead of seeking immediate relief. Die-hard fans of the Hulu show, "The Bear" are left on the edge of their seats each Sunday, wondering what's going to happen in the scrappy Chicago hotdog shop next week. But the new study from Duke helps explain why viewers may choose to avoid spoilers ...

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Science24 Oct 2023

How eggs of the Zika-carrying mosquito survive desiccation

Eggs of the mosquito that carries Zika virus can tolerate extended desiccation by altering their metabolism, according to a new study publishing October 24th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Anjana Prasad, Sunil Laxman, and colleagues at the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine in Bengaluru, India and the Indian Institute of Technology in Mandi, India. The finding offers potential new ways to control the spread of this mosquito. Cells are made mostly of water, and desiccation is a potentially fatal event for any organism, since the structures of many proteins and other cellular molecules are dependent ...

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Science24 Oct 2023

$9 million award from the Department of Defense will fund groundbreaking FutureG research

Lingjia Liu, professor of electrical and computer engineering who is also an inaugural faculty member at the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, has been awarded the Mobile Distributed Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (Mobile dMIMO) project by the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) as part of its flagship FutureG program. The Mobile dMIMO project consists of three phases, with $9 million total planned funding — $1.5 million is for Phase 1 of the project. The Mobile dMIMO project represents one ...

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Science24 Oct 2023

Bumblebees visit flowers with more difficult-to-access nectar for immediate benefit to the colony

If you’ve ever watched a bumblebee move from flower to flower, you might wonder how they decide which flower to choose and how long to stay. Now, researchers reporting in the journal iScience on October 24 have new insight based on their observations of bumblebees’ interactions with slippery artificial flowers. They found that the bumblebees make choices to maximize the rate of energy return, or the amount of sugar collected each minute. “Bumblebees can make decisions ‘on the fly’ about which nectar sources are the most energetically economical,” said Jonathan ...

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Science24 Oct 2023

Getting maximum calories in shortest time is the priority for bumblebees

Research has found that bumblebees make foraging choices to collect the most sugar from flowers in the shortest time – even if that means using more energy in the process – to provide an immediate energy boost for the colony. A new study investigating nectar drinking in one of the most common bumblebees in the UK, Bombus terrestris, has found that when foraging they maximise the amount of nectar sugar they take back to the colony each minute. To make their choices, the bumblebees trade off the time they spend collecting nectar with the energy content of that nectar. This means ...

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