Science
press releases.

Science19 Oct 2023

Rice researcher scans tropical forest with mixed-reality device

HOUSTON – (Oct. 19, 2023) – Rice University scientists used a commercially available mixed-reality headset with custom-designed software to measure and analyze forest floor vegetation, demonstrating a correlation between animal diversity and the mapped habitat of a Tanzanian national park. According to the paper published in the journal Ecology, the greater the microhabitat surface area, the richer the biodiversity of its mammals. Traditional habitat field research requires a significant amount of time and effort, but Rice postdoctoral researcher Daniel Gorczynski reduced those costs by ...

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Science19 Oct 2023

Study finds men's antidepressant use did not negatively impact IVF success

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a time-intensive and often stress-inducing fertility procedure. Yet how does that stress impact its success? Investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, assessed the effects of anxiety and depression in men on fertility and IVF outcomes. Their findings reveal no correlation between anxiety, regardless of antidepressant use, on IVF outcomes or live birth rate. Results are published in Human Reproduction. “Our findings indicate that despite past concerns over antidepressant medication’s ...

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Science19 Oct 2023

New study sheds light on long term effectiveness and safety of two widely used statins

Two widely used statins, rosuvastatin and atorvastatin, are equally effective at preventing heart attacks, strokes and death in people with coronary artery disease. But while rosuvastatin treatment is associated with lower cholesterol levels, it also carries a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than atorvastatin, finds a study published by The BMJ today. Lowering “bad” (LDL) cholesterol levels with statins is recommended for people with coronary artery disease - a condition where the blood vessels supplying the heart are ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

Striking the right tune

Jonathan Middleton, DMA, a professor of music theory and composition at Eastern Washington University, is the lead author of a newly published study demonstrating how the transformation of digital data into sounds could be a game-changer in the growing world of data interpretation. The analysis was conducted over three years with researchers from the Human-Computer Interaction Group at Finland’s Tampere University. Recently published in the peer-review journal Frontiers in Big Data, Dr. Middleton’s research paper examines how he and his co-investigators were primarily concerned with showing ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

Choosing exoskeleton settings like a Pandora radio station

Images // Video Taking inspiration from music streaming services, a team of engineers at the University of Michigan, Google and Georgia Tech has designed the simplest way for users to program their own exoskeleton assistance settings. Of course, what's simple for the users is more complex underneath, as a machine learning algorithm repeatedly offers pairs of assistance profiles that are most likely to be comfortable for the wearer. The user then selects one of these two, and the predictor offers another ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

American Society of Anesthesiologists names Ronald L. Harter, M.D., FASA, new president

SAN FRANCISCO — Ronald L. Harter, M.D., FASA, professor of anesthesiology in the Department of Anesthesiology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, was today named president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), the nation’s largest organization of physician anesthesiologists. Dr. Harter assumed office at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 annual meeting and will serve for one year. “ASA is the premier educational, research and scientific organization representing anesthesiology in the U.S., and I’m honored to have this opportunity to advance ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

From one nightmare to another. Anthony Fauci’s new concern

(WASHINGTON) -- “What keeps you up at night?” It’s a question Anthony Fauci, MD, heard repeatedly over the course of his nearly four decades as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Now a Distinguished University Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine and the McCourt School of Public Policy, Fauci says he realized his worst nightmare -- a twist on the usual question -- in January 2020 when the type of virus he most feared triggered a worldwide pandemic. Today, as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, Fauci describes a new nemesis ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

Researchers uncover mechanism that links NAD+ to fertility problems

A woman’s fertility normally decreases by her late 30s with reproductive function eventually ceasing at menopause. It is known that a small molecule called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) plays a critical role in this decline, and Buck scientists have revealed how this happens and have identified potential new approaches to enhance reproductive longevity. “Studying ovarian biology and reproductive aging is not just about trying to increase fertility, but really about the overall ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

Study elucidates evolution of mosquitoes and their hosts

Researchers at North Carolina State University and global collaborators have mapped the mosquito’s tree of life, a major step toward understanding important traits, such as how the insects choose their hosts, feed on blood and spread disease. The findings will help researchers make better predictions to model disease transmission and understand what makes some mosquitoes better disease carriers than others. The research suggests that mosquito evolution over the past 200 million years mirrors the Earth’s ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

A newly hierarchically porous pyrolysis-free bifunctional catalyst to boost ultralong lifespan zinc-air batteries

They published their work on Oct. 12 in Energy Material Advances. "The development of cost-effective and high-performance zinc-air battery cathode catalyst is imperative," said paper author Zhonghua Xiang, professor with the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. "Currently, zinc-air batteries still not occupy the market, because they are limited in both stability and in their energy density." Xiang explained that zinc-air batteries can only work for very limited time at high current density, because there are lots of problems of its cathode, anode and electrolyte. "The air ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

Do adult periodical cicadas actually feed on anything?

Annapolis, MD; October 18, 2023—Every so often, cicadas emerge above ground and blanket the earth with their exoskeletons while emitting a high-pitched chirp from sunrise to sunset. The periodical cicadas in the genus Magicicada come every 13 or 17 years, though other types of cicadas emerge much more frequently in our neighborhoods. A long-standing agricultural query related to the periodical cicadas was recently answered by an Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) research team at West Virginia's Appalachian Fruit Research Station. Simply: Once periodical ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

SwRI to host Life-Cycle Analysis for Transportation Symposium Nov. 16-17

SAN ANTONIO — October 18, 2023 —Southwest Research Institute will host the Life-Cycle Analysis for Transportation Symposium on Nov. 16-17 in San Antonio. This year’s symposium will be in person for the first time. The two-day event will highlight academic, industry and institutional research efforts to characterize the total greenhouse gas emissions produced during the entire life cycle of a vehicle, including its manufacture, service life and recycling or disposal. “We often talk about getting to ‘zero-emissions,’ but this definition often ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

ASHG 2023 Annual Meeting to welcome thousands of researchers in Washington, DC to advance human genetics and genomics discoveries and applications

Media Contact: Kara Flynn, 202.257.8424, press@ashg.org For Immediate Release: Wednesday, October 18, 2023, 10:00am U.S. Eastern Time ROCKVILLE, MD — More than ever before, human genetics and genomics is an essential part of making progress in research, biotechnology, and health. As a key leader supporting research innovation, the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) will convene more than 8,000 researchers and clinicians at the ASHG 2023 Annual Meeting in Washington DC, Nov. 1-5 to share emerging discoveries and celebrate the Society’s 75th anniversary. “Human genetics is transforming science and health at a rapid ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

Test of police implicit bias training shows modest improvements

SPOKANE, Wash. – A two-part training designed to help police officers recognize their implicit bias, revealed some behavior improvement and lowered citizen discrimination complaints in a controlled study. While a small study involving one police department, it is the first-known research to provide evidence that this type of training can produce positive behavioral effects. Led by Washington State University researcher Lois James, the study found some improvement in the anti-bias trained officers’ behavior toward homeless people in particular, ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

Simplifying the generation of three-dimensional holographic displays

Holograms that offer a three-dimensional (3D) view of objects provide a level of detail that is unattainable by regular two-dimensional (2D) images. Due to their ability to offer a realistic and immersive experience of 3D objects, holograms hold enormous potential for use in various fields, including medical imaging, manufacturing, and virtual reality. Holograms are traditionally constructed by recording the three-dimensional data of an object and the interactions of light with the object. However, this technique is computationally highly intensive as it requires ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

Open access: Need to move away from transformative agreements

Sweden is far ahead when it comes to promoting open access to scholarly publications. But there is risk of getting stuck in a permanent transformation that favours large commercial publishers. A new report from the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions develops a strategy on how to work in negotiations with the publishers. In 2021, the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions (Sveriges universitets- och högskoleförbund, SUHF) convened a “Beyond transformative agreements” working group (the BTA group) to lay the foundation for further advancing the transition to open access. Now, the group ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

Reef-devouring predator survives coral bleaching and feasts on the survivors

Research conducted by marine biologists from the University of Sydney has found juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish can withstand tremendous heatwaves well above levels that kill coral. These starfish then develop into carnivorous predators that devour reefs just as they begin to regrow. Crown-of-thorns starfish are native to the Great Barrier Reef and found in the Indo-Pacific region, but they are classified as a species of concern because the damage large populations cause to coral is more significant than any other species. ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

New method may accurately identify body fluids at crime scenes

Identifying different types of body fluids can help forensic experts reconstruct a crime scene, but it’s difficult to do so. In a study published in Electrophoresis, researchers developed a method using two different types of RNA—called microRNA (miRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA)—to determine five common body fluids. Compared with previously reported single mRNA or miRNA assays, the combination of several mRNAs and miRNAs showed significant advantages for labeling human body fluids. “Our findings indicate that this combined mRNA and miRNA system may provide a scientific ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

You don’t lose if you snooze

It is often claimed that using the snooze button can have negative effects on sleep and cognitive processes, but there has been no direct evidence to this effect. New research from the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University shows that snoozing may actually support the waking process for regular snoozers. It's common to want to stay in bed, potentially even go back to sleep, when the alarm goes off in the morning. The snooze button has been a function in alarm clocks and cell phones for decades and is ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

Is it ok to press the snooze button?

Snoozing, or using intermittent alarms to get in a few more minutes of sleep in the morning, may have benefits for some people, according to research published in the Journal of Sleep Research. In a study of 1,732 adults who described their waking habits, 69% of participants reported using the snooze function or setting multiple alarms at least “sometimes.” In those who snoozed, the average time spent snoozing per morning was 22 minutes, ranging from 1 to 180 minutes. Snoozers tended to be younger than non-snoozers and were more likely to be evening types. Morning drowsiness and shorter sleep were also more common in those who snoozed. In a second ...

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Science18 Oct 2023

Founder personality could predict start-up success: study

The stats don’t lie – the overwhelming majority of start-up companies fail. So, what makes the seemingly lucky few not only survive, but thrive? While good fortune and circumstances can play a part, new research reveals that when it comes to start-up success, a founder’s personality – or the combined personalities of the founding team - is paramount. The study, published today in Scientific Reports, shows founders of successful start-ups have personality traits that differ significantly from the rest of the population – and that these traits are more important for success than many other ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Paul “Bear” Bryant Awards announce 2023 college football coaches watch list

HOUSTON, October 17, 2023 – Twenty-six active college football coaches make up the American Heart Association’s 2023 Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award watch list, a list of current coaches in consideration for the annual top honor. The award is given each January to a college football coach for contributions that make the sport better for athletes and fans alike by demonstrating grit, integrity and a winning approach to coaching and life - both on and off the field. The ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Familiarity breeds contempt for moral failings

CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE FOR RELEASE: October 17, 2023 Abby Shroba Kozlowski cell: 607-229-2681 ars454@cornell.edu Familiarity breeds contempt for moral failings ITHACA, N.Y. – People judge members of their own circles more harshly than they judge individuals from other groups for the same transgressions, according to new Cornell University research. Morality plays a central role in this phenomenon. The researchers found that because morality is a social glue that holds a community together, when someone breaks those moral rules inside the group, it is perceived as more of a threat than when outsiders breaks the same rules in their own groups. “When ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Tirzepatide trial shows additional 21.1% weight loss following intensive lifestyle intervention

A phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the injectable prescription medication tirzepatide, showed an additional 21.1% weight loss after intensive lifestyle intervention in adults with obesity or who were overweight with weight-related comorbidities, excluding Type 2 diabetes. The findings of the SURMOUNT-3 study, sponsored by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, were simultaneously published this week in the journal Nature Medicine and presented at a national conference of obesity researchers. Tirzepatide, marketed ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

DOE’s Office of Science is now accepting applications for summer 2024 undergraduate internships

WASHINGTON, DC – Applications are currently being accepted for the Summer 2024 term of two undergraduate internship programs offered by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science: the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) program and the Community College Internships (CCI) program. The application deadline is January 9, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. EST. Through SULI and CCI, undergraduate students and recent graduates discover science and technology careers at the DOE national laboratories and gain the experience needed to transition ...

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