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press releases.

Science17 Oct 2023

DOE’s Office of Science is now accepting applications for summer 2024 visiting faculty program

WASHINGTON, DC – Applications are currently being accepted for the Summer 2024 term of the DOE Office of Science’s Visiting Faculty Program (VFP). The application deadline is January 9, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. ET. Two application assistance workshops will be held for all faculty interested in applying to VFP: November 17, 2023, at 12:00 p.m. ET (register here) December 1, 2023, at 12:00 p.m. ET (register here) In addition, prospective VFP applicants can engage with recruiters and scientists from the DOE national laboratories at a summer internship fair sponsored by the Office of Workforce ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

SEC Insider Trading Rule Has Loopholes

AUSTIN, Texas -- A rule to limit trading based on nonpublic stock information has limited effectiveness, according to a recent study by Texas McCombs Finance Professor Robert Parrino. Issued in 2000 by the Securities & Exchange Commission, Rule 10b5–1 requires corporate insiders to schedule the purchase or sale of a predetermined number of shares through a third-party broker up to two years in advance. Because the trades under these “plan” sales are scheduled in advance of their execution, insiders are presumed less likely to be acting on inside information. But ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Sleep and stress give clues to understanding epileptic seizures - study

Sleeping patterns and stress hormones could be the key to understanding how and when people with epilepsy are likely to experience seizures, a new study reveals. Researchers used mathematical modelling to understand the impact of different physiological processes, such as sleep and changes in concentration of the stress-hormone cortisol, on key signatures of epilepsy – known as epileptiform discharges (ED). Epilepsy is a serious neurological disorder characterised by a tendency to have recurrent, spontaneous seizures. Classically, seizures were assumed to occur at random, until the discovery of ED activity with timescales that vary from hours and days through to months. The scientists ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Researchers receive NIH grant to improve quality of life for people with Down syndrome

A team of researchers at the Texas A&M University School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to research metabolism in people with Down syndrome. By targeting genes that affect metabolism, the team may be able to develop drug therapies for physical and mental symptoms of the condition, like muscle loss, accelerated aging, and lower cognitive function, thereby improving the quality of life for people with Down syndrome. The new grant will also make Dr. Weston Porter, a professor in the VMBS Department of Veterinary Physiology & Pharmacology and lead researcher ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Miniaturized FSO breakthrough unlocks high-speed wireless communication anywhere

In a world that relies on high-speed internet and seamless communication, the absence of a reliable fiber connection can be a significant hurdle. Fortunately, a cutting-edge technology known as free-space optical communication (FSO) offers a flexible solution for field-deployable high-speed wireless communication in areas where fiber connections are unavailable. FSO has garnered attention for its versatility across various scales of operation. On a global level, it plays a crucial role in establishing high-speed satellite internet projects like Starlink, ensuring global connectivity. At the ground level, ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Whaling wiped out far more fin whales than previously thought

Key takeaways Whaling in the 20th century destroyed 99% of the Eastern North Pacific fin whale breeding population. Because there is enough genetic diversity, current conservation measures should help the population rebound without becoming inbred. The future of fin whales in the Gulf of California depends on the recovery of the Eastern North Pacific population. A new genomic study by UCLA biologists shows that whaling in the 20th century destroyed 99% of the Eastern North Pacific fin whale breeding, or “effective,” population — 29% more than previously thought. But there is also some good news: Genes among members of this endangered ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Texas A&M receives over $1 million in USDA grants to study SARS-CoV-2 in deer

Texas A&M University scientists and research partners have received two National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) grants to study the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in deer. These funds will help researchers understand the impact of the virus in Texas’ deer populations and its relationship to human and ecological health. For these projects, the research team will focus on captive deer, which are an agricultural species in Texas, including managed deer that live on large, rural properties enclosed by fences, as well as on the wild deer with which captive deer may interact and deer living ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

SwRI develops novel solution to advance synthesis for nerve agent antidotes

SAN ANTONIO - October 17, 2023 — Southwest Research Institute has developed a unique technology (US20230242487A1) that enables the safe and efficient synthesis of organophosphorus nerve agent (OPNA) oxime antidotes. Using this technology, SwRI scientists can not only successfully synthesize currently known highly effective nerve agent countermeasures, but also effectively develop promising new drug candidates to treat nerve agent exposure. Current treatments for OPNA exposure have not changed significantly since the 1950s. OPNAs are odorless and colorless chemicals ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Study reveals our European ancestors ate seaweed and freshwater plants

For many people seaweed holds a reputation as a superfood, heralded for its health benefits and sustainability, but it appears our European ancestors were ahead of the game and were consuming the nutrient-rich plant for thousands of years. Researchers say they have found “definitive” archaeological evidence that seaweeds and other local freshwater plants were eaten in the mesolithic, through the Neolithic transition to farming and into the Early Middle Ages, suggesting that these resources, now rarely eaten in Europe, only ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Orchid without bumblebee on island finds wasp, loses self

Because the bumblebee that an orchid relies on for pollination does not exist on a remote island, the plant gets pollinated by an island wasp. Kobe University researchers found that this came at the cost of being hybridized with another orchid species adapted to being pollinated by the wasp. The finding showcases how plants in ecological relationships adapt to changing circumstances. Remote islands have been exciting study grounds for biologists since at least the days of Darwin. When studying ecological relationships between different species, the differences between mainland and island ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Mitigating electrode-level heterogeneity using phosphorus nanolayers on graphite for fast-charging batteries

In a major stride towards achieving fast-charging lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with reliable cyclability, researchers at UNIST have made a groundbreaking discovery. Their study, published in the prestigious ACS Energy Letters, introduces a novel strategy of utilizing phosphorus nanolayers to enhance the lithiation kinetics and performance of graphite-based composites, without compromising safety. Led by Professor Hyun-Wook Lee from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST, the research team developed a revolutionary graphite-phosphorus composite using a vaporization-condensation ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

New dating of cave art reveals history of Puerto Rican people

17 October 2023 The Geological Society of America Release No. 23-40 Contact: Justin Samuel +1-303-357-1026 jsamuel@geosociety.org For Immediate Release Leer en español. Contributed by Sarah Derouin Pittsburgh, Pa., USA: In the karstic caves of Puerto Rico, cave art paints the rock walls. Previous research has assigned ages to this art based on the ages of nearby archaeological artifacts within the caves, but these ages are relative and may not reflect the true timing of the art creation. Now, a new study to be presented Wednesday at the Geological Society of America’s GSA Connects 2023 meeting shows that researchers have refined the age of this rupestrian ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Pathogen that plagues food processing plants eradicated by blue light

Washington, D.C. – Blue light kills both dried cells and biofilms of the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, a frequent contaminant of food processing facilities. Demise of L. monocytogenes occurred quickest when cells or biofilms were placed on polystyrene, a widely used, transparent form of plastic. The research is published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. “These results contribute to advancing our understanding of the potential of blue light to treat inert surfaces contaminated with L. monocytogenes,” said corresponding author ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

The dark side of the American lawn

The American residential lawn is, for many, an iconic landscape and about half of homeowners in the US use fertilizer to keep their yards green and lush. Some proportion of the nitrogen in this fertilizer enters the broader environment, with negative consequences including algal blooms and deoxygenated waters. Peter Groffman and colleagues studied residential landscapes in the Baltimore, Maryland metropolitan area, which drains to the Chesapeake Bay, seeking to identify locations (hotspots) or times (hot moments) with disproportionately high rates of nitrogen export. The authors went to lawns in exurban, ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

How to help save plants from extinction

Now is the time to identify the conditions that cause plants to die. Doing so will allow us to better protect plants by choosing conservation targets more strategically, UC Riverside botanists argue in a new paper. Published in the Oxford Academic journal Conservation Physiology, the paper demonstrates how scientists can learn the limits past which plants’ vital functions shut down, and makes the case that not doing so is a mistake in this era of increasing drought and wildfires. “We can measure the amount of water loss plants ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Critical step made for managing brushtail possums

Researchers say mapping the genetic code of the brushtail possum will benefit those working to both conserve and control the animal. In a five-year long study, just published in Nature Communications, an international group of researchers led by the University of Otago, has assembled the entire genetic code of the marsupial mammal. The work also uncovered where and when their genes are expressed, and revealed surprising details about their population diversity, reproduction, and origins. Study lead Associate Professor Tim Hore, of Otago’s Department of Anatomy, describes possums as “a fascinating animal that is loved ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Ushering in the era of light-powered 'multi-level memories'

We live in an era of data deluge. The data centers that are operated to store and process this flood of data use a lot of electricity, which has been called a major contributor to environmental pollution. To overcome this situation, polygonal computing systems with lower power consumption and higher computation speed are being researched, but they are not able to handle the huge demand for data processing because they operate with electrical signals, just like conventional binary computing systems. The Korea Institute of Science ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Staggering increase in opioid-related deaths among people experiencing homelessness, new study finds

London, ON, October 17, 2023 – People experiencing homelessness accounted for an increasing proportion of fatal opioid-related deaths in Ontario, Canada, reaching one in six such deaths by 2021, according to new research from ICES, Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute. In one of the first reports to track the continuous increase in opioid-related mortality in the province among people experiencing homelessness, researchers found that the quarterly proportion of opioid-related overdose ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Subalpine forests in the Northern Rockies are fire resilient—for now

Over 4,800 years in the Northern Rockies during wet periods and dry periods, subalpine forests consistently recovered from wildfires, growing back vegetation and leaving evidence of their resilience in lake sediment cores. Kyra Clark-Wolf, now a CU Boulder postdoc with the North Central Climate Adaptation Center (NC CASC), led the study as part of her dissertation research. NC CASC is a partnership of CU Boulder and the United States Geological Survey. “I thought we might see different ecosystem responses to past fires between wet and dry periods,” said Clark-Wolf. “But ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Unique marimo threatened by rising lake temperatures

Rising lake water temperatures threaten the survival of marimo, unique algal balls found only in cold lakes. Kobe University researchers clarified that the warmer it gets, the more the inward decomposition outpaces the outward growth of these life forms, making them increasingly fragile. Moss balls, or “marimo” in Japanese, are popular pet water plants that are not a moss but a special growth form of filamentous algae. They are found naturally in lakes in northern Japan and cold lakes of ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Novel hydrogel finds new aptamers, or ‘chemical antibodies,’ in days

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — One double-helix strand of DNA could extend six feet, but it is so tightly coiled that it packs an entire sequence of nucleotides into the tiny nucleus of a cell. If that same DNA was instead split into two strands and divided into many, many short pieces, it would become trillions of uniquely folded 3D molecular structures, capable of bonding to and possibly manipulating specifically shaped molecules — if they’re the perfect fit. These short, single-stranded segments of DNA or RNA are called aptamers, also known as “chemical antibodies.” According to Penn State researchers, ...

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Science17 Oct 2023

Older siblings and childhood tonsil removal linked to heightened risk of inflammatory arthritis

Having older siblings and childhood tonsil removal are linked to a heightened risk of ankylosing spondylitis, a type of chronic inflammatory arthritis, finds a large study published in the open access journal RMD Open. The findings lend weight to the theory that childhood infections have a role in the development of the condition, which is characterised by inflammation of the spine, joints, and tendons, resulting in pain, stiffness, and fatigue. While genetic predisposition is the leading cause of the disease, early life environmental factors ...

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Science16 Oct 2023

Andrea Califano receives Alfred G. Knudson award from NCI

Andrea Califano, Dr, has been honored with the 26th Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for his exceptional contributions to the field of cancer research. Califano, a pioneer in the field of cancer genetics, is the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and a member of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. The award is named in honor of geneticist and cancer researcher Alfred G. Knudson, MD, a 1947 graduate of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, who helped uncover several major genetic mysteries behind ...

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Science16 Oct 2023

Jefferson Lab to lead $300+ million high performance data facility hub

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – The U.S. Department of Energy has just announced the selection of Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility as the lead for its new High Performance Data Facility Hub. Jefferson Lab will partner with DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to form a joint project team led by Jefferson Lab. The HPDF will be a $300-500 million computing and data infrastructure resource that will provide transformational capabilities for data analysis, networking and storage for the nation’s research enterprise. ...

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Science16 Oct 2023

Leading scientists, philosophers identify nature’s missing evolutionary law

A paper in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today describes “a missing law of nature,” recognizing for the first time an important norm within the natural world’s workings. In essence, the new law states that complex natural systems evolve to states of greater patterning, diversity, and complexity. In other words, evolution is not limited to life on Earth, it also occurs in other massively complex systems, from planets and stars to atoms, minerals, and more. Authored by a nine-member team — leading scientists from the Carnegie Institution for ...

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