Science
press releases.

Science13 Sep 2023

Life in boiling water

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists studied hot springs on different continents and found similarities in how some microbes adapted despite their geographic diversity. The findings yield clues to the evolution of life and whether some of the hardiest microbes may be harnessed for biotechnology. The study was the first of its kind to sample hot springs on three continents with water temperatures above 65 C (149 F) in the United States, Iceland and Japan. The environments have unique geology and chemistry, almost like a fingerprint, so it was surprising to find highly related microbes separated by thousands of miles, said ORNL’s Mircea Podar, co-lead of the ...

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Science13 Sep 2023

Study finds that state-mandated civics test policy does not improve youth voter turnout

Washington, September 13, 2023—The United States has the largest age gap in voter turnout among advanced democracies. Youth voter turnout remained low, at 48 percent, in 2020. Scholars, educators, and policymakers often recommend civic education as a solution to low youth voter turnout. However, new research finds that a commonly used state-mandated civics test policy—the Civics Education Initiative (CEI)—does not improve youth voter turnout, at least in the short term. The study, by Jilli Jung and Maithreyi Gopalan, both at Pennsylvania State University, was published today in Educational ...

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Science13 Sep 2023

Groundbreaking research unveils genetic characteristics and improved prognosis of triple negative apocrine carcinoma

Breast cancer research takes a significant stride forward as Professor Semin Lee and his research team from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNIST, in collaboration with Professor Ji-Yeon Kim and Professor Young-Hyuck Im from the Division of Hematology-Oncology at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, delves into the exploration of triple negative apocrine carcinoma. This rare breast cancer subtype has garnered attention due to its unique genetic characteristics and improved prognosis when compared to other forms of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Triple negative ...

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Science13 Sep 2023

Inflammatory signs for adolescent depression differ between boys and girls

New research led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has found that depression and the risk of depression are linked to different inflammatory proteins in boys and girls. When inflammation occurs in the body a host of proteins are released into the blood called cytokines. Previous research has shown that higher levels of cytokines are associated with depression in adults, but little is known about this relationship in adolescence. Researchers investigated sex-differences in the relationship between inflammatory proteins and depression. Published in the Journal of ...

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Science13 Sep 2023

The effect of crowdsourcing contests on a company's stock and the idiosyncratic risks they create for investors

Researchers from University of Colorado Denver, Iowa State University, and Arizona State University published a new Journal of Marketing study that examines the stock market effects on these contests and the contest characteristics that may enable such contests to pay off. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “When Do Marketing Ideation Crowdsourcing Contests Create Shareholder Value? The Effect of Contest Design and Marketing Resource Factors” and is authored by Zixia Cao, Hui Feng, and Michael A. Wiles. Crowdsourcing contests for marketing ideas such as new ads, graphics, and products have become quite popular ...

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Science13 Sep 2023

Some spiders can transfer mercury contamination to land animals, study shows

Sitting calmly in their webs, many spiders wait for prey to come to them. Arachnids along lakes and rivers eat aquatic insects, such as dragonflies. But, when these insects live in mercury-contaminated waterways, they can pass the metal along to the spiders that feed on them. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters have demonstrated how some shoreline spiders can move mercury contamination from riverbeds up the food chain to land animals. Most mercury that enters waterways ...

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Science13 Sep 2023

American Society for Microbiology announces ‘gain of function’ recommendations from top scientists

Washington, D.C. — Sept. 13, 2023 — The American Society for Microbiology today released consensus recommendations from a workshop of leading scientists who reviewed the benefits and risks of “gain of function” research, as well as related policies and procedures, and proposed a foundation to guide discussions and improve oversight moving forward. The recommendations – together with a call to action for the scientific community and the general public – are intended to inform assessments of “gain of function research of concern,” which makes up a small fraction of all biological research. ...

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Science13 Sep 2023

Discovery of two potential Polar Ring galaxies suggests these stunning rare clusters might be more common than previously believed.

KINGSTON, September 13, 2023 – A group of international astronomers, including researchers from Queen’s University, has identified two potential polar ring galaxies, according to results published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Queen’s researchers Nathan Deg and Kristine Spekkens (Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy) led the analysis of data obtained using a telescope owned and operated by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. Looking at ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

New imaging technique measures elasticity of multiple eye components simultaneously

The eye is a highly complex organ, composed of intricate structures combining several types of specialized tissues. Under normal conditions, these structures work seamlessly together to provide clear images of the world around us as well as maintain intraocular pressure. However, when ocular diseases set in, the biomechanical properties of eye components change, disrupting their normal functioning. Most importantly, the alternations in biomechanical properties of the eye often lead to significant ocular diseases and vision loss. In order to study, diagnose, and monitor ocular diseases, it is, therefore, ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

'Team Waponi' advances to finals of $10M XPRIZE Rainforest Competition with 'Limelight', earns $300K semi-finalist prize

NJIT biology professor Eric Fortune and a team of scientists, known as “Team Waponi”, have reached the final stage of the five-year, $10M XPRIZE Rainforest Competition. In June, Fortune and 13 other team members traveled to the rainforests of Singapore to compete in the semi-finals of the global competition, which challenged teams to develop and demonstrate new technologies for mapping the vast biodiversity of the world's tropical forests. The team’s biodiversity sampling device, called “Limelight”, has captured exactly that so far — securing them a spot among six finalists to advance from the field of 13 teams, while earning ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

Charging ahead: New electrolyte goes extra mile for faster EV charging

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers are taking fast charging for electric vehicles, or EVs, to new extremes. A team of battery scientists recently developed a lithium-ion battery material that not only recharges 80% of its capacity in 10 minutes but keeps that ability for 1,500 charging cycles. When a battery operates or recharges, ions move between electrodes through a medium called the electrolyte. ORNL’s Zhijia Du led a team who developed new formulations of lithium salts with carbonate solvents to form an electrolyte that maintains better ion flow over time and performs well when high current heats up the battery ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

Kessler Foundation receives $725,000 grant for study to accelerate functional recovery in multiple sclerosis

East Hanover, NJ – September 12, 2023 – Carly Wender, PhD, associate research scientist in the Center for Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Research at Kessler Foundation received a three-year $725,499 grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for her study, “A Novel Combinatory Approach to Maximize Functional Recovery of Learning and Memory in Multiple Sclerosis.” Cognitive impairment is a common symptom in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) that can be particularly ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

Communicating stability, strong connections to stakeholders versus shareholders are priorities in Chinese financial reporting, Rotman research finds

September 12, 2023 Toronto - It’s commonly accepted that U.S. and Chinese companies treat financial reporting and disclosure differently. New research not only confirms that but digs into the motivations behind the distinction, using surveys with more than 200 Chinese executives who hold reporting responsibility. An overriding interest in communicating long-term stability and inspiring confidence in the company’s prospects among a diverse range of stakeholders, and not primarily shareholders, as in the U.S., was a signature driver for the Chinese business leaders. “Acknowledging differences in approaches and incentives ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

Researchers develop new method for mapping the auditory pathway

Researchers have developed a non-invasive method for mapping the human auditory pathway, which could potentially be used as a tool to help clinicians decide the best surgical strategy for patients with profound hearing loss. The findings, published today in eLife, highlight the importance of early interventions to give patients the ability to hear and understand speech, so that their auditory-language network can develop properly and their long-term outcomes are improved. Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) occurs when the sensitive hair cells inside the cochlea are damaged, or when there is damage to the auditory nerve which transmits sound to the brain. A person with profound hearing ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

New neural insights into processing uncertainty in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Philadelphia, September 12, 2023 – Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a neurological disorder characterized by repeated behaviors such as cleaning and checking despite clear objective evidence of cleanliness, orderliness, and correctness. Although the disease is often mischaracterized as a disorder of “fussiness,” the disorder actually stems from difficulty in processing uncertainty. However, the neural underpinnings of that aberrant processing remains unknown. Now, a new study in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, published by Elsevier, uses brain imaging to get a closer look at the underpinnings of uncertainty processing ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

Your body’s own cannabinoid molecules calm you during stress

·Stress heightens risk for many psychiatric disorders·Finding opens new avenue for drug development to treat psychiatric disorders ·Amygdala releases endogenous cannabinoid molecules under stress ·Finding opens new avenue for drug development to treat psychiatric disorders CHICAGO --- When you are under stress, your brain may release its own cannabinoid molecules to calm you down, activating the same brain receptors as THC derived from cannabis plants. But the brain activity patterns and neural circuits that are regulated by these brain-derived ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

Unveiling dynamics of human macrophage specification during prenatal development

Researchers led by Prof. LI Hanjie from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have unveiled the dynamics of human macrophage specification across 19 different tissues from early embryonic stages. The study was published in Cell on Sept. 12. Macrophages, i.e., pivotal immune cells, have long been enigmatic in terms of their diversity and roles during human development. Based on findings in rodents, the scientific community has gained some insights into the diversity, developmental origins, and tissue-specific formation of macrophage subtypes. However, it was not clear whether these findings are conserved in humans. In this ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

Infants less than one year old most impacted by famine of the Dutch Hunger Winter with highest mortality rate

During the Dutch Hunger Winter Famine, infants experienced the highest absolute and relative mortality of all children under 14 years of age. These are findings from a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Wageningen University & Research and the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute in the Hague. the Netherlands. In the famine cities, infant mortality increased to one percent or 922 deaths per 10,000 compared to 109 deaths per 10,000 children between the ages of one and four, and 27 deaths per 10,000 deaths at ages 5 to 14. ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

Lee McIntyre ("Post-Truth" "How to Talk to a Science Denier") Returns with "On Disinformation"

September 12th, 2023 For immediate release Fom the bestselling author of Post-Truth and How to Talk to a Science Denier, comes On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy The effort to destroy facts and make America ungovernable didn't come out of nowhere. It is the culmination of seventy years of strategic denialism. In On Disinformation, Lee McIntyre shows how the war on facts began, and how ordinary citizens can fight back against the scourge of disinformation that is now threatening the very ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

More people develop sepsis than we thought — but more survive

Sepsis, also colloquially referred to as blood poisoning, is a serious condition. Just over 3,000 people die with a diagnosis of sepsis in Norwegian hospitals each year. However, sepsis is not actually poisoning at all. The condition occurs when the immune system overreacts to an infection that can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. The immune system attacks the organs of the body and the patient develops organ failure. A new study of 300,000 sepsis admissions has found that the condition is more prevalent than previously thought. However, ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

Fall snow levels can predict a season's total snowpack in some western states

Spring break can be a good time for ski trips — the days are longer and a little warmer. But if people are booking their spring skiing trips the fall before, it's hard to know which areas will have the best snow coverage later in the season. Researchers who study water resources also want to know how much snow an area will get in a season. The total snowpack gives scientists a better idea of how much water will be available for hydropower, irrigation and drinking later in the year. A team led by researchers at the University of ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

In the age of ChatGPT, what's it like to be accused of cheating?

While the public release of the artificial intelligence-driven large-language chatbot, ChatGPT, has created a great deal of excitement around the promise of the technology and expanded use of AI, it has also seeded a good bit of anxiety around what a program that can churn out a passable college-level essay in seconds means for the future of teaching and learning. Naturally, this consternation drove a proliferation of detection programs — of varying effectiveness — and a commensurate increase in accusations of cheating. But how are the students feeling about all of this? Recently ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

Innovation thrives here: New report names Boston a top food tech hub

In what’s known as the cluster effect, industries boom when similar businesses share a single locale. In San Francisco, there’s Silicon Valley. For cutting-edge fashion and media, there’s New York City. And according to a new report from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, when it comes to innovation in food technology, Boston has become a bona fide magnet. But what exactly is food technology, or food tech for short, and how can it solve the current food system’s most dire dilemmas? The report from the Food and Nutrition ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

Large variation in how many relatives Swedes have

How many relatives do Swedes have? And at what age is the family the largest? Researchers in demography at Stockholm University have found out in a new study. Relatives often play an important role in people’s lives. Family members such as cousins, grandparents and grandchildren form part of an individual’s social network and can provide significant support, ranging from child-rearing to elderly care to financial assistance. In a new study in the journal Demography, Martin Kolk and a group of researchers at Stockholm University have documented for the first time how many relatives Swedes have. “There has been a lack of knowledge about how many kin people have in modern ...

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Science12 Sep 2023

IASLC staging model for mesothelioma validated; study supports continued use of model

[Singapore, 10:05 a.m. SGT--September 12, 2023] – A model developed by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer in 2009 to help better stage mesothelioma cases performed well, according to an independent analysis presented today at The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2023 Conference in Singapore. Pleural mesothelioma is a rare but aggressive cancer primarily caused by asbestos exposure and presents complex challenges for effective staging and prognostication. The IASLC took a significant step in 2009 by establishing an international pleural mesothelioma database aimed at enhancing staging ...

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