Science
press releases.

Science7 Sep 2023

Novel formulation boosts antimicrobial properties of the natural hand barrier

Contact infection is among the most common ways pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, spread from one person to another. Hand washing and disinfection are important hygiene practices to minimize the probability of catching infectious diseases. Interestingly, our hands also have a natural barrier that fights off pathogens. While this had been known to science for quite some time, the exact mechanisms by which this barrier acts on pathogens remained a mystery until recently. In a 2021 study published in Scientific Reports, researchers from Kao Corporation, Japan, revealed that lactic acid (LA), which has a molecular ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Does this number make me look fat?

In 2019, an ESPN report explored the reasons so many football wide receivers prefer to wear jersey numbers between 10 and 19. The story found that many of the athletes simply believed the lower numbers made them look faster and slimmer than the higher numbers traditionally assigned to their position. Ladan Shams, a UCLA professor of psychology and neuroscience, was quoted in the story and offered a psychological explanation for the phenomenon. But she emphasized that there was no scientific research on the topic. Now there is. A new UCLA study published in the journal PLOS ONE reveals that those wide receivers were onto ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

The sense of order distinguishes humans from other animals

Remembering the order of information is central for a person when participating in conversations, planning everyday life, or undergoing an education. A new study, published in the scientific journal PLoS One, shows that this ability is probably human unique. Even the closest relatives of humans, such as bonobos, do not learn order in the same way. “The study contributes another piece of the puzzle to the question of how the mental abilities of humans and other animals differ, and why only humans speak languages, plan space travel, and have learned to exploit the earth so efficiently that we now pose a serious ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Study looking at how intermittent fasting and weight loss affect aging

Studies have shown that intermittent fasting can help people lose weight and may be easier to follow than counting calories to lose weight, such as traditional calorie restriction. Exciting new research in animals suggests that intermittent fasting slows aging and helps animals live longer. Researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham are conducting a study to see if eating for 8 hours and fasting for 16 each day can slow the aging process in people and are looking for healthy adults aged 25-49 to participate. In this study, called DiAL-Health, researchers will ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Devices offers long-distance, low-power underwater communication

MIT researchers have demonstrated the first system for ultra-low-power underwater networking and communication, which can transmit signals across kilometer-scale distances. This technique, which the researchers began developing several years ago, uses about one-millionth the power that existing underwater communication methods use. By expanding their battery-free system’s communication range, the researchers have made the technology more feasible for applications such as aquaculture, coastal hurricane prediction, and climate change modeling. “What started as a very exciting ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Beauty salon–based intervention increases trust of PrEP among Black cisgender women

September 6, 2023 — Among African American and other Black cisgender women, a beauty salon–based intervention improved knowledge and awareness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV and increased trust in it, according to a pilot study published in the September issue of The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (JANAC), the official journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. JANAC is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. However, most study participants did not self-identify as requiring PrEP or having risk factors for HIV. "Like ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Commercialization of cannabis linked to increased traffic injuries

Ottawa, ON, September 5, 2023 – Annual rates of emergency department visits for cannabis-involved traffic injury increased by 475 percent over 13 years, according to a new study from The Ottawa Hospital, Bruyère Research Institute, and ICES. The study examined cannabis-involvement in emergency department (ED) visits for traffic injuries between 2010 and 2021 and looked for changes after the legalization of cannabis in October 2018 and following the commercialization of the legal market (expanded cannabis products and retail stores), which overlapped with the ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Study finds increase in travelers to Massachusetts seeking abortion care post-Dobbs

Analysis led by Brigham researchers showed an increase in out-of-state abortion travelers to Massachusetts from other states including Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia after Dobbs. Use of non-profit funding by charitable organizations for abortion care more than doubled among out-of-state travelers A rigorous analysis by researchers confirms a rise in out-of-state travelers coming to Massachusetts to seek abortion care. In a new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Cannabis-involved traffic injury emergency department visits after cannabis legalization and commercialization

About The Study: This study found large increases in cannabis involvement in emergency department visits for traffic injury over time in Ontario, Canada, which may have accelerated following nonmedical cannabis commercialization. Although the frequency of visits was rare, they may reflect broader changes in cannabis-impaired driving. Greater prevention efforts, including targeted education and policy measures, in regions with legal cannabis are indicated. Authors: Daniel T. Myran, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.31551) Editor’s ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

The first organic oscillator that makes catalysis swing

Oscillating chemical systems are present at nearly every popular chemistry exhibition – especially the ones that display striking colour changes. But so far there are very few practical uses for these types of reactions beyond timekeeping. In nature, on the other hand, many important life processes such as cell division and circadian rhythms involve oscillations. Scientists at the University of Groningen have now developed an oscillating system that contains a catalyst, and exhibits periodic catalytic activity: this synthetic chemical oscillator can do more than just keep time. A description of this ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Scripps Research chemists devise a method for C-H activation of alcohols

LA JOLLA, CA—Scripps Research chemists have extended a powerful molecule-building method—called C-H activation—to the broad class of chemicals known as alcohols. The synthetic chemistry feat, reported in Nature on September 6, 2023, follows the development of C-H activation techniques for the three other major classes of organic molecule—amines, acids and ketones—that are used to construct pharmaceuticals. It gives chemists a versatile new toolkit for making drugs and other valuable compounds now using the alcohol chemical class; moreover, its ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

A secret for boosting hotel bookings: analyze online user reviews for your hotel and your competitors

Researchers from Texas Christian University, University of South Carolina, and RealPage published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines the impact of online reviews on hotel booking performance with a specific focus on the competitive effects of reviews. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “The Competitive Effects of Online Reviews on Hotel Demand” and is authored by Sanghoon Cho, Pelin Pekgun, Ramkumar Janakiraman, and Jian Wang. Recent reports indicate that a majority of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations when deciding to book a hotel. A 2019 study ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Recent advances in melon and gourd research

As summer draws to a close, the long vines and tendrils of most melons and gourds in the Cucurbitaceae family snake their way along the ground. And they’re dotted with fruits, such as cucumbers or pumpkins. Below are some recent papers published in ACS journals that report insights into melons’ potential health impacts, pathogens and contaminants. Reporters can request free access to these papers by emailing newsroom@acs.org. “Nanoparticles Loaded with a Carotenoid-Rich Extract from Cantaloupe Melon Improved Hepatic Retinol Levels in a Diet-Induced Obesity Preclinical Model” ACS ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Switching from harmful to helpful fungi

Mold and diseases caused by fungi can greatly impact the shelf life of fruit and vegetables. However, some fungi benefit their hosts by aiding plant survival. Colletotrichum tofieldiae (Ct) is a root mold which typically supports continued plant development even when the plant is starved of phosphorus, an important nutrient for photosynthesis and growth. Researchers studied a unique pathogenic strain of the fungi, called Ct3, which conversely inhibits plant growth. By comparing the beneficial and harmful strains Ct strains, they found that activation of a single fungal secondary metabolism gene cluster determined the negative impact of the fungus on the host ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Are children’s growing pains tied to migraines?

New research published in Headache reveals that, in children and adolescents, pain in the lower limbs—what are often called “growing pains” by clinicians and are commonly attributed to rapid growth—may indicate the presence or risk of migraines. The study included 100 children and adolescents born to mothers with migraines seen at a headache clinic, with half of the youth experiencing growing pains. “In families of children with growing pains, there is an increased prevalence of other pain syndromes, especially migraine ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

New method enables efficient isolation of raccoon-borne food poisoning pathogen

Osaka, Japan – As cute as raccoons may look, their behaviors are troublesome, and so are their droppings. Known to contain Escherichia albertii—a harmful enteropathogen—raccoon feces challenge zoonotic researchers who grapple to isolate this bacterium for further study. Fortunately, Osaka Metropolitan University scientists have come up with a novel culture medium for efficient isolation of E. albertii, making progress toward alleviating this particular raccoon-conveyed threat. Due ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

MCG Anesthesiology Externship Program helps grow profession

A unique program that sees students at the Medical College of Georgia working as anesthesia technologists throughout their four years of medical school can influence more of them to pursue the specialty as a career, investigators report. The MCG Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine’s nearly 100-year-old Externship Program is one of only five or six in the country and allows interested medical students to work nights, weekends and holidays, as a critical part of the anesthesia and operating room teams. Anesthesia techs are typically responsible for sterilizing, cleaning, assembling, calibrating, testing and troubleshooting various pieces of machinery in the operating ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Efforts to restore federal forests in eastern Oregon are working, Oregon State research shows

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Forest thinning is improving the robustness of older trees and enhancing native biodiversity on federal lands in eastern Oregon, evidence that collaborative efforts to restore forests are working, research by Oregon State University shows. The study led by James Johnston of the OSU College of Forestry involved long-term monitoring and research partnerships between OSU, the U.S. Forest Service and local groups in Oregon’s Blue Mountains. Published today in Forest Ecology and Management, the findings illustrate the collaboration’s success ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Strong evidence of ‘threshold effect’ for NHS 18-week waiting list target

There’s strong evidence of a ‘threshold effect’ in English hospitals’ efforts to comply with the 18-week referral to treatment standard, concludes a long term data analysis of performance against the target, published online in the journal BMJ Quality & Safety. The target focused activity on meeting the threshold requirement for patients on the waiting list after which it tailed off—the so-called threshold effect–rather than instigating pervasive improvement in practice, the analysis indicates. Clinical need may be a secondary consideration for meeting the target, suggest the researchers. In 2012, an 18-week ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

Human shoulders and elbows first evolved as brakes for climbing apes

The rotating shoulders and extending elbows that allow humans to reach for a high shelf or toss a ball with friends may have first evolved as a natural braking system for our primate ancestors who simply needed to get out of trees without dying. Dartmouth researchers report in the journal Royal Society Open Science that apes and early humans likely evolved free-moving shoulders and flexible elbows to slow their descent from trees as gravity pulled on their heavier bodies. When early humans left forests for the grassy savanna, the researchers say, their versatile appendages were essential ...

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Science6 Sep 2023

The limestone spheroids of ‘Ubeidiya: Intentional imposition of symmetric geometry by early hominins?

Limestone spheroids, enigmatic lithic artifacts from the ancient past, have perplexed archaeologists for years. While they span from the Oldowan to the Middle Palaeolithic, the purpose behind their creation remains a subject of intense debate. Now, a study conducted by a team from the Computational Archaeology Laboratory of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with researchers from Tel Hai College and Rovira i Virgili University seeks to shed light on these mysterious objects, offering insights into the intentions and skills of early hominins. Spheroids ...

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Science5 Sep 2023

Making plant-based meat more ‘meaty’ — with fermented onions

Plant-based alternatives such as tempeh and bean burgers provide protein-rich options for those who want to reduce their meat consumption. However, replicating meat's flavors and aromas has proven challenging, with companies often relying on synthetic additives. A recent study in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry unveils a potential solution: onions, chives and leeks that produce natural chemicals akin to the savory scents of meat when fermented with common fungi. When food producers want to make plant-based meat alternatives taste ...

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Science5 Sep 2023

Aging alters pancreatic circadian rhythm

“Overall, our study identified previously unknown circadian transcriptome reorganization of pancreas by aging [...]” BUFFALO, NY- September 5, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 16, entitled, “Reorganization of pancreas circadian transcriptome with aging.” The evolutionarily conserved circadian system allows organisms to synchronize internal processes with 24-h cycling environmental timing cues, ensuring optimal adaptation. Like other organs, the pancreas function is under circadian control. Recent evidence ...

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Science5 Sep 2023

Visualizing nerves with photoacoustic imaging

Invasive medical procedures, such as surgery requiring local anesthesia, often involve the risk of nerve injury. During operation, surgeons may accidentally cut, stretch, or compress nerves, especially when mistaking them for some other tissue. This can lead to long-lasting symptoms in the patient, including sensory and motor problems. Similarly, patients receiving nerve blockades or other types of anesthesia can suffer from nerve damage if the needle is not placed at the correct distance from the targeted peripheral nerve. Consequently, researchers have been trying to develop medical imaging techniques to mitigate the risk of nerve damage. For instance, ultrasound and magnetic resonance ...

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Science5 Sep 2023

Study reveals disparities within NHS leadership

New research shows that Allied Health Professions (AHPs) are significantly underrepresented in senior leadership roles despite being the third largest workforce in the NHS. Ranging from paramedics to podiatrists, the AHPs encompass various healthcare disciplines, constituting a workforce of 185,000 within the NHS. However AHPs have historically been underrepresented in strategic leadership positions, often occupied by medical professionals. To address this, NHS England advocated for the establishment of a Chief AHP role in every Trust to harness the untapped potential of this workforce and increase diversity in leadership ...

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