Science
press releases.

Science3 Aug 2023

Dopamine controls movement, not just rewards

Dopamine: It’s not just for rewards anymore. In a new Northwestern University-led study, researchers identified and recorded from three genetic subtypes of dopamine neurons in the midbrain region of a mouse model. Although there is a long-standing, common assumption that most — if not all — dopamine neurons solely respond to rewards or reward-predicting cues, the researchers instead discovered that one genetic subtype fires when the body moves. And, even more surprisingly, these neurons curiously do not respond to rewards at all. Not only ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

Seven entrepreneurs join Innovation Crossroads seventh cohort

Seven entrepreneurs will embark on a two-year fellowship as the seventh cohort of Innovation Crossroads kicks off this month at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Representing a range of transformative energy technologies, Cohort 7 is a diverse class of innovators with promising new companies. New to Innovation Crossroads’ sponsorship this year are DOE’s Office of Electricity and Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research program, which join DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, DOE’s Building Technologies Office, and the Tennessee ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

NUS study: A patchwork of Wnt signalling ligands and receptors pattern the colours on the wings of butterflies

Wnt signalling is a well-known mode of cell-to-cell communication in multicellular biological organisms. It involves the secretion of small Wnt glycoproteins, by signalling cells, that bind to receptor proteins in the membrane of receiving cells. This signal modifies proteins on the inside of these receiving cells to make cells grow, divide or differentiate. This mode of communication is fundamental in both normal and altered cellular development, such as in cancer and wound healing, and has remained in the limelight ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

Three out of every ten meals ordered from the main food delivery app in Brazil come from dark kitchens

About a third of the restaurants listed on iFood, the food delivery app most used by Brazilians, are “dark kitchens”, according to the first study of the topic conducted in Brazil, and one of only a few worldwide. An article on the study is published in the journal Food Research International. It has eight authors; the first three and the last are researchers at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in São Paulo state. Defined in the article as delivery-only restaurants that have no direct contact with consumers, have no premises for local consumption and sell solely ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

Butterfly-inspired films create vibrant colors while passively cooling objects

WASHINGTON —On a hot summer day, white clothing feels cooler than other colors due to reflecting—not absorbing—sunlight. Other colors like blue or black, will undergo a heating effect as they absorb light. To circumvent this heating effect in colored cooling films, researchers drew inspiration from nanostructures in butterfly wings. The new films, which don’t absorb any light, could be used on the outside of buildings, vehicles and equipment to reduce the energy needed for cooling while preserving vivid color properties. “In buildings, large amounts of energy are used for cooling and ventilation, and running ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

MIT Press's Direct to Open (D2O) achieves second year goal, opens access to 82 new books in 2023

Thanks to the support of libraries participating in Direct to Open (D2O), the MIT Press will publish its full list (see below) of 2023 scholarly monographs and edited collections open access on the MIT Press Direct platform. Launched in 2021, D2O is a sustainable framework that harnesses the collective power of libraries to support open and equitable access to vital, leading scholarship. D2O moves scholarly books from a solely market-based, purchase model, where individuals and libraries buy ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

On-off switch for enzymes

Light affects living organisms in many different ways: for example, plants orient their growth direction towards the sun, while circadian rhythms in humans are controlled by daylight. These processes always involve photoreceptors, which are proteins that can sense different colours and intensities of light. 10,000-fold increase in enzymatic activity Now, researchers at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) have deciphered the function of a highly efficient photoreceptor. Their findings have been published in the journal Science Advances. The research ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

UT extension to help Tennessee farmers navigate labor management

University of Tennessee Extension and GAP Connections recently received a grant from the Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center to launch a series of workshops across the state to help agricultural producers and agribusinesses navigate the intricacies of labor management. Tennessee’s labor-intensive farming operations are increasingly in need of agricultural labor options, creating challenges for agricultural employers that have transitioned from readily available family labor to scarce hired labor that ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

It’s 2023, and coming out is, well, complicated

In an era of unprecedented LGBTQ2+ visibility coupled with incredible backlash, coming out as a sexual minority can be a deeply ambivalent experience, according to new research. In a study published in Theory and Society, sociologists Dr. Amin Ghaziani and Andy Holmes conducted in-depth interviews with 52 adult Vancouverites about their experiences coming out over the last five years. We spoke to Dr. Ghaziani (he/him), professor in the UBC department of sociology and Canada Research Chair in Urban Sexualities, about the findings. Why were you interested in recent experiences of coming out? Coming out is about sharing your identity with someone, and it’s an ongoing ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

A path to defeating crop-killing gray mold without toxic chemicals

It’s a mold that causes billions in crop losses every year, infecting berries, tomatoes and most other fruits and vegetables. Now, researchers have found a way to defeat the mold without showering toxic chemicals on the crops. If you’ve ever seen a fuzzy gray strawberry, you’ve seen gray mold. It affects more than 1,400 different plant species, and there is no real cure for it. Being able to control it may hinge on the discovery of lipid “bubbles” secreted by the ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

Disparities in Black adults’ stroke risk factors persist; risk factor control reduced gap

Research Highlights: In a retrospective analysis of stroke patients, Black adults who had a stroke due to a severe blockage of a major artery in the brain (intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis) were younger, had higher rates of high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, and had lower physical activity scores compared to non-Black adults. After one year of aggressive, individualized medical management, including lifestyle coaching and regular follow-up care, diastolic blood pressure and physical activity scores improved among Black adults. Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023 DALLAS, Aug. 3, 2023 — Significant stroke risk factor disparities ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

Ear today, gone tomorrow? A new discovery in a cause of inner-ear bone loss

Osaka, Japan – Chronic inflammation of the middle ear can cause several problems and complications that can affect a person’s hearing and balance. One such problem is the formation of a cholesteatoma, which is an abnormal collection of cells in the ear that can cause bone erosion if left untreated. In turn, this can cause symptoms such as hearing loss, dizziness, facial paralysis, and even a brain infection. In a study published recently in Nature Communications, researchers from Osaka University have revealed the cause of cholesteatomas, which may help in developing new therapies for patients who are suffering ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

Better coaching to promote a person’s growth

CLEVELAND—What if there was a more effective way to coach and inspire your employees? Athletes? Students? Even your kids? A new study by a team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University suggests there is. Their newly published work used neuroimaging to peer into the brains of participants as they responded to two different styles of coaching. The researchers wanted to see what happens in the brain that either helps people grow or causes them to resist change. “You could say it’s about how we get around the problem that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink,” said Anthony “Tony” ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

Procedure for treating adults with severe stroke is also safe and effective for treating children, research shows

CONTACT: Camille Jewell cjewell@vancomm.com or 202-248-5460 SAN DIEGO—A study presented today at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery’s (SNIS) 20th Annual Meeting noted that mechanical thrombectomy, a standard treatment for adults with a large vessel occlusion, a type of severe ischemic stroke, is also safe and effective for treating children. A large vessel occlusion is caused by a blood clot that blocks a large vessel, cutting off significant blood flow to the brain. The faster that patients with this kind of stroke receive mechanical thrombectomy, a minimally invasive procedure ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

New studies shed more light on potential risks of antenatal steroids

Two new studies published by The BMJ today examine the potential health risks for infants of giving steroid drugs to women who are at risk of giving birth early. Taken together, the results highlight the need for doctors to be aware of the potential risks and to exercise caution when considering antenatal steroid treatment. Babies born early (preterm) carry a greater risk of death and serious complications such as breathing difficulties, bleeding into the brain, and infection than babies born at term. These problems tend to be more severe the earlier the baby is born. Corticosteroids are known to help increase the ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

People with a hepatitis C cure still face substantial risk of death

Individuals who have been cured of hepatitis C infection still face a substantially greater risk of death compared with the general population - between 3 and 14 times higher depending on liver disease stage, finds the largest study of its kind published by The BMJ today. Based on data from more than 20,000 patients with a hepatitis C cure, the results show that drug and liver-related causes of death were the main drivers of excess deaths - and highlight the importance of continued support to fully realise the benefits of a hepatitis C cure. Hepatitis C is a virus that can infect the liver which, if left untreated, can cause ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

Study reveals unexpected importance of the thymus in adults

BOSTON – The thymus gland—which produces immune T cells before birth and during childhood— is often regarded as nonfunctional in adults, and it’s sometimes removed during cardiac surgery for easier access to the heart and major blood vessels. New research led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and published in the New England Journal of Medicine has uncovered evidence that the thymus is in fact critical for adult health generally and for preventing cancer and perhaps autoimmune disease. To determine whether the thymus provides health benefits to adults, the team evaluated the risk of death, cancer, ...

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Science3 Aug 2023

Workers are less productive and make more typos in the afternoon — especially on Fridays

If there’s one thing most office workers can agree on, it’s that they tend to feel less productive toward the end of the day and the end of each work week. Now, a team of researchers at Texas A&M University has found objective evidence of this phenomenon in action. A recent interdisciplinary study at the Texas A&M School of Public Health used a novel method of data collection to show that employees really are less active and more prone to mistakes on afternoons and Fridays, with Friday afternoon representing the lowest point of worker productivity. The ...

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Science2 Aug 2023

A more holistic and efficient way of testing PPE

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A team at Sandia National Laboratories has developed a faster and more comprehensive way of testing personal protective equipment, or PPE. The basic principle: modeling a device to fit the human form and human behavior. When COVID-19 hit, PPE testing became an urgent need. In March 2020, when the country went into lockdown, many people turned to Sandia for PPE testing support. They were trying to bring new masks to the market, provide quality assurance for imported masks and vet cleaning processes for reuse of single-use PPE. “Whether using in-house or commercial filter ...

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Science2 Aug 2023

Scientists view the “transition state” of a photochemical reaction in real-time

The Science In chemical reactions, molecules proceed during their transformation from reactants into reaction products through a critical geometry. In chemistry, geometry refers to the arrangement of atoms in a molecule. Scientists often call critical geometry in reactions a transition state. This state has an almost incomprehensibly short lifetime of less than one millionth of one millionth of a second. Scientists recently captured a critical geometry using the ultra-high speed “electron camera” at SLAC. In combination with quantum simulations of the reaction, ...

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Science2 Aug 2023

Bullying, suicidal thoughts linked to more frequent headaches in teens

MINNEAPOLIS – Teens who have been bullied by their peers, or who have considered or attempted suicide, may be more likely to have more frequent headaches than teens who have not experienced any of these problems, according to a study published in the August 2, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that bullying or thoughts of suicide cause headaches; it only shows an association. “Headaches are a common problem for teenagers, but our study looked beyond the biological factors to also consider the psychological and social factors that are associated with headaches,” ...

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Science2 Aug 2023

Study defines disparities in memory care

Patients who live in less affluent neighborhoods and those from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups are less likely than others to receive specialized care for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates. Further, the research shows that Black people are more likely than white people to be diagnosed with dementia at a later, more advanced stage, which could contribute to inequities in access to new treatments. The study appears Aug. 2 in the journal Neurology. New medications ...

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Science2 Aug 2023

Half of popular TikTok videos about Baby Boomers portray older adults negatively, risking reinforcing stereotypes and creating intergenerational conflict

Half of popular TikTok videos about Baby Boomers portray older adults negatively, risking reinforcing stereotypes and creating intergenerational conflict ### Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0285987 Article Title: Videos about older adults on TikTok Author Countries: Singapore Funding: We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Social Science Research Council SSHR Fellowship (MOE2018-SSHR-004). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to ...

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Science2 Aug 2023

Speech deepfakes frequently fool humans, even after training on how to detect them

In a study involving more than 500 people, participants correctly identified speech deepfakes only 73 percent of the time, and efforts to train participants to detect deepfakes had minimal effects. Kimberly Mai and colleagues at University College London, UK, presented these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 2, 2023. Speech deepfakes are synthetic voices produced by machine-learning models. Deepfakes may resemble a specific real person’s voice, or they may be unique. Tools for making speech deepfakes have recently improved, raising concerns about security threats. For instance, they have already ...

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Science2 Aug 2023

Humans unable to detect over a quarter of deepfake speech samples

The study, published today in PLOS ONE, is the first to assess human ability to detect artificially generated speech in a language other than English. Deepfakes are synthetic media intended to resemble a real person’s voice or appearance. They fall under the category of generative artificial intelligence (AI), a type of machine learning (ML) that trains an algorithm to learn the patterns and characteristics of a dataset, such as video or audio of a real person, so that it can reproduce original sound or imagery. While early deepfake speech algorithms may have required thousands of samples of a person’s voice to be able ...

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