Science
press releases.

Science29 Jun 2023

Is a foreign-sounding name a disadvantage?

Sports are a way in for people who want to build contacts with other people. Sports give you an opportunity to integrate and interact with people on an equal footing. For immigrants, sports can be the key that allows them to fit into a society. But how easy is it for people with strange names to join in the fun? That depends on how foreign sounding a person’s name is, and perhaps where the person lives. Because the results from the experiment were not the same throughout Scandinavia. Some are more similar than others. The rigged football experiment actually shows encouraging ...

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Science29 Jun 2023

US infant mortality declined, but low birth weight, preterm births increased

Nearly 4 million infants are born in the United States each year. Despite improvements in obstetric and perinatal care, infant mortality in the U.S. is of ongoing concern. The nation ranks No. 23 in the world for infant mortality rates with 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births, with worse outcomes observed in Black infants compared to white infants. Now, new original research from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine and collaborators indicates that infant mortality alone may be insufficient as a health indicator. For the study, researchers explored time trends and racial inequities ...

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Science29 Jun 2023

Higher average temperature linked to serious vision impairment among older Americans

TORONTO, ON – American adults 65 years old and older living in warmer regions are more likely to have serious vision impairment than their peers living in cooler regions, according to a recent study published in the journal Ophthalmic Epidemiology. Compared to those who lived in counties with average temperature of less than 50°F (< 10 °C), the odds of severe vision impairment were 14% higher for those who lived in counties with average temperature between 50-54.99°F, 24% higher for those between ...

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Science29 Jun 2023

Eating for two? Leave weight advice to the experts during pregnancy

Pregnant women may be better supported by trained dietitians to control weight gain during pregnancy, a new analysis of almost 100 studies shows. The meta-analysis of almost 35,000 participants across 99 studies published in JAMA Network Open found that interventions from allied health professionals such as dietitians were the most beneficial for controlling gestational weight gain (GWG). Spanning 30 years of international evidence, the research team including maternal health expert Professor Shakila Thangaratinam from the University of Birmingham identified that between 6 and 20 sessions on a one-to-one ...

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Science29 Jun 2023

Combining maths with music leads to higher scores, suggests review of 50 years of research

Children do better at maths when music is a key part of their lessons, an analysis of almost 50 years of research on the topic has revealed. It is thought that music can make maths more enjoyable, keep students engaged and help any ease fear or anxiety they have about maths. Motivation may be increased and pupils may appreciate maths more, the peer-reviewed article in Educational Studies details. Techniques for integrating music into maths lessons range from clapping to pieces with different rhythms when learning numbers and fractions, to using ...

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Science29 Jun 2023

Test animals, hold your breath

Kyoto, Japan -- Animal experimentation may not be a thing of the past just yet, but work on human iPS cell technology may someday grant emancipation for lab mice and other species. Renal proximal tubules are an essential part of our kidneys' ability to reabsorb vital substances into the bloodstream, such as albumin, before the conversion to urine. However, in order to pursue accurate testing and other applications, researchers have needed a quantitative evaluation system that simulates the function of ...

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Science29 Jun 2023

First misinformation susceptibility test finds ‘very online’ Gen Z and millennials are most vulnerable to fake news

University of Cambridge psychologists have developed the first validated “misinformation susceptibility test”: a quick two-minute quiz that gives a solid indication of how vulnerable a person is to being duped by the kind of fabricated news that floods online spaces. The test, proven to work through a series of experiments involving over 8,000 participants taking place over two years, has been deployed by polling organisation YouGov to determine how susceptible Americans are to fake headlines. The first survey to use the new 20-point test, called ‘MIST’ ...

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Science29 Jun 2023

CCNY professor Jacek Dmochowski breaks down science of sports betting

It’s a dilemma that many a regular bettor probably faces often -- deciding when to place a sports bet. In a study entitled “A statistical theory of optimal decision-making in sports betting,” Jacek Dmochowski, Associate Professor in the Grove School of Engineering at The City College of New York, provides the answer. His original finding appears in the journal PLOS One. “The central finding of the work is that the objective in sports betting is to estimate the median outcome. Importantly, this is not the same as the average outcome,” said Dmochowski, whose expertise ...

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Science29 Jun 2023

THE LANCET: Opioid pain relievers do not reduce acute lower back and neck pain, study suggests

Peer-reviewed / Randomised Controlled Trial / People A randomised controlled trial including 347 participants with lower back or neck pain found there was no benefit of taking opioid pain relievers compared to placebo. There was no significant difference in pain scores between those given opioid pain relievers and those given placebo after six weeks; while patients given the placebo had slightly lower pain scores after a year. The authors warn that there is no evidence that opioids should be prescribed ...

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Science29 Jun 2023

More doctors in England and Wales choosing to retire early

Increasing numbers of doctors are opting to take voluntary early retirement, rather than waiting to claim their pension at retirement age, official figures show. Figures provided to The BMJ by the NHS Business Services Authority under a freedom of information request show that the number of GPs and hospital doctors in England and Wales opting for voluntary early retirement has increased by an average of 9.3% year on year, rising from 376 in 2008 to 1424 in 2023. Over the same period, the number retiring on the basis of age has fallen, from 2030 in 2008 to 1721 in 2023. The rise in early retirement was seen for hospital doctors and GPs. The number of hospital doctors ...

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Science29 Jun 2023

Opioids no more effective than placebo for acute back and neck pain

Opioid pain-relieving medicines are not more effective than a placebo in relieving acute back and neck pain and may even cause harm, according to a world-first trial led by the University of Sydney. The researchers say this is proof that treatment guidelines should be updated to advise against the use of opioids for this purpose. Over 577 million people worldwide experience low back and neck pain at any one time. Despite a global push to reduce the use of opioids, in Australia approximately 40 to 70 percent of those who present with neck and back complaints are prescribed opioids for their pain. The OPAL trial recruited close ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

Bjornsti begins her term as president of FASEB

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Mary-Ann Bjornsti, Ph.D., professor and former chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, begins her term July 1 as president of the largest coalition of biological and biomedical research associations in the United States, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, also known as FASEB. Bjornsti, the Newman H. Waters Chair of Clinical Pharmacology, has served as associate director for Translational Research at the O’Neal ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

Population Council joins feminist partners to advance gender equality and equity at Women Deliver 2023

June 28, 2023—Population Council experts and our partners at Women Deliver (WD2023) in Kigali, Rwanda will share how we can collectively build evidence-based solutions to achieve gender equality and equity. The Council will lead the Girls Deliver: Pre-Conference on Adolescent Girls and key high-profile events on the sidelines of WD2030 to advance global discourse of the linkages between gender equality with pressing issues such as adolescents, education, and climate. “The Council is thrilled to collaborate with youth, global activist, feminist, political, and research leaders to cultivate an ecosystem ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

Gene editing: New study reveals shifting public sentiment

Gene editing and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been topics of significant debate in recent years. A new study from the Alliance for Science, an initiative based at the Boyce Thompson Institute, has revealed a positive shift in public sentiment towards one aspect of agricultural biotechnology, showing that gene editing consistently receives higher favorability ratings than GMOs in both social and traditional English-language media. The study was published after analyzing data from a five-year period between January 2018 and December 2022. The data provides valuable insights for the scientific community and professionals in science communication. "Our ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

What controls the pathways of the Labrador Current?

Changes to the flow of the Labrador Current along the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador to Nova Scotia are leading to sudden warmings or drops in the oxygen levels of the waters in several regions including the St. Lawrence Gulf and Estuary. This change has dire consequences for marine ecosystems and fisheries. To better predict what could happen in the future, researchers from McGill University set out to answer the question: what controls the pathway of the Labrador Current? The Labrador Current supplies cold, oxygen rich waters The Labrador Current is a cold water current in the North Atlantic Ocean that flows south along the coast of Newfoundland ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

Among professional fighters, new criteria can identify who may develop CTE

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 2023 MINNEAPOLIS – Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head impacts that athletes get from contact sports. However, the definitive diagnosis of the disease can be made only after death through an autopsy. New research criteria for identifying who may be more likely to develop the disease proved accurate in distinguishing a group who would have changes in brain volume and cognitive skills years later, according to a study published in the June 28, ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

A dog’s breed can affect pain sensitivity, but not necessarily the way your vet may think

Dog breeds differ in pain sensitivity, but these differences don’t always match up with the beliefs people – including veterinarians – hold about breed-specific pain sensitivity. The results appear in a new study from North Carolina State University, which also found that a dog’s temperament (specifically in the way they interact with strangers) may influence the way veterinarians view breed pain sensitivity. “Veterinarians have a fairly strong consensus in their ratings of pain sensitivity ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

Controversy in Facebook posts linked to speed of spread among users

A new analysis of nearly 60 million Facebook posts investigates how users’ interest in posts evolves over time, suggesting that the amount of controversy generated by a post is strongly linked to the speed with which it reaches a broad audience—regardless of the specific topic being discussed. Gabriele Etta of Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on June 28, 2023. This study adds to mounting research examining the influence ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

Kindness meditation helps people with depression recall positive memories, study finds

A meditation that guides people to practice unconditional kindness to themselves and others helps people with a history of depression recall specific personal memories, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Amanda Lathan and Barbara Dritschel of the University of St. Andrews, UK. Autobiographic memory is essential to human functioning in areas such as self-concept, emotion regulation and problem-solving. Research has suggested that, among the cognitive processes disrupted by depression, the retrieval of autobiographical memory is often impaired. In the new ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

An unexpected doorway into the ear opens new possibilities for hearing restoration

An international team of researchers has developed a new method to deliver drugs into the inner ear. The discovery was possible by harnessing the natural flow of fluids in the brain and employing a little understood backdoor into the cochlea. When combined to deliver a gene therapy that repairs inner ear hair cells, the researchers were able to restore hearing in deaf mice. “These findings demonstrate that cerebrospinal fluid transport comprises an accessible route for gene delivery to the adult inner ear and may represent an important step towards using gene therapy to restore hearing in humans,” ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

GPT-3 informs and disinforms us better

A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Zurich delved into the capabilities of AI models, specifically focusing on OpenAI’s GPT-3, to determine their potential risks and benefits in generating and disseminating (dis)information. Led by postdoctoral researchers Giovanni Spitale and Federico Germani, alongside Nikola Biller-Andorno, director of the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine (IBME), University of Zurich, the study involving 697 participants sought to evaluate whether individuals could differentiate between disinformation and accurate ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

What makes multiple sclerosis worse, and how to make it better

Scientists identify the first genetic marker for MS severity, opening the door to preventing long-term disability. A study of more than 22,000 people with multiple sclerosis has discovered the first genetic variant associated with faster disease progression that can rob patients of their mobility and independence over time. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the result of the immune system mistakenly attacking the brain and the spinal cord, resulting in symptom flares known as relapses as well as longer-term degeneration known as progression. Despite the development of effective treatments for relapses, ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

Vague language impacts perceptions of vaping risks, study finds

ITHACA, N.Y. -- When it comes to e-cigarette warning labels, respondents in focus groups organized by Cornell researchers were clear: Give it to me straight. But approximately 20 years after they hit the market, electronic cigarettes’ precise health risks remain unclear. And for adults trying to quit smoking conventional cigarettes, ambiguity in messaging can skew perceptions of the health benefits of using these products as an alternative to combustible cigarettes. A multidisciplinary team led by Jeff ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

Songbird study shows one hit wonder has to change his tune to attract a mate

Male birds that are able to repeat song notes precisely stand the best chance of attracting a female mate, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. However, the males need to ensure they have a selection of different songs in their repertoire if they are to hold a female’s attention and prevent her from getting bored. The findings from the study, by scientists from Lancaster University and Manchester Metropolitan University, sheds new light on the evolution of bird song. Over ...

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Science28 Jun 2023

Cuttlefish camouflage: more than meets the eye

Cuttlefish, along with other cephalopods like octopus and squid, are masters of disguise, changing their skin color and texture to blend in with their underwater surroundings. Now, in a study published 28 June in Nature, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research have shown that the way cuttlefish generate their camouflage pattern is much more complex than previously believed. Cuttlefish create their dazzling skin patterns by precisely controlling millions of tiny skin pigment cells, ...

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