Few actions in nature inspire more fear and fascination than snake bites. And the venomous reptiles have to move fast to sink their fangs into their prey before their victim flinches, which may be as little as 60 ms when hunting rodents. Until recently, video technology was not sufficiently sophisticated to capture the deathly manoeuvres in high definition, but recent improvements have made this possible, so Alistair Evans and Silke Cleuren from Monash University, Australia, decided to get to the heart of how venomous viper, ...

A new potential antibody therapy strategy which restricts the growth of treatment-resistant breast cancers has been developed by scientists. The King’s College London discovery, published today, could provide new treatment options for some of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer. This may be particularly important for patients whose cancers no longer respond to existing therapies, as well as those with triple-negative breast cancer – a subtype which lacks the receptors which are common drug targets, where treatment choices remain very limited. The team designed an antibody that not only attacks the tumour cells directly, but also harnesses the body’s own immune ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The discovery of a possible “super-Earth” less than 20 light-years from our own planet is offering scientists new hope in the hunt for other worlds that could harbor life, according to an international team including researchers from Penn State. They dubbed the exoplanet, named GJ 251 c, a “super-Earth” as data suggest it is almost four times as massive as the Earth, and likely to be rocky planet. "We look for these types of planets because they are our best chance at finding life elsewhere,” said Suvrath Mahadevan, the Verne M. Willaman Professor of Astronomy at Penn State and co-author ...

This study was led by Jinxiao Hou, Dr. Xiaolin Hou, and Dr. Yanyun Wang from the Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The northern offshore region of the South China Sea hosts one of the highest densities of nuclear power plants along China’s coastline. By systematically collecting seawater samples throughout this area and applying the laboratory’s well-established ultra-trace analytical techniques for ¹²⁹I and ¹²⁷I, the team measured the concentration levels and spatial distributions of both isotopes. By integrating observed ¹²⁹I/¹²⁷I atomic ...

Interventions designed to reduce loneliness can be effective, but do not yet offer a complete solution to what is becoming a worldwide public health problem, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.   “Loneliness is now widely acknowledged as a serious public health concern linked to depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease and even early mortality,” said lead author Mathias Lasgaard, PhD, of the Central Denmark Region and University of Southern Denmark. “Our findings provide strong evidence that interventions can make a difference, though their overall impact remains modest. Loneliness does not have a one-size-fits-all ...

WASHINGTON (Oct. 23, 2025) — A new study estimates that nearly one in five urinary tract infections in Southern California may be caused by E. coli strains transmitted through contaminated meat – and pose a hidden foodborne risk to millions of people not just in California but across the US. The research, published in mBio, also found that people living in low-income neighborhoods are at the greatest risk. “Urinary tract infections have long been considered a personal health issue, but our findings suggest that they are also a food safety problem,” said Lance B. Price, senior author of the ...

A study from the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the Sensing Institute (I-SENSE) at Florida Atlantic University reveals that foot-mounted wearable sensors and a 3D depth camera can accurately measure how people walk – even in busy clinical environments – offering a powerful and more accessible alternative to traditional gait assessment tools. Gait, the pattern of how a person walks, is an increasingly important marker of overall health, used in detecting fall risk, monitoring rehabilitation, and identifying ...

Quantum computers are computers that are much faster at performing some important types of computational tasks than many of today's machines. Sounds perfect, right? But for now, the building blocks that perform the calculations in the quantum computer, so-called quantum bits or "qubits", are too unstable to make quantum processors that are large enough to be really useful. "Quantum computers are completely dependent on qubits remaining stable in order to perform the special calculations they are designed for," says Jacob Benestad, who recently ...

LOS ANGELES — Liver disease is usually caused by one of three factors: alcohol consumption, fat buildup in the liver linked to obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol, or hepatitis B and C.   Now, a new study published in Liver International from Keck Medicine of USC reveals that tetrachloroethylene (PCE), a chemical used in dry cleaning and found in consumer products such as adhesives for arts and crafts, spot cleaners and stainless steel polish, may also be harmful to the liver.  Exposure to PCE was shown to triple the risk ...

DALLAS, Oct. 23, 2025 — Zainab Mahmoud, M.D., M.Sc., an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Zhao Zhang, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, will receive the inaugural Jack Sarver Prize in Clinical Science and Jack Sarver Prize in Basic Science, respectively, at the American Heart Association’ Scientific Sessions 2025. The meeting, to be held Nov. 7-10, 2025, in New Orleans, is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular ...

Miami (October 23, 2025) – The Bronchiectasis and NTM Association announced today that two abstracts using Bronchiectasis and NTM Research Registry data were presented at CHEST 2025, held October 19-22, 2025, in Chicago. The abstracts are: “The Relationship Between Baseline Severity of Bronchiectasis and Incident Non-Tuberculous Mycobacterial Infection: findings from the U.S. Bronchiectasis and NTM Research Registry,” which examined whether increased bronchiectasis severity was associated with an increased risk of NTM ...

CLEVELAND—For decades, scientists have thought they understood the biochemical machinery that causes asthma—inflammation in the lungs that constricts airways and makes it hard to breathe. Molecules called “leukotrienes”—chemicals that get released from white blood cells when something irritates your airways or you inhale an allergen—were labeled the culprits. Medications have been developed to block the molecular cascade they initiate that leads to difficulty breathing. But ...

Nursing education is not only about clinical skills. It also shapes the values, attitudes, and sense of responsibility of those who provide care. In Japan, most nursing programs follow government-prescribed curricula that emphasize qualifications, leaving limited space for universities to articulate their own missions. Catholic universities, however, stand apart. Their nursing faculties embed spiritual and ethical perspectives, placing compassion, dignity, and service at the heart of the profession.   A study led by Professor Naoko Tsukamoto with Ms. Aya Watanabe, Ms. Yoko Takiguchi, and Ms. Yukiko Katagiri from Sophia University’s ...

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive condition in which the kidneys gradually lose their ability to filter waste from the blood. It is a common health concern that affects an estimated 8–16% of the global population, particularly among older adults. CKD can arise from various causes, including glomerulonephritis, a group of diseases that damage the glomeruli, the tiny filtering units within the kidneys.   Now, researchers from Chiba University have identified a molecule called C-C chemokine ligand 5 (CCL5) as a key player in ...

Problems with the brain’s waste clearance system could underlie many cases of dementia and help explain why poor sleep patterns and cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure increase the risk of dementia. A study led by researchers at the University of Cambridge found that impaired movement of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) – the clear liquid that cushions and cleans the brain – predicted risk of dementia later in life among 40,000 adults recruited to the UK Biobank. Their findings are published today in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association. In the healthy ...

Ghent, 23 October 2025 – A mutation previously linked to skin disorders like psoriasis may also play a surprising role in gut health, according to new research published by scientists at VIB-UGent and colleagues from UGent, the University of Barcelona, and University College London. This mutation activates skin immune responses but also affects the intestine. This finding, published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, reveals a new connection between genetics, the immune system, and the gut, which may have therapeutical implications.   Scientists under the leadership of Dr. Inna ...

A test deployed in many fertility clinics to assess the viability of embryos for use in IVF is likely to overestimate the number of embryos with abnormalities, suggests a study published today. Using a new technique for imaging embryos in real time, a team led by scientists at the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research, University of Cambridge, showed that abnormalities can arise at a later stage of embryo development than previously thought. This means that the tests used in some clinics may be finding errors in cells that will go on to develop into the placenta – and abnormalities in placental cells are less likely to affect the health of the fetus. When an egg has been ...

Alzheimer’s disease is notorious for scrambling patients’ daily rhythms. Restless nights with little sleep and increased napping during the day are early indicators of disease onset, while sundowning, or confusion later in the day, is typical for later stages of the disease. These symptoms suggest a link between the progression of the disease and the circadian system — the body’s internal clock that controls our sleep and wake cycle — but scientists did not know the full nature of the connection. Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis ...

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are the delivery vehicles of modern medicine, carrying cancer drugs, gene therapies and vaccines into cells. Until recently, many scientists assumed that all LNPs followed more or less the same blueprint, like a fleet of trucks built from the same design.  Now, in Nature Biotechnology, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Waters Corporation have characterized the shape and structure of LNPs in unprecedented detail, revealing that the particles come in a surprising variety of configurations. ...

Key points  Hydrogen gas is produced in the gut, with some expelled as flatulence Researchers have shed new light on how gut microbes make and use hydrogen This will help in understanding and maintaining overall gut health Farts are causing a stink in the research world, but in a positive way. Melbourne scientists have revealed how hydrogen is made and used in the human gut. Though infamous for making farts ignite, hydrogen also has a positive role supporting gut health. In this study published in Nature Microbiology, ...

A supersolid is a paradoxical state of matter—it is rigid like a crystal but flows without friction like a superfluid. This exotic form of quantum matter has only recently been realized in dipolar quantum gases. Researchers led by Francesca Ferlaino set out to explore how the solid and superfluid properties of a supersolid interact, particularly under rotation. In their experiments, they rotated a supersolid quantum gas using a carefully controlled magnetic field and observed a striking phenomenon: “The quantum droplets of the supersolid are in a crystal-like periodic order, all dressed by a superfluid between them”, explains ...

Some genetic disorders—such as cystic fibrosis, hemophilia and Tay Sachs disease—involve many mutations in a person’s genome, often with enough variation that even two individuals who share the same disorder might have a different combination of mutations. Complexities like these make it challenging to develop broadly applicable gene therapies for these disorders. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin now have developed an improved method of gene editing that is precise, more efficient than other similar methods and can correct many disease-causing mutations ...

PRESS RELEASE EMARGOED UNTIL 08:00AM GMT, 23 OCOTBER 2025 Scientists from the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at Queen Mary University of London have developed a simple model to show how buoyant plastic can settle through the water column and they predict it could take over 100 years to remove plastic waste from the ocean’s surface. Published today in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, the study is the third and final paper in a trilogy that explores the long-term fate of microplastic ...

In the high-altitude and extremely remote region of Dolpo in north-west Nepal, there are numerous Buddhist temples whose history dates back to the 11th century. The structures are threatened by earthquakes, landslides and planned infrastructure projects such as the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. There is also a lack of financial resources for long-term maintenance. Researchers from the Institute of Architectural Theory, History of Art and Cultural Studies and the Institute of Engineering Geodesy and Measurement Systems at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) want to prevent ...

PISCATAWAY, NJ – When trained correctly on medically accurate information, ChatGPT can provide trustworthy information for pregnant women seeking medical advice for treating opioid use disorder, according to new research in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, based at Rutgers University. The research might one day lead to apps and websites for people seeking help for conditions that they may not want to discuss face to face with a health care provider. “Seeking health advice online is a ...