The sounds babies make in their first year of life may be less random than previously believed, according to a language development researcher from The University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Pumpki Lei Su, an assistant professor of speech, language, and hearing in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, is co-lead author on two recent articles in which researchers examined the sounds babies make. The results suggest that children in their first year are more active than previously thought in their acquisition of speech. “We observed in these studies that infant vocalizations are not produced randomly; they form a pattern, producing three categories of sounds in clusters,” ...

Key takeaways The 7.5- magnitude earthquake beneath Japan’s Noto Peninsula on Jan. 1, 2024, occurred when a “dual-initiation mechanism” applied enough energy from two different locations to break through a fault barrier – an area that locks two sides of a fault in place and absorbs the energy of fault movement, slowing it down or stopping it altogether. An international team of researchers led by UCLA graduate student Liuwei Xu, professor Lingsen Meng and UC Santa Barbara’s Chen Ji analyzed a preceding seismic swarm and identified a previously unknown barrier in the region of the swarm. The team’s data collection methods could ...

  Photos   The soils of northern forests are key reservoirs that help keep the carbon dioxide that trees inhale and use for photosynthesis from making it back into the atmosphere.   But a unique experiment led by Peter Reich of the University of Michigan is showing that, on a warming planet, more carbon is escaping the soil than is being added by plants.   "This is not good news because it suggests that, as the world warms, soils are going to give back some of their carbon to the atmosphere," said Reich, director of the Institute for Global Change ...

HOUSTON – (Aug. 23, 2024) – The lotus leaf is a pioneer of self-cleaning, water-repellant engineering. Water droplets all but hover on its surface, whose unique texture traps air in its nanosized ridges and folds. Rice University bioengineers report harnessing the lotus effect to develop a system for culturing cancer cell clusters that can shed light on hard-to-study tumor properties. The new zinc oxide-based culturing surface mimics the lotus leaf surface structure, providing a highly tunable platform for the high-throughput generation of three-dimensional nanoscale tumor models. The superhydrophobic array device (SHArD) designed by Rice bioengineer Michael King and ...

CHICAGO --- Despite the association between mask mandates/mask wearing and reduced death rates during the pandemic, masking remains controversial and highly politicized, with many people still asking, “do masks work, and should they be recommended?” In an editorial about the use of surgical face masks in public, published today, Aug. 23, in The BMJ, Northwestern Medicine internal medicine experts Drs. Jeffrey Linder and Rachel Amdur make the case for masking but acknowledge it’s not a cut-and-dried topic.  The ...

AUGUST 23, 2024, NEW YORK – A Ludwig Cancer Research study has identified a metabolic switch in the immune system’s T cells that is essential to the generation of memory T cells—which confer lasting immunity to previously encountered pathogens—and a T cell subtype found in tumors that drives anti-tumor responses during immunotherapy. Led by Ludwig Lausanne’s Ping-Chih Ho and Alessio Bevilacqua and published in the current issue of Science Immunology, the study identifies PPARβ/δ, a master regulator of gene expression, as that essential molecular switch. Ho, Bevilacqua and their colleagues also show that the switch’s dysfunction compromises ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Nearly half of counties in the United States have at least one ‘pharmacy desert’ where there is no retail pharmacy within 10 miles, according to a new study published by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James). “As pharmacies close, more and more Americans are left without easy access to medications, with disproportionate consequences on certain communities. We found that patients in counties with higher social vulnerabilities and fewer primary care providers were up to 40% more likely to reside in a region ...

MSU has a satellite uplink/LTN TV studio and Comrex line for radio interviews upon request.  EAST LANSING, Mich. – A study out of Michigan State University found that nondeceptive placebos, or placebos given with people fully knowing they are placebos, effectively manage stress — even when the placebos are administered remotely.   Researchers recruited participants experiencing prolonged stress from the COVID-19 pandemic for a two-week randomized controlled trial. Half of the ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. – A team of researchers at Michigan State University has discovered a set of methods that enabled the first successful CRISPR-based genome editing in Nile grass rats. The study, published in BMC Biology, is the first to successfully edit genomes in Nile grass rats. As diurnal rodents, Nile grass rats have similar sleep/awake patterns to humans which could be advantageous in preclinical or translational research. Currently, preclinical research relies heavily on laboratory mice, which are nocturnal rodents who are active at night and sleep during the day. With these different sleep patterns, diurnal and nocturnal ...

Underserved high school students often lack access to artificial intelligence education that could prepare them for future careers in technology. Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science and Clemson University are hoping to change that. To help bridge the educational divide, the research team received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to democratize access to AI education. Future fair and equitable technologies depend on a robust AI education, and expanding access to that education is crucial.  The project is part of the NSF’s Experiential Learning for ...

Children’s exposure to food and drink ads during kids’ TV shows has dropped substantially since food and beverage makers pledged to stop advertising unhealthy fare during children’s TV shows. Yet, according to research from the University of Illinois Chicago, children under 12 still see more than 1,000 food-related ads a year, most of them for unhealthy products.  For the study, published in JAMA Network Open, researchers analyzed television ratings and advertising data from 2013 through 2022. The study authors found that a dramatic decline in food and drink advertisements during kids’ shows did not ...

New research from Oregon Health & Science University reveals negative health consequences for people who are overweight and ignore their body’s signals to sleep at night, with specific differences between men and women. The study published this week in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. “This study builds support for the importance of good sleep habits,” said lead author Brooke Shafer, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Sleep, Chronobiology and Health Laboratory in the OHSU School of Nursing.  “Sleep practices, like going to bed when you’re tired or setting aside your screen at ...

San Francisco, CA (August 12, 2024) – Pendulum Therapeutics, in collaboration with BiomeSense, announces the launch of an innovative new pilot study entitled "Detection of Akkermansia muciniphila Utilizing Serial Longitudinal Samples with the BiomeSense GutLab™: An Open-Label Proof of Concept Study." Pendulum Therapeutics and BiomeSense are two biotech companies at the forefront of microbiome science. Their groundbreaking research aims to advance the scientific understanding of the human microbiome by focusing on continuous detection of Akkermansia muciniphila, a keystone strain in the gut microbiome, using a new data generation technology.  About ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A multi-institutional team of scientists in the United States, led by physicist Peng Wei at the University of California, Riverside, has developed a new superconductor material that could potentially be used in quantum computing and be a candidate “topological superconductor.”  Topology is the mathematics of shape. A topological superconductor uses a delocalized state of an electron or hole (a hole behaves like an electron with positive charge) to carry quantum information and process data in a robust manner. The researchers report today in Science Advances that they combined trigonal tellurium ...

When NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft collided with an asteroid moon called Dimorphos in 2022, the moon was significantly deformed—creating a large crater and reshaping it so dramatically that the moon derailed from its original evolutionary progression—according to a new study. The study’s researchers believe that Dimorphos may start to “tumble” chaotically in its attempts to move back into gravitational equilibrium with its parent asteroid named Didymos. “For ...

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) are far less likely than those without the condition to have the molecular hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The discovery suggests a new avenue of research through which to seek Alzheimer’s treatments, said Matthew Brier, MD PhD, an assistant professor of neurology and of radiology and the study’s first author. “Our findings imply that some component of the biology of multiple sclerosis, ...

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — DRI, one of our nation’s leading applied environmental research institutes, together with the DRI Foundation, this week held its inaugural AWE+ Summit -Wildfire Recovery and Resilience: Working Across Silos to Drive Solutions. The summit is a call-to-action for communities to implement measures that support resilience and human adaptability to devastating wildfire events.  Nationally recognized scientific leaders discussed challenges, progress, and hope through actions that will lead to solutions. Speakers included:  President of the National Academy of ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A $5.8 million grant led by Adrie Steyn, Ph.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Africa Health Research Institute, or AHRI, in Durban, South Africa, will provide user-requested infected human lung tissue and analytical services to tuberculosis researchers worldwide. Tuberculosis, or TB, is a bacterial infection that causes 1.3 million deaths and 10.6 million new active cases each year, yet experimental animal models of TB do not reproduce the full spectrum of disease as it occurs in humans. A paucity of human lung tissue ...

Scientists for several years have studied the theoretical effectiveness of injecting sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere to reflect heat from the Sun and offset Earth’s warming temperatures. But they also want to ensure that the solar geoengineering approaches being studied are evaluated for their technical feasibility, as well as their cooling potential and possible ecological and societal side effects. To guide future work, an international team of scientists led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) has published a paper with specific recommendations for evaluating proposals to inject sulfur dioxide, which is known as stratospheric ...

Jacqueline Sperling, PhD, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, and co-program director of the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program, led a study investigating the sustainability of outcomes from an intensive group and family-based outpatient cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) program, that included a hybrid of in-person and virtual treatment sessions for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Her research, which was published last month in Current Developmental Disorders Reports, suggests that an intensive ...

Anibal Boscoboinik, a materials scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been named an “Inventor of the Year” by Battelle Memorial Institute. Battelle, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, partners with Stony Brook University to form Brookhaven Science Associates, which manages the Lab on behalf of DOE’s Office of Science. Battelle manages or co-manages nine national labs across the country. At Battelle’s yearly Celebration of Solvers, they award Inventor of the ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA — The most recent email you sent was likely encrypted using a tried-and-true method that relies on the idea that even the fastest computer would be unable to efficiently break a gigantic number into factors. Quantum computers, on the other hand, promise to rapidly crack complex cryptographic systems that a classical computer might never be able to unravel. This promise is based on a quantum factoring algorithm proposed in 1994 by Peter Shor, who is now a professor at MIT. But while researchers have taken great strides in the last 30 years, scientists ...

In the realm of ear health, accurate diagnosis is crucial for effective treatment, especially when dealing with conditions that can lead to hearing loss. Traditionally, otolaryngologists have relied on the otoscope, a device that provides a limited view of the eardrum’s surface. This conventional tool, while useful, has its limitations, particularly when the tympanic membrane (TM) is opaque due to disease. Enter a groundbreaking advancement from the University of Southern California's Caruso Department of Otolaryngology: a portable OCT otoscope that integrates optical coherence tomography (OCT) with ...

A 3D quantum spin liquid has been discovered in the vicinity of a member of the langbeinite family. The material's specific crystalline structure and the resulting magnetic interactions induce an unusual behaviour that can be traced back to an island of liquidity. An international team has made this discovery with experiments at the ISIS neutron source and theoretical modelling on a nickel-langbeinite sample. When spins in a crystal lattice cannot align to reach a minimum energy together, this is called magnetic frustration. ...

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have cumulatively been awarded nearly $4 million in grant funding through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Merit Review Award and Career Development programs to support research on diabetes, skin inflammation, cancer and aging. The Merit Review Award Program supports investigator-initiated research conducted by eligible VA investigators at either VA medical centers or approved sites. This program serves as the VA's primary method for funding basic, preclinical, ...