COLUMBUS, Ohio – In utero exposure to two liquid ingredients in e-cigarettes – minus the nicotine that drives addiction – can alter skull shape during fetal development, a new study in mice has found.   In a series of experiments, pregnant mice were exposed to a combination of two liquids used to create vaping’s throat hit and smoke plume. Compared to two other experimental conditions, the offspring of mothers exposed to a specific ratio of these compounds weighed less and were born with narrowed facial features and shortened skulls. The ...

Two world-famous Arizona attractions – the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater Natural Landmark – may share a hidden connection, according to new research from the University of Arizona and the University of New Mexico.  Published in the journal Geology, an international research team presents the results of an intriguing "detective story" that has played out over several decades and across scientific disciplines: the meteorite impact just west of Winslow, Arizona, that created Meteor Crater about 56,000 years ago ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Newborns exposed to HIV during pregnancy or birth should receive preventive antiretroviral medication immediately after delivery to reduce the risk of transmission from mother to child. But a study finds that more than half of infants diagnosed with HIV in their first year of life had not received this essential postnatal treatment — suggesting their mothers’ infections may not have been detected during pregnancy. The study also highlights racial disparities in HIV exposure, infection and treatment: The majority of infants who had not been treated for an HIV infection after birth were Black, according ...

Probiotics are emerging tools used by neonatal intensive care units to promote healthy outcomes and prevent intestinal diseases such as necrotizing enterocolitis. Approximately one in ten of the youngest preterm infants in the U.S. are treated with probiotics, and studies show that this therapy can reduce all causes of mortality. Probiotic treatment often includes the administration of bacterial strains that belong to the Bifidobacterium genus. Bifidobacterium strains are especially abundant in the guts of children — particularly children who are breastfed — and are considered beneficial ...

In a step forward for soft robotics and biomedical devices, Rice University engineers have uncovered a powerful new way to boost the strength and durability of silicone-based soft devices without changing the materials themselves. Their study, published in a special issue of Science Advances, focuses on printed and musculoskeletal robotics and offers a predictive framework that connects silicone curing conditions with adhesion strength, enabling dramatic improvements in performance for both molded and 3D-printed elastomer components. “We found that the extent to which a silicone elastomer is cured ...

Six entrepreneurs comprise the next cohort of Innovation Crossroads, a Department of Energy Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program node based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The program provides energy-related startup founders from across the nation with access to ORNL’s unique scientific resources and capabilities, as well as connect them with experts, mentors and networks to accelerate their efforts to take their world-changing ideas to the marketplace. "Through Innovation Crossroads, ORNL plays a critical role in catalyzing innovation and collaboration and nurturing early-stage startups,” said Susan Hubbard, ORNL deputy for science and ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – E. coli outbreaks in romaine lettuce have long been a public health concern. and now a new Cornell University paper suggests that a combination of efforts in the field, and even postharvest techniques, can minimize risk to human health. Co-authored by Renata Ivanek, a professor in the department of population medicine and diagnostic sciences, and Martin Wiedmann, professor in food safety, the paper outlines interventions likely to make a concrete difference in the safety of the nation’s romaine. “This study supports that interventions should focus on reducing produce contamination via contaminated irrigation water, on assuring ...

Some jumping spiders look so much like wasps that scientists named them for the predatory insects. But University of Cincinnati biologists wondered: Do these mimics really look like insect faces or is it just our own perceptual bias? After all, we see faces everywhere: tree trunks, rock outcrops, clouds. So when travel restrictions from COVID-19 shut down field research, UC biologists decided to turn to an objective third party, a computer. They presented digital portraits of jumping spiders, praying mantises and wasps to see if a computer algorithm could identify them correctly from shapes and patterns each contained. And surprisingly even the computer was fooled about 20% of the time. The ...

MINNEAPOLIS — A new study that examined older and newer medications to treat seizures has found that using some medications during pregnancy is linked to an increased risk of malformations at birth, or birth defects. The study is published July 16, 2025, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Seizures can lead to falls and other complications during pregnancy, so seizure control for those with epilepsy is crucial to protect the health of both the mother and child,” said study author ...

MINNEAPOLIS — Hispanic people have an increased risk of peripheral neuropathy compared to white people that cannot be explained by many health, lifestyle and social risk factors, according to a study published July 16, 2025, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Peripheral neuropathy is nerve damage that causes burning, tingling, pain and numbness in the feet and hands. It can be debilitating and may eventually lead to falls, infection and even amputation. One of the most common causes of neuropathy is diabetes due to high levels of blood sugar that can damage the nerves. Other causes include ...

Older adults who increased their regular walking pace by just 14 steps per minute were more likely to experience clinically significant improvements in a test of aerobic capacity and walking endurance Article URL: http://plos.io/45XmRFc Article title: Walking cadence as a measure of activity intensity and impact on functional capacity for prefrail and frail older adults High-resolution image link: http://plos.io/44A2RG6 Author countries: U.S. Funding: This research is supported by the National Institues of Health, National Institue on Aging with awards (www.nia.nih.gov) with award MD (R01AG060162) awarded to MD and (R03AG078957) ...

For adults with hearing loss, linear amplification (amplification across all sound levels, available with some hearing aids) might restore their ability to recognize emotion in voices Article URL: http://plos.io/4ldE7dQ Article title: Effects of mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss and signal amplification on vocal emotion recognition in middle-aged–older individuals Author countries: Sweden Funding:  Örjan Dahlström was partly funded through a grant from The Swedish Association of Hard of Hearing People. Ref 2016-531. https://hrf.se/ The ...

A new study describes factors associated with self-reported climate anxiety in the United States, publishing July 16, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Katherine Kricorian from For Good Measure, United States, and colleagues Karin Turner and Christopher Kricorian, who is also a current high school student.   Climate change has many adverse effects on the environment and human health, including higher rates of self-reported anxiety. In this study, Kricorian and co-authors ...

 Many people might be aware of an ongoing opioid epidemic, with thousands of people dying every year from overdoses. But many who are misusing opioids are also using—and dying from—stimulant drugs as well, according to a study published July 2 in the open access journal PLOS Mental Health by Yutong Li from the University of Alberta, Canada, and colleagues.  In 2021, more than 88,000 people passed away from opiate-related deaths in the United States and Canada—the latest in three major waves ...

Food insecurity is not only linked with, but directly causes symptoms of anxiety and depression, according to research published in the open access journal PLOS Mental Health. Melissa Bateson of Newcastle University, UK, and colleagues at École Normale Supérieure, Northumbria University and York University, collected monthly data from adults in the UK and France and found that changes in food insecurity one month resulted in changes in symptoms of anxiety and depression the next. The authors therefore ...

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have identified a new way of predicting whether a kidney donor and recipient are a good match for transplantation. The findings, published today in Science Translational Medicine, could complement existing methods to identify patients at higher risk of rejecting a new kidney and who may benefit from additional immunosuppression to reduce that risk. “The dream of any kidney transplant surgeon is one transplant for life,” said senior author Aravind Cherukuri, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, surgery and immunology at Pitt, co-director of clinical research at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation ...

Billionaires, oligarchs, and other members of the uber rich, known as "elites," are notorious for use of offshore financial systems to conceal their assets and mask their identities. Understanding the transnational offshore finance networks that they utilize has long been a challenge given the secrecy involved. But a new Dartmouth study reveals there are distinct patterns associated with the offshore system, which are specific to where a wealthy person comes from. Specifically, the quality of the governance in the home country of an elite is tightly associated with the patterns. The findings ...

A cheetah’s powerful sprint, a snake’s lithe slither, or a human’s deft grasp: each is made possible by the seamless interplay between soft and rigid tissues. Muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones work together to provide the energy, precision, and range of motion needed to perform the complex movements seen throughout the animal kingdom. Replicating this musculoskeletal diversity in robotics is extremely challenging. Until now, 3D printing using multiple materials has been one way to create soft-rigid robots, and while this approach may mimic the diversity of biological tissues, it means that key properties like stiffness ...

Frailty is a medically defined condition in older adults that increases vulnerability to everyday stresses, leading to a higher risk of falls, hospitalization and loss of independence. Warning signs of frailty include: Unintentional weight loss Moving slowly Feeling weak Persistent tiredness Low levels of physical activity Because most of these signs have a direct link to how active someone is, walking is a particularly effective way to help older adults improve their overall health and quality of life and maintain independence ...

The private health industry lobby group “Partnership for America’s Health Care Future” engages in marketing and publicity strategies similar to Big Tobacco and other unhealthy commodity industry groups to shape public perception of universal health care policies as negative in the United States, according to a study published July 16, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Kendra Chow from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, and colleagues.   The United States ...

In an opinion piece published July 16 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate, Jeremy Jacobs of Vanderbilt University and Shazia Khan of Yale School of Medicine draw attention to the rollback of government efforts to collect data on climate change, and how the loss of this infrastructure imperils public health efforts. Climate disasters like heatwaves, wildfires, floods and hurricanes can contribute to a range of health conditions, including heart disease, respiratory issues, disease outbreaks, mental health crises and traumatic injuries. The elimination of federal and state tools to ...

New York, NY—July 16, 2025—Today’s robots are stuck—their bodies are usually closed systems that can neither grow nor self-repair, nor adapt to their environment. Now, scientists at Columbia University have developed robots that can physically “grow,” “heal,” and improve themselves by integrating material from their environment or from other robots. Described in a new study published in Science Advances, this new process, called "Robot Metabolism," enables machines to absorb and reuse parts from other robots or their surroundings. "True autonomy means robots must not only ...

Promising therapeutic strategies for lung cancer, AML and advanced solid tumors Novel insights into ovarian cancer, blood disorders and chemotherapy-related secondary cancers New-onset diabetes as an early marker of pancreatic cancer HOUSTON, JULY 16, 2025 ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Specific co-mutations in KRAS-mutant NSCLC improve treatment response Read ...

A new Simon Fraser University-led study reveals interbreeding between humans and their ancient cousins, Neanderthals, as the likely origin of a neurological condition estimated to impact up to one per cent of people today. The study, published this week in the journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, was led by Kimberly Plomp, a recent postdoctoral fellow at SFU and Mark Collard, the Canada Research Chair in Human Evolutionary Studies and a professor in the Department of Archaeology. Their findings suggest that Chiari Malformation Type 1, a serious ...

Samples of extremely small crystal clots, each polished to the thickness of a human hair or thinner, have revealed information about the process triggering the major 2006 eruption of Alaska’s Augustine Volcano. Graduate student researcher Valerie Wasser at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute determined that the addition of hot new magma into Augustine’s reservoir of cooler, older magma increased the pressure enough to trigger the 2006 eruption. Wasser’s analysis of Augustine crystal clots was published May 29 in Geology, the journal ...