An archaeological strategy adapted for space used daily photos to reveal how astronauts actually use areas aboard the International Space Station – and how this differs from intended uses. Justin Walsh of Chapman University, California, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 7, 2024. More than 270 people from 23 countries have visited the International Space Station (ISS) over more than two decades. Crew member interviews can reveal how people adapt to a novel environment—one featuring isolation, confinement, and microgravity—that is far removed ...

Researchers have developed an inexpensive bandage that uses an electric field to promote healing in chronic wounds. In animal testing, wounds that were treated with these electric bandages healed 30% faster than wounds treated with conventional bandages. Chronic wounds are open wounds that heal slowly, if they heal at all. For example, sores that occur in some patients with diabetes are chronic wounds. These wounds are particularly problematic because they often recur after treatment and significantly increase the risk of amputation and death. One of the challenges associated ...

A new study published in Science Advances reveals how early mammals grew and developed during their pivotal Jurassic radiation. Using a technique called synchrotron X-ray tomography to image growth rings in fossilised tooth roots, the researchers were able to estimate lifespans, growth rates, and even the timing of sexual maturity in these ancient creatures.  “This is the first time we've been able to reconstruct the growth patterns of these early mammals in such detail,” said Dr Elis Newham, a Postdoctoral Research Associate ...

By Leah Shaffer Researchers at Wash U have spent the better part of the decade studying the ins and outs of how locusts smell, including how odors affect the insect’s behavior. In research recently published in eLife, Barani Raman, a professor of biomedical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, starts to map out just how olfactory circuits are altered in driving different behavior in locusts. Neuromodulator serotonin is a key factor in triggering how locusts can go from being a “loner” to “gregarious” — otherwise known as swarming ...

Immunotherapy pioneer Dr. Antoni Ribas, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and director of the tumor immunology program at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been inducted into the 2024 Class of Fellows of the Academy of Immuno-Oncology by the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer. The recognition is one of the highest honors bestowed by the society and is given to scientists who have made seminal contributions in the field of cancer immunotherapy. Ribas, an internationally renowned physician-scientist, has dedicated his career to improving the lives of people with cancer worldwide. His discoveries have led to the development of ...

URBANA, Ill. -- Digital technologies on the farm improve efficiency, productivity, and profits, but few farmers are taking full advantage of available tools. According to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers, communication channels play an important role in farmers’ decision-making process around technology adoption. A new study in the journal Agriculture looks at how traditional media, social media, and interpersonal meetings influence soybean farmers in the U.S. and Brazil, both world leaders in soybean production. “Like everyone ...

An interdisciplinary team of scholars have received a $2.43 million dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation to create a “Southern California Quantum Foundations Hub” at Chapman University. This unique collaboration includes theoretical physicists, experimental physicists and philosophers, who will apply the methods of their respective disciplines to provide deeper insights into the nature of reality that quantum theory is silent about. The Templeton Foundation has identified the area of quantum foundations ...

A new study published in Nature Communications by researchers from the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome (Crnic Institute) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus reports a significant breakthrough. The research, part of the ongoing Crnic Institute Human Trisome Project, identifies distinct molecular and immune subtypes across individuals with Down syndrome, offering new insights that could lead to personalized medicine approaches for the clinical management of this condition. The Crnic Institute team analyzed the expression of genes encoded on chromosome 21, which is triplicated in those ...

ROCKVILLE, MD – Karen Fleming has been elected President-elect of the Biophysical Society (BPS). She will assume the office of President-elect at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, California and begin her term as President during the 2026 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California.  Fleming is a Professor of Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame before going on to achieve a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Georgetown University Medical Center. In addition to her commitment to research, Fleming has dedicated significant time ...

Pain management is an important component of caring for adults with cerebral palsy.  However, it's the least understood comorbidity in the adult cerebral palsy population.  A study led by Mark Peterson, Ph.D., M.S., FACSM, a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at University of Michigan Health, found that adults living with cerebral palsy had a very high occurrence of pain, with 90% having a pain history and 74% having multiple diagnoses of pain coming from different origins such as the lower back, irritable bowels, joint arthritis and chronic ...

Scientists at UCL have discovered a novel role played by ribosomes during the folding of new proteins in cells, described in their paper in Nature. Ribosomes, the cell’s dedicated molecular machines for protein synthesis, make all proteins in life and do so by piecing together one amino acid building block at a time. As they are being synthesised, these nascent proteins simultaneously attempt to fold while still associated to their parent ribosome, referred to as co-translational protein folding. Understanding how exactly ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – A new Cornell University study that tracks how many asthma-related emergency room visits result from pollen in metropolitan areas highlights the importance of knowing local plants and the need for developing science-based pollen forecasts. Such forecasts could alert vulnerable individuals on days when they should consider staying indoors or taking allergy medications ahead of time. “Even though the percent of asthma-related emergency department visits associated with pollen overall was only a few percent on an annual basis, ...

An often-overlooked component of natural and human-driven disasters is their potential to affect plant health and thus food security at domestic and international scales. Most disasters have indirect effects on plant health through factors such as disruptions to supply chains and damaged infrastructure, but there is also the potential for direct effects from disasters, such as pathogen or vector dispersal caused by floods, hurricanes, and human migration. These occurrences are rarely isolated and instead often occur simultaneously. We have seen examples of the concurrence of disasters in recent history through events such as market disruptions ...

Having higher than usual blood sugar levels at the time of hospital admission for an ischemic stroke significantly increases the risk of a poor functional prognosis or death within three months of the stroke. This is the main conclusion of a study by the Endocrinology and Nutrition Services and the Neurology Department of Hospital del Mar, with researchers from the hospital's Research Institute, the RICORS-ICTUS network, and the CIBER of Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM). The study ...

LOS ANGELES — USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC, will open a Newport Beach location offering the latest advancements in radiation therapy and diagnostic imaging. The treatment center, which will open in early 2025, will feature cutting-edge cancer technologies that are yet to be available in Orange County, providing new therapeutic options and optimizing patient outcomes.  The new location address is 4590 MacArthur Blvd. in Newport Beach, less than 15 minutes away from USC Norris’ oncology centers in Newport Beach and Irvine. Those centers are staffed by respected oncologists who have served Orange County for decades, ...

HOUSTON ― 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. Recent developments at MD Anderson include insights into evolutionary cellular adaptations to environmental stressors, potential targets to overcome trouble swallowing in head and neck cancer patients treated with radiation therapy, a promising chemotherapy-free ...

DURHAM, N.C. – In what appears to be an effort to bypass public health regulations covering vaping products, some tobacco companies have begun replacing nicotine in e-cigarettes with related chemicals that have similar properties but unknown health effects, Duke Health researchers report. In a research letter appearing Aug. 7 in JAMA, study authors at Duke and Yale University also found that the quantity of these chemicals, known as nicotine analogs, are not accurately disclosed on the packaging. “Vaping products containing nicotine are subject to federal laws that prohibit sales to people  under the age of 21,” said study co-author Sairam V. Jabba, ...

The Great Barrier Reef is under critical pressure, with warming sea temperatures and mass coral bleaching events threatening to destroy the remarkable ecology, biodiversity, and beauty of the world’s largest coral reef, according to new research published today. ‘Highest ocean heat in four centuries places Great Barrier Reef in danger’, published in Nature (8 August), led by University of Wollongong (UOW) Honorary Fellow and University of Melbourne Lecturer Dr Benjamin Henley, provides new evidence of the impact that rising sea surface temperatures ...

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has begun to unravel a mystery millennia in the making. Our story begins 9,000 years ago. It was then that maize was first domesticated in the Mexican lowlands. Some 5,000 years later, the crop crossed with a species from the Mexican highlands called teosinte mexicana. This resulted in cold adaptability. From here, corn spread across the continent, giving rise to the vegetable that is now such a big part of our diets. But how did it adapt so quickly? What biological mechanisms allowed the highland crop’s traits to take hold? Today, a potential answer emerges. CSHL Professor and HHMI Investigator Rob Martienssen had ...

Scientists at the University of Southampton have answered one of the most puzzling questions in plate tectonics: how and why ‘stable’ parts of continents gradually rise to form some of the planet’s greatest topographic features. They have found that when tectonic plates break apart, powerful waves are triggered deep within the Earth that can cause continental surfaces to rise by over a kilometre. Their findings help resolve a long-standing mystery about the dynamic forces that shape and connect some of the Earth’s most ...

About The Study: Discrepancies were observed between labeled and measured concentrations of nicotine analogues in e-cigarettes and e-cigarette liquids marketed as nicotine replacements and exempt from FDA’s regulatory purview. Such discrepancies may lead to uncertainty about user exposure. When coupled with the largely unknown acute and chronic inhalation hazards and addictive potential of nicotine analogues, assessing product risk based on exposure becomes challenging from a clinical and regulatory standpoint. With e-cigarettes increasingly considered for smoking cessation, the advent of nicotine analogue–containing products with ...

About The Study: A tailored, interactive text message intervention increased self-reported vaping cessation rates among adolescents recruited via social media channels. Quote from corresponding author Amanda L. Graham, PhD: “Health care providers, teachers, and parents have been asking how to help teens quit vaping. This study is a critical breakthrough that demonstrates the power of a behavioral intervention for vaping cessation. Text messages serve as powerful reminders of an initial commitment to quit and can deliver proven behavior change support right to a young person’s phone. “We also did not see evidence that teens who quit ...

About The Study: Low neighborhood socioeconomic status was associated with premature mortality in this study. The risk of premature mortality was greatest among individuals experiencing persistently low neighborhood socioeconomic status from young to middle adulthood. Place-based interventions that target neighborhood social determinants of health should be designed from a life course perspective that accounts for early-life socioeconomic inequality.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Wayne R. Lawrence, DrPH, email wayne.lawrence@nih.gov. To access the embargoed ...

You have probably heard of dopamine. The substance also known as the “feel-good hormone”. Drugs such as cocaine cause a surge of dopamine in the brain. Normally, a protein in the brain called the dopamine transporter (DAT) helps regulate dopamine levels and prevent the brain from thinking that every experience is pleasurable. However, when affected by cocaine, the brain is unable to regulate dopamine levels. Previously, researchers did not know how cocaine affects the different transporters in the brain, but a new study from the University of Copenhagen has changed that. “We have learned how cocaine binds to the dopamine transporter, which is ...

Cancer doesn’t grow in a vacuum—each tumor grows in a particular microenvironment within the body and spreads through a tangled web of vasculature and nerves. Scientists have come to understand that the most potent therapies address cancer in context—accounting for both the tumor and the support structure that forms around it. Now, a new paper in Nature reveals that the activation of sensory nerves within breast tumors is playing a critical role in promoting not only cancer growth but also its spread, known as metastasis. The findings—that sensory neurons ...