The Milky Way is often depicted as a flat, spinning disk of dust, gas, and stars. But if you could zoom out and take an edge-on photo, it actually has a distinctive warp — as if you tried to twist and bend a vinyl LP. Though scientists have long known through observational data that the Milky Way is warped and its edges are flared like a skirt, no one could explain why. Now, Harvard astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian (CfA) have performed the first ...

One produces richly detailed interpretations of Black America’s past and present, the other pathbreaking technologies that further understanding of gene expression. Today, two professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences were named as recipients of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s 2023 “genius grant.” Imani Perry, the Henry A. Morss Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies, is a multidisciplinary thinker recognized for her fresh insights on the resilience and beauty of Black American cultural expressions. Jason ...

People who carry three gene variants that have bene inherited from Neanderthals are more sensitive to some types of pain, according to a new study co-led by UCL researchers. The findings, published in Communications Biology, are the latest findings to show how past interbreeding with Neanderthals has influenced the genetics of modern humans. The researchers found that people carrying three so-called Neanderthal variants in the gene SCN9A, which is implicated in sensory neurons, are more sensitive to pain from skin pricking after prior exposure to mustard oil. Previous research ...

LAWRENCE — Hurricanes, floods, heat waves and other disasters are striking the United States with increased severity and frequency, and since 2000 the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act has required states and local jurisdictions to have plans in place to reduce damages from such events. A new study from the University of Kansas has found little improvement over time to these plans, in spite of regularly required updates. Plans to mitigate risk from natural hazards hold the potential to help states and local communities proactively steer development into safer areas and reduce exposure of existing housing, businesses, roads and other vital assets. ...

SAN ANTONIO — October 10, 2023 —Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Simone Marchi collaborated on a new study finding the first geophysically plausible scenario to explain the abundance of certain precious metals — including gold and platinum — in the Earth’s mantle. Based on the simulations, or model, scientists found that impact-driven mixing of mantle materials scenario that could prevent the metals from completely sinking into the Earth’s core. Early in its evolution, about 4.5 billion years ago, Earth sustained an impact with a Mars-sized planet, and the Moon formed from the resulting debris ejected ...

Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited intellectual disability, may be unfolding in brain cells even before birth, despite typically going undiagnosed until age 3 or later. A new study published today in the journal Neuron by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison showed that FMRP, a protein deficient in individuals with fragile X syndrome, has a role in the function of mitochondria, part of a cell that produces energy, during prenatal development. Their results fundamentally change how scientists understand the developmental origins of fragile ...

In 2015, the United Nations created the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve by 2030. With only seven years to go, the world is not on track to meet the goal of eliminating child marriage and other forms of violence against women and girls.  Child marriage has been linked with negative reproductive and mental health outcomes.  Although there have been some improvements around the world toward the UN goal, progress towards reducing child marriage has been uneven and stagnant, particularly in fragile states where ...

DENVER — Clinicians and researchers at National Jewish Health studied COVID vaccine effectiveness in patients with underlying lung conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease (ILD). Findings show that nearly half of respiratory patients have lower vaccine-specific antibody, B cell, and T cell responses compared to healthy individuals. Decreased immunity to the vaccine suggests that patients with underlying lung conditions may be less protected against COVID-19. Understanding why they aren’t responding can give doctors a chance to treat patients differently. “Most ...

Humans can make abstract choices independent of motor actions, but in lab tasks, choices are typically reported with an associated action; this study shows that the human brain encodes perceptual choices independently of the specific motor actions used to implement them, even if such abstraction is not required by the task context. ##### In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002324 Article Title: Abstract perceptual choice signals during action-linked decisions in the human brain Author Countries: Germany Funding: ...

BATON ROUGE – Five Pennington Biomedical Research Center faculty members and one adjunct professor rank among the most cited researchers in the world, according to the Google Scholar Citations database. The database shows 5,882 scholars across the world have an h-index at or above 100. The h-index is a gauge of productivity and the impact of published papers. The index takes into account the researcher’s total number of papers and how many times each was cited by other scholars. An h-index over 100 means that at least ...

In a University of Massachusetts Amherst study recently published in PLOS ONE, researchers explored and described gender differences in HIV-related stigma and social support among people living with HIV (PLHIV) experiencing food insecurity in the Dominican Republic. “Men’s experience of stigma were subtler and women described outright rejection and instances of physical violence, including intimate partner violence,” says lead author and postdoctoral researcher Alane Celeste-Villalvir. For people living with HIV, stigma associated with the disease continues to be a significant ...

Over the past 15 years, the Chinese government has made significant efforts to promote innovation-driven growth through industrial policy and corporate subsidies. In a new study, researchers examined government subsidies to businesses in China to determine whether they are making firms more productive. The study found that China’s rising wave of subsidizing businesses has had limited effect on promoting the firms’ productivity. The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and ShanghaiTech University, appears in the Journal of Comparative Economics. “Many countries have criticized China ...

In September 2023, extreme rains struck South Africa’s Western Cape province, flooding villages and leaving a trail of destruction. The catastrophic devastation is just one recent example in a string of extreme weather events that are growing more common around the world. Fueled by rising sea surface temperatures from global warming, torrential storms are increasing both in frequency and magnitude. Concurrently, global warming is also producing the opposite effect in other instances, as a mega-drought recently threatened the water supply of Cape Town in southwestern Africa to the point where residents were at risk of running out of water. This one-two punch of weather extremes ...

INDIANAPOLIS— The Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center was awarded a prestigious grant to train the next generation of cancer drug discovery and development researchers. Known as a T32 grant, the five-year, $794,000 National Cancer Institute award will establish the Pediatric and Adult Translational Cancer Drug Discovery and Development Training Program (PACT-D3). The award supports three graduate fellows annually, with the cancer center adding to the grant to support an additional two students. “This training ...

The University of North Florida College of Education and Human Services is pleased to announce a gift of $1.3 million from Gilchrist Berg, local philanthropist and president/founder of Water Street Capital. The gift will support current and future teachers in the region and provide highly trained and high-quality educators to address the critical teacher shortage. Berg’s gift funds 20 scholarships annually for the next two years to help launch the Osprey Teacher Residency and Accelerated Program for aspiring educators attending UNF. Education majors from Florida can apply for the scholarships and choose a variety of pathways under the program. “Gilchrist Berg is an inspiration ...

Transgender women and Black gay and bisexual men in Chicago are nearly twice as likely to contract syphilis at some point in their lives as white gay men, according to a new study conducted by scientists at Northwestern University. The study, “Syphilis prevalence, incidence, and demographic differences in a longitudinal study of young sexual and gender minority adults assigned male at birth,” is the first to examine syphilis over time among young sexual and gender minorities — a category which encompasses gay and bisexual men, trans women and non-binary individuals. They found meaningful demographic differences ...

WASHINGTON (October 10, 2023) – Alliance for Pediatric Device Innovation (APDI), the federally funded consortium led by Children’s National Hospital, is joining with MedTech Color for a special edition of the “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!”™  competition focused on supporting African-American and Hispanic innovators.     With the aim of making pediatric medical device innovation more inclusive, organizers are accepting applications for pediatric medical devices from innovators ...

HOUSTON – (Oct. 10, 2023) – Researchers have long recognized the therapeutic potential of using magnetoelectrics ⎯ materials that can turn magnetic fields into electric fields ⎯ to stimulate neural tissue in a minimally invasive way and help treat neurological disorders or nerve damage. The problem, however, is that neurons have a hard time responding to the shape and frequency of the electric signal resulting from this conversion. Rice University neuroengineer Jacob Robinson and his team designed ...

The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced a $10 million investment in three projects to develop novel technologies to manufacture high-performance superconducting tapes in the United States. Two of the projects are built on the foundations of cutting-edge research from the University of Houston. The DOE values superconductivity because it means zero wasted electricity. Superconductivity, found only in certain materials, allows direct electric current to be conducted with zero resistance and without energy loss. Widely available low cost, high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes are used for a broad range ...

Jennifer L. West, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia, has been elected to the prestigious NATIONAL ACADEMY OF MEDICINE, one of the highest recognitions in health and medicine. The National Academy of Medicine is one of three institutions that make up the National Academies, operating under an 1863 Congressional charter signed by President Lincoln to assemble experts to advise the nation in science and technology. “It is my honor to welcome this truly exceptional class of new members to the National ...

Automated Insulin Delivery in Women with Pregnancy Complicated by Type 1 Diabetes The New England Journal of Medicine: Hybrid Closed-Loop technology improved maternal glucose levels during pregnancy complicated by type 1 diabetes. Authors say that hybrid closed-loop technology should now be offered to all pregnant women with type 1 diabetes For pregnant women with type 1 diabetes, a technology giving insulin doses as informed by a smartphone algorithm, helps them better manage their blood sugars, compared to traditional insulin pumps or multiple daily injections, according to a new randomised trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine ...

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the world’s largest private funder of mental health research grants, today announced it is awarding the 2023 Outstanding Achievement Prizes in Mental Health to five scientists for their exceptional work in advancing psychiatric research. The prizewinners will be the featured speakers at the BBRF International Mental Health Research Symposium on October 27, 2023, in New York City, and will receive their awards later that evening at the BBRF International ...

Paper Title: Histopathologic Brain Age Estimation via Multiple Instance Learning Journal: Acta Neuropathologica, October 10, 2023 Authors:  John F. Crary, MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence and Human Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Kurt W. Farrell, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence and Human Health at Icahn Mount Sinai; Gabriel A. Marx, MD, MS, Resident in Neurology at Icahn Mount Sinai; and other coauthors. Bottom Line: The aging brain undergoes structural ...

JMIR Public Health and Surveillance Editor-in-Chief: Travis Sanchez and guest editors Dr. Roy Rillera Marzo, Dr. Adnan Kisa, Petra Heidler and Shekhar Chauhan welcome submissions to a special theme issue examining "Scaling Up Effective Public Health Interventions for Long-Term Population Health Benefits." This special issue aligns with the journal’s commitment to advancing knowledge in public health and disease prevention. It provides an opportunity to showcase cutting-edge research in preventive strategies, with ...

LOS ANGELES — John D. Carpten, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States and a leading research center for diabetes and other life-threatening illnesses, was presented with one of the highest honors in health and medicine today when he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). NAM recognized Carpten “for leading the genomics field in understanding how racial and ethnic backgrounds affect cancer predisposition,” sharing that ...