Astronomer Michael R. Blanton will join the Carnegie Science Observatories as its 12th director, overseeing astronomical research in Pasadena and telescope operations at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, one of the world’s elite observing sites. Blanton joins Carnegie Science from New York University, where he is a Professor of Physics and the Director of the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics. He succeeds John Mulchaey, who was named Carnegie Science President in late 2024. Blanton’s research has centered primarily on conducting large astronomical surveys to place ...

Tiny charming immune cells called microglia protect the central nervous system (CNS) in a multitude of ways: They provide innate immunity, shape neurodevelopment, maintain homeostasis and modulate neurological disorders. That functionality can be lost, however, when microglia acquire mutations. An concept to correct this by replacing the mutated microglia with genetically typical cells — now called microglia intervention strategy for therapy and enhancement by replacement, or MISTER — emerged five years ago and was successfully achieved in mice. This year, researchers successfully used the approach to halt a fatal neurological ...

In a paper publishing in the Cell Press journal Trends in Immunology on December 4, scientists and doctors highlight the importance of studying long COVID in the context of other post-acute infection syndromes or chronic illnesses. By analyzing historical accounts of other epidemics, they say, researchers can gain important perspective on the profound effects of these chronic illnesses—with the goal of informing ...

Clues contained in tree rings have identified mid-14th-century volcanic activity as the first domino to fall in a sequence that led to the devastation of the Black Death in Europe. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) in Leipzig have used a combination of climate data and documentary evidence to paint the most complete picture to date of the ‘perfect storm’ that led to the deaths of tens of millions of people, as well as profound demographic, economic, political, cultural and religious change. Their evidence suggests that a volcanic eruption – or cluster of eruptions – ...

Volcanic activity may have exacerbated the spread of the Black Death through medieval Europe, according to a study published in Communications Earth & Environment. The authors suggest that climatic cooling owing to volcanic activity, and a subsequent famine, led the Italian city states to import grain shipments from the Black Sea region that may have contained the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis. The Black Death spread throughout Europe between 1347 and 1353 CE and had a mortality rate of up to 60% in some regions. Despite its long-lasting effects on the region, the reasons for the timing of its onset and spread are not well understood. Martin Bauch and Ulf Büntgen reviewed ...

About The Study: In this survey study of U.S. adults, overall trust in scientists as sources of cancer information was high. However, a clear ideological gradient suggests the need for tailored messaging and trusted messengers to reach politically diverse audiences with evidence-based cancer information.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Christopher W. Wheldon, PhD, email chris.wheldon@temple.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.46818) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that adverse childhood experiences may increase youth obesity risk, but promotion of resiliency-focused skills may help improve pediatric weight trajectories among disproportionately impacted populations.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Shana Adise, PhD, email shana.adise@uga.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.47104) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other ...

Under Embargo Until Dec. 4 at 11 am EST CONTACT: Heide Aungst HAungst@som.umaryland.edu 216-970-5773 (cell) Researchers Identify Bacterial Enzyme that can Cause Fatal Heart Conditions with Pneumonia Infections The Enzyme Could Become a Target for Future Vaccines or Drug Therapies BALTIMORE, Dec. 4, 2025: Pneumonia is a disease that burdens the healthcare system with more that 1.2 million emergency room visits each year and more than 41,000 adult deaths in the United States. Worldwide, more than one million children under the age of five die of ...

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich, the Technical University of Munich and the LMU University Hospital Munich uncovered a mechanism that protects nerve cells from premature cell death, known as ferroptosis. The study provides the first molecular evidence that ferroptosis can drive neurodegeneration in the human brain. These findings open up new avenues for developing future therapies – particularly for severe early-onset childhood dementia. The Enzyme That Protects Nerve Cells Why do neurons die in dementia – and can this process be slowed down? An international team led by Prof. Marcus Conrad, Director of the Institute of Metabolism and Cell Death ...

“Persistent discrepancies by gender, race, and geography underline the importance of individualized cardio-oncology surveillance, equitable preventative initiatives, and focused public health interventions.” BUFFALO, NY — December 4, 2025 — A new research paper was published in Volume 12 of Oncoscience on November 7, 2025, titled “Temporal trends and disparities in sudden cardiac death among colorectal cancer patients: A nationwide study.” In this study, led by first author Eric Sanji of Magnolia Regional Health Center, researchers examined ...

Researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center have discovered a novel therapy combination that could offer new hope to ovarian cancer patients who do not respond to existing treatments. Conducted entirely at the University of Colorado Anschutz, this research has advanced from the laboratory to a Phase 1 clinical trial on the campus. The findings, published today in Cancer Research Communications, outline a promising strategy that combines a PARP inhibitor, a targeted drug used to treat certain types of ovarian cancer, with ...

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [December 4, 2025] — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®)—an alliance of leading cancer centers that publishes free evidence-based, expert consensus-driven guidelines for cancer prevention and care—today announced the hiring of Renuka Iyer, MD, as the new Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for the organization. Dr. Iyer has a long history of leadership and innovation in oncology. She currently serves as a Professor of Oncology for Roswell Park Comprehensive ...

Los Angeles, CA – December 4, 2025 – Dr. Vadim Jucaud’s lab at the Terasaki Institute has introduced a new organ-on-a-chip platform that recapitulates age-dependent immune responses, offering a more accurate testing bed for evaluating cancer vaccine performance in older adults, the population most affected by cancer and often overlooked in traditional preclinical testing. Immunosenescence, the natural decline of the immune system with age, significantly reduces the effectiveness of cancer vaccines. Yet, despite its clinical importance, age-related immune decline is seldom incorporated into vaccine development pipelines. Current 2D ...

Europe is gobbling up almost 50 square metres of land and topsoil per second. And Norway tops the list of  European countries with the most land lost to construction per person, according to a study initiated by the Arena for Journalism in Europe and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, NRK. At the same time, we have never had access to more data and knowledge about nature and the ecosystems we are building on. "We are acquiring more and more ecological data as a basis for land-use planning. Then you would think that the decisions we make ...

In newly published research, Binghamton University doctoral student Elana Israel, MS ’22, explores which depressive symptoms largely affect children’s neural responses to feedback. Depression in parents can affect a child’s reward processing, or how their brains react to positive and negative feedback. Israel and Psychology Professor Brandon Gibb, director of the Mood Disorders Institute, explored whether a specific symptom of depression in parents known as anhedonia, a loss of interest or pleasure in things, may be specifically responsible for this link. The study will be included in ...

Ambiguous speech production is a common challenge for learners of a second language (L2), but identifying whether the problem lies in pronunciation or deeper linguistic processing is not always straightforward. A new study conducted by Professor Sylvain Detey from Waseda University, with Dr. Verdiana De Fino from IRIT, UT3, University of Toulouse & Archean Labs, France, and Dr. Lionel Fontan, Head of Archean Labs, France, sheds light on this distinction. Their study was published on October 30, 2025, in the journal Language Testing in Asia. The researchers sought to determine whether ambiguous speech errors made by Japanese learners of French could be better categorized through a combined ...

Advances in materials science have led to the development of “smart materials,” whose properties do not remain static but change in response to external stimuli. One such material is poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), or PNIPAM, a polymer gel that alters its solubility with temperature. The polymer contains hydrophilic amide groups and hydrophobic isopropyl groups. At low temperatures, the amide groups form strong hydrogen bonds with water, keeping the material well-swollen and soluble. However, as the temperature increases, these hydrogen bonds weaken while ...

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have rapidly emerged as one of the most promising frontiers in modern biology. These nano-sized messengers mediate communication between cells, tissues, and organs, influencing processes from immune signaling to cancer progression. Their growing diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic relevance has accelerated research worldwide. Yet one major limitation persists: the absence of efficient, scalable, and equipment-independent EV isolation methods. Existing techniques, including ultracentrifugation and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), remain labor-intensive, instrumentation-heavy, and unsuitable for processing large-volume biofluids. To ...

Nicotine addiction remains one of the most persistent public health challenges worldwide, driven by changes in the brain that reinforce repeated use and make quitting extremely difficult. For decades, scientists have focused primarily on neurons to explain how these changes occur. But growing evidence suggests that other brain cells may play a far more active role in shaping addictive behavior than previously thought. Building on this shift in understanding, a team of researchers led by Professor Eun Sang Choe from the Department of Biological Sciences, Pusan National ...

A study led by researchers at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute advances one of the most significant milestones in breast cancer treatment, making immunotherapy effective against the most common tumor type, estrogen receptor-positive or luminal breast cancer. This subtype accounts for 70% of breast cancer cases, and despite effective treatments, it causes the highest mortality in total cases. Additionally, immunotherapy is not effective or approved because it shows no immune system response in these tumors, ...

CHICAGO – Long-term exposure to common air pollutants is associated with more advanced coronary artery disease—with notable differences between women and men—according to a large-scale study of more than 11,000 adults being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The findings show that even levels of pollution below or near regulatory standards and typical urban exposures are associated with early signs of heart disease—often before symptoms appear—and underscore the importance of improving air quality to reduce cardiovascular ...

Kyoto, Japan --  "Why are we here?" is humanity's most fundamental and persistent question. Tracing the origins of the elements is a direct attempt to answer this at its deepest level. We know many elements are created inside stars and supernovae, which then cast them out into the universe, yet the origins of some key elements has remained a mystery. Chlorine and potassium, both odd-Z elements -- possessing an odd number of protons -- are essential to life and planet formation. According to current theoretical models, stars ...

The choreographed movements that cells perform to form complex biological shapes, like our hands, have fascinated scientists for centuries. Now, researchers at EMBL Barcelona have launched LimbNET, an open-access online platform that allows scientists to directly choreograph this dance by computationally simulating how genes guide these intricate growth processes. Their work has recently been published in the journal Molecular Systems Biology. LimbNET is much more than a simple data repository. It is a new type of platform allowing ...

A research team led by Ryo Shimano of the University of Tokyo has successfully visualized two distinct mechanisms through which up and down spins, inherent properties of electrons, switch in an antiferromagnet, a material in which spin alignments cancel each other out. One of the visualized mechanisms provides a working principle for developing ultrafast, non-volatile magnetic memory and logic devices, which could be much faster than today’s technologies. The findings are published in the journal Nature Materials. Paper slips with holes, small metal rods, vacuum tubes, and transistors: these are technologies that have ...

Growing energy demand means the U.S. will almost certainly have to expand its electricity grid in coming years. What’s the best way to do this? A new study by MIT researchers examines legislation introduced in Congress and identifies relative tradeoffs involving reliability, cost, and emissions, depending on the proposed approach.  The researchers evaluated two policy approaches to expanding the U.S. electricity grid: One would concentrate on regions with more renewable energy sources, and the other would create more interconnections across the country. For instance, some of the best untapped wind-power resources in the U.S. lie ...