Parents’ genes – even when not directly inherited by a child – may play a role in their educational and mental health outcomes, finds a new report by UCL researchers. The report, Understanding the intergenerational transmission of educational (under)achievement, which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, evaluated how parental genetics can influence child development through the environment provided by their parents (for example, reading habits or access to better resources), also known as “genetic nurture” or “indirect genetic effects”. The ...

Redesigning social media to suit different needs of users could make their time online more focused, according to new research by University of Bristol academics. The study, presented today at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Yokohama, Japan, suggests that the key to a having a positive experience online is finding the right level of personal investment – neither too much nor too little. Conducted by researchers examining digital self-regulation, they reveal distinct user types and propose that social media platforms could be remodelled to support more intentional use. Lead author Dan Bennett from Bristol’s ...

An international team, led by researchers at the Champalimaud Foundation (CF), has shown – for the first time in a realistic way – that it may be possible to diagnose Parkinson’s disease (PD) years before it becomes untreatable, by scanning people’s brains with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).  Their results were published today (May 8th, 2025) in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. The study was funded by the €200,000 Mantero Belard Award, a neuroscience prize attributed ...

University of East Anglia scientists have developed cutting-edge MRI technology to diagnose a common heart problem more quickly and accurately than ever before. Aortic stenosis is a progressive and potentially fatal condition, affecting an estimated 300,000 people in the UK. It affects about five per cent of 65-year-olds in the US, with increasing prevalence in advancing age. A new study, published today, reveals how a four-dimensional flow (4D flow) MRI scan can diagnose aortic stenosis more reliably than current ultrasound techniques. The superior accuracy of the new test means doctors can better predict when patients ...

PHILADELPHIA – A next-generation “armored” CAR T cell therapy showed promising results in a small study of patients whose B-cell lymphomas continued to resist multiple rounds of other cancer treatments, including commercially available CAR T cell therapies. The new therapy diminished cancer in 81 percent of patients and resulted in complete remission in 52 percent, with some of the earliest patients treated experiencing durable remission for two years or more. The findings, led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.  While ...

Healthy hearts are adaptable, and heartbeats exhibit complex variation as they adjust to tiny changes in the body and environment. Mass General Brigham researchers have applied a new way to measure the complexity of pulse rates, using data collected through wearable pulse oximetry devices. The new method, published in Journal of the American Heart Association, provides a more detailed peek into heart health than traditional measures, uncovering a link between reduced complexity and future cognitive decline. “Heart rate complexity is a hallmark of healthy physiology,” said senior author Peng Li, ...

Mount Sinai researchers have discovered distinct roles for two dopamine receptors located on nerve cells within the portion of the brain that controls approach vs. avoidance behavior. These receptors potentially influence anxiety and mood disorders whose origins are still unclear. The team characterized the function of D1 and D2 dopamine receptors in the ventral hippocampus of mice, a region involved in the regulation of emotions and stress responses. Their work expands the field’s knowledge of dopamine signaling beyond its well-known actions in other brain regions that influence reward and motivation, and sets the stage ...

Imagine this: You watch your child at the playground, their eyes lighting up as they approach a group of laughing kids. But instead of welcoming them in, the children turn away. No invitation to join, no shared smiles—just an invisible barrier keeping your child on the outside looking in. For parents, the pain of seeing their child struggle to make friends can be heartbreaking. Every parent wants their child to be included, to experience the joy of companionship, and to feel the warmth of a friendly hand reaching out to pull them into play. But what happens when social skills don’t come naturally? Where do parents turn when their child is struggling to navigate the complex ...

It has long been known that agriculture contributes to the decline in insect biodiversity. The loss of host plants, frequent mowing, and pesticide use all deprive many species of their habitats. Now, a research team from the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) has discovered—using innovative analytical methods—that the impact of agricultural land use on insect diversity is even more dramatic than previously assumed. The findings are based on an analysis of insect species from 400 families collected across a wide range of habitats in Bavaria. The study was led by Professor Jörg Müller, Chair of Conservation ...

A new study published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology reveals how foot traffic data from mobile devices can enhance neighborhood-level COVID-19 forecasts in New York City. The research, led by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Dalian University of Technology, provides a novel approach to predicting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and improving targeted public health interventions during future outbreaks. The COVID-19 pandemic hit New York City hard, with infection rates varying dramatically across neighborhoods. ...

WASHINGTON — The American Geophysical Union Board of Directors and Executive Search Committee is pleased to announce AGU’s new Executive Director and CEO will be Janice R. Lachance, J.D., Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives and the National Academy of Public Administration. “Janice has served as an exceptional interim Executive Director and CEO during the last two years, said AGU President Brandon Jones, Ph.D. “She has demonstrated the leadership qualities ...

MINNEAPOLIS — People who eat more ultra processed foods like cold breakfast cereal, cookies and hot dogs are more likely to have early signs of Parkinson’s disease when compared to those who eat very few ultra processed foods, according to a study published in the May 7, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that eating more ultra processed foods causes early signs of Parkinson’s disease; it only shows an association. Researchers looked for signs of prodromal Parkinson’s disease, which is the earliest stage, when neurodegeneration ...

MINNEAPOLIS — Obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that causes lower oxygen levels during sleep, is linked to degeneration of brain regions associated with memory through damage to the brain’s small blood vessels, according to a study published May 7, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found the brain changes were strongly associated with the severity of drops in oxygen levels during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The study does not prove that sleep apnea causes this degeneration; it only shows an association. Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when throat muscles relax during sleep, blocking ...

WEHI scientists have uncovered a promising new way to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines by tapping into the potential of a specific type of immune cell, opening the door to long-lasting vaccines for viruses and enhanced cancer therapies.  The WEHI-led study used a novel approach combined with cutting-edge mRNA vaccine technology to increase the formation of a type of T cell which has remarkable self-renewing capacity and can remember threats for years and even decades.  The mouse-based study, published in the ...

GigaScience Press is a winner of the inaugural Crossref Metadata Awards, recognising efforts in scholarly publishing metadata completeness and enrichment in their journal, GigaByte. Thanks to River Valley Technology’s state-of-the-art publishing platform, the journal was selected amongst over the nearly 150,000 journals from 22,000 members using Crossref infrastructure for having the highest metadata completeness in the small publishers category.  Presented for the first time at the Crossref Midyear ...

What does a person with an eating disorder look like? The picture may not be as clear-cut as many people think. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis led a groundbreaking study with an important lesson: Eating disorders don’t discriminate. “There’s been a perception that eating disorders mostly affect thin, white women,” said Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences. “Our study of college students dispels that myth.” The study, funded by a National Institute of Mental Health grant, surveyed 29,951 students from 26 colleges and universities, including ...

New Haven, Conn. — A sweeping new study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) reveals stark disparities in life expectancy across U.S. states and Washington, D.C. over the past century – offering new insights into how a region’s public health policies, social conditions, and environmental factors can shape people’s lifespans. Analyzing more than 179 million deaths between 1969 and 2020, the multi-institutional research team traced life expectancy trends by birth cohort — a more precise measure for following the life experiences of a population than traditional year-by-year summaries of mortality, which ...

A sweeping 26-country study reveals a consistent gap in trust toward climate scientists based on political ideology, with right-leaning individuals reporting lower trust than their left-leaning counterparts. The divide is especially stark in wealthier democracies and English-speaking nations, according to the research, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology (link is external and opens in a new window). The findings expand on past studies focused primarily on Western, English-speaking contexts. “While climate scientists ...

Imagine you are playing the guitar—each pluck of a string creates a sound wave that vibrates and interacts with other waves. Now shrink that idea down to a small single molecule, and instead of sound waves, picture vibrations that carry heat. A team of engineers and materials scientists in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder has recently discovered that these tiny thermal vibrations, otherwise known as phonons, can interfere with each other just like musical notes—either amplifying or canceling each other, depending on how a molecule is "strung" together. Phonon ...

The burden of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in China is higher than in most countries and increasing at a faster rate than the global average, according to a new study published May 7, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Siyu Liu and Daoying Geng of Fudan University, China. Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias (ADD) are an increasingly serious global health issue, with rates rising worldwide. There is currently a lack of understanding of the disease burden and risk factors of ADD specifically in China, despite being one of the countries ...

Most of India’s snow leopard population live in a remote region in the north of the country, where they co-exist alongside rural communities, according to a study publishing May 7, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Pankaj Raina at Union Territory of Ladakh's Department of Wildlife Protection, and colleagues. To effectively conserve wild carnivores, researchers need accurate data on their population size and distribution. However, gathering this data has proved particularly challenging for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) because of their shy nature and preference for remote, rugged terrain. Researchers assessed the population size and distribution of snow leopards ...

Although our general tendency to be curious may decrease with age, our situational or "state" curiosity might actually increase across the lifespan, which might help boost well-being and cognitive outcomes in older age Article URL: https://plos.io/3SatjAg Article title: Curiosity across the adult lifespan: Age-related differences in state and trait curiosity Author countries: U.S., Germany Funding: National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Aging) Award Number R01AG044335 to AC: https://www.nia.nih.gov/ Leverhulme ...

People displaying high problematic (excessive and dependent) social media use are more likely to engage with and believe fake news Article URL: https://plos.io/3EFkKKP Article title: Problematic social media use is associated with believing in and engaging with fake news Author countries: U.S. Funding: DM and MDM received funding for this research from the Michigan State University Trifecta Initiative for Interdisciplinary Health Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. END ...

Better physical health probably follows religious and spiritual engagement, rather than vice versa, per six year longitudinal U.S. study aiming to tease out this relationship Article URL: https://plos.io/42vnJyK Article title: “Which comes first”: Religious/spiritual engagement or health? Initial observations from longitudinal analyses Author countries: U.S. Funding: Dr. Neal Krause received funding for Wave 1 of this study (Grant ID: 40077), and Dr. Gail Ironson received funding for Wave 2 of this study (Grant ID: 61430), from ...

Excess weight, including overweight and obesity, is linked with experiencing Long Covid neurological symptoms including headaches, vertigo, sleep problems and depression, per meta-analysis of studies comprising almost 140,000 total participants Article URL: https://plos.io/4lNLY2G Article title: Excess weight is associated with neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms in post-COVID-19 condition: A systematic review and meta-analysis Author countries: Brazil, Australia, China Funding: This research received a grant from the ...