MSU research suggests natural selection can slow evolution, maintain similarities across generations Highlights: New research from Michigan State University suggests that natural selection, famous for rewarding advantageous differences in organisms, can also preserve similarities. Reporting in the journals New Phytologist and Evolution, the researchers worked with a plant called wild radish and its stamens, or pollen-producing parts, two of which are short and four are long. Roughly 55 million years ago, wild radish ancestors had stamens of equal length. The team selectively bred — or artificially selected — ...

ITHACA, N.Y. - To prepare for extreme heat waves around the world – particularly in places known for cool summers – climate-simulation models that include a new computing concept may save tens of thousands of lives. The concept, called “ensemble boosting,” uses computationally efficient modeling to simulate a large set of extreme but plausible heat waves, all while avoiding hundreds of hours of expensive calculations on large computers. The study on the new modeling method, led by scientists at ETH Zurich, Switzerland and Cornell University, was published Aug. ...

In the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade, researchers at the University of Chicago set out to investigate whether anticipation of restricted abortion access increased interest in vasectomies in the preceding years. In a new analysis, they found that vasectomy rates in the United States witnessed a remarkable surge from 2014 to 2021, as more men opted for the outpatient surgical procedure that offers permanent contraception by preventing ...

Almost everything about insects called kissing bugs is revolting, from the insidious way they bite people’s faces at night to drink their blood while they sleep to the way they spread disease through their poop. Some carry a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi that causes Chagas disease, a leading cause of disability and premature death in the Americas. Left untreated, Chagas disease can cause serious heart and digestive problems. It’s showing up more and more in patients in the United States. Now researchers at the University of Cincinnati are investigating ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- New research finds brands that leverage a reputation for quality to pay employees less risk eroding profits. The paper, published online June 12 in the Journal of Marketing Research and authored by researchers from Duke University, London Business School and Texas A&M University, shows that vertical brand differentiation (being perceived as better) is associated with lower pay, whereas horizontal brand differentiation (being perceived as different) is associated with higher pay. High-quality brands taking advantage of brand cachet to pay employees less erodes profits due to negative effects on employee productivity ...

Technologies developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received six 2023 R&D 100 Awards.   R&D World magazine announced the winners from their selection of finalists announced last week. The winners will be recognized at the organization’s award ceremony November 16 in San Diego, California. “ORNL strives to deliver technological solutions for the nation’s toughest problems,” said interim ORNL Director Jeff Smith. “This year’s R&D 100 Awards are a reminder of how hard our scientists and engineers work to accomplish that feat.” Often referred ...

A caregiver’s education level and their child’s age played large roles in determining their primary sources of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers found in a recent study by NIH’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. Caregivers who had less than a high school education were less likely to work remotely and were more worried about finances, childcare, and access to necessities like food. Caregivers with a master’s degree or higher reported greater concern about social distancing and impacts on their work. The ...

A study by health policy researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and University of Southern California projects that the expected health and economic well-being of Americans nearing retirement age in the lower half of the economic distribution today is no better than that of their counterparts more than two decades ago. The focus of most policy efforts has been to support the most disadvantaged, generally considered the lowest 15 percent of the population with respect to financial resources. Less attention has been drawn to those between the 15th and ...

Lower-middle class Americans nearing retirement age are worse off than their counterparts more than two decades ago, while upper-middle Americans have largely seen their life expectancy and wealth improve. Policymakers, meanwhile, overlook the lower middle group of Americans who don’t qualify for many assistance programs. That’s according to a new study by the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics and the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Using data from the Health and Retirement Survey and a microsimulation called the Future Elderly Model, researchers estimated future life expectancy and disability for cohorts of individuals ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2023 MINNEAPOLIS – Millions of Americans were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, early in the pandemic but could not get diagnosed due to testing limitations. Many of those people developed a post-viral syndrome with symptoms similar to those of long COVID.  In a new study of a small group of those people, their immune response shows that 41% had evidence of SARS-CoV-2 exposure. The study is published in the August 23, 2023, online issue of Neurology® Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation, an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Long COVID was defined as symptoms persisting ...

An international phase 3 clinical trial, done in participation with Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, found that a new targeted treatment called zolbetuximab, given in combination with a standard chemotherapy, extended survival for patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer that overexpressed a specific biomarker. Results from the GLOW study, published July 31 in Nature Medicine, together with results from the parallel SPOTLIGHT study that evaluated zolbetuximab with an alternative standard chemotherapy, prompted the ...

Exposure to night shift work and rotating shift work is associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment among middle-aged and older adults, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Durdana Khan of York University, Canada, and colleagues. Previous research has established that shift work, which refers to any work schedule that occurs outside the traditional 9am to 5pm working hours, has significant health impacts. In the new work, the researchers analyzed data on 47,811 adults in the Canadian Longitudinal Study. The dataset included ...

Sperm and northern bottlenose whales were frequently observed following a trawler off the coast of Newfoundland to feed on fish escaping from the net as it was hauled in, according to a study published August 23, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Usua Oyarbide from Plentzia Marine Station–Univ Basque Country, Spain, and colleagues. In this study, the authors looked at how cetaceans interacted with a deep-sea trawler fishing in the western North Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland in 2007. Oyarbide tracked whale encounters over 50 days between July 20 and September 13, 2007, while onboard the trawler as a North Atlantic Fisheries Organization observer. Sperm whales (Physeter ...

In 2018, researchers from NOAA’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Nautilus Live observed thousands of octopus nesting on the deep seafloor off the Central California coast. The discovery of the “Octopus Garden” captured the curiosity of millions of people around the world, including MBARI scientists. For three years, MBARI and collaborators used high-tech tools to monitor the Octopus Garden and learn exactly why this site is so attractive for deep-sea octopus. In a new study published today in Science Advances, a team of researchers from MBARI, NOAA's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, the University ...

A team of researchers led by the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research in collaboration with The Sarawak Museum Department have become the first to date drawings of Gua Sireh Cave in Sarawak, uncovering a sad story of conflict in the process. The limestone cave of Gua Sireh in western Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo) is famous for the hundreds of charcoal drawings lining the walls of its main chambers, attracting hundreds of visitors each year. Approximately 55km southeast of Sarawak’s Capital, Kuching, the site is managed by the Bidayuh (local Indigenous peoples) in collaboration with The Sarawak Museum Department, ...

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have made a discovery that could change our understanding of the universe. In their study published in Science Advances, they reveal, for the first time, that there is a range in which fundamental constants can vary, allowing for the viscosity needed for life processes to occur within and between living cells. This is an important piece of the puzzle in determining where these constants come from and how they impact life as we know it.  In 2020, the same team found that the viscosity of liquids is determined by fundamental physical constants, setting a limit on how runny a ...

Nerve cells that sense touch grow the appropriate endings for hairy or hairless skin based on cues from the skin itself, rather than through predetermined programming, according to research led by Harvard Medical School scientists and published Aug. 21 in Developmental Cell.  If affirmed in further studies, the findings could eventually help researchers develop therapies to regenerate damaged or diseased nerves, the authors say, or better understand what goes awry in congenital neuropathies, conditions in individuals born with ...

Amsterdam, August 23, 2023 – While myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and Long COVID are not the same disease, they appear to have features of overlapping biological and symptomatic presentations. Many people with Long COVID meet the diagnostic criteria of ME/CFS. Long COVID scientists and clinicians could expedite research and care protocols by utilizing information and experiences gained from the ME/CFS community. A special section of WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation aims to provide a ...

Highly challenging to sequence and long overlooked, the human Y chromosome’s contributions to health and disease remain largely unknown. A new paper that presents, for the first time, the complete sequences of multiple human Y chromosomes from lineages from around the globe provides an essential step forward in understanding the roles of the Y chromosome in human evolution and biology. Even as the field of human genomics forged ahead at an astonishing pace, the Y chromosome— one of the ...

A team of interdisciplinary researchers led by Arindam Banerjee, professor and chair of the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Department at Lehigh University, has been awarded nearly $3 million from the National Science Foundation to train a diverse group of future energy-sector leaders across academia, industry, government and policy organizations. The five-year award will allow Lehigh to establish a SEED (Stakeholder Engaged, Equitable, Decarbonized) Energy Futures Training Program to provide graduate students with the skills needed to explore, collaborate and pioneer solutions to the society’s reliance on carbon-based energy sources and energy inequities. ...

Mona Diab understands what is at stake. As a research scientist at two of the largest technology companies on the planet, Diab saw the impact innovations had as they spread across the globe. And with artificial intelligence poised to usher in the greatest technological leap since the internet, Diab wants to train, teach and prepare students, researchers, scientists and communities to think responsibly about these new tools. "We're living in a world of proliferating AI and generative AI. There ...

A tailsitter is a fixed-wing aircraft that takes off and lands vertically (it sits on its tail on the landing pad), and then tilts horizontally for forward flight. Faster and more efficient than quadcopter drones, these versatile aircraft can fly over a large area like an airplane but also hover like a helicopter, making them well-suited for tasks like search-and-rescue or parcel delivery.   MIT researchers have developed new algorithms for trajectory planning and control of a tailsitter that take advantage of the maneuverability and versatility of this type of aircraft. Their algorithms ...

According to the National Institutes of Health, approximately 24% of adults in the United States have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), an umbrella term for a range of liver conditions affecting people who drink little to no alcohol that can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure.  Currently, there are no medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat NAFLD.  A recent $9.57 million grant awarded to researchers with the UC San Diego NAFLD Research Center at University of California San Diego School of Medicine will support a clinical trial to study a new treatment option for patients ...

About The Study: In this study of 48,000 patients, gender-affirming surgery increased significantly in the U.S., nearly tripling from 2016 to 2019. Breast and chest surgery was the most common class of procedures performed overall. The number of genital surgical procedures performed increased with increasing age.   Authors: Jason D. Wright, M.D., of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.30348) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The results of this study suggest that the majority of fish oil supplement labels make health claims, usually in the form of structure/function claims, that imply a health benefit across a variety of organ systems despite a lack of trial data showing efficacy. Significant heterogeneity exists in the daily dose of eicosapentaenoic acid + docosahexaenoic acid in available supplements, leading to potential variability in safety and efficacy between supplements. Authors: Ann Marie Navar, M.D., ...