To the point Role of livestock in spreading the plague: Yersinia pestis has been identified in a 4,000-year-old sheep, indicating that livestock played a role in spreading an early form of plague that once circulated throughout Eurasia during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age (LNBA) periods. Spillover from unknown reservoir: Genetic analysis reveals that humans and sheep were infected by nearly identical plague strains. The disease was contracted through spillover from an unknown wild animal reservoir, and sheep ...

About The Study: This study analyzes use of online asynchronous telemedicine abortion services for the period July 2023 through September 2024 via data from a nonprofit asynchronous telemedicine service that provides abortion medications throughout the U.S. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Abigail R. A. Aiken, PhD, email araa2@utexas.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.11420) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D), glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) use was associated with a modestly increased risk of incident diabetic retinopathy (DR); however, fewer patients experienced sight-threatening DR complications, including blindness, even among those with preexisting DR. These findings suggest that all patients with T2D treated with GLP-1 RAs, regardless of preexisting DR, should be regularly screened and monitored for potential complications of T2D. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Sarju Ganatra, ...

About The Study: In this study of patients with type 2 diabetes who had no prior eye disorders, patients prescribed semaglutide or tirzepatide had an increased risk of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy and other optic nerve disorders, although the overall risk was low. These findings highlight the need for close monitoring of these conditions. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Rong Xu, PhD, email rxx@case.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.26327) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study, there was a rapid increase in the use of diabetes technology and notable improvements in glycemic control among youths and adults with type 1 diabetes during the past 15 years. Nonetheless, the prevalence of glycemic control remained low, and racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic differences grew over time. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jung-Im Shin, MD, PhD, email jshin19@jh.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.26353) Editor’s Note: Please ...

A 50-year love affair with hairy caterpillars reveals their squirmy secrets Western tent caterpillars might not be on your mind every year, but during their peak outbreaks, they’re impossible to ignore—hairy larvae wriggling across roads and swarms of caterpillars climbing houses to form yellow silken cocoons. They’re certainly on the mind of Dr. Judith Myers, professor emerita in the faculties of science and land and food systems, who has spent five decades studying this native moth species and their boom-and-bust population cycles. In this Q&A, she ...

Kennesaw State University researcher Andreas Papaefstathiou has received a three-year, $799,651 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to investigate the nature of nuclear matter through collisions of particles at high energies. The findings from Papaefstathiou’s research will help elevate the study of particle physics in the context of nuclear collisions at Kennesaw State, as well as help improve the understanding and interpretation of data coming out of the proposed Electron Ion Collider at the Brookhaven National Laboratory ...

A web-based planning resource developed under the auspices of the American Cancer Society’s National Lung Cancer Roundtable is the rare intervention that marries high-level guidance with local operational reality. The tool is explicitly designed to help state coalitions, health systems, and public-health agencies translate consensus recommendations on lung-cancer prevention, screening, and treatment into stepwise, context-aware implementation plans.

Study reveals how residents and government officials in a flood-prone community feel about adapting to climate change -- and how political views may play a role  As climate hazards escalate, communities facing repetitive disasters in high-risk areas must weigh the economic and social trade-offs of rebuilding versus relocating. A Risk Analysis study has found that residents and government officials may have different ideas about how public funds should be spent to adapt to extreme weather events brought on  by climate change.  WHAT THEY DID:  To ...

Approximately 70% of incarcerated youth in the United States have a mental disorder. The challenges in this population are profound – about 30% report suicidal thoughts, 12% have attempted suicide and 25% experience solitary confinement, a condition strongly associated with increased suicide risk. Depression is also widespread, affecting 10% to 25% of youth with moderate to severe symptoms. Comprehensive mental health screenings play a vital role in identifying who requires immediate care, as well as those at risk for developing more serious issues. Without timely identification and intervention, ...

New York, NY [August 11, 2025]— Artificial intelligence (AI) can help emergency department (ED) teams better anticipate which patients will need hospital admission, hours earlier than is currently possible, according to a multi-hospital study by the Mount Sinai Health System. By giving clinicians advance notice, this approach may enhance patient care and the patient experience, reduce overcrowding and “boarding” (when a patient is admitted but remains in the ED because no bed is available), ...

With over 75% of professionals using AI in their daily work, writing and editing messages with tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Claude has become a commonplace practice. While generative AI tools are seen to make writing easier, are they effective for communicating between managers and employees? A new study of 1,100 professionals reveals a critical paradox in workplace communications: AI tools can make managers’ emails more professional, but regular use can undermine trust between them ...

New research, published in The Journal of Immunology, discovered that a parasitic worm suppresses neurons in the skin to evade detection. The researchers suggest that the worm likely evolved this mechanism to enhance its own survival, and that the discovery of the molecules responsible for the suppression could aid in the development of new painkillers. Schistosomiasis is a parasitic infection caused by helminths, a type of worm. Infection occurs during contact with infested water through activities like ...

Embargoed for release: Monday, August 11, 5:00 AM ET Key points: In a 20-year study, women with experience being stalked had a 41% higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) than women without this experience. Women with experience obtaining a restraining order—typically indicative of severe violence—had a 70% higher risk of CVD than women without that experience. Prior studies have not looked at the relationship between women’s experiences with stalking and CVD outcomes, and few have investigated the link between physical health outcomes and psychological violence commonly faced by women. According to ...

Research Highlights: Women who reported being stalked by a current/former partner or other persons were more likely to develop heart disease and stroke during 20 years of follow-up than those who did not report those events. Among women who obtained a restraining order for protection, their risk of developing cardiovascular disease was significantly higher than women who had not requested a restraining order. The link between stalking and cardiovascular disease may be due to psychological distress, which may disrupt the nervous system, impair proper blood vessel function ...

Omega-3 fatty acids are known to be an essential part of a healthy diet. As humans cannot produce them, they have to be consumed in sufficient amounts. However, omega-6, -7, -9, and -10 fatty acids also play important roles in the metabolism of fats. These numbers indicate the position of the first double bond in a fatty acid chain. Deviations in the omega position can signal enzyme malfunctions or pathological metabolic processes, such as those occurring in cancer. Now, researchers at the University of Graz and the University of California, San Diego present in Nature Communications a novel, effective method to determine omega positions of lipids – the scientific ...

In brief: Ponds created by beaver dams can help increase freshwater storage, boost biodiversity, contain wildfires, and improve water quality. Beaver populations in North America have fallen from an estimated 60-400 million before European colonization to roughly 10-15 million today because of extensive hunting, habitat degradation, and trapping. Better maps could help watershed managers prioritize areas for beaver reintroduction that would maximize benefits while highlighting trade-offs for water users. After enduring centuries of hunting, habitat loss, and disease, North American beavers (Castor canadensis) are ...

The human brain ages less than thought and in layers – at least in the area of the cerebral cortex responsible for the sense of touch. Researchers at DZNE, the University of Magdeburg, and the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research at the University of Tübingen come to this conclusion based on brain scans of young and older adults in addition to studies in mice. Their findings, published in the journal “Nature Neuroscience”, also provide new insights into how the ability to process sensory information changes with age. The human cerebral cortex ...

Mitochondria, the tiny organelles without which our bodies would be deprived of energy, are gradually revealing their mysteries. In a new study published in Nature Neuroscience, researchers from Inserm and the University of Bordeaux at the NeuroCentre Magendie, in collaboration with researchers from the Université de Moncton in Canada, have for the first time succeeded in establishing a causal link between mitochondrial dysfunction and the cognitive symptoms associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Thanks to the creation of a specific and unprecedented tool, they succeeded in increasing mitochondrial activity ...

Pioneering research has uncovered a cunning way to curry favour with diners’ food choices, so they’re more likely to select meals which have a much lower carbon footprint and reduced fat content. The study, led by the University of Bristol in the UK and published today in the journal Nature Food, showed the carbon footprint of canteen diners’ weekly meal choices dropped overall by around a third – and saturated fat levels also significantly fell – when selecting from a cleverly reshuffled weekly ...

The world's largest conditional cash transfer programme, the Bolsa Família Programme (BFP), is associated with a substantial reduction in AIDS cases and deaths, especially among brown and black women with lower income and limited education. This was the main conclusion of a study coordinated by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by ”la Caixa” Foundation, in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NAIDS/NIH). The ...

Oh, Rats! Rodent study reveals different signaling codes for learned skills and clues about human movement disorders By Kermit Pattison / Harvard Staff Writer   Among the many wonders of the brain is its ability to master learned movements—a dance step, piano sonata, or tying our shoes—acquired through trial-and-error practice. For decades, neuroscientists have known that these tasks require a cluster of brain areas known as the basal ganglia. According to a new study [link will go live when study published 11 August] led by Harvard researchers in Nature Neuroscience, this so-called “learning machine” ...

A study led by researchers at the University of Oxford, working closely with colleagues from Duurzame Zuivelketen (DZK), among others, has developed a framework to help agricultural sectors better contribute to global biodiversity targets without causing unintended harms. Published today (11 August) in npj Biodiversity, the study is based upon data from the Dutch dairy sector in 2020, covering nearly 8,950 farms (approximately 1.6 million cows). They first established a single combined score to track biodiversity impacts against possible sectoral targets; but found that while using such a score can be helpful to track overall progress, such methods can mask important local impacts (such as ...

Lakes have long been viewed as sources of carbon dioxide emissions, but new research suggests they may actually act as carbon sinks. A study led by Uppsala University reveals that lake shorelines store more carbon than previously believed, highlighting the need to include these littoral zones in calculations of the continental carbon balance. The ‘coastlines’ of lakes, called littoral zones, are often surrounded by aquatic plants that are among the fastest growing plants in the world. They take up a large amount of carbon from the atmosphere ...

PHOENIX, Ariz. (August 11, 2025) — Researchers from the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), part of City of Hope, and the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center have identified a potential biomarker for long COVID. If the findings of their study are confirmed by other research centers, the biomarker could be the first specific and quantifiable indicator for confirming long COVID. Currently, clinicians confer a diagnosis of long COVID based upon a collection of symptoms that patients develop after SARS-CoV-2 infection. “If a patient arrives in clinic and they relate the persistence of typical signs and ...