Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which ESO is a partner, astronomers have discovered a large reservoir of hot gas in the still-forming galaxy cluster around the Spiderweb galaxy — the most distant detection of such hot gas yet. Galaxy clusters are some of the largest objects known in the Universe and this result, published today in Nature, further reveals just how early these structures begin to form. Galaxy clusters, as the name suggests, host a large number of galaxies — sometimes even thousands. They also contain a vast “intracluster medium” (ICM) of ...

At a glance: Who were the people of the medieval Swahili civilization? Ancient DNA reveals African founders intermingled with migrants from southwest Asia around 1000 CE Findings complicate scientific views as well as colonial-era beliefs For the first time, analyses determine that some present-day Kenyans who identify as Swahili are genetically very different from medieval residents of the same region, while others have retained substantial medieval ancestry   While serfs toiled and knights jousted in Europe and samurai and shoguns rose to power in Japan, the ...

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Nuclear physicists may have finally pinpointed where in the proton a large fraction of its mass resides. A recent experiment carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has revealed the radius of the proton’s mass that is generated by the strong force as it glues together the proton’s building block quarks. The result was recently published in Nature. One of the biggest mysteries of the proton is the origin of its mass. It turns out that the proton’s measured mass doesn’t just come from its physical building blocks, its three so-called valence quarks. “If you add up the ...

About The Study: Researchers found in this study that among Medicare beneficiaries initiating opioid use disorder-related care during the COVID-19 pandemic, receipt of opioid use disorder-related telehealth services was associated with reduced risk for fatal drug overdose, as was receipt of medications for opioid use disorder from opioid treatment programs and receipt of buprenorphine in office-based settings. Authors: Christopher M. Jones, Pharm.D., Dr.P.H., M.P.H., of the Centers for Disease Control and ...

About The Study: This study of suicide decedents who had consumed alcohol prior to their death suggests that, as alcohol consumption increased, the probability of a firearm-involved suicide increased until a certain blood alcohol concentration, at which point the probability started to decrease. The findings suggest that interventions targeting heavy alcohol use may aid in efforts to reduce the suicide mortality rate, particularly suicides involving a firearm.  Authors: Shannon Lange, M.P.H., Ph.D., of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The ...

Overdose mortality among people age 65 and older quadrupled over 20 years, suggesting the need for greater mental health and substance use disorder policies addressed at curbing the trend, a new research paper finds. The deaths stemmed from both suicides and accidental overdoses, with nearly three-fourths of the unintended fatalities involving illicit drugs such as synthetic opioids like fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines.  Prescription opioids, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, antiepileptics and sedatives were used in 67% of intentional overdoses.  “The dramatic rise in overdose fatalities among adults over 65 years of ...

The deep ocean circulation that forms around Antarctica could be headed for collapse, say scientists. Such decline of this ocean circulation will stagnate the bottom of the oceans and generate further impacts affecting climate and marine ecosystems for centuries to come. The results are detailed in a new study coordinated by Scientia Professor Matthew England, Deputy Director of the ARC Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) at UNSW Sydney. The work, published today in Nature, includes lead author Dr. Qian Li—formerly from UNSW and now ...

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON PRESS RELEASE Under STRICT EMBARGO until: Wednesday 29 March 2023 16:00 BST / 11:00 ET Peer-reviewed / Observational study / People Diminishing health benefits of living in cities for children and teens The advantages of living in cities for children and adolescents’ healthy growth and development are shrinking across much of the world, according to a new global analysis of trends in child and adolescent height and body mass index (BMI) led by Imperial College London and published in Nature. The research, by a global consortium of more than 1500 researchers and physicians, analysed height ...

MSK researchers identified a key role for the STING signaling pathway in preventing dormant metastatic cancer cells from progressing to active metastases. Treating laboratory mice with a STING activator helped eliminate lingering metastatic cells and stop the development of aggressive tumors. The study suggests further investigation of STING activation as a new approach to prevent cancer from recurring or spreading to other organs after successful treatment of a primary tumor. A team of scientists at the Sloan Kettering Institute have identified the STING cellular signaling pathway as a key player in keeping dormant cancer cells from progressing ...

You know when you’ve found the flow. You experience it when you are doing something that engages you so fully that time seems to fly by. Maybe it's a job, or something completely different, like chess or computer games or football or shovelling snow. But flow is not just an expression that people use. It has been a concept used by psychologists for almost 50 years, because finding the flow can be useful for people. “Finding the flow zone can be important when teachers have to adapt their instruction. If we find the flow, we’ve also found the right level for the students,” says Hermundur Sigmundsson, a professor in the Department of Psychology ...

Mental health disorders affect nearly one billion people worldwide and are a leading cause of suicide. In Switzerland, it is estimated that about 1.4 million people are affected by mental health issues and that approximately 1,000 people take their lives every year. Environmental factors such as air pollution or noise have been linked to adverse health effects such as cardiovascular diseases and general well-being. However, robust evidence on the effects of transportation noise on mental health disorders remains scarce. For the first time, ...

Like electronics or photonics, magnonics is an engineering subfield that aims to advance information technologies when it comes to speed, device architecture, and energy consumption. A magnon corresponds to the specific amount of energy required to change the magnetization of a material via a collective excitation called a spin wave. Because they interact with magnetic fields, magnons can be used to encode and transport data without electron flows, which involve energy loss through heating (known as Joule heating) of the conductor ...

“There’s no doubt we can produce enough food for the world’s population - humanity is strategic enough to achieve that. The question is whether - because of war and conflict and corruption and destabilization - we do,” said World Food Programme leader David Beasley in an interview with Time magazine earlier this year.     Indeed, projections show that we are not on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 of Zero Hunger by 2030. As climate and security crises continue to destabilise our food sources, researchers are taking a critical look not just at how we produce food - but at the entire systems behind ...

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are widely sought after for the treatment of different types of cancers. Unfortunately, only 20–30% patients with cancer respond to ICI treatment. Although the factors that influence the positive or negative response to ICI treatment are poorly understood, the strength of the ICIs’ antitumor response by TILs is thought to play a key role. Hence, investigating the antitumor response induced by ICIs might provide insights into their underlying mechanism. It is known that CD8+ tumor-infiltrating T-lymphocytes (TILs) are the primary effector cells that lead ...

PHILADELPHIA – The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) will award Olivier Delattre, MD, PhD, with the 2023 AACR-St. Baldrick’s Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Pediatric Cancer Research during the AACR Annual Meeting 2023, April 14-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Delattre is the director of the SIREDO Oncology Center and the research unit director of the Cancer, Heterogeneity, Instability and Plasticity (CHIP) unit at Inserm/Institut Curie. ...

SAN ANTONIO — March 29, 2023 —The NASGRO® software suite will be inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame alongside the leaders of its development team, Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Craig McClung and Joe Cardinal, as well as Joachim Beek of NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC).  The award ceremony will occur during the annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. NASGRO, originally developed by NASA and currently managed by SwRI, analyzes fatigue crack growth and fracture in structures and mechanical components. It is a key tool used to substantiate the structural integrity of aircraft, spacecraft, rotorcraft, gas turbine engines, pressure ...

Interacting with computers by brain activity seems less futuristic these days, thanks to researchers and entrepreneurs who have been attempting to tap the potential of brain-computer interfaces for augmented cognitive abilities. Recently, Gao Wang and Daniele Faccio at the University of Glasgow demonstrated that it is possible to connect a human brain and a computer to perform simple computational imaging tasks. Similar advances could someday extend the sensing range of human vision and provide new approaches to the neurophysics of human perception. This research was published Feb. 24 in Intelligent Computing, a Science Partner ...

WASHINGTON—Children born to mothers who had COVID-19 during pregnancy may be more likely to develop obesity, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. More than 100 million COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States since 2019, and there is limited information on the long-term health effects of the infection. Pregnant women make up 9% of reproductive-aged women with COVID-19, and millions of babies will be exposed to maternal infection during ...

(LOS ANGELES) – March 28, 2023 - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), is highly aggressive and lethal. It is the most prevalent type of pancreatic cancer, making up 90% of cases; it also has a high rate of metastasis, with an average five-year survival rate of less than 10%. It is thought that the dense, stiff matrix immediately surrounding its tumor cells plays a major role in PDAC disease progression. In addition to influencing pancreatic tissue fibrosis, it also limits accessibility and effectiveness of anticancer drugs against the tumor and enhances the promotion of surface ...

(LOS ANGELES) – March 28, 2023 - As part of a collaborative effort, scientists from the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) have employed inventive chemistry to produce an injectable biomaterial with significantly improved adhesive strength, stretchability, and toughness. This chemically modified, gelatin-based hydrogel had attractive features, including rapid gelation at room temperature and tunable levels of adhesion. This custom-engineered biomaterial is ideal as a surgical wound sealant, with its controllable adhesion and injectability and its superior ...

The gut microbiome comprises a complex population of different bacterial species that are essential to human health. In recent years, scientists across several fields have found that changes in the gut microbiome can be linked to a wide variety of diseases, notably colorectal cancer (CRC). Multiple studies have revealed that a higher abundance of certain bacteria, such as Fusobacterium nucleatum and Parvimonas micra, is typically associated with CRC progression. Based on these findings, researchers have ...

A research group from Nagoya University in central Japan has discovered three new species of bioluminescent polycirrus worms from different parts of Japan. Usually found in shallow water, polycirrus are small worms, known for their bioluminescence. The researchers named one of their discoveries after a ghostly yokai, a creature in Japanese foklore; another after a lantern yokai; and the other after an influential Japanese marine biologist. They published their findings in the journal Royal Society Open Science.  Scientists have studied only a small fraction of the more than 7,000 species of luminescent organisms in the world. Research remains limited to certain species because ...

Researchers from Frankfurt School of Finance and Management published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines the role of syntactic surprise in formulating effective written messages. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Creating Effective Marketing Messages Through Moderately Surprising Syntax” and is authored by A. Selin Atalay, Siham El Kihal, and Florian Ellsaesser. Consider a manager advertising for a job, deciding whether to go with “Apply today to join a great ...

Portland, Ore. – March 27, 2023 – Hemex Health, a medical diagnostic device company focused on expanding healthcare access to underrepresented patient populations, announced it has been awarded a 3-year, $3 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). NHLBI, part of the National Institutes of Health, awarded a SBIR Phase IIB Bridge Award to Hemex to advance the commercialization of the company’s Gazelle® Hb Variant Test for the United States market. Hemex intends to use the grant to complete activities required for FDA 510(k) clearance. The Hb Variant Test, one of the tests supported ...

DALLAS, March 29, 2023 — New training tools from the American Heart Association will help health equity innovators address issues like structural racism and other social factors that impact health in urban and rural communities. A recent study found that Black and LatinX founders represented just 2.6% of total funding raised by venture capital in 2020.[1] In its commitment to ensuring equitable health for all, the Association supports innovators and other social enterprises, start-ups, non-profits, and digital and health tech companies that are addressing health equity challenges in their local communities with mentoring, funding opportunities and – now – ongoing ...