BALTIMORE, March 14, 2024: Scientific research has linked a person’s microbiome to everything from gut and mental health to immunity and predisposition to cancer. This research comes at a time when there is a burgeoning interest in wellness and alternative medicine, which has fueled consumers’ curiosity about the composition of their own microbiomes. This curiosity has led to a growing demand for direct-to-consumer (DTC) microbiome testing services. While the companies marketing these services claim to tell customers whether their microbiomes (gut, vaginal, skin…) are “healthy,” ...

Philadelphia, March 14, 2024 – Dairy cows receive a huge amount of care during their lives on a farm, but procedures, especially restraining during procedures, can be stressful for some animals. Positive reinforcement training—or training with a reward to achieve a desired behavior—has shown promise to reduce this fear in other species. In a recent study in the Journal of Dairy Science, published by the American Dairy Science Association and Elsevier, a team of researchers set out to understand whether ...

We are all aware of the dangers of pollution to our air, water, and earth. In a letter recently published in Nature Human Behavior, scientists are advocating for the recognition and mitigation of another type of environmental pollution that poses equivalent personal and societal dangers: information overload. With the internet at our fingertips with smartphones, we are exposed to an unprecedented amount of data far beyond our ability to process. The result is an inability to evaluate information and make decisions. Further, it can lead us to limit our social activities, feel unsatisfied with ...

URBANA, Ill. – Early childhood is an important time for learning about nutrition and establishing healthy eating behaviors. Young children rely on parents to provide food options, and the availability of food in the home affects their dietary choices. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at changes in home food availability and nutrient intake for children from 2 to 4 years old. “It's important to understand how the environments that children are in can influence their diet and nutrition. What types of foods and beverages are available in the home, and how accessible ...

Cell division is the generative spark of nearly every lifeform on Earth. But if healthy growth goes unchecked, cell division can turn lethal, overwhelming the organism. Such is the case with so-called oncogenes. When altered by a mutation, these growth-moderating genes go haywire, producing a geyser of cancer cells as a result. Oncogenes are also insidiously adept at generating tumors that over time become genetically “independent” from their origin, so it has been exceedingly difficult for scientists to shut down their replication ...

Clay Wright, assistant professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Biological Systems Engineering, was awarded a prestigious Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. The funding is aimed at providing the investigator, versus a specific project, enhanced stability and flexibility for further discovery, enhancing scientific productivity and the chances for significant breakthroughs outside the initial scope of the project. This recognition supports Wright's innovative work in understanding ...

Increasing shade cover over coffee plants can increase biodiversity and provide new ways to combine agriculture and conservation, a new study has revealed.  Coffee grown in high shade, with more than 30% canopy cover, provides a home to more plant and animal species than coffee grown in the sun or on low shade farms with less than 30% canopy cover, the study found.  Preserving biodiversity is good news for farmers as it means better natural pest control, and improved soil ...

Building on what was learnt to one's cost during the pandemic to improve health management in the future. This motivation has led scholars and researchers to take up the topic and investigate various aspects beyond the emergency phase. Just recently, an article by the first signatory and corresponding author, Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri of the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Trento, focused on the public health guidelines adopted during the pandemic. The research team assessed the effect perceived ...

WASHINGTON  –  U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) researcher, Lawrence Rosenblum, Ph.D., was elevated to the prestigious grade of Fellow of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the class of 2024 for leadership in developing mobile augmented reality, visualization and visual analytics of complex data. Fellow is IEEE’s highest member grade and is awarded through a rigorous review process only to candidates with extraordinary accomplishments.   Rosenblum joined NRL’s Acoustics Division ...

Sparks fly when a female nematode meets her mate in a Petri dish. Tracking him by smell, she beelines over and is pregnant within moments of physical contact. But for the hermaphroditic version of these tiny roundworms, it’s a very different story. Anatomically female but capable of self-fertilizing with their own supply of sperm, hermaphrodites remain emphatically uninterested in mating—until their sperm supply runs dry. Only then will they seek out males.  Within such previously unknown details about microscopic mating rituals ...

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) technology allows particle accelerators to efficiently produce powerful electron beams. Physicists use these beams to study the building blocks of matter at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. But these research machines also have a promising list of industrial applications. Now, some researchers are figuring out how to get SRF accelerators out of the lab and into industry. One potential industrial use is in water treatment plants. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are present in many products, including certain non-stick cookware, water-resistant ...

Mounting evidence suggests that FDA-approved weight loss medications, such as Wegovy, not only help patients lose weight but also protect against complications from obesity such as cardiovascular disease. In 2021, 40 percent of patients enrolled in Medicaid had obesity. The high cost of these drugs has raised concerns about affordability, both for patients and public insurance programs.   Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of Mass General Brigham, studied state Medicaid coverage policies for anti-obesity medications from 2011 through the first quarter of 2023, finding that 10 out of 47 states covered at least ...

Aston University is working with an engineering company to make industrial gas burners less environmentally damaging It has entered a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) with Lanemark Combustion Engineering A KTP is a three-way collaboration between a business, an academic partner and a highly qualified researcher. Aston University is working with an engineering company to make industrial gas burners less environmentally damaging.  The University has entered a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) with Lanemark Combustion Engineering to ...

PHILADELPHIA – Antibody responses to new SARS-CoV-2 variant infections and vaccinations are powerfully shaped by prior exposures to earlier SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In the study, published today in Immunity, the researchers analyzed antibody responses in people infected with or vaccinated against the relatively new SARS-CoV-2 variants BA.5 and XBB. They found that even though BA.5 and XBB are very different from the original “ancestral” ...

DURHAM, N.H.—Television dramas, like CSI and NCIS, make criminal investigations look easy. In real life, DNA testing can be challenging and requires expensive equipment, special facilities and extensive training to identify DNA from a crime scene and determine which belongs to a potential suspect and which may have been transferred from someone who was never there. Research from the University of New Hampshire has found a less expensive and easier to use test to learn more about forensic touch DNA. This research has important implications for forensic investigations and ...

The first call for applications for the FRONTIERS journalist residencies closed on 5 March 2024 and attracted 33 submissions. The competition was open to any science journalist interested in a residency of three to five months at a research institution in the EU or associated country. Applications will now be evaluated by a committee composed of members of the FRONTIERS consortium and its Advisory Board. In this first round of submissions, journalists from five continents applied for residencies at host institutions in thirteen different countries. There were applications from experienced journalists and junior ones with journalistic projects in all scientific domains. The results ...

With the help of the ESRF, researchers from Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) have discovered the reproductive mechanism that permanently blocks polyspermy — a pathologic condition that arises when more than one sperm fuses with the egg, and which is lethal for embryo development. They also revealed the atomic architecture of the egg coat, which explains a set of genetic mutations causing infertility and it could make an impact in the development of non-hormonal contraception. The results are out in the journal Cell. Infertility ...

Hao Yan, director of the Biodesign Center for Molecular Design and Biomimetics at Arizona State University and the Milton D. Glick Distinguished Professor within ASU’s School of Molecular Sciences, has been honored with the Humboldt Research Award by the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Foundation. This prestigious $65,000 award acknowledges Yan's extensive achievements in research and education. "The institute is thrilled that the Humboldt Society is honoring Hao for his pathbreaking research and outstanding contributions as a mentor to young scientists,” says Joshua ...

DETROIT (March 14, 2024) – Interventional cardiologists at Henry Ford Hospital led a national multi-center clinical study, dubbed the “SAFE-MCS” study, that evaluated the safety of complex high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using mechanical circulatory support (MCS) and surveillance with the Early Bird® Bleed Monitoring System (EBBMS). PCI is a non-surgical procedure used to treat the blockages in a coronary artery that opens narrowed or blocked sections of the artery, restoring blood flow to the heart. “This study is the first ...

Increasing sea surface temperatures over the past 20 years in Mobile Bay — an estuary in the US state of Alabama — have coincided with five-fold increases in the abundance of juvenile bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas), according to a study published in Scientific Reports. Bull sharks are found globally in warm, shallow coastal waters in both fresh and saltwater environments. They help balance and maintain the health of coastal ecosystems by regulating prey populations. Along with great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) and tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), they are among the shark species that are most like to negatively interact with humans. Lindsay ...

LOS ANGELES — A clinical trial from Keck Medicine of USC aims to provide a surgical solution for patients with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer previously considered inoperable.   The study will investigate if chemotherapy followed by a novel type of surgery to remove the cancer is a safe and effective option for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer, meaning that the cancer has not spread to other organs, but has grown into or close to nearby blood vessels that surround the pancreas.  “Usually, these types of tumors cannot be ...

Advanced killer robots are more likely to blamed for civilian deaths than military machines, new research has revealed. The University of Essex study shows that high-tech bots will be held more responsible for fatalities in identical incidents. Led by the Department of Psychology’s Dr Rael Dawtry it highlights the impact of autonomy and agency. And showed people perceive robots to be more culpable if described in a more advanced way. It is hoped the study – published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology ...

Inspired by the classic drinking bird toy, scientists in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China have developed an engine that efficiently converts energy from water evaporation into electricity to power small electronics. The device produces energy outputs exceeding 100 volts—much higher than other techniques that generate electricity from water—and can operate for several days using only 100 milliliters of water as fuel, according to a study published March 14 in the journal Device. “The drinking bird triboelectric hydrovoltaic generator offers a unique means to power small electronics in ambient ...

Cell, the flagship biology journal of Cell Press, presents a landmark issue on sex and gender in science. It includes a collection of articles on topics related to strategies for promoting gender equality in academia, enhancing rigor in the study of sex-related variables, and supporting transgender researchers. The special content, scheduled to appear online on March 14, 2024, also discusses the past, present, and future of research on sex and gender. To mark the occasion, Cell Press’s parent company, Elsevier, is announcing updated guidelines on reporting ...

A group of 24 transgender (and/or family members of transgender) scientists describe what it’s like to be a transgender person in STEMM. In a commentary publishing on March 14 in the journal Cell, they discuss the historical origins of trans marginalization, explain how this affects trans people’s careers in science and medicine, and lay out actions that cisgender individuals and institutions can take to support trans people in STEMM. This first-of-its-kind commentary appears in a sex and gender focus issue of Cell, covering topics such as gender equity, the history ...