A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists at UC Davis and the Smithsonian Institution. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same weight range as modern whales and smaller than the largest blue whales ever recorded. The work is published Feb. 29 in PeerJ. A fossil skeleton of Perucetus was discovered in Peru and described in a paper in Nature last year. The animal lived about 39 million years ago and belonged to an extinct group of early whales called ...

Improved neutron mirrors can increase the efficiency of material analysis in neutron sources such as the ESS, which is being built outside Lund, Sweden. The improved mirror has been developed by researchers at Linköping University by coating a silicon plate with extremely thin layers of iron and silicon mixed with boron carbide. Their study has been published in the journal Science Advances. “Instead of increasing the power on the neutron source, which is extremely expensive, it’s better to focus on improving optics,” says Fredrik Eriksson, researcher at the Thin Film Physics Division at Linköping University. Together with protons, neutrons ...

Researchers have found water vapour in the disc around a young star exactly where planets may be forming. Water is a key ingredient for life on Earth and is also thought to play a significant role in planet formation, yet, until now, astronomers have never been able to map how water is distributed in a stable, cool disc — the type of disc that offers the most favourable conditions for planets to form around stars. For the first time, astronomers have weighed the amount of water vapour around a typical planet-forming star.     The new findings were made possible thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) - a collection of telescopes ...

A promising new fungicide to fight devastating crop diseases has been identified by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The chemical, ebselen, prevented fungal infections in apples, grapes, strawberries, tomatoes and roses and improved symptoms of pre-existing fungal infection in rice. Fungal pathogens account for almost a quarter of global crop losses. In the United States, these losses amount to around $150 billion per year. However, fungicide development has been slow for the past 50 years, largely because researchers have had difficulty identifying molecular pathways to target. In a new study published Feb. 29 in ...

FINDINGS Researchers from the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center show for the first time that a gene usually linked to giant axonal neuropathy, a rare and severe neurological condition, also plays a role in inhibiting aggressive tumor cell growth in head and neck cancers. The team found when the specific genetic variant (GAN gene exon 8 SNP T allele) of the GAN gene isn't present, it leads to the production of certain proteins that make cancer cells more likely to spread and become resistant to treatment. These findings suggest that the presence of the genetic variant and higher expression of the GAN gene product gigaxonin may contribute ...

Thirteen exceptional endocrine researchers from across Europe and the US have been selected as the 2024-26 cohort of the EJE Rising Star Editorial Board by the European Journal of Endocrinology (EJE), a journal published by the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE). This prestigious opportunity is given to individuals selected by EJE Editors who show promise, achievement and trajectory as leading clinical and translational researchers in endocrinology, with high potential to serve as future editors of EJE. Through the Rising Stars Programme, awardees are granted the following: membership ...

As an important reproductive organ of angiosperms, flowers have clear purposefulness and adaptive significance in their various characteristics. As a typical floral evolutionary feature, the floral spur is a tubular structure extending from the petal, which has undergone several independent evolutions in angiosperms (e.g., Impatiens, Aquilegia, Linaria, etc.). Meanwhile, it plays a vital role in the pollination process because of its properties of secreting and storing nectar. In addition, the morphology (length, diameter, degree of distortion), ...

29 February 2024: Lockdowns imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the gut microbiome development of babies born during these periods according to new research from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Children’s Health Ireland and APC Microbiome Ireland (APC), a world leading SFI Research Centre, based in University College Cork.  Our gut microbiome, an ecosystem of microbes that live in our digestive tract, plays an essential role in human health. The study published in Allergy is the first to specifically explore the gut health of newborns in the pandemic. ...

If we could stand in a landscape that our Mesolithic ancestors called home, what would we see around us? Scientists have devised a method of analyzing preserved hazelnut shells to tell us whether the microhabitats around archaeological sites were heavily forested or open and pasture-like. This could help us understand not only what a local environment looked like thousands of years ago, but how humans have impacted their habitats over time.   “By analyzing the carbon in hazelnuts recovered from archaeological sites in southern Sweden, from Mesolithic hunter-gatherer ...

The city of Cambridge and the Wellcome Campus hosted the Final General Assembly of the EU-funded project BiCIKL (acronym for Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library): a 36-month endeavour that saw 14 member institutions and 15 research infrastructures representing diverse actors from the biodiversity data realm come together to improve bi-directional links between different platforms, standards, formats and scientific fields. Consortium members who could not attend the meeting in Cambridge joined the meeting remotely. The ...

Pulse oximeters – one of the most common medical devices used in global healthcare – can provide significantly overestimated oxygen saturation readings in people with darker skin tones, according to the most comprehensive study ever to explore the issue. Published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, the new study is based on a systematic review of previous research into the use of the devices, and examined 44 studies dating from the mid-1970s to the present day. In the course of that, researchers assessed more than 733,000 oxygen saturation readings taken from over 222,000 people – including almost ...

Overview: Researchers at the Toyohashi University of Technology and the University of Tokyo developed a system that provides a virtual walking experience to a seated person by real-time synthesis of a walking avatar and its shadow on a 360-degree video with vibrations to the feet. The shadow of the avatar induces an illusory presence of their body. In the future, it is expected to provide an immersive experience for any recorded medium with a virtual embodiment.   Details: Walking is a fundamental activity for humans ...

Difficult-to-cut materials such as titanium alloys, high-temperature alloys, metal/ceramic/polymer-matrix composites, hard and brittle materials, as well as geometrically complex components such as thin-walled structures, micro channels and complex surfaces, are widely used in aerospace community. Nevertheless, many problems including severe and rapid tool wear, low machining efficiency, and poor surface integrity exist in mechanical machining. How to efficiently and precisely process these materials and components, i.e., make difficult-to-cut ...

In the context of the gradual depletion of fossil fuels and the energy crisis, hydrogen energy has attracted widespread attention due to its ultra-high energy density and eco-friendly properties. However, most of the hydrogen production still relies on fossil fuels, with less than 1 million tonnes produced as low-emission hydrogen in 2021, which means it has limited benefits in mitigating the energy crisis and environmental degradation. Alternatively, hydrogen production via water electrolysis has the advantages ...

Researchers with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are hosting an international symposium focused on efforts to make urban and rural communities healthy and resilient to changes in climate, demographics, natural resources and ecosystems. The “Food-Energy-Water Bioeconomies for Net-Zero Transition” international conference will be March 18-20 in Knoxville. The interdisciplinary conference is sponsored through a U.S. National Science Foundation grant awarded to a team led by Jie ...

An innovative Oregon Health & Science University research program that enlists older Black adults to walk through and reminisce about historically Black neighborhoods in Portland — which now look very different after rapid change through gentrification — may help improve cognitive function, a new study finds. The OHSU project has gained wide interest since its 2016 launch, with similar versions beginning to take root in Seattle and Oakland, California.   Now, newly published research suggests it may improve brain health in a population that’s disproportionately affected by Alzheimer’s disease. The study, published online ...

Supported by a $2 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health, the Auerbach Lab at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology will examine how different genes associated with autism spectrum disorders may similarly impact our brain’s neurons, resulting in heightened sensitivity to sounds. Autism spectrum disorders are genetically complex, and hundreds of genes are implicated in their development. As a result, some may conclude that autism is a collection of disconnected disorders with comparable symptoms. However, much like how roads converge as they approach a destination, at some level of brain function ...

Medical University of South Carolina neuroscientist Bashar Badran, Ph.D., was one of only 10 investigators nationwide recognized for their research at the fifth annual scientific meeting of the National Institutes of Health – Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (NIH HEAL) Initiative in Bethesda, Maryland. Badran received an honorable mention for the NIH HEAL Initiative Trailblazer Award. The NIH HEAL Initiative provides funding to encourage scientific research into opioid use and pain management to fast-track progress in the face of the country’s current opioid epidemic. Its Trailblazer ...

A basic premise of how plants grow is that shoots grow up and roots grow down. A new study, published in Plant Physiology, a leading international society journal published by the American Society of Plant Biologists, reveals the answer to a fascinating question: why do weeping tree varieties defy this natural growth pattern? Researchers identified a protein called WEEP that is missing from the Weeping Peach Tree. Their results show how a DNA deletion in just one gene completely changes the localization of the hormone auxin, which ...

A new review has concluded that hospitals that are privatised typically deliver worse quality care after converting from public ownership. The study, led by University of Oxford researchers, has been published today in The Lancet Public Health (video summary available in the notes section).. Lead author Dr Benjamin Goodair, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford, said: ‘This review challenges the justifications for healthcare privatisation and concludes that the scientific support for healthcare privatisation ...

Consistent evidence shows that higher exposure to ultra-processed foods is associated with an increased risk of 32 damaging health outcomes including cancer, major heart and lung conditions, mental health disorders, and early death. The findings, published by The BMJ today, show that diets high in ultra-processed food may be harmful to many body systems and underscore the need for urgent measures that target and aim to reduce dietary exposure to these products and better understand the mechanisms linking ...

Many cancer drugs approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) between 1995 and 2020 lack proof of added benefit, particularly those approved through expedited (“fast track”) pathways, finds a study published by The BMJ today. And despite pharmaceutical industry claims that high drug prices are needed to offset research and development (R&D) costs, the results show that more than half of these drugs, including those with minimal or no added benefit, recover R&D expenses within three years. As such, the researchers call for better alignment between regulatory and reimbursement processes, particularly for drugs approved through expedited pathways, to promote development ...

Peer-reviewed / Modelling study / People The Lancet Public Health: Menu calorie labelling may reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease in England, modelling study suggests  The first estimates of the impact of the current calorie labelling legislation in England, which applies only to large out-of-home food businesses, suggests the policy could prevent or postpone about 730 deaths from cardiovascular diseases between 2022 to 2041.  Larger health benefits are estimated if the policy were to be implemented in all English out-of-home food businesses, with about 9,200 deaths from cardiovascular diseases potentially prevented over ...

A new study conducted by researchers from Utrecht University sheds light on the dynamics of added benefit and revenues of oncology drugs approved by the EMA between 1995 and 2020. The findings, published today, reveal significant insights. The research team consisted of Francine Brinkhuis, Wim Goettsch, Aukje Mantel-Teeuwisse, and Lourens Bloem, affiliated with the Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology division at Utrecht University. The study aimed to evaluate the added benefit and financial outcomes ...

An increasing number of seismologists are using fiber optic cables to detect seismic waves on Earth—but how would this technology fare on the Moon, and what would it tell us about the deep layers of our nearest neighbor in space? In Seismological Research Letters, Wenbo Wu of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and colleagues explore the idea of deploying a fiber seismic network on the Moon, discussing some of the challenges to overcome. They also test this hypothetical network using artificial seismograms created from data collected by seismometers placed on the Moon’s surface ...