Fatty liver disease, caused by the accumulation of fat in the liver, is estimated to affect one in four people worldwide. If left untreated, it can lead to serious complications, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer, making it crucial to detect early and initiate treatment.  Currently, standard tests for diagnosing fatty liver disease include ultrasounds, CTs, and MRIs, which require costly specialized equipment and facilities. In contrast, chest X-rays are performed more frequently, are relatively ...

The use of electronics in various forms is on the rise, from wearable devices like smartwatches to implantable devices like body-implanted sensors, skin-worn smart patches, and disposable monitoring devices. These devices, which are inevitably discarded after use, contribute to the growing problem of electronic waste (e-waste), a significant environmental concern. The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has announced that a joint research team, led by Dr. Sangho Cho of the Center for Extreme Materials Research and Dr. Yongho Joo of the Center for Functional Composite Materials Research, has developed a polymeric material ...

A groundbreaking study has revealed that small but mighty zooplankton—including copepods, krill, and salps—are key players in the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb and store carbon.  Led by an international team of researchers, and published in Limnology and Oceanography, the study quantifies for the first time how these tiny creatures collectively enhance carbon sequestration through their seasonal, vertical migrations. The Southern Ocean is a key region for carbon storage. Traditional thinking is that the carbon storage in the Southern Ocean is dominated by gravitational ...

A cup and a half of leafy green vegetables could go a long way to addressing atherosclerotic vascular diseases (ASVD’s), new research from Edith Cowan University (ECU), the University of Western Australia and the Danish Cancer Institute has found.   ASVDs are a subgroup of cardiovascular disease, which are current leading causes of death world-wide, primarily due to heart attacks and strokes. ECU PhD student Ms Montana Dupuy noted that in Australia, cardiovascular diseases claim the life of one person every 12 minutes.  Research led by Ms Dupuy has found that the higher dietary intake of Vitamin K1 could reduce the risk of ASVD.  “Leafy ...

Two-dimensional patterned hollow structures (2D-PHS) are an advanced class of metamaterials known for their unique mechanical properties and lightweight nature. Comprising a solid matrix with periodically arranged hollows, 2D-PHS effectively reduce material weight while optimizing stress and strain distribution to maintain structural integrity and strength. This precise geometric control offers superior tunability in strength-to-weight ratios, deformability, and stretchability compared to traditional solid ...

Groundwater input to coral reefs directly affects water chemistry and triggers a cascade of changes in the coastal ecosystem, according to a new study led by University of Hawaiʻi (UH) at Mānoa oceanographers. Freshwater from land that flows into the ocean beneath the sea surface, termed submarine groundwater discharge, was found to increase nutrient availability, change acidity of the seawater, and impact the process by which corals build their skeletons. This research, published recently in Ecological Monographs, provides critical insights into the complex interactions between the land and ocean.  “Submarine groundwater discharge is a widespread and ...

To make advances in using microbes to sustainably produce materials, it is necessary to find new molecular tools, or “enzymes” — but this is labor intensive. A Kobe University team now developed a technique that can classify thousands of candidates and a workflow that can evaluate representatives overnight, in what may become a fundamental technology for biomanufacturing. As oil reserves dwindle and prices soar, microorganisms can help us produce useful chemicals and fuels from renewable resources. They can convert raw materials ...

The accumulation of plastic waste worldwide poses a serious threat to wildlife and ecosystems. Catalytic processes that convert plastic waste into valuable chemicals and fuels offer a promising solution. However, real-life plastic waste mixtures have highly diverse composition and structural complexity, and accurate identification of the components within the mixtures is a prerequisite for their effective separation and recycling. In a study published in Nature, Prof. XU Shutao from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the team of Prof. WANG Meng and Prof. MA Ding from Peking University, developed ...

In May 2025, the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer published a pioneering study entitled “NeoPred: dual-phase CT AI forecasts pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy in NSCLC”, led by Professor Jianxing He’s team from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University / National Center for Respiratory Medicine. The study introduces NeoPred, a multimodal artificial intelligence model that combines dual-phase CT scans (pre-treatment and pre-surgery) and clinical features ...

Astronomers have uncovered a vast cloud of energetic particles — a ‘mini halo’ —  surrounding one of the most distant galaxy clusters ever observed, marking a major step forward in understanding the hidden forces that shape the cosmos. The mini-halo is at a distance so great that it takes light 10 billion years to reach Earth, making it the most distant ever found, doubling the previous distance known to science.   The discovery demonstrates that entire galaxy clusters, among the largest ...

Attention scan: How our minds shift focus in dynamic settings    A person’s capacity for attention has a profound impact on what they see, dictating which details they glean from the world around them. As they walk down a busy street, the focus of their attention may shift to a compelling new billboard advertisement, or a shiny Lamborghini parked on the curb.    Attention, however, can be fleeting. When that person reaches a busy intersection, for instance, details of the billboard or sportscar disappear. The person’s attention instead ...

They’re a common office menace: the nosy coworker. They read over shoulders, loiter as friends chitchat, ask uncomfortable personal questions. It can be tempting to duck for cover whenever you see them heading your way. But separating the prying and obtrusive from the merely curious and concerned can be challenging. What one person considers nosy, another might think is friendly; some people are open books, others like to keep their personal lives private. Those blurry lines aren’t just issues for the 9-to-5 crowd to navigate, they’ve been a thorny problem for researchers ...

On average, four planes crash each day in the United States with almost all of aircraft involved being single-engine plans. One in five of those crashes were caused by inflight loss of control, defined by the Federal Aviation Administration as “unintended departure of an aircraft from controlled flight.” Nearly half of accidents caused by inflight loss of control are fatal. New research from a University of Arkansas mechanical engineering assistant professor, Neelakshi Majumdar, investigates why inflight loss of control occurs in general aviation, which includes all civil flights except for commercial transports of people or cargo, and how pilots can prevent ...

A new study from the University of Michigan Rogel Health Cancer Center, published in Science, sheds light on how two distinct classes of mutations in the FOXA1 gene—commonly altered in prostate cancer—drive tumor initiation formation and therapeutic resistance. FOXA1, a key transcription factor that facilitates androgen receptor binding to DNA, is mutated in 10–40% of hormone-dependent prostate cancers. While common, the exact ways these mutations alter cancer cells have remained elusive—until now. Rogel researchers, including Arul Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., S.P. ...

As sport-related concussions continue to spark global concern, researchers at the University of South Australia (UniSA) are turning their attention to a largely overlooked group – non-professional athletes – calling for more rigorous return-to-play assessments to protect everyday players. In a new study, researchers suggest that current return-to-play protocols for semi-elite and community sport athletes might not be enough to ensure the safety of players following a concussion.   A ...

It has been known for several years that abnormal chromosome numbers lead to protein imbalances in the affected cells. Researchers at RPTU have now investigated the detailed effects of such imbalances. Surprisingly, they found that imbalanced proteome changes impair mitochondrial function. This, in turn, could be relevant for the drug treatment of cancer. The results are published in the journal Nature Communications. Every healthy human cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, which must be duplicated and ...

Irvine, Calif., June 26, 2025 – By examining squid skin cells three-dimensionally, a University of California, Irvine-led team has unveiled the structures responsible for the creatures’ ability to dynamically change their appearance from transparent to arbitrarily colored states. The group of scientists, which included collaborators from the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, found that in vibrantly colored squid mantle tissues, light-manipulating cells called iridophores or iridocytes contain stacked and winding columns of platelets from a protein called reflectin, with the columns functioning as Bragg ...

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 13.5% of American households experienced food insecurity at some time during 2023. That means 18 million families didn’t have enough to meet their needs and often didn’t know where the next meal would come from. In her past research, Binghamton University, State University of New York Associate Professor Lina Begdache, PhD ’08, has explored how our diets affect our mental health and overall moods. But how does a lack of nutrition change our resilience, stress mindset and level of mental distress, particularly across age and gender? In a recent paper published in Health Science Reports, Begdache, ...

A team of Canadian and French researchers has confirmed that northern Quebec is home to the oldest known rocks on Earth, dating back 4.16 billion years. Under the leadership of Jonathan O’Neil, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Ottawa, this major discovery is the fruit of a collaboration involving Christian Sole (who completed a master’s at the University of Ottawa in 2021), Hanika Rizo, (a professor at Carleton University), Jean-Louis Paquette (a now-deceased researcher ...

A new study led by researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School has found that damage to a specific region of the brain may contribute to criminal or violent behavior. The study, titled “White matter disconnection in acquired criminality”, was published recently in Molecular Psychiatry. The investigation analyzed brain scans from individuals who began committing crimes after sustaining brain injuries from strokes, tumors or traumatic brain injury. The study compared these 17 cases to brain scans from 706 individuals with other neurological ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – When an extreme weather event occurs, the probability or risk of other events can often increase, leading to what researchers call “cascading” hazards.  For example, the danger of landslides or debris flows following wildfires in California, recent flash floods in West Virginia or when historic flooding occurred in North Carolina as Hurricane Helene made its way inland. Such occurrences leave lasting imprints on the landscape that can prime the Earth’s surface for subsequent events.  As part of a collaboration by dozens of researchers across the country, a new paper published in Science, "Cascading land surface ...

“Sleeping on it,” especially dropping deeper than a doze, might help people gain insight into certain kinds of tasks, according to a study published June 26th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Anika Löwe, Marit Petzka, Maria Tzegka and Nicolas Schuck from the Universität Hamburg, Germany, and colleagues. Humans sometimes find that they have a sudden “eureka” moment on a problem they’ve been working on, producing sudden insight or breakthroughs. Scientists have yet to have their ...

The Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt (NGB) – a complex geological sequence in northeastern Canada – harbors surviving fragments of Earth’s oldest crust, dating back to ~4.16 billion years old, according to a new study. The preservation of Hadean rocks on Earth’s surface could provide valuable insights into the planet’s earliest times. Much about Earth’s earliest geologic history remains poorly understood due to the rarity of Hadean-age (>4.03 billion-year-old) rocks and minerals. These ancient materials are typically ...

Using an innovative “digital fossil-mining” approach, researchers have uncovered hundreds of previously hidden fossil squid beaks, revealing a record that squids originated and became ecologically dominant roughly 100 million years ago – well before the end-Cretaceous extinction. Squids are the most diverse and globally distributed group of marine cephalopods in the modern ocean, where they play a vital role in ocean ecosystems as both predators and prey. Their evolutionary success is widely considered to be related ...

In a Review, Brian Yanites and colleagues argue the need for a unified, interdisciplinary approach to studying cascading land surface hazards. Earth’s surface is continually shaped by a range of natural processes, from slow erosion to sudden disasters like earthquakes and floods. Notably, one hazardous event can trigger a series of subsequent, interrelated disasters, or ”cascading hazards,” that unfold over timescales ranging from seconds to centuries. However, despite their growing impact on human populations, a comprehensive mechanistic ...