Tiny external structures in the wax coating of blueberries give them their blue colour, researchers at the University of Bristol can reveal. This applies to lots of fruits that are the same colour including damsons, sloes and juniper berries. In the study, published today in Science Advances, researchers show why blueberries are blue despite the dark red colour of the pigments in the fruit skin. Their blue colour is instead provided by a layer of wax that surrounds the fruit which is made up of miniature structures that scatter blue and UV light. This gives blueberries their blue appearance to humans and blue-UV to birds. The chromatic blue-UV reflectance ...

Researchers with McMaster University and Denmark-based pharmaceutical company ALK-Abello A/S have made a groundbreaking discovery: a new cell that remembers allergies. The discovery gives scientists and researchers a new target in treating allergies and could lead to new therapeutics. The research, published in Science Translational Medicine on Feb. 7, 2024, coins the brand-new cell as a type-2 memory B cell (MBC2). “We’ve discovered a type of memory B cell that had unique characteristics and a unique gene ...

The speed at which England’s oldest adults became frailer accelerated during the UK Government’s era of austerity politics, according to a new study.  Researchers say that the rate of frailty in people aged 85 and over in England increased 50 per cent faster per year between 2012 and 2018 compared with the preceding eight years.   The impact of frailty – a decline in a person’s mental and physical resilience to illness and injury – on the oldest in society must be considered should any new austerity measures be introduced, experts warn.    The study, led by researchers from the University of Edinburgh’s ...

Tea Maho and Robert R. Reisz University of Toronto Mississauga   Kilat, the largest living lizard at the Toronto Metro Zoo, like other members of his species (Varanus komodoensis), truly deserves to be called the Komodo Dragon! Its impressive size and the way it looks at you and tracks your every move makes you realize that it is an apex predator, not unlike a ferocious theropod dinosaur. So, it is not surprising when you look around at his enclosure to find that there are shed teeth sparkling on the ground, a common find when ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA – A tiny device built by scientists at MIT and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology could be used to improve the safety and effectiveness of cell therapy treatments for patients suffering from spinal cord injuries. In cell therapy, clinicians create what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells by reprogramming some skin or blood cells taken from a patient. To treat a spinal cord injury, they would coax these pluripotent stem cells to become progenitor cells, which are destined to differentiate into spinal cord cells. These progenitors are then transplanted back into ...

An Argonne team developing materials for solid-state batteries took an unexpected detour to investigate tiny short-circuits known as soft-shorts. Their insights will benefit battery researchers around the world. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have shed important new light on what the early signs of battery failure look like. Their study — which relates to a condition called soft-shorts — provides the research community with valuable knowledge and methods to design better electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The Argonne team’s research focused on all-solid batteries with anodes (negative electrodes) ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Predicting the trajectory of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders like autism or schizophrenia is difficult because they can be influenced by many different genetic and environmental factors. A new study, led by Penn State researchers, demonstrates that evaluating parents for their manifestation of traits of these disorders — and related diseases like depression and anxiety — may provide a more accurate method of predicting the prevalence, and potentially severity, of the disorders in affected children than screening for genetic variants alone. This is likely due, at least in part, to genetic variants the parents transmit to the ...

Birmingham, AL (February 7, 2024) – Today, a team of scientists is pleased to announce the discovery of a new fossil shark species from Alabama, USA. The team is led by Jun Ebersole, Director of Collections, McWane Science Center, Birmingham, AL, David Cicimurri, Curator of Natural History, South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, and T. Lynn Harrell, Jr., Paleontologist and Fossil Collections Curator at the Geological Survey of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The shark is a new species of Palaeohypotodus (pronounced pale-ee-oh-hype-oh-toe-duss), which means “ancient small-eared tooth,” in reference to the small needle-like fangs present on the sides of the teeth. It has ...

About The Study: In patients presenting at thrombectomy-capable stroke centers, the benefit associated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) plus thrombectomy versus thrombectomy alone was time dependent and statistically significant only if the time from symptom onset to expected administration of IVT was short in this individual participant data meta-analysis (n = 2,313) of six randomized clinical trials.  Authors: Johannes Kaesmacher, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Bern in Bern, Switzerland, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 7, 2024 Contact: Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu ## Many Hookah Manufacturers Have Not Complied with FDA-Mandated Nicotine Warning Labels Only half of the hookah packages assessed in a new study included the required nicotine warnings, two years after this federal regulation was implemented to alert consumers about the health risks of nicotine addiction. Since August 2018, the US Food & Drug Administration has mandated that all hookah (also known as waterpipe tobacco or shisha) manufacturers include a nicotine warning ...

About The Study: In this exploratory analysis of a randomized clinical trial of 336 patients with extensive ischemic stroke, endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) improved clinical outcomes across a wide spectrum of infarct volumes, although enrollment of patients with minimal penumbra volume was low. In EVT-treated patients, clinical outcomes worsened as presenting ischemic injury estimates increased.  Authors: Amrou Sarraj, M.D., of University Hospital Cleveland Medical Center—Case Western ...

About The Study: In patients with cryptogenic stroke and evidence of atrial cardiopathy without atrial fibrillation, oral anticoagulant therapy with apixaban did not significantly reduce recurrent stroke risk compared with aspirin in this randomized clinical trial that included 1,015 participants.  Authors: Hooman Kamel, M.D., of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2023.27188) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Recent developments at MD Anderson include a combination treatment for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the discovery of a molecular driver in metastatic breast cancer, an oral combination therapy for high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML), a novel method to mechanically destroy ...

Smart accessories are increasingly common. Rings and watches track vitals, while Ray-Bans now come with cameras and microphones. Wearable tech has even broached brooches. Yet certain accessories have yet to get the smart touch. University of Washington researchers introduced the Thermal Earring, a wireless wearable that continuously monitors a user’s earlobe temperature. In a study of six users, the earring outperformed a smartwatch at sensing skin temperature during periods of rest. It also showed promise for monitoring signs of stress, eating, exercise and ovulation. The smart earring prototype is about ...

A research team led by Professors PAN Jianwei, YAO Xingcan, and CHEN Yu'ao from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have for the first time observed and quantitatively characterized the many-body pairing pseudogap in unitary Fermi gases. This achievement, pursued by the ultracold atomic community for nearly two decades, resolves longstanding debates regarding the existence of a pairing pseudogap in these gases. It also supports ...

New gene mapping technique reveals how genetic alterations in cells lining blood vessels contribute to coronary artery disease, with implications for diagnostic and treatment strategies. KEY TAKEAWAYS Researchers from the Brigham, the Broad Institute, and Stanford Medicine studied how "deleting" individual genes associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) impacted the expression of all the other genes in a cell to better understand underlying biology of CAD. The study focused on endothelial cells, which line blood vessels and are increasingly understood to influence CAD risk. The researchers highlighted a previously unrecognized role for the TLNRD1 gene ...

Next-generation electric vehicles could run on lithium metal batteries that go 500 to 700 miles on a single charge, twice the range of conventional lithium-ion batteries in EVs today. But lithium metal technology has serious drawbacks: The battery rapidly loses its capacity to store energy after relatively few cycles of charging and discharging – highly impractical for drivers who expect rechargeable electric cars to operate for years. Scientists have been testing a variety of new materials and techniques to improve the battery’s cycle life. Now, Stanford University researchers have discovered a low-cost solution: simply drain the battery and let it rest for several hours. ...

About The Study: The findings of this study including 22,000 surgical cases suggest that machine learning models can inform about individual prognosis and aid in surgical decision-making to ultimately reduce ineffective and costly spine care. Authors: Bjørnar Berg, Ph.D., of Oslo Metropolitan University in Oslo, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.55024) Editor’s ...

Current immunotherapies work only against cancers of the blood and bone marrow T cells engineered by Northwestern and UCSF were able to kill tumors derived from skin, lung and stomach in mice Cell therapies can provide long-term immunity against cancer CHICAGO --- Scientists at the UC San Francisco (UCSF) and Northwestern Medicine may have found a way around the limitations of engineered T cells by borrowing a few tricks from cancer itself.  By studying mutations in malignant T cells that cause lymphoma, they zeroed in on one that imparted ...

About The Study: In this study of more than 1 million patients with stroke, the Target: Stroke quality initiative was associated with improvement in thrombolysis frequency, timeliness, and outcomes for all racial and ethnic groups. However, disparities persisted, indicating a need for further interventions. Authors: Gregg C. Fonarow, M.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link ...

In a recent study of the brain’s waste drainage system, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, collaborating with investigators at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a part of the National Institute of Health (NIH), discovered a direct connection between the brain and its tough protective covering, the dura mater. These links may allow waste fluid to leave the brain while also exposing the brain to immune cells and other signals coming from the dura. This challenges the conventional wisdom which has suggested that the brain is cut off from its ...

Chronic stress has far-reaching consequences for our bodies. For example, many stress-related psychiatric illnesses such as depression are associated with changes in the immune system. However, the underlying mechanisms of how these changes affect the brain are still largely unknown. Enzyme from immune cells in the blood affects nerves in the brain An international research team led by the University of Zurich (UZH), and the University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich (PUK) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, has now uncovered a novel mechanism. “We were able to show that ...

Hidden beneath the heavily cratered surface of Mimas, one of Saturn's smallest moons, lies a secret: a global ocean of liquid water. This astonishing discovery, led by Dr. Valéry Lainey of the Observatoire de Paris-PSL and published in the journal Nature, reveals a "young" ocean formed just 5 to 15 million years ago, making Mimas a prime target for studying the origins of life in our Solar System.  “Mimas is a small moon, only about 400 kilometers in diameter, and its heavily cratered surface gave no hint of the hidden ocean beneath," says Dr Nick Cooper, ...

An international research group has discovered a new state of matter characterized by the existence of a quantum phenomenon called chiral current. These currents are generated on an atomic scale by a cooperative movement of electrons, unlike conventional magnetic materials whose properties originate from the quantum characteristic of an electron known as spin and their ordering in the crystal. Chirality is a property of extreme importance in science, for example, it is fundamental also to understand DNA. ...

In a new study, Tokyo Medical and Dental University researchers shed light on partial endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition in the tumor microenvironment Tokyo, Japan - Endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT, also termed as EndMT), a biological process resulting in the formation of mesenchymal (or lineage-committed) phenotypes from endothelial cells (lining blood vessels), plays a crucial role in tumor progression. Despite the important role of EndoMT, the underlying mechanism and characteristics of cells in intermediate/partial EndoMT remain largely unexplored. Now, researchers from Japan have developed a system to study these EndoMT stages.  In ...