A Colorado State University experiment spanning more than two decades has found that removal of apex predators from an ecosystem can create lasting changes that are not reversed after they return – at least, not for a very long time.  The study, funded by the National Science Foundation and published in Ecological Monographs, challenges the commonly held belief that the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park restored an ecosystem degraded by their absence.   Researchers in CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources ...

A new paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, published by Oxford University Press, finds that a new form of digital technology—essentially preventing people from using an asset for which they have a loan if they don’t make payments, rather than repossessing the asset itself—may be a better way for lenders to secure loans, particularly for loan recipients in developing countries. Using collateral to secure debt helps overcome economic frictions, lowering the cost of providing credit. More than 80% of total household debt in the United States is secured by ...

Evanston, IL—The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) will award its 2024 ISSCR Achievement Award to Fiona M. Watt, D.Phil., F.R.S., F.Med.Sci., EMBO Director and leader of a research group at EMBL - Heidelberg, Germany. The award recognizes the transformative body of work of an investigator that has had a major impact on the field of stem cell research or regenerative medicine. Dr. Watt will present her research during Plenary VII on 13 July at the ISSCR 2024 Annual Meeting in Hamburg, Germany. ISSCR 2024 is the world’s leading gathering of the brightest minds in stem cell research and cell and regenerative medicine. “Fiona is a giant in stem cell ...

Evanston, IL—The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) is honoring Jun Wu, Ph.D. with the 2024 ISSCR Outstanding Young Investigator Award. Dr. Wu is an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, U.S.A. and a New York Stem Cell Foundation–Robertson Investigator. The award recognizes the exceptional achievements of an investigator in the early part of his or her independent career in stem cell research. Dr. Wu will present his work during Plenary II, New Technologies to Engineer and Phenotype Stem Cell Systems, on 10 July during the ISSCR 2024 Annual Meeting taking place in Hamburg, Germany. ...

Evanston, IL— The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) will present this year’s ISSCR Momentum Award to Sergiu P. Paşca, M.D., Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor and the Uytengsu Director of Stanford Brain Organogenesis, Stanford University, U.S.A. The award recognizes the exceptional achievements of a mid-career investigator whose innovative research has established a major area of stem cell-related research with a strong trajectory for future success. Dr. Paşca will present his research during Plenary VII on 13 July 2024 during the ISSCR 2024 Annual Meeting in Hamburg, Germany. ISSCR 2024 is the world’s leading ...

A new study has provided insight into how experiences and features of neurodiversity vary amongst adults in the UK. There is variation in people’s attributes and experiences across all populations. Neurodivergent people, such as people with a diagnosis of ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, may experience the world in distinctive ways. But, we are only beginning to appreciate how traits and experiences associated with neurodivergence differ across the whole population. Now, new research from the University of Birmingham has provided a more detailed picture of what neurodiversity looks like amongst adults in the UK. The research is published in JCPP Advances. Ian Apperly, ...

American Geophysical Union 6 February 2024 AGU Release No. 24-04 For Immediate Release This press release is available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/seattle-fault-may-have-origins-in-an-ancient-tear-in-the-continent Seattle fault may have origins in an ancient tear in the continent Magnetic data suggest the hazardous Seattle fault zone developed as the edge of the continent tore itself in two more than 50 million years ago, providing a possible new origin story for the fault AGU ...

Black holes not only existed at the dawn of time, they birthed new stars and supercharged galaxy formation, a new analysis of James Webb Space Telescope data suggests. The insights upend theories of how black holes shape the cosmos, challenging classical understanding that they formed after the first stars and galaxies emerged. Instead, black holes might have dramatically accelerated the birth of new stars during the first 50 million years of the universe, a fleeting period within its 13.8 billion—year history. "We know these monster black holes ...

Xuan Wang, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, is designing a framework for Multi-Autonomous Multi-Human (MAMH) systems.  The operation of many real-world systems involves the co-existence of human and autonomous agents. Inadequate coordination among these agents can lead to significant performance degradation or safety risks.   In this project, Wang aims to develop a novel framework for Multi-Autonomous Multi-Human coordination, which could enhance algorithmic scalability and ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- When diagnosing skin diseases based solely on images of a patient’s skin, doctors do not perform as well when the patient has darker skin, according to a new study from MIT researchers. The study, which included more than 1,000 dermatologists and general practitioners, found that dermatologists accurately characterized about 38 percent of the images they saw, but only 34 percent of those that showed darker skin. General practitioners, who were less accurate overall, showed a similar decrease in accuracy ...

The Vilcek Foundation announces the recipients of the 2024 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science. Awarded annually since 2006, the prizes recognize outstanding immigrant scientists at the forefront of their fields, and celebrate the importance of immigrant contributions to scientific research and discovery in the United States. In 2024, the foundation awards $250,000 in prizes to Luciano Marraffini (b. Argentina), Gerta Hoxhaj (b. Albania), Tomasz Nowakowski (b. Poland) and Takanori Takebe (b. Japan). “With the 2024 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science, we honor scientists who have ...

No increased risks for babies, and for some serious neonatal complications lower risks. This is the result of the largest study to date on the safety of newborn babies whose mothers were vaccinated against COVID-19 during pregnancy. The study is a collaboration between Swedish and Norwegian researchers and is published in the journal JAMA. COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy was not associated with any increased risks in newborn infants. On the contrary, the study of nearly 200,000 newborns in Sweden and Norway showed that babies born by women who chose to be vaccinated ...

About The Study: In this population-based study from Sweden and Norway that included 94,000 infants exposed to COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and 102,000 control infants born between June 2021 and January 2023, vaccination of pregnant individuals with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines was not associated with increased risks of neonatal adverse events in their infants.  Authors: Mikael Norman, M.D., Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, 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.2023.26945) Editor’s Note: Please ...

About The Study: The bivalent COVID-19 vaccines protected children and adolescents against SARS-CoV-2 infection and symptomatic COVID-19 in this study including 2,959 participants ages 5 to 17 years. These data demonstrate the benefit of COVID-19 vaccine in children and adolescents. All eligible children and adolescents should remain up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccinations.  Authors: Leora R. Feldstein, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...

Italian scientists from Università Cattolica at Rome discovered an important genetic mechanism that pancreatic cancer cells employ to evade therapies, paving the way to new drugs for a killer disease. The tumor evades treatments by implementing a 'favorable genetic reshuffling,' strategically playing its best cards to thwart cures. This finding is the result of a study published today in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, coordinated by Claudio Sette, Professor of Human Anatomy at the Catholic University, and Director of the "Organoids Facility" at the Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli ...

About The Study: Gun violence exposure among Black adults in the U.S. was significantly associated with lifetime suicidal ideation and behavior in this study that included 3,015 Black adults. Public health efforts to substantially reduce interpersonal gun violence may yield additional benefits by decreasing suicide among Black individuals in the U.S. Authors: Daniel C. Semenza, Ph.D., of Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey, 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.2023.54953) Editor’s ...

About The Study: Sustained smoking cessation was associated with a significantly reduced risk of cancer after 10 years since quitting in this study of 2.9 million Korean adults. Quitting at any age helped reduce the cancer risk, and especially for lung cancer, early cessation before middle age exhibited a substantial risk reduction. Authors: Jin-Kyoung Oh, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Center Graduate School of Cancer Science and Policy in Goyang, Republic of Korea, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2024 – Earth’s moon achieved its Swiss cheese appearance from celestial objects crashing into its surface, forming impact craters. But craters weren’t all that was left behind; the intense pressure and temperature of such a collision also impacts the rocks and dust covering the lunar surface, known as regolith, altering its mineral composition and structure. Analyzing the resulting minerals provides modern researchers clues to the moon’s past. China’s Chang’e-5, the first lunar sample ...

A new study of a 7–8-million-year-old extinct fossil ape from China called Lufengpithecus offers new insights into the evolution of human bipedalism. The study, published in The Innovation, was conducted by a team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology (YICRA), and New York University (NYU). Humans and our closest relatives, the living apes, display a remarkable diversity of locomotor abilities, from walking upright on two legs to climbing and clambering in trees to walking using all four limbs. Scientists have long been fascinated ...

Artificial intelligence is growing into a pivotal tool in chemical research, offering novel methods to tackle complex challenges that traditional approaches struggle with. One subtype of artificial intelligence that has seen increasing use in chemistry is machine learning, which uses algorithms and statistical models to make decisions based on data and perform tasks that it has not been explicitly programmed for. However, to make reliable predictions, machine learning also demands large amounts of data, which isn’t always available in chemical research. Small chemical datasets simply do not provide enough information for these algorithms to train on, which limits their effectiveness. In ...

In recent years, carbon-based catalysts — especially nitrogen-doped nanocarbons — have emerged as sustainable, reliable alternatives to the metal catalysts that have traditionally been used to support chemical reactions. Researchers from the Key Laboratory of Advanced Carbon-Based Functional Materials (Fujian Province University) at Fuzhou University synthesized nanocarbons from guanine molecules to better understand the precise role nitrogen plays in the carbon-based materials and explore the reaction mechanisms of these catalytic systems.   In a recently published study, the research team clarified how different types of nitrogen can modulate oxidative dehydrogenation ...

Mucormycosis is a relatively rare but serious fungal infection increasingly recognised for its poor prognosis and high mortality. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the incidence of mucormycosis reached high levels during 2021–2022 in India.   This study led by Dr. Rizwan Suliankatchi Abdulkader (Indian Council of Medical Research) established a multicentric ambispective cohort of patients hospitalised with mucormycosis across India and reported their baseline profile, clinical characteristics, and outcomes at discharge.   Mucormycosis was diagnosed based on mycological confirmation on direct microscopy (KOH/Calcofluor white stain), ...

Research introduces new DNA methylation-based method for accurately assessing cell composition in the human pancreas, addressing a critical gap in diabetes research. By overcoming limitations of traditional protein marker-based approaches, the study provides a more precise means to identify specific cell types. The findings offer insights into beta-cell dysfunction across diabetes types and have direct clinical implications, enhancing our understanding of diabetes development and potentially guiding more tailored treatment ...

Tsukuba, Japan—Meteora sporadica is a small, unicellular eukaryote (protist) that was discovered in deep Mediterranean sea sediments in 2002. It differs from known protists by the presence of two lateral arms that swing back and forth. However, the ultrastructure and phylogenetic position of M. sporadica remain unknown. In this study, researchers successfully cultured and analyzed two strains of M. sporadica from marine sediments in detail. Ultratructural observations revealed ...

Tsukuba, Japan—Leguminous plants have a mechanism (rhizobial symbiosis) to efficiently acquire nitrogen, which is an essential macronutrient for growth, through the nitrogen-fixing bacteria rhizobia. Root nodules are organs on plant roots that facilitate the symbiotic relationship. Rhizobia coloniza these nodules and fix nitrogen by converting nitrogen from air into ammonia. Iron is needed for the enzymes that catalyze nitrogen fixation; however, where and how iron is transported to the nodule and used for nitrogen fixation is largely unknown. In this study, using the legume model plant Lotus japonicus, a transcriptome ...