It is of vital importance to, on occasion, consider how little we know about the spinning rock we all live on. Take coral reefs, for example. Given how much they’ve been studied, you’d think we’ve learned just about everything about them by now. But talk to a marine biologist, and they will quickly disabuse you of this notion. “A majority of the things that are out there on coral reefs are simply unknown to us or haven’t been formally described or named,” said Catherine McFadden, a professor of life sciences at Harvey Mudd College. McFadden is ...

In a step toward treating mitochondrial diseases, researchers in the Netherlands have successfully edited harmful mutations in mitochondrial DNA using a genetic tool known as a base editor. The results, published June 24th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, offer new hope for people with rare genetic conditions. Mitochondria, often called the powerhouses of the cell, have their own small set of DNA. Mutations in this mitochondrial DNA can lead to a wide range of maternally inherited diseases, cancer, and aging-related conditions. ...

The transition from sprawling (reptile-like) to more upright (parasagittal) posture and locomotion was a transformative event in mammalian evolution. A study published June 24th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Dr. Robert Brocklehurst and Professor Stephanie Pierce at Harvard University, USA and colleagues suggests that parasagittal posture evolved via an indirect, dynamic, and radiating process. Non-mammalian synapsids (tetrapod vertebrates), the ancestors of extant mammals, underwent major musculoskeletal reorganization, including ...

A trade-off between tooth size and jaw mobility has restricted fish evolution, Nick Peoples at the University of California Davis, US, and colleagues report June 24th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. Ray-finned fish are a diverse and widespread group, representing 99% of living fish species. Two key adaptations have helped them thrive: large teeth and extendible jaws. Fish with larger teeth can access a wider range of food sources, while the ability to rapidly extend the upper jaw allows fish to hunt fast-swimming prey by using suction forces to pull them closer. However, these two innovations are rarely found in the same fish species. To find out why, ...

Researchers have discovered two new viruses in bats that are closely related to the deadly Nipah and Hendra viruses — pathogens that can cause severe brain inflammation and respiratory disease in humans. The viruses, as well as other new viruses, bacteria, and parasites identified from bat kidneys, were reported this week in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Yun Feng of the Yunnan Institute of Endemic Disease Control and Prevention, China, and colleagues. Bats are natural reservoirs for a wide range ...

For over a century, scientists have puzzled over a fundamental mystery in our evolutionary history: how did mammals go from sprawling like lizards to striding like cats and dogs? This transition—from a sprawled stance (like a lizard) to an upright (parasagittal) posture—marked a pivotal moment in mammal evolution. While the earliest non-mammalian synapsids, the ancestors of living mammals, had a sprawling posture, researchers debated when and how the upright postures of modern mammals evolved. Now, a groundbreaking study in PLOS ...

An international research team led by Dr. André Marques from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Prof. Dr. Christiane Ritz from the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History in Görlitz and Dr. Aleš Kovařík from the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences has achieved a significant breakthrough in research into the reproduction of dogrose. The study, which has now been published in the renowned journal "Nature", shows how differences in the size of the centromeres - the central docking sites for chromosomes - play a decisive role in the extraordinary chromosome inheritance ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. – June 24, 2025 – The Association for Molecular Pathology, the premier global molecular diagnostic professional society, today announced the publication of best practice recommendations for clinical laboratories developing and performing homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) testing. The manuscript, titled “Recommendations for Clinical Molecular Laboratories for Detection of Homologous Recombination Deficiency in Cancer: A Joint Consensus Recommendation of the Association of Molecular Pathology, Association of Cancer ...

An international team of scientists has developed a biodegradable material that could slash global energy consumption without using any electricity, according to a new study published today. The bioplastic metafilm – that can be applied to buildings, equipment and other surfaces – passively cools temperatures by as much as 9.2°C during peak sunlight and reflects almost 99% of the sun’s rays. Developed by researchers from Zhengzhou University in China and the University of South Australia (UniSA), the new ...

Researchers from Donghua University in China and the University of British Columbia have introduced a novel design methodology for 3D rotary braiding machines, offering a significant step forward in the production of complex geometric textile composites. Their work, published in Engineering, details a programmable design approach based on circle-cutting and combination strategies, which enhances the ability to create 3D braided composites with intricate shapes.   3D braided composites are highly valued for their exceptional mechanical properties, such as high ...

Neuroblastoma is a cancer that affects the sympathetic nervous system of children. It is unusual among cancers because it shows a range of outcomes: from aggressive, potentially fatal progression to a unique phenomenon where the tumor spontaneously regresses even without treatment. Identifying why some patients regress and others don’t could help thousands of patients. A research group led by Nagoya University believes that the answer may lie in the “uncommitted” state of some neuroblastoma cells. In mice bred to have tumors that were presumed to regress, they discovered a population of “uncommitted" cells that ...

New study explores why foreign firms listed in the U.S. choose between IFRS and U.S. GAAP. The research finds that firms strategically weigh the flexibility of financial reporting and the costs of compliance, rather than following the common standards in their listing jurisdiction. These insights help explain the real motivations behind financial disclosure decisions and offer guidance for regulators and investors alike. A new study by Dr. Heylel-li Biton of the Hebrew University Business School sheds light on a long-standing question in global finance: Why do foreign firms listed in the United ...

In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research have developed a novel three-dimensional modeling method that accurately quantifies how microalgae affect underwater light conditions—one of the most critical factors in aquatic ecosystem health. Published in Water Research, the study addresses a longstanding challenge in hydrobiology: measuring the projected area—the light-blocking surface—of diverse microalgae species, many of which form colonies ...

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that clinicians screen for intimate partner violence in women of reproductive age, including those who are pregnant and postpartum. The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for caregiver abuse and neglect in older or vulnerable adults. Intimate partner violence affects millions of U.S. residents across the lifespan and is often unrecognized. Abuse of older or vulnerable adults by a caregiver or someone else they may trust is common and can result in ...

About The Study: In this survey study of California adolescents, exposure to e-cigarette or cannabis posts was associated with adolescent e-cigarette, cannabis, or dual use. Improvement of social media community guidelines and greater policy attention to co-use and marketing of e-cigarettes and cannabis may help prevent youth substance use.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Julia Vassey, PhD, email vassey@usc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.17611) Editor’s Note: Please ...

About The Study: In this population-based cross-sectional analysis of breast cancer incidence trends among older U.S. women, racial and ethnic as well as stage-specific patterns differed across age groups, highlighting the importance of disaggregating breast cancer incidence rates into age groups better aligned with screening guidelines. Future research is needed to directly examine the contribution of screening patterns to these trends and their impact on breast cancer mortality.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Erica J. Lee Argov, MPH, email ejl2152@cumc.columbia.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link ...

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2025 — When you think of solar panels, you usually picture giant cells mounted to face the sun. But what if “solar” cells could be charged using fluorescent lights? Perovskite solar cells (PeSCs) have emerged as a lower-cost, higher-efficiency alternative to traditional silicon solar cells due to their material structure and physical flexibility. Their large power conversion efficiency rate (PCE), which is the amount of energy created from the amount of energy hitting the cell, makes PeSCs well suited to converting lower light sources into energy. In APL Energy, by AIP Publishing, researchers from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan ...

Using stem cells from patients with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), Cedars-Sinai has created a lifelike model of the mysterious and fatal disease that could help identify a cause of the illness as well as effective treatments. In a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell, investigators detail how they created “ALS on a chip” and the clues the specialized laboratory chip has already produced about nongenetic causes of the disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The work builds ...

Teens who see social media posts showing cannabis or e-cigarettes, including from friends and influencers, are more likely to later start using those substances or to report using them in the past month, according to surveys done by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Viewing such posts was linked to cannabis use, as well as dual use of cannabis and e-cigarettes (vapes). Dual use refers to youth who have used both cannabis and e-cigarettes at some point. The results were just published in JAMA Network Open. The findings come amid a decline in youth e-cigarette use, reported in 2024 by the U.S. Food ...

Even the smartest machines can’t match young minds at language learning. Researchers share new findings on how children stay ahead of AI - and why it matters. If a human learned language at the same rate as ChatGPT, it would take them 92,000 years. While machines can crunch massive datasets at lightning speed, when it comes to acquiring natural language, children leave artificial intelligence in the dust. A newly published framework in Trends in Cognitive Sciences by Professor Caroline Rowland of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, in collaboration with colleagues at the ESRC LuCiD Centre in the UK, presents a novel framework to explain how children ...

Tokyo, Japan – Mimicking the incredible skill of mother nature is never easy, especially when trying to match the remarkable chemical processes that take place in living organisms. Living systems, like cells, can carry out chemical reactions in very small spaces, sometimes involving single molecules. For many years, researchers have attempted to emulate this to allow for the manufacturing of specialized chemical compounds, but with limited success. However, new research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society highlights the development of a new tool that assists with controlling chemical reactions. ...

A pretreatment step could help transplanted pancreatic islets survive longer in patients with type 1 diabetes, according to a new preclinical study from Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. One combination of small molecules extended the cells’ lives in female mice, and adding two molecules to the mixture boosted cell survival in male mice. The findings, published on June 24 in Cell Stem Cell, could allow physicians to treat more patients with fewer cells. In type 1 diabetes, autoimmune cells attack the pancreatic islets, destroying ...

Going off to summer camp can be a scary experience for children, but it can be even more nerve-wracking for parents of kids with food allergies. New UVA Health research reveals the most cost-effective way to keep those children safe. For most summer camps, stocking a supply of epinephrine – a common treatment for allergic reactions – rather than leaving it up to campers to bring their own is a safe strategy with the lowest overall cost for everyone involved, the UVA researchers found.  “Stock, unassigned ...

Key Takeaways Researchers led by Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor in the School of Arts & Sciences and the Perelman School of Medicine Shelley Berger explore the genetic basis of how communal-dwelling organisms like leafcutter ants and naked mole-rats divide labor among their societies They discovered that pathways dating back hundreds of millions of years are conserved across animal kingdoms Their findings offer fundamental insights into the origins of complex social behaviors and the neuroplasticity of assigned roles From the bright lights of cities that don’t ...

Journal: Injury Title: Pediatric Ice Hockey Injury Trends Presenting to U.S. Emergency Departments: A 10-Year Review of National Injury Data Authors: Luca M. Valdivia, MS, MD Candidate at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Sheena Ranade, MD, Associate Professor of Orthopedics, and Pediatrics, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Bottom line: This study analyzes pediatric ice hockey injuries in emergency departments throughout the United States, finding a post-pandemic rise in head and shoulder injuries as well as hospitalizations. Why this study is unique: This ...