A “standard reference thermoelectric module (SRTEM)*” for objectively measuring thermoelectric module performance has been developed in Korea for the first time. A research team led by Dr. Sang Hyun Park at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER; President Yi, Chang-Keun) developed the world’s second standard reference thermoelectric module, following Japan, and improved its performance by more than 20% compared with existing modules, demonstrating the excellence of Korea’s homegrown technology. * SRTEM (Standard Reference Thermoelectric Module): A reference standard used to check the status ...

Researchers find that diversifying crops and integrating livestock improves farm efficiencies and ecosystem services in the US Midwest. Mathieu Delandmeter, Bruno Basso, and colleagues used a validated crop simulation model to assess 18 management scenarios across 46 million hectares over three decades at high spatial resolution. The authors compared corn monoculture to diverse rotations with cover crops and integrated pasture-cattle systems, looking at each system's productivity, profitability, yield stability, ...

A study conducted during the 2024 French elections finds that information about immigrants’ efforts to overcome poverty and learn French reduces negative beliefs about immigration and modestly decreases opposition to immigration among voters. Amine Sijilmassi and colleagues conducted three studies in France examining whether emphasizing “deservingness” cues—such as immigrants’ motivation to work, efforts to learn French, job-seeking behavior, and children’s upward mobility—could reduce anti-immigration attitudes. In one study, 480 participants rated fictional immigrant profiles more favorably when the profiles exhibited deservingness traits. ...

The distribution of Japanese eels (Anguilla japonica) at the northern edge of the species’ range appears to be shaped by river water temperature, which is influenced by watershed geology and land use. Osamu Kishida and colleagues conducted electrofishing surveys in 105 rivers across southern Hokkaido, Japan, capturing 222 Japanese eels from 52 rivers. The authors used structural equation modeling that incorporated catch per unit effort, environmental variables, and estimates of glass eel recruitment—the number of juvenile eels that enter rivers from the sea, where ...

Electropulsing treatment (EPT) is a state-of-the-art technology for rapidly heating metallic materials. The highly energy-efficient and eco-sufficient process utilizes a pulsed current or ‘electropulse,’ achieving unique effects such as electroplasticity and electropulsing anisotropy. It facilitates fast microstructural evolution in alloys—compared to the conventional furnace heat treatment (FHT) technique—possibly via athermal contributions that go beyond the effects of Joule heating. Recent efforts by scientists to determine these athermal contributions have focused on ...

China has achieved significant advancements in gastroenterology and digestive endoscopy, according to the 2024 national report published in the Chinese Medical Journal. Drawing data from the National Clinical Improvement System (NCIS) and Hospital Quality Monitoring System (HQMS), the study provides a comprehensive overview of care quality and accessibility across 4,620 NCIS and 7,074 HQMS-participating hospitals. In 2023, hospitals nationwide averaged 37.3 gastroenterology beds, 9.6 gastroenterologists, and 6.7 endoscopists per facility. Tertiary hospitals led ...

Over the past decade, colloidal quantum dots (QDs) have emerged as promising materials for next-generation displays due to their tunable emission, high brightness, and compatibility with low-cost solution processing. However, a major challenge is, achieving ultrahigh- resolution patterning without damaging their fragile surface chemistry. Existing methods such as inkjet printing and photolithography-based processes either fall short in resolution or compromise QD performance. To address this, a research team led by Associate Professor Jeongkyun Roh from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Pusan National University, Republic of Korea, has introduced a universal, photoresist-free, and ...

Researchers have used a cutting-edge robotic system capable of synthesising hundreds of metal complexes to develop a possible antibiotic candidate -  offering fresh hope in the global fight against drug-resistant infections. In a study published in Nature Communications, the researchers synthesised over 700 complex metal compounds in just one week. This rapid screening process identified a promising new iridium-based antibiotic candidate that kills bacteria while remaining non-toxic to human cells. As bacteria become increasingly resistant to existing treatments, the world faces a silent pandemic. Over one million people die ...

Patients experience significant changes in gut bacteria at the onset of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a new international study has found - offering new hope for earlier diagnosis and future treatments. Published today in Gastroenterology, the study was led by academics from the University of Birmingham and is the first to combine raw microbiome data from multiple studies. The team analysed data from more than 1,700 children and adults across 11 countries who have been recently diagnosed and before starting any treatment. The ...

SEATTLE, WASH. — DECEMBER 23, 2025 — Scientists have engineered a protein able to record the incoming chemical signals of brain cells (as opposed to just their outgoing signals). These whisper-quiet incoming messages are the release of the neurotransmitter glutamate, which plays a critical role in how brain cells communicate with one another but until now has been extremely difficult to capture. Why it matters Understanding the brain’s code: Scientists can now study how neurons compute—how they take thousands of input signals and—based off those—produce an output signal that ...

Memories and learning processes are based on changes in the brain’s neuronal connections and, as a result, in signal transmission between neurons. For the first time, DZNE researchers have observed an associated phenomenon in living brains – specifically in mice. This mechanism concerns the cellular pulse generator for neuronal signals (the “axon initial segment”) and had previously only been documented in cell cultures and in brain samples. A team led by neuroscientist Jan Gründemann reports on this in the ...

NEW YORK, NY -- Dec. 23, 2025 -- Using marijuana just once or twice a month was associated with worse school performance and emotional distress for teens, according to a large national study of adolescents led by Ryan Sultán, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. The more frequently teens used cannabis, the more likely they were to report emotional distress and other social and academic problems.  “While previous studies have focused on the effects of frequent ...

Healthy, sustainable school meals could cut undernourishment, reduce diet-related deaths and significantly lower environmental impacts, according to a new modelling study led by a UCL (University College London) researcher. The study is part of a new collection of papers published in Lancet Planetary Health by members of the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition – the independent research initiative of the School Meals Coalition. The papers find that well-designed school meal programmes could be a strategic investment in a healthier, more sustainable future. Drawing together modelling, case studies and evidence from multiple disciplines, ...

A major review of prior research has found no evidence that menopause hormone therapy either increases or decreases dementia risk in post-menopausal women, in a new study led by University College London (UCL) researchers. The findings, commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, add much-needed clarity to a hotly-debated topic, and reinforce current clinical guidance that menopause hormone therapy, also called hormone replacement therapy or HRT, should be guided by perceived benefits and risks and not for dementia prevention. The new systematic review and meta-analysis is the most comprehensive and rigorous ...

After traumatic brain injury (TBI), some patients may recover completely, while others retain severe disabilities. Accurately evaluating prognosis is challenging in patients on life-sustaining thery. Though resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) can assess neurological activity shortly after brain injury, it is unknown whether communication across brain regions at this early juncture predicts long-term recovery. Investigators from Mass General Brigham and collaborators in the U.S. and Europe analyzed data from three prospective cohorts comprising 97 patients who underwent rs-fMRI after injury, finding that early communication between three pairs ...

The researchers have succeeded in tracing two classic hallmarks of cancer – the evasion of apoptosis (a form of programmed cell death) and the dysregulation of energy metabolism – back to a common molecular mechanism. The study focuses on the protein MCL1, which is strongly overexpressed in many tumor types and has previously been considered primarily an anti-apoptotic factor of the Bcl-2 protein family. The Dresden researchers now show that MCL1 directly influences the central metabolic regulator mTOR and thus controls the bioenergetics of cancer ...

About 300 years ago, Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus set out on a bold quest: to identify and name every living organism on Earth. Now celebrated as the father of modern taxonomy, he developed the binomial naming system and described more than 10,000 species of plants and animals. Since his time, scientists have continued to describe new species in the quest to uncover Earth's biodiversity. According to a new University of Arizona-led study published in Science Advances, scientists are discovering species quicker than ever before, with more than 16,000 new species discovered each year. ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 22 December 2025    Follow @Annalsofim on X, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin              Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization ...

A new systematic evidence review finds that cannabis products that carry relatively high levels of the psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC, may provide short-term improvements in pain and function.  However, the review found THC-based products led to an increased risk of common adverse symptoms like dizziness, sedation and nausea.   At the same time, the review found that recent randomized controlled trials involving products mainly or only containing ...

WASHINGTON – Temporal lobe epilepsy, which results in recurring seizures and cognitive dysfunction, is associated with premature aging of brain cells. A new study from researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center found that this form of epilepsy can be treated in mice by either genetically or pharmaceutically eradicating the aging cells, thereby improving memory and reducing seizures as well as protecting some animals from developing epilepsy.  The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study appears December 22 in the ...

Adults who experience a head injury face a substantially higher risk of attempting suicide compared to those without such injuries, according to the findings from a new UK-based study. Published in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, the study was led by University of Birmingham researchers. The paper is the first of its kind to examine suicide risk across all types of head injuries in a general population, moving beyond the traditional focus on traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in military, athletic or hospital settings. The population-based matched cohort study used nationally represented electronic primary healthcare records from more than 1.8 million ...

LA JOLLA, CA—When you take a drug, where in your body does it actually go? For most medications, scientists can make only educated guesses about the answer to this question. Traditional methods can measure the concentration of a drug in an organ like the liver, but they can’t pinpoint exactly which cells the drug binds to—or reveal unexpected places where the drug takes action. “Usually we have almost no idea, after a drug enters the body, how it actually interacts with its target,” says Professor Li Ye, the N. Paul Whittier Endowed Chair at Scripps Research and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. “It’s been a ...

EMBARGOED until Monday, December 22, 2025, at 12:00 P.M. PST SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have already leveraged the vast troves of geolocation data from vessel-tracking systems to pinpoint where whales and other large marine species are endangered by ship traffic and industrial fishing. Now, in a new study led by Heather Welch at UC Santa Cruz's Institute of Marine Sciences, researchers show how the geolocation data generated by satellites for the global ...

Embargoed Until: December 22, 2025 at 3:00 PM U.S. Eastern time. Study provided upon request EMBARGOED: New Evidence Points to Potential Treatment for Vascular Dementia A possible new treatment for impaired brain blood flow and related dementias is on the horizon. Research by scientists at the University of Vermont Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine provides novel insights into the mechanisms that regulate brain blood flow and highlight a potential therapeutic strategy to correct vascular dysfunction. Their preclinical findings, published December 22 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that adding a missing phospholipid back into a person’s ...

LA JOLLA, CA—A new study by Scripps Research reveals that alcohol dependence disrupts two signaling pathways in a stress-related part of the brain—and offers insights on developing drugs to treat this condition. The research, conducted in animal models and published in Frontiers in Pharmacology on November 26, 2025, helps explain why people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) struggle to stay sober, especially under stress. "We think that alcohol dependence changes these systems, and that's why individuals are prone to seek out alcohol even if they've gone without it for some ...