NASA’s short-form, narrative podcast, NASA’s Curious Universe, returns for its sixth season Nov. 7. This season will bring listeners on new “wild and wonderful” adventures from the farthest reaches of the cosmos to right here on planet Earth.  In season six, listeners will meet researchers who are using sounds from the Sun to learn crucial details about our star, explore the “dark side” of the universe with scientists who study dark matter and dark energy, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the first NASA mission to deliver an asteroid sample to Earth.  Listen to the ...

Bronchiectasis, a condition defined by widened lung airways, cough and sputum production, and frequent infections, often presents along with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This overlap is associated with airflow obstruction and higher mortality in adults. As healthcare systems now provide access to lung image data more commonly than before, bronchiectasis can be detected incidentally on radiological scans of patients with mild or no symptoms. A team led by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, studied the association ...

Princeton University has launched a new Ph.D. program in Quantum Science and Engineering (QSE), providing graduate training in an emerging discipline at the intersection of quantum physics and information theory. This new field of quantum information science has broad implications and may enable fundamentally new technology, including new types of computers that can solve currently intractable problems, communication channels guaranteed secure by the laws of physics, and sensors that offer unprecedented sensitivity and spatial resolution. Applications from prospective students are due December 15 for an incoming ...

The innovation by chemists, resulting in the creation of a long polyethylene chain out of the small chemical monomer ethylene, has been a ground-breaking discovery, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963. This remarkable discovery paved the way for highly useful industrial processes and set the stage for widespread use of plastics, which transformed our world in once unimaginable manners. Today, exactly six decades later, the extensive use of plastics and their products is posing a threat to human health and the environment ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Microfossils from Western Australia may capture a jump in the complexity of life that coincided with the rise of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, according to an international team of scientists. The findings, published in the journal Geobiology, provide a rare window into the Great Oxidation Event, a time roughly 2.4 billion years ago when the oxygen concentration increased on Earth, fundamentally changing the planet’s surface. The event is thought to have triggered a mass extinction and opened the door for the development ...

MYC family genes are essential for the human organism. According to current knowledge, they regulate the expression of most cellular genes. Misregulation of MYC proteins significantly contributes to the development of many types of cancer. Unsurprisingly, MYC proteins are in the focus of cancer research worldwide. From a scientific point of view, they could be the ideal anti-cancer targets. Indeed, the importance of MYC for the development of cancer cells has been known for a long time. However, the structure of MYC proteins and their molecular function ...

The Horizon Europe funded TIER2 project (enhancing Trust, Integrity and Efficiency in Research through next-level Reproducibility) has announced the two consortia which will receive a €5000 monetary award to hold a kick-off meeting for a national Reproducibility Network in their respective countries. The Georgian and Ukrainian awardees were selected among multiple applicants of the TIER2 Open Call which opened in July 2023 (read more here). After a round of reviews, carried out by Thomas Klebel (TIER2), Luka Ursic ...

A new article in the peer-reviewed OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology examines the ethical, equity, and societal/relational implications of digital health technologies for precision medicine in end-of-life care. Click here to read the article now.  John Noel Viana, PhD, from The Australian National University, and coauthors specifically assess the implications of two precision health modalities: (1) integrated systems biology/multi-omics analysis for disease prognostication; and (2) digital health technologies for health status monitoring and communication. The investigators provide ...

Hundreds of clinics may be using false and misleading statements in online advertising campaigns by offering off-label and unapproved ketamine to treat a variety of mental health and pain conditions, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Johns Hopkins University. The study was published in JAMA Network Open. “These are expensive treatments for which patients generally must pay out of pocket and the evidence base is often not robust for many of the advertised uses,” said Michael DiStefano, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy ...

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of routine screening performed by primary care clinicians for oral health conditions, including dental caries, in children and adolescents ages 5 to 17. The USPSTF also concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of preventive interventions performed by primary care clinicians for oral health conditions, including dental caries, in children and adolescents ages 5 to 17. Untreated oral health conditions in children can lead to serious infections ...

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of routine screening performed by primary care clinicians for oral health conditions, including dental caries or periodontal-related disease, in adults. The USPSTF also concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of preventive interventions performed by primary care clinicians for oral health conditions, ...

The largest floating ice shelves in the polar ice sheet have lost more than a third of their volume since 1978. In a study to be published on 7 November in Nature Communications, scientists from the CNRS1, alongside their Danish and American colleagues, have established that most of this thinning is due to the rise in surrounding ocean temperatures, which causes the glaciers’ floating extensions to melt. Until now, the glaciers in this region were considered to be stable, unlike more sensitive areas of the polar ice cap, which began to weaken in the mid-1980s. Located ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that maintenance immunosuppressive drugs are associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 hospitalization in solid organ transplant recipients. These results should be considered by clinicians treating transplant recipients and may help inform epidemic-related decisions for this population in the future. Authors: Epiphane Kolla, M.D., M.P.H., of French National Health Insurance in Saint-Denis, France, 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.2023.42006) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In a population-based study of 6,790 adult patients with emergency medical services–treated out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) from a U.S. metropolitan system, the incidence of overdose related out-of-hospital cardiac arrest increased significantly from 2015 to 2021. The greatest increase was observed among patients with a combined stimulant-opioid OHCA. Presentation and outcome differed according to the drug-specific profile. The combination of increasing incidence and lower survival among patients with an opioid-stimulant OHCA supports prevention and treatment initiatives ...

A new report in Nature Geoscience has brought to light the challenge of air pollution levels in Africa and why international action is needed to combat it.    Over the last 50 years African nations have suffered from rapidly deteriorating air quality, making their cities some of the most polluted in the world. Particulate matter concentration levels are now five to ten levels greater than that recommended by the World Health Organisation, with the situation predicted to worsen as populations grow and industrialization accelerates.   However, far too little has been ...

Francis Crick Institute press release Under strict embargo: 16:00hrs GMT Tuesday 7 November 2023 Peer reviewed Observational study People Body changes up to eight years before inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and Aalborg University in Copenhagen have shown that changes can be detected in blood tests up to eight years before a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease and up to three years before a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis. This means the beginnings of inflammatory bowel diseases start a long time before symptoms occur, and in the future may provide an opportunity for doctors to take preventative ...

Many parents experience stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms throughout their lives, particularly during times of transition, such as pregnancy and children’s entry into school. Studies have generally found that high levels of anxiety and depression in parents are linked to poorer behavioural and cognitive outcomes in children. A team of researchers led by Tina Montreuil, Associate Professor in McGill’s Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Scientist in the Child Health and Human ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Diagnosing early-stage lung cancer with low-dose CT screening dramatically improves the long-term survival rate of cancer patients, according to a large-scale, 20-year international study published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The results show that patients diagnosed with lung cancer by low-dose CT screening have a 20-year survival rate of 81%. If diagnosed in the earliest Stage I, long-term survival was 95%. “It is the first time that 20-year survival rates ...

New York, NY (November 7, 2023) — Diagnosing early-stage lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening drastically improves its cure rate measured over a 20-year period, according to a large-scale international study by Mount Sinai researchers published in Radiology. The results show that patients diagnosed with lung cancer via CT screening have a 20-year survival rate—an approximation of the cure rate—of 81 percent. Among the 1,257 participants diagnosed with lung cancer, 81 percent ...

BACKGROUND One of the hallmarks of cancer cell development is its dependence on sugar, especially glucose, to grow and divide. Scientists have long been studying how to restrict or block this process that promotes tumor growth, called glycolysis, from happening as a possible effective strategy against cancer. Previously, researchers from the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center identified a specific protein sodium glucose transporter 2, or SGLT2, as a mechanism that lung cancer cells can utilize to obtain glucose. Drugs that inhibit SGLT2 are already FDA approved for other conditions and the UCLA team found these drugs could also delay the development ...

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital today announced Giles Robinson, M.D., has assumed the role of director for the Department of Oncology’s Division of Neuro-Oncology. He has also become co-leader of the Neurobiology and Brain Tumor Program within the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center. These combined units comprise one of the largest clinical brain tumor programs in North America. “Dr. Robinson has been an exemplary member of St. Jude since joining as a hematology/oncology fellow in 2007,” said Julie R. Park, M.D., Department of Oncology ...

HOUSTON and DUBLIN ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc today announced a five-year strategic research collaboration agreement to evaluate zanidatamab, Jazz’s investigational HER2-targeted bispecific antibody, in multiple HER2-expressing cancers. The collaboration will combine MD Anderson’s translational medicine and clinical research expertise with Jazz’s expanding oncology drug development capabilities to investigate the potential of zanidatamab as monotherapy and in combination with other treatments for patients with different tumor types and stages. This includes its possible applicability ...

They reveal the origin of wine, the age of bones and fossils, and they serve as diagnostic tools in medicine. Isotopes and isotopologues – molecules that differ only in the composition of their isotopes – also play an increasingly important role in astronomy. For example, the ratio of carbon-12 (12C) to carbon-13 (13C) isotopes in the atmosphere of an exoplanet allows scientists to infer the distance at which the exoplanet orbits its central star. Until now, 12C and 13C bound in carbon monoxide were the only isotopologues that could be measured in the atmosphere of an exoplanet. Now a team of researchers has succeeded in detecting ammonia isotopologues ...

Online shopping for cigarettes and vaping products increased significantly in the weeks following the implementation of SB-793, a 2022 California law prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products. Researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego identified potential loopholes in tobacco control policies due to the absence of explicit regulations on e-commerce sales in retailer licensing programs. Reporting in the journal Tobacco Control on Nov. 7, 2023, researchers assessed the ...

Karl Klose, director of The South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases (STCEID) and the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg College of Sciences Endowed Professor, coauthored a research article with Cameron Lloyd ’23, a UTSA doctoral student who graduated in August with a Ph.D. in molecular microbiology and immunology under the guidance of Klose. The research paper investigates a novel strategy for inhibiting the spread and infection of Vibrio cholerae, the bacteria responsible for the disease, cholera. The research article is entitled, “A peptide-binding ...