Scientists have discovered a new species of mosasaur, large, carnivorous aquatic lizards that lived during the late Cretaceous. With “transitional” traits that place it between two well-known mosasaurs, the new species is named after a sea serpent in Norse mythology, Jormungandr, and the small North Dakota city Walhalla near to where the fossil was found. Details describing Jǫrmungandr walhallaensis are published today in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.  “If you put flippers on a Komodo dragon and made it really big, that’s basically what it would have looked like,” said the study’s lead ...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Emily Burchfield, Emory assistant professor of environmental sciences, $1.6 million to lead efforts to identify emerging pressures on agriculture in Georgia, Iowa and Ohio and to develop predictive models to help farmers and policymakers weather these changes. “In a nutshell, we’re trying to understand what climate change will mean for agriculture in these three states,” Burchfield says. “We’ll be integrating biophysical projections based on environmental data with insights ...

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center researchers found a seed device that acts as a GPS for surgeons to locate and remove breast and lymph node tumors was safe and effective.  The feasibility study evaluating the use of the devices, called SmartClips, was recently published in the journal The American Surgeon.  UC’s Jaime Lewis and her colleague Elizabeth Shaughnessy helped test the SmartClip devices as they were being developed.  “We went a few times and saw the different prototypes, worked with them, and provided feedback. ...

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. – OU researchers have received a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a research center to address children’s cumulative health impacts from agricultural and non-chemical exposures. This grant will create the Children’s Environmental Health Center in the U.S. Southern Great Plains, which includes Oklahoma and Texas. The Center will focus on mitigating the chemical and non-chemical stressors that affect school absenteeism caused by gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases. This collaborative center will be under the direction of Changjie Cai, Ph.D., assistant professor ...

There is a low-cost way for you to protect yourself and reduce your risk of respiratory diseases such as flu, RSV, and COVID-19. Build yourself a Corsi-Rosenthal box (CR box) in 30 minutes with just $60 worth of common hardware store supplies. In July, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists began several weeks of advanced bioaerosol chamber testing to assess the efficacy and power of this air filter against infectious aerosols, like the virus that causes COVID-19. The results are in, and they are good. The U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development’s 3,000 cubic ft. bioaerosol chamber testing results show ...

About The Study: High blood pressure variability indicated increased lifetime dementia risk in late life but not in midlife in this study that included 820 adults monitored for an average time of 32 years. This result suggests that high blood pressure variability may indicate increased dementia risk in older age but might be less viable as a midlife dementia prevention target.  Authors: Jan Willem van Dalen, Ph.D., of the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 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.2023.40249) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that race and ethnicity and neighborhood disadvantage are associated with hearing-related quality of life in deaf or hard-of-hearing children. The neighborhood association was seen most broadly in children older than 13 years.  Authors: Dylan K. Chan, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, 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.2023.40934) Editor’s Note: Please see ...

About The Study: In this imaging study that included 54 athletes, higher levels of 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO) that mark brain injury and repair were found in former National Football League (NFL) players compared with former non-collision sport athletes. The NFL players also had lower performance in learning and memory. These findings suggest that further tracking of TSPO levels in relation to neuropsychological performance over time is needed to understand whether these signs persist, progress, and/or warrant neuroimmune-modulating ...

SAN ANTONIO (Oct. 30, 2023) — About 283 million people worldwide suffer from alcohol use disorder, a debilitating health challenge for which limited therapeutic options are available. The cost to society is estimated at greater than $2 trillion annually. “People try to rehabilitate, but it is very challenging,” said Yu Shin Kim, PhD, a neuroscience researcher at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. “Headache is one of the severe withdrawal symptoms that pushes the rehabilitating patient back to alcohol, because people know that, after drinking, alcohol will actually reduce the headache. It becomes a vicious ...

As little as 1 per cent reduction in deep sleep per year for people over 60 years of age translates into a 27 per cent increased risk of dementia, according to a study which suggests that enhancing or maintaining deep sleep, also known as slow wave sleep, in older years could stave off dementia. The study, led by Associate Professor Matthew Pase, from the Monash School of Psychological Sciences and the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia, and published today in JAMA Neurology, looked at 346 participants, over 60 years of age, enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study who completed two overnight sleep studies in ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- For too long, cancer treatment has been a double-edged sword – the very treatments designed to kill cancer cells often wrought havoc on healthy ones too.   But a new study published online Oct. 30 in Immunity, a Cell Press journal, unveils an approach to cancer treatment that researchers describe as more precise, long-lasting, and less toxic than current therapies.   The work, led by Duke University School of Medicine immunology researcher Jose Ramon Conejo-Garcia, MD, PhD, centers on the innovative use of IGA antibodies ...

SEATTLE, WASH.—October 30, 2023—The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) has awarded Ananda Goldrath, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Director of the Allen Institute for Immunology, the 2023 Frederick W. Alt Award. This award is given to former Cancer Research Institute postdoctoral fellows who have achieved outstanding success in academia or industry for innovative research that has advanced knowledge and understanding in the field of immunology. “The Cancer Research Institute has been supporting ...

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [October 30, 2023] — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) is announcing new resources focused on improving quality of life for people with cancer while making sure care planning reflects individual needs and priorities. Today marks the publication of a new NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Palliative Care, part of an ongoing expansion of supportive care resources. The new NCCN Guidelines for Patients: Fatigue and Cancer is also publishing, along with an updated book on managing Distress During Cancer Care. The NCCN Foundation®  provides funding for the NCCN Guidelines for ...

“For robots to achieve true autonomy in the future, they must be able to assess risks before making decisions,” says Nader Motee (pictured below), a professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics in Lehigh University's P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science.  Motee recently received a nearly $680,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research to develop a novel, multi-stage, perception-based control paradigm that will essentially help robots assess risk, and ultimately make autonomous systems safer and more efficient. We humans conduct ...

WASHINGTON -- While often perceived as a negative emotion, anger can also be a powerful motivator for people to achieve challenging goals in their lives, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. “People often believe that a state of happiness is ideal, and the majority of people consider the pursuit of happiness a major life goal,” said lead author Heather Lench, PhD, a professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at Texas A&M University. “The view that positive emotion is ideal ...

The Department of Pediatrics at NYU Langone Health has received $9.8 million from NYU Langone trustee Trudy Elbaum Gottesman and Robert W. Gottesman, founding donors of Sala Institute for Child and Family Centered Care, which has profoundly influenced excellence in clinical care across Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone since 2013. “We are proud to support innovations in pediatric research and career growth of physician–scientists,” said Trudy Elbaum Gottesman. “Our commitment is unwavering and focused on enhancing outcomes ...

WASHINGTON – The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) will honor six researchers who have made significant contributions to the advancement of women in neuroscience. The awards will be presented during Neuroscience 2023, SfN's annual meeting. “SfN proudly recognizes these neuroscientists for their outstanding scientific achievements and efforts to support other researchers,” said SfN President Oswald Steward. “Their dedication to scientific excellence and inclusion of women along the length of the research pipeline results in a stronger, more relevant field of neuroscience.” Bernice Grafstein Award for Outstanding ...

WASHINGTON – The Society of Neuroscience (SfN) will honor leading researchers whose pioneering work has transformed neuroscience — including the understanding of the visual system, addiction, synaptic plasticity, and learning and memory — with this year’s Outstanding Career and Research Achievement Awards. The awards will be presented during Neuroscience 2023, SfN’s annual meeting. “The Society is honored to recognize this year’s awardees, whose groundbreaking work has transformed our understanding of plasticity in ...

WASHINGTON – The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) will honor eight early-career researchers whose work is transforming our understanding of the neural dynamics of touch sensation, spatial navigation, memory circuits, and more. The awards will be presented during Neuroscience 2023, SfN's annual meeting. “This year’s Early Career Awardees are pushing the boundaries of neuroscience by combining cutting-edge methods in machine learning, microscopy, genetics, biophysics, and beyond,” said SfN President Oswald ...

WASHINGTON – The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) will present five neuroscientists with this year’s Science Education and Outreach Awards, comprising the Award for Education in Neuroscience, the Science Educator Award, and the Next Generation Awards. The awards will be presented during SfN’s annual meeting, Neuroscience 2023. “The Society is honored to recognize this creative group of neuroscientists working to educate the public about science and combat misinformation,” SfN President Oswald Steward, said. “Their innovative approaches — including games and viral social media videos — inspire not just the next generation of neuroscientists, ...

As the planet gets hotter, the need for cool living environments is becoming more urgent. But air conditioning is a major contributor to global warming since units use potent greenhouse gases and lots of energy. Now, researchers from McGill University, UCLA and Princeton have found in a new study an inexpensive, sustainable alternative to mechanical cooling with refrigerants in hot and arid climates, and a way to mitigate dangerous heat waves during electricity blackouts. The researchers set out to answer how to achieve a new benchmark in passive cooling inside naturally conditioned buildings in hot climates such as Southern California. They examined the use of roof materials ...

Good things come in microscopic packages, according to the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology’s new DROPLETS project. By packaging electrochemical reactions in smaller-than-standard serving sizes, interdisciplinary researchers aim to produce clean hydrogen, sequester carbon dioxide, and store renewable energies like wind and solar inexpensively and sustainably. Their project, called DROPLETS, received $4.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science through its Energy Earthshots Initiative. “If we do this right, we will ...

Care for women with menopausal health issues should improve globally following the release of an updated Monash University-led toolkit that guides health professionals around the world in assessing and treating them. Endorsed by the International, Australasian and British Menopause Societies, the Endocrine Society of Australia and Jean Hailes for Women’s Health, the 2023 Practitioner’s Toolkit for Managing the Menopause is designed to be used anywhere in the world.   Published in Climacteric, the Toolkit has been updated and enhanced from the original 2014 Toolkit for practitioners with new advice and therapies based on a systematic review of the latest menopause ...

An enzyme that may help some breast cancers spread can be stopped with an antibody created in the lab of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Nicholas Tonks. With further development, the antibody might offer an effective drug treatment for those same breast cancers. The new antibody targets an enzyme called PTPRD that is overabundant in some breast cancers. PTPRD belongs to a family of molecules known as protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs), which help regulate many cellular processes. They do this by working in concert with enzymes called kinases to control how other proteins ...

Over the last decade, research at Michigan Medicine has shown how exposure to toxins in the environment, such as pesticides and carcinogenic PCBs, affect the risk of developing and dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.  Now, investigators have developed an environmental risk score that assesses a person’s risk for developing ALS, as well as for survival after diagnosis, using a blood sample. The results are published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. “For the first time, we have a means collecting ...