Research has shown that music might be a drug-free way to lower humans’ pain perception. This decreased sensitivity to pain – also known as hypoalgesia – can occur when pain stimuli are disrupted between their point of input and where they are recognized as pain by the conscious mind. In a new study, researchers in Canada have examined what type of music helps to dampen pain perception. “In our study, we show that favorite music chosen by study participants has a much larger effect on acute thermal pain reduction than unfamiliar relaxing music” said Darius Valevicius, a doctoral student at the Université ...

Osaka, Japan – Everybody knows the importance of warming up your muscles before a workout. But what is actually going on when we warm our muscles up, and are all muscles the same? You might be surprised to find out that the science behind this routine activity hasn’t always been clear. Now, in a study recently published in the Journal of General Physiology, a multi-institutional research team, led by Osaka University, The Jikei University School of Medicine and National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology, has revealed how heating affects the contraction of different muscles, and how this might benefit populations in need of improved ...

Drs. SuDong Park, Byungki Ryu, and Jaywan Chung of the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) developed a new thermoelectric efficiency formalism and a high-efficiency multistage thermoelectric power generator module. This innovation can boost nuclear battery performance, crucial for space probes, and has attracted attention from the German Aerospace Research Institute. A Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG), known as a thermoelectric-based nuclear battery, is a dependable power ...

By Katharine Gammon    For many people, forgetting your keys or struggling to plan tasks can seem like a normal part of the aging process. But those lapses can actually be symptoms of something more serious: mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, which could be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease.   Unfortunately, most people who have MCI don’t know it, so they’re unable to take advantage of preventive measures or new treatments, such as a recently approved drug for Alzheimer’s disease, that ...

GigXR, Inc., a global provider of holographic healthcare training, announced today its partnership with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), one of the world’s leading medical schools, to introduce a new gastrointestinal module for the award-winning HoloScenarios application. Created to better prepare medical and nursing students in diagnosing and treating acute gastrointestinal diseases, HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal delivers evidence-based, robust clinical simulations that present hyperrealistic holographic simulated patients and medical equipment to be used in any physical learning environment, ...

Cancer Leadership Sylvester Leader Named BioFlorida’s ‘Researcher of Year’ Stephen D. Nimer, MD, Sylvester Cancer director, has been named Researcher of the Year by BioFlorida, an association for the state’s life sciences industry. BioFlorida represents 8,600 companies and research organizations in biopharmaceuticals, medical technology, digital and health systems. It honored Nimer for his groundbreaking research in adult leukemia which has contributed to transforming patient care. For details, visit the InventUM blog. Pioneering Sylvester Physician Elected to Neuro-Oncology Board Macarena de la Fuente, ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Physicist Barry C. Barish, a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at UC Riverside, was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Joe Biden at a ceremony held at the White House today. Established in 1959 by the U.S. Congress, the National Medal of Science is the highest recognition the nation can bestow on scientists and engineers. The President’s National Medal of Science is given to individuals “deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions in biology, computer sciences, education sciences, engineering, geosciences, mathematical and physical sciences, and social, behavioral, and economic ...

Clocking up just 20-25 minutes of physical activity every day may be enough to offset the heightened risk of death from a highly sedentary lifestyle, suggests research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. But higher daily tallies of physical activity are linked to a lower risk, irrespective of the amount of time spent seated every day, the findings show. In developed nations, adults spend an average of 9 to 10 hours every day sitting down—mostly during working hours. And a highly sedentary lifestyle is associated with a heightened risk of death, explain the researchers. Much of the ...

Extending the annual screen by a year for people in England considered to be at low risk of diabetic eye disease (diabetic retinopathy) could risk critical treatment delays and/or sight loss, suggests a large, real world data study, published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. Early treatment is vital to stave off blindness, say the researchers. A 2-yearly screen delayed hospital referral by 12 months among around half of those who developed serious diabetic eye disease, with those at either end of the age spectrum and of Black ethnicity most at risk, the findings indicate. A review and update of ...

Tai Chi, the Chinese martial art that involves sequences of very slow controlled movements, may curb the symptoms and complications of Parkinson’s disease for several years, reveals research, published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. Its practice was associated with slower disease progression and lower doses of required drugs over time, the findings show. Parkinson’s disease is a debilitating and progressive neurodegenerative disorder, characterised by slowness of movement, resting tremor, and stiff and inflexible muscles. It is the fastest growing neurological ...

The findings of a foundational UK public dialogue on human embryo research are published today, Wednesday 25th October 2023, as part of the Wellcome-funded Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI). The HDBI is an ambitious scientific endeavour to advance our understanding of human development. The dialogue project, which was co-funded by UKRI Sciencewise programme, engaged a diverse group of the public to consider how early human embryo research can be used to its fullest, the 14-day rule and the fast-paced field of stem cell-based embryo models. Headline findings include: Appetite for review of the 14-day rule: Participants recognised that extending the 14-day rule could open ...

NEW ORLEANS, La.— Ochsner Health radiologist Edward Bluth, MD, FACR, was recently awarded the 2023 Lawrence A. Mack Lifetime Achievement Award in Washington D.C. by the Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound (SRU) for outstanding achievement in ultrasound research. The Lawrence A. Mack Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest annual award given to a SRU member. The SRU, comprised of radiologists with expertise in ultrasound, works towards advancing science, practice and teaching of the specialty of ultrasound to ensure the professional fulfillment of radiologists performing ultrasound ...

URBANA, Ill. — President Joe Biden announced Monday that the Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing Hub (iFAB) is among 31 designated Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs (Tech Hubs) by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) — recognizing Central Illinois as a globally competitive center for innovation and job creation in biomanufacturing. Led by the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory (IBRL) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the iFAB consortium includes 30 partner organizations ...

Dr. Chelsea Polis, Senior Scientist of Epidemiology at the Center for Biomedical Research, has been selected as the Early Career winner of this year’s John Maddox Prize. The John Maddox Prize recognises individuals who stand up for science, despite hostility, to bring evidence to the public. Stories highlighted by the Maddox Prize show the harm done to society when sound scientific evidence and insights are not shared. The prize brings attention to the courage shown by individuals who take responsibility for helping society understand research evidence, and who encourage and inspire others ...

Mosquitoes and other insects can carry human diseases such as dengue and Zika virus, but when those insects are infected with certain strains of the bacteria Wolbachia, this bacteria reduces levels of disease in their hosts. Humans currently take advantage of this to control harmful virus populations across the world. New research led at UC Santa Cruz reveals how the bacteria strain Wolbachia pipientis also enhances the fertility of the insects it infects, an insight that could help scientists increase the populations of mosquitoes that do not carry human disease. “With insect population replacement approaches, they keep all the mosquitos and just add Wolbachia ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (10/24/2023) — Health professionals have long praised the benefits of insoluble fiber for bowel regularity and overall health. New research from the University of Minnesota suggests even more reasons we should be prioritizing fiber in our regular diets. In a new study published in Nutrients, researchers found that each plant source of insoluble fiber contains unique bioactives — compounds that have been linked to lower incidence of cardiovascular disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes — offering potential health benefits beyond ...

Since the HMS Beagle arrived in the Galapagos with Charles Darwin to meet a fateful family of finches, ecologists have struggled to understand a particularly perplexing question: Why is there a ridiculous abundance of species some places on earth and a scarcity in others? What factors, exactly, drive animal diversity? With access to a mammoth set of global-scale climate data and a novel strategy, a team from the Department of Watershed Sciences in Quinney College of Natural Resources and the Ecology Center identified several factors to help ...

Charles Parks Richardson, MD, has been elected as a Board Member of the Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Richardson is an American physician who is both an accomplished physician and a medical innovator. He has not only been the inventor of several medical devices and pharmaceutical processes but has translated these into successful business ventures in partnership with such prestigious organizations as the American Heart Association. He is currently the CEO of Critical Medical Infrastructure (CMI), KRS Global Biotechnology, and GeneRx, ...

Innovation Center of NanoMedicine (iCONM; Center Director: Kazunori Kataoka; Location: Kawasaki, Japan) has announced with The University of Tokyo that a group led by Prof. Takanori Ichiki, Research Director of iCONM (Professor, Department of Materials Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo), proposed a new property evaluation method of nanoparticles’ shape anisotropy that solves long-standing issues in nanoparticle evaluation that date back to Einstein's time. The paper, titled " Analysis of Brownian motion trajectories of non-spherical nanoparticles ...

SAN FRANCISCO – A large, modern real-world analysis published today in the Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (JSCAI), provides vital insights into the safety of novel therapies including ultrasound-assisted catheter-directed thrombolysis (USCDT) and mechanical thrombectomy (MT) that have been developed to address the increased morbidity and mortality of elevated risk pulmonary embolism (PE). Findings were presented today at TCT 2023. Pulmonary embolism is a potentially life-threatening condition where a blood clot embolizes to the lungs, obstructing ...

The NSF-funded FABRIC project has completed installation of a unique network infrastructure connection, called the TeraCore—a ring spanning the continental U.S.—which boasts data transmission speeds of 1.2 Terabits per second (Tbps), or one trillion bits per second. FABRIC previously established preeminence with its cross-continental infrastructure, but the project has now hit another milestone as the only testbed capable of transmitting data at these speeds—the highest being twelve times faster than what was available ...

Which sustainability goals do people in Germany find more important: Animal welfare? Or environmental protection? Human health is another one of these competing sustainability goals. A team of researchers from the Department of Agricultural and Food Market Research at the University of Bonn have now found that consumers surveyed in their study would rather pay more for salami with an “antibiotic-free” label than for salami with an “open barn” label that indicates that the product promotes animal welfare. The results have now been published in the journal “Q Open.” The animal husbandry sector ...

Following a national search, Paul Anderson, MD, PhD, has been named Chief Academic Officer for Mass General Brigham. Anderson, who has been serving in this role on an interim basis since January 1, oversees Mass General Brigham’s world-class research and teaching enterprise, which includes two academic medical centers — Mass General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital — and three specialty hospitals. Mass General Brigham is the largest hospital system-based research enterprise in the nation, with an annual ...

Researchers have identified buried kimberlite, the rocky home of diamonds, by testing the DNA of microbes in the surface soil. These ‘biological fingerprints’ can reveal what minerals are buried tens of metres below the earth’s surface without having to drill. The researchers believe it is the first use of modern DNA sequencing of microbial communities in the search for buried minerals. The research published this week in Nature Communications Earth and Environment represents a new tool for mineral exploration, where a full toolbox could save prospectors time and a lot of money, says co-author Bianca Iulianella Phillips, a doctoral candidate at ...

Adding crushed volcanic rock to cropland could play a key role in removing carbon from the air. In a field study, scientists at the University of California, Davis, and Cornell University found the technology stored carbon in the soil even during an extreme drought in California. The study was published in the journal Environmental Research Communications. Rain captures carbon dioxide from the air as it falls and reacts with volcanic rock to lock up carbon. The process, called rock weathering, can take millions of years ...