Key takeaways Whaling in the 20th century destroyed 99% of the Eastern North Pacific fin whale breeding  population. Because there is enough genetic diversity, current conservation measures should help the population rebound without becoming inbred. The future of fin whales in the Gulf of California depends on the recovery of the Eastern North Pacific population. A new genomic study by UCLA biologists shows that whaling in the 20th century destroyed 99% of the Eastern North Pacific fin whale breeding, or “effective,” population — 29% more than previously thought. But there is also some good news: Genes among members of this endangered ...

By Benjamin Boettner (Boston) — The lung is one of the tissues most sensitive to radiation in the human body. People exposed to high radiation doses following nuclear incidents develop radiation-induced lung injury (RILI), which affects the function of many cell types in the lung, causing acute and sustained inflammation, and in the longer term, the thickening and scarring of lung tissue known as fibrosis. RILI also is a common side effect of radiation therapy administered to cancer patients to kill malignant cells in their bodies, and can limit the maximum radiation dose doctors can use to control their ...

Texas A&M University scientists and research partners have received two National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) grants to study the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in deer. These funds will help researchers understand the impact of the virus in Texas’ deer populations and its relationship to human and ecological health. For these projects, the research team will focus on captive deer, which are an agricultural species in Texas, including managed deer that live on large, rural properties enclosed by fences, as well as on the wild deer with which captive deer may interact and deer living ...

SAN ANTONIO - October 17, 2023 — Southwest Research Institute has developed a unique technology (US20230242487A1) that enables the safe and efficient synthesis of organophosphorus nerve agent (OPNA) oxime antidotes. Using this technology, SwRI scientists can not only successfully synthesize currently known highly effective nerve agent countermeasures, but also effectively develop promising new drug candidates to treat nerve agent exposure. Current treatments for OPNA exposure have not changed significantly since the 1950s. OPNAs are odorless and colorless chemicals ...

October 17, 2023—The Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST) announced today that the non-profit organization has entered into an exclusive global collaborative research and development agreement with the University of Pennsylvania to develop an investigational adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy for Angelman syndrome (AS). Angelman syndrome is a nondegenerative neurogenetic disorder that is estimated to impact approximately 1 in 15,000 births, or potentially 500,000 individuals world-wide, ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2023 – Wave energy technology is a proven source of power generation, but there is power inherent in every molecule of liquid on earth, even when the liquid is at rest. At the molecular scale, atoms and ions are always moving. If this nanoscale movement can be harvested, it could be a big source of energy. “There are vast amounts of air and liquid on the earth, and their successful harvesting could produce a gigantic amount of energy for society,” author Yucheng Luan said. In an article published this week in APL Materials, by AIP Publishing, Luan and his collaborators tested a molecular energy harvesting device that captures ...

For many people seaweed holds a reputation as a superfood, heralded for its health benefits and sustainability, but it appears our European ancestors were ahead of the game and were consuming the nutrient-rich plant for thousands of years. Researchers say they have found “definitive” archaeological evidence that seaweeds and other local freshwater plants were eaten in the mesolithic, through the Neolithic transition to farming and into the Early Middle Ages, suggesting that these resources, now rarely eaten in Europe, only ...

About The Study: The Million Hearts Model, which encouraged and paid health care organizations to assess and reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, reduced first-time heart attacks and strokes. The results support guidelines to use risk scores for CVD primary prevention.  Authors: Laura Blue, Ph.D., of Mathematica in Washington, D.C., 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/jama.2023.19597) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2023 – Climate change and the rapid increase in frequency of extreme weather events around the globe – such as wildfires and floods – reinforces the reality that these events are not only not random but, rather, interconnected. Interlinked climate behavior, or teleconnections, isn’t a well understood field but will be necessary to fully comprehend how our climate system works. In Chaos, from AIP Publishing, a team of researchers affiliated with Beijing Normal University and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in China and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany describes a climate network analysis method to explore ...

About The Study: The results of this study of over 4.7 million patient encounters across the U.S. during a 3-year period suggest that patients from racial and ethnic minority groups with acute traumatic injuries do not have their pain treated equitably in the prehospital setting. Authors: Eli Carrillo, M.D., of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California, 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.2023.38070) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional ...

About The Study: In this study of 109,000 individuals born between 1933 and 1952 and followed up in old age, adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was associated with an increased risk of dementia. Policy makers, caregivers, patients, and clinicians may wish to monitor reliably for ADHD in old age. Authors: Stephen Z. Levine, Ph.D., of the University of Haifa in Haifa, Israel, 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.2023.38088) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including ...

Tropical forests are among the most important habitats on our planet. They are characterised by extremely high species diversity and play an eminent role in the global carbon cycle and the world climate. However, many tropical forest areas have been deforested and overexploitation continues day by day. Reforested areas in the tropics are therefore becoming increasingly important for the climate and biodiversity. How well biodiversity develops on such areas can be monitored very well with an automated analysis of animal sounds. This was reported by researchers in the journal Nature Communications. Recordings on Former Cocoa Plantations and Pastures As part of the DFG research group ...

(Boston)—Untreated hyperthyroidism, conditions where there is excess thyroid hormone present, can adversely affect health, leading to increased risks for abnormal heart rhythms, heart failure, osteoporosis, adverse pregnancy outcomes, metabolic abnormalities and increased mortality risk. Hyperthyroidism can occur due to several different etiologies, including Graves’ disease, toxic (overactive) thyroid nodules, and thyroiditis. It is important to recognize, correctly diagnose, and appropriately treat the underlying cause of hyperthyroidism to minimize its impacts on health. In a new review article in the Journal ...

Adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are nearly three times more likely to develop dementia than adults without ADHD, according to a Rutgers study. The study, coauthored by Michal Schnaider Beeri, director of the Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at Rutgers Brain Health Institute (BHI) was published in JAMA Network Open. It followed more than 100,000 older adults in Israel over 17 years to examine if adults with ADHD are at increased risk for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. Although more than 3 percent of the adult population in the United States has ADHD, there is limited research ...

Because the bumblebee that an orchid relies on for pollination does not exist on a remote island, the plant gets pollinated by an island wasp. Kobe University researchers found that this came at the cost of being hybridized with another orchid species adapted to being pollinated by the wasp. The finding showcases how plants in ecological relationships adapt to changing circumstances.   Remote islands have been exciting study grounds for biologists since at least the days of Darwin. When studying ecological relationships between different species, the differences between mainland and island ...

Scientists measured microplastic concentrations in the highly productive Barents Sea and suggest that ocean circulation, ice melt, tourism, inadequate waste management, shipping and fishing are all likely contributors. Numerous studies have shown that global microplastic quantities in the marine environment are increasing, even in remote locations such as the Arctic. The Barents Sea, which adjoins the Arctic Ocean, is one of the most productive oceanic areas in the world and home to an enormous diversity of organisms. It is also a key route for Atlantic ...

Some viruses can be dormant throughout a person’s life and cause no harm but become dangerous when the immune system is weakened. One of such viruses is human cytomegalovirus (CMV). Harmless to the general public but life-threatening to patients with a supressed immune system. “Patients undergoing bone marrow transplantations have their blood and immune system fully replaced by that of the donor. In the first months after transplantation they are defenseless. They can either catch CMV or have virus reactivated that was dormant in the patient. At the moment, there is no ideal treatment. The available ones work ...

Depression and anxiety among college students is a growing public health problem. And new research from the University of Georgia suggests the problem may be worse for students who aren’t the same race as most of their peers. The new study found that students who were not the majority race at a predominantly white college reported significantly higher rates of depression than their white peers. At the mostly white university, more than half of the students who self-identified as races other than white reported feelings of mild depression. An additional 17% said they were experiencing moderate to severe depression. Students at the predominantly ...

DURHAM, N.H.—U.S. Climate policies can offer options for putting climate change efforts into place that solve environmental problems like excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere created by greenhouse gas emissions. Research led by the University of New Hampshire took a closer look at what would happen to agriculture if there was an extra cost, or so-called social cost, added to fossil fuels, which are essential for making fertilizer used in farming. They found that while CO2 emissions would decline by as much as 50%, the cost of fertilizer would rise leading to a significant benefit on water quality by lessening fertilizer runoff contributing ...

In a major stride towards achieving fast-charging lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with reliable cyclability, researchers at UNIST have made a groundbreaking discovery. Their study, published in the prestigious ACS Energy Letters, introduces a novel strategy of utilizing phosphorus nanolayers to enhance the lithiation kinetics and performance of graphite-based composites, without compromising safety. Led by Professor Hyun-Wook Lee from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST, the research team developed a revolutionary graphite-phosphorus composite using a vaporization-condensation ...

In 2020, the Pantanal, the largest tropical freshwater wetland in the world and a biodiversity hotspot, was swept by high-intensity fires that destroyed native vegetation in an area totaling 44,998 square kilometers (km²), or about 30% of the Brazilian portion of the biome, which spans some 150,000 km². The estimate is presented in an article published in the science journal Fire. The area destroyed by that year’s disastrous fires was far larger than had been thought, according to the article. ...

SAN ANTONIO — October 17, 2023 —Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) will continue advancing the Elastic Plastic Impact Computations (EPIC) dynamic finite-element code as part of an Other Transaction Prototype Agreement with the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. The first year’s funding of $500,000 has been awarded, with optional additional funding across the next three years totaling $3.5 million. “EPIC uses finite element and particle methods to simulate complex impact and explosion scenarios,” said SwRI Staff Engineer Dr. Stephen Beissel, who leads the EPIC project and has been involved in EPIC’s development since the mid-1990s. ...

17 October 2023 The Geological Society of America Release No. 23-42 Contact: Justin Samuel +1-303-357-1026 jsamuel@geosociety.org For Immediate Release Contributed by Sarah Derouin Pittsburgh, Pa., USA: Earthworms, the hardworking invertebrates that grace the upper layers of soil, have long been considered helpful in our home gardens. Earthworms are prolific munchers, grinding up organic material and sediment grains that make up soils. Although they are very different animals, worms, like many poultry, have gizzards. “Worms will ingest some larger soil grains, and then they use the strongest and largest of those grains, retaining them in their gizzard,” ...

17 October 2023 The Geological Society of America Release No. 23-40 Contact: Justin Samuel +1-303-357-1026 jsamuel@geosociety.org For Immediate Release Leer en español. Contributed by Sarah Derouin Pittsburgh, Pa., USA: In the karstic caves of Puerto Rico, cave art paints the rock walls. Previous research has assigned ages to this art based on the ages of nearby archaeological artifacts within the caves, but these ages are relative and may not reflect the true timing of the art creation. Now, a new study to be presented Wednesday at the Geological Society of America’s GSA Connects 2023 meeting shows that researchers have refined the age of this rupestrian ...

17 October 2023 The Geological Society of America Release No. 23-41 Contact: Justin Samuel +1-303-357-1026 jsamuel@geosociety.org For Immediate Release Contributed by Sarah Derouin Pittsburgh, Pa., USA: Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have been monitoring groundwater quality in wells across the country for more than three decades, looking for harmful chemicals or residual substances that may cause harm to ecosystems or humans. In all, they have measured up to 500 chemical constituents, including major ions, metals, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, fertilizers, and radionuclides. Of ...