As California works to meet climate and air quality goals, a key to the transition will come from biomass, which is renewable organic material from plants and animals. New research from the University of California, Davis, published in the journal Global Change Biology Bioenergy, examines the good and bad uses of biomass and the best pathways to meet California’s goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 85% of 1990 levels by 2045. “California is fortunate in having a large biomass resource,” said lead author Peter Freer-Smith, an adjunct professor in the Department of Plant Sciences. “Finding ...

Filaments of dust and gas festoon this star-forming region in a new infrared image from MIRI. One of the greatest strengths of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is its ability to give astronomers detailed views of areas where new stars are being born. The latest example, showcased here in a new image from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), is NGC 346 – the brightest and largest star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, visible to the unaided eye in the southern constellation Tucana. This ...

The National Cancer Institute awarded investigators at Huntsman Cancer Institute a grant totaling more than $3 million to conduct a clinical trial to see if combining creatine monohydrate supplementation and resistance exercise training helps preserve muscle in people who have metastatic prostate cancer. Loss of muscle mass is a major side effect of treatment for prostate cancer. Creatine monohydrate supplementation, a naturally occurring molecule in the body, helps combat fatigue and provides more energy, resulting in better workouts. Researchers hypothesize that taking creatine monohydrate ...

With a population of 127 million and a land mass about a fifth the size of the United States, Mexico has a large spectrum of climates and landscapes, ranging from mountains to coastal regions and from deserts to glaciers. Because of these variations, it is important for communities to understand precipitation patterns to plan appropriately for weather events and water resources management.   A team led by Ricardo Sánchez-Murillo, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at The University of Texas at Arlington, has created a new isotope database that includes 608 monthly rain samples (spanning 2018-22) from 21 monitoring stations ...

TAMPA, Fla. — Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common type of skin cancer in the United States, impacting approximately 700,000 people each year. While medications exist to prevent the development of disease, they are associated with side effects, suggesting the need for new drugs that can be safely used to prevent it. In a new article published today in Science Translational Medicine, a team of Moffitt Cancer Center researchers, in collaboration with NFlection Therapeutics and researchers at Stanford University, reports the ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center will host its annual Leading Edge of Cancer Research Symposium Nov. 16-17, 2023, featuring presentations and discussions on genomics, immunity and inflammation, computational approaches for spatial biology, and emerging technologies that are driving the next wave of cancer breakthroughs. The in-person symposium at MD Anderson will include keynote presentations from Paul Mischel, M.D., professor of Pathology at Stanford University, Andrea Schietinger, Ph.D., associate professor of Immunology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Kevan Shokat, Ph.D., chair of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at University ...

Speech production is a complex neural phenomenon that has left researchers explaining it tongue-tied. Separating out the complex web of neural regions controlling  precise muscle movement in the mouth, jaw and tongue with the regions processing the auditory feedback of hearing your own voice is a complex problem, and one that has to be overcome for the next generation of speech-producing protheses. Now, a team of researchers from New York University have made key discoveries that help untangle that web, and are using it to build vocal reconstruction technology that recreates the voices of patients ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers in the Oregon State University College of Engineering are spearheading a $2 million federal effort to explore new ways of developing electrical components that are better able to withstand extreme operating conditions, especially high temperatures. The team will try to find novel, artificial-intelligence-based methods for designing and building long-lasting, high-efficiency electrical components for harsh-environment applications such as high-power radar and the aerospace, automotive and wireless communications industries. “The semiconductor ...

The National Science Foundation is funding a $13.9 million program led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks to help multiple communities respond to coastal erosion, flooding, permafrost thaw and other hazards attributed to climate change. The four years of funding is part of the foundation’s Navigating the New Arctic program. The funding supports AC³TION, a project led by the Alaska Coastal Cooperative at UAF in collaboration with the rural coastal communities, Arizona State University, the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Texas El Paso. The group’s acronym stands for Alaska Coastal Cooperative for Co-producing Transformative Ideas and Opportunities ...

MINNEAPOLIS – Among people who report memory and thinking problems, some show no signs of a problem on standard tests, while others have subtle declines on their tests. A new study shows that people who have subtle problems with these tests may have an increased risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, which can be a precursor to dementia. The study is published in the October 11, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Several studies have found that people with subjective ...

MINNEAPOLIS – New guidance has been issued for clinicians on the determination of brain death, also known as death by neurologic criteria. A new consensus practice guideline, developed through a collaboration between the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Child Neurology Society (CNS), and the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) is published in the October 11, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. This guideline updates the 2010 AAN ...

“The present study is among few to examine racial/ethnic disparities in dementia risk and their related pathways [...]. It is the first to do so in a UK population.” BUFFALO, NY- October 11, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 18, entitled, “Pathways explaining racial/ethnic and socio-economic disparities in dementia incidence: the UK Biobank study.” Pathways explaining racial/ethnic disparities ...

“[...] our approach enables mechanistic studies of drug resistance with 3D cultures of primary cancer cells to develop and test treatments that suppress cancer [...].” BUFFALO, NY- October 11, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on October 4, 2023, entitled, “Inhibiting BRAF/EGFR/MEK suppresses cancer stemness and drug resistance of primary colorectal cancer cells.” Drug resistance is a major barrier against successful treatments of cancer patients. Gain of stemness under drug pressure is a major mechanism that renders treatments ineffective. Identifying ...

Orchids, mosses, ferns—or epiphytes, defined as nonparasitic plants that grow on other plants—are crucial for Earth’s biodiversity and play essential roles in forests around the world, building habitat in trees for myriad other life forms, from bacteria and insects to birds and reptiles. However, the very attributes that have enabled epiphytes to thrive in forest canopies are now making them vulnerable to both natural and human-caused disturbances, according to Nalini Nadkarni, the University of Utah biologist renowned for her pioneering work studying and conserving treetop ecosystems. In a study published this month, Nadkarni found these vital plants ...

What type of brain tumor does this patient have? AI technology helps to determine this as early as during surgery, within 1.5 hours. This process normally takes a week. The new technology allows neurosurgeons to adjust their surgical strategies on the spot. Today, researchers from UMC Utrecht and researchers, pathologists and neurosurgeons from the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology and Amsterdam UMC have published about this study in Nature.  Every year, 1,400 adults and 150 children are diagnosed with a tumor in the brain or spinal cord in the Netherlands. Surgery is often the ...

Quantum computers of the future hold promise in solving all sorts of problems. For example, they could lead to more sustainable materials, new medicines, and even crack the hardest problems in fundamental physics. But compared to classical computers in use today, rudimentary quantum computers are more prone to errors. Wouldn't it be nice if researchers could just take out a special quantum eraser and get rid of the mistakes?   Reporting in the journal Nature, a group of researchers led by Caltech is among the first to demonstrate a type of quantum eraser. The physicists show that they can pinpoint and correct for mistakes in quantum computing ...

Researchers from Cima and the Clínica Universidad de Navarra, together with the international cooperative group Diffuse Midline Glioma (DMG-ACT), have confirmed that blocking an immune checkpoint molecule reduces the tumor and prolongs survival in animal models of the most aggressive childhood cancer. This research, carried out at the Cancer Center Clínica Universidad de Navarra, shows that inhibition of TIM-3 promotes the immune memory of diffuse intrinsic stem glioma (DIPG) and improves the prognosis of the disease. DIPG is an aggressive brain stem tumor and the leading cause of death related to pediatric cancer. Due to its location therapeutic ...

DNA analysis of mummified poop reveals two pre-Columbian Caribbean cultures ate a wide variety of plants, like maize, sweet potato, and peanuts—and tobacco and cotton traces were detected too, according to a study published October 11, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jelissa Reynoso-García from the University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, and colleagues. Mummified poop, or coprolites, can reveal clues to diet and lifestyle. In this study, Reynoso-García and colleagues analyzed plant DNA isolated from coprolites sampled from archeological sites of two pre-Columbian cultures (Huecoid and Saladoid) to see what these peoples ate ...

Modifiable risk factors—including hypertension, obesity, diabetes, low HDL cholesterol and sleep disorders—confer a higher risk of dementia for people in some minority ethnic groups compared to White people, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Naaheed Mukadam of University College London, UK, and colleagues. The number of people with dementia is on the rise around the world. There has been increasing interest in potentially modifiable risk factors, ...

In a new study, participants tended to rate women’s bodies as slimmer when viewed in selfie photographs than in photographs taken from other angles. Ruth Knight of York St John University, UK, and Catherine Preston of the University of York, UK, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on October 11. Popular on social media, selfies are portraits taken by the photo’s subject, who positions the camera away from their body but pointed back at themself. Prior research has suggested that viewing selfies might affect viewers’ judgments of the photo subjects’ attractiveness and could, in some cases, lead to ...

Karin's life took a dramatic turn when a farming accident claimed her right arm over 20 years ago. Since then, she endured excruciating phantom limb pain. “It felt like I constantly had my hand in a meat grinder, which created a high level of stress and I had to take high doses of various painkillers.” In addition to her intractable pain, she found that conventional prostheses were uncomfortable and unreliable, and thus of little help in daily life. All this changed when she received groundbreaking bionic technology that allowed her to wear a much more functional ...

UCLA researchers have developed a new treatment method using a tiny nanocapsule to help boost the immune response, making it easier for the immune system to fight and kill solid tumors. The investigators found the approach, described in the journal Science Translational Medicine, increased the number and activity of immune cells that attack the cancer, making cancer immunotherapies work better. “Cancer immunotherapy has reshaped the landscape of cancer treatment,” said senior author of the ...

Giving living donor liver transplant recipients an infusion of immune cells derived from their donor a week before transplantation is feasible, safe – and may lead to recipients being successfully weaned off immunosuppressant medications without rejecting the transplanted organ. The early-stage clinical trial results by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists, reported today in Science Translational Medicine, point to a path that may spare organ transplant recipients from the serious side effects of long-term immunosuppressant use, which can include cancer, diabetes, kidney failure and susceptibility to infections. “These trial results are very encouraging,” ...

Evolutionary biologists have for the first time decoded the genetic lineage of a famous killer whale and a pod that once worked alongside whale hunters off the coast of New South Wales. In the Australian tradition of claiming New Zealand’s celebrities as its own, Old Tom, the leader of a pod of killer whales that famously helped whalers hunt baleen whales in the 20th century, has ancestral links to modern-day killer whales in New Zealand, according to new DNA research. Old Tom also shared a common ancestor with killer whales from Australasia, the North Pacific, and North Atlantic Oceans, but is most similar to modern New Zealand killer whales. However, most of Tom’s ...

Love songs are at least as popular in the animal kingdom as on the radio. The importance of musically serenading your true love has driven plotlines from Twelfth Night to The Trumpet of the Swan to Happy Feet.  The latest exploration of music in the natural world is taking place in Mala Murthy’s lab at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, where Murthy and her research group have used neural imaging, optogenetics, motion capture, modeling and artificial intelligence to pinpoint precisely where and how a fruit fly’s brain toggles between its standard solo and its mating serenade. Their research ...