UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 10 AM BST / 5 AM ET FRIDAY 22 AUGUST 2025 Researchers develop an innovative method for large-scale analysis of metabolites in biological samples More images available via the link in the notes section Researchers from the McCullagh Group in Oxford University’s Department of Chemistry have published an innovative method in Nature Protocols today (22 August) that provides comprehensive analysis of metabolites found in cells, tissues and biofluids. The new method delivers a step-change in capability for analysing highly polar and ionic metabolites. The innovation comes from using anion-exchange chromatography ...

Asteroid Bennu — the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample return mission, led by the University of Arizona — is a mixture of materials from throughout, and even beyond, our solar system. Over the past few billion years, its unique and varied contents have been transformed by interactions with water and the harsh space environment. These details come from a trio of newly published papers based on analysis of Bennu samples delivered to Earth by OSIRIS-REx in 2023. The OSIRIS-REx sample analysis campaign is coordinated by the U of A's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) and involves scientists from around the world. ...

Batteries in electric vehicles wear out too quickly and this is slowing down the electrification of the transport sector. Researchers at Uppsala University have now developed an AI model that can provide a much more accurate picture of battery ageing. The model could lead to longer life and enhanced safety for electric vehicle batteries. It is not uncommon for batteries in electric cars to be the first component of the vehicle to age. This is a major waste of resources today and is holding back the transformation ...

New research unveils the true death toll of the deadly August 2023 wildfires which took place in Lāhainā, Maui, Hawaiʻi — and which temporarily made wildfire a leading cause of death in Maui. By comparing death rates over time, the scientists found that two-thirds more people died that August than would have been expected. To stop this happening again, the authors say, major policy changes are needed, ranging from removing flammable invasive vegetation to improving disaster preparedness.   “Wildfires can cause a measurable, ...

Fukuoka, Japan— Researchers at Kyushu University have demonstrated that yogurt intake increases the diversity of gut microbiota and alters its composition. Furthermore, bathing in chloride hot springs after yogurt intake was found to improve defecation status more than yogurt alone. These findings suggest that combining two lifestyle interventions—yogurt intake and hot spring bathing—may contribute to better health, highlighting their potential application for preventive medicine. The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition. Maintaining a healthy gut environment ...

Translocations are chromosomal “cut and paste” errors that drive many lymphomas, a type of blood cancer and the sixth most common form of cancer overall. This includes mantle cell lymphoma, a rare but aggressive subtype diagnosed in about one in every 100,000 people each year. Translocations are known to spark cancer by altering the activity of the genes near the breakpoints where chromosomes snap and rejoin. For example, a translocation can accidentally cut a gene in half, silencing its activity, or create new hybrid proteins ...

-With images and video-   A new Durham University study has found that a giant impact may not be responsible for the formation of Jupiter's remarkable ‘dilute’ core, challenging a theory about the planet's history.   Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has a mystery at its heart. Unlike what scientists once expected, its core doesn’t have a sharp boundary but instead gradually blends into the surrounding layers of mostly hydrogen (a structure known as a dilute ...

A new study has revealed that racialized and Indigenous communities across Europe, North America, and Central America face significantly higher rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and that gaps in health-care data are making the problem worse. CVD is the leading cause of death worldwide but does not affect people equally. In many countries, Black, South Asian and Indigenous peoples have higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, or high blood pressure compared to white populations. Without an understanding of who is most at risk and why, health systems are unprepared ...

Did you know the same protein that gives blood its red color and carries oxygen throughout the body is also present inside brain cells? Hemoglobin, long celebrated for ferrying oxygen in red blood cells, has now been revealed to play an overlooked — and potentially game-changing — antioxidant role in the brain. In neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and aging, brain cells endure relentless damage from the aberrant (or excessive) reactive oxygen species (ROS). For decades, scientists have tried to neutralize ROS with antioxidant ...

The mystery at Jupiter's heart has taken a fresh twist – as new research suggests a giant impact may not have been responsible for the formation of its core. It had been thought that a colossal collision with an early planet containing half of Jupiter's core material could have mixed up the central region of the gas giant, enough to explain its interior today. But a new study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests its make-up is actually down to how the growing planet absorbed heavy and light materials as it formed and evolved. Unlike what scientists ...

Researchers have developed a new, data-driven way of fitting prosthetic legs which could lead to better fitting prosthetics, in less time and at a lower cost. The technology has been developed by Radii Devices and the University of Southampton, and the results of an NHS trial have been published today [22 August 2025] in JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology. The study shows that below-the-knee prosthetic limbs designed using the new approach were as comfortable on average as those created by highly skilled prosthetists, but with more consistent results. Crucially, the new method generates a basic ...

Under or over? The twists and turns of genetic research DNA is a molecule that can get twisted and tangled - a process that must be closely regulated  A research team has developed an automated technique to visualise and measure DNA tangles Technique is so precise it can tell if one DNA segment passes under or over another At school, it’s often presented as a tidy double helix but scientists are revealing the varied and intricate shapes of DNA molecules.   DNA is a molecule found in just about every living cell. Because the molecule is long, it ends up twisting on itself and getting tangled. Enzymes in the body try to regulate this process but when that ...

New research from Purdue University reveals how moisture influences atmospheric blocking, a phenomenon that often drives heat waves, droughts, cold outbreaks and floods, helping solve a mystery in climate science and improving future extreme weather predictions. The study, titled "Blocking Diversity Causes Distinct Roles of Diabatic Heating in the Northern Hemisphere," was published in Nature Communications. Zhaoyu Liu, a PhD student in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, and Lei Wang, an assistant professor in ...

The fourth annual Fork It Alzheimer’s event, hosted by Daryl and Irwin Simon in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association, took place on July 12, raising funds for groundbreaking Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prevention efforts. During the event, the Simon family announced that the Fork It Fund, created in collaboration with their friend, Stacy Polley, and the Association, awarded $1 million to support a major initiative at the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens ...

Cambridge, MA – Optical frequency combs are specially designed lasers that act like rulers to accurately and rapidly measure specific frequencies of light. They can be used to detect and identify chemicals and pollutants with extremely high precision. Frequency combs would be ideal for remote sensors or portable spectrometers because they can enable accurate, real-time monitoring of multiple chemicals without complex moving parts or external equipment. But developing frequency combs with high enough bandwidth for these applications has been a challenge. ...

Cambridge, MA – Many things account for Haiti’s modern troubles. A good perspective on them comes from going back in time to 1715 or so — and grappling with a far-flung narrative involving the French monarchy, a financial speculator named John Law, and a stock-market crash called the “Mississippi Bubble.” To condense: After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, France was mired in debt following decades of war. The country briefly turned over its economic policy to Law, a ...

People recovering from heart failure should consider improving the regularity of their sleep, a study led by Oregon Health & Science University suggests. The research team found that even moderately irregular sleep doubles the risk of having another clinical event within six months, according to a study published today in the journal JACC Advances. A clinical event could be another visit to the emergency room, hospitalization or even death. “Going to bed and waking up at consistent times is important for overall health,” said lead author Brooke Shafer, Ph.D., ...

HOUSTON – (Aug. 21, 2025) – Wrinkles can be an asset — especially for next-generation electronics. Rice University scientists have discovered that tiny creases in two-dimensional materials can control electrons’ spin with record precision, opening the path to ultracompact, energy-efficient electronic devices. If most devices today use the charge of electrons flowing through silicon to process and encode information, future computing may instead harness spin — a quantum property of electrons that takes on either an “up” or “down” value. Computing with spin could overcome the limitations of current silicon-based technology, reducing ...

The brain controls the release of glucose in a wide range of stressful circumstances, including fasting and low blood sugar levels. However, less attention has been paid to its role in day-to-day situations. In a study published in Molecular Metabolism, University of Michigan researchers have shown that a specific population of neurons in the hypothalamus help the brain maintain blood glucose levels under routine circumstances. Over the past five decades, researchers have shown that dysfunction of the nervous system can lead to fluctuations in blood glucose levels, especially ...

TAMPA, Fla. (Aug. 21, 2025) — A new international study led by researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, the Karolinska Institutet and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has uncovered a surprising mechanism of resistance to immunotherapy: cancer’s ability to injure nearby nerves. The study, published in Nature, shows that when cancer cells infiltrate and damage tumor-associated nerves, it triggers an inflammatory response that ultimately weakens the effectiveness of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy. This widely used treatment works by unleashing the body’s immune system to attack ...

New experiments by Christian Wood and colleagues suggest that the marmoset brain area 46 (A46) in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is key to a functional network that regulates positive and negative emotion-related processes. The findings relate directly to motivation and responsiveness to threat, which play important roles in depression and anxiety. The study also sheds some light on how non-invasive treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and the drug ketamine may work within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to reduce depression and anxiety. Wood et al. show that inactivation of A46 blunts reward-seeking behavior (a hallmark of depression) ...

A collaborative team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Ajou University in South Korea has revealed that the unique fan-like propellers of Rhagovelia water striders —which allow them to glide across fast-moving streams—open and close passively, like a paintbrush, ten times faster than the blink of an eye. Inspired by this biological innovation, the team developed a revolutionary insect-scale robot that incorporates engineered self-morphing fans that mimic ...

In the past decade there has been significant interest in studying the expression of our genetic code down to the level of single cells, to identify the functions and activities of any cell through the course of health or disease. The identity of a cell, and the way that identity can go awry, is critical to its role in many of the biggest health challenges we face, including cancer, neurodegeneration, or genetic and developmental disorders. Zooming in on single cells allows us to tell the difference between variants which would otherwise be lost in the average of a region. This is essential for finding new medical solutions to diseases. Most single cell ...

Thousands of years ago, ancient humans undertook a treacherous journey, crossing hundreds of miles of ice over the Bering Strait to the unknown world of the Americas. Now, a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder suggests that these nomads carried something surprising with them—a chunk of DNA inherited from a now-extinct species of hominin, which may have helped humans adapt to the challenges of their new home. The researchers will publish their results Aug. 21 in the journal Science. “In terms of evolution, this is an incredible ...

Irvine, Calif. — Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have spotted a contradiction in worldwide wildfire trends: Despite a 26 percent decline in total burned area from 2002 to 2021, the number of people exposed to wildfires has surged by nearly 40 percent. The study, published today in Science, revealed another statistic that may come as a surprise to people who rely primarily on Western news sources: While high-profile wildfire disasters in the United States, Canada and Australia often dominate headlines, the researchers found that 85 percent of all human exposures to wildfires during that period occurred in ...