Having a hobby is linked to fewer depressive symptoms and higher levels of happiness, self-reported health and life satisfaction among people aged 65 and over, and this holds true across 16 countries on three continents, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers. The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, aimed to see if the benefits of hobbies were consistent in different national settings, and looked at data from 93,263 people aged 65 or over who had enrolled in five existing longitudinal studies in England, Japan, United States, China and 12 European countries. Analysing data from participants spanning four to eight ...

Women who have been treated for cancer as a child with a certain type of chemotherapy have an increased risk of breast cancer, according to a large-scale international study of survivors of childhood cancer led by scientists from the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology. The results were published today, 11 September, in the leading journal Nature Medicine and point to the need for earlier breast cancer screening in women who have previously been treated with this chemotherapy and radiation for childhood cancer.   Three out of four children with cancer are successfully treated ...

The globe was hot and humid. The sea was teeming with life. Early squids, eel-like fish and sea worms hunted smaller animals. Above ground, however, nothing stirred. The animals had not yet crawled ashore. That was what the Earth looked like about 450 million years ago at the end of the Ordovicium period. The warm water created the perfect living conditions for wildlife. But this would soon change. Shortly after, the land masses would began to freeze and an ice cap start to spread.  The water, which had ...

Understanding the interactions between materials and chemical species is critical for engineers as it helps them determine their best uses for both day-to-day life and global-level applications.  Metal oxides, a binary material of metal and oxygen, greatly interest researchers because of their importance in transforming energy storage, production, and conversion. To further those possibilities, a team from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering has determined a new way to view how hydrogen and metal oxides interact.  “Numerous experimental techniques have been used to understand this phenomenon – from spectroscopy to catalysis” explained Giannis ...

Digital Science, a technology company serving stakeholders across the research ecosystem, is pleased to announce that ETH Zurich has chosen Symplectic Grant Tracker from Digital Science’s suite of flagship products to power its internal funding program, to promote world-​class research with the potential to result in fundamental new knowledge or technologies and exciting discoveries.  Designed from the outset to meet research funding needs, Grant Tracker includes features to assist applicants, reviewers, committees and funders and help them to work efficiently and effectively across the grants management lifecycle. The ETH Zurich Research ...

Key points:  The PIP3/PI3K signalling pathway is one of the most important signalling mechanisms in our cells, affecting cell metabolism and growth. It is also one of the most frequently altered pathways in human cancer. Research from the Institute has shown that PI3K pathway remodelling is a common feature of cancers driven by hyperactivated PI3K signalling. Working in prostate tumour models the team identified an unknown activator driving PI3K signalling and cancer growth in a way that is released both from needing positive growth signals and also from growth-limiting feedback controls. This knowledge identifies new ...

“Mistrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful,” warned Friedrich Nietzsche more than a century ago.  Instead, the impulse to punish appears to have grown more and more powerful in the U.S criminal justice system. Annually, more than 9 million people a year in the U.S. are arrested, and on any given day roughly 2.3 million are incarcerated, representing a 500% increase in the prison and jail population since 1980 (compared to a 46% increase in the population over the same time).  This ...

A company co-founded by a University of Bath graduate has opened the UK’s first pilot plant that can recycle up to 60% of plastic lab waste, to make back into new lab consumables. LabCycle hopes the technology could be scaled up in the future to recycle waste from healthcare, research and commercial labs that is currently incinerated or sent to landfill. To avoid cross-contamination between experiments, most lab-based scientists use a significant amount of single-use plastic in their daily research, including pipette tips, test tubes, petri dishes and multi-well ...

East Hanover, NJ – September 11, 2023 – Three Kessler Foundation research scientists, Timothy Rich, PhD, OTR/L, and Co-Principal Investigators Helen Genova, PhD, and Heba Elsayed, MD, have been awarded $777,325 in federal grants by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to expand research in the fields of neglect dyslexia and autism. These studies may provide major steps towards finding innovative solutions for individuals affected by these conditions. Dr. Rich, research scientist in the Center for Stroke Rehabilitation Research, was awarded $626,889 to conduct research on “Gaze, Head Rotation, and Neuroanatomic Correlates of Reading Errors in Neglect Dyslexia.” ...

Tom Hardy and his Marvel character Venom have given their names to a newly discovered Australian spider. The genus Venomius and its only current species Venomius tomhardyi were described following an expedition to Tasmania. Scientists MSc Giullia Rossi, Dr Pedro Castanheira and Dr Volker Framenau from Murdoch University (Perth, Australia) partnered with Dr Renner Baptista from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) to describe the new genus of orb-weaving spiders published in the open access journal Evolutionary Systematics. Tom Hardy portrays Eddie Brock and his alter-ego Venom, an antihero closely associated with Spider-Man, across ...

More than 3,500 scientists from around the world will meet to present new research on the physics of fluids at the 76th annual meeting of the American Physical Society’s (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics. The conference will be held in person only at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, Nov. 19-21. News media with valid APS press credentials may register for the meeting at no cost. To request press credentials, visit APS’s virtual press office. Registration will remain open throughout ...

A team of researchers, affiliated with UNIST has made a groundbreaking advancement in improving the efficiency of hydrogen fuel cells, which are gaining significant attention as eco-friendly next-generation energy sources. Led by Professor Myoung Soo Lah in the Department of Chemistry at UNIST, the team successfully developed solid electrolyte materials utilizing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). This innovative approach significantly enhances the conductivity of hydrogen ions within the solid electrolyte employed in hydrogen fuel cells. Furthermore, the research team ...

The cellular protein heparanase plays an important role in allowing diseases, including viruses and cancers, to spread within our bodies. For this reason, researchers investigating a wide range of diseases are eager to find an effective heparanase inhibitor.  Scientists from the University of Illinois Chicago, along with colleagues at the University of Georgia and Utrecht University in the Netherlands, found a molecule effective at inhibiting heparanase activity related to the herpes simplex virus and reduced the spread of the virus when tested on human cells. The new research is published in Angewandte ...

Underwater imaging plays a critical role in many fields such as marine exploration, oceanographic engineering, environmental protection and identifying dangerous objects on the ocean floor. However, in turbid or turbulent waters, image quality is often severely degraded due to the complexities of the underwater environment and equipment limitations. Underwater captured images often suffer from contrast loss because light is scattered and absorbed as it travels in water, resulting in major degradation of detail and distorted or blurred images. A new invention about the size of a ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Using artificial intelligence applications to help craft a message to a friend is not a good idea – at least if your friend finds out about the use of AI, a new study suggests.   Researchers found that people in the study perceived that a fictional friend who used AI assistance to write them a message didn’t put forth as much effort as a friend who wrote a message themselves.   That perception may be understandable, but the effect goes beyond the message itself, said Bingjie Liu, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at The Ohio State University.   “After ...

About The Study: In this dose-response meta-analysis that included nine randomized clinical trials and 2,980 patients, compared with placebo, gefapixant (45 mg orally twice daily) led to modest improvements in cough frequency, cough severity, and cough-specific quality of life but increased taste-related adverse events. Authors: Imran Satia, M.D., Ph.D., of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 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.2023.18035) Editor’s Note: Please ...

RICHLAND, Wash. – In a set of sharing experiments, Spanish-speaking Latino preschoolers were more likely to choose options that would be more generous to others, even over a more equal sharing choice. Their English-speaking peers in the Washington State University study more often chose the most competitive option, one that advantaged themselves over others. The most competitive among that group were English-speaking Latino children, a finding that the researchers believe may reflect their desire to transition ...

New York, September 11, 2023 – Scientists have long suspected two species of sea stars—commonly referred to as starfish—along rocky European and North American coastlines of crossbreeding in the cool waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. Now, according to recently analyzed genomic data, hybrid starfish are living and thriving, from the shores of New England to the Canadian Maritimes. A new study, published in the journal Molecular Ecology, presents genomic evidence of hybridization between two closely related species of sea stars– Asterias rubens, the common starfish, and Asterias forbesi, known as Forbes’ sea ...

Clinicians treating cancer-related pain must consider whether and how to prescribe opioids to patients who use nonmedical stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamines; however, no guidelines exist related to these common and challenging situations. In a new study, palliative care and addiction experts deemed it appropriate to continue opioids, increase monitoring, and avoid opioid tapering in such patients. The results are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Using opioids and nonmedical stimulants ...

Sorghum bran has much higher levels of some essential amino acids and minerals needed for human health and development than a whole grain or dehulled sorghum flour, researchers from the University of Johannesburg have found. Sorghum bran packs a calcium, magnesium, leucine and valine punch much higher than the whole grain flour. The climate-resilient gluten-free grain also holds its own on macro – and micronutrients compared to the biggest grains produced worldwide. Dr Janet Adebo and Dr Hema Kesa investigated and compared the nutritional quality and functional properties of the different ...

1.Background and objectives The Ministry of the Environment of Japan, the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are jointly promoting the GOSAT series, a series of Earth observation satellites whose main purpose is to observe greenhouse gases from space; the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) launched in January 2009 and GOSAT-2 launched in October 2018 are currently in operation, and the Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle (GOSAT-GW) is planned to be launched in Japan’s FY2024. NIES is responsible for developing ...

Annual hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Canada increased 69% since 2002, especially in females and people under age 65, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.221051. COPD affects the lungs and progresses, resulting in frequent hospitalization, burdening patients, families and health care systems. It has been viewed as a condition usually associated with male smokers. "With increasing ...

Using laser light, researchers have developed the most robust method currently known to control individual qubits made of the chemical element barium. The ability to reliably control a qubit is an important achievement for realizing future functional quantum computers. This new method, developed at the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), uses a small glass waveguide to separate laser beams and focus them four microns apart, about four-hundredths of the width of a single human hair. The precision and extent to which each focused laser beam on its target qubit can be controlled in parallel ...

(Singapore – 10:05 a.m. SGT--September 11, 2023) – Osimertinib plus chemotherapy demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful progression-free survival benefit compared to osimertinib alone, according to research presented today at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Singapore. The FLAURA2 study was led by Dr. Pasi A. Jänne from the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Mass. Osimertinib, a potent third-generation EGFR-TKI with central nervous system activity, has garnered attention for its targeted ...

(Singapore, September 11, 2023, 10:05 a.m. SGT) – Extended pleurectomy decortication combined with chemotherapy is associated with worse survival outcomes, a higher incidence of serious adverse events, and a diminished quality of life compared to platinum and pemetrexed chemotherapy alone, according to research presented today the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Singapore. The UK Multicentre Randomised Trial, known as MARS 2, conducted by a team led by Professor  Eric ...