Chestnut Hill, MA (5/3/2021) -- The billion-year-old fossil of an organism, exquisitely preserved in the Scottish Highlands, reveals features of multicellularity nearly 400 million years before the biological trait emerged in the first animals, according to a new report in the journal Current Biology by an international team of researchers, including Boston College paleobotanist Paul K. Strother. The discovery could be the "missing link" in the evolution of animals, according to the team, which included scientists from the U.S., United Kingdom, and Australia. The microfossil, discovered at Loch Torridon, contains two distinct cell types and could be the earliest example of complex multicellularity ...

ITHACA, N.Y. - A new Cornell University-led study examines how temperature affects fishing behavior and catches among inland fisher households in Cambodia, with important implications for understanding climate change. The research, which used household surveys, temperature data and statistical models, revealed that when temperatures rise, people fish less often. At the same time, the study's authors indirectly found that stocks of fish and other aquatic foods also rise with temperatures, leading to slightly larger catches each time peopled fished. Without careful analysis, it would appear that overall fish catches appear unchanged annually, when in fact, more nuanced dynamics are at play. The study highlights why it's necessary when studying changing environmental ...

Researchers at the University of Haifa, the Weizmann Institute and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) have built the first atlas of all of the different types of cells in Stylophora pistillata, a reef-building stony coral native to the Indo-Pacific oceans. Published today in the journal Cell, the study is the first to detect the presence of specialized immune cells in corals. The findings provide new insights into the molecular biology and evolution of corals and will aid present and future conservation efforts to protect coral reef ecosystems threatened by rising temperatures and ocean acidification. The map reveals that Stylophora pistillata has 40 different cell types over the three main stages ...

What The Study Did: The findings of this study suggest an association between county-level income inequality and COVID-19 cases and deaths. Authors: Michelle C. Odden, Ph.D., of Stanford University 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.2021.8799) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media advisory: The full study is linked to this news release. Embed this link to provide your readers free access ...

What The Study Did: This study of registry patients evaluates whether any changes in the in-hospital COVID-19 mortality rates during the first nine months of the pandemic were associated with individual characteristics of patients with COVID-19. Authors: Gregory A. Roth, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Washington in Seattle, 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.2021.8828) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, ...

What The Study Did: Study results suggest underuse of coronavirus testing in patients with fever may contribute to community transmission. Authors: Mark J. Pletcher, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California, San Francisco, 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.2021.8500) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict ...

What The Study Did: Households and not schools were the major route of transmission among children and youths with COVID-19 in Hong Kong, these study results suggest. Authors: Mike Yat Wah Kwan, M.Sc., M.R.C.P.C.H., of the Princess Margaret in Hong Kong, and Patrick Ip, M.P.H., of the University of Hong Kong, are the corresponding authors. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.8824) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, ...

What The Study Did: Inquiries to a child abuse hotline during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with inquiries during the same period the previous year are assessed in this study. Authors: Robin Ortiz, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, 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/jamapediatrics.2021.0503) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media advisory: The full study is linked to this news release. Embed ...

What The Study Did: Changes in adolescents' use of e-cigarettes, cannabis and alcohol and in physical activity behaviors following the COVID-19 stay-at-home order in California are examined in this study. Authors: Benjamin W. Chaffee, D.D.S., M.P.H., Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, 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/jamapediatrics.2021.0541) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, ...

What The Study Did: Researchers compared the likelihood of delayed childbearing among physicians and nonphysicians. Authors: Andrea N. Simpson, M.D., of the University of Toronto, 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/jamainternmed.2021.1635) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest ...

We usually assume that inbreeding is bad and should be avoided under all circumstances. But new research performed by researchers at Stockholm University, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, shows that there is little support for this assumption. The idea that animals should avoid mating with relatives has been the starting point for hundreds of scientific studies performed among many species. But it turns out the picture is more complicated. "People assume that animals should avoid mating with a relative when given the chance", says Raïssa de Boer, researcher in zoology at Stockholm University. "But evolutionary theory has been telling us that animals should tolerate, or even prefer, mating with relatives under a broad range of conditions for more than four ...

A Wyss Institute-led collaboration spanning four research labs and hundreds of miles has used the Institute's organ-on-a-chip (Organ Chip) technology to identify the antimalarial drug amodiaquine as a potent inhibitor of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The Organ Chip-based drug testing ecosystem established by the collaboration greatly streamlines the process of evaluating the safety and efficacy of existing drugs for new medical applications, and provides a proof-of-concept for the use of Organ Chips to rapidly repurpose existing drugs for new medical applications, including future pandemics. The research is reported in Nature Biomedical Engineering. While many groups around the ...

Two of the most destructive forces of nature - earthquakes and tsunamis - might actually be more of a threat than current estimates according to new research conducted by scientists at The University of New Mexico and the Nanyang Technological University published today in Nature Geoscience. The researchers developed a new method to assess earthquake and tsunami hazards represented by the most distant part of offshore subduction zones and found that the hazard might have been systematically underestimated in some areas, meaning that tsunami risk assessments should be redone given the ...

A grass commonly used to fight soil erosion has been genetically modified to successfully remove toxic chemicals left in the ground from munitions that are dangerous to human health, new research shows. The study - led by the University of York- demonstrates that genetically modified switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) can detoxify residues of the military explosive, RDX, left behind on live-fire training ranges, munitions dumps and minefields. RDX has been a major component of munitions since WW2 which are still used extensively on military training grounds. This use has now resulted in widespread pollution of groundwater. Researchers generated the plants by inserting two genes from bacteria able to breakdown RDX. The plants were then grown in RDX contaminated ...

Researchers are now able to wirelessly record the directly measured brain activity of patients living with Parkinson's disease and to then use that information to adjust the stimulation delivered by an implanted device. Direct recording of deep and surface brain activity offers a unique look into the underlying causes of many brain disorders; however, technological challenges up to this point have limited direct human brain recordings to relatively short periods of time in controlled clinical settings. This project, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, was funded by the National Institutes of Health's ...

A research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) scientists recently developed a new generation of microneedles technology which allows the intradermal delivery of living cells in a minimally invasive manner. Their experiment showed that vaccination using therapeutic cells through this ground-breaking technology elicited robust immune responses against tumours in mice, paving the way for developing an easy-to-use cell therapy and other therapeutics against cancers and other diseases. The study was led by Dr Xu Chenjie, Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at CityU. The latest findings have been published in the scientific journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, titled "Cryomicroneedles for Transdermal Cell Delivery". The new technology ...

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have devised a four-part small-molecule cocktail that can protect stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from stress and maintain normal stem cell structure and function. The researchers suggest that the cocktail could enhance the potential therapeutic uses of stem cells, ranging from treating diseases and conditions -- such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injury -- to genome editing. Human pluripotent stem cells are cells that, in theory, can grow forever and serve as an inexhaustible source for specialized cells, such as brain, kidney and heart cells. But stem cells are sensitive, and their potential uses in ...

Tiny 3-D models that mimic vital aspects of the human nervous system have been developed in a step that could accelerate drug research for neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS). The millimetre-wide models - created using stem cells from human skin samples - will be used to study myelin, an insulating substance that helps nerve cells communicate with each other. Researchers say the models are the most natural representation of human myelination developed in a lab and are a promising platform for studying neurological diseases and for testing drugs for conditions linked to myelin loss, including MS. Nerve cells are found in the brain and the spinal cord and connect to each other with ...

PHILADELPHIA - Belief in conspiracies about the COVID-19 pandemic increased through the early months of the U.S. outbreak among people who reported being heavy users of conservative and social media, a study by Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) researchers has found. ...

Many people in Switzerland experienced considerable psychological distress during the first COVID-19 lockdown from mid-March to the end of April 2020. Researchers from the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich (PUK) and the University of Zurich in collaboration with the La Source School of Nursing have now examined the most common sources of stress among children, adolescents, their parents and young adults. For their study, the researchers used representative samples in Switzerland of 1,627 young adults aged 19 to 24 as well as 1,146 children and adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 and their parents. Uncertainty, disruption, postponement "Uncertainty during last year's lockdown was considerable ...

HOUSTON - (May 3, 2021) - Ever look at a flatfish like a flounder or sole, with two eyes on one side of its head, and think, "How did that happen?" You're in luck. Rice University biologist Kory Evans has the answer. "Flatfishes are some of the weirdest vertebrates on the planet, and they got weird very, very fast by changing multiple traits at once over a short period of time," said Evans, an assistant professor of biosciences at Rice who specializes in studying the evolution of fish over long time scales. Of all mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians and fish, flatfish are easily the most asymmetric. Evans, the corresponding author ...

Biologists at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU in Munich) have significantly enhanced the tolerance of blue-green algae to high light levels - with the aid of artificial evolution in the laboratory.  Sunlight, air and water are all that cyanobacteria (more commonly known as blue-green algae), true algae and plants need for the production of organic (i.e. carbon-based) compounds and molecular oxygen by means of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the major source of building blocks for organisms on Earth. However, too much sunlight reduces the efficiency of photosynthesis because it damages the 'solar panels', i.e. the photosynthetic machineries of cyanobacteria, algae and plants. A team of researchers led by LMU biologist Dario Leister has ...

New Haven, Conn. --Yale researchers have shown that developmental abnormalities, including those that lead to pregnancy loss and autism, are controlled by the genetics of the fetus and placenta -- and not the mother's intrauterine environment. The findings are reported in the April 28 online edition of the journal Placenta. One out of every 33 children is diagnosed with a birth defect each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This translates into one baby born every 4 ½ minutes -- or 120,000 per year. "Mothers ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A giant saber-toothed cat lived in North America between 5 million and 9 million years ago, weighing up to 900 pounds and hunting prey that likely weighed 1,000 to 2,000 pounds, scientists reported today in a new study. The researchers completed a painstaking comparison of seven uncategorized fossil specimens with previously identified fossils and bone samples from around the world to describe the new species. Their finding makes a case for the use of the elbow portion of the humerus - in addition to teeth - to identify fossils of large saber-toothed cats whose massive forearms enabled ...

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina--A comprehensive review by University of North Carolina researchers and colleagues highlights the optimal ways that focused, high-dose radiation can be delivered to various types of tumors while sparing normal tissue and mitigating long-term side effects. The review was reported as a special issue in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics on May 1, 2021. This analysis was based on an exhaustive review of data and the literature published largely in the past decade. It updates an earlier review that primarily focused on the effects of conventional radiation therapy on normal tissue. This new review also includes important analyses ...