Wolf hunting has prevented livestock loss in a measurable way, but it is by no means a silver bullet, according to an international research team led by the University of Michigan. "Hunting, on the whole, is not removing negative impacts associated with wolves. It does have some effect on rates of livestock loss, but the effect is not particularly consistent, widespread or strong," said Neil Carter, associate professor at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability and senior author of the new study published in the journal Science Advances.  As governmental protections ...

Philadelphia, August 20, 2025 – In a new study led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), researchers found that mitochondrial dysfunction in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) may lead to neuropsychiatric disease in some patients with 22qDS. The researchers also demonstrated that a class of FDA-approved cholesterol drugs could potentially be repurposed to treat this dysfunction. These encouraging findings were published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The BBB is a specialized ...

Kyoto, Japan -- The size of our universe and the bodies within it is incomprehensible for us lowly humans. The sun has a mass that is more than 330,000 that of our Earth, and yet there are stars in the universe that completely dwarf our sun. Stars with masses more than eight times that of the sun are considered high mass stars. These form rapidly in a process that gives off stellar wind and radiation, which could not result in stars of such high mass without somehow overcoming this loss of mass, or feedback. Something is feeding these stars, but how exactly they can accumulate so much mass so quickly has remained a mystery. Observations of enormous disk-like structures that form around ...

For decades, scientists believed animals on islands evolved smaller brains relative to body size to save energy. But most Channel Islands foxes — tiny predators no bigger than a house cat – defied that rule, evolving larger brains than their mainland cousins. The findings, published in PLOS One by researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, suggest brain size may hinge less on isolation and more on the demands of survival.  Island syndrome refers to a suite of traits including reduced size, brain shrinkage, loss of flight in birds and tamer behavior. Until ...

Stylolites — irregular seams that occur in limestone — have been found to affect how acoustic waves move through rock samples. Laboratory-based insights from KAUST researchers offer an improved understanding of how these features impact acoustic imaging techniques, which are used to analyze induced microseismic events during hydraulic fracturing[1]. Carbonate-based sedimentary rocks like limestone often hold gas and oil reserves within their layers. Researchers commonly use sound (acoustic) waves to interrogate subsurface rocks and identify rock types, reservoir ...

When water drains from the bottom of a vertical tube, it is followed by a thin film of liquid that can adopt complex and beautiful shapes. KAUST researchers have now studied exactly how these “fluted films” form and break up, developing a mathematical model of their behavior that could help improve the performance, safety, and efficiency of industrial processes[1] “At first glance, water draining from a tube seems like an everyday process driven by gravity,” says Abhijit Kushwaha, a member of the team behind the work. “It is only with high-speed imaging that we can slow ...

To overcome this limitation, Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) a classical information multiplexing technique in communication systems offers a promising solution. As early as 1997, Professor Takeda has introduced FDM into FPP, enabling two fringe patterns of different frequencies to be superimposed onto a single image, thus allowing simultaneous phase demodulation and unwrapping. Similarly, in off-axis digital holography, researchers overlapped holograms captured at different time points within a single exposure, enabling multi-temporal holographic reconstruction from just one multiplexed ...

With just 1.2% of the world’s one million described insect species assessed for extinction risk, biodiversity assessment and conservation measures remain severely constrained. Sufficiently extensive datasets and new statistical methods could enhance the reach of extinction risk classification. Invertebrates, including insects, are poorly represented on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List. The Red List, the world’s most comprehensive information source on global conservation status, is dominated by better-known vertebrates, such as mammals ...

A sweeping new study from the University of Florida and University College London has found that daily reading for pleasure in the United States has declined by more than 40% over the last 20 years — raising urgent questions about the cultural, educational and health consequences of a nation reading less. Published today in the journal iScience, the study analyzed data from over 236,000 Americans who participated in the American Time Use Survey between 2003 and 2023. The findings suggest a fundamental cultural shift: fewer people are carving out time in their day to read for enjoyment. “This is not just a small dip — it’s ...

All cells in the body contain the same DNA, but different cell types express different genes; skin cells express genes for the skin, liver cells express liver genes, and so on. This coordination is crucial to help cells differentiate into their assigned roles, but a new study from researchers at the University of Chicago shows how cells can randomly “shake up” regions of the genome to express genes normally reserved for other cell types. The study, published this week in Nature, suggests that randomness or variability in the way DNA is packaged can create a kind of “epigenetic noise,” enabling cells to take on the identify of different ...

Antarctica is at risk of abrupt and potentially irreversible changes to the continent’s ice, ocean and ecosystems that could have profound implications for Australia and beyond, unless urgent action is taken to curb global carbon emissions.  That’s according to new research published today in the journal Nature, from researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in collaboration with scientists from each of Australia’s major Antarctic research centres.   The ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 16:00 BST / 11:00 ET WEDNESDAY 20 AUGUST 2025 More images available to download via the link in the notes section A new study led by the University of Oxford in collaboration with Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, University of Greenwich, and the Technical University of Denmark could provide a cost-effective and sustainable solution to help tackle the devastating decline in honeybees. An engineered food supplement, designed to provide essential compounds found in plant pollen, was found to significantly enhance colony reproduction. The results have been published today (20 August) in the journal Nature. The challenge: addressing ...

About The Study: In this nationwide assessment of the frequency with which climate-related disaster events affected counties with U.S. drug production facilities, researchers determined that nearly two-thirds of all facilities were located in counties that experienced at least one disaster declaration. These disaster events posed risks of disruptions to facilities active in all aspects of the supply chain, from active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacture to packaging, disruptions that could be further magnified by the time needed for Food and Drug Administration reinspection of damaged facilities. Corresponding Author: To ...

Cleveland:  Cleveland Clinic researchers have discovered a connection between elevated blood levels of TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide) — a byproduct of gut bacteria digestion of nutrients found in red meat and other animal products — and a higher risk of abdominal aortic aneurysms.   The findings, published today in JAMA Cardiology, suggest that TMAO may play a role in the development, progression, and severity of this life-threatening condition, including faster rates of aneurysm expansion and greater risk for needing surgery.  “These results suggest targeting TMAO levels may help prevent and treat aneurysmal disease ...

An international team of scientists, led by Northwestern University astrophysicists, has detected a never-before-seen type of exploding star, or supernova, that is rich with silicon, sulfur and argon. When massive stars explode, astrophysicists typically find strong signatures of light elements, such as hydrogen and helium. But the newly discovered supernova, dubbed SN2021yfj, displayed a startling different chemical signature. Astronomers long have theorized that massive stars have a layered structure, similar to an onion. The outermost layers predominantly comprise the lightest elements. As the layers move inward, the elements become heavier and heavier until reaching ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study of 42 low- and middle-income countries, drought conditions with various durations were associated with increased intimate partner violence risk. Given the increasing extreme events under climate change, there is a pressing need for enhanced initiatives to prevent domestic violence. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Pin Wang, PhD, email pinwang@umd.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.27818) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...

About The Study: This cohort study using Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children data found that eating disorder symptoms were more common in individuals experiencing socioeconomic deprivation. Potential socioeconomic inequalities in eating disorder presentation and diagnosis in clinical settings require further investigation. Reducing population-level socioeconomic inequalities could also aid eating disorder prevention. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jane S. Hahn, MSc, email Sungmin.hahn.19@ucl.ac.uk. To access the embargoed ...

Blocking brain damage triggered by a glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, may slow the growth of the cancer and allow the brain to keep working better for longer, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers. The study, published in Nature and funded by the Brain Tumour Charity and Cancer Research UK, looked at glioblastomas in mice. It found that early-stage tumours damaged parts of nerve cells called axons, and that the brain’s natural response to this injury – breaking down and clearing away these damaged axons – accelerated the tumour’s growth. Mice ...

Most metals found in nature are actually in their oxide forms. To extract those metals to use in critical applications — ranging from infrastructure such as bridges and buildings to advanced technologies like airplanes, semiconductors or even quantum materials — those oxides must be reduced with gases. A new study illuminating how different gases can affect oxide reduction, however, has the potential to revamp scientific understandings and current industrial practices.  Hydrogen or carbon monoxide are typically used as reductants, ...

Using a small bench-top reactor, researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have demonstrated that electrochemically loading a solid metal target with deuterium fuel can boost nuclear fusion rates.   Large-scale magnetic confinement fusion—which puts plasmas under extreme temperatures and pressure—is being widely explored as a method for clean energy generation. The experiment published today in Nature takes an entirely different approach—with a more ...

Tsukuba, Japan—Cell culture is a foundational technology widely used across fields such as pharmaceutical production, regenerative medicine, food science, and materials engineering. A critical component of successful cell culture is the culture medium—a solution containing essential nutrients that support cell growth. Therefore, optimizing the culture medium for specific applications is vital. Recently, machine learning has become a powerful tool for efficient media optimization. However, the experimental ...

Tsukuba, Japan—Nanocarbon materials with pointed geometries, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes, are considered promising candidates as sources for field emission electrons. However, their practical application remains limited due to difficulties in controlling the orientation and arrangement of these materials. In this study, the researchers focused on commercially available pencil leads, which contain appropriate amounts of graphite flakes (graphite powder) and are naturally aligned along the axial direction. The fracture surface ...

ATLANTA — The TReNDS Center at Georgia State University has hit a new stride, earning dual NIH R01 grants aimed at tackling Alzheimer’s disease progression and advancing multimodal brain imaging techniques in neuropsychiatric disorders. The awards mark an exceptional year of achievement for the center and its director, Vince Calhoun, who was recently featured in a global special issue on the “State of the Brain” in the journal Aperture Neuro. R01 grants by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) ...

Background and Aims Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) represents a prevalent adverse event associated with medication use. However, the exact mechanisms underlying DILI remain incompletely understood, and the lack of specific diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers poses significant challenges to the clinical diagnosis and treatment of this condition. Consequently, our study aimed to endeavor to identify serum and fecal metabolic biomarkers, enabling more accurate DILI diagnosis and improved prediction of chronic progression. Methods Untargeted metabolomics analysis was performed on serum and ...

In a groundbreaking study, University of Utah researchers found strong evidence that exposure to industrial pollution during pregnancy can shape a grandchild’s neurodevelopment. A child has a higher risk of an intellectual disability if their grandmothers lived near industrial facilities while pregnant with a parent, especially the mother. Higher density of industrial facilities corresponded to higher risk for the grandchild. “We know that breathing polluted air is dangerous for our own health now, but it’s ...