Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST; Saudi Arabia) have uncovered a critical molecular cause keeping aqueous rechargeable batteries from becoming a safer, economical option for sustainable energy storage. Their findings, published in Science Advances, reveal how water compromises battery life and performance and how the addition of affordable salts – such as zinc sulfate – mitigates this issue, even increasing the battery lifespan by more than ten times.   One of the key determinants to the lifespan of a battery – aqueous or otherwise – is the anode. ...

Deep-sea fish confirmed as a significant source of ocean carbonate New research sheds light on the overlooked contribution of the ocean’s most abundant fish to marine carbon cycling. The findings open new avenues for studying deep-sea carbon dynamics and may improve Earth system models. MIAMI, FL — July 25, 2025 – A new study offers the first direct evidence that deep-dwelling mesopelagic fish, which account for up to 94 percent of global fish biomass, excrete carbonate minerals at rates comparable to shallow-water species. The findings validate previous global models suggesting that marine fish are major contributors ...

Eating disorders affect more than 5% of young people, and they have one of the highest mortality rates of any mental illness.  Young patients with public health insurance have a much harder time accessing care, and they often get caught in a revolving door of hospital stays.  Researchers at UC San Francisco wondered if the cycle could be disrupted by giving outpatient therapy in the months after a first hospitalization.  They examined data from 920 California Medicaid enrollees ages ...

Reston, VA (July 24, 2025)—Naloxone (also known as Narcan, the commonly used drug to treat narcotic overdoses) has greater binding to opioid receptors in women’s brains than in men’s brains, according to new research published in the July issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The first-in-human whole-body PET study suggests men and women may respond differently to opioid use disorder treatments and offers new insights to advance neuropharmacology.  Opioid misuse is a worldwide epidemic associated with high overdose and mortality rates. The μ-opioid receptor (MOR) is the target of opioid drugs including fentanyl and heroin, as ...

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, the July 2025 Special Issue of the peer-reviewed journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking highlights the concept of “Humane Artificial Intelligence,” examining how AI can support human flourishing across contexts including healthcare, education, peacekeeping, and daily digital interactions. Click here to read the issue now. In their Editorial, Guest Editors Giuseppe Riva, PhD, from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Brenda ...

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is tough on electronics. Situated inside a 17-mile-long tunnel that runs in a circle under the border between Switzerland and France, this massive scientific instrument accelerates particles close to the speed of light before smashing them together. The collisions yield tiny maelstroms of particles and energy that hint at answers to fundamental questions about the building blocks of matter. Those collisions produce an enormous amount of data — and enough radiation to scramble the bits and logic inside almost any piece ...

The global scuba diving tourism industry generates up to around 20 billion USD per year, finds a study publishing July 25 in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports Sustainability. This revenue helps boost local economies by employing local people and supports marine conservation initiatives both by raising funds and increasing public awareness.  “Scuba diving is not a fringe hobby,” says lead study author Anna Schuhbauer of the University of British Columbia. “It is a multibillion-dollar pillar of the economy that can channel tourists’ dollars straight into coastal communities and ocean protection.”  Recent studies ...

Imagine your immune cells could be modified to attack any kind of cancer. T cell receptor (TCR) therapy has the potential to one day become a universal cancer treatment. But there are risks. Similarities between cancerous and healthy cells can affect the body’s immune response, causing T cells to attack unintended targets. TCR therapy needs laser focus to prevent friendly fire. New and curiously named AI developed at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) could provide just that. How does it work, and why do we need AI for the job? In biology, cells announce their state by displaying peptides on their surface. These ...

Montreal, QC, July 25, 2025 – People who are gestational carriers (or “surrogates”) appear more likely to be diagnosed with a new mental illness during and after pregnancy, according to new research from ICES, McGill University, and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.  As the number of births by surrogacy increases, this is the first large study using Ontario-based health data to explore the mental health challenges faced by some surrogates.  Despite guidelines requiring mental health screening, the researchers found that nearly 1 in 5 gestational carriers had a prior mental illness diagnosis before pregnancy—including some ...

Researchers from Columbia Engineering have established a framework for the design of bioactive injectable hydrogels formulated with extracellular vesicles (EVs) for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.  Published today in Matter, Santiago Correa, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, and his collaborators describe an injectable hydrogel platform that uses EVs from milk to address longstanding barriers in the development of biomaterials for regenerative medicine. EVs are particles naturally secreted by cells and carry hundreds of biological ...

About The Study: This comparative effectiveness study found that COVID-19 vaccinations averted 2.5 million deaths during 2020-2024 (sensitivity range estimates, 1.4-4.0 million). Estimates in this study are substantially more conservative than previous calculations focusing mostly on the first year of vaccination, but they still clearly demonstrate a major overall benefit from COVID-19 vaccination during the years 2020-2024. Most benefits in lives and life-years saved was secured for a portion of older persons, a minority of the global ...

About The Study: The results of this qualitative analysis using systems modeling suggest that National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget reductions may have far-reaching implications for scientific progress, the biomedical innovation environment, and health care costs. Beyond immediate budgetary impacts, systemic interactions shaping long-term biomedical research and public health must be considered in funding policies. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Mohammad S. Jalali, Ph,D,, email msjalali@mgh.harvard.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2025.2228) Editor’s ...

BALTIMORE, July 25, 2025: In the same vein as weather forecast models that predict developing storms, researchers now have developed a method to predict the cell activity in tissues over time.  The new software combines genomics technologies with computational modeling to predict cell changes in behavior, such as communication between cells that could cause cancer cells to flourish. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) co-led the study that published online on July 25 in the journal  Cell. It ...

Thanks to vaccinations against SARS-CoV-2 in the period 2020-2024 2.533 million deaths were prevented at global level, one death was avoided for every 5,400 doses of vaccine administered. The 82% of the lives saved by vaccines involved people vaccinated before encountering the virus, 57% during the Omicron period, and 90% involved people aged 60 years and older. In all, vaccines have saved 14.8 million years of life (one year of life saved for 900 doses of vaccine administered). These are some of the data released in an unprecedented study published ...

An international study estimates that scuba diving contributes between $8.5 and $20.4 billion to the global economy each year, supporting up to 124,000 jobs across 170 countries, offering an economic incentive for marine conservation.  The research, published today in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability (LINK TK) and co-authored by researchers from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, provides the first comprehensive estimate of the diving industry's worldwide economic impact.  The study is part of Atlas Aquatica, a project endorsed by the United ...

**EMBARGOED UNTIL THURSDAY, JULY 25, AT 11 A.M. ET** Using mathematical analysis of patterns of human and animal cell behavior, scientists say they have developed a computer program that mimics the behavior of such cells in any part of the body. Led by investigators at Indiana University, Johns Hopkins Medicine, the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Oregon Health & Science University, the new work was designed to advance ways of testing and predicting biological processes, drug responses and other cell dynamics before undertaking more costly experiments with live cells.  With further work on the program, the researchers say it could ...

Each cell in our bodies carries about two meters of DNA in its nucleus, packed into a tiny volume of just a few hundred cubic micrometers—about a millionth of a milliliter. The cell manages this by winding the strings of DNA around protein spools. The protein-DNA complexes are called nucleosomes, and they ensure that DNA is safely stored. But this packaging into nucleosomes also poses a challenge: important cellular machinery must still access the genetic code to keep cells healthy and prevent diseases like cancer. One of the most important proteins in our cells is p53, the “genome’s guardian.” It helps ...

Ionic liquids (ILs) are a class of molten salts with a collection of exciting properties, which have been employed for wide-ranging applications across chemistry, biology, and materials science. However, their inherently high viscosity hampers the ability of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to explore their structure-property relationships on large spatiotemporal scales. Coarse-grained (CG) models address this challenge by retaining essential structural features while eliminating some atomic details, significantly reducing ...

To the point Energetic needs and social context shape aggression in female gorillas: A 25-year observational study of female gorillas shows that individual circumstances and social context can influence an individual's decision to engage in riskier aggressive behaviours. Aggression and social hierarchy: While most aggression was directed from higher- to lower-ranking gorillas, 42 per cent of aggressive interactions were directed from lower to higher ranks – more than expected. Taking risks: Female gorillas in reproductive ...

Autophagy is essentially the 'rubbish collection' of our cells. If there are problems in this process, which is so important for our health, diseases such as Parkinson's can result. In their latest study, leading cell biologists at the Max Perutz Labs at the University of Vienna investigated mitophagy – a form of autophagy – and came to a remarkable conclusion: the researchers have described a new trigger for mitophagy. This discovery has led to a reassessment of the hierarchy of factors ...

Northwestern University and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) scientists have developed a new process-based framework that provides a more accurate and dynamic approach to landslide prediction over large areas. While traditional landslide prediction methods often rely solely on rainfall intensity, the new approach integrates various water-related processes with a machine-learning model. By accounting for diverse and sometimes compounding factors, the framework offers a more robust understanding of what drives these destructive events. With further development, the new framework could help improve early warning systems, inform hazard ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – An estimated 12% of first graders’ most-used media at home is educational, a new study suggests. Results also showed that higher use of educational media was associated with both more time spent reading and less overall time in front of a screen – a signal that educational video, app and game use is not replacing reading. A clearer picture of first graders’ TV or tablet time and factors related to their use of educational media may reveal opportunities for fitting ...

Psychological and philosophical studies have long shown that a person's subjective moods and emotions have a significant impact on how they experience the “meaning in life.” Philosopher Matthew Ratcliffe pointed out that a person’s mood vividly operates in the background of perception and plays a major role in how they grasp the meaning of their life. In psychology as well, there have been empirical studies investigating how mood affects the perception of life’s meaning. Meanwhile, phenomenology has revealed that the lived, first-person experience of the body deeply influences the way we perceive ...

The origin of some neuropsychiatric diseases, such as autism, bipolar disorder, or depression, and certain neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, can be found in very early stages of brain formation in the fetus. That is, earlier than previously recognized, according to a study by the Hospital del Mar Research Institute and Yale University, published in Nature Communications. The work focused “on searching for the origin of mental illnesses in the earliest stages of fetal development, especially in the brain stem cells”, explains Dr. Gabriel Santpere, Miguel Servet researcher and coordinator of the Neurogenomics Research Group at ...

Apart from carrying the information to encode proteins in, RNA molecules can adopt intricate 2D and 3D structures. Specifically, the same RNA molecule can switch between ON and OFF structures, modulating the ability of ribosomes to bind to the RNA and translate it into proteins. A new study, led by University of Groningen molecular biologist Danny Incarnato and authored by postdoctoral researcher Dr Ivana Borovska, identifies hundreds of such regulatory RNA switches in E.coli bacteria and human cells. It was published in Nature Biotechnology on 25 July. Several years ago, Incarnato developed a method to ...