WOODS HOLE, Mass. – Nearly a third of Earth’s freshwater resources lie in groundwater – much more than in all lakes, rivers and the atmosphere combined, and exceeded only by the frozen water in polar ice caps. Accordingly, about half of humankind depends on groundwater as a source of drinking water. Despite the global occurrence and essential importance of groundwater, however, knowledge of the organisms that inhabit it, and how they survive, remains thin. A recent investigation led by microbial ecologist Emil Ruff of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) has discovered ...

The IEEE Photonics Society invites applications and nominations for the volunteer position of Editor-in-Chief (EiC) for the IEEE Photonics Journal, delivered through IEEE’s research digital library IEEE Xplore. The term for the current EiC will end this year and the Society is conducting an open search for potential candidates.   “The IEEE Photonics Journal led the way for the IEEE, being the IEEE’s first open access journal. We’re excited to find a candidate who can lead this pioneering journal for the next term, and I encourage all qualified ...

WASP-76b is a strange world. Located 634 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation of Pisces, the Jupiter-like exoplanet orbits its host star at an exceptionally close distance — approximately 12 times closer than Mercury is to the Sun — which heats its atmosphere to a searing 2000°C. Such extreme temperatures have “puffed up” the planet, increasing its volume to nearly six times that of Jupiter. At such extreme temperatures, mineral- and rock-forming elements, which would otherwise remain hidden in the atmosphere of a colder gas-giant planet, can reveal themselves.  Using ...

Experts have identified coordinated efforts to saturate YouTube’s recommender algorithm, flooding users with pro- Bolsonaro content during the 2022 Brazil election. Researchers from the University of Exeter and Instituto Vero have uncovered a complex, web-like influencer system of channels that shaped political narratives during this period. This is in addition to YouTube’s own recommender algorithm which also generates suggestions based on users’ viewership patterns.  This network of influencer-driven videos was promoted by mentions, tags, interviews, and cuts (shorter video formats) and heavily contributed ...

Oxidative stress – characterized by elevated levels of unstable molecules called reactive oxygen species– is associated with neurodegeneration and cardiovascular disease. However, until recently it has not been possible to demonstrate a causal relationship between oxidative stress and disease states. A new study used “chemogenetics” to activate a recombinant yeast protein expressed in mouse tissues to manipulate levels of oxidative stress in living mice. Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Novartis ...

Study shows improvements in depression and anxiety scores among individuals supplementing  with probiotics alongside standard antidepressant medication Data from a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled pilot trial published today in JAMA Psychiatry A new study published today (14 June) in JAMA Psychiatry has found evidence that supplementing the diet with a probiotic blend containing 14 strains of bacteria can help individuals who are being treated for major depressive disorder with antidepressants. The research, led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) ...

About The Study: This survey study of a nationally representative sample suggests that the prevalence of food allergies was highest among Asian, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic Black individuals compared with non-Hispanic white individuals in the U.S. Further assessment of socioeconomic factors and corresponding environmental exposures may better explain the causes of food allergy and inform targeted management and interventions to reduce the burden of food allergies and disparities in outcomes.  Authors: Ruchi S. Gupta, M.D., M.P.H., of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, is the corresponding ...

About The Study: Many physicians and scientists in this survey study reported being harassed on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, often due to their advocacy and on the basis of gender, race, sexual orientation, or disability. Many reported sexual harassment and sharing of their private information. Authors: Regina Royan, M.D., M.P.H., of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, 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.2023.18315) Editor’s ...

SAN ANTONIO —Wednesday,  June 14, 2023 —The search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system just got more exciting. A team of scientists including Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Christopher Glein has discovered new evidence that the subsurface ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus contains a key building block for life. The team directly detected phosphorus in the form of phosphates originating from the moon’s ice-covered global ocean using data from NASA’s Cassini mission. Cassini explored Saturn and its system of rings and moons for over ...

Neuroscientists have long searched for ways to reopen “critical periods” in the brain, when mammals are more sensitive to signals from their surroundings that can influence periods of brain development. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine say a new study in mice shows that psychedelic drugs are linked by their common ability to reopen such critical periods, but differ in the length of time the critical period is open — from two days to four weeks with a single dose. The findings, published June 16 in the journal Nature, provide a new explanation for how psychedelic drugs work, say the scientists, and suggest potential to treat a wider ...

Despite some of the most successful international vaccination campaigns in history, the poliovirus continues to circulate around the world, posing a threat of neurological damage and even paralysis to anyone who is not vaccinated. While the original polio strains, called wildtype, have largely been eliminated, new strains can develop from the oral polio vaccine (OPV), which is the one most used in the developing world. Oral vaccines use live, weakened virus that occasionally mutates to an active form, leading to outbreaks even in countries believed to have eliminated polio.  Scientists at UCSF and the UK’s National Institute of Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) have developed ...

·  Many racial and ethnic groups not well aware of food allergies ·  Lack of food allergy research in racial and ethnic communities ·  ‘These individuals need to be aware so they can be diagnosed and treated’   CHICAGO --- Food allergy has not been on the radar of most racial and ethnic communities. But a new Northwestern Medicine study — the first population-based food allergy study in the U.S. to explore racial and ethnic differences in all age groups — shows why it should be.  The new study found the prevalence of food allergy is highest among Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black and ...

Ants navigate their richly aromatic world using an array of odor receptors and chemical signals called pheromones. Whether foraging or defending the nest, mating or tending to their young, ants both send and receive chemical signals throughout their lives. The importance of this system is underscored by how well equipped the ant brain is to process the abundance of scents: The olfactory processing center in the ant’s brain has 10 times as many subdivisions as fruit flies do, for example, even though their brains are about the same size. And yet how the ant olfactory system encodes scent data has remained largely unknown. To whittle ...

AMHERST, Mass. – A team of physicists, including University of Massachusetts assistant professor Tigran Sedrakyan, recently announced in the journal Nature that they have discovered a new phase of matter. Called the “chiral bose-liquid state,” the discovery opens a new path in the age-old effort to understand the nature of the physical world. Under everyday conditions, matter can be a solid, liquid or gas. But once you venture beyond the everyday—into temperatures approaching absolute zero, things smaller than a fraction ...

Researchers from the UvA Institute of Physics and ENS de Lyon have discovered how to design materials that necessarily have a point or line where the material doesn’t deform under stress, and that even remember how they have been poked or squeezed in the past. These results could be used in robotics and mechanical computers, while similar design principles could be used in quantum computers. The outcome is a breakthrough in the field of metamaterials: designer materials whose responses are determined by their structure rather than their chemical composition. To construct a metamaterial with mechanical memory, physicists ...

When we walk around in our everyday life, we might not think of the Earth itself very often. But this planet is the foundation of our life. The air we breathe, the water we drink and the gravity that pins us to the ground.   Up until now, researchers believed that it took more than 100 million years for the Earth to form. And it was also common belief that water was delivered by lucky collisions with water-rich asteroids like comets. However, a new study from the University of Copenhagen suggests that it might not have happened entirely by chance. “We show that the Earth formed by the very ...

An international team led by Stefan Pelletier, a Ph.D. student at Université de Montréal's Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets announced today having made a detailed study of the extremely hot giant exoplanet WASP-76 b. Using the MAROON-X instrument on the Gemini-North Telescope, the team was able to identify and measure the abundance of 11 chemical elements in the atmosphere of the planet. Those include rock-forming elements whose abundances are not even known for giant planets in the Solar System such as Jupiter or Saturn. The team's study is published in ...

Some of the world’s best minds that are focused on profitable and sustainable livestock production attended and presented at the recent Second U.S. Precision Livestock Farming Conference. Hosted by University of Tennessee AgResearch, the May 21-24 event at the UT Conference Center in Knoxville attracted 219 attendees representing 22 countries and 32 U.S. states. Participants included academics, representatives of government agencies and allied industries as well as producers. The conference had a central theme of “Field Application of PLF Technologies” and academic presentations along with two industry and producer panels included interactive dialogues among the attendees ...

The results of a yearlong science program show that one of the best ways to instill a lasting interest in science among children is to engage them alongside their family members. This finding runs counter to the current framework, in which children attend science-related summer camps and after-school programs apart from their families, diminishing the long-term potential of what they learn. “We wanted to see if we could support families as a whole, as opposed to giving a student a really amazing one-off experience and sending them ...

INDIANAPOLIS — In one of the first studies to investigate racial disparities in the pharmacologic treatment of insomnia, researchers from Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University report that patients belonging to racial minority groups were significantly less likely to be prescribed medication following diagnosis of insomnia than White patients. The study found that Black patients were much less likely to have been prescribed an FDA-approved insomnia medication at any time post diagnosis than White patients. Other non-White individuals were significantly less likely to be prescribed an FDA-approved medication two, three, and four years after insomnia diagnosis ...

New York, NY, June 14, 2023 — The New York Academy of Sciences and the Leon Levy Foundation announced today the first cohort of Leon Levy Scholars in Neuroscience; a continuation of an earlier fellowship program started by the Foundation in 2009 that has supported 160 fellows in neuroscience. This highly regarded postdoctoral program supports exceptional young researchers across the five boroughs of New York City as they pursue innovative investigations in neuroscience and advance in their careers toward becoming independent principal investigators. Designed to broaden the field and to support researchers who might otherwise not ...

June 14, 2023, TORONTO — Funding announced today by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) will help six Ontario-based research teams pursue their ultimate goal of improving the lives of people with cancer. Funding comes through OICR’s Innovation to Implementation (I2I) program, which aims to help ensure new discoveries about preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer are adopted into healthcare policy and clinical practice. “Every cancer researcher wants their work to have ...

NEW YORK (June 14, 2023)— Dr. Jonathan Weinsaft, an esteemed physician-scientist who focuses on clinical research and cardiovascular imaging, has been appointed chief of the Greenberg Division of Cardiology at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, effective July 1. The Greenberg Division of Cardiology, housed within the Weill Department of Medicine, is dedicated to diagnosing and treating patients with disorders of the heart and blood vessels that comprise the cardiovascular system. In his new role, Dr. Weinsaft will further strengthen the division as a leader in scientific and technological ...

In a recent study, researchers created a diagnostic test to identify functional sperm in infertile men that could change the treatment of male infertility and assisted reproductive technology. “Male infertility is a recognized issue and deserves scientific and clinical attention,” said Andrei Drabovich, an assistant professor of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Alberta and corresponding author of the Molecular & Cellular Proteomics study. One in every six couples trying to conceive experience infertility issues. In fact, about 10% of men in the United States are infertile. The most ...

In the early 2000s, scientists from the UK made a worrisome discovery that the oceans are teeming with small particles of plastic (less than one millimeter in length) due to the continuous degradation of plastic waste. These microscopic particles of plastic have become a major environmental concern. Scientists classify these small particles as either microplastics or nanoplastics based on their size; the latter term is used exclusively for particles smaller than one micrometer. These particles easily get embedded into the bodies of marine and freshwater animals, ...