Francis Crick Institute press release Under strict embargo: 16:00hrs BST Wednesday 6 August 2025 Peer reviewed Experimental study Animals (zebrafish) Early heartbeats direct the heart’s own development and growth Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have discovered that the heart’s own contractions trigger biological signals that guide the formation of a functional beating heart. Their study in zebrafish highlights the heart’s ability to remodel and adapt to physiological demands and could also reveal what goes wrong during congenital ...

Arthropods, including insects and spiders, make up the vast majority of animal species on the planet. Despite their small size they are irreplaceable contributors to the health of natural habitats, as well as vital food sources for birds and other larger animals. But, arthropods may be declining globally. There is some evidence to support reduced numbers of species in temperate regions of the Northen Hemisphere. In the tropics, however, evidence for arthropod declines has so far been limited. A recent international collaboration of scientists has attempted to find this missing evidence, with the findings published in Nature. The ...

In nanophotonics, tiny structures are used to control light at the nanoscale and render it useful for technological applications. A key element here is optical resonators, which trap and amplify light of a certain color (wavelength). Previous methods of controlling these resonances were more like a dimmer switch: You could weaken the resonance or slightly shift its color. However, genuine on-and-off switching was not possible, as the resonators always remain fundamentally coupled with the light. A team led by Andreas Tittl, Professor of Experimental Physics at LMU, has now achieved precisely this breakthrough together with partners from Monash ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a powerful new tool in training and education, including in the field of neurosurgery. Yet a new study suggests that AI tutoring provides better results when paired with human instruction. Researchers at the Neurosurgical Simulation and Artificial Intelligence Learning Centre at The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) of McGill University are studying how AI and virtual reality (VR) can improve the training and performance of brain surgeons. They simulate brain surgeries using VR, monitor ...

IHME’s 2025 Roux Prize Awarded to Rural Health Equity Advocate – Recognized for Advancing Access to Oral Health Care in Nigeria  Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan will receive a $100,000 award for pioneering innovative, data-driven solutions to tackle oral health disparities in underserved communities.  Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan, Executive Director of the Dentalcare Foundation, rural dentist, and advocate for oral health advancement in Nigeria, has been named the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s ...

Recent findings, made by Griffith University researchers, show that early hominins made a major deep-sea crossing to reach the Indonesian island of Sulawesi much earlier than previously established, based on the discovery of stone tools dating to at least 1.04 million years ago at the Early Pleistocene (or ‘Ice Age’) site of Calio. Budianto Hakim from the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia (BRIN) and Professor Adam Brumm from the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University led the ...

With the global rollout of 5G networks and the onset of 6G research, the need for advanced materials that enable faster and more reliable wireless communication has never been greater. Microwave dielectric ceramics, key components in devices like resonators, filters, and antennas, must meet strict criteria: low signal delay, low loss, and stable performance across temperatures.   A research team from Guilin University of Technology in China has risen to this challenge by developing a novel garnet-type ceramic, YMAG. Synthesized using a solid-state reaction method, YMAG exhibits impressive microwave properties: a permittivity (εr) of 9.86, a quality factor ...

Australian researchers have visualised a key protein complex in malaria parasites for the first time, uncovering a new target for next-generation vaccines that could help stop the disease from spreading. Using cutting-edge cryo-electron microscopy, the research team from WEHI captured the first detailed structure of a protein complex essential for malaria parasite fertilisation. The discovery published in Science has led to the development of a promising new mRNA vaccine candidate that stops the malaria parasite from reproducing inside mosquitoes, breaking the cycle of transmission ...

WASHINGTON (August 6, 2025) — Using portable high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) purifiers at home can significantly lower systolic blood pressure (SBP) in adults with elevated baseline readings — even in areas with relatively low overall air pollution levels, according to a study published today in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology.   Particulate matter (PM) is a major contributor to air pollution and is strongly associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). People ...

(WASHINGTON – August 6, 2025) – Most patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) do not receive guideline-recommended treatment with hypomethylating agents (HMAs), according to results published in Blood Neoplasia. The findings suggest that underuse of these drugs may help explain why MDS outcomes have not improved over the past two decades since these life-extending medications became available.   The study is the largest analysis of MDS treatment patterns in the United States to date and the most comprehensive study of real-world use of HMAs, which are highly effective in improving outcomes. HMAs are the best available ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The established conservation practice of relocating animals from large, genetically diverse populations to small communities of inbred endangered species may risk introducing more damaging than beneficial gene variants into the threatened group, a new study suggests. Analysis of genomes of Eastern massasauga rattlesnakes showed that, by the numbers, more deleterious than adaptation-enabling mutations were present in the more genetically diverse donor animals selected in a hypothetical scenario to join a small, isolated population. Because donor relocation, known as ...

The research group of fungal diversity and molecular evolution at Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted in-depth research on more than 1,600 samples of macrofungi collected from 2019 to 2024 by means of species identification combining morphology and molecular systematics. The results showed that there were 480 species of macrofungi in this area, covering 7 classes, 17 orders, 67 families, and 158 genera of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, and 8 new species were described.   Fungal diversity patterns revealed taxonomic dominance at both family and genus levels. Among the 67 documented families, 15 were dominant (≥10 species each), collectively representing ...

Given the current youth mental health crisis in the United States, many adolescents report experiencing low levels of hope – a longstanding concern that is even more pressing as the new school year begins. Substantial research over decades has established that higher levels of hope are linked with greater academic achievement, as well as improved emotional and physical health. Now, a new study shows that hope does even more: it acts as a powerful protective force in the lives of children, helping to reduce both bullying and cyberbullying. The study by Florida Atlantic University, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, surveyed a nationally representative ...

New York, NY [August 6, 2025] — A new study by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai finds that widely used AI chatbots are highly vulnerable to repeating and elaborating on false medical information, revealing a critical need for stronger safeguards before these tools can be trusted in health care. The researchers also demonstrated that a simple built-in warning prompt can meaningfully reduce that risk, offering a practical path forward as the technology rapidly evolves. Their findings were detailed in the August 2 online issue of Communications Medicine ...

As a chronic condition, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can’t be cured, so treatment focuses on managing the disease and controlling its progression. Although current treatments help control RA symptoms in most people, they cannot prevent the onset of RA or painful flare-ups. Now, researchers publishing in ACS Central Science have developed nanoparticles that could slow disease progression and reduce flare severity, based on results from tests with human blood and mice models with RA-like disease. For a person diagnosed with RA, their immune system attacks tissue that makes up the joints, causing inflammation, swelling and pain. ...

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) can negate supplier-induced environmental, social and governance (ESG) controversies by setting up ‘small-world’ networks, according to new research co-authored by Bayes Business School. Globalising supply chains has become a dominant strategy for MNEs. Benefits include lower costs of labour and distribution, and greater scope for innovation. However, long-distance operations also carry associated risks. Contrasting ethical standards of suppliers in different areas of the world can lead to ...

Quantum distance refers to a measure of quantum mechanical similarity between two quantum states. A quantum distance of one means that the two quantum states are the same, whereas a quantum distance of zero implies that they are exactly the opposite. Physicists introduced this concept in the realm of theoretical science a long time ago, but its importance has been increasingly recognized in the field of physics only in recent times. In the last few years, many experimental physicists have tried to measure the quantum distance of electrons ...

The mitral valve controls blood flow between the heart’s left atrium and ventricle. When structural changes affect the atrium or valve, it may not close fully—causing blood to leak backwards, a condition known as atrial functional mitral regurgitation (AFMR). Common in frail or elderly patients, AFMR often leads to heart failure, and standard surgery is typically too risky due to other health issues.   Transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER), a minimally invasive surgery, has emerged as a low-risk treatment option for various ...

Research Highlights: Increased time on electronic devices or watching TV among children and young adults was associated with higher cardiometabolic disease risk, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and insulin resistance, based on data from over 1,000 study participants in Denmark. The link between screen time and cardiometabolic risks was strongest among youth who slept fewer hours, suggesting that screen use may harm health by “stealing” time from sleep, researchers said. Researchers said the findings underscore the ...

  Three nano glass spheres cling to one another. They form a tower-like cluster, similar to when you pile three scoops of ice cream on top of one another – only much smaller. The diameter of the nano cluster is ten times smaller than that of a human hair. With the help of an optical device and laser beams, researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in keeping such objects almost completely motionless in levitation. This is significant when it comes to the future development of quantum sensors, which, together with quantum computers, constitute the most promising applications of quantum research. As part of their levitation ...

Users of the NHS Active 10 app, designed to encourage people to become more active, immediately increased their amount of brisk and non-brisk walking upon using the app, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge. In a study published today in npj Digital Medicine, the researchers found that while activity levels then slowly declined over time, even after 30 months those users who were still using the app were more active than they had been beforehand. Lack of physical activity ...

University of Warwick astronomers have uncovered compelling evidence that a nearby white dwarf is in fact the remnant of two stars merging — a rare stellar discovery revealed through Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet observations of carbon in the star’s hot atmosphere.  White dwarfs are the dense cores left behind when stars exhaust their fuel and collapse. They are Earth-sized stellar embers weighing typically half as much as the Sun, made up of carbon-oxygen cores with surface layers of helium and hydrogen. While white dwarfs ...

University of Queensland research shows emissions from the global chocolate industry could be reduced by growing more shade trees over farms in the region that supplies 60 per cent of the world’s cocoa. Dr Wilma Blaser-Hart and Dr Simon Hart from UQ’s School of the Environment and Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science led a study which used satellite images and machine learning to examine farms in West Africa “Cocoa is naturally an understory tree in rainforests, but in monoculture farming systems it’s grown in the open,” ...

KANSAS CITY, MO—August 6, 2025—The eye of the apple snail is unusually similar to a human eye—but, unlike human eyes, it can regrow itself if injured or even amputated. New research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research has established the apple snail as a novel research organism to study eye regeneration, with the potential to better understand and find treatments for eye conditions in humans like macular degeneration. The study, from the lab of Stowers President and Chief Scientific Officer Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Ph.D., published in Nature Communications on [date], describes a new system to study sensory organ ...

Researchers from the Broad Institute and Mass General Brigham have shown that a low-oxygen environment — similar to the thin air found at Mount Everest base camp — can protect the brain and restore movement in mice with Parkinson’s-like disease. The new research, in Nature Neuroscience, suggests that cellular dysfunction in Parkinson’s leads to the accumulation of excess oxygen molecules in the brain, which then fuel neurodegeneration — and that reducing oxygen intake could help prevent or even reverse Parkinson’s symptoms. “The ...