To a human, microplastics are very small at less than 5 millimeters (mm) wide. But to an insect, microplastics might be the same size as the food they usually eat. Researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology have shown that crickets can and will consume polyethylene microplastics if their mouth is larger than the plastic particle. The study suggests that crickets — and likely many other insects — cannot distinguish plastic from food. Previous research has shown that consuming microplastics negatively affects small animals like insects, snails and earthworms. These plastic particles, ranging in size from 1 micrometer (around the width ...

Washington, D.C. — The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) have announced a new collaborative initiative, the Healthcare Infection Prevention Advisory Group (HIPAG), to address infection prevention priorities of national importance. The elimination of the CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) has created gaps in coordinated, multidisciplinary alignment on infection prevention and control ...

NEW YORK, NY--Researchers at Columbia University have found that a lack of dietary iron early in life can prevent immune cells in the lung from making a key protein that helps fight viral infections, even after iron levels are restored.   The findings suggest that immunological memory formed when iron levels are low may not provide adequate protection against future exposures to the same viruses. “Iron deficiency, which disproportionally affects children, is one of the most common nutritional problems worldwide and has long been linked to ...

2 December 2025 Are primary students prepared to write in a digital world? A nation-wide study on computer-based writing instruction in Australian classrooms, led by researchers from Edith Cowan University (ECU) in collaboration with colleagues from the Writing for All research group, has shined a spotlight on how little time and attention primary schools are giving to teaching students how to write using a computer. Lead author Dr Anabela Malpique from the School of Education at ECU said the research surveyed 340 primary education teachers (Years ...

PHILADELPHIA (December 2, 2025) – In an editorial published in JAMA Health Forum, three prominent nursing researchers have strongly defended the necessity of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) and its enduring impact on public health. Titled "The Enduring Impact of the National Institute of Nursing Research and Why We Still Need It," the viewpoint addresses the Institute's future as it approaches its 40th anniversary. The authors – Mary D. Naylor, PhD, RN, FAAN, the ...

Ant colonies operate as tightly coordinated “superorganisms” with individual ants working together, much like the cells of a body, to ensure their collective health. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have now discovered that terminally ill ant brood, like infected cells, release an odor signaling their impending death and the risk they pose. This sophisticated early warning system facilitates rapid detection and removal of pathogenic infections. The study was published in Nature Communications. In many social animals, group members try to conceal their sickness ...

A new national analysis shows that over the past two decades, inpatient care for children with complex chronic conditions (CCCs) has become far more intensive—and is now overwhelmingly concentrated in urban teaching children’s hospitals. The authors argue that these shifts necessitate changes in pediatric training, staffing, and Medicaid policy. Analyzing U.S. hospital discharge data from 2000 to 2022, the study found that children with at least one CCC now account for more than two-fifths of pediatric bed days and nearly three-fifths of hospital charges. Examples include children ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of insulin-treated older adults with Alzheimer disease and related dementias and diabetes, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) use was associated with improved long-term clinical outcomes. Pragmatic (i.e., evaluating the effectiveness of healthcare interventions in everyday settings) trials are needed to validate these findings and to assess the feasibility of CGM use in this population. Corresponding author: To contact the corresponding author, Jingchuan Guo, M.D., Ph.D., email guoj1@ufl.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi: ...

About The Study: In this cohort study, maternal plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels throughout pregnancy were inversely associated with odds of offspring early childhood caries. These findings support the potential benefit of vitamin D supplementation before or during pregnancy in reducing the risk and severity of childhood dental caries. Corresponding author: To contact the corresponding author, Yunxian Yu, M.D., Ph.D., email yunxianyu@zju.edu.cn. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi: ...

An unusual public health policy in Wales may have produced the strongest evidence yet that a vaccine can reduce the risk of dementia. In a new study led by Stanford Medicine, researchers analyzing the health records of Welsh older adults discovered that those who received the shingles vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia over the next seven years than those who did not receive the vaccine. The remarkable findings, published April 2 in Nature, support an emerging theory that viruses that affect the nervous system can increase the risk of dementia. If further ...

Clinicians may fail to recognize common side effects of drugs like gabapentin — which are frequently prescribed for nerve pain — leading them to prescribe unnecessary medications that cause yet more side effects. This phenomenon, known as a “prescribing cascade,” is increasingly seen as a danger to older patients.  In this case, gabapentinoids — which include gabapentin (Neurontin) and pregabalin (Lyrica) — may cause leg swelling, leading doctors to suspect heart failure and then prescribe diuretics that can cause kidney injury, light headedness, and falls.  Researchers tracked the ...

Researchers Dr. Gu-Gon Park, Dr. Yongmin Kwon, and Dr. Eunjik Lee from the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Laboratory at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (President Yi Chang-Keun, hereafter “KIER”) have developed a technology that uses carbon monoxide, typically harmful to humans, to precisely control metal thin films at a thickness of 0.3 nanometers. This technology enables faster and simpler production of core–shell catalysts, a key factor in improving the economic viability of fuel cells, and is expected to significantly boost related industries. Core–shell catalysts refer to catalysts in which the inner core and outer shell are made of different metals. ...

An international team of researchers has used knowledge of historical geography to reexamine the earliest datable total solar eclipse record known to the scientific community, enabling accurate measurements of Earth's variable rotation speed from 709 BCE. The researchers calculated how the Sun would have appeared from Qufu, the ancient Chinese capital of the Lu Duchy, during the total solar eclipse. Using this information, they analyzed the ancient description of what has been considered the solar corona—the ...

SAN ANTONIO — December 2, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has upgraded its High-Viscosity Flow Loop (HVFL) to meet increased demands in the oil and gas industry. The expanded and upgraded facility now enables SwRI to offer more comprehensive, efficient, and cost-effective heavy oil testing. Increasing production of heavy oil around the world led SwRI to develop the HVFL in 2015 to gain a better understanding of flow equipment performance in extremely viscous conditions. “Today, as operators tap into reservoirs with higher gas volume fractions, conventional pumping systems struggle to process the volatile mixture of gas and liquid, demanding ...

Cambridge, MA — 12/02/2025 — Insilico Medicine (“Insilico”), a global leader in AI-powered drug discovery, and Atossa Therapeutics (“Atossa”) (Nasdaq: ATOS), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel treatments for breast cancer and other serious conditions, announce the publication of a joint study evaluating the potential of (Z)-endoxifen for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The peer-reviewed article, now published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, represents one of the most comprehensive AI-enabled analyses to date exploring whether endoxifen, an active metabolite of tamoxifen ...

WASHINGTON – A new analysis of research into the most common type of breast cancer has zeroed in on an overlooked hormone that may be responsible for the increased risk of breast cancer death in post-menopausal women with obesity. It also raises the possibility that treatment of these aggressive breast cancers could be improved with addition of weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists. The most common and deadly form of this disease in women after menopauses is estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer. According to Joyce Slingerland, ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – Children in Guatemala who received a common vaccine that helps prevent pneumonia were less likely to carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to a new study led by Washington State University researchers. The team examined whether rotavirus (RV) and pneumococcal (PCV13) vaccines reduce gut colonization by a group of bacteria that includes Escherichia coli and resists critical antibiotics used to treat severe infections. Colonization occurs when the bacteria are present in the body, often in the gut, without causing illness, yet they can persist and later cause infections or spread to others. While rotavirus ...

When large language models (LLMs) make decisions about networking and friendship, the models tend to act like people, across both synthetic simulations and real-world network contexts. Marios Papachristou and Yuan Yuan developed a framework to study network formation behaviors of multiple LLM agents and compared these behaviors against human behaviors. The authors conducted simulations using several large language models placed in a network, which were asked to choose which other nodes to connect with, given their number of connections, common neighbors, and shared attributes, ...

Twenty-two million Americans would no longer be breathing in unhealthy levels of nitrogen dioxide if they switched from gas and propane stoves to electric stoves. Robert Jackson and colleagues combined outdoor air quality data with estimates of indoor nitrogen dioxide emissions from stoves in more than fifteen cities. As outdoor air quality improves, stoves become an increasingly important source of exposure. According to the World Health Organization, health risks to the respiratory system increase at levels above ...

Humans may find images that take less energy to process aesthetically pleasing, suggesting that our attraction to beauty is at least partially an energy conservation strategy.  Looking at something can feel effortless, but in energetic terms, it isn’t cheap. The brain uses 20% of the body’s energy, and the visual system accounts for about 44% of that expenditure. Looking at very simple stimuli, like a blank white room, is energy-efficient but boring. Looking at very busy or unusual image can feel tiring and unpleasant. Yikai Tang and colleagues presented 4,914 ...

First Nations Australians are twice as likely as other Australians to be digitally excluded and face barriers to accessing, affording and using the internet. For those living in remote Australia, the barriers are much greater. Three in four First Nations people living in remote and very remote communities are digitally excluded according to the Mapping the Digital Gap report by RMIT University and Swinburne University of Technology. This means many face significant barriers to accessing and using online services needed for daily social, economic and cultural life. This 2025 outcomes report draws on three years of ...

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a common neurological sleep disorder characterized by an uncontrollable urge to move the legs, often worsening at night. Parkinson’s disease (PD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, is marked by tremor, rigidity, and slowed movement. Both conditions are associated with dysfunction in the brain’s dopaminergic system, but their causal relationship has remained unclear. A joint research team from Korea University Ansan Hospital, Pohang Stroke and Spine Hospital, and National Health ...

Gerotor pumps for oil circulation and lubrication are crucial components in automotive and hydraulic systems. They possess a compact design, excellent flow rate per rotation, and high suction capability. The gerotor tooth profile plays a significant role in determining the overall performance of hydraulic systems for engine lubrication and automatic transmission. Unfortunately, conventional design methods leverage predefined mathematical curves and iterative adjustments, which compromises their optimization ...

Vision-language model (VLM) is a core technology of modern artificial intelligence (AI), and it can be used to represent different forms of expression or learning, such as photographs, illustrations, and sketches. It has high generalization ability, which allows it to accurately recognize objects in images within a domain. However, this generalization ability is at risk. For example, VLM recognizes both real cars and illustrated cars as “cars.” If this is installed in a system, there is a risk that a car illustrated in a roadside advertisement ...

For many nocturnal moths, hearing sound waves is a matter of survival in night sky. Their ability to detect ultrasonic calls emitted by bats determines whether they escape or become prey. This predator-prey relationship has shaped the behavior, physiology, and sensory systems of both groups. Echolocating bats have developed complex call patterns to track insects in flight, while moths have evolved remarkable countermeasures, including evasive flight and sound-deflection tactics. The luna moth, for instance, spins its long hindwings to deflect the ultrasonic ...