CORVALLIS, Ore. – The “baby boom” of ochre sea stars that followed a population crash a decade ago is enabling the species to recover on the Oregon Coast, according to new research by scientists at Oregon State University and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The study, published in Ecosphere, does not determine whether the boom was triggered by the wasting disease epidemic that pushed ochre sea stars to the brink of extinction in Oregon, or simply a fortunate coincidence. But either way, a study of multiple sites along the coast revealed many encouraging signs for ochre sea star populations. “Wasting ...

A team of U.S. scientists has discovered the oldest directly dated ice and air on the planet in the Allan Hills region of East Antarctica. The 6-million-year-old ice and the tiny air bubbles trapped inside it provide an unprecedented window into Earth’s past climate, according to a new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The oldest ice sample from Allan Hills dated by researchers clocks in at 6 million years, from a period in Earth’s history where abundant geological evidence indicates much warmer temperatures and higher sea levels compared to today. The research was led by Sarah Shackleton ...

A female mosquito only gets one shot to get reproduction right: She mates just a single time in her entire life. With the stakes so high, it would make sense for these insects to be quite choosey when it comes to selecting a mate. And yet a long-standing assumption in the field was that males controlled the process, and females were simply passive recipients of sperm. “There’s an inherent contradiction in this assumption,” says Rockefeller University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute mosquito expert Leslie Vosshall. “If females have no say, then multiple males ...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — October 28, 2025 — Today, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) and NVIDIA announced an expanded collaboration to accelerate life science research by driving development and adoption of virtual cell models through tools, data, models, and benchmarks delivered through CZI’s virtual cells platform (VCP). Core to this collaboration is an effort to scale biological data processing to petabytes of data spanning billions of cellular observations, enabling next-generation model development that will unlock new ...

(Toronto and Little Rock, October 16, 2025)  JMIR Publications, a premier open access publisher of digital health research, and The MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS), a leading professional organization for computational biology and bioinformatics, today announced a strategic, long-term partnership. This agreement formally designates JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology as the official journal of MCBIOS. This landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) creates a stable, high-impact venue for MCBIOS members to publish their research, particularly the output from the Society's annual conference. Both organizations are ...

Ottawa, October 28, 2025 – Scientists from the Canadian Museum of Nature have announced the discovery and description of an extinct rhinoceros from the Canadian High Arctic. The nearly complete fossil skeleton of the new species was recovered from the fossil-rich lake deposits in Haughton Crater on Devon Island, Nunavut and is the most northerly rhino species known. Rhinoceroses have an evolutionary history that spanned over 40 million years, encompassing all continents except South America and Antarctica. The “Arctic rhino” lived about 23 million years ago, during the Early Miocene and is most ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2025 – Copper intrauterine devices are a common contraceptive due to their long-acting effects and affordability. However, the first few months of use are associated with several side effects. When a copper IUD is first implanted in the uterus, it undergoes a chemical reaction with uterine fluid. This reaction corrodes its surface, causing a burst of copper ions, which can lead to symptoms such as menstrual irregularity, increased menstrual cramps, and pelvic inflammatory disease. In Biointerphases, an AVS journal published ...

In a new paper published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the international LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration reports on the detection of two gravitational wave events in October and November of last year with unusual black hole spins. An observation that adds an important new piece to our understanding of the most elusive phenomena in the universe. Gravitational waves are “ripples” in space-time that result from cataclysmic events in deep space, with the strongest waves produced by the collision of black holes.  Using sophisticated algorithmic techniques and mathematical models, researchers are able to reconstruct ...

Could yeast and humans be any more different? Going by looks alone, probably not. But peering into our genomes reveals surprising similarities. That’s because we share a common ancestor called LECA (last eukaryotic common ancestor). Before this single-celled organism died off around 2 billion years ago, it passed down Dicer, a key protein humans and certain yeasts still rely on today.  “Dicer is ancient,” explains Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Rob Martienssen. “The mechanisms behind how it directly interacts with RNA are well understood. How it does this in the context of the whole genome, and how that affects genome stability, is still ...

Climate change is driving many of Australia’s native reptiles toward extinction, and the answers to their future survival may lie in the fossil record. New research published today in Current Biology originates from an international collaboration with Museums Victoria Research Institute and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. The study reveals that the endangered Australian Mountain Dragon (Rankinia diemensis) has been driven into increasingly smaller and more isolated populations over thousands of years as a result of changing climate conditions. The study combines fossil evidence from natural history museums with genetic data ...

New open-source American College of Lifestyle Medicine program brings culinary skills and nutrition education into medicine Dr. Michelle Hauser of Stanford University School of Medicine created a program that features almost 15 hours of video instruction on cooking skills, kitchen knowledge and healthy, delicious recipes. The resources are accompanied by a curriculum for clinicians or can be used independently by individuals who want to improve their nutrition.  The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has launched a complimentary Culinary Medicine Program (CMP) ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – In a study of more than 100,000 screening mammograms, researchers demonstrated the potential of an AI tool to help identify women at higher risk of developing interval breast cancers, breast cancer that is diagnosed between regular screening mammograms. Results of the new study were published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). “Interval cancers generally have a worse prognosis compared with screen-detected cancers, because they tend to be ...

Media Contact: John Dudley (814) 490-3290 (cell) jjdudley@usf.edu Click here for images and a PDF of the journal article EMBARGOED UNTIL TUESDAY, OCT. 28, 2025, AT 9 A.M. ET Key takeaways: USF researchers used AI and citizen science to identify what may be the first Anopheles stephensi mosquito ever detected in Madagascar — a species capable of spreading deadly malaria across urban Africa. A single smartphone photo submitted through NASA’s GLOBE Observer app led to the discovery, showing how artificial intelligence and public participation ...

HOUSTON, Oct. 28, 2025 – The American Pediatric Society (APS) proudly announces Bruce D. Gelb, as the recipient of the 2026 APS John Howland Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Society. Widely regarded as the most prestigious recognition in academic pediatrics, the award celebrates Dr. Gelb’s outstanding contributions to advancing child health and the field of pediatrics. Established in 1952 to honor clinician-scientist John Howland, MD, the APS John Howland Award annually recognizes individuals for their distinguished service to pediatrics. Dr. Gelb will be formally honored during the APS Presidential Plenary at ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided researchers with a wealth of information on contemporary successes and failures in combating an emerging pathogen. This study outlines a total of 22 opportunities and strategies based on urban functionality and typology to help communities better prepare for and mitigate the effects of the next pandemic. Global pandemics have occurred throughout human history, including the bubonic plague, Spanish flu and COVID-19. While the viruses and other infectious agents that cause pandemics vary, one fact remains constant: Another pandemic will occur, and no one can predict exactly when it will happen. Professor ...

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is pleased to announce it has received a three-year, $4.5 million grant from BD2: Breakthrough Discoveries for thriving with Bipolar Disorder to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying bipolar disorder and pioneer novel neuromodulation-based treatment strategies. The team will be led by Ignacio Saez, PhD, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Neurosurgery, Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine and Director of the Human Neurophysiology Laboratory at Mount Sinai. Dr. Saez and his team are part of a select ...

Today, the Innovative Cancer Medicines (ICM) initiative announced the enrollment of the first Nigerian patient in a pioneering demonstration project to provide an immunotherapy drug used to treat cancer. The goal of the initiative is to develop an approach that explores sustainable and effective administration of innovative immuno-oncology therapies in low- and middle-income countries. The ICM initiative is a collaboration between the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), along with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and Roche, working ...

Learning about a topic by interacting with AI chatbots like ChatGPT rather than following links provided by web search can produce shallower knowledge. Advice given on the basis of this shallow knowledge tends to be sparser, less original, and less likely to be adopted by others. Shiri Melumad and Jin Ho Yun conducted seven experiments with thousands of online participants who were randomly assigned to learn about various topics, including how to plant a vegetable garden, how to lead a healthier lifestyle, or how to cope with financial scams, using either large language models (LLMs) or traditional Google web search links. Participants ...

October 28, 2025 — An international study led by the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee at Bar-Ilan University reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to a diminishing public trust in childhood vaccines, resulting in declining vaccination rates and a resurgence of preventable, life-threatening diseases such as measles. The findings come amid one of the most severe measles outbreaks in Israel in decades, with thousands of infections and multiple child deaths reported nationwide. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Vaccine, the study surveyed 2,047 parents with children born both before and after the pandemic ...

Washington, D.C. – Today, BD², or Breakthrough Discoveries for thriving with Bipolar Disorder, announced its third round of Discovery Research grants, totaling nearly $18 million – expanding a comprehensive global effort to examine the key mechanisms of bipolar disorder.  Multidisciplinary teams of scientists and clinicians include leads from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Mass General Brigham, Weill Cornell Medicine, and the University of Minnesota. These teams represent a unique cohort of successful Discovery Grantees, as they will all use neuromodulation to explore human neural circuitry in bipolar disorder. These teams will each ...

Every day, 17 Americans die while waiting for an organ transplant. Opt-out organ donation policies, which enroll everyone into post-mortem donation programs by default unless people choose to opt out, have been touted as a way to increase the supply of desperately needed organs. But opt-out organ donation policies may reduce living organ donations, leaving systems no better supplied with lifesaving organs. Pascal Güntürkün and colleagues analyzed epidemiological data from 24 countries between 2000–2023 and conducted four experimental ...

West Lafayette, Ind. – Frailty threatens older individuals because it increases their vulnerability to detrimental health outcomes, such as falling, longer hospitalization, or even shortened life expectancy.  New research exploring the linkage between frailty and mortality risk points to retaining gonad function as a potent strategy to fight late-life frailty. The study conducted by scientists at the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation’s Center for Exceptional Longevity Studies was published last week in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Scientific Reports. The ...

Brain scans from American football players reveal subtle differences in the brain’s outer grooves when compared to scans from otherwise healthy men who never played contact or collision sports, a new study shows. Its authors say the findings could potentially predict which people are more at risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Like many neurodegenerative diseases, CTE is known to worsen over time, and it afflicts many who play contact and collision sports that involve repeated hits to the head. Popular contact sports include soccer and basketball, while common collision sports are ...

As populations continue to age, total hip replacement (THR) is becoming an increasingly common surgical procedure. Experts estimate that approximately one million THRs are performed each year worldwide. The surgery is often life-changing, as it can fully restore the function of the hip joint, reduce pain, and allow patients to walk and bear weight again. However, as with any major surgery, the procedure is not without risks, especially for older individuals with other health conditions.   A significant complication following THR is a femoral fracture—a break in the thigh bone near the artificial hip joint. This ...

Frailty is closely linked to adverse outcomes in older adults, particularly those with heart failure. Numerous epidemiologic studies show that frailty has important prognostic value in this population, underscoring the need for routine assessment. At the same time, the concept of frailty has expanded beyond the physical domain to include cognitive and other dimensions, making comprehensive evaluation increasingly complex and less feasible in everyday practice. The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) offers a practical alternative: a 9-point, bedside, visually assessed tool that can be completed in minutes. However, key questions remain—how closely ...