HONOLULU, Dec. 1, 2025 — How would you react if you overheard the voice of a long-lost friend or old co-worker? Chances are, just the sound of their voice will bring back memories of times you spent together. Humans are not the only animals that can remember the voices of their old acquaintances. Elephant seals, too, can remember the calls of their rivals even a year later. Caroline Casey, research scientist and adjunct professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, will present her team’s research on elephant seal memory Monday, Dec. 1, at 2:45 p.m. HST as part of the Sixth ...

A University of Cambridge-led team has analysed giant anaconda fossils from South America to deduce that these tropical snakes reached their maximum size 12.4 million years ago and have remained giants ever since. Many animal species that lived 12.4 to 5.3 million years ago, in the period known as the ‘Middle to Upper Miocene’, were much bigger than their modern relatives due to warmer global temperatures, extensive wetlands and an abundance of food. While other Miocene giants - like the 12-metre caiman (Purussaurus) and the 3.2-metre giant freshwater turtle (Stupendemys) - have since gone extinct, anacondas (Eunectes) bucked the trend by surviving as a giant species. Anacondas ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (DEC. 1, 2025) – A new generation of targeted treatments and gentler chemotherapy options for older adults with a new diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is driving better survival and cure rates. Led by Mikkael Sekeres, M.D., M.S., chief of the Division of Hematology at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, the updated 2025 American Society of Hematology (ASH) AML treatment guidelines, appear Dec. 1, 2025, in the journal Blood Advances.In addition, the updated guidelines will be presented Dec . 7 at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual ...

Microbiomes, the communities of microorganisms that live in and around us, play a vital role in everything from human health to soil fertility and climate regulation. But studying these tiny life forms, especially outside the human body, presents a major challenge: how do scientists share complex data across such a wide range of environments and disciplines? To help solve this problem, a team of nearly 250 researchers from 28 countries has developed a new set of guidelines called STREAMS, short for Standards for Technical Reporting in Environmental and host-Associated Microbiome Studies. STREAMS builds on ...

Artificial intelligence systems that are designed with a biologically inspired architecture can simulate human brain activity before ever being trained on any data, according to new research from Johns Hopkins University. The findings, published in Nature Machine Intelligence, challenge conventional approaches to building AI by prioritizing architectural design over the type of deep learning and training that takes months, costs billions of dollars and requires thousands of megawatts of energy.  “The way that the AI field is moving right now is to throw a bunch of data at the models and build compute resources the size of small cities. That ...

SINGAPORE, 1 December 2025 – Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Asia PGI) today offered the first public preview of PathGen, an AI-powered sense-making and decision-making support platform of pathogen genomics and contextual data. Designed for public health practitioners, clinicians and industry, it can help detect emerging disease threats earlier, assess risks faster, and coordinate responses within and across borders, all without compromising countries’ ownership of their respective sovereign data. The objective is to strengthen health security across Asia and beyond, ...

Scientists have long known that bacteria come in many shapes and sizes, but understanding what those differences mean has remained a major challenge, especially for species that can’t be grown in the lab. Now, a new study led by Nina Wale, an Assistant Professor in MSU’s Department of Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology, introduces a groundbreaking method that could change how researchers study bacterial diversity.  The research, published in mSphere, focuses on a tiny, unculturable pathogen called Pasteuria ramosa, which infects water-dwelling ...

Two new publications remap the understanding of reverse weathering in the scientific community. The Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s Senior Marine Scientist, Dr. Jeffrey Krause, played a key role in both projects, which include several collaborating institutions.  Reverse weathering is one of the ocean’s most important yet least understood geochemical processes.  During this natural process, dissolved minerals and chemicals combine to form new clay minerals in seafloor sediments.  These reactions greatly influence the marine silicon cycle and Earth’s climate because they take dissolved ...

Ask someone on Earth for the time and they can give you an exact answer, thanks to our planet’s intricate timekeeping system, built with atomic clocks, GPS satellites and high-speed telecommunications networks. However, Einstein showed us that clocks don’t tick at the same rate across the universe. Clocks will run slightly faster or slower depending on the strength of gravity in their environment, making it tricky to synchronize our watches here on Earth, let alone across the vast solar system. If humans want to establish a long-term presence on the red planet, scientists ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Rocks that stood out as light-colored dots on the reddish-orange surface of Mars now are the latest evidence that areas of the small planet may have once supported wet oases with humid climates and heavy rainfall comparable to tropical climates on Earth. The rocks discovered by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover are white, aluminum-rich kaolinite clay, which forms on Earth after rocks and sediment are leached of all other minerals by millions of years of a wet, rainy climate. These ...

Researchers have unveiled a new catalyst made from renewable plant waste that could significantly accelerate clean hydrogen production. The innovative material, created by embedding nickel oxide and iron oxide nanoparticles into lignin-derived carbon fibers, boosts the efficiency and stability of the oxygen evolution reaction, a key step in water electrolysis. The study, published in Biochar X, demonstrates that the new catalyst achieves a low overpotential of 250 mV at 10 mA cm² and maintains strong performance for over 50 hours at high current density. These results suggest a promising path toward cost-effective and sustainable ...

EL PASO, Texas (Dec. 1, 2025) – Scientists at The University of Texas at El Paso have found a promising new target in the fight against high-grade serous carcinoma, an aggressive form of ovarian cancer. Less than 50 percent of women survive five years after diagnosis, according to the team. A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports shows that Claudin-4, a protein that increases in ovarian cancer, may be the culprit behind the cancer’s resistance, helping tumors both survive ...

N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide, better known as DEET, is one of the world’s most widely used insect repellents – and it is now turning up in rivers, lakes, groundwater and even drinking water around the globe, according to a new review by an international research team. The authors warn that while DEET helps protect millions of people from mosquito-borne diseases, its growing footprint in aquatic environments raises questions about long‑term ecological and health risks. “We shouldn’t wait for a crisis” “DEET has been a public‑health success story for decades, but our analysis shows it is also becoming a quiet, global water contaminant,” said lead ...

Iron fortified hemp biochar made from agricultural waste can significantly cut the amount of “forever chemicals” that move from contaminated soil into food crops, according to a new study on radishes grown in PFAS polluted soil. Plain language overview Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are extremely persistent industrial chemicals that can move through soil, water and air and build up in crops and people. In this greenhouse study, researchers tested whether biochar made from hemp plants, and enhanced with iron, could lock PFAS in place and keep them out of edible radish bulbs. They found that ...

Follow @Annalsofim on X, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin              Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they ...

The beauty of the DNA code is that organisms interpret it unambiguously. Each three-letter nucleotide sequence, or codon, in a gene codes for a unique amino acid that’s added to a chain of amino acids to make a protein. But University of California, Berkeley, researchers have now shown that one microorganism can live with a bit of ambiguity in its genetic code, overturning a standard dogma of biology. The organism, a methane-producing member of a group of microbes called Archaea, interprets one three-letter sequence — normally a stop codon that signals the end of a ...

Earth’s atmosphere might have contributed to the origin of life more than previously thought. In a study published Dec. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, CU Boulder researchers and collaborators reveal that billions of years ago, the planet’s early sky might have been producing sulfur-containing molecules that were essential ingredients for life.  The finding challenges a long-held theory that these sulfur molecules emerged only after life had already formed. “Our study could help us understand the evolution of life at its earliest ...

Coral reefs have long been celebrated as biodiversity hotspots – but new research shows they have also played a much deeper role: conducting the rhythm of Earth’s carbon and climate cycles for more than 250 million years. Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the study reveals that the rise and fall of shallow-water reef habitats have governed how quickly the planet recovered from major carbon dioxide (CO₂) shocks. Researchers from the University of Sydney and Université Grenoble Alpes combined plate-tectonic reconstructions, global surface processes and climate simulations, with ecological modelling to reconstruct ...

SSA and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) are pleased to announce that Francisco José Sánchez-Sesma, professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM), is the 2026 recipient of the William B. Joyner Lecture Award. Sánchez-Sesma will deliver the Joyner Lecture at the 2026 SSA Annual Meeting to be held 14-18 April 2026 in Pasadena, California and the 13th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering (13NCEE) to be held 13-17 July 2026 in Portland, Oregon. His Joyner Lecture, "Seismic ...

In recognition of World AIDS Day 2025, Gregory Folkers and Anthony Fauci reflect on progress made in antiretroviral treatments and prevention of HIV/AIDS, highlighting promising therapeutic developments and looking ahead to what is needed to end the AIDS epidemic   In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Medicine: https://plos.io/3JDHf5f Article title: Treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS: Unfinished business Author countries: United States Funding: The authors received no ...

WASHINGTON – As the world marks World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, world-renowned infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, MD, and his colleague Greg Folkers, MS, MPH, highlight advances made in the treatment and prevention of HIV that could finally end the pandemic, but caution, “History will judge us harshly should we squander this opportunity.” Writing in PLOS Medicine (“Treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS: Unfinished business,” December 1, 2025), Fauci, Distinguished University ...

A study led by McMaster University researchers shows that a widely available and inexpensive medication not only prevents potentially serious stomach bleeding in critically ill patients, but also saves hospitals thousands of dollars.   Published in JAMA Network Open on Dec. 1, 2025, the study is the first to demonstrate the economic benefits of the medication, pantoprazole, when prescribed in hospital for mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). These patients on life support are at high risk of ...

In Punjab, India, paddy stubble burning is a widespread agricultural practice that contributes to seasonal air pollution in the region and beyond. However, the extent to which residents recognize its impact on their own environment and health or in the highly populated areas of Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) has remained unclear. To address this gap, the Aakash Project (led by researchers from Hokkaido University in collaboration with Indian research partners) conducted interviews with 2,202 households across 22 districts in Punjab.   Urban air pollution is recognized, but local sources are undervalued About 46% ...

Fukuoka, Japan—Total hip arthroplasty (hip replacement) is a common treatment for hip osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease caused by cartilage in the hip joint wearing down. However, clinical outcomes vary between patients, and the best timing for surgery remains unclear. Now, researchers at Kyushu University have identified that pre-surgery walking speed is a strong predictor of post-surgery outcomes. In a study published on 26 November in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, they found that patients ...

Every time a rocket is launched, tons of valuable materials are lost, and huge amounts of greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting chemicals are released into the atmosphere. Publishing December 1 in the Cell Press journal Chem Circularity, sustainability and space scientists discuss how the principles of reducing, reusing, and recycling could be applied to satellites and spacecraft—from design and manufacturing to in-orbit repair and end-of-life repurposing.  “As space activity ...