PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Archaeologists know that people have practiced cranial trephination, a medical procedure that involves cutting a hole in the skull, for thousands of years. They’ve turned up evidence that ancient civilizations across the globe, from South America to Africa and beyond, performed the surgery. Now, thanks to a recent excavation at the ancient city of Megiddo, Israel, there’s new evidence that one particular type of trephination dates back to at least the late Bronze Age. Rachel Kalisher, a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University’s Joukowsky ...

Keeping babies alive will lower population growth – new research    New research showing high infant mortality rates are contributing to an incessant rise of the global human population supports arguments for greater access to contraception and family planning in low- and middle-income nations.   In an article published in PLOS ONE, research led by Professor Corey Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology from Flinders University and Peter Le Souëf, Professor of Paediatrics from The University of Western Australia has found that with higher baby death rates and larger household sizes (as an indicator of population density), ...

Wireless, battery-free bandage delivers electrical signals to help wounds heal Bandage monitors healing, streaming data in real time to a smartphone or tablet After healing is complete, bandage and electronics harmlessly absorb into the body EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern University researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind small, flexible, stretchable bandage that accelerates healing by delivering electrotherapy directly to the wound site. In an animal study, the new bandage healed ...

In his famous letter to the Royal Society dated Oct. 9, 1676, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek described a single-celled eukaryote (Vorticella) and its fascinating ultrafast cell contraction as the first set of discoveries. This kind of ultrafast cell contraction triggered by a Ca2+-dependent mechanism is distinct from the adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-dependent mechanisms found in actin-myosin and dynein/kinesin-tubulin systems.  Spirostomum, is a genus of millimeter-scale single-celled protists that are known for their incredibly rapid movement like Vorticella. They are capable ...

If the emergence of mechanically propelled weapons in prehistory is commonly perceived as one of the hallmarks of the advance of modern human populations into the European continent, the existence of archery has always been more difficult to trace. The recognition of these technologies in the European Upper Paleolithic has been hampered by ballistic overlaps between weapons projected with a thruster or a bow. Archery technologies are essentially based on the use of perishable materials; wood, fibers, leather, resins, and sinew, which are rarely preserved in European Paleolithic sites and make archaeological recognition ...

Berkeley — Climate change isn’t the only threat facing California’s birds. Over the course of the 20th century, urban sprawl and agricultural development have dramatically changed the landscape of the state, forcing many native species to adapt to new and unfamiliar habitats. In a new study, biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, use current and historical bird surveys to reveal how land use change has amplified — and in some cases mitigated — the impacts of climate ...

Micro/nanorobots with self-propelling and -navigating capabilities have attracted extensive attention in drug delivery and therapy owing to their controllable locomotion in hard-to-reach body tissues. However, developing self-adaptive micro/nanorobots that can adjust their driving mechanisms across multiple biological barriers to reach distant lesions is still a challenge. Recently, a research team led by Prof. CAI Lintao from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy ...

No two hearts beat alike. The size and shape of the the heart can vary from one person to the next. These differences can be particularly pronounced for people living with heart disease, as their hearts and major vessels work harder to overcome any compromised function. MIT engineers are hoping to help doctors tailor treatments to patients’ specific heart form and function, with a custom robotic heart. The team has developed a procedure to 3D print a soft and flexible replica of a patient’s heart. They can then ...

The 25th International Conference on Redox Medicine, on June 21-23 in Paris, will revolutionize tomorrow’s medicine through redox. The translation of basic knowledge of redox into molecular medicine will be extensively discussed. Prof. Guido Kroemer from the Université de Paris Cité, Hôpital Européen George Pompidou - AP-HP, is the key note speaker for this year. It is a great opportunity to share with Guido Kroemer his favorite topics and to have a unique moment of exchange with him.   Hallmarks of Aging & Redox Medicine: An Expanding Universe Prof. Kroemer will highlight the “hallmarks of ageing: genomic instability, ...

West Virginia University physicists have made a breakthrough on an age-old limitation of the first law of thermodynamics. Paul Cassak, professor and associate director of the Center for KINETIC Plasma Physics, and graduate research assistant Hasan Barbhuiya, both in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, are studying how energy gets converted in superheated plasmas in space. Their findings, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and published in the Physical Review Letters journal, will revamp ...

A daily dose of a strain of brewer’s yeast used to produce cachaça (distilled spirit made from fermented sugarcane juice) can act as a preventive against asthma, according to a Brazilian study involving male mice. The results are reported in an article published in the journal Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins. The authors are researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). The yeast strain used in the study was Saccharomyces cerevisiae UFMG A-905. Asthma is a common lung condition that causes breathing difficulties. It ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Blue foods — those that come from the ocean or freshwater environments — have tremendous potential to help address several global challenges. With careful implementation of policies that leverage these foods, nations could get a boost on efforts to reduce nutritional deficits, lower disease risk, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and ensure resilience in the face of climate change. So say the team of experts at Blue Food Assessment, an international collaboration of scientists whose focus has been on the role of aquatic foods in global ...

HOUSTON – (Feb. 22, 2023) – With an eye toward a not-so-distant future where some people spend most or all of their working hours in extended reality, researchers from Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine and Meta Reality Labs have found a hands-free way to deliver believable tactile experiences in virtual environments. Users in virtual reality (VR) have typically needed hand-held or hand-worn devices like haptic controllers or gloves to experience tactile sensations of touch. The new “multisensory pseudo-haptic” technology, which is described in an open-access ...

A new study from researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, suggests that men who regularly lift heavy objects at work have higher sperm counts. The study, published in Human Reproduction, is part of the Environment and Reproductive Health (EARTH) cohort, a clinical study which aims to explore how exposure to environmental chemicals and lifestyle choices affect reproductive health. “We already know that exercise is associated with multiple health benefits in humans, including those observed on reproductive health, but few studies have looked at how occupational factors can ...

“In this study, we compared genome-wide DNA methylation rates among metformin users and nonusers [...]” BUFFALO, NY- February 22, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed as "Aging (Albany NY)" by MEDLINE/PubMed and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 3, entitled, “Metformin use history and genome-wide DNA methylation profile: potential molecular mechanism for aging and longevity.” Metformin, a commonly prescribed anti-diabetic medication, has repeatedly been shown to hinder aging in pre-clinical ...

NEWPORT, Ore. – As sea ice declines in the Arctic, bowhead whales are staying north of the Bering Strait more frequently, a shift that could affect the long-term health of the bowhead population and impact the Indigenous communities that rely on the whales, a new study by Oregon State University researchers shows. Bowhead whales found in the Pacific Arctic, sometimes called Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort bowheads based on their migratory patterns, normally winter in the northern Bering Sea and migrate north in the spring through the Bering Strait to the Canadian Beaufort Sea, where they spend summer and fall. They then migrate ...

Two courageous UBC ocean fisheries experts - marine biologist Dr. Daniel Pauly and fisheries economist Dr. Rashid Sumaila — have been awarded the 2023 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. The award, administered by the University of Southern California, has often been described as the ‘Nobel Prize for the Environment.’ Both are University Killam Professors at the University of British Columbia, and long-time colleagues at its Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. They said that winning this ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Recent developments include a new understanding of how HPV drives cancer development, a combination therapy to overcome treatment resistance in mantle cell lymphoma, novel ...

Scientists continue to refine techniques for understanding present-day changes in Earth’s environmental systems, but the planet’s distant past also offers crucial information to deepen that understanding. A geological study by University of Nebraska–Lincoln scientist Matt Joeckel and colleagues provides such information. Scientific research in recent decades has confirmed that major changes in the global carbon cycle caused significant changes in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans 135 million years ago, during the early Cretaceous Period. A range of questions remain about the ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Six massive galaxies discovered in the early universe are upending what scientists previously understood about the origins of galaxies in the universe.  “These objects are way more massive​ than anyone expected,” said Joel Leja, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, who modeled light from these galaxies. “We expected only to find tiny, young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but we’ve discovered galaxies as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of the universe.” Using the first dataset released from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, ...

New York, NY (February 22, 2023) – Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York have identified which parts of the immune system go awry and contribute to autoimmune diseases in individuals with Down syndrome. The findings published in the February 22 online issue of Nature [DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05736-y]. The work adds to the research team’s findings published in the journal Immunity in October 2022, showing that people with Down syndrome have less frequent but more severe viral infections. Studying lab specimens from volunteers with Down syndrome, the investigators identified cytokines and a B cell subtype—key ...

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 22, 2023 – New research published today in JAMA Surgery shows that when frail patients are connected to resources, including conversations with a physician about possible outcomes and help preparing their body for surgery, they are less likely to die one year after surgery.   While age can be an important indicator of a patient’s likelihood of encountering adverse outcomes or complications of surgery, it does not provide a full picture of their health. Frailty considers the patient’s overall well-being, including their physical and cognitive abilities, as well as their body’s ability to recover from surgery.   “Frailty ...

About The Study: This study found an overall increase in unstable and/or unsafe living situations and intimate partner violence (IPV) between January 2019 and December 2020, with a temporary increase associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. It may be useful for emergency response plans to include IPV safeguards for future pandemics. These findings suggest the need for prenatal screening for unsafe and/or unstable living situations and IPV coupled with referral to appropriate support services and preventive ...

About The Study: The results of this study suggest that despite increased emphasis to reduce aggressive end-of-life care in the past several decades, such care remains common among older persons with metastatic cancer and is slightly more prevalent among nursing home residents than their community-dwelling counterparts. Multilevel interventions to decrease aggressive end-of-life care should target the main factors associated with its prevalence, including hospital admissions in the last 30 days of life and in-hospital death.   Authors: Siran M. Koroukian, Ph.D., of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, is the corresponding ...

An improved global understanding of river temperature could provide an important barometer for climate change and other human activities. River temperature is the fundamental water quality measure that regulates physical, chemical and biological processes in flowing waters and, in turn, impacts ecosystems, human health, and industrial, domestic and recreational uses by people. In a comment piece in the new journal, Nature Water, researchers led by the University of Birmingham, UK, and Indiana University, USA, have called for an increased ...