In season three of the hit television series The White Lotus, the character Victoria Ratliff takes the prescription anti-anxiety medication lorazepam to help with her social anxiety and inability to sleep. Her casual usage of the powerful benzodiazepine — often in combination with white wine — leads to her becoming visibly loopy, slurring her words, and falling asleep at dinner. A recent study led by researchers at University of California San Diego has found that the show's portrayal of lorazepam use was associated with a surge in Google searches for the medication, including queries related to acquiring it online. The findings suggest that the show generated 1.6 million ...

A study led by the University of Oxford has identified a surprising source of entropy in quantum timekeeping - the act of measurement itself. In a study published today (14 Nov) in Physical Review Letters, scientists demonstrate that the energy cost of reading a quantum clock far outweighs the cost of running it, with implications for the design of future quantum technologies. Clocks, whether pendulums or atomic oscillators, rely on irreversible processes to mark the passage of time. At the quantum scale, where such processes are weak or nearly absent, timekeeping becomes much more ...

About The Study: In concordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations, the data from this study show a rapid rise in early measles vaccination in early 2025. These data suggest an increase in early vaccination started in February, even before the updated guidelines were issued, potentially due to clinician and/or parental concern. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Brianna M. Goodwin Cartwright, MS, email briannac@truveta.com. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.43002) Editor’s ...

Researchers found bacterial genetic and cellular elements inside brain tumor cells that appear biologically active and may influence tumor progression and treatment outcomes  These bacterial elements were also found to be linked to specific immune and metabolic responses in brain tumors  Outcomes for glioma and other brain tumor patients remain poor, underscoring the need for better treatments, which these findings may help advance  HOUSTON, NOVEMBER 14, 2025 – ...

Hypertension impairs blood vessels, neurons and white matter in the brain well before the condition causes a measurable rise in blood pressure, according to a new preclinical study from Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The changes help explain why hypertension is a major risk factor for developing cognitive disorders, such as vascular cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. The preclinical findings, published Nov. 14 in Neuron, reveal that hypertension may induce early gene expression changes in individual brain cells that could interfere with thinking and memory. The findings may lead to medications that ...

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and atrial fibrillation (AF) frequently coexist, and their concurrence is associated with worse clinical outcomes than either condition alone. Inflammation plays a central role in the pathogenesis of both diseases. The systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), derived from neutrophil, platelet, and lymphocyte counts, has emerged as a promising marker reflecting systemic inflammation. However, its prognostic value in critically ill patients with concurrent COPD and AF remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between SII and in-hospital mortality in intensive care unit (ICU) ...

Logs are a familiar sight on the beaches along the coast of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii and are often viewed positively, as they can stabilize the banks, be used for firewood or act as benches by beach-goers. However, new research from the University of Victoria (UVic) shows that these logs are not as innocuous as they seem.  According to a study published by UVic biologist Tom Reimchen and two of his students, free-floating logs that wash ashore, referred to as drift logs, are causing widespread destruction of rocky intertidal ecosystems communities along the coast of Western Canada.  “In this study, we looked at both the ecological impact of drift ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Certain serious fungal infections occur in regions of the United States with specific environments and are often tied to soil exposure. These infections can affect both healthy and immunocompromised people, but proper diagnosis remains slow, which delays treatment. The current gold standard for making a diagnosis relies on fungal culturing, which can take weeks, and tests that look for antigens, which lack specificity, or antibodies in the blood, which are often unreliable in early disease. But now researchers from Indiana University Health and the IU School of Medicine have developed a new molecular test capable of detecting ...

Artificial intelligence is being utilized across a variety of industries to reduce human workload, speed up workflows and improve output. Within the field of molecular pathology, AI is being used in part to improve diagnostic processes and accuracy. AI has the potential to not only automate tasks, but also to enhance clinical decision making. Innovative studies in diagnostic applications of artificial intelligence will be presented at the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) 2025 Annual Meeting & Expo, taking place Nov. 11–15 in Boston. Journalists are invited to attend the meeting in person or sign up for online access ...

Researchers at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center have developed a way to diagnose Lyme disease earlier and more accurately than traditional testing methods. Over the past 30 years, Lyme disease has been on the rise in the United States, particularly in the Northeast region, where ticks carrying the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi are active from late spring through early fall. If left untreated, Lyme disease can cause joint, heart and nervous system complications. While the characteristic bull’s eye-like rash is an early sign of the disease, it occurs in only about 25% of patients. Many patients develop skin lesions mimicking other illnesses, complicating ...

Pregnancy loss may occur in as many as 25% of all pregnancies. Most of these losses occur in the first trimester, and about half are caused by genetic or chromosomal issues. When pregnancy loss occurs three or more times, the losses are referred to as recurrent. Often the cause of recurrent pregnancy loss is difficult to uncover and remains unknown to those experiencing it. However, two new studies presented at the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) 2025 Annual Meeting & Expo, taking place Nov. 11–15 in Boston, provide some answers. These studies both utilized a cutting-edge technique known as optical ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. —  Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common type of acute leukemia in adults. It develops quickly, with symptoms often coming on within just a few weeks, and requires urgent treatment. Despite advances, many patients relapse and outcomes can be poor —  making faster, more accurate diagnostic tools critical to patient survival. Breakthrough studies in hematopathology — including advances in genetic testing, relapse prediction and detection of hidden, disease-defining gene fusions in AML  — will be presented at the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) 2025 Annual Meeting & Expo, taking place Nov. 11–15 ...

Journal: The Laryngoscope Title: Nationwide Analysis of Head and Neck Imaging for Bell’s palsy: Insights from Healthcare Claims Authors: Sujay Ratna, MD Candidate, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Mingyang Gray, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Bottom line: This study analyzes how imaging is used to diagnose and manage Bell’s palsy, a condition that causes sudden weakness ...

Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) has emerged as a predominant chronic liver condition globally, intricately linked with obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2DM), and metabolic syndrome. Its pathogenesis is complex, following a "multiple-hit" hypothesis that involves triglyceride accumulation, insulin resistance (IR), lipotoxicity, chronic inflammation, and oxidative stress. Among the various adipokines implicated, leptin, a hormone central to energy homeostasis, has been identified ...

Fondazione Telethon announces the positive opinion issued by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommending marketing authorisation in the European Union for Waskyra™, an ex vivo gene therapy for Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS), a rare and life-threatening primary immunodeficiency.  Fondazione Telethon is the first non-profit organization to have successfully led the full pathway from laboratory research to regulatory approval, collaborating with industry partners when available to bring gene therapies from discovery to patients. Developed through decades of research at ...

Vaccine Innovation Center, Korea University College of Medicine (Head of the Center, Jung Hee-jin) held an invited training for Ethiopian health officials on Monday, September 1st.   This program is part of the ‘2025 Vaccine Development and Production Education for Strengthening Ethiopia's Vaccine Ecosystem’ organized by the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). It is designed to enhance the international community's capacity to respond to infectious diseases and contribute to global public health improvement.   The program included ...

Across the United States, children spend more than 1,100 hours in school each year – time that shapes not only their academic success but also their emotional and social growth. Yet, for many students, the school environment can also be a source of anxiety and apprehension. School counselors play a pivotal role in addressing these challenges through evidence-based, comprehensive guidance programs. Addressing this critical need, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Counselor ...

Scientists at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have revealed a previously overlooked layer of genetic variation that could help explain why people experience disease differently, and why some treatments work better for certain populations.  Tandem repeats are repeated sections of a DNA strand that make up about seven per cent of the human genome. The likelihood of those tandem repeats causing errors in gene function increases each time they repeat, and they are known to cause conditions like ...

Melanoma remains one of the hardest skin cancers to diagnose because it often mimics harmless moles or lesions. While most artificial intelligence (AI) tools rely on dermoscopic images alone, they often overlook crucial patient information (like age, gender, or where on the body the lesion appears) that can improve diagnostic accuracy. This highlights the importance of multimodal fusion models that can enable high precision diagnosis. To bridge that gap, Professor Gwangill Jeon from the Department ...

Glioblastoma—the most aggressive form of brain cancer—remains one of medicine’s biggest challenges. Despite surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, most patients survive only about a year after diagnosis. However, a new discovery might change how doctors understand and monitor this deadly disease. Specifically, the study focused on isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) wild-type glioblastoma, the most common and rapidly growing form of the tumor, known for its poor prognosis and limited treatment options.   In a study published online on October 11, 2025, in Neuro-Oncology, ...

The most common technique used for closing the uterus after a cesarean delivery causes so many long-term complications that it’s time to question its use. That’s the conclusion reached by two world-renowned specialists in obstetrics and gynecology in an article published in a special issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology on cesarean delivery. The authors argue in favor of replacing the current approach with a closure technique that respects the natural anatomical structure of the uterus. The authors, Dr Emmanuel Bujold, professor at Université ...

Researchers Kohki Horie, Keiichiro Toda, Takuma Nakamura, and Takuro Ideguchi of the University of Tokyo have built a microscope that can detect a signal over an intensity range fourteen times wider than conventional microscopes. Moreover, the observations are made label-free, that is, without the use of additional dyes. This means the method is gentle on cells and adequate for long-term observations, holding potential for testing and quality control applications in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications. Microscopes have ...

ANN ARBOR—For a long time, evolutionary biologists have thought that the genetic mutations that drive the evolution of genes and proteins are largely neutral: they're neither good nor bad, but just ordinary enough to slip through the notice of selection. Now, a University of Michigan study has flipped that theory on its head.  In the process of evolution, mutations occur which can then become fixed, meaning that every individual in the population carries that mutation. A longstanding theory, called the Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution, posits that most genetic mutations that are fixed are neutral. Bad mutations ...

Tensor operations are the kind of arithmetic that form the backbone of nearly all modern technologies, especially artificial intelligence, yet they extend beyond the simple maths we’re familiar with. Imagine the mathematics behind rotating, slicing, or rearranging a Rubik’s cube along multiple dimensions. While humans and classical computers must perform these operations step by step, light can do them all at once. Today, every task in AI, from image recognition to natural language processing, relies on tensor operations. However, the explosion of ...

Mangrove ecosystems rank among the most efficient "blue carbon" systems on Earth, capable of absorbing and storing vast quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). However, mangroves also release methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas, potentially offsetting a portion of their climate mitigation benefits. While prior research has focused primarily on methane emissions from mangrove soils and water surfaces, the role of tree stems as an emission pathway and its significance for global blue carbon accounting have remained largely unexamined. In a new study, researchers from the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a global-scale ...