The 2024 Richard N. Merkin Prize in Biomedical Technology was awarded to F. William Studier of Brookhaven National Laboratory in a ceremony and symposium at the Broad Institute on September 17, 2024. The prize, created by the Merkin Family Foundation and administered by the Broad, recognizes novel technologies that have significantly improved human health and carries a $400,000 award. [Event Video]  Studier was announced as the winner in May for his development, in 1986, of an efficient, scalable method of producing ...

The “São Paulo School of Advanced Science on Structural Safety and its role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the built environment” will be held May 3-16, 2025, in Brazil, at the São Carlos School of Engineering of the University of São Paulo in its São Carlos campus. Reporters are invited to register for the scientific sessions and short courses, which will present state-of-art science and results of new research. This advanced science school will address the main challenges related to Structural Safety ...

October 16, 2024, Mountain View, CA - Scientists at the SETI Institute and partners from Penn State University used the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) to search for signs of alien technology in the TRAPPIST-1 star system. The team spent 28 hours scanning the system, looking for radio signals that could indicate extraterrestrial technology. This project marks the longest single-target search for radio signals from TRAPPIST-1. Although they didn’t find any evidence of extraterrestrial technology, their work provided valuable data ...

Fukuoka, Japan—Nager syndrome, or NS, is a rare genetic disease that affects the development of the face and limbs, usually causing anomalies in the bone structures of the jaws, cheeks, and hands. With a prevalence of less than 100 cases ever reported, not much is known about the disease except the fact that mutations in the SF3B4 gene are its primary cause. Now, in a recent study made available online on September 15, 2024 and upcoming in the November issue of International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, researchers from Kyushu University have developed a convenient approach to explore the underlying mechanisms ...

Liquid crystals exist in a phase of their own. They can flow like liquids, but because their molecules are arranged in a somewhat orderly way, they can be easily manipulated to reflect light. This flexibility has made liquid crystals the go-to material for energy-efficient phone, TV, and computer display screens. In a new study in Nature Chemistry, researchers at Dartmouth and Southern Methodist University hint at other applications for liquid crystals that might one day be possible, all powered by natural light. They include liquid crystal ...

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – This year, the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility celebrates the 40th anniversary of its founding to probe the secrets of the subatomic universe. And for 39 of those years, esteemed physicist Volker D. Burkert has been an important part of its mission. Now, Burkert is being honored for his contributions to advancements in experimental physics with the prestigious Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics. The citation reads: “For exemplary leadership in the development of high-performance instrumentation for large acceptance spectrometers that have enabled breakthroughs in fundamental nuclear ...

A new tactic for overcoming breast cancer drug resistance The most common type of breast cancer, estrogen receptor positive, has been effectively treated with hormone therapy combined with drugs that block cell division called CDK4/6 inhibitors. However, it has been impossible to predict how long people will respond to this drug combination. In some patients, the disease is controlled for years, but in others, the cancer starts progressing again after just a few months. This presents ...

DALLAS, Oct. 16, 2024 — The risk of heart disease increases with age for most people, however, for women that may be even more true. The menopause transition, those years leading up to and through menopause, is a time of increasing heart disease risk, according to an American Heart Association scientific statement published in the flagship journal Circulation in 2020. “While many people think that breast cancer is the leading killer of women in the U.S., in ...

EMBARGO: SYDNEY: 17 October 2024, 00.01 | NEW YORK: 16 October 2024, 09:00 Standing more may not reduce cardiovascular disease risk, could increase circulatory disease Standing has gained popularity among people looking to offset the harms of a sedentary lifestyle often caused by spending long days sitting in front of the computer, television or driving wheel. Standing desks have become a popular option among office workers, and in other industries like retail, workers may opt to stand instead of sit.   However, their efforts may not produce the intended result. New University of Sydney research has shown that over ...

Improving indoor air quality is the goal of a new video series developed by experts at the University of California, Davis in collaboration with the California Department of Public Health. Aimed at building and facility managers, the videos distill the science of air quality into steps building and facility managers can take to remove pollutants, including viruses, from the place we spend most of our time -- indoors.  “The goal is to help people understand the issues around indoor air quality, how it is related to disease, and what managers can do to make it better,” said Professor Chris Cappa, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental ...

In a new study evaluating meditation for chronic lower back pain, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that men and women utilize different biological systems to relieve pain. While men relieve pain by releasing endogenous opioids, the body’s natural painkillers,  women rely instead on other, non-opioid based pathways. Synthetic opioid drugs, such as morphine and fentanyl, are the most powerful class of painkilling drugs available. Women are known to respond poorly to opioid therapies, which use synthetic opioid molecules to bind to the same receptors as naturally-occurring endogenous ...

A joint research team, led by Dr. Sang Yong Park from the National Climate Technology Center at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) and Professor Dong Gu Choi from the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering at POSTECH, has developed an energy system model optimized for Korea's environment and proposed an optimal strategy for utilizing hydrogen energy. Hydrogen is being highlighted as a key resource for achieving the government's "2050 Carbon Neutrality Scenario." It is not only a clean energy source in itself but can also be produced using surplus power from renewable ...

DALLAS, October 16, 2024 — More than half of all people who experiencing sudden cardiac arrest outside of hospital don’t receive immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). As a result, 9 out of 10 times they die[1]. Yet it takes just 90 seconds to learn the fundamentals of Hands-Only CPR to save a life. CPR, especially if performed immediately, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival. To save more lives, the American Heart Association and the National Football League (NFL) are actively putting boots on the ground - cleats on the field - to educate ...

While the vast majority of people over 50 look for health information on the internet, a new poll shows 74% would have very little or no trust in such information if it were generated by artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, 20% of older adults have little or no confidence that they could spot misinformation about a health topic if they came across it.  That percentage was even higher among older adults who say their mental health, physical health or memory is fair or poor, and among those who report having a disability that limits their activities. In other words, those who might ...

With heart attacks, every second counts. A new blood test diagnoses them in minutes rather than hours and could be adapted as a tool for first responders and people at home. “Heart attacks require immediate medical intervention in order to improve patient outcomes, but while early diagnosis is critical, it can also be very challenging—and near impossible outside of a clinical setting,” said lead author Peng Zheng, an assistant research scientist at Johns Hopkins University. “We were able to invent a new technology that can quickly and accurately establish if someone is having a heart attack.” The proof-of-concept work, which can be modified to detect infectious ...

New research published in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases confirms that strokes thought to happen in older adults are possible in the younger (defined as 18-50 years old) population. Large Vessel Occlusion Acute ischemic Strokes (LVO-AIS) are considered to be the most debilitating strokes which occur due to blockage of large cerebral arteries usually from blood clots or plaque build up. LVO-AIS is typically thought to occur in older adults given that older individuals are known to have risk factors for large vessel occlusions. However, new research confirms that the younger population can have risk factors ...

Although all ecosystems are affected by a changing climate, the impacts can take a while to appear. Changes in forest biodiversity, for example, are known to lag behind changes in a habitat's temperature and precipitation. Grasslands, on the other hand, are responding to climate change almost in real time, according to new research by the University of Michigan. Put another way, forests accumulate climate debt while grasslands are paying as they go, said the study's lead authors, Kai Zhu and Yiluan Song. "Climate change does have consequences for our ecosystems. It's going to come sooner or later," said Song, a postdoctoral fellow at the ...

Experts in infection prevention and control at the Mount Sinai Health will present new research and insights at ID Week, the joint annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the HIV Medicine Association, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists in Los Angeles from October 16-19.  Mount Sinai doctors and researchers are also available for comment on breaking health news including the flu, COVID variants, HIV/AIDS, mpox, West Nile virus, measles, and fall vaccinations.   PRESENTATIONS and POSTER SESSIONS *All abstracts and presentations ...

In this age of cloud storage, few people are backing up data on CD-RWs. The technology to rewrite data on compact discs was made possible by phase-change materials altered by the light and heat of lasers, though this had a limit of 1,000 rewrites. Today, scientists investigating photoswitching molecules, which change their properties when irradiated, have been finding possible applications for these materials, ranging from photopharmacology to data storage. Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Engineering student Shota Hamatani, Dr. Daichi Kitagawa, a lecturer, and Professor Seiya Kobatake synthesized aza-diarylethenes, which have nitrogen in place of carbon in a molecular structure ...

A major challenge in realizing quantum computers is the development of 'quantum error correction' technology. This technology offers a solution for addressing errors that occur in the qubit, the basic unit of quantum computation, and prevents them from being amplified during the computation. Without quantum error correction, it would be impossible for quantum computers to outperform classical counterparts, and thus efforts to advance this technology are ongoing worldwide. Dr. Seung-Woo Lee's research team at the Korea ...

The integration of photonics into quantum computing has profound implications across various domains. As the demand for faster and more secure computational capabilities intensifies, photonic quantum computing emerges as a pivotal force, with the photonics market projected to reach USD 837.8 billion by 2025.   Harnessing the unique properties of light, photonic quantum computing revolutionizes data processing by encoding information in photons, offering unprecedented speed and efficiency for solving complex problems that traditional methods struggle to address. Photonic quantum computers can ...

This study is led by Dr. Shiwei Duan (Department of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, Hangzhou City University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China). His team analyzed literature on miRNA, summarizing the close relationship between these small molecules and cancer. miRNA is a type of non-coding RNA that does not encode proteins, but can target more than 60% of human protein-coding genes. They play crucial roles in cell growth, differentiation, development, and apoptosis, and their dysfunction is closely linked to numerous diseases. Almost all known cancer cells have the ability to control gene expression using miRNAs, making the impact of miRNAs particularly significant ...

Infrared imaging technology is crucial for advancing our understanding of the world, from exploring biological specimens to inspecting complex materials and detecting hidden patterns in physical systems. Infrared light can penetrate fog and smoke, making it invaluable for search and rescue, firefighting, and sensitive operations. Additionally, infrared imaging can enable visualising the heat emitted by objects, making it a powerful tool for night vision and security applications. While infrared cameras are valuable tools for enhanced ...

While people are growing more accustomed to AI-driven personal assistants, customer service chatbots and even financial advisors, when it comes to healthcare, most still want it with a human touch. Given that receiving healthcare is a deeply personal experience, it’s understandable that patients prefer it to come from, well, a person. But with AI’s vast potential to increase the quality, efficacy and efficiency of medicine, a push toward greater acceptance of artificial intelligence-driven medicine could unlock benefits ...

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and the Danish software company Partisia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen their research ties. The primary objective of this collaboration is to advance research in Multi-Party Computation (MPC), focusing on developing innovative Privacy-Enhancing Technology solutions. By leveraging their combined knowledge and expertise, OIST and Partisia aim to deliver a global perspective on secure computation, quantum-safe cryptography, and cyber security. OIST will contribute to the collaboration with its in-house expertise and ...