How did early humans use sharpened rocks to bring down megafauna 13,000 years ago? Did they throw spears tipped with carefully crafted, razor-sharp rocks called Clovis points? Did they surround and jab mammoths and mastadons? Or did they scavenge wounded animals, using Clovis points as a versatile tool to harvest meat and bones for food and supplies? UC Berkeley archaeologists say the answer might be none of the above. Instead, researchers say humans may have braced the butt of their pointed spears against the ground and angled the weapon upward in a way that would impale a charging animal. The force would have driven the spear deeper ...

Researchers at Stanford and Colorado State University have developed a rapid, low-cost approach for studying how individual extreme weather events have been affected by global warming. Their method, detailed in a Aug. 21 study in Science Advances, uses machine learning to determine how much global warming has contributed to heat waves in the U.S. and elsewhere in recent years. The approach proved highly accurate and could change how scientists study and predict the impact of climate change on a range of extreme weather events. The ...

An enzyme called PGK1 has an unexpectedly critical role in the production of chemical energy in brain cells, according to a preclinical study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The investigators found that boosting its activity may help the brain resist the energy deficits that can lead to Parkinson’s disease. The study, published Aug. 21 in Science Advances, presented evidence that PGK1 is a “rate-limiting” enzyme in energy production in the output-signaling branches, or axons, of the dopamine neurons that are affected in Parkinson’s disease. This means that even a modest boost to PGK1 activity can have ...

One of the major unanswered questions about the origin of life is how droplets of RNA floating around the primordial soup turned into the membrane-protected packets of life we call cells.  A new paper by engineers from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME), the University of Houston’s Chemical Engineering Department, and biologists from the UChicago Chemistry Department, have proposed a solution.  In the paper, published today in Science Advances, UChicago PME postdoctoral researcher Aman Agrawal and his co-authors ...

Billions of our cells die every day to make way for the growth of new ones. Most of these goners are cleaned up by phagocytes—mobile immune cells that migrate where needed to engulf problematic substances. But some dying or dead cells are consumed by their own neighbors, natural tissue cells with other primary jobs. How these cells sense the dying or dead around them has been largely unknown. Now researchers from The Rockefeller University have shown how the sensor system operates in hair follicles, which have a well-known cycle of birth, decay, and regeneration put into motion by hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs). In a new study published in Nature, ...

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 21, 2024 — Researchers from the University of California, Irvine have discovered the neurons responsible for “item memory,” deepening our understanding of how the brain stores and retrieves the details of “what” happened and offering a new target for treating Alzheimer’s disease.   Memories include three types of details: spatial, temporal and item, the “where, when and what” of an event. Their creation is a complex process that involves storing information based on the meanings and outcomes of different experiences and forms the foundation of our ability to recall and recount them.   The study, published ...

By John Lovett University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT show promise as a useful means in agriculture to write simple computer programs for microcontrollers, according to a study published this month. Microcontrollers are small computers that can perform tasks based on custom computer programs. They receive inputs from sensors and can be used in climate and irrigation controls, food processing systems, as well as robotic and drone applications, to name a few agricultural uses. A recent study published with the Arkansas Agricultural ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – August 20, 2024) Children who survive a brain tumor often experience effects from both the cancer and its treatment long after therapy concludes. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital found very young children treated for brain tumors were less prepared for school (represented by lower academic readiness scores) compared to their peers. This gap persisted once survivors entered formal schooling. Children from families of higher socioeconomic status were partially protected from the effect, suggesting that providing early developmental resources may proactively help reduce the academic achievement gap. The findings were published today in ...

Each year, 100,000 people visit their doctor with abdominal pain, with approximately 30,000 of them diagnosed with gallstones. The standard treatment for these patients is a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Since the 1990s, the number of surgeries has increased exponentially, despite the lack of clear international criteria. As a result, gallbladder removal is one of the most common surgeries in the Netherlands, yet it is not always effective against pain: about one-third of patients continue to experience abdominal pain after cholecystectomy. The procedure has long been an example of inappropriate care, but this is now changing. In a 2019 study conducted by Radboud university ...

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are potent greenhouse gases (GHGs). The most potent of these compounds is trifluoromethane, also known as HFC-23. One kilogram of HFC-23 in the atmosphere contributes as much to the greenhouse effect as 12,000 kilograms of CO₂. It takes around 200 years for the gas to break down in the atmosphere. For this reason, more than 150 countries have committed to significantly reducing their emissions of HFC-23 as part of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. The main source of HFC-23 ...

Aug. 21, 2024--Researchers from the NIH’s RECOVER Initiative have determined what long COVID looks like in youths, based on the most common symptoms reported in a study of over 5,300 school-age children and adolescents. Using the findings, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the researchers also created indices that contain prolonged symptoms—eight for school-age children and 10 for adolescents—that together most likely indicate long COVID. The indices are not intended to be used in making a clinical diagnosis of long COVID but will guide research to improve diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of the condition in youths.  “Many ...

NIH-funded study finds long COVID affects adolescents differently than younger children Adolescents were most likely to experience low energy/tiredness while children were most likely to report headache   Scientists investigating long COVID in youth found similar but distinguishable patterns between school-age children (ages 6-11 years) and adolescents (ages 12-17 years) and identified their most common symptoms. The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in JAMA, comes from research conducted through the NIH’s Researching ...

About The Study: In this large-scale study, symptoms that characterized pediatric postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), or long COVID, differed by age group, and several distinct phenotypic PASC presentations were described. The research indices developed here will help researchers identify children and adolescents with high likelihood of PASC. Although these indices will require further research and validation, this work provides an important step toward a clinically useful tool for diagnosis with the ultimate goal of supporting optimal care for youth with PASC.  Quote from corresponding author Rachel ...

The kids were correct all along.   In the most comprehensive national study since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of researchers that includes a Rutgers-organized consortium of pediatric sites has concluded that long COVID symptoms in children are tangible, pervasive, wide ranging and clinically distinct within specific age groups.   Results of the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.   “We have convincing evidence that COVID-19 is not just a mild, benign illness for children,” ...

A research team led by the National Institutes of Health’s RECOVER Initiative and supported by its Clinical Science Core (CSC) at NYU Langone Health, has designed a new way to identify which school-age children and adolescents most likely have Long COVID. Solely for the purpose of further study and not for use in clinical diagnoses, the team’s new measure (index) identifies children and teens with the highest chances of having Long COVID. The research index is based on long-term symptoms ...

A new study from researchers with UCLA Health and collaborating organizations has found that asporin, a protein encoded by the ASPN gene, plays a protective role in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Their findings, published on August 21 in the peer-reviewed journal Circulation, offer new insights into this incurable, often-fatal disease and suggest potential new ways to treat it. “We were surprised to find that asporin, which previously had not been linked to PAH, gets upregulated to increased levels as a response to ...

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. Targeting an enzyme as part of combination therapy disrupts gastric cancer progression Many patients with gastric cancer have metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis, ...

In the realm of chronic inflammation, lipid abnormalities are well-recognized as pivotal contributors to the progression and clinical manifestations of atherosclerosis. Particularly in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a systemic autoimmune disorder, the immune response leads to the generation of inflammatory cytokines that profoundly alter lipid and lipoprotein metabolism. This review article delves into the latest research exploring the impact of inflammation on proatherogenic disorders of lipid and lipoprotein metabolism in RA patients, with a focus on proinflammatory cytokines. Role of Proinflammatory Cytokines in Lipid and Lipoprotein Dysregulation Inflammatory ...

New research has revealed factories globally are not properly destroying one of the most potent greenhouse gases emitted from the production of fluoropolymers like Teflon, and refrigerants. The study investigated a known disparity between real and reported emissions of this gas, prompting calls for more countries to sign up to official agreements to limit emissions and for their Teflon factories to be independently audited to ensure compliance. The study, published today in the journal Nature, scrutinised emissions of one of the most potent hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) greenhouse gases called trifluoromethane, also ...

Children who have persistently raised inflammation are at a higher risk of experiencing serious mental health disorders including psychosis and depression in early adulthood, according to a study published today in JAMA Psychiatry. The research lead by the University of Birmingham also found that those who had experienced inflammation at a young age were at a higher risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases such as insulin resistance - an early form of diabetes.  The study used data collected by the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) – also known as Children of the 90s – and included a total of 6,556 participants of whom 50.4% ...

Mass General Brigham researchers found that women had a lower risk of developing postoperative atrial fibrillation after surgery compared to men, but a higher risk of long-term mortality  New research suggests that women who develop postoperative atrial fibrillation (poAF) after cardiac surgery are at greater risk of death than men. A study led by Mass General Brigham researchers found that women may have protective factors against the development of poAF, but once it develops, they may be more vulnerable to its associated long-term morbidities. The researchers suggest that more vigilant monitoring and long-term ...

A new study that examined health data on 18 million people reveals higher incidence of mental illnesses for up to a year following severe COVID-19 in unvaccinated people. Vaccination appeared to mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19 on mental illnesses. The University of Bristol-led study, published in JAMA Psychiatry today [21 August], investigated associations of COVID-19 with mental illnesses according to time since diagnosis and vaccination status. COVID-19 is associated with mental illnesses in both hospital and population-based studies. However, until now, there was limited evidence about the association of COVID-19 with ...

The COVID-19 pandemic brought an increase in crime to New York City’s subways and buses. The transit system’s employees—especially female workers—have frequently been on the receiving end of attacks, according to a new study published in the Journal of Urban Health. The study, led by researchers at the NYU School of Global Public Health, found that 89 percent of public-facing transit workers in New York City experienced harassment or violence on the job during the pandemic (2020-2023). “Transit workers are our city’s unsung heroes—they kept New York City functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic, ...

About The Study: In this cohort study, depression, serious mental illness, general anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, addiction, self-harm, and suicide were elevated during weeks 1 through 4 after COVID-19 diagnosis compared with before or without COVID-19. Incidence was lower in people who were vaccinated when they had COVID-19 and incidence was higher, and persisted longer, after hospitalization for COVID-19. The findings support recommendation of COVID-19 vaccination in the general population and ...

UPTON, N.Y. — Scientists studying the tracks of particles streaming from six billion collisions of atomic nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) — an “atom smasher” that recreates the conditions of the early universe — have discovered a new kind of antimatter nucleus, the heaviest ever detected. Composed of four antimatter particles — an antiproton, two antineutrons, and one antihyperon — these exotic antinuclei are known as antihyperhydrogen-4. Members of RHIC’s STAR Collaboration made the discovery by using their house-sized particle detector ...