In the summer of 1812, French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte led about half a million soldiers to invade the Russian Empire. But by December, only a fraction of the army remained alive. Historical records suggest that starvation, cold, and typhus led to their demise. In a new study publishing October 24 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology, a team of microbial paleogenomicists extracted DNA from the soldiers’ teeth and found no trace of typhus. Instead, they identified two pathogens known to cause enteric fever and relapsing fever—ailments which likely contributed to the army’s downfall.  “It’s very exciting to use a technology we have ...

Scientists from the Institut Pasteur have genetically analyzed the remains of former soldiers who retreated from Russia in 1812. They detected two pathogens, those responsible for paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever, which correlate with the symptoms described in historical accounts. The study was published as a preprint on bioRxiv on July 16, 2025. It will be published in the journal Current Biology on October 24. The famous Russian campaign led by Napoleon in 1812, also known as the "Patriotic War of 1812," ended with the retreat of the French army. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur's ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that hearing loss is a common public health concern that may be at least partially preventable.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Lauren K. Dillard, PhD, email dillalau@musc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.39371) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. #  #  ...

A comprehensive review in "Biofunct. Mater." meticulously details the most recent advancements and clinical translation of intelligent nanodrugs for breast cancer treatment. This paper presents an exhaustive overview of subtype-specific nanostrategies, the clinical benefits of FDA-approved nanodrugs, and innovative approaches to address tumor heterogeneity and treatment resistance. This serves as a foundational framework and pragmatic guide for enhancing precision-based breast cancer therapies. Breast cancer, the most common cancer among women worldwide, is a major therapeutic challenge ...

Fight or Flight—and Grow a New Limb Study reveals how salamanders rely on sympathetic nervous system to regenerate body parts By Kermit Pattison / Harvard Staff Writer    Biologists have long been fascinated by the ability of salamanders to regrow entire limbs. Now Harvard researchers have solved part of the mystery of how they accomplish this feat—by activating stem cells throughout the body, not just at the injury site. In a paper [LINK WILL ACTIVATE WHEN EMBARGO LIFTS 11am ...

Advancing high-speed steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain–computer interface (BCI) systems require effective electroencephalogram (EEG) decoding through deep learning. SSVEP-BCIs enable direct communication between the brain and external devices (e.g., spellers, prosthetics) by detecting EEG signals triggered by visual stimuli flickering at specific frequencies. They are prized for their high information transfer rate (ITR)—a key measure of BCI speed—and minimal training needs. “However, two critical barriers have hindered their performance: Data sparsity: Collecting ...

The competition is fierce. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles is pushing herself to perform stronger and more consistently. Then, her coach calls her “fat.” It’s meant as a motivation, but this time, it has the opposite effect. While some coaches might believe such comments could spur an athlete to train harder, new research involving the Binghamton University School of Management found a better way to boost an athlete’s mental toughness: transformational leadership techniques focusing on self-determination. These techniques have ...

"Recent advancements in neuromorphic computing have enabled significant progress in dynamic motion recognition, yet distinguishing high-speed and low-speed movements remains computationally challenging due to the limited dynamic range of conventional CMOS technology. Our work introduces a SnS₂-based in-sensor reservoir computing device that leverages tunable multi-timescale optoelectronic dynamics to address this bottleneck," explained study author Linfeng Sun, a professor at Beijing Institute of Technology. ...

T cells play central roles in the adaptive immune response against cancer. Their functional inactivation is a primary driver of tumor progression, making the reactivation of T cell function a main goal in immunotherapy. The review details how T cells specifically recognize and eliminate malignant cells by engaging tumor antigen peptides presented by MHC molecules. “T cells can specifically recognize tumor antigen epitopes presented by MHC molecules to clear malignant tumor cells. The targets that can be recognized by T cells in tumors mainly include two types”, the authors point out. Highly immunogenic, tumor-specific "neoantigens" derived from somatic ...

Rising seas are irreversible on human time scales and among the most severe consequences of climate change. Emissions released in the coming decades will determine how much coastlines are reshaped for centuries to come. New research shows that near-term mitigation could spare future generations around 0.6 meters of sea-level rise that would be caused by emissions between 2020 and 2090 following current policies, making today’s decisions critical not only for limiting warming but also for coastal ...

Findings from Mass General Brigham investigators highlight the intricate interplay of diverse physiological processes as the brain shifts from wakefulness to sleep A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham used next-generation imaging technology to discover that when the brain is falling asleep, it shows a coordinated shift in activity. They found that during NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep, parts of the brain that handle movement and sensory input stay active and keep using energy, while ...

In the battle against mosquito-borne diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of people each year, scientists turned to an unlikely ally: a fungus that smells like flowers. Taking advantage of the mosquito’s natural attraction to flowers, an international team of researchers engineered a new strain of Metarhizium fungus that imitates a flower’s sweet scent and lures the bloodsucking bugs to their deaths.  Inspired by certain fungi that the team found emit a sweet-smelling chemical called longifolene to draw ...

Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in solar physics by providing the first direct evidence of small-scale torsional Alfvén waves in the Sun's corona – elusive magnetic waves that scientists have been searching for since the 1940s. The discovery, published today in Nature Astronomy, was made using unprecedented observations from the world's most powerful solar telescope, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii. The findings could finally explain one of the Sun's greatest mysteries ...

Winter vomiting disease is caused by the Norovirus, which is most virulent during the colder half of the year. The infection clears up after a couple of days, but the protection it provides is short-lived, meaning that the same person can fall repeatedly sick in a short space of time. But some people cannot succumb to the virus, thanks to a particular gene variant. “We wanted to trace the historical spread of the gene variant,” says Hugo Zeberg, senior lecturer in genetics at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, and researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.   Defective gene protects against ...

New research finds that common nervous system components are present in the gastrointestinal tract where they influence tumour growth, revealing untapped opportunities for cancer treatment. GLOBAL: Australian researchers have identified two nervous system components that drive tumour growth in gastrointestinal cancers, creating promising new avenues for treatment with existing approved therapies.   Our gut contains its very own nervous system and is commonly regarded as the second brain. Key players of this system are neuropeptides, the signalling ...

More expensive steak, cheaper tomatoes, but the same total cost for the average basket of groceries at the supermarket. A comprehensive study, led by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has analysed the potential effects of a food tax shift – where VAT is removed from healthy foods and levies are introduced on foods that have a negative impact on the climate. The study shows that a shift in taxes could have both environmental and human health benefits, and means that 700 fewer people in Sweden would die prematurely each year. Today, diet in many high-income countries is a leading risk factor for certain diseases and premature ...

Niigata, Japan - A collaborative research group led by Haruna Kimura (graduate student), Dr. Akito Hasegawa (Assistant Professor), and Prof. Riichiro Abe from the Division of Dermatology, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, together with Prof. Takemasa Ozawa from the Department of Chemistry, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, and Dr. Yoichi Ogawa (Lecturer) from the Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, has developed a novel therapeutic candidate that may improve the prognosis of severe cutaneous adverse reactions such as Stevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). SJS/TEN are severe ...

Teens and young adults who use cannabis are more likely to become regular tobacco users – even if they haven’t previously tried tobacco – compared to similar people who do not use cannabis, suggests a US study published online in the journal Tobacco Control. Around 13% of new onset tobacco use was estimated to be attributable to cannabis, the study found. Tobacco smoking has been considered a gateway to cannabis use since the 1970s when smoking was much more prevalent and when almost all people who used cannabis had smoked tobacco first. Although tobacco use among teens and young adults has declined considerably ...

The Baltic states have emerged as global leaders in promoting media freedom internationally, according to a new Index on International Media Freedom Support (IMFS). The IMFS Index evaluates countries on how actively they support media freedom beyond their borders through diplomatic, funding and safety efforts. It is published by an independent group of academics at the University of East Anglia and City St George’s, University of London. Lithuania topped the Index, reflecting its strong diplomatic efforts to advance media freedom and its visa program supporting journalists in exile, including from Belarus and Russia. Estonia ranked 4th, ...

The Medical University of South Carolina has been awarded more than $11 million by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences over five years to establish a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) to build resilience after trauma, which will be known as the South Carolina Building Resilience through Innovative Interventions to promote Growth and Health after Trauma COBRE, or the BRIGHT Center. The BRIGHT Center will be directed by clinical psychologist Carla Kmett Danielson, Ph.D., the first woman to lead a COBRE at MUSC. This will also be the first COBRE led by faculty members in ...

A trio of biomedical scientists at the University of California and University of Massachusetts have written a research-backed defense of DEI programs that was published today in the journal Nature Cell Biology. They assert that such programs broaden participation in and democratize science—ultimately producing more effective and supportive training environments for all scientists. To support their case, they cite research that rooted the National Institutes of Health's previous stance in support of diversity—before ...

What if the key to feeding the world didn’t come from a factory, but from a wastewater treatment plant? In a groundbreaking leap for sustainable agriculture, two leading Chinese research teams have turned one of the most overlooked waste streams, sewage sludge, into a powerful new resource for farming. Not just fertilizer, but precision-engineered fertilizer. Published on September 17, 2025, in the open-access journal Carbon Research, this innovative study reveals how modified hydrochar, a carbon-rich material made from treated sewage sludge, can ...

Applying woody biochar to farmland could help farmers grow healthier crops while locking more carbon into the soil, according to a new study published in Biochar. Researchers from Suncheon National University found that carefully managed applications of biochar significantly improved soil quality, crop yield, and carbon balance in red pepper fields over two growing seasons. Biochar is a carbon-rich material made by heating plant matter under low-oxygen conditions. When added to soil, it can store carbon for long periods and enhance soil fertility. However, the ideal amount of biochar for sustaining both crop production and carbon storage has remained unclear. To address this gap, the team ...

As climate extremes become more frequent, sugarcane growers face a double challenge: droughts that parch their crops and floods that drown them. A new review highlights how applying plant hormones from outside the plant, rather than waiting for natural processes—can strengthen sugarcane’s ability to cope with both too little and too much water. The study, published in Agricultural Ecology and Environment, examines how exogenous phytohormones such as abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellins (GA), and auxins can improve sugarcane’s drought and waterlogging tolerance. These tiny signaling ...

DALLAS and ITASCA, IL, Oct. 23, 2025 — The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association (the Association), a relentless force changing the future of health for everyone everywhere, have published updated guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care for newborn and pediatric populations. The “2025 American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care” mark a comprehensive update to the guidelines for pediatric basic and advanced life support and neonatal resuscitation since 2020. Experts from each ...