Frontline healthcare workers struggling with depression after the COVID-19 pandemic experienced significant relief from a treatment combining psilocybin group therapy with mindfulness training, according to a new study from Huntsman Mental Health Institute at University of Utah Health. Doctors and nurses who received this controlled, group psilocybin therapy along with an eight-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program saw far greater improvements than those who only learned mindfulness techniques. "Depression and burnout have long been serious problems for healthcare workers. When the pandemic only worsened these effects, ...

A new research paper published in Science reports the functional extinction of Acropora corals from Florida’s Coral Reef. Scientists documented catastrophic mortality of these critically endangered corals following a record-setting marine heatwave in 2023 that marked the ninth mass bleaching event for the region. Both Acropora coral species — staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) and elkhorn (Acropora palmata) — are important reef-builders in Florida and the Caribbean and have been a major focus of recent coral restoration efforts.  Led by the National Oceanic ...

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 23, 2025 — Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have uncovered an unexpected molecular partnership that reshapes scientists’ understanding of how brain inflammation arises in Alzheimer’s disease. In a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists led by assistant researcher Ruiming Zhao and Dr. Steve Goldstein, vice chancellor for health affairs at UC Irvine, discovered that amyloid precursor proteins – best known as the source of amyloid-beta ...

CORVALLIS, Ore – A new analysis of stone tools offers strong evidence for the theory that ancient people from the Pacific Rim traveled a coastal route from East Asia during the last ice age to become North America’s First Peoples, according to a paper published this week in the journal Science Advances. “This study puts the First Americans back into the global story of the Paleolithic – not as outliers – but as participants in a shared technological legacy,” said Loren Davis, professor of anthropology at Oregon ...

A collaborative team of scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of California Irvine, and Fort Lewis College, led by RASEI Fellow Gordana Dukovic, has found a way to slow energy leaks that have impeded the use of tiny nanocrystals in light-driven chemical and energy applications. As described in a new article published October 13 in the journal Chem, the team has used a molecule that strongly binds to the nanocrystal’s surface, essentially acting like a ‘dam’ to hold back the energy stored in the charge-separated state formed after light absorption. This technique extends the lifetime of the charge separation ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A study by University of California, Riverside, scientists has found that two toxic chemicals can form when the main ingredient in most e-cigarette fluids is heated, and that these compounds can harm human lung cells. The researchers characterized the toxicity of methylglyoxal and acetaldehyde, both known toxins that can be generated during the heating of vaping liquids containing propylene glycol. While these chemicals are already recognized as harmful in other settings, their impact during vaping has not been well understood until now. Using lab-grown human airway ...

A new genetic study overturns the myth of the “London Underground Mosquito,” revealing that this common urban insect originated not below the cities of modern Europe, but in ancient Mediterranean civilizations more than a thousand years ago, according to a new study. Modern cities are reshaping ecosystems, driving rapid adaptation in many species. A striking example is the northern house mosquito, Culex pipiens, which exists in two forms: the bird-biting C. pipiens f. pipiens (pipiens), adapted to open-air, seasonal environments, and the human-biting C. pipiens f. molestus ...

The record-breaking 2023 marine heatwave has killed nearly all of Florida’s critically endangered Acropora coral colonies, marking the species’ functional extinction in Florida’s Coral Reef (FCR), researchers report. The findings sound a dire warning for the future of coral ecosystems in our rapidly warming oceans. The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme climate events, such as marine heat waves, are severely undermining the health, structure, and resilience of ecosystems worldwide. Coral reefs, among the most heat-sensitive marine environments, ...

New paleontological findings offer insights into Wyoming’s “dinosaur mummies,” revealing that the stunningly preserved skin, spikes, and hooves of duck-billed dinosaurs are not fossilized flesh at all, but delicate clay molds formed by microbes as the creatures decayed, researchers report. Soft-tissue preservation in fossils usually occurs in fine-grained, oxygen-poor environments such as lagoons or seabeds, which enable the fossilization of delicate structures like feathers and skin. However, the so-called “dinosaur ...

Fatty Winter Snacks May Trick the Body into Packing on the Pounds  A new study from UC San Francisco shows that our natural eating patterns are more closely tied to seasonal rhythms than previously thought. Next time you’re tempted to raid the pantry for snacks loaded with saturated fat — especially in winter — you might want to consider that the result could be a mounting urge for high-calorie nibbles.  That’s because, from our body’s perspective, saturated fat — which ...

An international research team led by Hiroki Shibuya at RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan has solved a genetic mystery and revealed a previously unknown way that DNA can control what cells do. Published in Science on Oct 23, the study reveals that in the roundworm C. elegans, vital RNA needed to keep the ends of chromosomes intact does not have its own gene. Instead, it hitchhikes inside another one. DNA hitchhiking could be a common strategy in the animal kingdom, and has implications for anti-aging therapies and regenerative medicine in humans.   Telomeres are DNA ...

SOMERVILLE, Mass., October 23, 2025 – Cellarity, a biotechnology company developing Cell State-Correcting therapies through integrated multi-omics and AI modeling, today announced the publication of a seminal manuscript in the journal Science, which articulates a framework for the integration of advanced transcriptomic datasets and AI models to improve drug discovery. Cellarity designs novel therapeutics for complex diseases by focusing on the interplay of pathway connections and interactions that define and modulate cellular states. The company has built ...

ITHACA, N.Y. - Peatlands make up just 3% of the earth’s land surface but store more than 30% of the world’s soil carbon, preserving organic matter and sequestering its carbon for tens of thousands of years. A new study sounds the alarm that an extreme drought event could quadruple peatland carbon loss in a warming climate. In the study, published Oct. 23 in Science, researchers find that, under conditions that mimic a future climate (with warmer temperatures and elevated carbon dioxide), extreme drought dramatically increases the release of carbon in peatlands by nearly three ...

For decades, many scientists believed dinosaurs were already dwindling in number and variety long before an asteroid strike sealed their fate 66 million years ago. But new research in the journal Science from Baylor University, New Mexico State University, The Smithsonian Institution and an international team is rewriting that story. The dinosaurs, it turns out, were not fading away. They were flourishing. A final flourish in the San Juan Basin In northwestern New Mexico, layers of rock preserve a hidden chapter of Earth’s history. In the Naashoibito Member of the Kirtland ...

University of Queensland researchers have made a microscopic ‘ocean’ on a silicon chip to miniaturise the study of wave dynamics. The device, made at UQ’s School of Mathematics and Physics, uses a layer of superfluid helium only a few millionths of a millimetre thick on a chip smaller than a grain of rice. Dr Christopher Baker said it was the world’s smallest wave tank, with the quantum properties of superfluid helium allowing it to flow without resistance, unlike classical fluids such as water, which become immobilised by viscosity at such small scales. “The study of how fluids move has ...

Embargoed: 23 October 19:00 UK / 14:00 US Eastern Times Peer-reviewed / Experimental / Mosquito genomics ORIGINS OF THE ‘LONDON UNDERGROUND MOSQUITO’ UNCOVERED, SHEDDING LIGHT ON WEST NILE VIRUS TRANSMISSION Subtitle for website: International researchers disprove theory about the evolution of urban mosquito species. New research has uncovered the ancient origins of an urban mosquito species, Culex pipiens form molestus, also known as the ‘London Underground mosquito’ – disproving a long-held theory of when it first evolved. Published today (23 October) in Science, ...

Biological invasions occur when non-native or exotic species colonize new geographic regions, often to the detriment of local plants and animals. Today, human action contributes significantly to invasion processes, allowing species to bridge vast distances and enter new habitats at a highly accelerated rate. This makes it increasingly important to better understand the impact of invasions on ecosystems. Researchers from the University of Bern, the University of Konstanz (Germany) and the Northeast Forestry University (China), have now shown how the ...

Evolutionary biologists have long believed that the human-biting mosquito, Culex pipiens form molestus,evolved from the bird-biting form, Culex pipiens form pipiens, in subways and cellars in northern Europe over the past 200 years. It’s been held up as an example of a species’ ability to rapidly adapt to new environments and urbanization. Now, a new study led by Princeton University researchers disproves that theory, tracing the origins of the molestus mosquito to more than 1,000 years ago in the Mediterranean or Middle East. The paper publishes October 23 in the journal Science. “This ...

Pain resilience is the key factor linking chronic pain to physical activity levels  Individuals’ ability to stay active despite pain depends more on their pain resilience than on how much pain they feel   Efforts should centre on building resilience to pain, as well as reducing it  Pain affects activity levels, but how individuals understand and act in the face of pain can make a difference, a new study from the University of Portsmouth has found.    The paper, published ...

Do insectivorous animals perceive green, caterpillar-shaped clay as a tasty meal? Ecologists sometimes use plasticine models mimicking natural prey, such as caterpillars, fruit, bird eggs, snakes, and frogs, to record attack marks. This method is widely adopted for its low cost and simplicity. The goal is to estimate biotic interactions, particularly predation. Yet a critical question remains: Is the assumption that plasticine caterpillars appear "tasty" to animals overly human-centric? Despite the method's popularity, it relies on an unproven premise that animals visually recognize and react to the models as if they were ...

Fitness amongst young adults varies widely from one country to another, and is strongly associated with both socioeconomic development and gender equality, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science reports. The results indicate that levels of development and gender equality in a society can affect differences in physical capacity and therefore public health in general. Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is an important factor of health and life-expectancy. For this present study, researchers systematically reviewed data from 95 studies ...

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 23, 2025 — University of California, Irvine astronomers have identified an exoplanet located in a star’s habitable zone, where surface conditions might exist that can support the presence of liquid water – an essential ingredient for all known life. The exoplanet, which exists in a region of the Milky Way Galaxy that is relatively close to our solar system, may have a rocky composition like Earth and is several times more massive, making it a “super-Earth.” The UC Irvine researchers and colleagues discuss their characterization of the exoplanet in a paper published today in The Astronomical Journal. "We have found so many exoplanets at ...

Researchers have created a new type of drug molecule that can precisely destroy TERRA, an RNA molecule that helps certain cancer cells survive. Using advanced “RIBOTAC” technology, their compound finds TERRA inside cells and breaks it down without harming healthy molecules. This discovery could pave the way for a new generation of RNA-based cancer treatments, targeting the disease at its genetic roots rather than just its symptoms.   Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a new kind of drug ...

Titanium (Ti) is a promising metal for biomedical implant applications owing to lightweight, superior corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. Unfortunately, Ti is besieged by poor wear resistance owing to inferior plastic shear-resistance and strain-hardening capacity, thus causing premature failure upon joint friction. And conventional strengthening methods inevitably compromise the inherent biocompatibility and safety of pure titanium, which poses a sizable challenge in the manufacturing of wear-resistant Ti orthopedic implants. As described by the Archard law, wear resistance ...

Forget gears and motors. The next generation of robots may run on living muscle. Scientists are now fusing biological tissue with engineered structures to create "biohybrid robots"—machines that flex, contract, and move using the same power source we do: cells. The potential could be striking. Imagine tiny robots swimming through your bloodstream to deliver drugs, engineered tissues that help heal damaged organs, or living systems that model diseases more faithfully than any computer. But so far, most of these robots are fragile lab prototypes, more science experiment than practical tool. A new review in the International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing maps out how to get ...