Many psychiatric disorders are linked to altered functioning of brain networks that drive reward processing and executive functions like making decisions, taking risks, planning, and memory. But a better understanding of how these networks typically develop to support reward-related executive functions is needed. New in JNeurosci, Samuel Klein and Monica Luciana, from the University of Minnesota, led a longitudinal study to explore how brain networks for reward processing and executive functioning ...

The Camden Study, a pregnancy cohort of 4,765 women recruited between 1985 and 2006 from one of America’s poorest cities, has found new life at Rutgers University – where it promises to unlock critical insights into maternal and child health for researchers worldwide. According to a recent paper in Nutrients, the project was designed to study nutritional status in adolescent pregnancies but expanded into a comprehensive repository of maternal and infant health data that yielded more than a decade of significant ...

Currently more than 8,000 satellites are orbiting at altitudes of between 300 and 1000 km in the Earth’s upper atmosphere – also called the thermosphere. While changes in space weather, such as coronal mass ejections and solar flares, can cause temporary changes in the density of this region, scientists at the University of Birmingham suggest the effects caused by global warming are likely to be much longer term.  This is because of the effects caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs) ...

MIT aerospace engineers have found that greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment of near-Earth space in ways that, over time, will reduce the number of satellites that can sustainably operate there.  In a study that will appear in Nature Sustainability, the researchers report that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can cause the upper atmosphere to shrink. An atmospheric layer of special interest is the thermosphere, where the International Space Station and most satellites orbit today. When the thermosphere contracts, the decreasing density reduces atmospheric drag— a force that pulls old satellites and other debris down to altitudes where they will ...

A mysterious phenomenon at the centre of our galaxy could be the result of a different type of dark matter.  Dark matter, the mysterious form of unobserved matter which could make up 85% of the mass of the known universe, is one of science’s biggest manhunts.  In this first of its kind study, scientists have taken a step closer to understanding the elusive mystery matter. They believe a reimagined candidate for dark matter could be behind unexplained chemical reactions taking place in the Milky Way.  Dr Shyam Balaji, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at King’s College London and one of the lead authors of the study explains, “At the ...

Phase transitions, like water freezing into ice, are a familiar part of our world. But in quantum systems, they can behave even more dramatically, with quantum properties such as Heisenberg  uncertainty  playing a central role. Furthermore, various spurious effects can cause the systems to lose, or dissipate, energy to the environment. When they happen, theses “dissipative phase transitions” (DPTs) push quantum systems into new states. There are different types or “orders” of DPTs. First-order DPTs are like flipping a switch, causing abrupt jumps between states. ...

A recent study published in Engineering presents a significant advancement in manufacturing scheduling. Researchers Xueyan Sun, Weiming Shen, Jiaxin Fan, and their colleagues from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and the Technical University of Munich have developed an improved proximal policy optimization (IPPO) method to address the distributed heterogeneous hybrid blocking flow-shop scheduling problem (DHHBFSP). The DHHBFSP is a complex optimization challenge in manufacturing. In distributed manufacturing settings, jobs with diverse requirements arrive randomly at different hybrid flow shops. These shops have varying numbers of machines ...

PHILADELPHIA – The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) today announced its newly elected 2025 class of Fellows of the AACR Academy. The mission of the Fellows of the AACR Academy is to recognize and honor extraordinary scientists whose groundbreaking contributions have driven significant innovation and progress in the fight against cancer. Fellows of the AACR Academy constitute a global brain trust of leading experts in cancer science and medicine, working to advance the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure all cancers through ...

Student researchers from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) participated in the 37th Student Research Week Feb. 26-28. Organized by the TTUHSC Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Student Research Week is an opportunity for TTUHSC student investigators to showcase their work and hear presentations from distinguished national speakers related to the year’s theme.  The Department of Cell Physiology and Molecular Biophysics hosted the 2025 event. The Student Research Week committee chose “Let’s Get Biophysical” as the ...

Ghent, Belgium, 10 March 2025 – New research from an international team of plant biologists, led by researchers at the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, has revealed crucial insights into the role brassinosteroids – essential plant hormones – play in regulating cell division and growth. The findings, published in Cell, provide a comprehensive understanding of how these hormones influence development at the cellular level. Plants on steroids Brassinosteroids are vital hormones for plants, which influence ...

The opioid epidemic has claimed more than half a million lives in the U.S. since 1999, about three-quarters of them men, according to the National Institutes of Health. Although men’s disproportionate rates of opioid abuse and overdose deaths are well-documented, the reasons for this gender disparity are not well understood. A new study in rats by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that one underlying cause may be biological. Male rats in chronic pain gave themselves increasing doses of an opioid – specifically, fentanyl – over ...

About The Study: While practitioner supply increased overall, the Dobbs decision was associated with moderate but significant relative decreases in obstetrics and gynecology practitioners in the most restrictive vs control states. Findings provide early confirmation of reports that clinicians have migrated from states most impacted by the Dobbs decision. Clinician migration has implications for reproductive care access, quality, and equity as abortion rights are increasingly decided at the state level.  Corresponding ...

About The Study: An early-life responsive parenting intervention resulted in lower body mass index from age 3 to 9 compared with a control intervention. This group difference was driven by effects on female participants, with differences appearing to dissipate over time. A life-course approach may be required to sustain the benefits of early-life responsive parenting interventions for obesity prevention.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Ian M. Paul, MD, MSc, email ipaul@psu.edu. To access ...

About The Study: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with varying developmental health outcomes in kindergarteners. Negative developmental trends existed immediately before the pandemic, with most persisting or slowing post-pandemic onset. These results highlight troubling trends in kindergarteners’ development, both before and during the pandemic, and more information is needed to understand why developmental outcomes are worsening over time. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Judith L. Perrigo, PhD, LCSW, email jperrigo@luskin.ucla.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The ...

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have successfully developed a supercharged iteration of CAR-T cell therapy that can enhance the effectiveness and longevity of the cells, particularly against cancer cells that are harder for prior CAR-T therapies to detect and fight. The study was published today in the journal Cancer Cell. “This next-generation approach, called ALA-CART (adjunctive LAT-activating CAR-T cells), optimizes CAR-T cells to more effectively eliminate cancer cells, including those that ...

EMBARGOED: NOT FOR RELEASE UNTIL 11:00 US ET on MONDAY, MAR. 10, 2025 CONTACT: John Maufort, jpmaufort@wisc.edu Scientists create a universal vascular graft with stem cells to improve surgery for cardiovascular disease MADISON — Scientists at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC) and the Morgridge Institute for Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have been at the forefront of stem cell research and regenerative biology since James Thomson isolated the first human embryonic stem cell in 1998. The ...

Users of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok might think they’re simply interacting with friends, family and followers, and seeing ads as they go. But according to research from the UBC Sauder School of Business, they’re part of constant marketing experiments that are often impossible, even for the companies behind them, to fully comprehend. For the study, the researchers examined all known published, peer-reviewed studies of the use of A/B testing by Facebook and Google — that is, when different consumers are shown different ads to determine which are ...

In the ever-evolving landscape of wireless communication, security remains a paramount concern. A recent study published in Engineering delves into the realm of intelligent covert communication, exploring its latest advancements and future research trends. Covert communication, also known as low probability of detection (LPD) communication, is a technique that aims to conceal the existence of communication, thereby safeguarding private information. As the volume of private data transmitted via wireless systems continues to soar in the big data era, the need for ...

LOS ANGELES – March 10, 2025 – Stand Up To Cancer® (SU2C) today announced changes to its Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), which is composed of cancer research leaders from academic, government, industry and advocacy fields. The SAC oversees SU2C’s scientific research in collaboration with SU2C’s president and CEO Julian Adams, Ph.D. The new SAC members are: Scott A. Armstrong, M.D., Ph.D., SVP for drug discovery and chief research strategy officer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and David G. Nathan professor of pediatrics at Harvard ...

Two years ago, Chance Ward began opening boxes of horse remains that had been shipped to the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History from other institutions around the country. What he saw made his heart sink. At the time, Ward was a master’s student in Museum and Field Studies at CU Boulder. The researcher, who had grown up riding horses, was taking part in a large-scale study exploring the history of these iconic animals in the American West. But when he looked inside the packages, he sometimes found ...

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, workers have spent countless hours in videoconferences—now a fixture of office life. As more people work and live remotely, videoconferencing platforms such as Zoom, MS Teams, FaceTime, Slack, and Discord are a huge part of socializing among family and friends as well. Some exchanges are more enjoyable and flow better than others, raising questions about how the medium of online meetings could be improved in order to raise both efficiency and job satisfaction.  A team of New York University scientists has developed an AI model that can identify aspects ...

(New York, NY – March 10) – For the third straight year, The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked the top hospital in New York State on Newsweek/Statista’s “World’s Best Hospitals” list for 2025. The Mount Sinai Hospital moved up to No. 7 in the United States and No. 19 in the world on the same list. Hospitals within the Mount Sinai Hospital Health System continue to make gains on the global and local stage, with Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West ranked at no. 4 in New York City and no. 8 statewide on the same list, which recognizes and ranks 600 leading hospitals across the nation as well as the top hospitals from 30 countries. “These honors ...

EMBARGOED: FOR RELEASE 7:01 A.M. (ET), MARCH 10, 2025    Tempe, Ariz., March 10, 2025 – Life with a dog is a matter of give and take. Especially when it comes to communication. With no common human-dog language, our ability to communicate relies on understanding and reading our pet, and vice versa. That process can seem seamless. You give your dog a treat, you look into her eyes and she says “I am delighted to have that cookie.” With a slight wag of her tail, she accepts the treat ...

Whales are not just big, they’re a big deal for healthy oceans. When they poop, whales move tons of nutrients from deep water to the surface. Now new research shows that whales also move tons of nutrients thousands of miles—in their urine. In 2010, scientists revealed that whales, feeding at depth and pooping at the surface, provide a critical resource for plankton growth and ocean productivity. Today, a new University of Vermont-led study shows that whales also carry huge quantities ...

University of Florida researchers are addressing a critical gap in medical genetic research — ensuring it better represents and benefits people of all backgrounds.  Their work, led by Kiley Graim, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, focuses on improving human health by addressing "ancestral bias" in genetic data, a problem that arises when most research is based on data from a single ancestral group. This bias limits advancements in precision medicine, Graim said, and leaves large portions ...