Long-term fasting in 24-hour cycles increases the sex drive of male mice by lowering the concentration of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. This effect is linked to a diet-induced deficiency of the precursor substance tryptophan – an amino acid that must be obtained through food. Researchers from DZNE report on this in the journal Cell Metabolism, together with a Chinese team from Qingdao University and the University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. They suggest that similar mechanisms may exist in humans and view fasting as a potential approach for treating unwanted loss of sexual desire. Fasting ...

28 March 2024, Leuven, Belgium — Accumulation of a protein called TDP-43 is a key feature of ALS and frontotemporal dementia. In a newly published study, researchers report ‘seeding’ this accumulation through fragments of the culprit protein created in the lab. The findings provide further evidence for a prion-like paradigm wherein protein aggregation occurs in a templated fashion. This breakthrough provides the research field with a powerful way to model and study the mechanisms driving neurodegeneration. TAR DNA-binding ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL 11 a.m. EST on Friday, March 28, 2025 Contact: Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu  Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu ## Discrimination-related Depression, Anxiety Pronounced Among Multiracial, White, Asian Populations A new study found that more than half of US adults encounter some form of discrimination, and that this mistreatment may fuel higher chances of depression and/or anxiety among specific racial and ethnic groups due to cultural, social, and systemic factors.  A ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers have uncovered a more efficient way to turn carbon dioxide into methanol, a type of alcohol that can serve as a cleaner alternative fuel.  In the lab, synthesizing methanol can be extremely difficult, due to the extremely complex reaction pathway needed to select for it. Previous attempts by the same team to manufacture this valuable liquid fuel from carbon dioxide have used a combination of cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) molecules and electricity, but this method is inefficient as only about 30% of the carbon dioxide is converted to methanol.  To ...

Leveraging the power of AI and machine learning technologies, researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine developed a more effective model for predicting how patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer will respond to chemotherapy. The model harnesses whole-slide tumor imaging data and gene expression analyses in a way that outperforms previous models using a single data type. The study, published March 22 in npj Digital Medicine, identifies key genes and tumor characteristics that may determine treatment success. The ability to accurately anticipate ...

Anthrax, an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, is often treatable in its early stages. But once the disease has progressed beyond the “point of no return” after just a few days, patients are almost certainly doomed. In a new Nature Microbiology study, University of Pittsburgh researchers show that a cocktail of growth factors reversed would-be lethal cell damage in mice with anthrax, suggesting that this approach could be adapted for use in patients beyond the brink. “While only a few people die from anthrax in the United States each year, there is always the concern ...

If you just put away your phone to read this, chances are you’re not alone. Our phones are an endless source of distraction, and we interact with them every four to six minutes. This is often driven by habit as well as notifications, leading to a disrupted flow of activity while we’re trying to be productive. A new study published in Frontiers in Computer Science investigated if placing smartphones just out of our reach while we’re at work influenced device use for activities not related ...

Population surveillance. The carrying of identification while traveling. Add to that the public presence of diverse religions and it sounds like 2025, but this was life in the Ottoman Empire 200 years ago. Yet this seeming tolerance of non-Muslim faiths was in fact tied to the first two aspects, according to research by Osaka Metropolitan University Associate Professor Masayuki Ueno. The Ottoman Empire lasted from around 1300 until 1922, and at various points in its history ruled present-day Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, and beyond. In the wake of the 1821 Greek revolt, the Ottoman Empire instituted ...

Banning smartphone and social media access alone fails to equip children for healthy use of technology, argues a group of international experts in The BMJ today. They say the focus should shift to a rights based approach, underpinned by age appropriate design and education, that protects children from harm while developing skills to help them participate in a digital society. Bans on smartphone and social media access have been advocated in many countries to protect children from harm despite ...

Ikoma, Japan—In an era where climate change threatens food security, scientists worldwide are searching for reliable ways to improve crop production. Extreme weather and shifting seasonal patterns can disrupt traditional agricultural cycles, making technologies that regulate the timing of plant growth invaluable for farmers worldwide. Plant growth and development are dependent on many factors such as the environment, photoperiod, and genetics. Flowering is an important event in a plant’s life ...

A new USC Schaeffer Center white paper finds expanded access to anti-obesity medications would lead to significant increases in life expectancy and disease-free years while generating a substantial societal return on investment, even after accounting for treatment costs.   More than 4 in 10 U.S. adults have obesity, which is linked to increased risk of over 200 diseases — including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia — and costs society $260 billion annually to treat. Highly effective new anti-obesity medications can be a powerful tool against chronic disease, but fewer than one-third of health insurers cover them amid concerns about upfront ...

Ikoma, Japan—Throughout evolution, plants have continuously adapted to survive in changing environments. Apart from complex structural changes, plants have also developed various defense strategies against herbivores, including tougher protective layers, thorns, and chemical deterrents. Delving deeper into the evolution of defense mechanisms, a research team led by Assistant Professor Makoto Shirakawa from Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), identified a surprising genetic adaptation in the Brassicales plant order. In these cruciferous ...

New York, NY — The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), is pleased to announce the 2025 recipients of three of its annual Scientific Awards of Distinction: David B. Allison, PhD, will receive the Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction; Daniel W. Belsky, PhD, will receive the Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research; and Arlan Richardson, PhD, will receive the George M. Martin Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award. The Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction is named in honor of AFAR’s founder and recognizes exceptional contributions to basic ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Vaping during pregnancy is becoming more common, but its impact on early human development is not well understood. A new study by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, now reports that the flavor chemical menthol used in electronic cigarettes could pose risks to a developing baby. The study, published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, used human embryonic stem cells, or hESCs, to characterize early stages of embryonic development and examined how low concentrations of menthol affect important cellular processes. The ...

Clothes that can mimic the feeling of being touched, touch displays that provide haptic feedback to users, or even ultralight loudspeakers. These are just some of the devices made possible using thin silicone films that can be precisely controlled so that they vibrate, flex, press or pull exactly as desired. And all done simply by applying an electrical voltage. The research teams at the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology in Saarbrücken (ZeMA) headed by Professors Stefan Seelecke and Paul Motzki (Saarland University) and John Heppe (htw saar – University of Applied Sciences ...

FAMU-FSU College of Engineering researchers have created a new method for studying protein degradation within immune cells that uses engineered microparticles to track and analyze degradation processes more effectively than traditional methods. The work, which was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, has important implications for treating diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and autoimmune disorders. “There is a lot we still don’t know about how cells ingest and eliminate tissue debris or pathogens — the process ...

How gravity causes a perfectly spherical ball to roll down an inclined plane is part of elementary school physics canon. But the world is messier than a textbook.    Scientists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have sought to quantitatively describe the much more complex rolling physics of real-world objects. Led by L. Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Physics, and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology in SEAS and FAS, they combined theory, simulations, and experiments to understand what happens when an imperfect, ...

A team of researchers from Arizona State University, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Lehigh University and Louisiana State University has developed a groundbreaking high-temperature copper alloy with exceptional thermal stability and mechanical strength. The research team’s findings on the new copper alloy, published in prestigious journal Science, introduce a novel bulk Cu-3Ta-0.5Li nanocrystalline alloy that exhibits remarkable resistance to coarsening and creep deformation, even at temperatures near its melting point. “Our alloy design approach mimics the strengthening mechanisms found in Ni-based superalloys,” said Kiran Solanki, a professor at ...

The way teachers manage classroom discussion with pupils plays a key role in the teaching of writing, a new study shows. The research shows the importance of managing classroom discussion in a way that develops pupils’ understanding of the choices that writers make, and how those choices create particular effects for readers. This discussion helps pupils to think more about the choices that they make in their own writing. The study reinforces the importance of dedicating time to discussion in secondary English lessons. It shows that time should be given to exploratory, speculative discussion that ...

Research from Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago strongly suggests that Kawasaki disease is caused by a single respiratory virus that is yet to be identified. Findings contradict the theory that many different pathogens or toxins could cause this disease that can lead to serious cardiac complications in young children. “The cause of Kawasaki disease has been a mystery for over 50 years,” said Anne Rowley, MD, pediatric infectious diseases expert and scientist at Manne Research Institute at Lurie Children’s, who is the lead author on the study published ...

In brief Surface waters in the Southern Ocean have been cooling in recent decades, counter to what climate models predict. Scientists have quantified how much of the cooling observed since 1990 has been driven by an influx of freshwater that’s unaccounted for in state-of-the-art climate models. The researchers discovered that freshwater inputs along the coast from melting ice sheets exert surprisingly strong influence on Southern Ocean surface temperatures and the broader climate system.   Global climate models predict that the ocean around Antarctica ...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common form of heart arrhythmia, a serious condition in which the heart beats so fast that its upper chambers, the atria, quiver. This irregular heartbeat can increase the risk of severe conditions, including heart failure, dementia and stroke. “My lab has been studying the role of inflammation in the initiation and persistence of AF for many years. In this multidisciplinary study, we investigated the function of gasdermin D, a key participant in inflammatory pathways, in atrial heart cells and its potential contribution to AF,” said corresponding author Dr. Na Li, professor of medicine ...

As agricultural research continues to become more entwined with technology, smart farming – a phrase that encompasses research computing tools that help farmers to better address issues like crop disease, drought and sustainability – has quickly become a ubiquitous term in Ag labs across the country. The availability of NCSA resources like Delta for researchers, both nationally and on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U. of I.) campus, has fostered a hotbed of cutting-edge research projects in the agricultural domain. Yi-Chia Chang, a Ph.D. student at the ...

Using data on more than 220,000 individuals on the Lyft rideshare platform, researchers report that drivers of color are significantly more likely to receive speeding tickets than white drivers, and to face steeper fines, even when traveling at identical speeds. Racial profiling by law enforcement is a pressing social issue in the United States. Previous research analyzing police and judicial records suggests that racial and ethnic minorities face disproportionately higher rates of searches, fines, force, detentions, and incarceration compared to white civilians. However, research on racial bias in policing has long been hindered by data limitations ...

Researchers have revealed a secret behind horses' exceptional endurance – a mutation in the KEAP1 gene that boosts energy production while protecting against cellular oxidative stress. The findings – which shed light on a unique evolutionary adaptation that has shaped one of nature’s most powerful athletes – hold potential implications for human medicine. They also highlight how the recoding of a de novo stop codon – a strategy thought restricted to viruses – can facilitate adaptation in vertebrates. Long prized for their speed and endurance, horses possess remarkable physiological adaptations ...