A new study visualises three decades of income inequality data, the most comprehensive worldwide mapping to be done at a subnational level. Confirming worsening income inequality for areas with over 3.6 billion inhabitants, it also reveals hidden ‘bright spots’ where policy may be closing the gap. Income inequality is one of the most important measures of economic health, social justice and quality of life. More reliably trackable than wealth inequality, which was recently given a gloomy report card by the G20, income inequality is particularly relevant to immediate economic relief, mobility and people’s ...

As we age, the muscles we rely on for daily activities tend to become less reliable. With enough decline, even normal movements such as getting out of bed become risky. Low muscle mass in the elderly—known as sarcopenia—is a major concern for maintaining the quality of life in an aging population. Patients with sarcopenia are more likely to be hospitalized. They also are prone to falls and fractures which can precipitate health declines that often are both swift and steep. “The progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and function ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A genetic variant is likely putting some children suffering with myocarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle — at higher risk of developing heart failure, which can be fatal, according to a study published today in Circulation Heart Failure. According to the study, 34.4% of the children who developed dilated cardiomyopathy after developing myocarditis had a genetic variant that made them more susceptible to this condition. In comparison, only 6.3% of control children ...

Social justice must be at the heart of global restoration initiatives - and not “superficial” or “tokenistic” - if ecosystem degradation is to be addressed effectively, according to new research. Led by researchers the University of East Anglia (UEA) the study sought to explore what can make restoration effective for people and nature. Publishing their findings today in Nature Sustainability, they argue that placing social justice at the centre of restoration practice remains vital to success, with ecological targets aligned to local social, economic and cultural ones. Around the world, almost all kinds of ecosystems have been degraded ...

The copper isotope Cu-64 plays an important role in medicine: it is used in imaging processes and also shows potential for cancer therapy. However, it does not occur naturally and must be produced artificially — a complex and costly process. Until now, Cu-64 has been generated by bombarding nickel atoms with protons. When a nickel nucleus absorbs a proton, it is transformed into copper. At TU Wien, however, a different pathway has now been demonstrated: Cu-63 can be converted into Cu-64 by neutron irradiation in a research reactor. ...

Future events such as the weather or satellite trajectories are computed in tiny time steps, so the computation must be both efficient and as accurate as possible at each step lest errors pile up. A Kobe University team now introduces a new method that uses deep learning for creating tailored, accurate simulations that respect physical laws, while also being more computationally efficient. From studying the behavior of atoms to setting the trajectory of space craft, from material development to weather prediction — the modern ...

Technology, no matter how advanced, always comes with a shelf life. Mechanical equipment used in clean-energy systems is no different. But as global efforts toward carbon neutrality accelerate, assessing the durability of infrastructure such as wind turbines, solar power plants, and nuclear facilities has become increasingly important. Now, a new international study has introduced a method for predicting the lifetime of mechanical equipment used in clean-energy systems. The research team, led by Tohoku University and ...

Microplastics could be fuelling neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, with a new study highlighting five ways microplastics can trigger inflammation and damage in the brain. More than 57 million people live with dementia, and cases of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are projected to rise sharply. The possibility that microplastics could aggravate or accelerate these brain diseases is a major public health concern. Pharmaceutical scientist Associate Professor Kamal Dua, from the University of Technology Sydney, said it is estimated that adults are consuming 250 grams of microplastics every year – enough ...

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one of the most aggressive and treatment-resistant forms of breast cancer. It grows quickly, spreads early and lacks the hormone receptors that make other breast cancers treatable with targeted therapies. Even when patients initially respond to treatment, the cancer often returns and is more resistant than before. A new study in Breast Cancer Research points to a promising strategy to overcome the cancer’s resistance. Researchers at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center developed an antibody that blocks several ...

Planned birth at term reduces the incidence of pre-eclampsia in women at high risk of the condition, without increasing emergency Caesarean or neonatal unit admission, according to new trial results. The PREVENT-PE trial, led by researchers from King’s College London and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, is the first to find that a strategy of screening for pre-eclampsia risk at 36 weeks of pregnancy, and then offering planned early term delivery according to the mother’s risk, can reduce the incidence of subsequent pre-eclampsia by 30%, compared with usual care. The ...

Penguins living off the coast of South Africa have likely starved to death en masse during their moulting season as a result of collapsing food supplies.  In fact, on two of the most important breeding colonies of the African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) — Dassen Island and Robben Island — some 95% of the birds that bred in 2004 were estimated to have died over the next eight years as a result of food scarcity.  This is the conclusion of a new study ...

A study from the University of East Anglia is helping scientists better understand how our brains remember past events - and how those memories can change over time. A new paper published today explores episodic memory - the kind of memory we use to recall personal experiences like a birthday party or a holiday. The team say their work has important implications for mental health, education, and legal settings where memory plays a key role. Working collaboratively with the University of Texas in Dallas, the team show that memories aren’t just stored like files in a computer. Instead, they’re ...

What does the space shuttle have in common with the original iPhone? According to Francisco Polidoro Jr., professor of management of Texas McCombs, they’re both breakthrough inventions that integrate webs of interdependent features. In an iPhone, he notes, its size, weight, camera, and Wi-Fi capabilities influence one another. Push one feature too far, and the phone becomes heavier, bulkier, or more expensive. Companies can’t test each feature in isolation, and they can’t experiment ...

A new multi-site study led by researchers at CU Anschutz shows that people with cystic fibrosis (CF) who start the triple-drug therapy elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (ETI) can safely reduce many of their daily lung treatments while maintaining good health for years. The study was published today in the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis. “This is incredibly meaningful for individuals and families living with CF,” said lead author Scott Sagel, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics-pulmonary medicine at the CU Anschutz School of Medicine and director of the University of Colorado Cystic Fibrosis Center. “For ...

From field to lab: Rice study reveals how people with vision loss judge approaching vehicles Despite impaired central vision, participants relied on both vision and audition, offering new insight into mobility and safety Patricia DeLucia has spent decades studying something many of us never think about: judgments about collision that are crucial for safety. But the roots of her research stretch back to her childhood, long before she became a professor of psychological sciences at Rice University. “I grew up playing sports, and when you’re on the field, collision judgment is everything — whether a ball is coming at you, whether ...

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – A new study published in the American Journal of Physiology - Heart and Circulatory Physiology reveals that chronic kidney disease (CKD) accelerates cognitive decline through interconnected damage to the heart and brain—and that these pathways differ markedly between men and women.   Scientists and physicians from the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, in collaboration with the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), led the study to better understand sex-specific ...

Women who report high levels of psychosocial stress, such as from caregiving and lack of emotional support, show signs of early heart tissue changes associated with cardiovascular disease – an association not observed in men, a new study reveals. The results support the notion that there are sex-specific ways in which stress affects cardiovascular health and that risk-assessment processes should take psychosocial factors and mental wellness into account, the researchers said. “From an epidemiological point of view, we have known for about two decades that stress is an important risk factor in cardiovascular health for people born female. But with this research ...

Q: How would you summarize your study for a lay audience? For breastfeeding women who have HIV, consistently taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) is essential for their own health and the health of their infants. New long-acting (LA) injectable ART options, such as LA cabotegravir with rilpivirine (CAB/RPV), can help women suppress the HIV virus within their bodies — keeping them healthy and reducing transmission to their infants. Instead of daily oral pills, the injection is received every two months, making it easier for women to sustain treatment during the postpartum period and keep their medical diagnoses private. Our study focused ...

The last time the New World screwworm invaded the U.S., it devastated livestock and required a decades-long eradication campaign. Now, University of California Riverside researchers are launching a preemptive strike against the parasitic fly’s threatened return. The New World screwworm isn’t a worm at all. It’s the larval or maggot stage of a shiny, metallic blowfly, a species called Cochliomyia hominivorax. While many blowflies are harmless and play a vital role in decomposing dead animals, this particular species feeds on living flesh.  “Not all blowflies are this species. We don’t ...

HONOLULU, Dec. 4, 2025 — The world is loud. A walk down the street bombards one’s ears with the sound of engines revving, car horns blaring, and the steady beeps of pedestrian crossings. While smartphone alerts to excessive sound and public awareness of noise exposure grows, few tools help people take protective action. To address this gap, Santino Cozza and a team from Applied Research Associates, Inc. developed the Hearing Protection Optimization Tool (HPOT). HPOT was designed to move beyond traditional noise reductions ratings and highlight performance characteristics that ...

Explore the future of clean hydrogen in this recorded webinar featuring Dr. Muhammad Aziz from the University of Tokyo. Discover how chemical looping technology can produce high-purity hydrogen, capture CO₂, and recover usable heat—all within a near-zero emission process. ???? In this session, you’ll learn about: Advanced oxygen carrier materials for stable reactor performance Process intensification strategies for efficient hydrogen production Real-world applications in power generation, steelmaking, refineries, and renewable energy storage Key scientific, economic, ...

By Diana Kenney WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- One of the enigmas of life is emergence, when the whole becomes more than its parts. Flocks of birds can instantly change direction when a predator appears, guided not by a lead bird but by a collective intelligence that no single bird can possess on its own. Multitudes of molecules skitter chaotically in a cell, but certain ones find each other, interact, and give rise to sophisticated cellular structures and functions that could not have been predicted by studying the molecules alone. Understanding how emergent properties arise in cells – in this case, how liquid droplets called condensates spontaneously form from rapidly moving molecules ...

A discovery by FIU researchers could help forensic investigators close the gap on estimating time of death.   Often, death investigations rely on maggots — the larvae of blow flies that are among the first insects to colonize a body after death — to estimate how long a person has been dead. The presence of eggs or the sizes of the maggots are indicators of time since death. Yet, there is a stage in their development, where the maggot’s physical form changes very little, which limits the precision of time of death estimates. While changes may not be visible on a maggot’s outside, their ...

HONOLULU, Dec. 4, 2025 — Bees, and other pollinator species, are dying. Between pesticides, the climate crisis, and habitat loss, bee colonies are becoming weaker, leaving them more vulnerable to parasites like the greater and lesser wax moths. Vulnerable bees have cascading effects on beekeepers and food security in the apiculture industry. A team of researchers from the University of Strathclyde and Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization is exploiting the unusual hearing of wax moths to develop a sustainable and efficient ...

The placenta regulates the exchange of nutrients, gases, and metabolic products between a pregnant woman and the foetus, thereby ensuring healthy development. The first 90 days of pregnancy are particularly important, because the baby’s organs begin to develop during this sensitive period. Although the placenta has barrier mechanisms designed to prevent the passage of dangerous substances into the baby, PFAS can accumulate in the body, interfere with foetal development, and, in severe cases, increase the risk of miscarriage. “For an accurate risk assessment, ...