(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Rivers are Earth’s arteries. Water, sediment and nutrients self-organize into diverse, dynamic channels as they journey from the mountains to the sea. Some rivers carve out a single pathway, while others divide into multiple interwoven threads. These channel patterns shape flood risks, erosion hazards and ecosystem services for more than 3 billion people who live along river corridors worldwide. Understanding why some waterways form single channels, while others divide into many threads, has perplexed researchers for over a century. ...

AURORA, Colo. (July 10, 2025) – A new study from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus has upended decades of neuroscience dogma, revealing that dopamine, a neurotransmitter critical for movement, motivation, learning and mood, communicates in the brain with extraordinary precision, not broad diffusion as previously believed. This groundbreaking research offers fresh hope for millions of people living with dopamine-related disorders, marking a significant advance in the quest for precision-based neuroscience and medicine. For years, scientists thought of ...

Can artificial intelligence, or AI, potentially transform health care for the better?   Now, rising to the challenge, an Arizona State University team of researchers has built a powerful new AI tool, called Ark+, to help doctors read chest X‑rays better and improve health care outcomes.   “Ark+ is designed to be an open, reliable and ultimately useful tool in real-world health care systems,” said Jianming “Jimmy” Liang, an ASU professor from the College of Health Solutions, and lead author of the study recently published in the prestigious journal Nature.   In a proof-of-concept study, the new AI tool demonstrated ...

Women with type 2 diabetes are nearly twice as likely as men to have hidden heart damage, according to a major new study by Leicester researchers funded through a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Professorship.  The research, published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, is one of the most detailed investigations into coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) to uncover sex-specific risk patterns in people with no signs of heart disease.  CMD is a form of early, silent heart damage caused by impaired blood flow in the ...

Nerve cells are not just nerve cells. Depending on how finely we distinguish, there are several hundred to several thousand different types of nerve cell in the human brain according to the latest calculations. These cell types vary in their function, in the number and length of their cellular appendages, and in their interconnections. They emit different neurotransmitters into our synapses and, depending on the region of the brain – for example, the cerebral cortex or the midbrain – different cell ...

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered a previously unknown molecule that may explain why people with type 2 diabetes often suffer from muscle weakness and muscle loss – a condition that has a major impact on quality of life and overall health. In the new study, published in Sciences Advances, researchers have identified a previously unknown molecule, TMEM9B-AS1, which may explain why people with type 2 diabetes often suffer from muscle weakness and loss of muscle mass. The molecule is a long non-coding RNA that plays ...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects individuals across all ages and genders. While its most visible impact is on the joints, RA also contributes to accelerated musculoskeletal ageing, often leading to progressive muscle degeneration and reduced muscle function. Emerging research has identified a specific form of muscle loss in RA—known as myopenia—which differs significantly from other disease-related muscle-wasting conditions such as cancer cachexia or heart failure. Unlike those conditions, myopenia is characterized by a decline in muscle mass without concurrent fat loss and can manifest across all age groups. Despite ...

Wavelength and propagation direction (angle) are two fundamental properties of light. The ability to selectively control both a specific wavelength and a specific angle forms the physical foundation for many advanced optical applications. However, due to the intrinsic dispersion in periodic systems, there exists an intrinsic locking relationship between angle and wavelength in the resonant spectrum. As a result, it has been widely accepted that changing the angle of incidence inevitably shifts the filtering wavelength of optical devices. This relationship between angle and wavelength in resonant spectra makes their independent ...

Among the more than 100 types of human papillomavirus (HPV), at least 14 are considered as ‘high-risk’ types which can cause (cervical) cancer. After breast cancer, cervical cancer is the most common cancer in Europe among women aged 15–44 years [1]. Before HPV vaccination among teenage girls started in Denmark, high-risk HPV was found in all cervical cancers. HPV types 16/18 accounted for around three quarters (74%) of cervical cancers. These two types are covered in the 4-valent HPV vaccine offered to girls since 2008 as well as the 9-valent vaccine which has been in use in Denmark since November 2017. One third (26%) of cervical cancers prior to the HPV immunisation ...

In a recent study published in Engineering, researchers from Harbin Engineering University have conducted an in-depth experimental investigation into the complex coupling dynamics of metal jets, waves, and bubbles generated during the underwater explosion of shaped charges. This research provides valuable insights into the behavior of shaped charges in underwater environments, which is crucial for understanding their potential applications and impacts.   The study was designed to analyze the characteristics of metal ...

A new wearable wristband could significantly improve diabetes management by continuously tracking not only glucose but also other chemical and cardiovascular signals that influence disease progression and overall health. The technology was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering. The flexible wristband consists of a microneedle array that painlessly samples interstitial fluid under the skin to measure glucose, lactate and alcohol in real time using three different enzymes embedded within the tiny needles. Designed for easy replacement, the microneedle array can be swapped out to tailor ...

A recent study published in Engineering has provided new insights into the spatiotemporal distribution and biosynthesis of ganoderic acids (GAs) in Ganoderma lingzhi (G. lingzhi), a mushroom renowned for its medicinal properties in traditional Chinese medicine. The research, led by scientists from Northeast Forestry University, China, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, and the University of Macau, utilized a multi-omics approach to map the distribution of GAs and elucidate their biosynthetic pathways.   G. lingzhi, often referred to as the “mushroom of immortality,” has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over 2000 years. It contains various bioactive substances, ...

A recent study published in Engineering has shed light on the quality and potential antibiotic resistance dissemination risks associated with livestock probiotics in China. The research, conducted by a team from the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Yangzhou University, analyzed 95 non-duplicate commercial probiotic products for livestock from across China, revealing significant issues in labeling accuracy, strain composition, and the presence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs).   The study found that the labeling compliance rate for Lactobacillus was alarmingly low at just 11%, with approximately ...

A new genomic study reveals how human populations adapted, survived, and diversified in the Himalayas, one of the most extreme and challenging environments on Earth. The research, a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and international partners from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, analysed whole-genome sequences from diverse Himalayan ethnic groups, many of which had never been genetically studied before at this level. Published today (10 July) in Current Biology, the study shows that population structure in the Himalayas began over 10,000 years ago, thousands of years before archaeological evidence of permanent settlement at high altitudes. This early divergence ...

About The Study: In a large California health care system, the contemporary burden of obesity varied substantially across disaggregated Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander subgroups ages 30 to 49, affecting more than half of Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander adults (body mass index [BMI] 30 or greater). Rapid temporal increases in high BMI were seen among Filipino and other Southeast Asian subpopulations where nearly 50% of females and 60% of males had a BMI greater than or equal to 27.5.  Corresponding Author: To ...

About The Study: In this cohort study, higher anticholinergic exposure was associated with accelerated decline in physical performance, consistent with clinically meaningful decline. These findings suggest that minimizing anticholinergic medications is important for healthy aging.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Shelly L. Gray, PharmD, MS, email slgray@uw.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.19819) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

What can lemurs tell us about inflammation and aging, aka “inflammaging” in humans? That’s the question Elaine Guevara, a biological anthropologist who studies the evolution of life history and aging in primates, set out to understand. In newly published research on age-related inflammation in ring-tailed and sifaka lemurs, Guevara discovered that perhaps we should rethink the inevitability of inflammaging in humans. Although similar in many ways, ring-tailed and sifaka lemurs show differences in life pacing ...

Some mammals are capable of hibernating during periods of low food availability in an effort to conserve energy and survive. While it is easy to understand why species have evolved this survival mechanism, exactly how these animals regulate their metabolism and body temperature remains a mystery. Researchers have known for decades that the lower body temperatures observed during hibernation go hand in hand with lower metabolism. The metabolism of glucose, a sugar commonly used to generate the energy used by cells, produces heat, and maintaining lower body ...

If memories are the black box of our past, they can also shed light on the present by giving meaning to new situations. But how does memory retrieve either surface matches (based on same places, same people) or deeper, more conceptual ones (based on similar intentions or actions)? A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has shed light on this question, showing that memory tends to favour the substance of a situation —its concept or underlying problem — when it can be linked to familiar mental ...

The rapid rise in AI applications has placed increasingly heavy demands on our energy infrastructure. All the more reason to find energy-saving solutions for AI hardware. One promising idea is the use of so-called spin waves to process information. A team from the Universities of Münster and Heidelberg (Germany) led by physicist Prof. Rudolf Bratschitsch (Münster) has now developed a new way to produce waveguides in which the spin waves can propagate particularly far. They have thus created the largest spin waveguide network to date. Furthermore, the group succeeded in specifically controlling the ...

Can one truly understand what “flower” means without smelling a rose, touching a daisy or walking through a field of wildflowers? This question is at the core of a rich debate in philosophy and cognitive science. While embodied cognition theorists argue that physical, sensory experience is essential to concept formation, studies of the rapidly evolving large language models (LLMs)suggest that language alone can build deep, meaningful representations of the world. By exploring the similarities between LLMs and human representations, researchers at The Hong ...

More premature babies who had early skin-to-skin contact with their mother were being breastfed at the time of discharge from hospital and for up to one year afterwards. However, this is far from the only benefit. A team from St. Olavs Hospital and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have looked at this issue in a number of articles. They now hope that more hospitals will change their practice so that premature babies are not separated from their mother during the first few hours after birth. “The first few ...

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [July 10, 2025] — New research in the July 2025 issue of JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network finds that for people diagnosed with nonmetastatic low-risk prostate cancer later in life, and treated according to NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®), 90% were likely to survive their cancer for their remaining life-expectancy. Of those with nonmetastatic higher-risk cancer and a longer life expectancy, that likelihood was still greater than 65%. The researchers studied 62,839 people diagnosed with non-metastatic prostate ...

Conventional polyimides (PIs) exhibit excellent thermal stability and mechanical performance, yet their dielectric properties (dielectric constant (Dk) > 3.2, dissipation factor (Df) > 0.005 @ 10 GHz). In previous reports, the introduction of trifluoromethyl reduced the dielectric constant and dissipation factor, but it increased chain rigidity, weakened hydrogen bonds interaction, and reduced free volume, which definitely reduced mechanical performance (such as poor toughness leading to crack risks in advanced packaging). Therefore, it is necessary to design PI materials with high toughness and low dielectric properties to meet ...

Recent advances have yielded significant progress in actuation, navigation, and control of magnetic microrobots. Nevertheless, dynamic obstacle avoidance in 3D environments remains a critical challenge, often relying on computationally intensive path-planning methods that limit real-time performance. "Using a hierarchical radar system to enable high-frequency direction updates minimizes computational load while ensuring collision-free navigation," explained corresponding author Jiangfan Yu, a professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. The radar framework comprises (a) a motion sphere for directional ...