The first stars in the universe formed out of pristine hydrogen and helium clouds, in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang. New James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations reveal that some of the first stars in the universe could have been very different from regular (nuclear fusion-powered) stars, which have been observed and catalogued by astronomers for millennia. A recent study led by Cosmin Ilie, at Colgate University, in collaboration with Shafaat Mahmud (Colgate ’26), Jillian Paulin (Colgate ’23) at UPenn, and Katherine Freese, at The University of Texas at Austin, identifies four ...

Researchers at the University of Vienna have developed fluorescent peptide tracers that can simultaneously visualise and activate the oxytocin receptor. This receptor–also known as the love/bonding hormone receptor–plays a key role in processes related to social behaviour, health and disease. These tracers create new possibilities for imaging and functional analysis in various biological systems–with far-reaching implications for fundamental research as well as for breast cancer diagnostics and therapy. The development of the tracers is described in the current issue of the ...

October 1, 2025—(BRONX, NY)—A study led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute-designated Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center (MECCC) has found that mutations in blood-forming cells may explain the increased risk for leukemia and other blood disorders among first responders exposed to the 9/11 World Trade Center (WTC) disaster site and its toxic dust. The study also points to a novel strategy for use against inflammation and blood disorders associated with environmental toxins. The research was published today in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the ...

Investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell’s Ithaca campus have received a $5.1 million, three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI) to launch the Autism Replication, Validation, and Reproducibility (AR²) Center. The center aims to improve the reliability of autism research and foster public trust in the field. “The AR² Center will serve as a scientific quality control hub for the ADSI teams and projects,” said the principal investigator, Dr. Judy Zhong, chief of the Division of Biostatistics in the Department of Population ...

Imagine watching a favorite movie when suddenly the sound stops. The data representing the audio is missing. All that’s left are images. What if artificial intelligence (AI) could analyze each frame of the video and provide the audio automatically based on the pictures, reading lips and noting each time a foot hits the ground? That’s the general concept behind a new AI that fills in missing data about plasma, the fuel of fusion, according to Azarakhsh Jalalvand of Princeton University. Jalalvand is the lead author on a paper ...

For Release 8 a.m. CT/9 a.m. ET, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025 DALLAS and KANSAS CITY — The American Heart Association, devoted to changing the future to a world of healthier lives for all, has acquired program assets of the Cardiometabolic Center Alliance (CMCA) collaborative, strengthening the efforts of both organizations to establish integrated care that holistically manages cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic health. The missions of the CMCA and American Heart Association are closely aligned, focusing on comprehensive risk reduction and improving the quality of care and outcomes of patients with cardiometabolic disease. In addition, they both aim to accomplish these goals by supporting ...

Changing health habits – like quitting smoking, exercising more, or sticking to prescribed treatments – is difficult but crucial for preventing and managing chronic diseases. Motivational interviewing (MI), a patient-centered counseling method that helps people find their own motivation to change, has proven effective across many health care settings. Yet despite strong evidence, MI is not widely used in clinical practice due to challenges like limited time, training demands and payment barriers. Advances in artificial intelligence, however, are opening new possibilities to bring MI to more people through digital tools. AI-powered chatbots, apps and ...

Flu season is fast approaching in the northern hemisphere. And a taste-based influenza test could someday have you swapping nasal swabs for chewing gum. A new molecular sensor has been designed to release a thyme flavor when it encounters the influenza virus. Researchers reporting in ACS Central Science say that they plan to incorporate this type of low-tech sensor into gum or lozenges to increase at-home screenings and potentially prevent pre-symptomatic transmission of the disease. Staying home is critical to preventing ...

As city dwellers may know, escaping to the beach can provide a much-needed change of scenery or a mental reset. Historically, some doctors even prescribed trips to the sea to treat diseases. And now, research published in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters provides another reason to visit the coast. A pilot study found that urban air contained pathogenic strains of Candida yeast that were absent in coastal air samples, revealing a potential transmission method. Candida yeasts are a group of common microbes that exist harmlessly on people’s skin and in ...

Embargoed until 7 a.m. CT/8 a.m. ET, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025 DALLAS, Oct. 1, 2025 — Judith S. Hochman, M.D., FAHA, senior associate dean for clinical sciences and founding director of the Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, will be recognized with the 2025 Research Achievement Award at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2025. The meeting, to be held Nov. 7-10, 2025, in New Orleans, is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice ...

McGill University researchers have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can detect previously invisible disease markers inside single cells. In a study published in Nature Communications, the researchers demonstrate how the tool, called DOLPHIN, could one day be used by doctors to catch diseases earlier and guide treatment options. “This tool has the potential to help doctors match patients with the therapies most likely to work for them, reducing trial-and-error in treatment,” said senior author Jun Ding, assistant ...

Aging is the major risk factor for many central nervous system (CNS) pathological conditions and diseases, such as Alzheimer’s Disease and stroke. In the aging brain, a dysfunctional or “leaky” blood-brain barrier (BBB) is considered a key trigger for neurodegeneration. Within the neurovascular unit, the functional BBB comprises cell-cell interactions between endothelium, astrocytes, pericytes, and the vascular basement membrane and matrix. Astrocytes lie in close contact with endothelial cells through their endfeet and participate in BBB maintenance ...

In 2013, the US Department of Justice quietly launched a program called Operation Choke Point. Its aim was to pressure some banks into cutting ties with businesses that, while legal, were deemed risky from a social or reputational standpoint. Included in the operation were payday lenders, firearm and ammunition dealers, tobacco vendors, online gambling sites, and even escort services. The strategy was simple: If targeted banks refused to lend to these controversial companies, their access to capital would dry up, eventually squeezing ...

Scientists digging through data collected by the Cassini spacecraft have found new complex organic molecules spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This is a clear sign that complex chemical reactions are taking place within its underground ocean. Some of these reactions could be part of chains that lead to even more complex, potentially biologically relevant molecules. Published today in Nature Astronomy, this discovery further strengthens the case for a dedicated European Space Agency (ESA) mission to orbit and land on Enceladus. In 2005, ...

Scientists have, for the first time, directly visualised and quantified the protein clusters believed to trigger Parkinson’s, marking a major advance in the study of the world’s fastest-growing neurological disease. These tiny clusters, called alpha-synuclein oligomers, have long been considered the likely culprits for Parkinson’s disease to start developing in the brain, but until now, they have evaded direct detection in human brain tissue. Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge, UCL, the Francis Crick Institute ...

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, which uses a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer, has emerged as a powerful way to treat lymphoma and other blood cancers. But researchers have struggled to adapt the treatment for solid tumors—including prostate, breast, lung and ovarian cancer—which make up about 90% of all cancer cases. Now, a research team from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, in collaboration with City of Hope, a national cancer research and treatment organization, ...

New research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution sheds light on the timelines and pathways of evolution of fungi, finding evidence of their influence on ancient terrestrial ecosystems. The study, led by researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and collaborators, indicates the diversification of fungi hundreds of millions of years before the emergence of land plants. The five paths to a complex world Professor Gergely J. Szöllősi, author on this study and head of the Model-Based Evolutionary ...

PHOTOS: https://sandiegozoo.box.com/s/h8ne3q1md09rpor6ewp7070qvzv9k7nh SAN DIEGO (Oct. 1, 2025) – Recent studies led by an international consortium of researchers, including scientists from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and the Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, unveiled groundbreaking findings in biodiversity conservation through in situ DNA barcoding in the Peruvian Amazon.  Measuring the earth’s biological richness in one of its most remote and biodiverse regions is no small task. The Peruvian Amazon is in imminent danger of losing species to wildfires and habitat ...

New York, NY [October 1, 2025]—Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, Boston Medical Center, and Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, have developed a software platform to help scientists more easily analyze the molecular structure of tissue in both healthy and disease states. Details on the platform, called Giotto Suite, were reported in the October 1 online issue of Nature Methods [DOI: 10.1038/s41592-025-02817-w]. In recent years, new technologies have made it possible to capture detailed maps of RNA and proteins within intact tissues—a field known as spatial omics. These ...

Even the United Nations International Year of Glaciers' Preservation has seen further massive melting of glaciers in Switzerland. A winter with little snow was followed by heat waves in June 2025 that saw glaciers nearing the record levels of losses of 2022. Snow reserves from the winter were already depleted in the first half of July, and the ice masses began to melt earlier than had rarely ever been recorded. The cool weather in July provided some relief and prevented an even worse outcome. Nevertheless, almost a further three per cent of the ice volume was lost across Switzerland this year, ...

Researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and CIBER-BBN, in collaboration with teams from the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Institute of Chemical Research – cicCartuja, University of Seville-CSIC, have discovered that long-distance charge transport between two key proteins in the mitochondrial respiratory chain — cytochrome c and respiratory complex III — is mediated by protons and superoxide ions, which are reactive oxygen species. The study was recently published in the journal Small ...

A newly described fossil reveals that leeches are at least 200 million years older than scientists previously thought, and that their earliest ancestors may have feasted not on blood, but on smaller marine creatures.  “This is the only body fossil we’ve ever found of this entire group,” said Karma Nanglu, a paleontologist with the University of California, Riverside. He collaborated with researchers from the University of Toronto, University of São Paulo, and Ohio State University on a paper describing the fossil, which is now published in PeerJ. Roughly ...

Rochester, MN, October 1, 2025 – A study evaluating how various shift work patterns contribute to kidney stone risk has revealed that shift workers have a 15% higher risk of developing kidney stones, especially younger workers and those with low levels of manual labor. Body mass index (BMI), fluid intake, and other lifestyle factors play key roles contributing to the occurrence of kidney stones. The findings of the novel study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, published by Elsevier, indicate that kidney stone prevention efforts should extend to shift workers. Long-term shift work, identified ...

Demand-responsive transport (DRT) is promoted as an inclusive solution to first- and last-mile mobility challenges, but little is known about the barriers to adoption among people with poor health. Dr. Haruka Kato, a junior associate professor at Osaka Metropolitan University, examined the factors shaping this population's acceptance and use of DRT in Senboku New Town, Osaka. The study applied the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology-3 (UTAUT-3) to assess the opportunities and challenges for using DRT. The findings reveal that community involvement is a powerful driver of acceptance. The study showed that residents' ...

A research group led by Dr. Shinichi Furuya of the NeuroPiano Institute and Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. announced research findings that for the first time scientifically clarified how pianists’ manipulations of keys alters piano timbre. Creativity in painting, music, and other arts is underpinned by the ability to create diverse perceptual experiences for audiences. However, whether timbre could actually be changed mid-instrumental performance, and what physical motor skills would be required to do so, remained unclear. The research group developed a unique sensor system that can measure piano key movements at ...