Royal Astronomical Society press release RAS PR 25/30 (NAM 10) 9 July 2025 Embargoed until Thursday 10 July 2025 at 00:01 BST The discovery of more than 15,000 kilometres of ancient riverbeds on Mars suggests that the Red Planet may once have been much wetter than previously thought. Researchers looked at fluvial sinuous ridges, also known as inverted channels, across Noachis Terra – a region in Mars' southern highlands. These are believed to have formed when sediment deposited by rivers hardened ...

University of Leeds | Embargo: 00.01 Thursday July 10, 2025 | With case study, pics and video  A new, free, online support package aims to empower parents of young autistic children to look after their dental health – and reduce levels of tooth decay and surgery.  It follows a study led by the University of Leeds, which highlights the oral health challenges faced by autistic children. The research team has collaborated with autistic youngsters, their families, and early-years professionals to co-design the support package, following parents’ ...

An in-depth exploration of the psychology of sports fandom has revealed striking similarities between the neurological and psychological patterns of devoted sports fans and religious dedication. These similarities are explored in new book The Psychology of Sports Fans, which demonstrates how, for nearly five billion people globally, sport fulfils fundamental psychological needs for belonging, identity, and meaning. The comprehensive analysis shows that sports fandom stems from evolutionarily ingrained tendencies which enhance social unity and therefore survival. Professor Aaron C. T. Smith explains: “Our ...

Adding lime to agricultural soils can remove CO2 from the atmosphere, rather than cause CO2 emissions, claims new research. The findings, based on over 100 years of data from the Mississippi River basin and detailed computer modelling, run counter to international guidelines on reducing agricultural emissions. The research is presented today [Thursday 10 July] at the Goldschmidt Conference in Prague. The team, from the Yale Centre for Natural Carbon Capture at Yale University, show that the addition of acidity, in the form of atmospheric pollution and fertilisers, is the main driver for CO2 emissions from soils. By calculating emissions based on acid inputs, they show how ...

People in the UK and US are more likely to feel nostalgic towards places by the sea, lakes or rivers than they are towards fields, forests and mountains, according to new research. The study suggests that coastlines may have the optimal visual properties to make us feel positive emotions, and argues that ‘place nostalgia’ offers significant psychological benefits.   Seaside and oceanside spots account for over a quarter of nostalgic places identified by UK residents (26%) and one-fifth (20%) of US residents in the University of Cambridge-led study.   Rivers and lakes raise the figure to around a third (35% UK; 30% US). ...

As revenues from the anti-aging market-- riddled with hope and thousands of supplements–– surged past $500 million last year, Emory University researchers identified a compound that actively delays aging in cells and organisms.  A newly published study in Nature Partner Journals’ Aging demonstrates that psilocin, a byproduct of consuming psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, extended the cellular lifespan of human skin and lung cells by more than 50%.  In parallel, researchers also conducted the first long-term in vivo study evaluating the systemic effects of psilocybin in aged mice ...

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging has secured a significant contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to spearhead the Simulation and Inference of Microbial Behavior and Adaptation (SIMBA) project. In collaboration with DARPA's Simulating Microbial Systems (SMS) Program, this initiative will develop a cloud-based platform integrating multi-dimensional, multi-omic data to simulate the dynamic behavior of microbial cells. Dr. James Yurkovich, Research Assistant Professor at the Buck Institute and Principal Investigator of the SIMBA Team, stated, ...

It turns out colour isn’t just fashionable for guppies: According to a new UBC study, the more orange a male, the more virile it is. The research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution shines light on an enduring evolutionary mystery: why male guppies have such vibrant and varied colours and patterns. Virile me up Zoologists Drs. Wouter van der Bijl and Judith Mank used deep learning, genetic studies and bred three generations of increasingly orange guppies to investigate. They found the more colourful males were up to two times more sexually active, performing for females at a greater rate and for longer periods of time, and attempting to sneakily copulate ...

Cities across the U.S. are increasingly turning to murals as tools for placemaking, cultural expression and neighborhood revitalization — and Cincinnati is a standout among them. With more than 300 murals across the city, including 55 in one historic district alone, public art has become a defining feature of Cincinnati’s streetscape. Now, a new study published in the international urban design journal Cities offers fresh insights into how murals contribute to vibrant, walkable neighborhoods. The study is led by Hyesun Jeong, assistant professor of urban design in the University of Cincinnati’s School of Art at the College of Design, Architecture, Art, ...

Ad blockers, the digital shields that nearly one billion internet users deploy to protect themselves from intrusive advertising, may be inadvertently exposing their users to more problematic content, according to a new study from NYU Tandon School of Engineering. The study, which analyzed over 1,200 advertisements across the United States and Germany, found that users of Adblock Plus's "Acceptable Ads" feature encountered 13.6% more problematic advertisements compared to users browsing ...

A new study led by UCLA investigators shows that Verbal Reaction Time (VRT), the amount of time it takes a person to respond verbally, can be a marker of sleepiness in older adults. The study, which measured participants’ voice data through standardized cognitive assessments, show how VRT can passively detect excessive sleepiness, especially among older individuals using sedative medications. Why it matters Sleepiness is a major contributor to safety risks in daily life, but is often underreported or unnoticed, especially among older ...

The University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Palliative Medicine Program has launched a new clinical trial funded by the National Institute on Aging to explore a potential treatment for agitation in patients with dementia nearing the end of life. The study focuses on an investigational oral drug, T2:C100, which contains the two active ingredients in cannabis: THC and CBD. Currently, standard medications such as morphine, valium, and Haldol are commonly used to manage agitation in hospice-eligible patients with dementia. However, these treatments are often ineffective ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.006 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses targeting stem-property and vasculogenic mimicry for sensitizing paclitaxel therapy of triple-negative breast cancer by biomimetic codelivery.   Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is aggressive, with high recurrence rates and poor prognosis. Paclitaxel (PTX) remains a key chemotherapeutic agent for TNBC, but its efficacy diminishes due to the emergence of drug resistance, largely driven by cancer stem-like cells (CSCs), vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation and tumor immunosuppressive ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.017 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses how SRSF7 promotes pulmonary fibrosis through regulating PKM alternative splicing in lung fibroblasts.   Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic interstitial lung disease, is characterized by aberrant wound healing, excessive scarring and the formation of myofibroblastic foci. Although the role of alternative splicing (AS) in the pathogenesis of organ fibrosis has garnered increasing attention, ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.001 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses how a psychological stress-activated NR3C1/NUPR1 axis promotes ovarian tumor metastasis.   Ovarian tumor (OT) is the most lethal form of gynecologic malignancy, with minimal improvements in patient outcomes over the past several decades. Metastasis is the leading cause of ovarian cancer-related deaths, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood.   Psychological stress is known to activate ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.008 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses how an anti-complement homogeneous polysaccharide from Houttuynia cordata ameliorates acute pneumonia with H1N1 and MRSA coinfection through rectifying Treg/Th17 imbalance in the gut–lung axis and NLRP3 inflammasome activation.   The coinfection of respiratory viruses and bacteria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, despite the development of vaccines and powerful antibiotics. As a macromolecule that is difficult to absorb in the gastrointestinal tract, a homogeneous polysaccharide from Houttuynia cordata (HCPM) has been reported ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.018 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses how ALKBH3-regulated m1A of ALDOA potentiates glycolysis and doxorubicin resistance of triple negative breast cancer cells.   Chemotherapy is currently the mainstay of systemic management for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), but chemoresistance significantly impacts patient outcomes.   This research indicates that Doxorubicin (Dox)-resistant TNBC cells exhibit increased glycolysis and ATP generation compared to their parental cells, with this metabolic shift contributing to chemoresistance. It was discovered ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.007 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses how a photodynamic nanohybrid system reverses hypoxia and augments anti-primary and metastatic tumor efficacy of immunotherapy.   Photodynamic immunotherapy is a promising strategy for cancer treatment. However, the dysfunctional tumor vasculature results in tumor hypoxia and the low efficiency of drug delivery, which in turn restricts the anticancer effect of photodynamic immunotherapy.   The ...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/acta-pharmaceutica-sinica-b/vol/15/issue/6 Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (APSB) was founded with the goal of creating a global high-level forum centred around drug discovery and pharmaceutical research/application. APSB was included by Chemical Abstracts in 2011, accepted by PubMed Central in 2015, indexed by Science Citation Index in 2017 and has evolved to become one of the most important international journals in the field of pharmaceutical sciences. APSB is a monthly journal, in English, which publishes ...

LA JOLLA (July 9, 2025)—Pain isn’t just a physical sensation—it also carries emotional weight. That distress, anguish, and anxiety can turn a fleeting injury into long-term suffering. Researchers at the Salk Institute have now identified a brain circuit that gives physical pain its emotional tone, revealing a new potential target for treating chronic and affective pain conditions such as fibromyalgia, migraine, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Published on July 9, 2025, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study identifies a group of neurons in a central brain area called the thalamus ...

The graphite found in your favorite pencil could have instead been the diamond your mother always wears. What made the difference? Researchers are finding out. How molten carbon crystallizes into either graphite or diamond is relevant to planetary science, materials manufacturing and nuclear fusion research. However, this moment of crystallization is difficult to study experimentally because it happens very rapidly and under extreme conditions. In a new study published July 9 in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of California, Davis and George Washington ...

Scientists have used ultracold atoms to successfully demonstrate a groundbreaking method of particle acceleration that could unlock new understanding of how cosmic rays behave, a new study reveals.  After more than 70 years from its formulation, researchers have observed the Fermi acceleration mechanism in a laboratory by colliding ultracold atoms against engineered movable potential barriers – delivering a significant milestone in high-energy astrophysics and beyond.  Fermi acceleration is the mechanism responsible for the generation of cosmic rays, as postulated by physicist Enrico Fermi in 1949.   ...

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is pleased to announce a new journal, ACM AI Letters (AILET), a unique venue for rapid publication of impactful, concise, and timely communications in artificial intelligence. In keeping with ACM’s broader goals, all AILET papers will be open access, with no publication charges for the first three years. ACM AI Letters will open for submissions in summer 2025. Bridging a crucial gap between traditional conferences and journals, AILET will feature short peer-reviewed contributions that accelerate knowledge dissemination across academia and industry. This unique publication prioritizes theoretical breakthroughs, algorithmic ...

In a new study published in the European Heart Journal, researchers reported the successful development and validation of a medical artificial intelligence (AI) model that screens for cardiac amyloidosis, a progressive and irreversible type of heart disease. The results showed that the AI tool is highly accurate, outperforming existing methods and potentially enabling earlier, more accurate diagnoses so patients can benefit from getting the right treatment sooner. What is cardiac amyloidosis? Cardiac amyloidosis is a heart condition in which abnormal proteins ...

Loneliness is common and is a strong and independent predictor of depression and poor health outcomes, according to a new study published July 9, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Dr. Oluwasegun Akinyemi, a Senior Research Fellow at the Howard University College of Medicine, Washington DC, U.S. Loneliness has emerged as a significant public health concern in the United States, with profound implications for mental and physical health. In the new study, researchers analyzed Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data collected via phone surveys between 2016 and 2023. The study population included 47,318 non-institutionalized adults living in the U.S., predominantly ...