When water freezes into ice or boils into vapour, its properties change dramatically at specific temperatures. These so-called phase transitions are fundamental to understanding materials. But how do such transitions behave in nanomaterials? In Nature Communications, a team of scientists led by TU Delft (The Netherlands) presents new insights into the complex nature of phase transitions in magnetic nanomaterials. Their findings reveal the coupling between magnetic and mechanical properties, paving the way for ultra-sensitive sensors. The scientists from TU Delft, together with colleagues from the University of Valencia and the National University of Singapore, studied ...

(Images available via the links in the Notes section) An international team of astrophysicists led by the Netherlands and the UK have discovered that radio pulses lasting seconds to minutes are due to two stars coming together – rather than emissions from a single star. The results are published today (12 March) in Nature Astronomy.   In recent years, a new astronomical phenomenon has puzzled radio astronomers: researchers have detected radio pulses from the Milky Way that last from seconds to minutes. These pulses are unlike anything expected from known radio-emitting neutron stars, or pulsars*, ...

Research Highlights: A sedentary lifestyle such as watching TV (two or more hours daily) may be a key factor in the risk of developing heart and blood vessel diseases, according to an analysis of health records from a large U.K. biomedical database. People with higher genetic risk for Type 2 diabetes may be more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or other types of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. However, limiting TV watching to no more than one hour a day may help offset the increased risk of these ...

Results indicate the closer the Doomsday Clock ticks to midnight, the higher the rates are for mortality specific to Alzheimer’s disease, suicide, unintentional injuries, alcohol and substance-related disorders Since 1947, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) has used the metaphor of the Doomsday Clock as a means of communicating how close the human species is to self-imposed annihilation, represented as midnight. While early iterations of the clock focused more exclusively on the dangers of nuclear weapons, the BAS has also begun to consider other evolving existential dangers ...

Second-hand electric cars may be close to a “tipping point” where they become more popular than equivalent petrol and diesel cars in the UK, new research shows. Researchers analysed data from car sales website Auto Trader, comparing daily views of adverts for electric vehicles (EVs) with petrol/diesel cars. Interest in second-hand EVs grew rapidly, doubling from 3.5% of advert views in 2022 to 7% in 2023. Importantly, interest in EVs became more “sticky”. Events such as petrol price increases drove extra EV views – and over time these spikes of attention lasted longer and longer.   “To identify ...

A new study revealed significant differences in the appearance and behaviour of the two one-horned Asiatic rhinoceros species, challenging long-standing classifications and supporting a re-evaluation of their status. The study, led by zoologist Francesco Nardelli and paleontologist Kurt Heißig, highlights how millions of years of evolutionary pressures have shaped the distinct adaptations of the Indian (Rhinoceros unicornis) and Sundaic (Rhinoceros sondaicus) rhinoceroses. The critically endangered Sundaic rhinoceros has a slender skull, a broader and lower back of the head, and a shorter nose and teeth suited for browsing leaves. In contrast, the ...

Most people are familiar with loopholes. When your boss, landlord, partner, customer, or government asks you to do something you don’t want to do, and yet you can’t say “no,” you may resort to malicious compliance – doing what someone asked, but not actually what they meant. Most parents are probably familiar with such “little lawyer” behavior too: if a parent says, “Time to put the tablet down,” a child might physically put the tablet down on the table – and then keep playing on it. While such ...

Sleep quality is a crucial aspect of health, yet while adults spend around a third of their lives sleeping, there is surprisingly little research on mattresses. Mass General Brigham researchers developed and tested the Boston Mattress Satisfaction Questionnaire (BMSQ), a new tool to rigorously assess mattress satisfaction and characteristics. They administered the BMSQ to a representative sample of over 1,000 adults in the United States, finding that the tool is internally consistent and viable for assessing mattress ...

Recent studies on economic growth report that preventing the abuse of state power through democratic institutions is critical to a nation’s development. However, there has been little prior research on how societies transition in response to the two conflicting goals of limiting the state’s stranglehold on governance while improving its administrative capacity through citizens’ political participation. Osaka Metropolitan University Associate Professor Ryosuke Okazawa of the Graduate School of Economics led a team that ...

The Smart 3D Printing Research Team at KERI, led by Dr. Seol Seung-kwon, has developed the world’s first technology for printing high-resolution 3D microstructures using 'MXene,' a material known as the dream material. MXene, first discovered in the United States in 2011, is a two-dimensional nanomaterial composed of alternating metal and carbon layers. MXene possesses high electrical conductivity and electromagnetic shielding capabilities. Due to its easy combination with various metal chemicals, MXene has gained significant attention ...

The rate of development of poikilothermic animals, such as insects, fish, and reptiles, is determined by environmental temperature. A research team at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has recently demonstrated how temperature can affect brain development in fruit flies. "In the area of the brain we examined, neurons formed more synapses and connected to more synaptic partners at lower temperatures," stated Dr. Carlotta Martelli, head of the team at the Institute of Developmental Biology and Neurobiology of JGU. In their study, the scientists focused on the olfactory circuit of Drosophila melanogaster, because the sense of smell determines important behavioral patterns in ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (March 12, 2025)—Multiple menopause symptoms can make women feel fatigued. Hot flashes, sleep problems, pain, and depression are just a few. A new study suggests that heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding may increase fatigue, which helps to explain why midlife women are two-to-four times more likely to experience debilitating forms of syndromic fatigue. Results of the study are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. Most women transitioning through ...

Kyoto, Japan -- We're all familiar with Pavlovian conditioning, in which a reward-anticipatory behavior follows a reward-predicting stimulus. Perhaps you experience it yourself when passing a café or restaurant and catching a whiff of something delectable. Behind this mechanism is dopamine released within the striatum, the largest structure of the subcortical basal ganglia, which links motor movements and motivation. Yet it has remained unclear exactly what kind of dopamine signal is transmitted to the striatum to cause this behavior in primates. In order to understand this dopamine signal, a team of researchers from Kyoto University ...

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers helped conduct an important new global health study that found a vaccine that protects against five strains of meningitis prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa is safe and effective for use in young children beginning at 9 months of age. This study provided evidence that formed the basis for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) decision last year to recommend the pentavalent Men5CV meningitis vaccine for infants ages 9 months and older. Results of the study were published today in the journal Lancet. In January 2024, the WHO recommended that all countries in the African meningitis belt introduce Men5CV into their routine immunization ...

Research from the University of Bath, funded by Cancer Research UK, published on No Smoking Day 2025, shows that integrating smoking cessation support into NHS Talking Therapies for depression and anxiety increases quit rates. This is an important step in addressing the high rates of smoking in this population. Led by Dr Gemma Taylor at the University of Bath, alongside researchers from several other institutions, the study published in Addiction also found that adding smoking support to mental health treatment didn’t disrupt therapy. Instead, it offered a practical way to tackle mental and physical health together. About the Study The trial was conducted across four NHS ...

Death rates from breast cancer will fall in 2025 in every age group in the EU and the UK apart from in EU patients aged 80 years and older. In these older patients, overall mortality rates from the disease are predicted to rise by nearly 10% in 2025. However, in the UK, breast cancer death rates are expected to decrease by 7% in this age group, compared to rates observed between 2015-2019. In Spain, there is also a 4% decrease in patients aged 80 and over. These findings are from a new study published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1] today (Wednesday), ...

A lung function test used to help diagnose asthma works better in the morning, becoming less reliable throughout the day, Cambridge researchers have found. Using real world data from 1,600 patients, available through a database created for speeding up research and innovation, the team also found that its reliability differs significantly in winter compared to autumn. Asthma is a common lung condition that can cause wheezing and shortness of breath, occasionally severe. Around 6.5% of people over six years old in the UK are affected by the condition. Treatments include the use of inhalers or nebulisers to carry ...

Prescriptions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in England have risen 18%  year on year since the pandemic. This is higher than previously reported, and masks wide regional variations in prescribing rates, finds research published in the open access journal BMJ Mental Health. The trends likely reflect growing public and professional awareness of the condition, driven in part by social media, as well as the potential impact of COVID-19, suggest the researchers. But the regional variations point to inequalities in access to care, they add. ADHD is ...

Public health advice on the safe consumption of glycerol-containing slush ice drinks, also known as slushees, may need revising, conclude researchers after carrying out a detailed review of the medical notes of 21 children who became acutely unwell shortly after drinking one of these products.   Their findings, published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, show that in each case the child became acutely unwell with a cluster of symptoms soon after drinking a slush ice drink, which the researchers refer to as glycerol intoxication ...

Water/aqua aerobics for 10 or more weeks at a time can trim waist size and aid weight loss, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published in the open access journal BMJ Open This type of exercise is particularly effective in overweight/obese women and the over 45s, the analysis indicates. Global estimates for 2022 indicate that more than 43% of adults worldwide were overweight, and that 504 million women and 374 million men were obese, note the researchers, adding that obesity contributes to an estimated 2.8 million deaths every year. The buoyancy of water helps reduce joint injuries commonly associated with land based exercise ...

A new study published in The Lancet HIV reveals gaps in knowledge surrounding the prevention of HPV-related cancers in people living with HIV and outlines future research priorities. A literature review, conducted by a team of international experts underscores the need for further research and highlights existing disparities in healthcare for this vulnerable population. HPV-related cancers are preventable, primarily through vaccination. However, a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Tartu and one of the study’s authors Anneli Uusküla said that the study found a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of ...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — As poultry companies weigh cost and efficiency with higher animal welfare standards, research comparing conventional and slow-growing broiler breeds showed that the slow-growing chickens displayed behaviors more closely associated with positive welfare. Broilers — chickens specifically bred for meat production — are typically raised for six to eight weeks, while slow-growing broilers need up to 12 weeks to reach maturity. Though gaining popularity in some European ...

Charging forward at top speed, a garden snail slimes up 1 millimeter of pavement per second. By this logic, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology researchers’ new 3D printing process speeds past existing methods — at a snail’s pace. Researchers in Beckman’s Autonomous Materials Systems Group created “growth printing,” which mimics tree trunks’ outward expansion to print polymer parts quickly and efficiently without the molds and expensive equipment typically associated with 3D printing. Their work appears in the journal Advanced Materials. “Humans ...

Even cells experience peer pressure. Scientists have long studied the ins and outs of cancer cells to learn more about the disease, but they’re increasingly finding that noncancerous cells near the cancer cells exert a powerful influence over a tumor’s trajectory. “Not all cells in a tumor are cancer cells — they’re not even always the most dominant cell type,” said Sylvia Plevritis, PhD, chair of Stanford Medicine’s department of biomedical data science. “There are many other cell types that support tumors.” To better capture the whole picture of cells’ locations and interactions, Plevritis ...

As major changes continue for our planet’s climate, scientists are concerned about how plants will grow and adapt. Researchers in the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, or PRL, Sharkey lab are studying changes in plant metabolism that occur when plants are grown in high light, high CO2 (HLHC) conditions. They found that under these conditions, plants photosynthesize more, which can lead to larger plants, and potentially larger crop yields. However, there are tradeoffs; scientists also found that plants lose carbon under these conditions, which they need to make food. This ...