Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) is a fascinating technique that creates three-dimensional (3D) representations of a scene from a set of two-dimensional (2D) images, captured from different angles. It works by training a deep neural network to predict the color and density at any point in 3D space. To do this, it casts imaginary light rays from the camera through each pixel in all input images, sampling points along those rays with their 3D coordinates and viewing direction. Using this information, NeRF reconstructs the scene in 3D and can render it from entirely new perspectives, a process known as novel view synthesis (NVS). Beyond still images, a video can also be used, with each frame of ...

New research reveals “unprecedented” conservation results of community-based management of protected areas in the Amazon - as many face a future in which they may become increasingly degraded due to low enforcement of regulations, growing external encroachment and competition for resources. The study describes a powerful new mechanism for increasing the extent of effective area-based protection by piggybacking on community management of natural resources. Tropical protected areas are typically understaffed, underfunded and underequipped and it remains unclear how existing ones ...

Bethesda, MD (Sept. 17, 2025) — The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) has released a new clinical guideline with 12 conditional recommendations for diagnosing and managing gastroparesis, a serious and often debilitating disease. Rather than pointing to a single treatment path, the evidence highlights a range of options — underscoring the complexity of gastroparesis and the importance of thoughtful conversations between doctors and patients to tailor an individualized care plan.  Gastroparesis affects thousands of people, often causing nausea, postprandial fullness, vomiting, discomfort, and major disruptions to quality of life. The ...

Between 2nd  and 10th September around 40 stakeholders involved in protecting and restoring peatlands and wetlands in Germany, the Netherlands and Finland joined a series of online workshops to develop impact plans that aim to influence policies and markets in each country, to scale up the restoration of degraded peatlands.  The meetings were organised by the EU-funded research project WET HORIZONS, the UNEP’s Global Peatlands Initiative, Wetlands International, and Eurosite - the European Land Conservation Network, who are coordinating the European Peatlands Initiative.  “The ...

Performance in endurance sports, such as long-distance running, cycling, and cross-country skiing, requires sustained activity over prolonged periods of time, and is influenced by multiple factors, such as temperature and mental state. In chilly temperatures around 10°C (50°F), endurance performance has been shown to improve in certain circumstances. In contrast, extreme cold can slow down muscle and nerve function and cause a decline in performance. Such reactions suggest the involvement of the Sympathetic Adrenal-Medullary (SAM) system, a stress response pathway. Further performance decline can be attributed to mental fatigue caused by psychological pressure, which leads to decreased ...

Australian farmers face inconsistent guidelines when it comes to crop regulations across genetically modified (GM), organic and other crop frameworks, according to new research from the University of Adelaide. “Even though different sectors in Australian cropping regulate coexistence of both genetically modified and organic crops, they do so in different ways,” says lead researcher Michail Ivanov, whose review was published in Griffith Law Review. “For example, different standards or codes of conduct recommend different physical barriers or buffer zones between paddocks to ...

Researchers including those from the University of Tokyo have successfully grown large tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, both rich in nutrients, in tightly controlled environments where the light source was energy-efficient LEDs. Such methods were often limited by the types or sizes of plants that could thrive in such conditions. This feasibility study demonstrates the researchers’ method is suitable for urban environments, potentially even in space, and can offer food security in the face of climate change or extreme weather conditions. Pizza, pasta, soup, salad, the tomato ...

The Ig Nobel Prize honors research that first makes people laugh, then makes them think. Its 35th award ceremony possibly also makes people hungry: ISTA physicist Fabrizio Olmeda and colleagues researched the secret of a perfect cacio e pepe pasta sauce. They received the popular award for their findings on Thursday evening in Boston, USA. Cacio e pepe is one of Italy's most popular pasta dishes, but even (Italian) scientists often fail to prepare the perfect creamy sauce. Fabrizio Olmeda, a physicist at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), also struggled ...

Bright squeezed light, exhibiting sub-shot-noise quantum noise combined with significant optical power, is essential for enhanced sensitivity in quantum metrology and precision measurement. In the deep application within the field, the squeezing must be extended to kHz–MHz bandwidth with milliwatt optical power. However, it remains a longstanding challenge to achieve this goal with conventional technologies, since they suffer from low-frequency technical noise and vacuum noise coupling, which caps ...

A team of researchers, including those at the University of Tokyo, discovered that liquid water once flowed on the asteroid that spawned near-Earth asteroid Ryugu more than a billion years after it first formed. The finding, based on tiny rock fragments returned by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), overturns long-held assumptions that water activity on asteroids only occurred in the earliest moments of solar system history. This could impact models which include the formation of the Earth. We have a relatively good ...

Scientists have developed and tested a deep-learning model that could support clinicians by providing accurate results and clear, explainable insights – including a model-estimated probability score for autism. The model, outlined in a study published in eClinicalMedicine (a journal from The Lancet), was used to analyse resting-state fMRI data – a non-invasive method that indirectly reflects brain activity via blood-oxygenation changes. In doing so, the model achieved up to 98% cross-validated accuracy for Autism Spectrum ...

The current process for managing sexual misconduct perpetrated by doctors in the UK requires major reform, say experts in The BMJ today. Mei Nortley and colleagues argue that sanctioning of doctors is inconsistent and overly reliant on subjective evidence and they call for a dedicated, evidence driven approach “that treats sexual misconduct by doctors not as a regulatory outlier, but as the grave abuse of trust it truly is.” They point to several recent high profile cases that have ...

The largest study on pregnant women with excessive nausea and vomiting (hyperemesis gravidarum) has identified increased risks of numerous neuropsychiatric and mental health outcomes.  Researchers from King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust conducted a study involving 476,857 pregnant women diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) from 135 healthcare providers worldwide. The study is the first to explore an array of neuropsychiatric and mental health outcomes for women with HG.   They performed a retrospective cohort study using the TriNetX Global Collaborative Network, a network collecting anonymised electronic healthcare record ...

Continuous landmasses, now submerged, may have made it possible for early humans to cross between present-day Turkiye and Europe, new landmark research of this largely unexplored region reveals.   The findings, published today in the peer-reviewed Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, unveil a previously undocumented Paleolithic presence in Ayvalık and more importantly could redocument our species’ migration into the continent.   It has long been thought that Homosapien reached Europe primarily coming via the Balkans and the Levant, from Africa into the Middle East.  However, with this new discovery of 138 lithic artifacts at 10 sites, across a region ...

A team of scientists has discovered that the ability of biochar to conduct electricity can significantly affect methane emissions from rice paddies, one of the largest sources of agricultural greenhouse gases worldwide. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, with more than 27 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide. Rice paddies, covering about 9% of global farmland, contribute nearly one-third of agricultural methane emissions. Scientists have long debated whether adding biochar—charcoal-like material made from plant matter—can help reduce or increase these emissions. The new findings, published ...

A new editorial in Biocontaminant reports that Guangdong Province is experiencing the largest outbreak of chikungunya fever ever recorded in China, with more than 4,000 confirmed cases since late July. Shunde District of Foshan alone has reported over 3,600 infections, and cases have also spread to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macao. Chikungunya fever is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, the same vectors responsible for dengue and Zika. The disease, marked by fever and severe joint pain, does not spread directly between people, making mosquito control the key to prevention. “The outbreak reflects both the global spread of chikungunya and the favorable ...

New research shows that that the diabetes/obesity medication tirzepatide can cause clinically meaningful improvements in blood sugar control and weight loss in children and adolescents with type 2 diabetes aged 10-17 years whose diabetes and weight are inadequately controlled with an existing treatment regimen of metformin, insulin, or both. The study (the SURPASS-PEDS trial), by Dr Tamara Hannon, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, ...

New research presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Vienna, Austria (15-19 September) and published simultaneously in The Lancet shows that a much lower dose than previously thought of the old immunomodulatory drug anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) is safe and effective in preventing progression of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in young people. The authors, led by EASD President Professor Chantal Mathieu, Department of Endocrinology, UZ Leuven, Belgium, say that the trial findings open up the potential use of this affordable, repurposed agent, ATG, in a low and safe dose, as ...

New research (the Ver-A-T1D trial) presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) (Vienna, 15-19 September) shows that slow-release (SR) verapamil (360mg daily) could have a potential effect on beta-cell function in adults with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes. The study is led by Professor Thomas R. Pieber, Medical University of Graz, Austria, on behalf of the Ver-A-T1D Study Group. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease where the body's immune ...

In 2023, the groundbreaking Australian BANDIT (Baricitinib in New Onset Type 1 Diabetes) trial [1] reported that a daily pill of baricitinib, commonly prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis and alopecia, could safely preserve the body’s own insulin production and slow the progression of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in people recently diagnosed with the condition. Now the follow-up of the blinded BANDIT trial, being presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Vienna ...

The global type 1 diabetes (T1D) burden continues to increase rapidly driven by rising cases, ageing populations, improved diagnosis and falling death rates, according to the results of a new modelling study being presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Vienna (15-19 Sept). The study estimates that T1D will affect 9.5 million people globally in 2025 (up by 13% since 2021), and this number is predicted to rise to 14.7 million in 2040. However, due to lack of diagnosis and challenges in collecting sufficient data, the actual number of individuals living with T1D is likely much higher, researchers say. In ...

Biologists at The University of Texas at Austin, who have reported discovering a bird that’s the natural result of a green jay and a blue jay’s mating, say it may be among the first examples of a hybrid animal that exists because of recent changing patterns in the climate. The two different parent species are separated by 7 million years of evolution, and their ranges didn’t overlap as recently as a few decades ago. “We think it’s the first observed vertebrate that’s hybridized as a result of ...

A Chicago Quantum Exchange–led coalition focused on leveraging cutting-edge quantum technology to protect the nation’s most sensitive information from cyber attacks has advanced to the final stage of the National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) program, the NSF announced Thursday afternoon. If funded, Quantum Connected, a Midwest-based coalition of academic, industry, nonprofit, and government partners, will build critically needed quantum-based cyber security. It is one of 15 teams who will pitch the NSF on different projects. Winners, anticipated to be announced in early 2026, could receive as much as $160 million ...

A study conducted by the Molecular Oncology Research Center (CPOM) at Hospital de Amor in Barretos (formerly Barretos Cancer Hospital) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, has identified possible biomarkers that could guide the development of more personalized therapies for pediatric germ cell tumors (GCTs). Although GCTs account for only 3% of childhood cancers, they challenge doctors and researchers due to their diversity and the toxicity of available treatments. The main approach today involves surgery combined with chemotherapy. ...

JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, and the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation are hosting a UNGA side event to discuss data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 study, the largest and most comprehensive source of health data with nearly 16,500 expert contributors in 168 countries. Speakers will present the most up-to-date data for 204 countries and territories, and discuss trends observed from 1990 to 2023 at the regional, national, and subnational levels. This work directly supports progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 3.4, by equipping stakeholders ...