Are nerds the caring ones? High school stereotypes suggest that athletes score more popularity points than marching band members, debaters or leaders in the student council, but research from Rutgers finds that so-called “geeky” activities may do more to cultivate compassion in the long run. “By their very nature, sports encourage competition and division, pitting people against each other,” said Chien-Chung Huang, a professor at the Rutgers School of Social Work and lead author of the study published in Youth & Society. “There are other afterschool activities that do a far better job nurturing altruism.” Extracurriculars have long been linked to higher ...

Electrons in a magnetic field can display striking behaviors, from the formation of discrete energy levels to the quantum Hall effect. These discoveries have shaped our understanding of quantum materials and topological phases of matter. Light, however, is made of neutral particles and does not naturally respond to magnetic fields in the same way. This has limited the ability of researchers to reproduce such effects in optical systems, particularly at the high frequencies used in modern communications. To address this challenge, researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University ...

What happens when you hurl molecules faster than sound through a vacuum chamber nearly as cold as space itself? At the University of Missouri, researchers are finding out — and discovering new ways to detect molecules under extreme conditions. The discovery could one day help chemists unravel the mysteries of astrochemistry, offering new clues about what the universe is made of, how stars and planets form and even where life originated. In a recent study, Mizzou faculty member Arthur Suits and doctoral student Yanan Liu fired a laser at methane gas molecules moving faster than the speed of sound in a vacuum chamber roughly negative 430 degrees Fahrenheit, close to ...

Journal: Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research Title: Is a Response to Intraoperative Electrical Nerve Stimulation Associated with Recovery After Stretch Injury in the Rat Median Nerve? Authors: Paul J. Cagle, MD, Associate Professor of Orthopedics (Shoulder and Elbow Surgery), Associate Residency Program Director, and Chief of Quality Assurance at Mount Sinai West in the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopedic Surgery Michael R. Hausman, MD, Dr. Robert K. Lippmann Professor of Orthopaedics, Vice Chair of Orthopedics, and Chief of Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery for the Mount Sinai Health ...

Maria Jasin, whose fundamental research on repair of damaged DNA in cells has transformed our understanding of cancers linked to inherited gene mutations, has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize. Awarded annually by Rockefeller University, the prize is the preeminent international award recognizing outstanding women scientists. Jasin, an investigator at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, will be honored at a ceremony on campus on September 16. She will be presented with the award by architect Wendy Evans Joseph, the founder of Studio Joseph who is known ...

(Toronto, September 12, 2025) As Canada’s health care system rapidly adopts digital technologies, a group of Canadian researchers is calling for a major overhaul of health professional education to ensure consistent, outcomes-based training in digital health and informatics competencies. A new article published in JMIR Medical Education by researchers at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and University of Calgary proposes using the Quintuple Aim as a national guiding framework to prioritize the digital health skills health care workers need now and in the future. The paper, titled “Shaping the Future of Digital Health Education in Canada: Prioritizing ...

(SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS) -- The University of Texas at San Antonio launched the College of AI, Cyber and Computing on Sept. 1 bringing together academic programs in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, computing and data science. The new college positions UT San Antonio at the forefront of technological education and research and brings the number of academic colleges at UT San Antonio to nine. Formation of the college began during a multi-phase process in January 2024 with the announcement of a university-wide initiative to elevate the university’s leadership in emerging technologies. Shaped by input across campus and community partners, the effort included a dedicated ...

Stroke research aims to understand the brain’s self-protective and repair mechanisms. Gaining detailed insight into these mechanisms is crucial as such knowledge could lead to newly developed medications and interventions which mimic or engage the brain’s self-protective/repair mechanisms, leading to innovative stroke therapies. In 2018 the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a five-year, $2.9 million R01 grant (“Development ...

Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease are characterized by the progressive loss of neurons. The resulting debilitating symptoms, such as loss of memory and cognition, and motor impairment, can significantly degrade patients’ quality of life, confining them to round-the-clock care. While currently used drugs help alleviate symptoms, curative treatments are lacking, thus underscoring the need for novel therapeutic strategies. One such strategy involves the induction of neuronal differentiation, which can replenish lost neurons and ...

Soil liquefaction can be a major threat to the infrastructure and built environments in an earthquake-prone area. This happens due to substantial loss of soil stiffness and strength due to applied stress. Loose, moderately granulated, sandy soil is more prone to soil liquefaction. Recognizing the urgent need to enhance urban resilience in seismic-prone regions, particularly in rapidly urbanizing areas vulnerable to such hazards, scientists are focusing on different mitigation techniques. Soil compaction technique ...

Focused laser-like light that covers a wide range of frequencies is highly desirable for many scientific studies and for many applications, for instance quality control of manufacturing semiconductor electronic chips. But creating such broadband and coherent light has been difficult to achieve with anything but bulky energy-hungry tabletop devices. Now, a Caltech team led by Alireza Marandi, a professor of electrical engineering and applied physics at Caltech, has created a tiny device capable of producing an unusually wide range of laser-light ...

Most bacteria cannot be cultured in the lab—and that’s been bad news for medicine. Many of our frontline antibiotics originated from microbes, yet as antibiotic resistance spreads and drug pipelines run dry, the soil beneath our feet has a vast hidden reservoir of untapped lifesaving compounds. Now, researchers have developed a way to access this microbial goldmine. Their approach, published in Nature Biotechnology, circumvents the need to grow bacteria in the lab by extracting very large DNA fragments directly from soil to piece together the genomes of previously hidden microbes, and then mines resulting genomes for ...

Flavoured drinks without sugar can be perceived as sweet – and now researchers know why. A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in the journal Nature Communications, reveals that the brain interprets certain aromas as taste. When we eat or drink, we don’t just experience taste, but rather a ‘flavour’. This taste experience arises from a combination of taste and smell, where aromas from food reach the nose via the oral cavity, known as retronasal odour. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now shown that the brain integrates these signals earlier than previously thought – already in the insula, ...

A newly-formed group of scientists will be fighting for the survival of species — the smallest ones on the planet.   The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has launched a species survival commission for microbiology and microbes to serve as a global safeguard for microbial biodiversity and to pursue coordinated conservation action. The new Microbial Conservation Specialist Group marks a first in the history of international conservation and filling a critical gap in ...

The team behind a new world-leading conservation committee headed by Applied Microbiology International (AMI) is calling on global scientific and conservation communities to get on board to protect microbial life. Members of the new IUCN Microbial Conservation Specialist Group (MCSG) have outlined its priorities for its first year and beyond in a paper published in Nature Microbiology. Earlier this year, global conservation leader, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) officially approved ...

For decades, amino acids have been added to medical formulations like insulin as stabilizers: these small molecules keep proteins (i.e. larger particles) from interacting in undesirable ways. And for decades, scientists have known that this works – but not why. Now, an international team of scientists, led by the Supramolecular Nano-Materials and Interfaces Laboratory in EPFL’s School of Engineering, has finally explained the ‘why’ – and in the process, unearthed a fundamental stabilizing effect ...

In the summer of 2022, less than a full month after the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) had begun to produce its first scientific images, astronomers noticed something unexpected: little red dots. In pictures taken at JWST’s unprecedented sensitivity, these extremely compact, very red celestial objects showed very clearly on the sky and there appeared to be a considerable number of them. JWST had apparently discovered a whole new population of astronomical objects, which had eluded the Hubble Space Telescope. That latter part is unsurprising. “Very red” ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Tiny red objects spotted by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are offering scientists new insights into the origins of galaxies in the universe — and may represent an entirely new class of celestial object: a black hole swallowing massive amounts of matter and spitting out light. Using the first datasets released by the telescope in 2022, an international team of scientists including Penn State researchers discovered mysterious “little red dots.” The researchers suggested the objects may be galaxies that were as mature as our current Milky Way, which is roughly 13.6 billion years ...

Researchers have identified the mechanism by which a common genetic mutation increases liver disease risk. Their findings suggest that healthy choices, such as increasing antioxidants and limiting exposure to smoke, may reduce the risk of this disease. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is an important enzyme that detoxifies harmful aldehydes produced in the body. While it is best known for metabolizing acetaldehyde –an aldehyde increased by drinking– it also plays a role in detoxifying other harmful aldehydes, including acrolein. Acrolein is a highly reactive aldehyde produced by environmental exposure to pollutants such as cigarette smoke. It damages proteins, DNA, and lipids, ...

As chronic wounds such as diabetic ulcers, pressure ulcers, and articular wounds continue to challenge global healthcare systems, a team of researchers from China has introduced a promising innovation: AI-integrated conductive hydrogel dressings for intelligent wound monitoring and healing. This comprehensive review, led by researchers from China Medical University and Northeastern University, outlines how these smart dressings combine real-time physiological signal detection with artificial intelligence, offering a new paradigm in personalized wound care. Why It Matters: Real-Time Monitoring: Conductive hydrogels can track key wound ...

Wide-band-gap perovskites are the key top-cell for >30 % tandem modules, yet spin-coating and methylammonium (MA) instability block factory-scale production. Now researchers from Southwest Petroleum University, UNSW and UCL have formulated an MA-free ink that can be blade-coated in ambient air and delivers certified 23 % efficiency—one of the highest values ever reported for a 1.69 eV MA-free film. Why This Matters Air-processable: 23 % small-area cell and 20.2 % 10.5 cm2 mini-module fabricated entirely in room air—no glove-box. MA-free stability: eliminates MA cation de-protonation and proton migration, ...

LA JOLLA, CA— A simple fitness tracker might hold the key to revolutionizing maternal healthcare. Scientists at Scripps Research have found preliminary evidence suggesting that common wearable devices such as the Apple Watch, Garmin and Fitbit could remotely monitor pregnancy-related health changes by tracking physiological patterns—like heart rate—that correlate with hormonal fluctuations. “Wearable devices offer a unique opportunity to develop innovative solutions that address the high number of adverse pregnancy outcomes ...

Huang Feihe at Zhejiang University, Jonathan Sessler of the University of Texas at Austin, and colleagues reported a novel cation recognition mode which mimics the biological allosteric effect and achieves efficient recognition of cations by cationic compounds. Specifically, this work achieves continuous recognition of anions and cations by synergizing various recognition modes while also utilizing the allosteric effect during the recognition process to explore a new cation recognition mode. Background: Coulomb's ...

School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic imposed enormous long-term costs while other measures delivered better health outcomes for far less money, according to new research led by Oxford University's Department of Statistics and the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science analysing non-pharmaceutical interventions in the United States. The study, published in BMC Global and Public Health, examined policies implemented across US states during 2020, before vaccines became available. Researchers from Oxford and the University of Washington analysed ...

Seeds in Madagascar’s forests are getting smaller, and new research published in Ecology Letters suggests that human activities are playing a role in this shift. Researchers from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Leipzig University combined data from more than 2,800 plant species, 48 living and 15 extinct fruit-eating animals (frugivores) – including birds and lemurs. The results show that both past human-driven frugivore extinctions and current human pressures are shaping seed size across the island. The researchers found that increased human footprint (a cumulative index of human pressure) is associated ...