A new USC Schaeffer Center white paper finds expanded access to anti-obesity medications would lead to significant increases in life expectancy and disease-free years while generating a substantial societal return on investment, even after accounting for treatment costs.   More than 4 in 10 U.S. adults have obesity, which is linked to increased risk of over 200 diseases — including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia — and costs society $260 billion annually to treat. Highly effective new anti-obesity medications can be a powerful tool against chronic disease, but fewer than one-third of health insurers cover them amid concerns about upfront ...

Ikoma, Japan—Throughout evolution, plants have continuously adapted to survive in changing environments. Apart from complex structural changes, plants have also developed various defense strategies against herbivores, including tougher protective layers, thorns, and chemical deterrents. Delving deeper into the evolution of defense mechanisms, a research team led by Assistant Professor Makoto Shirakawa from Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), identified a surprising genetic adaptation in the Brassicales plant order. In these cruciferous ...

New York, NY — The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), is pleased to announce the 2025 recipients of three of its annual Scientific Awards of Distinction: David B. Allison, PhD, will receive the Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction; Daniel W. Belsky, PhD, will receive the Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research; and Arlan Richardson, PhD, will receive the George M. Martin Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award. The Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction is named in honor of AFAR’s founder and recognizes exceptional contributions to basic ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Vaping during pregnancy is becoming more common, but its impact on early human development is not well understood. A new study by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, now reports that the flavor chemical menthol used in electronic cigarettes could pose risks to a developing baby. The study, published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, used human embryonic stem cells, or hESCs, to characterize early stages of embryonic development and examined how low concentrations of menthol affect important cellular processes. The ...

Clothes that can mimic the feeling of being touched, touch displays that provide haptic feedback to users, or even ultralight loudspeakers. These are just some of the devices made possible using thin silicone films that can be precisely controlled so that they vibrate, flex, press or pull exactly as desired. And all done simply by applying an electrical voltage. The research teams at the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology in Saarbrücken (ZeMA) headed by Professors Stefan Seelecke and Paul Motzki (Saarland University) and John Heppe (htw saar – University of Applied Sciences ...

FAMU-FSU College of Engineering researchers have created a new method for studying protein degradation within immune cells that uses engineered microparticles to track and analyze degradation processes more effectively than traditional methods. The work, which was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, has important implications for treating diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and autoimmune disorders. “There is a lot we still don’t know about how cells ingest and eliminate tissue debris or pathogens — the process ...

How gravity causes a perfectly spherical ball to roll down an inclined plane is part of elementary school physics canon. But the world is messier than a textbook.    Scientists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have sought to quantitatively describe the much more complex rolling physics of real-world objects. Led by L. Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Physics, and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology in SEAS and FAS, they combined theory, simulations, and experiments to understand what happens when an imperfect, ...

A team of researchers from Arizona State University, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Lehigh University and Louisiana State University has developed a groundbreaking high-temperature copper alloy with exceptional thermal stability and mechanical strength. The research team’s findings on the new copper alloy, published in prestigious journal Science, introduce a novel bulk Cu-3Ta-0.5Li nanocrystalline alloy that exhibits remarkable resistance to coarsening and creep deformation, even at temperatures near its melting point. “Our alloy design approach mimics the strengthening mechanisms found in Ni-based superalloys,” said Kiran Solanki, a professor at ...

The way teachers manage classroom discussion with pupils plays a key role in the teaching of writing, a new study shows. The research shows the importance of managing classroom discussion in a way that develops pupils’ understanding of the choices that writers make, and how those choices create particular effects for readers. This discussion helps pupils to think more about the choices that they make in their own writing. The study reinforces the importance of dedicating time to discussion in secondary English lessons. It shows that time should be given to exploratory, speculative discussion that ...

Research from Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago strongly suggests that Kawasaki disease is caused by a single respiratory virus that is yet to be identified. Findings contradict the theory that many different pathogens or toxins could cause this disease that can lead to serious cardiac complications in young children. “The cause of Kawasaki disease has been a mystery for over 50 years,” said Anne Rowley, MD, pediatric infectious diseases expert and scientist at Manne Research Institute at Lurie Children’s, who is the lead author on the study published ...

In brief Surface waters in the Southern Ocean have been cooling in recent decades, counter to what climate models predict. Scientists have quantified how much of the cooling observed since 1990 has been driven by an influx of freshwater that’s unaccounted for in state-of-the-art climate models. The researchers discovered that freshwater inputs along the coast from melting ice sheets exert surprisingly strong influence on Southern Ocean surface temperatures and the broader climate system.   Global climate models predict that the ocean around Antarctica ...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common form of heart arrhythmia, a serious condition in which the heart beats so fast that its upper chambers, the atria, quiver. This irregular heartbeat can increase the risk of severe conditions, including heart failure, dementia and stroke. “My lab has been studying the role of inflammation in the initiation and persistence of AF for many years. In this multidisciplinary study, we investigated the function of gasdermin D, a key participant in inflammatory pathways, in atrial heart cells and its potential contribution to AF,” said corresponding author Dr. Na Li, professor of medicine ...

As agricultural research continues to become more entwined with technology, smart farming – a phrase that encompasses research computing tools that help farmers to better address issues like crop disease, drought and sustainability – has quickly become a ubiquitous term in Ag labs across the country. The availability of NCSA resources like Delta for researchers, both nationally and on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U. of I.) campus, has fostered a hotbed of cutting-edge research projects in the agricultural domain. Yi-Chia Chang, a Ph.D. student at the ...

Using data on more than 220,000 individuals on the Lyft rideshare platform, researchers report that drivers of color are significantly more likely to receive speeding tickets than white drivers, and to face steeper fines, even when traveling at identical speeds. Racial profiling by law enforcement is a pressing social issue in the United States. Previous research analyzing police and judicial records suggests that racial and ethnic minorities face disproportionately higher rates of searches, fines, force, detentions, and incarceration compared to white civilians. However, research on racial bias in policing has long been hindered by data limitations ...

Researchers have revealed a secret behind horses' exceptional endurance – a mutation in the KEAP1 gene that boosts energy production while protecting against cellular oxidative stress. The findings – which shed light on a unique evolutionary adaptation that has shaped one of nature’s most powerful athletes – hold potential implications for human medicine. They also highlight how the recoding of a de novo stop codon – a strategy thought restricted to viruses – can facilitate adaptation in vertebrates. Long prized for their speed and endurance, horses possess remarkable physiological adaptations ...

A previously overlooked dopamine-producing brain circuit drives hedonic eating, or eating for pleasure, according to a new study in mice. The findings offer insights into how GLP-1 agonist drugs like semaglutide affect appetite suppression and why pleasing and delicious foods can override these drugs’ effects. In a related Perspective, Dana Small argues that the findings indicate that the inter-individual differences in the adaptation of this circuit in response to GLP-1 drugs may account for differences in treatment efficacy in humans. “Future work that aims to minimize such adaptation could offer a promising avenue for the development of ...

As China rises as a global science power, its government has increased efforts to align basic research with national priorities, such as economic growth, environmental sustainability, and national security. In a Policy Forum, Andrew Kennedy discusses how this increasing emphasis on national priorities creates tension with basic research in China – a pattern that reflects broader global trends – and the potential risks of prioritizing near-term objectives over long-term scientific discovery. According to the author, neglecting curiosity-driven research while expanding support for near-term priorities is short-sighted. Without it, transformative innovations – from ...

When it comes to haptic feedback, most technologies are limited to simple vibrations. But our skin is loaded with tiny sensors that detect pressure, vibration, stretching and more. Now, Northwestern University engineers have unveiled a new technology that creates precise movements to mimic these complex sensations. The study will be published on March 28 in the journal Science. While sitting on the skin, the compact, lightweight, wireless device applies force in any direction to generate a variety of sensations, including ...

A new study published in Science by a team of scientists across five continents led by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Associate Professor Brande Wulff reports a previously unknown molecular event that initiates the immune response to a major wheat disease. The findings provide strategies to engineer wheat that has stronger immunity against infection.  As the main food staple for billions of people and one of the main sources of animal feed, wheat is one of the most important food commodities in the world. This importance is why a wheat pandemic can be even more devasting than a human pandemic.  "Climate change ...

UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL THURSDAY 27 MARCH 2025 AT 11 AM PACIFIC TIME / 2 PM EASTERN TIME .  Peer reviewed | Observational study | People  A new study from Queen Mary University of London found that 9% of all reported adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reported to the UK medicines regulator are associated with medications where side effect risk is partly dependent on patient’s genes. Of this subset of ADRs, 75% were associated with only three genes that impact how the body processes medication. Genetic testing before prescribing ...

ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan researchers have developed a statistical method that can be used for such wide-ranging applications as tracing your ancestry, modeling disease spread and studying how animals spread through geographic regions. One of the method's applications is to give a more complete sense of human ancestry, says Gideon Bradburd, U-M professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. For example, when you send your DNA off for a personalized ancestry report, the report you get back is only a very small view of your family tree pinned in a specific point ...

Researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and Lehigh University have developed a groundbreaking nanostructured copper alloy that could redefine high-temperature materials for aerospace, defense and industrial applications.  Their findings, published in the journal Science, introduce a Cu-Ta-Li (Copper-Tantalum-Lithium) alloy with exceptional thermal stability and mechanical strength, making it one of the most resilient copper-based materials ever created. “This is cutting-edge science, developing a new material ...

In an analysis of soil samples from twelve parks in Dublin, Ireland, park entrances were more heavily contaminated with infective roundworm eggs than any other tested park location. Jason Keegan of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Dogs and cats are often infected with parasitic roundworms in the Toxocara genus. Infected animals can release the roundworm eggs into the environment, and humans can become infected after accidental ingestion of the eggs. Many infected humans never experience symptoms, but some may experience mild or severe ...

Successfully harnessing the power of fusion energy could lead to cleaner and safer energy for all – and contribute substantially to combatting the climate crisis. Towards this goal, Type One Energy has published a comprehensive, self-consistent, and robust physics basis for a practical fusion pilot power plant.   This groundbreaking research is presented in a series of six peer-reviewed scientific papers in a special issue of the prestigious Journal of Plasma Physics (JPP), published by Cambridge University Press.  The articles serve as the foundation for the company’s first fusion power plant project, which Type One Energy is developing with the Tennessee ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: John Kuriyan, Editor-in-Chief Protein Science Journal   Raluca Cadar The Protein Society Phone: (844) 377-6834 E-mail: rcadar@proteinsociety.org   LOS ANGELES, CA – The Protein Society, the premier international society dedicated to supporting protein research, announces the winners of the 2024 Protein Science Best Paper Awards, published in its flagship journal, Protein Science. The recipients will be recognized and present their research at the 39th Annual Symposium of The Protein Society, June 26 – 29, 2025, in San Francisco, USA. The ...