CLEVELAND—Technology developed at Case Western Reserve University can restore a sense of touch that makes a prosthetic hand feel like a part of one’s own body instead of feeling artificial and disconnected. Now this technology will take a major step toward commercialization: in a new clinical trial, 12 people with upper limb amputation will be recruited to compare standard prosthetic arms and hands to the sensory-enabled neural-controlled prostheses developed at the university since 2015. Researchers at Case Western Reserve ...

Truckee, CA (5 September 2025) -- New research finds that treated forests are 88% less susceptible to high severity wildfire than their unmanaged counterparts, and can recover carbon stocks in only 7 years. The findings, carried out by researchers at Vibrant Planet, Northern Arizona University, American Forest Foundation, and Blue Forest, make the case for more proactive forest management across the US, and specifically, the increasingly wildfire-prone West. Read the publication in Frontiers in Forests and Global ...

A study has found that adolescents become highly motivated to seek rewards after just a few hours of social isolation. This may be beneficial in driving them towards social interaction, but when opportunities for connection are limited could lead them to pursue less healthy rewards like alcohol or drugs. When we feel socially isolated, our brain motivates us to seek rewards. Current theory holds that this is a beneficial evolutionary adaptation to help us reconnect with others. The University of Cambridge-led study found that people in their late teens are very sensitive ...

A pizza shop with 30 delivery people ought to be able to deliver a lot of pizzas — if their cars don’t break down on the way. Likewise, genes that produce a lot of messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules can build a lot of proteins — if these molecules don’t fall apart before the job gets done. Inside almost every human cell is DNA, a comprehensive instruction manual for building and maintaining the body. Genes in that manual contain the instructions for making proteins. But those instructions must travel from the cell’s nucleus, where the DNA lives, to the outer region of the cell ...

Fibrosis of the lungs is often a silent disease until it's too late. By the time patients are diagnosed, the scarring of their lung tissue is already advanced, and current treatments offer little more than a slowing of the inevitable. But what if we could understand the very first steps of this disease before irreversible damage sets in? That’s the question Claudia Loebel, Reliance Industries Term Assistant Professor in Bioengineering, and Donia Ahmed, a doctoral student in Loebel’s lab, set out to answer. Their Nature Materials paper, a collaborative study spanning the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan and Drexel University, explores how subtle changes ...

East Hanover, NJ – Sept 5, 2025 –Trevor Dyson-Hudson, MD, FASIA, of Kessler Foundation was awarded the prestigious James J. Peters Distinguished Service Award at the 2025 Annual Meeting and Expo of the Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals (ASCIP) in Philadelphia today. He has been recognized for his outstanding contributions and accomplishments in spinal cord injury healthcare and his dedication to excellence in treating SCI patients. Dr. Dyson-Hudson is co-director of the Center for Spinal Cord Injury Research and the Derfner-Lieberman Laboratory for Regenerative ...

Niigata, Japan - Researchers from Brain Research Institute, Niigata University, Japan have revealed that environment influences social behaviours in autism. By using zebrafish that have a mutation in ube3a, a gene linked to Angelman Syndrome (AS) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD), they demonstrated that sensory processing of environmental information is determinant in the outcome of socializing or not. The findings suggest that environmental adjustment could hold therapeutic potential in ASD.　 ASD is characterized by difficulties in social interaction and repetitive behaviours. While genetics are known to play an important role, environmental ...

Corals may lack eyes, but they are far from blind. These delicate animals sense light in ways that continue to amaze and inspire the scientific community. Researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University’s Graduate School of Science have uncovered a unique light-sensing mechanism of reef-building corals, in which light-detecting proteins, known as opsins, use chloride ions to flip between UV and visible light sensitivity depending on the pH of their surroundings. Their findings suggest a unique functionality that expands our understanding of vision and photoreception across the animal kingdom. Animal vision relies on opsins, which are proteins that ...

Breast milk is the first ‘super food’ for many babies. Full of vitamins, minerals, and other bioactive compounds, it helps build the young immune system and is widely considered the optimal source of infant nutrition. Not all mothers, however, have the opportunity to directly breastfeed multiple times during the day and night, and might use expressed milk stored for later. Breast milk delivers a variety of cues from the mother to the infant, including signals that are thought to influence babies’ circadian rhythms. The hormones and proteins involved in circadian signaling, however, may vary in breast milk concentration ...

Researchers Shinjiro Takano, Yuya Hamasaki, and Tatsuya Tsukuda of the University of Tokyo have successfully visualized the geometric structure of growing gold nanoclusters in their earliest stages. During this process, they also successfully “grew” a novel structure of elongated nanoclusters, which they named “gold quantum needles.” Thanks to their responsiveness to light in the near-infrared range, these “needles” could enable much higher-resolution biomedical imaging and more efficient light-energy conversion. The findings were published in the Journal of the American ...

Niigata, Japan – A team of scientists have unveiled a breakthrough in the field of renewable energy materials. They have developed a transparent, crystalline mesoporous tungsten trioxide (WO₃) film that exhibited exceptional efficiency and stability for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. The innovation can accelerate the transition toward sustainable solar-to-hydrogen technologies, a clean energy pathway with far-reaching implications for global decarbonization. The research developed a transparent film of tungsten trioxide (WO₃) ...

Astronomers have gained insights into star formation by capturing the first spatially resolved detection of protostellar outflows and jets in the Milky Way’s outer region. The discovery, made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), revealed that although the fundamental physics of star formation remains the same across different galactic environments, different chemistry or dust composition is observed in the outer Galaxy source. The research focused on the protostellar source Sh 2-283-1a SMM1, located about 7.9 kiloparsecs (26,000 light-years) from the Sun ...

A new species of a native bushland marsupial – closely related to the kangaroo – has been discovered but is already likely extinct, new research shows.   Analysing fossils collected from caves of the Nullarbor and southwest Australia, researchers from Curtin University, the Western Australian Museum and Murdoch University uncovered a completely new species of bettong as well as two new subspecies of woylie.   Woylies are ecosystem engineers capable of turning over several tonnes of earth each year in search for their favourite mushroom treats. The cute kangaroo relatives, native to Western Australia, are the country’s ...

Former male high-level rugby players in New Zealand have a 22 percent increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other dementias later in life compared to men in the general population, according to new research from the University of Auckland. The project is co-led by senior lecturer Dr Stephanie D’Souza from the COMPASS Research Centre in the University’s Faculty of Arts and Education and Dr Ken Quarrie from New Zealand Rugby. Researchers examined long-term neurodegenerative disease risk outcomes for almost 13,000 men who played provincial-level or higher rugby between 1950 and 2000 and compared them with 2.4 million New Zealand men, matched on age, ...

In the criminal justice system, decisions about when and how long to detain people have historically been made by other people, like judges and parole boards. But that process is changing: Decision-makers increasingly include artificial intelligence systems in a variety of tasks, from predicting crime to analyzing DNA to recommending prison sentences. The use of AI in these domains raises pressing questions about how these computing systems use data to make predictions and recommendations, as well as larger questions about how to safeguard fairness in an AI age.  Notably, many AI systems are “black ...

Less than half of England has access to tirzepatide (Mounjaro) through their GP, despite the NHS roll-out of the weight-loss jab officially starting over two months ago, an investigation by The BMJ has found. Due to the large number of people who could benefit from tirzepatide - an estimated 3.4 million people - and the drug’s price, NHS England and its spending watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, agreed the injections would be rolled out in phases over a 12-year period, which commenced on 23 June 2025, explains Elisabeth Mahase. Yet just 18 out of 42 commissioning bodies (43%) across the country ...

Researchers observed mother–infant interactions in urban UK and rural Ugandan communities, focussing on how mothers soothed their babies following naturally occurring episodes of distress.  They found that although the UK mothers responded to their babies' distress more quickly, Ugandan infants actually recovered faster.  This challenges long-standing assumptions rooted in Western models of parenting by showing that maternal promptness is not the only factor influencing how infants manage ...

From images of fruit to claims of being ‘sugar-free’, baby foods often feature misleading claims aimed at convincing parents the products are a healthy choice, new research shows. The study led by the University of Auckland, reviewed packaging of more than 200 processed foods for infants and toddlers and found all featured marketing and nutrition claims, which didn’t necessarily stack up when they examined the ingredients. See Nutrition and Dietetics. “These little packages are cluttered ...

September 4, 2025 -- A team of researchers found there is a possible molecular connection between air pollution and an increased risk of developing Lewy body dementia. The study builds on a decade of research linking exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) -- from industrial activity, residential burning, wildfires, and vehicle exhaust—to a higher risk of developing these diseases. The findings add to a growing body of evidence indicating how environmental factors may trigger harmful protein changes in the brain that lead to neurodegeneration. The research is published in Science.   Lewy body diseases ...

  Research Highlights: An analysis of 25 years of the CDC WONDER database for death rates from hypertension-related kidney disease (also called hypertensive kidney disease or hypertensive renal disease) in the U.S. through 2023 found persistent differences across race, ethnicity, gender and region. The highest death rates for hypertensive kidney disease were among Black individuals, followed by Hispanic individuals. More men died from hypertensive kidney disease than women, and states in the South had the highest death rates from hypertensive kidney disease. These findings highlight the urgent ...

Research Highlights: Despite their effectiveness in lowering sodium intake and managing blood pressure, salt substitutes were rarely used by people with high blood pressure, according to a review of almost 20 years of U.S. health survey data. Researchers recommend increasing awareness of salt substitutes as a strategy to help effectively treat blood pressure, especially for individuals with difficult-to-treat or treatment-resistant high blood pressure. Note: The study featured in this news release is a research abstract. Abstracts presented ...

LA JOLLA, CA—Despite vaccines and treatments, SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—continues to pose a global health threat, driven by new variants and its ability to hijack human cells in ways that still aren’t fully understood. Now, scientists at Scripps Research have pinpointed dozens of human proteins that SARS-CoV-2 needs to complete its full life cycle, from entering a cell to replicating and releasing new viral particles. Published in PLOS Biology on June 12, 2025, these findings could open ...

New York, NY (September 4, 2025) – Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have shown for the first time that a single strand of hair can reveal unique elemental patterns that distinguish people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) from healthy individuals. The findings, published in eBioMedicine, suggest that a simple, non-invasive hair-based test could one day speed ALS diagnosis and improve patient care. ALS is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease, typically taking 10 to 16 months from symptom onset to diagnosis in the United States. ...

AMES, Iowa – Filling abandoned oil and gas wells with bio-oil made from plant-based leftovers like corn stalks and forest debris could help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, returning carbon underground in deep shafts once used to extract it. The emerging practice, the focus of a recent study by an Iowa State University research team led by mechanical engineering professor Mark Mba-Wright, has a two-birds-one-stone appeal. Unwanted organic matter collected from forests and fields helps sequester carbon in long-term storage while also reducing the emissions and safety risks posed by the hundreds of ...

If Wenjun Zhang has her way, no one will ever have to brush or floss again. Zhang, a UC Berkeley professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is trying to distinguish the healthy bacteria in our mouths from the unhealthy bacteria — those that cause cavities — so that she can boost the proportion of the former and promote a probiotic oral microbiome. Our mouth’s microbiome consists of hundreds of different species of bacteria, many of which form a community that sticks to teeth to form plaque. Previous studies have focused on which of those species are associated with cavities, producing acid that eats ...