Physicists at Purdue are throwing the world’s smallest disco party.  The disco ball itself is a fluorescent nanodiamond, which they have levitated and spun at incredibly high speeds. The fluorescent diamond emits and scatters multicolor lights in different directions as it rotates. The party continues as they study the effects of fast rotation on the spin qubits within their system and are able to observe the Berry phase. The team, led by Tongcang Li, professor of Physics and Astronomy and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, published their results ...

The churning of the upper ocean in the tropics of Atlantic Ocean plays a crucial role in shaping long-term climate patterns across the world, a new study has found.  Researchers have discovered that changes in the ocean's mixed layer - the topmost section where wind and waves blend warm surface waters with cooler depths - are the primary force behind a climate phenomenon known as Atlantic Multidecadal Variability (AMV) in the tropics. The AMV has far-reaching effects on global climate. It influences weather patterns from North America to Europe and Africa, affecting everything from hurricane ...

The Association for Psychological Science (APS) and Sage announce the launch of Advances in Psychological Science Open, a fully open access journal that will publish high-quality empirical, technical, theoretical, and review articles, across the full range of areas and topics in psychological science. The journal will accept submissions in a variety of formats, including long-form articles and short reports, and APS is encouraging scientists to submit integrative and interdisciplinary research articles. “APS is always working to identify new ways to catalyze advances in psychological science,” said APS CEO Robert Gropp. “We are excited to announce ...

In the wake of the $51 million funding announcement from the Economic Development Administration, momentum is tangible for the Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing (iFAB) Tech Hub. Today marks the beginning of a new collaboration to replace fossil fuel-derived petrochemicals with zero-emission alternatives produced through precision fermentation.  Industrial Microbes (iMicrobes) is partnering with the iFAB Tech Hub’s Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to harness microbes to produce acrylic acid, a versatile chemical ...

India's plans to scale up fracking operations without robust regulations could spell disaster for the country's finely balanced water security, according to research from the University of Surrey.  India is positioning shale gas as a key transitional energy source and has announced 56 fracking projects across six states. Despite the promise of energy independence, Surrey’s study raises alarm bells about the country's preparedness to handle the unique water risks posed by fracking.  Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves injecting high-pressure fluid into shale ...

New York, August 14 2024 – A study published in the journal iSCIENCE has uncovered significant findings related to the early sensorimotor features and cognitive abilities of toddlers who are later diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The research, led by Kristina Denisova, a professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the CUNY Graduate Center and Queens College, takes an important step toward better understanding ASD so that more precise, individually tailored interventions can be developed. Autism Spectrum Disorder, typically diagnosed around the ages of 4 to ...

Breast cancer remains a significant health concern worldwide, with diverse molecular subtypes that necessitate personalized therapeutic approaches. Recent advances have highlighted the importance of molecular signatures in guiding breast cancer treatment. Among these, the phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit alpha (PIK3CA) gene mutation has emerged as a crucial factor in determining the efficacy of targeted therapies, particularly in advanced breast cancer. This review explores the role of PIK3CA mutation detection in breast cancer and its implications for personalized treatment strategies. Breast Cancer Heterogeneity Breast ...

About The Study: This repeated cross-sectional study found that state COVID-19 vaccine mandates for health care workers (HCWs) were associated with increased vaccine uptake among HCWs, especially among younger HCWs and those in states with no test-out option. These findings suggest the potential for vaccine mandates to further promote vaccinations in an already highly vaccinated HCW population, especially when no test-out option is in place.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Charles Stoecker, ...

About The Study: This panel cohort study found that increases in depressive symptoms in adolescence persisted into young adulthood, suggesting the need for primary prevention and mental health resources during the adolescent years.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Katherine M. Keyes, PhD, email kmk2104@columbia.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.27748) Editor’s Note: Please see the ...

About The Study: In this nationally representative survey regarding 26 prominent health-related issues, older adults reported being most concerned about costs of health care and health insurance for older adults in their community, as well as financial scams and fraud. More than half of older adults in nearly all demographic groups reported being very concerned about the costs of medical care and prescription drugs, with significant differences by gender and political ideology. Women reported being more concerned than men, and liberal and moderate individuals more concerned than conservative ...

More than half of the people who voted in the 2020 election were age 50 and older, making this age group a key demographic for candidates up and down the ballot. Now, a new study shows what issues top their lists of health-related concerns going into this November’s election. Five of the top six issues that the highest percentage of older adults reported being very concerned about have to do with the cost of different kinds of health care, from medical care and prescription drugs to long-term care, health insurance ...

The coordinated activity of brain cells, like birds flying in formation, helps us behave intelligently in new situations, according to a study led by Cedars-Sinai investigators. The work, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, is the first to illuminate the neurological processes known as abstraction and inference in the human brain. “Abstraction allows us to ignore irrelevant details and focus on the information we need in order to act, and inference is the use of knowledge to make educated guesses about the world around us,” said Ueli Rutishauser, PhD, professor and Board of Governors Chair in Neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai and co-corresponding author of the ...

Immune cell regulator discovery could lead to treatments for arthritis and severe COVID The discovery of a new regulator affecting immune cells could lead to new treatments to reduce inflammation in diseases including arthritis and severe COVID 19. A large research collaboration, led by the University of Exeter’s MRC Centre for Medical Mycology, has focused on how immune cells sense their environment. This activity triggers responses which are finely balanced, to protect against disease and infection, and to reduce cell-damaging inflammation. The ...

In preclinical models, the subcutaneously implanted device continuously monitored vital signs and delivered naloxone automatically and rapidly when it detected opioid overdose The opioid epidemic continues to have devastating effects in the United States, exacerbated by the increasing presence of fentanyl in illicit opioids. Naloxone is an effective antidote, but it usually requires rapid administration from a bystander. Now, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare ...

As the Paris Olympics captured the world’s attention this month, it proved apparent that winning medals often hinged on the success of teamwork. While such an approach clearly works in sports, new research suggests teamwork is not always the desired method … especially for young scientists trying to find an academic job. “We found that if your team size in your discipline is large, your prospects for an academic career go down,” said Donna Ginther, the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Kansas. Her paper titled “The rise of teamwork and career prospects in academic science” ...

An international research team led by the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (CeMESS) at the University of Vienna has discovered that comammox bacteria, first identified by them in 2015, can grow using guanidine, a nitrogen-rich organic compound, as their sole energy and nitrogen source. This unique ability opens new avenues for targeted cultivation of these enigmatic microbes and could also provide a key to reducing agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. The research findings were recently published as an article in the prestigious journal Nature. Nitrification, the conversion of ammonia via nitrite to nitrate, is ...

High-end bicycles used for high-profile road races such as the Tour de France are vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks targeting the bike’s wireless gear shifting system.  In recent years, bicycle manufacturers have adopted wireless gear-shifting technology, which gives riders better control over changing gears. The technology is not vulnerable to the physical issues that plague mechanical systems. However, the way the wireless systems were built created critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities, which a team of computer scientists from the University of California ...

A major international study has explained how bread wheat helped to transform the ancient world on its path to becoming the iconic crop that today sustains a global population of eight billion.  “Our findings shed new light on an iconic event in our civilisation that created a new kind of agriculture and allowed humans to settle down and form societies,” said Professor Brande Wulff, a wheat researcher at KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) and one of the lead ...

A new technique developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) will make it much easier for researchers to discover the traits or activities encoded by genes of unknown function in microbes, a key step toward understanding the roles and impact of individual species. The approach, called barcoded overexpression bacterial shotgun library sequencing, or Boba-seq, is described in a paper published August 5 in Nature Communications.   “There is so much genetic dark matter – ...

Annapolis, MD; August 14, 2024—A common variety of consumer insecticide sprays is mostly ineffective and of "little to no value" in eliminating cockroach infestations, a new study shows. Residual insecticides are designed to be sprayed on surfaces where cockroaches are likely to appear, exposing them to the toxic ingredient when they move across the surface later. But laboratory testing by researchers at the University of Kentucky and Auburn University shows that the residues have little effect on German cockroaches (Blattella germanica), ...

Philadelphia, August 14, 2024 – Researchers from the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found discrepancies between crash reports and hospital data that might paint an incomplete or inaccurate picture of how crashes impact the safety of child passengers. Enhancing the quality of injury data reported in crash reports can aid researchers in assessing the effectiveness of various transportation safety strategies for children. The findings were recently published by ...

August 14, 2024, TORONTO — A new round of awards from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) will jumpstart eight promising studies that could change how cancers are diagnosed and treated. OICR announced the results of its Pre-Clinical Acceleration Team Awards — part of the Institute’s Clinical Translational Pathway, which helps advance new discoveries so they can benefit people affected by cancer. The winning research teams are based across Ontario and are tackling some of the most common and hardest to treat cancers. They are developing solutions to find cancer earlier, diagnose it more ...

MIAMI (August 14, 2024) – Communities impacted by increased wildfire activity and smoke can use a population health-based action plan to help alleviate health risks, particularly for those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, according to a new perspective article. The article is published in the July 2024 issue of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal. COPD is an inflammatory lung disease, comprising several conditions, ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Early life exposure to ‘forever chemicals’ in the environment permanently disrupts the gut microbiome in mice, contributing to the development of metabolic disease in later life, according to new research led by Penn State. The results, published today (Aug. 14) in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, suggest that human exposure to these chemicals during early childhood may be contributing to the recent epidemic of metabolic disorders, including obesity and type 2 diabetes among adults. The researchers focused specifically on 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzofuran ...

Over the course of nearly five months in 2022, NASA's Perseverance rover collected rock samples from Mars that could rewrite the history of water on the Red Planet and even contain evidence for past life on Mars. But the information they contain can't be extracted without more detailed analysis on Earth, which requires a new mission to the planet to retrieve the samples and bring them back. Scientists hope to have the samples on Earth by 2033, though NASA's sample return mission may be delayed. "These samples are the reason why our mission was flown," said paper ...