EMBARGOED UNTIL MONDAY NOVEMBER 4 AT 3:00 P.M. ET The unique properties of baseball’s famed “magic” mud have never been scientifically quantified — until now. In a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering) and School of Arts & Sciences (SAS) reveal what makes the magic mud so special. “It spreads like a skin cream and grips like sandpaper,” says Shravan Pradeep, the paper’s first author and a postdoctoral researcher in the labs of Douglas J. ...

Children too young to know words like “impossible” and “improbable” nonetheless understand how possibility works, finds new work with two- and three-year-olds. The findings, the first to demonstrate that young children distinguish between improbable and impossible events, and learn significantly better after impossible occurrences, is newly published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Even young toddlers already think about the world in terms of possibilities,” said co-author Lisa Feigenson, co-director of the Johns Hopkins University Laboratory for Child Development. “Adults do this all the time and here we wanted ...

Scientists and environmental activists have consistently called for drastic reductions in meat production as a way to reduce emissions and, in doing so, combat climate change. However, a new analysis concludes that a smaller reduction, borne by wealthier nations, could remove 125 billion tons of carbon dioxide—exceeding the total number of global fossil fuel emissions over the past three years—from the atmosphere.  Small cutbacks in higher-income countries—approximately 13% of total production—would reduce the amount of land needed for cattle grazing, the researchers note, allowing forests to naturally ...

**EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL NOV. 4 AT 3:00 P.M. EST** A new study from researchers at Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine explains not only why some patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (or “wet” AMD) fail to have vision improvement with treatment, but also how an experimental drug could be used with existing wet AMD treatments to save vision. Wet AMD, one of two kinds of AMD, is a progressive eye condition caused by an overgrowth of blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensing tissue in ...

Between about 120 million and 130 million years ago, during the age of dinosaurs, temperate forests and lakes hosted a lively ecosystem in what is now northeast China. Diverse fossils from that time remained pretty much undisturbed until the 1980s, when villagers started finding exceptionally preserved creatures, which fetched high prices from collectors and museums. This started a fossil gold rush. Both locals and scientists have now dug so much, their work can be seen from space―perhaps the most extensive paleontological excavations anywhere. By the 1990s, it was clear that the so-called Yixian ...

If left unchecked, insect pests can devastate crops. To minimize damage and reduce the need for insecticide sprays, crops have been genetically engineered to produce bacterial proteins that kill key pests but are not harmful to people or wildlife. However, widespread planting of such transgenic crops has led to rapid adaptation by some pests. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals a novel genetic basis of resistance to transgenic crops in one of the most important crop pests in the United States. Researchers from the University of Arizona Department of Entomology in the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences used genomics to investigate the ...

Jill Tarter to Receive Inaugural Tarter Award for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth November 4, 2024, Mountain View, CA – Renowned astronomer, Dr. Jill Tarter, SETI Institute co-founder and pioneering SETI researcher, will be honored with the inaugural Tarter Award for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth at the SETI Institute’s 40th Anniversary celebration on November 20, 2024, in Menlo Park, CA. This new award recognizes individuals whose projects or ideas significantly advance humanity’s search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence. The Tarter Award honors contributions ...

November 4, 2024 — The supply of healthcare professionals available to provide HIV care continues to decline, even as the need for HIV care and prevention is expected to increase, reports a survey study in the November/December issue of The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (JANAC). The official journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, JANAC is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "Our study provides new insights into the numbers and characteristics of clinicians who will be available to provide HIV care in the coming years. This information ...

A team led by researchers at the University of Toronto has uncovered new targets that could be the key to effectively treating glioblastoma, a lethal type of brain cancer. These targets were identified through a screen for genetic vulnerabilities in patient-derived cancer stem cells that represent the variability found in tumours. Glioblastoma is the most common type of brain cancer in adults. It is also the most challenging to treat due to the resistance of glioblastoma cancer stem cells, from which tumours grow, to therapy. Cancer stem cells that survive after a tumour is treated go on to form new tumours that do not respond to further treatment. “Glioblastoma tumors have ...

There is a lung cancer screening test that is saving lives – and yet most people who could be getting the test have never heard of it or never talked about it with a doctor. “We’ve got a screening test that works. It works as well, if not better, than breast and colorectal cancer screening in terms of mortality reduction. It's one of the most life-saving things we have for a cancer that kills more people than either of those two combined,” said lung cancer pulmonologist Gerard Silvestri, M.D. And yet, he said, “Eighty percent of those eligible for this screening, regardless of race, education, ethnicity, health or income, hadn’t heard of or ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of hospital admissions among Medicare patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, greater hospital COVID-19 burden was associated with an increased risk of in-hospital adverse effects among both patients with and without COVID-19. These results illustrate the need for greater hospital resilience and surge capacity to prevent declines in patient safety during surges in demand.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Mark L. Metersky, MD, email metersky@uchc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.42936) Editor’s ...

Supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies, and modern telescopes continue to observe them at surprisingly early times in the Universe’s evolution. It’s difficult to understand how these black holes were able to grow so big so rapidly. But with the discovery of a low-mass supermassive black hole feasting on material at an extreme rate, seen just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, astronomers now have valuable new insights into the mechanisms of rapidly growing black holes in the early Universe. LID-568 was discovered ...

About The Article: To help clinicians keep up with ongoing basic and translational science discoveries that affect the diagnosis and treatment of human disease, JAMA has launched a new series, “Translational Science Reviews.” These new article types are succinct and informative summaries of important basic science advances that are transforming diagnosis and treatment of human disease.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Mary M. McDermott, MD, email mdm608@northwestern.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.21146) Editor’s Note: Please ...

Scientists have long suspected the keto diet might be able to calm an overactive immune system and help some people with diseases like multiple sclerosis. Now, they have reason to believe it could be true. Scientists at UC San Francisco have discovered that the diet makes the gut and its microbes produce two factors that attenuated symptoms of MS in mice. If the study translates to humans, it points toward a new way of treating MS and other autoimmune disorders with supplements. The keto diet severely restricts carbohydrate-rich ...

Different from traditional alloys, BMGs exhibit a unique atomic arrangement characterized by short-range order and long-range disorder at the atomic level. Such atomic structure leads to the absence of defects such as grain boundaries and dislocations, resulting in exceptional mechanical properties. The promising properties of BMGs have rapidly positioned them as a new class of structural and functional materials, showing great application potential in various fields including structural, energy and chemical engineering. In order to facilitate their engineering applications, research has reported their cutting characteristics from various aspects, ...

New York, NY – The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), is proud to recognize the outstanding contributions of Megan Huisingh-Scheetz, MD, MPH, with the 2024 Terrie Fox Wetle Rising Star Award in Health Services and AgingResearch. This award honors a health services researcher in an early or middle phase of his/her career who has already made importantcontributions with work that respects the value of multidisciplinary health services science and that ...

New York, NY­–The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) is pleased to announce the recipient of the inaugural George M. Martin Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award: Steven N. Austad, PhD, Protective Life Endowed Chair in Healthy Aging Research and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The Award is named in honor of George M. Martin, MD (1927-2022), a pioneer in the field of aging research and AFAR’s Scientific Director for more than a decade. A Professor of Pathology at the University of Washington, Dr. Martin devoted his long, distinguished career to growing the field of aging ...

New York, NY – The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), is pleased to recognize the exemplary contributions of Jeremy D. Walston, MD, to the field of aging research through the 2024 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction. This award is named in honor of AFAR’s founder and recognizes exceptional contributions to basic or clinical research in the field of aging. Established in 1982, the award is a framed citation and carries a cash prize of $5,000. Dr. Walston, the Raymond and Anna Lublin Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), holds multiple leadership roles at JHU, including Director of the Human Aging Project, ...

SAN ANTONIO — November 4, 2024 —Southwest Research Institute has received two contracts totaling $23 million from the U.S. Air Force for a program to address aging aircraft structures and material degradation. Under these contracts, the Institute will help the Air Force modernize methods to sustain the T-38 Talon, the A-10 Thunderbolt and the B-52 Stratofortress. All three military aircraft first came into service more than 45 years ago. “SwRI will assist with the full spectrum of structural sustainment for these aircraft,” said Luciano Smith, manager of SwRI’s Structural Integrity Group. “Our analyses will help the Air Force know ...

Insilico Medicine(“Insilico”), a global leading generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven biotechnology company, today announced it has signed a Revolving Loan Facility of up to US$100 million with HSBC, one of the world's largest banks and financial services institutions. HSBC’s customized financing solution will support Insilico’s global development centered on multiple sites, as well as the expansion of innovative advantages, thus driving the economy growth in the Greater Bay Area. Insilico is committed to driving advancements in healthcare using cutting-edge AI technology, reducing costs and improving efficiency in early-stage ...

Alongside artificial intelligence, quantum computing is one of the fastest-growing subsets in the high-performance computing community. But what happens when this relatively new and powerful computing method reaches the limit of the cyberinfrastructure and network security capabilities of today? Researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications are addressing this issue before it becomes a problem. “The problem is urgent because practical quantum computers will break classical encryption in the next decade,” ...

Researchers from Peking University have developed a novel noninvasive choroidal angiography method that enables layer-wise visualization and evaluation of choroidal vessels using deep learning. This new approach, published in Health Data Science, employs an advanced segmentation model that can handle varying quality of optical coherence tomography (OCT) B-scans, making it a promising tool for clinical applications in diagnosing retinal diseases. Choroidal Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (C-OCTA) offers a significant improvement in the analysis of choroidal vessels, a critical component in the ...

CLEVELAND—Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating disease of the brain and spinal cord that impacts millions worldwide. In MS, the immune system mistakenly attacks the myelin sheath—a protective layer surrounding nerve cells in the nervous system. The loss of myelin, combined with ongoing inflammation, causes dysfunction and death of nerve cells, making the disability worse, such as difficulties with movement, coordination, and sensation. Treatments now focus on reducing attacks on myelin, but don’t address nerve-cell damage and death. But with $1 million from the National Multiple ...

Nationwide, fewer people smoke than did a decade ago, but the proportion who smoke menthol-flavored cigarettes is on the rise. More than 9 million adults, or about 32 percent of all smokers, use menthol cigarettes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Virginia, the proportion stands higher, at 38 percent. A team of researchers including Roberta Freitas-Lemos, assistant professor at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, found that if menthol products were unavailable, smokers found replacement therapies such as nicotine gum and lozenges were practical alternatives, potentially improving health outcomes for people who use menthol ...

Physicians are a vital component of the healthcare landscape and along with other medical professionals, they ensure timely diagnosis, treatment, and management of complex illnesses. They regularly work extended and overnight shifts, often at the cost of sleep. However, the long duty hours of physicians can lead to physical and mental exhaustion, resulting in negative consequences such as depression and burnout. Consequently, this can affect their level of alertness and thus the quality of patient care. To protect the health of Japanese physicians, a duty hour reform went into effect ...