DURHAM, N.C. -- Have you ever been stuck on a problem, puzzling over something for what felt like ages without getting anywhere, but then suddenly the answer came to you like a bolt from the blue? We’ve all experienced that “aha! moment,” that sudden clarity or magical epiphany you feel when a new idea or perspective pops into your head as if out of nowhere. Now, new evidence from brain imaging research shows that these flashes of insight aren’t just satisfying — they actually reshape how your brain represents information, and help sear it into memory. Led by ...

PHILADELPHIA – While it may seem intuitive that people would die without life-saving medications, Penn and Harvard researchers have connected losing a federally funded prescription drug assistance program and an increase in mortality. The program, called the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy (LIS), helps 14.2 million low-income Medicare beneficiaries, many of whom are older Americans, afford their medications. Nationally,12.5 million people who are eligible for and enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid (“dual eligibles”) automatically qualify for the LIS, which ...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, most often caused by cigarette smoking or long-term exposure to air pollutants. While there is no cure, progression can be slowed by reducing exposure to these factors.  A new study from Mass General Brigham researchers uncovered another factor linked to progression of the disease: the accumulation of mucus in the lungs. People with COPD who had persistent airway-clogging mucus plugs over a five-year period had a faster decline in lung function than those who didn’t have the plugs. The study points toward therapies that disrupt these plugs as a ...

About The Study: In this study, physicians frequently experienced incomplete team staffing. Working with an incompletely staffed team was associated with significantly greater odds of burnout, intent to reduce clinical work hours, and intent to leave one’s current organization (ITL). Given associations between ITL and attrition, these findings emphasize the importance of adequate staffing.   Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Lisa S. Rotenstein, MD, MBA, MSc, email lisa.rotenstein@ucsf.edu. To access the embargoed ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – A new University at Buffalo-led study outlines how artificial intelligence-powered handwriting analysis may serve as an early detection tool for dyslexia and dysgraphia among young children. The work, presented in the journal SN Computer Science, aims to augment current screening tools which are effective but can be costly, time-consuming and focus on only one condition at a time. It could eventually be a salve for the nationwide shortage of speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists, who each play a key role in diagnosing ...

Researchers have created a new kind of nanoparticle that could make ultrasound-based cancer treatments more effective and safer, while also helping prevent tumors from coming back. The study, published in the journal Nano Letters, explores a way to make high-intensity focused ultrasound less harmful to healthy tissues. Oregon Health & Science University was the first hospital in Oregon to offer prostate cancer treatment using a robotic-assisted high-intensity focused ultrasound device. Researchers in the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute’s Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, or CEDAR, wanted to improve a category of focused ultrasound ...

Quantum entanglement — a connection between particles that produces correlations beyond what is classically possible — will be the backbone of future quantum technologies, including secure communication, cloud quantum computing, and distributed sensing. But entanglement is fragile; noise from the environment degrades entangled states over time, leaving scientists searching for methods to improve the fidelity of noisy entangled states.  Now, researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular ...

New York University scientists are using artificial intelligence to determine which genes collectively govern nitrogen use efficiency in plants such as corn, with the goal of helping farmers improve their crop yields and minimize the cost of nitrogen fertilizers. “By identifying genes-of-importance to nitrogen utilization, we can select for or even modify certain genes to enhance nitrogen use efficiency in major US crops like corn,” said Gloria Coruzzi, the Carroll & Milton Petrie Professor in NYU’s Department of Biology and Center for Genomics and Systems Biology and the senior author of the study, ...

How cancer patients relying on daratumumab feel physically before starting the therapy can predict how long they will live and how well they will respond to the anti- multiple myeloma (MM) drug, according to a new study published in the European Journal of Haematology. The study analyzed data from 1,804 patients enrolled in three large-scale clinical trials—MAIA, POLLUX, and CASTOR. Across these trials, the median patient age was 66 years, and 44% were female. About half of the patients were randomly assigned to receive daratumumab-containing therapy, while the other half received standard treatments without ...

A new study co-authored by UBC Okanagan’s Dr. Julien Picault shows how scenes from hit shows like Narcos and Stranger Things can help students grasp complex economic concepts—from cartels and market control to creative destruction and inflation. Published in The Journal of Economic Education, Teaching economics with Netflix explores how carefully selected Netflix content can help undergraduate students engage with economics in a more meaningful, accessible way. “Students are already watching this ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Listen to the first notes of an old, beloved song. Can you name that tune? If you can, congratulations — it’s a triumph of your associative memory, in which one piece of information (the first few notes) triggers the memory of the entire pattern (the song), without you actually having to hear the rest of the song again. We use this handy neural mechanism to learn, remember, solve problems and generally navigate our reality. “It’s a network effect,” said UC Santa Barbara mechanical engineering professor Francesco Bullo, explaining that associative ...

How should personal data be protected? What are the best uses of it? In our networked world, questions about data privacy are ubiquitous and matter for companies, policymakers, and the public.  A new study by MIT researchers adds depth to the subject by suggesting that people’s views about privacy are not firmly fixed and can shift significantly, based on different circumstances and different uses of data. “There is no absolute value in privacy,” says Fabio Duarte, principal research scientist in MIT’s Senseable City Lab and co-author of a new paper outlining the results. “Depending on the application, people might ...

MINNEAPOLIS — To help neurologists, clinicians and families understand the current evidence for a new gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy called delandistrogene moxeparvovec, the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) has issued an Evidence in Focus article, published May 14, 2025, online in Neurology®. AAN Evidence in Focus articles highlight the strength of the current evidence for new therapies for neurological conditions. Their purpose is not to provide recommendations for practice, but rather to provide an overview of the available data and a framework to support care. This article reviews ...

MINNEAPOLIS — A transient ischemic attack, also known as a mini-stroke, is typically defined as a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain that causes symptoms that go away within a day, but a new study finds that people who have this type of stroke may also have prolonged fatigue lasting up to one year. The study is published on May 14, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). The study does not prove that mini-strokes cause lasting fatigue; it only shows an association. “People ...

As the U.S. continues to face complex public health challenges, a new paper published by a researcher at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health calls for a redefinition of the public health workforce—one that goes beyond traditional boundaries and acknowledges the growing number of professionals outside government agencies who contribute to public health. Published in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH), the paper argues that while government remains the backbone of public health service delivery, it is no longer sufficient to define the workforce ...

Under embargo until 2pm EST on May 14, 2025 in Science Advances ITHACA, N.Y. – Using advanced technology that analyzes tiny gas bubbles trapped in crystal, a team of scientists led by Cornell University has precisely mapped how magma storage evolves as Hawaiian volcanoes age. Geologists have long proposed that, as the Hawaiian Islands slowly drift northwest with the Pacific Plate, they move away from a deep, heat-rich plume rising from near Earth’s core. Young volcanoes like Kilauea – positioned directly above the hotspot on Hawaii’s main island – receive a steady flow of magma. Far less is known about older ...

Gelada monkeys understand complex "conversations" involving distress calls and prosocial comforting responses, exhibiting surprise when such vocal exchanges are manipulated to violate their expectations Article URL: https://plos.io/3Gvw78V Article title: Wild gelada monkeys detect emotional and prosocial cues in vocal exchanges during aggression Author countries: Italy, Ethiopia, France Funding: The research has been funded by the Leakey Foundation (Science for reconciliation: What an Ethiopian monkey tells about peace-making, grant n° S202310431) and by the following zoos and foundations (funders of BRIDGES project, UNIPI, AOO "BIO" - ...

New poison dart frog discovered in the Amazon's Juruá River basin is blue with copper-colored legs, and represents one of just two novel Ranitomeya species in a decade Article URL: https://plos.io/44cYeU2 Article title: A remarkable new blue Ranitomeya species (Anura: Dendrobatidae) with copper metallic legs from open forests of Juruá River Basin, Amazonia Author countries: Brazil, Czech Republic Funding: This study was funded by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM Grant process n° ...

Democratic countries tend to be rated “greener”, or more environmentally friendly, compared to other countries—but this may be because they more often outsource the environmental impacts of their consumption to other nations, according to a study published May 14, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Thomas Bernauer and Ella Henninger from ETH Zurich, Switzerland and Tobias Böhmelt from the University of Essex. Prior studies suggest that democracies have a better environmental protection record compared to more authoritarian nations. Here, the authors investigated the link between democracy and environmental ...

A new study suggests that populations of artificial intelligence (AI) agents, similar to ChatGPT, can spontaneously develop shared social conventions through interaction alone.  The research from City St George’s, University of London and the IT University of Copenhagen suggests that when these large language model (LLM) artificial intelligence (AI) agents communicate in groups, they do not just follow scripts or repeat patterns, but self-organise, reaching consensus on linguistic norms much like human communities. The study has been published today in the journal, Science Advances. LLMs are powerful deep learning algorithms that can understand ...

To the point Different hand use: Two ancient human relatives, Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi, had different finger bone morphologies that indicate they used different types of hand grips, both when using tools and when climbing Internal structure of the finger bones: A. sediba had a mix of ape-like and human-like features, while H. naledi had a unique pattern of bone thickness, suggesting different loading patterns and possible grip types. Human Evolution: Ancient human relatives adapted to their environments in diverse ways, balancing tool use, ...

Scientists inspired by the octopus’s nervous system have developed a robot that can decide how to move or grip objects by sensing its environment. The team from the University of Bristol’s Faculty of Science and Engineering designed a simple yet smart robot which uses fluid flows of air or water to coordinate suction and movement as octopuses do with hundreds of suckers and multiple arms. The study, published today in the journal Science Robotics, shows how a soft robot can use suction flow not just to stick to things, but also to sense ...

When we think of earthquakes, we imagine sudden, violent shaking. But deep beneath the Earth’s surface, some faults move in near silence. These slow, shuffling slips and their accompanying hum—called tremors—don’t shake buildings or make headlines. But scientists believe they can serve as useful analogs of how major earthquakes begin and behave. A new study by geophysicists at UC Santa Cruz explains how some of these tremor events can yield insights into how stress builds up on the dangerous faults above where major earthquakes ...

  KEY TAKEAWAYS Three decades ago, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital pioneered MRI-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) thalamotomy, a technique that offers lifechanging results for patients. In a new study, researchers looked at results from more than 350 patients treated with MRgFUS for essential tremor to assess clinical improvements and side effects. Their research creates a model of an optimal location for ablation, which will help make the procedure safer and more effective for patients at Mass General Brigham and around the world. For millions of people around the world with essential tremor, everyday activities ...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the heart could help to detect a life-threatening heart disease and enable clinicians to better predict which patients are most at risk, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers. Lamin heart disease is a genetic condition that affects the heart’s ability to pump blood and can cause life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms. It is caused by a mutation in the LMNA gene, which is responsible for producing proteins used in heart cells. It often affects people in their 30s and 40s. Lamin disease is rare but also often undiagnosed. About one in 5,000 people in the general population carry a potentially ...