What if your brain had a built-in map – not of places, but of possible futures? Researchers at the Champalimaud Foundation (CF) blend neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI) to reveal that populations of dopamine neurons in the brain don’t just track whether rewards are coming – they encode maps of when those rewards might arrive and how big they might be. These maps adapt to context and may help explain how we weigh risks, and why some of us act on impulse while others hold back. Strikingly, this biological ...

A new study has revealed for the first time that ancient carbon, stored in landscapes for thousands of years or more, can find its way back to the atmosphere as CO₂ released from the surfaces of rivers. The findings, led by scientists at the University of Bristol and the cover story of the journal Nature, mean plants and shallow soil layers are likely removing around one gigatonne more CO₂ each year from the atmosphere to counteract this, emphasising their pivotal and greater part in combating climate change. Lead author Dr Josh ...

About The Study: The proportion of U.S. adults who were unaware of having hypertension increased significantly over the study period (2013 to 2023), particularly in young adults and women, while diabetes and high cholesterol level unawareness remained stable. By the 2021 to 2023 cycle, approximately 1 in 6 adults with hypertension and 3 in 10 with diabetes were unaware of their condition. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Rishi K. Wadhera, MD, MPP, MPhil, email rwadhera@bidmc.harvard.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of schools, a COVID-19–related decline in youth physical fitness was observed. Compared with pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods, cardiorespiratory fitness and musculoskeletal fitness healthy fitness zone achievement were significantly lower during the pandemic, but the reduction did not appear to be associated with extended remote or hybrid environments. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Andjelka Pavlovic, PhD, email andjelka.pavlovic@ttuhsc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.13721) Editor’s ...

A study initiated by a University of Arizona Comprehensive Cancer Center physician-scientist defined for the first time how loss of the Y chromosome in male immune cells negatively affects immune system function, which may explain why loss of Y is associated with lower cancer survival rates. The paper “Concurrent loss of the Y chromosome in cancer and T cells impacts outcome,” was published today in Nature. In males, each cell in the body usually contains one X and one Y chromosome. “Loss of Y” is a common, nonhereditary ...

When cancer cells in male patients and immune cells in their tumors both lose the Y chromosome, those patients tend to experience poorer outcomes than patients without Y chromosome loss, according to new findings from Cedars-Sinai investigators. Their work, published in the scientific journal Nature, could lead to ways to make some cancer treatments more effective. The Y chromosome is one of two chromosomes that determine biological sex in mammals. Females have two X chromosomes, males have one X and one Y chromosome, and it ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Hot air holds more moisture. That’s why you can blow your hair dry even after a steamy shower. It’s also what dumps rain in the tropics and sucks water from desert soils. A new study, published in Nature, shows that the atmosphere’s growing thirst for water is making droughts more severe, even in places where rainfall has stayed the same. The paper details how this “thirst” has made droughts 40% more severe across the globe over the course of the past 40 years. “Drought is based on the difference between water supply (from precipitation) and atmospheric water demand. ...

A new University of British Columbia-led study is shedding light on a long-overlooked consequence of colorectal cancer: the lasting toll it can take on women’s sexual health, even years after treatment ends. Researchers analyzed health data from more than 25,000 women in B.C. diagnosed with colorectal cancer between 1985 and 2017, comparing their experiences to those of cancer-free women. Cancer treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation were linked to a range of long-term sexual health issues, including a 67 per cent higher risk of dyspareunia—pain during sex—a ...

(Philadelphia, PA) – A novel screening approach developed by physicians at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University shows significant promise for improving the detection of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)—a life-threatening form of heart failure related to high blood pressure in the lung circulation that is often overlooked due to vague symptoms such as fatigue and shortness of breath. The new research, published online April 5 in the American Heart Journal, shows that the virtual echocardiography screening ...

Scholars from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) are committed to pioneering research excellence and providing innovative solutions to the ever-changing needs of society and technology. Prof. AU Man Ho Allen, Professor and Associate Head (Research and Development) of the Department of Computing at PolyU, has been recognised with the prestigious Hong Kong Engineering Science and Technology (HKEST) Award 2024-25 for his outstanding contributions to the Web3 ecosystem and the digital economy. Prof. AU has made significant contributions to information security, applied cryptography, and blockchain technology, pioneering ...

Embargoed for Release Until June 4, 2025    NATIONWIDE STUDY FINDS THAT LEAKS IN NATURAL GAS PIPELINES CONTRIBUTE TO HAZARDOUS PARTICULATE AIR POLLUTION New research finds that methane leaks in energy-intensive states like Texas lower the air quality for people in neighboring states Herndon, VA, June 4, 2025 -- In March 2022, 14 residents of a four-story apartment building in Silver Spring, Maryland, were hospitalized when a gas leak from a cut pipeline caused a major explosion. Every year in the United States, there are hundreds of natural gas (or methane) pipeline leaks -- caused by corrosion, equipment malfunctions, and construction ...

Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly vital role in modern medicine, particularly in interpreting medical images to help clinicians assess disease severity, guide treatment decisions and monitor disease progression. Despite these advancements, most current AI models are based on static datasets, limiting their adaptability and real-time diagnostic potential. To address this gap, researchers from Florida Atlantic University and collaborators, have developed a novel proof-of-concept deep ...

Midvale, UT (June 4, 2025) – EyeCare4Kids™, a non-profit organization that provides professional eye care services to low-income, visually impaired children and underserved families across the southwest United States and Africa, today announced the promotion of Maggie Cline, MPH, to Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Ms. Cline joined EyeCare4Kids in 2022 and served as Executive Director Utah, where she oversaw the delivery of more than 50,000 vision services annually at school clinics, community centers, and other underserved areas across the state. Ms. Cline succeeds board-certified optician Joseph Carbone, who founded the organization in 2001 and will transition to a role focused on ...

A new study leveraging accelerometer and brain MRI data reveals that moderate levels of physical activity may help slow brain aging. Led by Associate Professor Chenjie Xu from the School of Public Health at Hangzhou Normal University, in collaboration with institutions including Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Tianjin Medical University, the study is published in Health Data Science. Analyzing 16,972 participants from the UK Biobank, researchers applied a LightGBM machine learning algorithm to over 1,400 image-derived phenotypes to predict each individual’s "brain age." The findings indicate a U-shaped association between physical activity (PA) ...

PULLMAN, Wash.--A group of bat viruses closely related to the deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) could be one small mutation away from being capable of spilling over into human populations and potentially causing the next pandemic. A recent study published in the journal Nature Communications examined an understudied group of coronaviruses known as merbecoviruses — the same viral subgenus that includes MERS-CoV — to better understand how they infect host cells. The research ...

One-pot recipes make preparing meals quick and easy. And one-pot 3D-printing could do the same for additive manufacturing. Now, researchers publishing in ACS Central Science have demonstrated a new resin that simultaneously creates solid objects and dissolvable structural supports, depending on what type of light the resin is exposed to. The approach could increase the applications for 3D-printed objects, including tissue engineering scaffolds, joints and hinges. “Vat photopolymerization is known for its fast and high-resolution printing, but one of the most nerve-wracking parts after printing is manually removing supports for intricate interlocking and overhang ...

You may have seen it in the news recently: a baby in Pennsylvania with a rare genetic disorder was healed with a personalized treatment that repaired his specific genetic mutation. The treatment was created using a form of gene editing called base editing —a method created by Alexis Komor when she was a postdoctoral scholar in molecular biologist David Liu’s group at Harvard University. Since that work was published in 2016, Komor, who is now an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California San Diego, has continued to study base-editing tools to better understand and further develop their capabilities. ...

A team led by University of Virginia School of Medicine researcher James Stone, MD, PhD, has received $3.2 million from the federal Department of Defense to enhance a critical tool for protecting the brain health of military personnel.  The project aims to upgrade the Generalized Blast Exposure Value (GBEV) tool that assigns a numerical score to a service member’s history of blast exposures that can be used to assess the potential for adverse health outcomes.  “This will represent a major step forward in how the military monitors, protects and cares for its service members,” said Stone, a UVA Health ...

At home in Australia, Mark Renton started playing football as soon as he could. He figured it would eventually lead to a career prescribing strength training and exercise regimens to athletes. But as an undergraduate, the sports science curriculum included an exercise metabolism course that explored how cells turn energy into movement. This biological focus captured Renton’s imagination, and he became increasingly interested in the mechanisms that underly muscle function, including developing force through contractions that mediate precise movements. Ultimately, Renton wound up earning a doctorate ...

DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting found that bedtime procrastination in young adults is associated with specific personality traits, including depressive tendencies. Results show that bedtime procrastination was associated with higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness and extraversion. These results remained significant after statistically adjusting for chronotype. “Our study demonstrated that individuals who habitually procrastinate their bedtime were actually less likely to report seeking out exciting, engaging, or enjoyable activities,” said lead author Steven Carlson, ...

DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting found that bedtime procrastination among college students is socially influenced by the need to belong. Results show that sleep duration was more than an hour shorter on school nights when college students delayed their bedtime for in-person social leisure activities. On these nights, their bedtime was strongly correlated with the timing of their last objectively measured social interaction with friends. Students within the bedtime procrastination social network scored higher on the need to belong compared with students outside the network. The need to belong also predicted tie ...

The Unexpected Planet  Star TOI-6894 is just like many in our galaxy, a small red dwarf, and only ~20% of the mass of our Sun. Like many small stars, it is not expected to provide suitable conditions for the formation and hosting of a large planet.   However, as published today in Nature Astronomy, an international team of astronomers have found the unmistakable signature of a giant planet, called TOI-6894b, orbiting this tiny star.  This system has been discovered as part of a large-scale investigation of TESS (Transiting Exoplanet ...

A study led by researchers at Stanford Medicine shows that differences in blood sugar responses to certain carbohydrates depend on details of an individual’s metabolic health status. The differences in blood sugar response patterns among individuals were associated with specific metabolic conditions such as insulin resistance or beta cell dysfunction, both of which can lead to diabetes. The study findings suggest that this variability in blood sugar response could lead to personalized prevention and treatment strategies for prediabetes and diabetes. “Right now, the American Diabetes Association ...

Embargoed until 5:00 a.m. ET, Wednesday June 4, 2025 Even with all its training and computer power, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool like ChatGPT can’t represent the concept of a flower the way a human does, according to a new study.   That’s because the large language models (LLMs) that power AI assistants are based usually on language alone, and sometimes with images.   “A large language model can’t smell a rose, touch the petals of a daisy or walk through a field of wildflowers,” said Qihui Xu, lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher in psychology at The Ohio State ...

Extractive activity in international waters - including fishing, seabed mining, and oil and gas exploitation - should be banned forever, according to top scientists. The high seas, the vast international waters beyond national jurisdiction, remain largely unprotected and are increasingly threatened. Writing in the journal Nature, Professor Callum Roberts and co-authors argue that stopping all extractive activity in international waters would prevent irreversible damage to marine biodiversity, the climate, and ocean equity. This would ...