SAN ANTONIO — August 27, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute scientists developed a new purification technique to improve chromatography results without expensive purification materials or equipment. Chromatography is an essential part of drug discovery, development and quality control, allowing scientists to isolate and synthesize active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) that meet U.S. Food & Drug Administration purity standards. “By far the most widely used chromatography purification process relies on silica gel; however, silica fails when purifying extremely ...

Gaps are emerging in the provision of local news across Australia, but embracing community driven content could be key to improving the viability of local news. A new report from the University of Canberra (UC) and RMIT University – Engaged Journalism in the Heartland: Understanding Regional News Audiences – encompassing multiple studies, proposes recommendations to turn the situation around. Researchers surveyed audiences, analysed more than 3,000 news stories and interviewed more than 200 people from regional communities across the country. Report lead author and Director of UC’s News and Media Research Centre, ...

A pioneering study by researchers from Finland and the UK has demonstrated for the first time that myocardial infarction may be an infectious disease. This discovery challenges the conventional understanding of the pathogenesis of myocardial infarction and opens new avenues for treatment, diagnostics, and even vaccine development. According to the recently published research, an infection may trigger myocardial infarction. Using a range of advanced methodologies, the research found that, in coronary artery disease, atherosclerotic plaques containing cholesterol may harbour a gelatinous, asymptomatic biofilm formed by bacteria over years or even decades. Dormant ...

Washington, August 26, 2025—A new study finds that four-year colleges and universities that both enroll and graduate low-income students at high rates—termed “Equity Engines” by the author—are unevenly distributed across the United States. Many states have no institutions that meet the criteria. The study was published today in AERA Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. Conducted by Becca Spindel Bassett, an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Arkansas, the study identifies just 91 Equity Engines out of 1,584 public and private nonprofit ...

The American Meteorological Society announces its 2026 Awards and Honors, recognizing outstanding contributions to the weather, water, and climate community by individuals and organizations. 2026 recipients will be honored at the 106th AMS Annual Meeting in Houston, 25–29 January, 2026. “Through its awards AMS recognizes some of the many, many exceptional people working across the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise to benefit humanity,” says AMS Past President Anjuli Bamzai, chair of the AMS Awards Oversight Committee. “Even as our community is facing a time ...

Imbalanced autonomic function, characterized by reduced vagal activity and sympathetic dominance, is increasingly recognized in various gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. The vagus nerve, a key component of the parasympathetic nervous system, plays a critical role in regulating upper GI motility, inflammation, and pain perception. Transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation (tVNS) offers a non-invasive method to modulate vagal activity, presenting a promising therapeutic approach for GI conditions. This review synthesizes evidence from clinical trials on the efficacy of tVNS—including transcutaneous ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – Across the United States, the return of students to college campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall of 2020 sparked widespread fears that local communities would be overwhelmed by the virus. While some university towns experienced surges in caseloads linked to those returning students, a new study of Pullman, Washington — home to Washington State University — found that was not the case universally. Published in the journal Epidemiology, the study found “outbreaks” ...

Malibu, CA, August 26, 2025 CURE GABA-A (https://curegabaa.org/) is proud to announce a major new partnership with Grann Pharmaceuticals. CURE GABA-A is a nonprofit patient advocacy group founded by Monica Joanna Elnekaveh, mother to Eleanor Elnekaveh. Grann Pharmaceuticals has completed the initial safety regimen of RTT-1 (ELEANOR) in Eleanor as its very first patient.  Together with COMBINEDBrain, Agustina Fernandez, Sarah Poliquin, Amber Freed, and Roberto Gomez, CURE GABA-A is expanding into a truly global network connecting families, researchers, and industry partners to accelerate the development of life-changing ...

GLOBAL VIRUS NETWORK ANNOUNCES 2025 RISING STAR MENTORSHIP PROGRAM AWARDEES Five early-career virologists selected for prestigious two-year mentorship and research program Tampa, FL, August 27, 2025 – The Global Virus Network (GVN), a worldwide coalition of animal and human virologists spanning 80+ Centers of Excellence and Affiliates across more than 40 countries dedicated to advancing pandemic preparedness, announced today the five distinguished recipients of its 2025 Rising Star Mentorship Program. Now in its third cohort, the program is designed to identify and support early-career ...

Soft robotics, which uses flexible and deformable materials, is an emerging field in autonomous systems. It has recently been applied to next-generation tasks such as deep-sea sampling with soft robotic grippers—requiring strong adhesion and autonomous detachment. Bioinspired adhesion offers a promising solution. In nature, gecko feet, mussel proteins, and octopus suction cups achieve efficient, reversible adhesion for underwater tasks like object pickup, movement in tight spaces, and surface attachment. Inspired by these, researchers have developed ...

Hydrogels are soft, water-rich polymeric materials that can swell or shrink in response to environmental stimuli. This ability to change shape makes them valuable in miniaturized devices for flexible electronics, microrobotics, intelligent surfaces, and biomedical applications such as drug delivery. For example, hydrogel pores can be engineered to trap and release tiny drug particles on demand. However, most current hydrogel pores use circular designs, which limit control over shape change and lead to unpredictable, slow actuation. They often close unevenly and recover poorly, reducing their precision and reliability. To address ...

In stoichiometric compounds (compounds with fixed ratios of elements), the elemental ratios are dictated by chemical stability, which constrains how much the composition, and consequently the number of valence electron-per-atom (e/a) ratio, can be adjusted. Tuning e/a has been proved to be a promising strategy to architecture magnetic properties in many intermetallic compounds, especially those with complex structures including quasicrystals (QCs) and their structurally related approximant crystals (ACs). Owing to their structural complexity, their electronic properties are sensitive to the number of valence electron-per-atom (e/a). Stoichiometric ...

In recent decades, communication technology has advanced at unprecedented speed. A key breakthrough is semantic communications—a shift from transmitting raw data to conveying semantic meaning. For example, in image transmission, meaning takes priority over pixel-level accuracy. By integrating user tasks into the communication process, semantic communications improve both efficiency and user experience. While deep learning has accelerated progress, a transition from analog to digital modulation is essential for compatibility ...

Bulimia nervosa (BN), or bulimia, is a mental health disorder characterized by binge eating and a fear of gaining weight, which drives people to try and avoid weight gain, usually by compensatory (vomiting etc.). Over time, this binge–purge cycle harms both physical and mental health of the individual, leading to problems like dehydration, low blood pressure, depression, and even self-harm. BN mostly affects young women and often begins in their teenage years, with studies showing that up to three percent of women may experience BN at some point in their lives, putting them at higher risk if left untreated. BN is thought to develop ...

Pressure sensors are crucial in many emerging applications, but traditional designs are often bulky or inflexible. In a recent study, researchers from Japan developed a fiber-shaped pressure sensor that overcomes this limitation by increasing—rather than decreasing—its resistance when compressed. Owing to a unique multi-walled conductive core made from graphene nanoplatelets, these fibers could enable fine-tuned tactile sensing for next-generation smart textiles and robotic grippers. The need for pressure sensors has been steadily increasing across diverse applications, from robotic grippers that need accurate tactile ...

Deforestation in tropical countries could contribute to increased deaths from heat exposure in nearby populations, new research has shown.    Published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, the research was led by Dr Carly Reddington and Professor Dominick Spracklen, from the University of Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment.    The study, which analysed areas across Central and South America, Africa and South-East Asia, found that local climate heating caused by tropical deforestation has exposed over 300 million people to increased temperatures and is associated with 28,000 ...

An innovative backpack, incorporating aerospace technology, shows promise as a balance aid for patients with the movement disorder ataxia. Research conducted by Radboud university medical center, in collaboration with Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and Erasmus MC, reveals that the backpack helps individuals with ataxia stand and walk more steadily, reducing their reliance on mobility aids like walkers. Ataxia is a neurological condition in which the cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for coordination, functions improperly. This leads to issues with balance and coordination, increasing the risk of falls. Dr. Jorik Nonnekes, rehabilitation ...

Volcanic eruptions can have dramatic consequences. But how can we anticipate this phenomenon, which unfolds up to tens of kilometres beneath the surface? A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in Italy, has successfully recreated a 3D model of the interior of the Vulcano volcano, located in northern Sicily. This image, produced with unprecedented accuracy, was obtained by combining nodal seismic networks and artificial intelligence. Published in Nature Communications, these results represent a major breakthrough ...

Clues about how worlds like Earth may have formed have been found buried at the heart of a spectacular 'cosmic butterfly'. With the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers say they have made a big leap forward in our understanding of how the raw material of rocky planets comes together. This cosmic dust – tiny particles of minerals and organic material which include ingredients linked to the origins of life – was studied at the core of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302, which is located about ...

Researchers from the University of Southampton have found that people with emotional insecurities are more affected than others when their partners choose their phone over them. The researchers have conducted a study into ‘phubbing’ – a mashup of ‘phone’ and ‘snubbing’ used to describe the all too familiar scenario where the person you are talking to shuns you to look at their phone. The team wanted to find out how people with different ways of thinking and feeling about their relationship would respond to being ‘phubbed’. The results have been published in the Journal of Personality. Dr Claire Hart, ...

Key takeaways  New research shows that treatment of heart failure patients with a type of anti-obesity medication reduces the environmental footprint of healthcare, as well as improving clinical outcomes.   People being treated for heart failure with GLP-1 receptor antagonists used 0.25 kg CO₂-equivalent less per person annually, compared to patients with heart failure taking a placebo. When this saving is scaled to the millions of people eligible for the treatment, the findings suggest that 2 ...

Key take-aways New research has found that a type of automatic chest compression is more effective to carry out CPR in space than the ‘handstand method’ that is currently recommended in emergency protocols for spaceflight. Treating cardiac arrest during spaceflight is challenging because both the rescuer and the patient are floating due to microgravity, which makes doing chest compressions challenging.  The research was conducted in a ‘flying laboratory’ in a modified A310 aircraft at the CNES (French ...

Key take-aways    New research finds that low fitness levels and older age are strong and independent risk factors for heartbeat irregularities, or arrhythmias*, in healthy adults. These arrhythmias were previously thought to be harmless, but are now considered to be an indicator of future cardiovascular risk (1,2)  The results support the introduction of age-based arrhythmia screening in over 50s, to allow for early intervention before symptoms arise to alter the trajectory of disease   There was a particularly strong association between lower aerobic fitness and risk of frequent and complex atrial arrythmias, ...

Sharks can famously replace their teeth, with new ones always growing as they’re using up the current set. As sharks rely on their teeth to catch prey, this is vital to the survival of one of the oceans’ top predators. But the ability to regrow teeth might not be enough to ensure they can withstand the pressures of a warming world where oceans are getting more acidic, new research has found. Researchers in Germany examined sharks’ teeth under different ocean acidification scenarios and showed that more acidic oceans lead to more brittle and weaker teeth. “Shark teeth, despite being composed of highly mineralized phosphates, are still vulnerable to corrosion under ...

Amsterdam, August 27, 2025 – A novel study investigating how physical activity and diet quality interact with different levels and patterns of alcohol consumption shows that healthy eating and increased levels of physical activity significantly lower the risk of alcohol-attributable liver-related mortality. The findings from this comprehensive new study in the Journal of Hepatology, published by Elsevier, use data from a large multi-ethnic US cohort and highlight the importance of considering other lifestyle behaviors when estimating the risk of death from alcohol-related liver disease at a population level. In the US, more than half (53%) of adults over 18 years of age regularly ...