In 1953, 15-year-old Joe Ligon and four other Pennsylvania teens went on an alcohol-fueled tear that resulted in the stabbing deaths of two people and injuries to six more. The teens were tried as a group, and all received life without parole.  After a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 2012 and 2016 found that mandatory life sentences for juveniles was unconstitutional, Ligon’s case went to federal court. After 67 long years in prison, the case was decided in his favor in 2020. Ligon was granted his freedom in 2021 — at 83 years of age and after ...

Elon Musk recently declared on X that Blindsight, a cortical implant to restore vision, would have low resolution at first “but may ultimately exceed normal human vision.” That pronouncement is unrealistic at best, according to new research from the University of Washington. Ione Fine, lead author and UW professor of psychology, said Musk’s projection for the latest Neuralink project rests on the flawed premise that implanting millions of tiny electrodes into the visual cortex, the region of the brain that processes information received from the eye, will result in high-resolution vision. For the study, ...

The National Science Foundation will provide funding to the University of Virginia’s Data Justice Academy, the agency recently announced, support that will help the summer program continue to serve undergraduate students from groups that are historically underrepresented in data science.   Established in 2021, the Data Justice Academy provides a 10-week residential experience to participants in which they perform mentored research while learning technical skills.  The overriding goal of the Data Justice Academy, which is jointly managed by UVA’s School of Data Science and Equity Center, ...

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD, announced today that R. Frank Henn, III, MD, Professor of Orthopaedics, who has served as Interim Chair of the Department since 2022, has been appointed to serve as the new Chair of UMSOM’s Department of Orthopaedics, effective immediately. Dr. Henn, who joined the Department in 2010, is an academic leader and highly regarded, board-certified orthopaedic surgeon; he has published significant scientific research, and is a leading clinician focusing on the care of the shoulder and knee, with an emphasis in cartilage ...

Los Angeles, California – July 29, 2024 - Terasaki Institute scientists have created a cutting-edge technology inspired by nature by developing a novel bioink derived from egg whites or Egg White methacryloyl (EWMA). Bioinks are mainly used in 3D bioprinting to create artificial tissues. These natural or synthetic materials support living cells, aiding their adhesion, growth, and differentiation. They are essential for developing complex tissue structures for medical research, drug testing, and organ transplantation. This novel EWMA bioink represents a promising addition to this field, offering a unique combination of properties that address many challenges faced in tissue engineering. The ...

From coastal redwoods and Joshua trees to golden poppies and sagebrush, California is a global botanical hotspot. It’s also a place confronted with extreme heat, wildfires and crumbling coastlines. The state’s natural beauty and history of pioneering conservation efforts make it a test bed for protecting biodiversity in the face of current and future climate change, argues a study led by the University of California, Davis.  Published July 29 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study, “Climate Change and California’s Terrestrial Biodiversity,” is part of a special ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists agree that solving some of society’s greatest challenges in biomedicine such as food sustainability, aging and disease treatment will need researchers from a variety of scientific fields working together. But a new study finds that the young scientists who most embrace interdisciplinary research face “career impediments” not seen in their peers who focus their work only within their own disciplines. The results are troublesome and pose a “grave challenge” to efforts to increase interdisciplinary ...

A research team led by University of Liège scientists has published a groundbreaking study on malignant catarrhal fever (MCF). This disease is caused by the alcelaphine gammaherpesvirus 1 (AlHV-1), which infects its natural host, the wildebeest.  This study sheds light on the mechanisms by which this virus, which is asymptomatic and latent in the wildebeest, causes an oligoclonal expansion of CD8+ T lymphocytes in cattle, leading to the development of MCF. In 2013, the research team had already demonstrated (1) that malignant catarrhal fever (MCF), which is fatal in cattle, only develops if the AlHV-1 virus can maintain a ...

All languages have words like ‘this’ and ‘that’ to distinguish between referents that are ‘near’ and ‘far’. Languages like English or Hebrew have two of these ‘demonstratives’. Languages like Spanish or Japanese use a three-word system. For instance, in Spanish, ‘este’ signals something close to the speaker, ‘ese’ signals something far from the speaker but close to the listener, and ‘aquel’ signals something far from both. “The reason why we were interested in demonstratives is because of their ...

Local foods are critical to the food security and health of Indigenous peoples around the world, but local "informal" economies are often invisible in official economic statistics. Consequently, these economies may be overlooked in the policies designed to combat climate change. For instance, Indigenous communities in the North American Arctic are characterized by mixed economies featuring hunting, fishing, gathering and trapping activities, alongside the formal wage economy. The region is also undergoing a rapid transformation due to social, economic and climatic changes. In Canada, the introduction ...

California should take urgent and bold measures to adapt its $59 billion agriculture sector to climate change as the amount of water available for crops declines, according to a collaborative report by University of California faculty from four campuses. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the report provides a roadmap for more water capture, storage, and distribution systems that are in harmony with climate projections and ecosystems. It further considers how runoff and groundwater can be used repeatedly ...

If you’re trying to keep drivers from picking up their phones, make it a game, according to a new Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) study led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. When drivers could earn points for making reductions in handheld phone use and had the chance to compete in a weekly leaderboard of others like them, researchers saw as much as a 28 percent reduction in handheld phone use while driving, a habit that stuck once the intervention—and the games—ended. “Distracted driving ...

A study reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows how the presence of a specific protein called IL-22BP affects the composition of the gut microbiota and the body’s response to bacterial infection. “We discovered that mice that don’t produce this protein are more protected against intestinal infections by bacteria like Clostridioides difficile and Citrobacter rodentium,” Marco Aurélio Ramirez Vinolo, a co-author of the article, told. He is a professor at the State University of Campinas’s Institute of Biology (IB-UNICAMP) in Brazil and head of its Immunoinflammation Laboratory. IL-22BP ...

URBANA, Ill. -- A bad case of the flu during pregnancy can increase the risk for fetal neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder. But it’s not the virus itself doing the damage; it’s the mother’s immune response.  New University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research using live mouse-adapted influenza virus improves upon previous mouse experiments to explain the process on a cellular and molecular level. It also indicates fetal brain changes are more likely once the severity of the mother’s infection meets a specific threshold. “Our data provide really compelling evidence for an infection severity ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- It sounds fantastical, but it’s a reality for the scientists who work at the world’s largest particle collider: In an underground tunnel some 350 feet beneath the France–Switzerland border, a huge device called the Large Hadron Collider sends beams of protons smashing into each other at nearly the speed of light, creating tiny eruptions that mimic the conditions that existed immediately after the Big Bang. Scientists like Duke physicist Ashutosh Kotwal think the subatomic debris of these collisions could contain hints ...

The research, led by Dr Lisa Quadt, Research Fellow in Psychiatry at BSMS and Dr Jessica Eccles, Reader in Brain-Body Medicine at BSMS, highlights a significant link between neurodivergence and chronic fatigue. The study found that increased inflammation in childhood, often resulting from heightened stress levels, may be a contributing factor. This supports previous findings that suggest chronic fatigue can be rooted in inflammatory processes. “These results show the importance of trans-diagnostic screening for children and the need for better support for neurodivergent children” says Dr Quadt. “Children with neurodivergent ...

AMES, Iowa – Pay attention the next time you drive near your home, farm or business. You’ll notice small, green utility boxes all over the place. They’re distribution transformers. If they’re not working properly, electricity won’t flow to your lights and appliances.   Those boxes take kilovolts of electricity (that’s high voltage, measured in 1,000s of volts) from transmission lines and step it down to the safer, practical 120 or 240 volts that power our daily lives.   “Utilities have plenty of them,” said Zhaoyu Wang, an Iowa State University professor of electrical and computer engineering. “Most of them only ...

Portland State University (PSU) has been awarded $1,976,806 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Sea Grant Marine Debris Challenge Award Program to lead an innovative and collaborative three-year project to address microplastic pollution on the Oregon coast. This grant is part of a $27 million project between the U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA. Portland State will host one of 11 projects that received a total of $25 million in funding across Alabama, California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin. These projects ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. – July 29, 2024 – The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), the premier global molecular diagnostic professional society, today announced the recipients of this year’s Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics, Jeffrey A. Kant Leadership, and Meritorious Service Awards. These prestigious accolades will be presented to the winners this November during AMP’s 2024 Annual Meeting & Expo in Vancouver, British Columbia. Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics Atul Butte, MD, PhD Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished ...

An analysis of pre-treatment tumor specimens from 105 patients with localized muscle-invasive bladder cancer found that the presence of a mutation in any one of three genes, all known to be involved in DNA damage repair, was associated with complete pathologic response to cisplatin-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy as measured by pathological downstaging at the time of bladder surgery. Results are published in the journal European Urology. “The SWOG S8710 randomized trial provided Level 1 evidence supporting ...

In the fight to mitigate climate change and deforestation in the tropics, timber plantations have emerged as a promising strategy for reforesting degraded land and connecting patches of natural forest. Often, these are species with commercial value for landowners but are not native to the region. To evaluate how well non-native tree plantations support native wildlife in heavily human-impacted areas, researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB), Wageningen University & Research, and the University of California – Davis surveyed over 200 hectares of timber plantations ...

Wang Receives Funding For Experiential Learning Program  Zhengdao Wang, Professor, Cybersecurity Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), received $14,000 from Old Dominion Research Foundation for: “CCI—2024 Experiential Learning Program/Water System Infrastructure - Innovative Experiential Learning.”  Wang intends to enhance awareness and understanding of cybersecurity risks associated with public water systems by developing an educational simulation game, "CyberShield H2O."    He will provide ...

Research conducted at the University of Gothenburg shows that the physical activities we do as we go about our lives, at work or in the home, aren’t enough to protect us from having a stroke. However, exercising in our free time and using active modes of transport are associated with a decreased risk of stroke. “Physical activity during leisure time and as transportation is becoming increasingly important now that many jobs and domestic activities are becoming more sedentary,” says lead ...

Hepatic cell carcinoma (HCC), the fifth most prevalent malignancy worldwide and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related mortality, poses significant therapeutic challenges. Despite advancements in medical research, late-stage HCC patients have a dismal five-year survival rate of less than 20%. The complexity of liver cancer development involves an intricate interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Among these, mitochondrial alterations and mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are increasingly recognized as critical contributors to cancer pathogenesis. These changes not only impair cellular bioenergetics ...

About The Study: By assigning lower atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk predictions, application of the Predicting Risk of cardiovascular disease EVENTs (PREVENT) equations to existing treatment thresholds could reduce eligibility for statin and antihypertensive therapy among 15.8 million U.S. adults.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Arjun K. Manrai, Ph.D., email Arjun_Manrai@hms.harvard.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.12537) Editor’s ...