Late nights, alcohol, and smoking on weekends may be doing more than disrupting your Monday mornings, they could be triggering a newly identified sleep health concern known as ‘social apnea’, warn researchers from Flinders University. Published in the prestigious American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the international study introduces social apnea as a novel trend in sleep medicine referring to the weekend spike in Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) severity, driven by lifestyle choices and irregular sleep patterns. The research, which analysed data from over 70,000 people worldwide, found a consistent ...

Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science has been awarded a $700,000 grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency Gulf of America Division to support a novel research project aimed at advancing water quality monitoring in one of Florida’s most critical freshwater ecosystems. Led by Natalia Malina, Ph.D., principal investigator and an assistant professor in FAU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry within the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, the three-year project titled, “Developing ...

For years, scientists at Washington State University’s Puyallup Research & Extension Center have been working to untangle a mystery: Why do coho salmon in Puget Sound creeks seem to suffocate after rainstorms—rising to the surface, gaping, and swimming in circles before dying? In 2018, the die-offs were linked to bits of car tires shed by friction and washed into the stormwater runoff. In 2020, researchers zeroed in on one particular chemical culprit, a tire preservative known as 6PPD.   Now, research led by WSU PhD student Stephanie ...

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are gaining attention as a safer and more affordable alternative to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). While LIBs remain the most widely used energy storage technology, they come with safety risks due to their reliance on flammable organic electrolytes. In contrast, aqueous ZIBs use water-based electrolytes, making them non-flammable, environment friendly, and more affordable. Unfortunately, during charging and discharging, zinc-anodes in ZIBs undergo repeated plating and stripping that can trigger undesirable side reactions and sharp dendrite formation. This severely impacts their ...

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) announced today that it has exceeded the university’s goal of raising more than $500 million through its largest fundraising effort in university history, Be Bold: A Campaign for Our Future. The ambitious campaign aimed to accelerate student success, advance research excellence and expand the university’s community impact. First conceived in 2017 and set to run for 10 years alongside the university’s strategic plan, the Be Bold campaign garnered support from more than 60,000 ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists from the Illinois Natural History Survey and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources have updated the state conservation status ranks, or S-ranks, of threatened and endangered plants in Illinois. The update includes some plants not recorded in the state for decades and finds many that, while still threatened, are doing better than previously thought. Their findings are detailed in the Natural Areas Journal. The 331 plants on the list are as fascinating as they are rare, said Brian Charles, an INHS scientific specialist in botany who led the multiyear effort. They include ...

DARIEN, IL – The American Academy of Sleep Medicine is accepting abstracts and innovation award entries as part of Sleep Medicine Disruptors 2025, which will be held in-person in Austin, Texas, and livestreamed Friday and Saturday, Nov. 14-15.  This biennial event attracts clinicians, scientists, technology developers, start-up founders, venture capitalists, and other health care innovators. Speakers will explore technology innovation, artificial intelligence, and other disruptions that are poised to change the landscape of sleep health, patient care, and health care delivery. ...

Hamilton, ON (August 13, 2025) --- A study published in Nature Biotechnology reveals a powerful new use for artificial intelligence: designing small, drug-like molecules that can stick to and break down harmful proteins in the body — even when scientists don’t know what those proteins look like. The breakthrough could lead to new treatments for diseases that have long resisted traditional drug development, including certain cancers, brain disorders, and viral infections. The study was published on August 13, 2025 by a multi-institutional team of researchers from McMaster University, Duke University, and Cornell University. The AI tool, called PepMLM, ...

One of the best places to study stars is inside “open clusters”, which are groups of stars that formed together from the same material and are bound together through gravity. Open clusters act as laboratories, showing how stars of different masses and ages behave. At the same time, some stars known as “variable stars”, regularly change in brightness, and  their flickers and pulses help scientists learn about the physics inside stars and about the wider galaxy. Until now, astronomers studied clusters and variable stars separately, and ...

Popular generative AI web browser assistants are collecting and sharing sensitive user data, such as medical records and social security numbers, without adequate safeguards, finds a new study led by researchers from UCL and Mediterranea University of ​​Reggio Calabria. The study, which will be presented and published as part of the USENIX Security Symposium, is the first large-scale analysis of generative AI browser assistants and privacy. It uncovered widespread tracking, profiling, and personalisation ...

Traditional veterinary practices utilize rectal measurements to assess body temperature, but this method is stressful and does not capture continuous changes in body temperature. Fortunately, recent advancements have introduced infrared thermography, which can non-invasively measure body temperatures. However, it is still difficult to continuously monitor temperature changes over time with this method. Moreso, parts of the image data are set manually, which can cause data variations due to setting positions. These drawbacks ...

How many ads do you see on social media? It might be more than you realize. Scientists studying how ads work on Instagram-style social media have found that people are not as good at spotting them as they think. If people recognized ads, they usually ignored them - but some, designed to blend in with your friends’ posts, flew under the radar. “We wanted to understand how ads are really experienced in daily scrolling — beyond what people say they notice, to what they actually process,” said Maike Hübner, PhD candidate at the University ...

Exosomes, naturally derived vesicles responsible for intercellular communication, are emerging as next-generation drug delivery systems capable of transporting therapeutics to specific cells. However, their tightly packed, cholesterol-rich membranes make it extremely difficult to encapsulate large molecules such as mRNA or proteins. Conventional approaches have relied on techniques like electroporation or chemical treatment, which often damage both the drugs and exosomes, reduce delivery efficiency, and require complex purification steps—all of which pose significant barriers to commercialization. A joint research team led by Dr. Hojun Kim at the Center ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (August 13, 2025)—Adults aged 65 years and older are becoming the fastest-growing demographic, yet, the sexual health of older women is often understudied and untreated. A new study demonstrates their rate of sexual problems is similar to that of midlife women, although they are less likely to report distress related to their sexual problems. Results of the study are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. Although sexual activity declines with age, sexual health remains relevant throughout life ...

The need for biodegradable packaging material has never been higher. Currently, most packaging is "single use" and is made with plastic materials, derived from nonrenewable sources like crude oil that take hundreds of years to decompose in the environment. On top of this, only 9% of plastic is recycled. This has resulted in the formation of floating piles of plastic garbage in the ocean, called the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." But maybe even more concerning is the discovery of micro- and nano-plastics in the environment. Research has found that plastic breaks down into tiny ...

An international study surveying people in a dozen countries found that when it comes to making complex decisions, people all over the world tend to reflect on their own, rather than seek advice. Researchers from the University of Waterloo led the new study that surveyed more than 3,500 people from megacities to small Indigenous communities in the Amazon rainforest to learn how they make decisions. This work is the broadest test of decision-style preferences across cultures to date. The researchers ...

Gait analysis and pain measures show that subtly adjusting the angle of the foot during walking may reduce knee pain caused by osteoarthritis. This approach may also slow progression of the condition, an uncurable disease in which the cartilage cushion inside a joint breaks down. Led by a team of researchers at NYU Langone Health, the University of Utah, and Stanford University, a new study explored whether changing the way patients position their feet when walking could lessen extra loading — stress on the joint during motion — and help treat the disease. For ...

There seem to be reciprocal links between certain groups of gut bacteria and the risk of insomnia, suggests a Mendelian randomisation study, published in the open access journal General Psychiatry. Certain types of bacteria seem to boost or lower the risk of the sleep disorder while insomnia itself seems to alter the abundance of certain types of bacteria, the findings indicate. Several studies have explored the effects of the gut microbiome on various sleep characteristics, but it’s not yet clear how different groups ...

Taste and price, rather than calorie content, seem to be the key considerations for those ordering takeaways online, despite calorie labelling legislation designed to help consumers make healthier food choices, suggests an analysis of survey responses, published in the open access journal BMJ Nutrition Prevention & Health. These orders tend to be favoured by younger people and those living with obesity, the responses indicate. And the limited impact of calorie labelling, despite relatively high awareness of the regulations, suggests that additional strategies are needed, say the researchers. Takeaways are ...

Patients are still more likely to trust doctors and consider them more professional when they wear white coats, although women doctors in this attire are often misidentified as nurses or medical assistants, finds a review of the available research on the topic, published in the open access journal BMJ Open. But patient preferences for doctors’ attire seem to be strongly influenced by clinical context and medical specialty, with a growing acceptance of scrubs, especially in emergency or high-risk settings, the findings indicate. In the 19th century, doctors primarily wore black, because medical encounters were viewed as serious and formal occasions. ...

The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology: Routine AI assistance may lead to loss of skills in health professionals who perform colonoscopies, study suggests   An observational study of over 1,400 colonoscopies found the rate at which experienced health professionals detect precancerous growths in the colon in non-AI assisted colonoscopies decreased by 20% (from 28.4% to 22.4%) several months after the routine introduction of AI. Several studies have suggested that AI assistance may help doctors identify some cancers, but this is the first study to suggest the implementation of AI could lead to a reduction in the ability of ...

Overweight patients waiting for operations could safely use a particular type of weight-loss treatment to reduce the risk of surgical complications linked to their obesity, a new study reveals.  The study highlights glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) as a promising medication given before surgery that help control blood sugar and support weight loss - potentially improving surgical outcomes and reducing healthcare burdens associated with obesity.   However, the researchers stress an urgent need for high-quality randomised trials to validate these findings, assess cost-effectiveness, and guide implementation of the drug ...

Nearly a quarter of people over the age of 40 experience painful osteoarthritis, making it a leading cause of disability in adults. Osteoarthritis degrades joint-cushioning cartilage, and there is currently no way of reversing this damage: the only option is to manage pain with medication, and eventually, joint replacement.   Researchers from the University of Utah, New York University and Stanford University are now demonstrating the potential for another option: gait retraining.  By making a small adjustment to the angle of their foot while walking, participants in a year-long randomized control trial ...

Mental health services must urgently increase investment in lifestyle interventions to improve care and help close the 15-year life expectancy gap faced by people with mental illness, a new Lancet Psychiatry Commission report warns.   Lifestyle interventions targeting physical activity, nutrition, sleep and smoking are key to mental health care, not optional extras, according to the report by a team of 30 authors from 19 countries.   “Our lifestyles can change the trajectory of our mental and physical health,” said lead author Dr Scott Teasdale, a dietitian and Senior ...

Embargoed until 19:01 EDT Tuesday 12 August 2025 / 00:01 BST on Wednesday 13 August 2025 -With pictures- A new tool to understand how people imagine differently when reading could have potential implications for the treatment of mental ill health. The ReaderBank Imagination Quiz has been developed by a team of researchers led by Durham University, UK. The quiz identifies four “forces” of imagination - space and vision, voice and language, people models, and perspective. These forces have strong and specific connections to mental imagery, immersion in a story, daydreaming, and intrusive thoughts. This shows the complexity of people’s reading ...