People with autism are typically diagnosed by clinical observation and assessment. To deconstruct the clinical decision process, which is often subjective and difficult to describe, researchers used a large language model (LLM) to synthesize the behaviors and observations that are most indicative of an autism diagnosis. Their results, publishing in the Cell Press journal Cell, show that repetitive behaviors, special interests, and perception-based behaviors are most associated with an autism diagnosis. These findings have potential to improve diagnostic guidelines ...

About The Study: Patients who have had a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or minor stroke are at a persistently high risk of subsequent stroke. The findings from this study underscore the need for improving long-term stroke prevention measures in this patient group.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Faizan Khan, PhD, email faizan.khan1@ucalgary.ca. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.2033) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

In diagnosing autism – the developmental variant that affects around 80 million people worldwide – medical practitioners today put too much emphasis on a child's lack of sociability and not enough on their interests and how they naturally behave spontaneously with objects. And so, to be more accurate in their assessments, health authorities should start tapping the vast analytic powers of artificial intelligence, combined with the experience of clinicians, and come up with better diagnostic criteria. That's ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of 3.7 million individuals, living alone with depression or anxiety was associated with an increased risk of suicide, particularly among middle-aged individuals and men. These findings underscore the importance of preventing mental illness, such as depression and anxiety, while addressing living arrangements as a critical factor in suicide risk assessments for individuals with these conditions. Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Hong Jin Jeon, MD, PhD (jhj001001@gmail.com) and Kyungdo Han, PhD (hkd917@naver.com). To access the embargoed study: Visit ...

About The Study: In this survey study of older U.S. adults, most participants agreed that Medicare should cover weight management medications and more than half of those with body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater were interested in using them. These results should inform decisions to include weight management medications in the Medicare and commercial insurance programs, as well as utilization policies to control health care costs. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Lauren Oshman, MD, MPH, email laoshman@umich.edu. To ...

PHILADELPHIA—The Pew Charitable Trusts announced today that six distinguished researchers will receive the 2025 Pew fellowship in marine conservation. The scientists—from China, Curaçao, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Africa—join a community of more than 200 Pew marine fellows committed to advancing ocean knowledge and the sustainable use of marine resources.   “The challenges facing our oceans, from habitat destruction to pollution, require bold scientific leadership and innovative solutions,” said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Pew’s senior vice president for Philadelphia and scientific advancement. ...

When someone has a stroke, it can accelerate the loss of cognitive ability over the coming years. Stroke survivors who have attended some level of higher education may face even steeper mental declines, according to a study led by Michigan Medicine. In an analysis of cognitive outcomes for more than 2,000 patients seen for stroke between 1971 and 2019, college graduates performed better on initial post-stroke examinations of global cognition, a measure of overall cognitive ability that includes mental functions like memory, attention and processing speed. However, ...

Los Angeles (February –, 2025)—Evolving roughly 27 different times in the long history of fish, bioluminescence—the biological production of light—is one of the flashier survival tools used for luring prey, communication, and recognizing potential mates among various species. In a new study published in Ichthyological Research, an international team of researchers studied the organs that produce light in Vinciguerria mabahiss, a rare species of fish from the Red Sea. This paper marks the first-ever close examination of these organs, providing key information on their structure ...

Getting zapped with millions of volts of electricity may not sound like a healthy activity, but for some trees, it is. A new study, published in New Phytologist, reports that some tropical tree species are not only able to tolerate lightning strikes, but benefit from them. The trees may have even evolved to act as lightning rods. The research was led by Evan Gora, a forest ecologist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Gora studies how lightning impacts biodiversity and carbon storage in Panama’s tropical forests.  Lightning kills hundreds of millions of trees per year. But in 2015, while working in Panama, Gora and his colleagues came across ...

Taking a person’s life is not automatically harmful to a soldier’s mental well-being if the circumstances justified it, according to a study of more than 14,600 soldiers. “Killing another person does not in itself seem to be something that goes against human nature, and it doesn’t necessarily harm the mental health of the person who does it,” said Andreas Espetvedt Nordstrand, a Norwegian clinical psychologist. Commander Nordstrand is the head of research and development at the Institute of Military Psychiatry, Norwegian Armed Forces – Joint ...

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has selected Florida Atlantic University’s Hamming Quasi-Cyclic (HQC) for standardization in its Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) project. After a thorough evaluation process, NIST selected HQC to be part of the new generation of encryption standards, for its ability to meet its criteria for security, efficiency and practical implementation.  HQC is a cryptographic algorithm designed to ensure secure key exchange between two parties, enabling ...

LOS ANGELES — Researchers at City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the U.S. with its National Medical Center named top 5 in the nation for cancer by U.S. News & World Report, have found that cell mutations are necessary but not always sufficient for tumors to form. Instead, they suggest that additional risk factors that promote tumor growth, like chronic inflammation, are a key trigger for tumor formation. The study findings, published this month in Cancer Discovery, answer a question that scientists have long asked: Are cell mutations alone ...

March 26, 2025   We Are Vastly Overestimating the Amount of Fresh Water Available for Lithium Mining, New Study Finds New research led by UMass Amherst hydrologists sounds the alarm over mining practices that have immediate implications for transition to low-carbon economy   AMHERST, Mass. — New research into lithium mining in the “Lithium Triangle” of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia — source of more than half of the world’s lithium resources — shows that the commonly accepted models used ...

March 26, 2025 AMHERST, Mass. – Many native plants in the U.S. cannot possibly move themselves fast enough to avoid climate-change driven extinction. If these native plants are going to have any chance of surviving into the future, they’ll need human help to move into adjacent areas, a process known as “managed relocation.” And yet, there’s no guarantee that a plant will thrive in a new area. Furthermore, movement of introduced plants, albeit over much larger distances, is exactly how the problem of invasive species began—think of kudzu-choked forests, wetlands taken over by purple ...

SAN DIEGO, March 26, 2025 — On the shelves of makeup counters and drugstores sits an array of foundations in various olive, ivory and fair shades. But for people with darker skin tones, finding the right foundation shade can be a challenge. Dark foundations on the market often fall flat, appearing gray-like once applied on the skin. But now, researchers report a blue cosmetic color additive that gives these foundations the warmth and depth they currently lack. Gabriella Baki, associate professor of pharmaceutics and director of the cosmetic science and formulation design undergraduate program at the University of ...

SAN DIEGO, March 26, 2025 — Sometimes cell phones die sooner than expected or electric vehicles don’t have enough charge to reach their destination. The rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries in these and other devices typically last hours or days between charging. However, with repeated use, batteries degrade and need to be recharged more frequently. Now, researchers are considering radiocarbon as a source for safe, small and affordable nuclear batteries that could last decades or longer without charging.   Su-Il In, a professor at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology, will present his results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical ...

SAN DIEGO, March 26, 2025 — Can you imagine a smartphone with a wooden touchscreen? Or a house with wooden windows? Probably not — unless you’ve heard of transparent wood. Made by modifying wood’s natural structure, this material has been proposed as a sturdy, eco-friendly plastic alternative. But wood’s biodegradability is often sacrificed in the process. Researchers are hoping to change that by creating transparent woods from almost entirely natural materials and making them electrically conductive. The researchers will present their results at the spring ...

Statement Highlights: By age 18, many adolescents have already developed heart disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol or Type 2 diabetes, and a growing number of younger adults are experiencing adverse cardiovascular events.   Numerous social determinants of health and developmental and life changes impact cardiovascular risk as young people progress from their teens to their mid-20s. The statement describes the challenges and opportunities for easing the transition ...

Those who start work earlier express more discomfort with the seasonal time change. This is the main conclusion of a study that the lecturers at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and the University of Seville (US), Jorge Mira Pérez and José María Martín Olalla, have just published in the journal Chronobiology International, in which they analyse in detail the results of the public consultation organised by the European Commission in 2018 in the then 28 member states, which ...

Scientists have for the first time filmed the real-time growth and contraction of Palladium nanoparticles, opening new avenues for utilising and recycling precious metal catalysts. Researchers at the University of Nottingham’s School of Chemistry used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to observe the complete lifecycle of palladium nanoparticles in a liquid environment, from nucleation through growth to dissolution, with the entire cycle repeating multiple times. This study has been published today in Nanoscale. One of the most important applications of metal nanoparticles is in catalysis, which forms a backbone of chemical industries. Dr Jesum Alves ...

The world’s amphibians are in trouble. Because of their sensitivity to climate change, habitat loss, and pollution, they may be the canary in the coalmine for the nascent anthropogenic mass extinction. Approximately 200 amphibian species have become extinct since the 1970s, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimates that 34% of the 7,296 known remaining species are likewise at risk. Another reason why amphibians are vulnerable is their susceptibility to disease. An emerging, potentially deadly disease of frogs and salamanders is ranavirus, a genus of at least seven species within the family Iridoviridae. Ranavirus can rapidly jump ...

Designing walkable neighborhoods has gained attention as a method to increase physical activity among urban populations. Moreover, highly walkable areas stimulate increased neighborhood retail sales, higher property values, and greater urban sustainability. However, only limited methods are available for improving walkability in the urban centers of highly motorized suburban cities. In the urban areas of suburban cities, increasing land-use diversity by opening a multifunctional facility is considered one of the most effective strategies for an architecture-scale intervention. Dr. Haruka Kato, ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 05:01 GMT / 01:01 ET WEDNESDAY 26 MARCH 2025 How elephants plan their journeys: New study reveals energy-saving strategies A new study has revealed that African Elephants have an extraordinary ability to meet their colossal food requirements as efficiently as possible. Data from over 150 elephants demonstrated that these giants plan their journeys based on energy costs and resource availability. The findings – published today (26 March) in the Journal of Animal Ecology– could provide crucial information to help protect these iconic animals and their habitats. Being an elephant is no easy task. As massive herbivores weighing several ...

Monogamous and non-monogamous individuals report similar levels of satisfaction in both their relationships and sex lives, according to a comprehensive new meta-analysis. Published today in The Journal of Sex Research, the peer-reviewed study debunks the prevailing belief that monogamous relationships – defined as exclusive romantic and sexual commitment to one partner – are inherently superior in fostering fulfilling relationships compared to alternative structures. While monogamy has been the predominant type of relationship in much of recent Western history, many individuals choose alternative structures. Non-monogamy includes various ...

His Excellency Dr. Irfaan Ali, President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, today announced a five-year extension of the national healthcare initiative to transform Guyana’s public health system with world-class healthcare services accessible to every Guyanese citizen. This next phase of the initiative, launched in 2022 by the Government of Guyana in collaboration with the Mount Sinai Health System and Hess Corporation, will include establishment of a national cancer center, continued modernization of national health facilities including Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, and the implementation of one ...