A major obstacle for net zero technologies in combatting climate change is bridging the gap between fundamental research and its application in the real world. This gap, sometimes referred to as ‘the valley of death’, is common in the field of carbon capture, where novel materials are used to remove carbon dioxide from flue gasses produced by industrial processes. This prevents carbon from entering the atmosphere, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change. Chemists have proposed and ...

Genomes can now be entrusted to store information about a variety of transient biological events inside of living cells, as they happen, like a flight recorder collecting data from an aircraft. “Our method, which goes by the acronym ENGRAM, aims to turn cells into their own historians,” said Dr. Jay Shendure, a professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine and scientific director of the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine. Shendure led the effort, together with Wei Chen, a former graduate student, and Junhong Choi, a former postdoctoral fellow. Junhong ...

The USC Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy & Government Service announced a new initiative today that leverages behavioral science to create more effective public policy. The Behavioral Science & Policy Initiative at the USC Schaeffer Institute will conduct research to understand people’s beliefs and behaviors to create policies and communication that better fit people’s needs. The initiative will focus on policy topics such as climate change, health, and food insecurity. “We want to help policymakers make a difference,” said Wändi Bruine de Bruin, the initiative’s ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Where hidden water tables meet the Earth’s surface, life can thrive even in the driest locations. Offering refuge during times of drought, shallow groundwater aquifers act like water savings accounts that can support ecosystems with the moisture required to survive, even as precipitation dwindles. As climate change and human water use rapidly deplete groundwater levels around the world, scientists and policy makers need better data for where these groundwater-dependent ecosystems exist. Now, a new study maps ...

– By Michael Matz Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and several collaborating institutions have successfully demonstrated an innovative approach to find breakthrough materials for quantum applications. The approach uses rapid computing methods to predict the properties of hundreds of materials, identifying short lists of the most promising ones. Then, precise fabrication methods are used to make the short-list materials and further ...

Most influenza viruses enter human or animal cells through specific pathways on the cells’ surface. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now discovered that certain human flu viruses and avian flu viruses can also use a second entry pathway, a protein complex of the immune system, to infect cells. This ability helps the viruses infect different species – and potentially jump between animals and humans. The majority of type A influenza viruses circulating in birds and pigs aren’t normally a health ...

In a significant advancement for geotechnical engineering, a refined space-time finite element method (v-ST/FEM) has been introduced to tackle the complex dynamics of soil-structure interaction during seismic events. This new approach allows for more accurate simulations of the response of earth structures to earthquake vibrations, marking a crucial step in improving infrastructure resilience against natural disasters. Designing structures like dams, tunnels, and embankments to withstand transient loads from sources such as earthquakes, high-speed trains, and explosions requires robust dynamic soil-structure interaction (SSI) analysis. Traditional methods often fall short in handling ...

This study was led by Dr. Guanghua Huang (School of Life Sciences, Fudan University). The team discovered that the conserved Vps21 signaling pathway plays critical roles in the regulation of white-opaque switching and mating in Candida albicans, a major human fungal pathogen.   Candida albicans is able to cause cutaneous diseases as well as life-threatening systemic infections in humans. It has multiple cellular morphologies and can undergo transitions among different morphologies to adapt to environmental changes. White-opaque transitions represent a typical morphological phenotypic switching system ...

A new study shows that about two percent of the population develop autoantibodies against type 1 interferons, mostly later in life. This makes individuals more susceptible to viral diseases like COVID-19. The study, conducted by UZH researchers together with a USZ team, is based on an analysis of a large collection of historical blood samples. Virus infections trigger the cells of the immune system to release type 1 interferons. These proteins act as early messengers that warn uninfected cells and tissues that a virus is spreading. This allows ...

Chronic cholestasis, defined as the impairment of bile acid formation and/or flow persisting for more than six months, encompasses a broad spectrum of hepatobiliary disorders, both heritable and acquired. This review focuses on heritable causes of chronic cholestasis, which, although less common, present significant clinical challenges. Heritable chronic cholestatic liver diseases are typically diagnosed in childhood, but many cases present and persist into adulthood. This review aims to highlight the genetics, clinical pathophysiology, presentation, ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Pet cats may be excellent animal models for the study of obesity origins and treatment in humans, a new study of feline gut microbes suggests – and both species would likely get healthier in the research process, scientists say. Veterinary researchers analyzed fecal samples from fat cats as the animals lost and maintained weight over the course of four dietary changes, including strict calorie reduction. The team found that food-related changes to the cats’ gut microbiome – the assortment ...

Opioid medications offer people relief from debilitating pain, but these drugs come with dangers: the risk for addiction, miserable withdrawal symptoms and the potential for fatal overdose. In a study in ACS Central Science, researchers have identified a strategy to design safer opioids. They showed that an experimental opioid, which binds to an unconventional spot in the receptor, suppresses pain in animal models with fewer side effects — most notably those linked to fatal overdoses. Opioid medications tap into the body’s natural system for mitigating pain by activating pain-suppressing ...

When you think of a battery, you probably don’t think stretchy. But batteries will need this shape-shifting quality to be incorporated into flexible electronics, which are gaining traction for wearable health monitors. Now, researchers in ACS Energy Letters report a lithium-ion battery with entirely stretchable components, including an electrolyte layer that can expand by 5000%, and it retains its charge storage capacity after nearly 70 charge/discharge cycles. Electronics that bend and stretch need batteries with similar properties. Most researchers who have ...

DALLAS, July 17, 2024 — About 1 in 3 U.S. adults have at least three risk factors for cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome, a health disorder related to the strong connections among cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and metabolic disease (such as Type 2 diabetes and obesity).[1] Yet there is no single clinical practice guideline to treat people with CKM syndrome, and gaps exist in preventing, screening, managing and comprehensively treating these diseases. To address this complex health threat, the American Heart Association, ...

It’s no secret that the caregivers of spouses with memory impairment face enormous amounts of stress. Researchers at Rice University have found that this intense pressure can be felt at the cellular level and is linked to negative physical and mental health effects, including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The study titled “Mitochondrial health, physical functioning, and daily affect: Bioenergetic mechanisms of dementia caregiver well-being,” is published online ...

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased likelihood of other such outbreaks in the future warrant the strengthening of epidemic surveillance systems. Among these, continuous wastewater surveillance at wastewater treatment plants is considered more advantageous for understanding the community-level disease dynamics, as compared to clinical surveillance. This is because such a continuous system captures the epidemic status of a larger population without any selection bias and provides higher testing capacity even during an outbreak. Moreover, such a system is relatively inexpensive. ...

New experimental results show particles called muons can be corralled into beams suitable for high-energy collisions, paving the way for new physics. Particle accelerators are best known for colliding matter to probe its make-up, but they are also used for measuring the chemical structure of drugs, treating cancers, and manufacturing silicon microchips. Current accelerators use protons, electrons and ions, but more powerful accelerators using muons – heavier cousins of electrons – have the potential to revolutionise the field. Muon accelerators would ...

Hydrogels have a variety of use cases, including contact lenses, delivering doses of medication within the body, moisturisers, water storage in soil, cleaning polluted water and as gelling and thickening agents. A hydrogel is a gel made of a type of plastic that can bind water. Researchers at ETH Zurich and Empa have now developed the first hydrogel implant designed for use in fallopian tubes. This innovation performs two functions: one is to act as a contraceptive, the other is to prevent the recipient from developing ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — July 17, 2024 — The percentage of Americans who can afford and access prescription drugs and quality healthcare stands at a new low of 55%, a six-point decline since 2022, according to the West Health-Gallup Healthcare Affordability Index. The index was developed in 2021 to track the percentage of Americans who say they have avoided medical care or not filled prescription medications in the last three months and whether they believe they could afford care if they needed it ...

Mantle convection and associated plate tectonics of planets like the Earth are governed by the deformation of mantle rocks. This deformation occurs through the motion of defects in the crystal lattices of minerals. Thus the physical properties of these structural defects under pressure have profound implications on the dynamics of Earth-like planets. Our collaborative team of researchers, led by Dr. Sebastian Ritterex, a former post-doc of the Geodynamics Research Center, Ehime University and now a researcher of the Department ...

Workplace bullying against women in Pakistan is driving emotional exhaustion and job dissatisfaction among female workers, new research reveals. A University of South Australia study reveals that workplace bullying is significantly undermining job productivity and hindering economic development in Pakistan, where women are seen as subordinates. More than 300 female workers in Pakistan’s education and health sectors were surveyed on gendered workplace bullying. Findings from in-depth interviews revealed women had experienced various bullying behaviours against them including verbal, emotional, social, and physical/sexual ...

Adolescents consume around two-thirds of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods (UPFs) new research from the Universities of Cambridge and Bristol has found. The study found that UPF consumption was highest among adolescents from deprived backgrounds, those of white ethnicity, and younger adolescents. UPFs are food items that are manufactured from industrial substances and contain additives such as preservatives, sweeteners, colourings, flavourings, and emulsifiers. UPFs vary greatly, but tend to indicate poor dietary quality, with higher levels of added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium, as well as decreased fibre, protein, and micronutrient content. They have been suggested ...

SINGAPORE – An international study has discovered that people living with the neurodegenerative condition Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) are at higher risk of developing fatty liver disease, suggesting that SMA patients may face additional health problems over time. This finding raises significant concerns about long-term care and health outcomes for individuals with SMA. SMA is a rare genetic condition that prevents the body from producing Survival Motor Neuron (SMN), a protein essential for nerves that control ...

Researchers at Phoenix’s Barrow Neurological Institute and the University of Pittsburgh have created a vast interactive atlas that may eventually help doctors use precision medicine to target treatments for traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients – and could replace the existing uniform treatment model. The study was published this week by Cell Press. With 40-50 million new cases each year, the global incidence of TBI outstrips common neurological diseases, including stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. Effective treatments have remained elusive ...

People who gain excess weight from their 20s onwards have less healthy hearts by the time they are in their 60s, according to research published in the European Heart Journal [1] today (Wednesday).   Scientists found links between weight gain in young and middle-aged adults and enlarged hearts that pump blood less well. This is over and above the effect of being overweight in later years.   The findings are based on a major study that has monitored the health of all the babies born in England, Scotland and Wales during one week in 1946.   The study was led by Alun Hughes, Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology and Pharmacology at UCL in London, UK. ...