ROCHESTER, Minn. — Heart surgery is a serious and invasive medical procedure, and that can be intimidating for a patient. A new study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings suggests that virtual reality (VR) can be an effective tool to reduce preoperative anxiety in older patients undergoing their first open-heart surgery. While much of the research to date using VR involved younger patient populations, these research findings suggest that immersive VR was effective and well tolerated in older ...

The financial and emotional toll borne by mothers whose adult children have experienced incarceration is often overlooked but can exacerbate financial burdens, especially for Black mothers, according to new research from Rice University sociologist Brielle Bryan. The study, “Maternal Wealth Implications of Child Incarceration: Examining the Upstream Consequences of Children’s Incarceration for Women’s Assets, Homeownership and Home Equity,” appears in a recent edition of Demography and explores the wealth disparities and racial inequities that intensify these burdens. The research focuses ...

Under embargo until 12/02/25 12:00PM EST/17:00PM GMT  It’s been a long-held belief that absolute pitch - the ability to identify musical notes without reference  - is a rare gift reserved for a select few with special genetic gifts or those who began musical training in early childhood. However, new research from the University of Surrey challenges this, demonstrating that adults can acquire this skill through rigorous training.  The study involved a diverse group of 12 adult musicians, with varying levels of musical experiences, who participated in an eight-week online training program. ...

Loneliness and social isolation have been linked to an elevated risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), according to a groundbreaking study conducted by researchers from Central South University and the Army Medical University in China, in collaboration with the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Published in Health Data Science, the study analyzed data from over 400,000 participants in the UK Biobank, shedding light on the far-reaching impacts of social factors on liver health. The research team, led by Professor Jiaqi Huang and Professor Jin Chai, sought to explore whether loneliness and social isolation—two ...

In everyday life, we typically encounter water in one of three familiar states – solid, liquid or gas. But there are in fact many more phases, some of which – predicted to exist at high temperature and pressure – are so strange they’re referred to as exotic. State-of-the-art neutron spectrometers and sample environment infrastructures at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) have enabled the first experimental observation of one of these exotic phases – plastic ice VII. Plastic ice VII was originally predicted more than 15 years ago by molecular dynamics ...

Scientists have discovered an interaction between genes that increases the risk of developing a type of alopecia. In a new JAMA Dermatology study, scientists at King’s College London found that changes in two parts of the genome work together to influence alopecia risk. Frontal fibrosing alopecia (FFA) is a highly distressing dermatological disorder which is associated with inflammation, scarring and irreversible hair loss. The disease affects an increasing number of patients worldwide and is caused by genetic and environmental factors. The study authors conducted a meta-analysis of four cohorts ...

Chinese scientists have identified two key genes responsible for sorghum's resistance to Striga, a parasitic plant that causes significant crop losses. The breakthrough, which also highlights the potential of AI to predict key amino acid sites in strigolactone (SL) transporters, could have wide-ranging applications in enhancing parasitic plant resistance across various crops. This study, published in Cell, was conducted by Prof. XIE Qi's team at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental ...

Francis Crick Institute press release Under strict embargo: 16:00hrs GMT Wednesday 12 February 2025 Peer reviewed Experimental study Animals, people and cells Researchers from the Francis Crick Institute have found that some particularly aggressive lung cancer cells can develop their own electric network, like that seen in the body’s nervous system. This unique property could make them less dependent on the environment surrounding the tumour and even spread more easily. Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is one of the hardest types of cancer to ...

The RNA inhibitor olpasiran significantly reduces a type of “bad cholesterol” that’s associated with a high risk of cardiovascular events, according to results from an analysis by a Mount Sinai researcher of a phase 2 trial. The study reported that higher doses of olpasiran lowered the type of cholesterol called lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] by more than 95 percent in participants with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Findings were published February 12, 2025, in JAMA Cardiology. “Our study is the first clinical trial to investigate the association between oxidized phospholipids on lipoprotein(a) and inflammatory mediators,” says ...

Andrew Pines, MD, MA, a resident in the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a researcher in the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, is the lead author of a paper published in JAMA Psychiatry, Mapping Lesions That Cause Psychosis to a Human Brain Circuit and Proposed Stimulation Target.   Shan Siddiqi, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of Psychiatric Neuromodulation Research at the BWH Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, is the senior author of this ...

    **MEDIA ADVISORY** UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL: Wednesday, February 12 at 11am EST Nature article entitled: A critical role for the cortical amygdala in shaping social encounters [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08540-4] Bottom Line: Neural activity in the cortical amygdala determines whether mice engage in aggressive or pro-social behavior  Results: By performing a network analysis on whole-brain activity of male mice, we identified the cortical amygdala – an olfactory cortical structure – as a key brain region in promoting aggression. This brain region is activated by olfactory cues from male mice and by aggressive ...

Recognition of telehealth as an effective strategy for delivering treatment for substance use disorder (SUD) has raised hopes for improving access to this treatment in settings with limited transportation or when time constraints compromise regular use of consistent access to in-person substance use treatment. But the findings from a team of researchers from the Virginia Center for Health Innovation,  UCLA, RAND, and MedInsight, Milliman Inc., suggest that the promise of telehealth may vary by insurance and geography. New research suggests that people who live ...

Monash research could transform how broken bones are treated, with the development of a special zinc-based dissolvable material that could replace the metal plates and screws typically used to hold fractured bones together.  Surgeons routinely use stainless steel or titanium, which stay in the body forever, can cause discomfort and may require follow-up surgeries. A new zinc alloy, designed by Monash biomedical engineers, could solve these problems by being mechanically strong but gentle enough to degrade safely over time while supporting optimal healing. A study published today in Nature shows the research team’s innovative ...

An increase in high-fat, high-fructose foods in people’s diets has contributed to a dramatic increase in type 2 diabetes. This, in turn, has led to an increase in peripheral neuropathy — nerve damage, typically in the hands and feet — that causes weakness, loss of sensation and, in some, a stabbing, burning, or tingling pain. About half of people with type 2 diabetes are affected, and of these, about half experience severe neuropathic pain. The damage begins as axons from sensory neurons begin to retract and disappear from the tissues they innervate. New research from the lab of Clifford Woolf, MB, BCh, PhD, director ...

A research team led by Professor WANG Min from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered two bird fossils in Jurassic-era rocks from Fujian Province in southeast China. These rocks date back approximately 149 million years. The fossils fill a spatiotemporal gap in the early evolutionary history of birds and provide the evidence yet that birds were diversified by the end of the Jurassic period.  This study was published in Nature. Birds ...

Yogurt, which contains live strains of bacteria, is thought to protect against many types of diseases, with some reports indicating it could reduce risk of colorectal cancer. A new study led by investigators from Mass General Brigham finds that yogurt consumption over time may protect against colorectal cancer through changes in the gut microbiome. Using data from studies that have followed participants for decades, researchers found that long-term consumption of two or more servings per week of yogurt was tied to lower rates of proximal colorectal cancer positive ...

University of Virginia Cancer Center researchers have explained the failure of immune checkpoint therapy for ovarian cancer by discovering how gut bacteria interfere with the treatment. Doctors may be able to use the findings to overcome this treatment failure and save the lives of thousands of women every year. The new discovery, from the lab of UVA’s Melanie Rutkowski, PhD, speaks to the surprising ways that the microbiome – the collection of organisms that live on and inside our bodies – is vital not only to ...

“Our results suggest that forensic applications of DNAm clocks using non-blood tissue types will provide age estimates that are not as accurate as predictions based on blood, especially if using clocks algorithms trained on blood samples.” BUFFALO, NY—February 12, 2025 — A new research paper was published in Aging (Aging-US) on January 3, 2025, in Volume 17, Issue 1, titled “Characterization of DNA methylation clock algorithms applied to diverse tissue types.” Researchers ...

SAN ANTONIO — February 12, 2025 —Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists are studying Saturn’s moon Titan to assess its tidal dissipation rate, the energy lost as it orbits the ringed planet with its massive gravitational force. Understanding tidal dissipation helps scientists infer many other things about Titan, such as the makeup of its inner core and its orbital history. “When most people think of tides they think of the movement of the oceans, in and out, with the passage of the Moon overhead, said Dr. Brynna Downey. “But that is just because water moves ...

To effectively present the uncertainty of convective-scale weather forecasts, convective-scale ensemble prediction systems have been developed at major operational centers, whose lateral boundary conditions are usually provided by global numerical weather models. Recently, the emergence of AI weather models has provided a new approach to driving convective-scale ensemble prediction systems. AI weather models can produce forecasts for the next 7 to 10 days in just a few minutes, which is around 10,000 times faster than numerical weather models. However, the performance of using the ...

WASHINGTON—Donald Patrick McDonnell, Ph.D., has been awarded the Endocrine Society’s John D. Baxter Prize for Entrepreneurship for discovering hormone therapies for treating breast and prostate cancer, the Society announced today. The John D. Baxter Prize for Entrepreneurship was established to recognize the extraordinary achievement of bringing an idea, product, service, or process to market. This work ultimately elevates the field of endocrinology and positively impacts the health of patients. McDonnell is a professor at Duke University School ...

A new study by Silent Spring Institute and University of California, Berkeley shows how laws that promote greater transparency around harmful chemicals in products can shift markets toward safer products. The study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, focused on California’s right-to-know law called Proposition 65, or Prop 65. Under the law, the state of California maintains a list of approximately 900 chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm. Companies that sell products in California are required to warn people if their products could expose them to harmful ...

As more consumers turn to subscription-based platforms, the distribution of revenue in streaming services has become a crucial issue in the digital economy. Content creators and artists argue that the current models are opaque, frequently neglecting the needs of creators. In response, researchers at UMH have proposed a model based on three allocation rules that could be applied according to various fairness criteria. "Our model is based on three main approaches: the equal division rule, which divides revenue equally among services; the proportional rule, which allocates revenue according ...

A collaboration of researchers from Colorado State University and Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance surveyed zoo employees and volunteers across the US about their experiences of burnout and grief related to zoo animal losses. Their latest study has found that poor grief support in some US zoos leaves staff feeling limited empathy from leadership, burned out, and unable to openly express their grief after the death of an animal to which they had formed a close emotional bond. The research, published in the journal ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A cardiac surgery and heart failure team at the University of Michigan implanted a novel mechanical heart pump into a patient as part of a clinical trial that will compare it to the only device currently used to treat end-stage heart failure. “This trial presents an opportunity to assess novel technology as we explore a potential new treatment for advanced heart failure — a life-threatening condition with extremely limited therapeutic opportunities available,” said Francis Pagani, M.D., Ph.D., national ...