Magnetic micropillar arrays consist of tiny, vertical pin-shaped structures, arranged in a grid-like pattern. These micropillars can change their shape to a pre-programmed geometry when exposed to a magnetic field. They are made from magnetically responsive composites, comprising rubbery polymers like polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) embedded with magnetic particles. These composites can change their shape and recover repeatedly without any deterioration. Unfortunately, conventional magnetic micropillar arrays can only hold their changed shape temporarily while the magnetic field is being applied. Previous studies have explored various approaches to address this issue, including water-soluble ...

REDWOOD CITY, CA — July 14, 2025 — A landmark study published in Cell has unveiled a first-of-a-kind optogenetic screening platform, developed by scientists at Integrated Biosciences, a biotechnology company integrating optogenetics, chemistry and AI to discover small molecule therapeutics for age-related diseases. The new peer-reviewed publication demonstrates the platform’s capabilities by applying it to the integrated stress response (ISR), a key aging- and disease-associated signaling pathway implicated in neurodegeneration, cancer and viral infection.   In the Cell study, Integrated Biosciences scientists used optogenetic control to selectively activate the ...

Volatile air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and ozone are only monitored loosely in the EU. Separate devices are used for each individual pollutant, and real-time monitoring is not possible. Birgitta Schultze-Bernhardt from the Institute of Experimental Physics at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) would like to simplify and significantly improve these measurements. In her MULTI TRACE research project, she is developing a portable device that can determine the concentration of several gaseous pollutants in ambient air with the utmost accuracy ...

Most genes are ancient and shared across species. But a small subset of genes are relative newcomers, spontaneously emerging from stretches of DNA that once encoded nothing at all. Now, after nearly a decade of charting these genes in fruit flies, researchers have discovered how these de novo genes are regulated. In complementary studies, in Nature Ecology & Evolution and PNAS, the team showed how transcription factors and genomic neighbors switch these genes on and integrate them into cellular networks—the first studies to identify these master regulators. Together, the findings shed light on how new genes become ...

KANSAS CITY, MO — July 14, 2025 — While humans can regularly replace certain cells, like those in our blood and gut, we cannot naturally regrow most other parts of the body. For example, when the tiny sensory hair cells in our inner ears are damaged, the result is often permanent hearing loss, deafness, or balance problems. In contrast, animals like fish, frogs, and chicks regenerate sensory hair cells effortlessly. Now, scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have identified how two distinct genes guide the regeneration of sensory cells in zebrafish. The discovery improves our understanding of how regeneration works in zebrafish and may guide future studies ...

The cleanup of air pollution in East Asia has accelerated global warming, a new study published today (Monday, 14 July) in the journal Communications Earth and Environment has found. Global warming, driven primarily by emissions of greenhouse gases, has been accelerating for the past 15 years, leading to record-breaking surface temperatures. Over the same period, countries in East Asia have made strong efforts to clean up air pollution, which is important for public health. The largest air pollution clean-up has been made ...

Researchers at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center have identified a signaling loop involved in the growth and persistence of leukemia cells – and developed a novel immunotherapy that can disrupt that loop to boost immune function and improve survival. The findings, published in Nature Communications, offer new hope for treating and preventing cancer. Hollings researcher Sophie Paczesny, M.D., Ph.D., co-leader of the Cancer Biology and Immunology Research Program, led the multidisciplinary research ...

Astronomers have detected a giant exoplanet – between three and ten times the size of Jupiter – hiding in the swirling disc of gas and dust surrounding a young star. Earlier observations of this star, called MP Mus, suggested that it was all alone without any planets in orbit around it, surrounded by a featureless cloud of gas and dust. However, a second look at MP Mus, using a combination of results from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, suggest that the star is not alone after all. The international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, detected a large gas giant in the star’s ...

Researchers have demonstrated a new technique that allows “self-driving laboratories” to collect at least 10 times more data than previous techniques at record speed. The advance – which is published in Nature Chemical Engineering – dramatically expedites materials discovery research, while slashing costs and environmental impact. Self-driving laboratories are robotic platforms that combine machine learning and automation with chemical and materials sciences to discover materials more quickly. The automated process allows machine-learning algorithms to make use of data from each experiment when predicting which experiment to conduct next to achieve ...

Spotting the Missteps: How MiROM Detects Protein Misfolding in Cancer Cells MiROM identifies proteins by using mid-infrared light to detect molecular vibrations – essentially the natural “dance” of molecules within protein structures. Unlike optical spectroscopy, which measures light attenuation, optoacoustics capture ultrasound waves generated when proteins absorb infrared light. This absorption causes a tiny, localized temperature increase, leading to transient expansion of medium surrounding the protein and the emission of ultrasound waves. By analyzing these signals in real time, MiROM can detect structural changes ...

At the dawn of the millennium, a group of eminent scientists began compiling a list of the threats they felt were most likely to impact the world’s rocky shorelines over the coming quarter of a century. Published in 2002, it included forecasts that – among other things – pollution from oil spills would decrease, the number of invasive species across the world would rise, genetically-modified organisms would have harmful effects on the ocean, and the impacts of global climate change would be felt more intensely. Now, 25 years on, the same academics – along with a larger and more wide-ranging team of international experts – have revisited ...

A promising industrial process can turn crushed sugar cane waste into green hydrogen far more efficiently than previously thought, shows a SECLG process simulation from the University of Johannesburg. The study is published in Renewable Energy. The simulation indicates high energy efficiency and produces a small fraction of the unwanted tar, carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitrogen (N) compared to conventional biomass gasification plants. The process may assist in decarbonizing energy-intensive industries such as steel and cement in the future. Sugar cane and ...

The public, legislators, and media often group per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” which are found globally in countless products, into a single category. While certain PFAS are harmful for human and public health, new articles in Heart Rhythm, the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society, the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society, and the Pediatric & Congenital Electrophysiology Society, published by Elsevier, emphasize that fluoropolymers, a specific class of PFAS, are not considered environmental contaminants and are indispensable for use in medical devices. ...

Climate change is coming… but what on Earth can we do about it? Scientist Dr. Kimberley Miner has written a guide to riding out the oncoming almighty storm. Miner is an Earth scientist whose research includes studying the changing Poles of Earth, the Arctic’s melting permafrost, forever chemicals and plastic pollution. Her new book Considering Climate Change provides practical guidance for young people concerned about the future. She poses questions like how to deal with eco-anxiety and climate-grief, how to prepare financially, ...

Did the COVID-19 pandemic affect obesity rates in Canada? A new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241421 found obesity rates based on body mass index (BMI) increased faster in the 4 years after the start of the pandemic than in the previous 11 years, especially in younger adults. “Compared with the average increase during the 11 years before the pandemic, the prevalence of obesity [as measured by BMI] increased at a greater rate during the 4 years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2023), suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health restrictions ...

Caring for autistic patients requires a unique approach, and a Five ways to support… article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.250152 aims to provide tips on caring for these patients. Suggestions include offering online bookings and virtual consultations, adapting health care delivery and environments to reduce sensory overstimulation, tailoring communications for individual patients, ensuring clarity and predictability in health care encounters, ...

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – A new study reveals that ingestions of nicotine pouches by young children have surged in recent years. Researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Central Ohio Poison Center analyzed calls to U.S. poison centers and found an alarming 763% increase in the rate of reported nicotine pouch ingestions among children younger than 6 years old from 2020 to 2023. Nicotine pouches were also more ...

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration has detected the merger of the most massive black holes ever observed with gravitational waves using the US National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded LIGO observatories. The powerful merger produced a final black hole approximately 225 times the mass of our Sun. The signal, designated GW231123, was detected during the fourth observing run of the LVK network on November 23, 2023. LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, made history in 2015 when it made the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves, ripples in space-time. In that case, the waves emanated from a black ...

SAN FRANCISCO—Socially isolated older adults are at increased risk of developing diabetes and high blood sugar, according to a study being presented Sunday at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif. “Social isolation and loneliness have been increasingly recognized as important health risk factors after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings underscore the importance for clinicians to recognize social isolation as a critical social determinant of health when ...

SAN FRANCISCO—Intermittent energy restriction, time-restricted eating and continuous energy restriction can all improve blood sugar levels and body weight in people with obesity and type 2 diabetes, according to a study being presented Sunday at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif. “This study is the first to compare the effects of three different dietary interventions intermittent energy restriction (IER), time-restricted eating (TRE) and continuous energy restriction (CER) in managing type 2 diabetes with obesity,” said Haohao Zhang, Ph.D., chief physician ...

SAN FRANCISCO—A grandfather’s exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals may impact the age when his granddaughter starts her first period, according to preliminary data being presented Sunday at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif. “Girls are starting puberty earlier than ever before, which can raise their risk for health problems later in life,” said lead researcher Xin Hu, PhD, of Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, Ga. “We wanted to explore why this might be happening by looking at how environmental exposures from grandparents can influence when girls ...

SAN FRANCISCO—Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in early life, including during gestation and infancy, results in a higher preference for sugary and fatty foods later in life, according to an animal study being presented Sunday at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are substances in the environment (air, soil or water supply), food sources, personal care products and manufactured products that interfere with the normal function ...

SAN FRANCISCO—The age at which a woman has her first period can offer valuable clues about her long-term risk for conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and reproductive health issues, according to a study being presented Sunday at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif. The Brazilian study found that both early and late menarche—the age when women first get their period—are linked to different health risks. Women who had their first period before age 10 were more ...

SAN FRANCISCO—A novel artificial intelligence (AI) application capable of diagnosing endocrine cancers with speed and accuracy is being presented Sunday at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif. The research, presented by Jansi Rani Sethuraj, B.S.N., R.N., C.C.R.N., from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, introduces a universally accessible and computationally efficient AI application. This AI application aims to democratize expert-level cancer diagnostics, ...

SAN FRANCISCO—Cancer deaths linked to obesity have tripled in the United States over the past two decades, according to a study being presented Sunday at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif. The study, which examined more than 33,000 deaths from obesity-associated cancers, revealed sharp increases in cancer deaths, especially among women, older adults, Native Americans and Black Americans. “Obesity is a significant risk factor for multiple cancers, contributing ...