Scientists have pinpointed the origin and composition of the asteroid that caused the mass extinction 66 million years ago, revealing it was a rare carbonaceous asteroid from beyond Jupiter, according to a new study. The findings help resolve long-standing debates about the nature of Chicxulub impactor, reshaping our understanding of Earth's history and the extraterrestrial rocks that have collided with it. Earth has experienced several mass extinction events. The most recent event occurred 66 million years ago at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene eras (K-Pg boundary) and resulted in the loss of roughly 60% of the planet’s species, including non-avian dinosaurs. ...

A newly identified activity in the brain that occurs while we sleep – a barrage of action potentials, or a BARR – plays a crucial role in rebalancing the hippocampal neural network during memory consolidation. The findings offer fresh insights into how our brains preserve memories while maintaining stability, as we slumber. Memory consolidation – a process that stabilizes and strengthens our recent experiences into long-term memories – occurs when we sleep. During the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) phase of sleep, ...

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have discovered how a hospital superbug  Clostridioides difficile (C.diff) can rapidly evolve resistance to vancomycin, the frontline drug used in the UK Scientists found that in less than two months the bacteria could develop resistance to 32 times the initial antibiotic concentration C.diff, a type of bacteria which often affects people who have been taking antibiotics, has been identified by the World Health Organisation as one of the top global public health threats, and is responsible ...

Researchers have demonstrated a technique for printing thin metal oxide films at room temperature, and have used the technique to create transparent, flexible circuits that are both robust and able to function at high temperatures. “Creating metal oxides that are useful for electronics has traditionally required making use of specialized equipment that is slow, expensive, and operates at high temperatures,” says Michael Dickey, co-corresponding author of a paper on the work and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University. “We wanted ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – While everyone knows that a good night’s sleep restores energy, a new Cornell University study finds it resets another vital function: memory. Learning or experiencing new things activates neurons in the hippocampus, a region of the brain vital for memory. Later, while we sleep, those same neurons repeat the same pattern of activity, which is how the brain consolidates those memories that are then stored in a large area called the cortex. But how is it that we can keep learning new things for a lifetime without using up all of our neurons? A new study, “A Hippocampal Circuit Mechanism ...

Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) in Japan have discovered a region of the brain that encodes where an animal is planning to be in the near future. Linked to internal maps of spatial locations and past movements, activity in the newly discovered grid cells accurately predicts future locations as an animal travels around its environment. Published in Science on August 15, the study helps explain how planned spatial navigation is possible. It might seem effortless, but navigating the world requires quite a bit of under-the-hood brain activity. For ...

The ability to turn experiences into memories allows us to learn from the past and use what we learned as a model to respond appropriately to new situations. For this reason, as the world around us changes, this memory model cannot simply be a fixed archive of the good old days. Rather, it must be dynamic, changing over time and adapting to new circumstances to better help us predict the future and select the best course of action. How the brain could regulate a memory’s dynamics was a mystery – until multiple memory copies ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A decline in estrogen during menopause causes changes in body fat distribution and associated cardiovascular and metabolic disease, but a new study identifies potential therapies that might one day reverse these unhealthy shifts.  The study, “Cxcr4 Regulates a Pool of Adipocyte Progenitors and Contributes to Adiposity in a Sex-Dependent Manner,” was published Aug. 5 in Nature Communications. The researchers discovered that a receptor called Cxcr4, when blocked in mice, reduced the tendency of fat stem cells to develop into white fat, also called white adipose tissue. This treatment could potentially be combined with low doses of estrogen therapy to cut ...

A team of scientists led by the University of Colorado Boulder has identified 30 new areas critical for conserving biodiversity in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. In a study published Aug. 15 in the journal Conservation Biology, the researchers warn that without greater protection to limit human activities in these areas, native wildlife could face significant population declines.  “Many animals are only found in the Southern Ocean, and they all play an important role in its ecosystem,” said Cassandra Brooks, the paper’s senior author and associate professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and a fellow of the ...

The review, led by Imperial College London’s Professor Hippolite Amadi, argues that Nigeria’s own discoveries and technological advancements of the past three decades have been “abandoned” by policymakers. The authors argue that too many Nigerian newborns, clinically defined as infants in the first 28 days of life, die of causes that could have been prevented had policymakers adopted recent in-country scientific breakthroughs.   Led by Professor Amadi of Imperial’s Department of Bioengineering, who received the Nigeria Prize ...

A study published in Eurosurveillance analysing 5.5 million cases of infectious diseases in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) over 10 years has found important differences in the relative proportion of notified male versus female cases for several diseases. The proportion of males ranged on average from 40-45% for pertussis and Shiga toxin-producing Escherischia coli (STEC) infections to 75-80% for HIV/AIDS. “Although this study was not able to fully explain the differences observed across countries and diseases, it offers some interesting leads,” said Julien Beauté, principal expert in general surveillance at the European ...

“In the present study we describe the development of an inhibitory nanobody directed against an extracellular epitope present in the native V-ATPase c subunit.” BUFFALO, NY- August 15, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on August 14, 2024, entitled, “A nanobody against the V-ATPase c subunit inhibits metastasis of 4T1-12B breast tumor cells to lung in mice.” The vacuolar H+-ATPase (V-ATPase) is an ATP-dependent proton pump that functions to control the pH of intracellular compartments ...

Machine-generated text has been fooling humans for the last four years. Since the release of GPT-2 in 2019, large language model (LLM) tools have gotten progressively better at crafting stories, news articles, student essays and more, to the point that humans are often unable to recognize when they are reading text produced by an algorithm. While these LLMs are being used to save time and even boost creativity in ideating and writing, their power can lead to misuse and harmful outcomes, which are already ...

Europe's abandoned farmlands could find new life through rewilding, a movement to restore ravaged landscapes to their wilderness before human intervention. A quarter of the European continent, 117 million hectares, is primed with rewilding opportunities, researchers report August 15 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology. They provide a roadmap for countries to meet the 2030 European Biodiversity Strategy's goals to protect 30% of land, with 10% of those areas strictly under conservation. The team ...

A study of over 15,000 youth with self-inflicted injury treated in Emergency Departments (EDs) found that around 25 percent were seen in the ED within 90 days before or 90 days after injury, pointing to an opportunity for ED-based interventions, such as suicide risk screening, safety planning, and linkage to services. Nearly half of ED visits after the self-inflicted injury encounter were for mental health issues. “Self-inflicted injury is an important predictor of suicide risk,” said Samaa Kemal, MD, MPH, emergency medicine physician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie ...

About The Study: Uterus transplant was technically feasible and was associated with a high live birth rate following successful graft survival. Adverse events were common, with medical and surgical risks affecting recipients as well as donors. Congenital abnormalities and developmental delays have not occurred to date in the live-born children. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Liza Johannesson, MD, PhD, email Liza.Johannesson@bswhealth.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.11679) Editor’s ...

About The Study: Consistent with prior research on adverse childhood experience (ACE; defined as abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction before age 18) exposure and presence of a firearm in the household during childhood, this study found that cumulative ACE exposure was associated with higher odds of household firearm ownership in adulthood. The relationship may be due to a heightened sense of vulnerability to physical violence and greater perceived threats to personal safety associated with a traumatic childhood, which lead individuals to seek self-protection. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Alexander Testa, PhD, email alexander.testa@uth.tmc.edu. To ...

American women have the highest rate of maternal deaths among high-income countries, with outcomes worse for minoritized groups. In an effort to understand the maternal health of pregnant people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism and intellectual disability, researchers from Drexel University’s Policy and Analytics Center in the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute examined Medicaid data to identify perinatal and postpartum outcomes among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The study was recently published in JAMA Network Open. “While ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (EMBARGOED UNTIL AUG. 15, 2024 @ 11 A.M. EDT) – For years, mouthwash has been marketed as an essential hygiene item to prevent bad breath, even though it offers minimal if any health benefits. But what if a mouthwash-based test to detect biomarkers can help physicians predict disease recurrence in head and neck cancer patients? That futuristic scenario seems closer to reality after a new study by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, UC San Diego Health and collaborating cancer centers. Their findings, ...

The Department of Health Behavior & Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health will become the Department of Health Behavior & Health Equity, effective August 15, 2024. The new name reflects the department’s increasing focus on issues of health equity in research, teaching and service.  “Health equity is at the core of our mission and actions in public health,” said F. DuBois Bowman, dean of Michigan Public Health. “I am grateful to the many members of the Health Behavior & Health Equity community ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a new two-photon fluorescence microscope that captures high-speed images of neural activity at cellular resolution. By imaging much faster and with less harm to brain tissue than traditional two-photon microscopy, the new approach could provide a clearer view of how neurons communicate in real time, leading to new insights into brain function and neurological diseases. “Our new microscope is ideally suited for studying the dynamics of neural networks in real time, which is crucial for understanding fundamental brain functions such as learning, memory and decision-making,” said research team leader ...

(WASHINGTON, August 15, 2024) – Over half of people with iron deficiency were found to still have low iron levels three years after diagnosis, and among patients whose condition was effectively treated within that timeframe, they faced longer-than-expected delays, pointing to substantial gaps in appropriate recognition and efficient treatment of the condition, according to a study published today in Blood Advances. Iron deficiency, or when the body’s iron stores are too low, is common, and may affect up to 40% of adolescents and young women. Iron is important in maintaining many body functions, including the production of ...

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has launched a program that will support Native American communities to lead public health research to address overdose, substance use, and pain, including related factors such as mental health and wellness. Despite the inherent strengths in Tribal communities, and driven in part by social determinants of health, Native American communities face unique health disparities related to the opioid crisis. For instance, in recent years, overdose death rates have been highest among American Indian and Alaska Native people. Research prioritized by Native communities is essential ...

Weill Cornell Medicine has received a five-year, $12.4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, for an extensive program of basic and translational research on the biology of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common form of lymphoma. The investigator-initiated Program Project grant, led by Dr. Leandro Cerchietti, the Richard A. Stratton Associate Professor in Hematology and Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Dr. Christopher Flowers, professor and chair of the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at The University ...

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded Yubing Sun, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a $1.9 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award to support the exploration of the fundamental principles behind the process that close gaps caused by injury or growth between cells. This research has the potential to push forward advances in our understanding of wound healing, cellular regeneration therapies and embryonic development.  The gaps ...