Do we climb the social ladder alone or with help from our communities? Early childhood education (ECE) policies are betting on the former, according to a study published July 2, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Katarzyna Bobrowicz from the University of Luxembourg and University of Liège in Belgium, and colleagues. A 53-country survey of global ECE policies indicates favoritism of competition over cooperation, individualism over solidarity and talent over luck. Recent decades have seen a rising belief in meritocracy: a 1950s-era Western ideal that one’s individual merit (i.e., their skill and talent), begets success rather ...

Your mouth is a magician. Bite the inside of your cheek, and the wound may vanish without a trace in a couple of days. A preclinical study co-led by Cedars-Sinai, Stanford Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has discovered one secret of this disappearing act. The findings, if confirmed in humans, could one day lead to treatments that enable rapid, scarless recovery from skin wounds on other parts of the body. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine. “Our research began with two ...

Key takeaways SEAS researchers grew green algae inside shelters that recreated pressure conditions on Mars. The shelters were made from bioplastics derived from algae. The experiments demonstrate the possibility of closed-loop, sustainable habitats in space. If humans are ever going to live beyond Earth, they’ll need to construct habitats. But transporting enough industrial material to create livable spaces would be incredibly challenging and expensive. Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) think there’s a better way, through biology.  An international team of researchers led by Robin Wordsworth, ...

A new analysis suggests that reductions in U.S. military spending could result in significant decreases in energy consumption by the Department of Defense, leading to reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Ryan Thombs of Penn State University, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Climate on July 2. Of all the world’s institutions, the U.S. military produces the most greenhouse gas emissions. This occurs through such activities as maintaining bases, continual preparations and training, research and development, and transporting people, supplies, and weapons worldwide. According to military ...

Prenatal exposure to ambient fine particulate matter and climatic factors, such as temperature and rainfall, are associated with adverse birth outcomes in India, according to a study published July 2nd, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Mary Abed Al Ahad from the University of St Andrews, U.K. Ambient air pollution poses a global threat to human health, with a disproportionate burden of its detrimental effects falling on those residing in low and middle-income countries. Referred to as the silent killer, ...

In August 2024, the World Health Organization declared a second “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” for mpox. The current outbreak in Africa is driven mainly by the clade I variant, with multiple countries reporting their first-ever mpox cases of this more severe strain. Nagoya University researchers and their collaborators have found that measuring the amount of virus in the blood when skin lesions first appear can help predict whether patients will experience mild or severe progression of the disease. The study analyzes viral loads during early infection to predict how sick patients will get, potentially improving treatment strategies ...

A team of researchers from the San Raffaele-Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (SR-TIGET, Milan), led by Nadia Coltella and Luigi Naldini, has unveiled a powerful strategy to rejuvenate the effectiveness of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy against glioblastoma, one of the most lethal and treatment-resistant brain tumors. The findings, published in Science Translational Medicine, highlight how gene therapy targeting immune stimulating cytokines to the tumor microenvironment (TME) and enabling their private cross-talk with CAR-T cells not only restores CAR-T killer activity but also boost a broader immune response that inhibits tumor growth and extends host ...

What archaeological discoveries are considered newsworthy by U.S. media outlets and audiences? A new analysis of “pop-science” reporting reveals topical and regional disparities, including an apparent underrepresentation of Chinese archaeology and preference for findings relevant to white Christian histories. The skewed coverage raises concerns as archaeology influences notions of identity and cultural achievement, and has been misappropriated by racist, nationalist ideologies.  Mass ...

Understanding how far Great Barrier Reef corals are from their parents could be key to identifying and protecting at risk populations, University of Queensland research has found. PhD candidate Zoe Meziere said well-connected coral populations had a better chance of adapting to climate change and other environmental pressures. “Quantifying genetic connectivity can predict the fate of populations as more isolated reefs with lower levels of genetic variation are likely more vulnerable,” Ms Meziere said. “Species that don’t disperse or breed as far are more likely to form isolated populations, reducing their capacity to recover from bleaching events ...

A new groundbreaking study by researchers from University of Birmingham, UCL, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Birmingham Children’s Hospital has revealed important clues into what is driving disease in children with arthritis. Cutting-edge techniques have allowed scientists for the first time to uncover the unique architecture of cells and signals inside the joint as inflammation takes hold. The new study published in Science Translational Medicine looks at arthritis in children, caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking joints. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis affects more than 10,000 children in the UK. It causes swelling, ...

A team of researchers from the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Questrom School of Business at Boston University, and QLS Advisors have introduced a new approach to funding clinical trials for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) therapies. The study “Financing Drug Development via Adaptive Platform Trials,” published today in PLOS One, outlines a financing model that merges the efficiencies of adaptive platform trials — lower costs and shorter durations — with an innovative royalty-based investment structure designed to accelerate therapeutic development ...

About The Study: In this study, Black patients were less likely to receive outpatient referrals for opioid use disorder. These findings underscore the need for targeted interventions to address racial disparities in emergency department care for opioid use disorder, particularly in enhancing referral processes.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Siri Shastry, MD, MS, email Siri.Shastry@mountsinai.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.18569) Editor’s Note: Please ...

One of the great unsolved problems in modern planetary science is written on the surface of Mars. Mars has canyons that were carved by rivers, so it was once warm enough for liquid water. How—and why—did it become it a barren desert today? A study led by University of Chicago planetary scientist Edwin Kite puts forth a new explanation for why Mars never seems to stay balmy for long. Published July 2 in Nature, their model suggests that the periods of liquid water we see in the past were initiated by the sun brightening, and that conditions on Mars mean it ...

Study Highlights Major Hurdles for Multinational Clinical Trials in Europe A new study by investigators from Europe, including the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (UK), has shed light on significant ethical, administrative, regulatory, and logistical (EARL) hurdles in delivering multinational randomized clinical trials. The research was the first to comprehensively quantify these barriers for an international platform trial and emphasizes the need for urgent improvements, particularly in preparing for future public health crises. Randomized controlled trials provide the highest level of evidence to inform medical practice. Yet, delivering such trials ...

Chemists have discovered for the first time a unique way to control and modify a type of compound widely used in medicines, including a drug used to treat breast cancer. The research, led by the University of Bristol and published today in the journal Nature, also found a new mechanism associated with the chemical reaction which enables the shape of the compound to be flipped from being right-handed to left-handed by simply adding a common agent in the chemical reaction. Study lead author Varinder Aggarwal, Professor of Synthetic Chemistry at the University of Bristol, said: “The findings change our understanding of the fundamental chemistry of this group of organic ...

Chronic inflammation occurs when the immune system is stuck in attack-mode, sending cell after cell to defend and repair the body for months or even years. Diseases associated with chronic inflammation, like arthritis or cancer or autoimmune disorders, weigh heavily on human health—and experts anticipate their incidence is on the rise. A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham identified a protein called WSTF that could be targeted to block chronic inflammation. Crucially, this strategy would not ...

Early recovery from drug addiction to opioids and stimulants is physically and mentally demanding, and a long road to recovery. “During the early stages of addiction recovery there is typically not much that is positive for patients,” shares behavioral health counselor Carla J. Rash, Ph.D. of UConn School of Medicine. “But Contingency Management is an effective, behavioral tool bringing some early-on positivity to a patient’s addiction recovery treatment plan until the positive benefits of their medication and body’s natural recovery kicks-in.” Rash adds, “Essentially, ...

A study published in Cell Stem Cell reveals that some mutations in blood stem cells might help protect against late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. A team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine discovered that both a mouse model and people carrying blood stem cells with mutations in the gene TET2, but not in the gene DNMT3A, had a lower risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. Their study proposes a mechanism that can protect against the disease and opens new avenues for potential strategies to control the emergence ...

Proteins are the infinitely varied chemicals that make cells work, and science has a pretty good idea how they are made. But a critical aspect underlying the machinery of protein manufacture has long been hidden inside a blobby cellular structure called the nucleolus. Now, a team of Princeton engineers have developed a technique to peer inside the nucleolus and reveal this hidden system of creation. Previous methods required researchers to break open the cell and destroy most of its structures, resulting in minimal access to the blob’s inner workings. By tracking the movement of RNA molecules inside the nucleolus using advanced imaging and genomics techniques, ...

Ovarian clear cell carcinoma is difficult to treat, and treatment options are limited  Patients with specific PPP2R1A mutations in their tumors survived significantly longer after immunotherapy treatment  Targeting PPP2R1A may improve responses even further according to laboratory studies   PPP2R1A is an important predictive biomarker and possible treatment target for multiple cancer types, study found  HOUSTON, JULY 2, 2025 ― Patients with ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC) whose tumors have specific mutations in the PPP2R1A gene were found ...

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich have developed an artificial intelligence model that can simulate human behavior with remarkable accuracy. The language model, called Centaur, was trained on more than ten million decisions from psychological experiments – and makes decisions in ways that closely resemble those of real people. This opens new avenues for understanding human cognition and improving psychological theories. For decades, psychology has aspired to explain the full complexity of human thought. Yet traditional models could either offer a transparent ...

Experts from the University of Nottingham have created life-size 3D-printed insect models to explore how some species trick predators into thinking they're more dangerous than they really are — and avoid being eaten as a result. In the new study, published in Nature, a team of experts, led by Dr Tom Reader and Dr Christopher Taylor in the School of Life Sciences, used 3D printed models to investigate Batesian mimicry – a phenomenon where a harmless species evolves to resemble a harmful species, fooling ...

Scientists at the University of Helsinki discovered how plants heal their protective outer layer, the periderm. The diffusion of ethylene and oxygen through a wound triggers repair – a finding with potential implications for crop resilience, and food preservation. All living organisms rely on protective barrier tissues to shield them from the environment. In plants, the periderm which forms the tough outer cork layer plays this role, helping to prevent water loss and block harmful microbes, for example in potato skin and tree bark. But what happens ...

Forging a novel therapeutic path for patients with Rett Syndrome using AI AI-enabled drug discovery approach identified potentially game-changing treatment which has been advanced from the lab bench to an FDA Orphan Drug Designation in record time By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Rett syndrome is a devastating rare genetic childhood disorder primarily affecting girls. Merely 1 out of 10,000 girls are born with it and much fewer boys. It is caused by mutations in the MeCP2 gene on the X chromosome, leading to a spectrum of cognitive and physical impairments, including ...

Fuelled by climate change and relentless pressure on land and water resources, some of the most widespread and damaging drought events in recorded history have taken place since 2023, according to a UN-backed report launched today. Prepared by the U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), with support from the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), the report, "Drought Hotspots Around the World 2023-2025," provides a comprehensive account of how droughts compound poverty, ...