Researchers at Hiroshima University have developed a realistic, highly sensitive method to detect the Unruh effect—a long-predicted phenomenon at the crossroads of relativity and quantum theory. Their novel approach opens new possibilities for exploring fundamental physics and for developing advanced technologies. The work is published in Physical Review Letters on July 23, 2025. The Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect, or simply the Unruh effect, is a striking theoretical prediction at the profound intersection of Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Quantum Theory. “In quantum theory, even the vacuum seethes with tiny energy fluctuations, ...

Americans are more knowledgeable this year in answering basic civics questions, according to the Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey, conducted annually by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. More than two-thirds of U.S. adults (70%) are able to name all three branches of government – the executive, judicial, and legislative – significantly more than a year ago (65%). When asked which rights the First Amendment guarantees, 79% can name “freedom of speech,” an increase over ...

Ginseng has long been used in traditional medicine to replenish Qi and address deficiency syndromes, often manifesting as fatigue and immune compromise. Modern research is now elucidating the mechanisms behind these effects, focusing on ginseng’s immunomodulatory properties, ability to improve quality of life, and potential role in cancer therapy. This review aims to consolidate recent findings on these aspects, highlighting both the promises and limitations of ginseng as a scientifically supported therapeutic agent. Immunomodulatory Effects of Ginseng Ginseng’s immunomodulatory properties are primarily attributed to its active compounds, ginsenosides ...

Meningiomas are the most common primary brain tumors, accounting for nearly one-third of all central nervous system (CNS) tumors. While most are benign and manageable, 20–30% progress to high-grade forms that behave aggressively, recur frequently, and resist standard treatments. Recurrence remains a major clinical challenge, as these tumors often return stronger, leaving patients with limited therapeutic options. Despite advances in understanding their genetic and molecular profiles, how meningiomas evolve from primary to recurrent states has remained ...

People are exposed to millions of fungal spores every day, even potentially harmful ones like those from Aspergillus fumigatus. For most individuals, this constant exposure is harmless, as the immune system efficiently clears the spores without causing illness. However, for a growing number of people with weakened immune systems due to cancer, organ transplants, or chronic diseases, Aspergillus spores can lead to life-threatening infections known as aspergillosis. Thus, understanding the specific immune mechanisms that fight fungal infections is essential for developing therapies ...

In today’s world, people are increasingly prioritizing their health and well-being, with daily exercises and calorie-tracking apps becoming the new norm. People are therefore interested in incorporating highly nutritious food items such as fruits and vegetables into their diet plans. However, these foods—owing to contamination as well as due to certain cooking methods such as heating, smoking, grilling, roasting, and frying—may contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (hydrophobic organic compounds comprising ...

ROCHESTER, Minnesota — A new genetic test developed at Mayo Clinic is redefining how clinicians diagnose and manage hereditary pancreatitis. Pancreatitis, inflammation of the pancreas, is a complex condition that can lead to chronic pain, repeated hospitalizations and serious complications including diabetes, kidney failure and pancreatic cancer.  The new hereditary pancreatitis gene panel available through Mayo Clinic Laboratories (Mayo ID: PANGP) resulted from collaboration ...

Mentavi Health announced that its landmark, real-world validation study of the Mentavi Diagnostic Evaluation has been published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (JCP), a widely read and respected journal. The open-access article demonstrates that Mentavi’s asynchronous, online evaluation is as accurate as a traditional face-to-face clinical interview in the diagnosis of attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults and provides the first peer-reviewed evidence base for a fully digital ...

A zigzag stitch enables fabric to stretch until the thread is straight. University of Tartu researchers report in Advanced Materials that thread packing can encode fabric stretchability, leading the way to tailoring wearables at industrial scale. As every body is unique, achieving a perfect dynamic fit of garments has to date relied on artisanal tailoring that cannot scale. Machine embroidery can place load-bearing thread in arbitrary patterns, but has been applied almost exclusively for visual appeal, such as logos and decorations. Embroidery machines ...

Multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome (MSMDS) is a rare condition associated with stroke, aortic dissection (tearing) and death in childhood. Currently, there is no effective treatment or cure for MSMDS. A single error in the genetic code of the ACTA2 gene, which encodes the smooth muscle actin protein, is the most common cause of MSMDS. To directly target this mutation, researchers from Mass General Brigham engineered a bespoke CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing enzyme to develop a potential therapy for ...

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered new materials and a new process that could advance the ever-escalating quest to make smaller, faster and affordable microchips used across modern electronics—in everything from cellphones to cars, appliances to airplanes. The team of scientists has discovered how to create circuits that are so small they’re invisible to the naked eye using a process that is both precise and economical for manufacturing.  The findings are published today in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering.  “Companies have their roadmaps ...

-With images-   Durham University scientists have completed one of the largest quality verification programmes ever carried out on superconducting materials, helping to ensure the success of the world’s biggest fusion energy experiment ITER.   Their findings, published in Superconductor Science and Technology, shed light not only on the quality of the wires themselves but also on how to best test them, providing crucial knowledge for scientists to make fusion energy a reality.   Fusion (the process that powers the Sun) has long been described as the holy grail of clean energy. It offers the promise of a virtually limitless power source with no carbon emissions ...

The latest survey from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the fourth of its kind, confirms that Candidozyma auris (formerly Candida auris) continues to spread quickly across European hospitals, posing a serious threat to patients and healthcare systems. Case numbers are rising, outbreaks are growing in scale, and several countries report ongoing local transmission. The findings highlight the importance of early detection and control of transmission to avoid widespread rapid dissemination. Candidozyma auris (C. auris) is a ...

Recent research suggests that many of the Bronze Age people buried in Seddin, Germany, were not locals but came from outside the region. While archaeologists had previously uncovered artefacts from other parts of Europe around Seddin, this new study reveals that people themselves travelled and settled in Seddin. This is the first bioarchaeological investigation on human skeletal remains from the Seddin area. While studying archaeological artefacts can reveal trade and exchange between different areas, it cannot determine whether this was accompanied by human travel. This new study sheds light on how people ...

In the Cretaceous period, Earth was plagued by widespread volcanic activity, oceanic oxygen depletion events, and mass extinctions. Fossils from that era remain and continue to give scientists clues as to what the climate may have looked like in different regions. Now, researchers in China have examined some of them: dinosaur eggs found at the Qinglongshan site in the Yunyang Basin in central China. This is the first time that dinosaur eggs have been dated using carbonate uranium-lead (U-Pb) dating. The team published their results in Frontiers in Earth Science. “We show that these dinosaur eggs were deposited roughly 85 million years ago, ...

Vibrations are everywhere—from the hum of machinery to the rumble of transport systems. Usually, these random motions are wasted and dissipated without producing any usable work. Recently, scientists have been fascinated by “ratchet systems” which are mechanical systems that rectify chaotic vibrations into directional motion. In biology, molecular motors achieve this feat within living cells to drive the essential processes by converting random molecular collisions into purposeful motions. However, at a large scale, these ratchet systems have always relied on built-in asymmetry, such as gears or ...

A landmark study led by the University of Sydney has found no evidence that family-based early obesity prevention programs, such as home visits from health professionals or community parent groups, improve overall body mass index (BMI) in young children.   Published in The Lancet, the study was led by Dr Kylie Hunter from the Faculty of Medicine and Health as part of the TOPCHILD collaboration with multiple scientists including those at the University Medical Center Rostock and Flinders University.   Early weight is a strong predictor of future weight ...

Tsukuba, Japan—The rapid rise of social media has enabled real-time interaction among users, accelerating and complicating the ways emotions influence human behavior. Yet the specific mechanisms through which emotions are transmitted and tied to viewer responses, particularly in settings where video and viewer comments are synchronized, remain poorly understood. Grounded in the Emotions as Social Information (EASI) theory, which argues that emotional expressions function as vital social signals, the research team examined more than 50,000 barrage comments. ...

New research from the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre has found that genes play an active role in shaping the bacteria found in our gut, questioning the idea that gut health is influenced only by diet.    The gut microbiome is increasingly seen as vital to overall health, with Australia's gut health supplement industry valued at over $400 million in 2024.   “After decades of research linking the gut microbiome to almost every chronic disease, it may seem like we’re all ...

Research led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme shows that over half of hospital patients with breathlessness had died within a year of admission (51%), as opposed to just 26% of those without the symptom. Most of these patients had more than one condition that cause breathlessness, including pneumonia, anaemia, heart failure and TB. The findings demonstrate the importance of integrated, patient-centred care, researchers say, to tackle the burden of high mortality ...

Summary     Led by Assistant Professor Kou Li, a research group in Chuo University, Japan, has developed a synergetic strategy among non-destructive terahertz (THz)–infrared (IR) photo-monitoring techniques and ultrabroadband sensitive imager sheets toward demonstrating in-line realtime multi-scale quality inspections of pharmaceutical agent pills, with a recent paper publication in Light: Science & Applications.     While non-destructive in-line monitoring at manufacturing sites is essential for ...

For millennia, Indigenous people living in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon territory have relied on Chinook salmon. The large, fatty fish provide essential nutrients for Arctic living and have influenced traditions and languages across generations. But over the past three decades, many communities have been unable to fish Chinook amid a sharp salmon population decline. The situation could worsen as climate change warms rivers in the Arctic, stunting salmon growth, according to a study published August 6 in Scientific Reports led by the University of Colorado Boulder.   “The ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – September 10, 2025) Mitochondria act as energy factories in cells and have their own, separate DNA. Mutations to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have been observed in cancer, but it has been unclear how these changes might affect cancer growth. To find answers, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists combined computational tools and DNA sequencing technologies to examine these mtDNA mutations in cancer cells closely. Their new method lets scientists pinpoint when these mutations occur, how they change as cancer develops and whether they affect how cancer ...

In a new study published in Science Advances Sept. 10, a team of UC Davis researchers tracked the movement of fluorescent particles inside the cells of microscopic worms, providing unprecedented insights into cellular crowding in a multicellular animal. They found that the cytoplasm inside the worms was significantly more crowded and compartmentalized than in single-celled yeast or mammalian tissue culture cells, which are more commonly used to gauge internal cellular dynamics.  This difference highlights the importance ...

Although Latinos and Hispanics are at elevated risk for Alzheimer’s disease and account for almost half of Los Angeles County’s population, a recent UCLA Health study finds that accessible digital resources for these communities remain in short supply since the COVID-19 pandemic. The study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, found only a handful of the 15 websites from the county’s top Alzheimer’s disease organizations had features or tools to improve access for Latino and Hispanic families during and amid the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Senior ...