Providing hearing aids and advice on their use may preserve social connections that often wane as we age, a new study shows. Its authors say that this approach could help ease the loneliness epidemic that older Americans face. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a quarter of seniors say they have little or no contact with others, and a third report feeling lonely. Experts have linked such isolation in part to hearing loss, which can interfere with communication and relationship building. The 2023 U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory named improving social connection as great a priority as targeting tobacco use, ...

After treatment with CAR-T cells — immune cells engineered to attack cancer — patients sometimes tell their doctors they feel like they have “brain fog,” or forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating. A new Stanford Medicine-led study shows that CAR-T cell therapy causes mild cognitive impairments, independent of other cancer treatments, and that this happens via the same cellular mechanism as cognitive impairment from two other causes: chemotherapy and respiratory infections such as flu and ...

To the point Mother-offspring attachment in the wild: Wild chimpanzees develop secure or insecure-avoidant attachments to their mothers, but not disorganised attachments, suggesting that it is not a viable survival strategy in the wild. Attachment types: Chimpanzees with secure attachment are confident, while those with insecure-avoidant attachment are more independent. Disorganised attachment, common in humans and captive chimps, is linked to emotional and mental health issues. Potential parenting lessons: Taking into account the impact of ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that Texas’s abortion restrictions were associated with increases in mental distress among females of reproductive age, especially among younger individuals who may have less ability to overcome barriers to abortion care. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jusung Lee, PhD, email jusung.lee@utsa.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.9576) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for ...

About The Study: This cross-sectional study of U.S. medical student matriculants found a decrease in the number of matriculants who were first-generation. These students were at significant risk of attrition from medical school, particularly when considering the intersectionality with low-income and underrepresented in medicine identities. These results suggest a need to recruit and retain these students, so that the physician workforce better reflects the backgrounds and experiences of the communities served. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Sophia C. Kamran, MD, email skamran@mgh.harvard.edu. To ...

About The Study: Nearly 19 million children were estimated to be living in a household with at least 1 parent with substance use disorder, accounting for one-quarter of all U.S. children in 2023. Children in such households are more likely to develop adverse health outcomes than their peers without exposure to parental substance use disorder.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Sean Esteban McCabe, PhD, email plius@umich.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.0828) Editor’s ...

About The Study: After the end of emergency allotments nationwide by March 2023, there were significant increases in food insecurity and poor physical health days among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants. No changes in poor mental health days or poor or fair health status were observed.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Rishi K. Wadhera, MD, MPP, MPhil, email rwadhera@bidmc.harvard.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.6010) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, ...

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval in 2023 of lecanemab — a novel Alzheimer’s therapy shown in clinical trials to modestly slow disease progression — was met with enthusiasm by many in the field as it represented the first medication of its kind able to influence the disease. But side effects — brain swelling and bleeding — emerged during clinical trials that have left some patients and physicians hesitant about the treatment. Medications can have somewhat different effects once they are released into the real world with broader ...

Under embargo until 10:00 AM EST May 12, 2025    Who?      500+ public health researchers, thought-leaders, policy-makers & civil society actors. What?     Inaugural Exposome Moonshot Forum. Where?   Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, Washington D.C. When?    Monday May 12th to Thursday May 15th, 2025: www.exposomemoonshot.org         Background: The Human Genome Project, initiated in 1990 and completed in 2003, was a global scientific effort to map and sequence all genetic material, the information needed to ...

The research by black hole expert Heino Falcke, quantum physicist Michael Wondrak, and mathematician Walter van Suijlekom (all from Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands) is a follow-up to a 2023 paper by the same trio. In that paper, they showed that not only black holes, but also other objects such as neutron stars can 'evaporate' via a process akin to Hawking radiation. After that publication, the researchers received many questions from inside and outside the scientific community about how long the process would take. They have now answered this question in the new article. Ultimate end The researchers calculated ...

•  Early cancer detection and treatment advances have led to more cancer survivors who need outpatient centers to manage their disease as a chronic condition. •  Patients receive highly individualized, integrated, multidisciplinary cancer care in one place — from prevention to supportive care to survivorship. •  Cancer specialists with unsurpassed expertise work together in one convenient location to deliver the most advanced treatments and supportive care, including pain management, behavioral health and ...

University of Colorado Boulder astrophysicist Jeremy Darling is pursuing a new way of measuring the universe’s gravitational wave background—the constant flow of waves that churn through the cosmos, warping the very fabric of space and time. The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, could one day help to unlock some of the universe’s deepest mysteries, including how gravity works at its most fundamental level. “There is a lot we can learn from getting these precise measurements of gravitational waves,” said Darling, professor ...

DALLAS, May 12, 2025 — Millions of women may be unknowingly living with risk factors for heart, kidney and metabolic disease – interconnected conditions that together drive risk for cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death among women, according to experts with the American Heart Association, a global force changing the future of health for all. The interplay of heart, kidney and metabolic health is called cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) health. CKM health factors include blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, blood glucose (sugar) and kidney function. These ...

People have a lot of misconceptions about what the brain’s left and right hemispheres do, but one well-known aspect of this division may be even more true than people realize: The brain not only splits up visual spatial perception—processing what’s on our left in the right hemisphere and what’s on our right in the left hemisphere—it takes cognitive advantage of that. A new review by MIT neuroscientists explains what the field has learned about this division of labor, the trade-off it involves and how the brain ultimately bridges the divide. “People hear all these myths about the left brain ...

The single-celled parasite Entamoeba histolytica infects 50 million people each year, killing nearly 70,000. Usually, this wily, shape-shifting amoeba causes nothing worse than diarrhea. But sometimes it triggers severe, even fatal disease by chewing ulcers in the colon, liquefying parts of the liver and invading the brain and lungs. “It can kill anything you throw at it, any kind of human cell,” said Katherine Ralston, an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. E. histolytica can even evade the immune ...

Lebanon’s consociational democracy is geared towards maintaining political stability in a society that is deeply divided along religious lines. Under this power-sharing system, seats in the parliament and top government offices are allocated to representatives of the nation’s major religious sects. However, the democratic system is characterized by severe political rivalry, which has often resulted in political vacuums. The lack of political consensus has resulted in major positions such as the seat of president laying vacant for several months and severe delays in government formation. Hezbollah, a major political party in Lebanon, is often ...

Researchers have discovered how to block cells dying, in a finding that could lead to new treatments for neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The team at WEHI in Melbourne, Australia, have identified a small molecule that can selectively block cell death. Published in Science Advances, the findings lay the groundwork for next-generation neuroprotective drugs for degenerative conditions, which currently have no cure or treatments to stop their progression.  At a glance Researchers ...

LONG BEACH, Wash. — Scientists at Washington State University have found that juvenile European green crabs can do as much damage as adults to shellfish and native sea plants, calling into question current methods to eradicate the invasive crustaceans. Green crabs are a massive threat to Washington state’s shellfish industry as well as its native eelgrass, a plant vital to local seawater ecology. For several years, shellfish growers have been trapping green crabs in huge numbers. Trappers traditionally target ...

From a small California winery to a large-scale energy project in China, floating photovoltaics — or “floatovoltaics”— are gaining in popularity. Commonly installed over artificial water bodies, from irrigation ponds and reservoirs to wastewater treatment plants, floating solar projects can maximize space for producing clean energy while sparing natural lands. But where there is water, there are waterbirds. Little is known about the impacts — positive or negative — floating solar projects may have on birds and other wildlife. A paper from the University of California, Davis, published in the journal Nature Water, ...

A new study has dug deep into the past of the coastal dunes of an iconic Queensland location in a bid to better understand how microscopic processes in the soil support some of the most biodiverse landscapes on Earth. Published in Nature Geoscience, the team of researchers from Griffith University, University of Sydney and Stockholm University investigated a sequence of coastal dunes of different ages (from 0-700,000 years old) in Cooloola National Park near Rainbow Beach to understand how soil microorganisms coped with severely declining levels of nutrients such as phosphorus in soil ...

Boccia’s appeal and rising popularity comes from its showcase as a Paralympic sport that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities. An Osaka Metropolitan University team has developed an extended reality version of the game as a rehabilitation program, showing how the game that requires accuracy and strategy can aid motor and cognitive skills. Graduate School of Rehabilitation Science Associate Professor Masataka Kataoka’s research group developed Boccia XR so that the program can be introduced even in environments with limited space. The researchers ...

Vibrational sum-frequency generation (VSFG) is a nonlinear spectroscopic method widely used to investigate the molecular structure and dynamics of surface systems. However, in far-field observations, the spatial resolution of this method is constrained by the diffraction limit, which restricts its ability to resolve molecular details in inhomogeneous structures smaller than the wavelength of light. To address this limitation, we developed a tip-enhanced VSFG (TE-SFG) spectroscopy system based on scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Using this system, we ...

VIEW EMBARGOED ARTICLE In an effort to curb misuse of opioids and prevent overdose deaths, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia released a legally enforceable practice standard, Safe Prescribing of Drugs with Potential for Misuse/Diversion, in 2016. This document limited prescribing of opioids for chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) with specific prescribing practices that clinicians were obligated to follow. In research that tested the effects of the 2016 practice standard on prescribing to patients with CNCP, researchers found ...

Promising new AI tools are being developed to protect and preserve the cultural traditions and heritage of marginalized or indigenous communities, including language, folklore, oral traditions, and community wisdom. These advances have prompted industry experts to highlight the potential for culturally aware AI systems, which can ensure unique traditions are not only remembered but also shared and reimagined across generations. But to continue this positive trend, tech companies must ensure the AI-based systems they develop are representative and build bridges across cultures, experts ...

A major new international study has found that young adults in low- and middle-income countries who are sex workers, gay men, transgender or living with HIV are facing a surge in online abuse - from harassment and blackmail to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.   Researchers from The University of Warwick’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies warn this abuse is becoming increasingly normalised and is moving between online and in-person threats, with most victims having little access to support or justice.  The study — the largest of its kind — focuses ...