Climate change may significantly impact arsenic levels in paddy rice, a staple food for millions across Asia, reveals a new study from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. The research shows that increased temperatures above 2°C, coupled with rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, lead to higher concentrations of inorganic arsenic in rice, potentially raising lifetime health risks for populations in Asia by 2050. Until now, the combined effects of rising CO2 and temperatures on arsenic accumulation in rice have not been studied in detail. The research done ...

European research led by University College London (UCL), together with Amsterdam UMC and the University of Basel shows that a significant proportion of patients who suffer a stroke due to carotid artery narrowing can be treated with medication only. A risky carotid artery operation, currently still the standard treatment for many patients, may then no longer be necessary for this group of patients. This research, published today in the Lancet Neurology, may lead to the global guidelines for the treatment of these patients being adjusted. In the Netherlands, about 2,000 people with carotid artery stenosis ...

Blood pressure: New research shows a changing climate may jeopardise global blood supply    A new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health suggests a changing climate threatens the continuous availability of safe blood across the world. Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast and Australian Red Cross Lifeblood say health issues, the spread of infectious disease and extreme weather exacerbated by climate change will impact the ability of people to donate, and at the same time may trigger a rise in the need for blood. Lifeblood researcher and UniSC Adjunct Research Fellow Dr Elvina Viennet said this ...

The start of deer hunting season in the US - when firearms and ammunition are more available in certain states - is associated with increases in both hunting and non-hunting related firearm incidents, including violent crime and suicide, finds a study published by The BMJ today. While increases in hunting related incidents are to be expected at this time, increases in non-hunting related firearm incidents “indicate the potential general effect of greater firearm availability on different ...

Researchers at UCL have tested a new scoring system to measure the risk of stroke in patients with narrowed arteries due to atherosclerosis, which could prevent unnecessary surgeries and stents. Atherosclerosis is a condition where the blood vessels become narrowed and hardened due to the buildup of plaque, including in the carotid arteries, which carry blood from the heart to the brain. Atherosclerosis can lead to serious health problems like strokes and heart attacks. Atherosclerosis is a very common condition that can affect anyone, particularly those over the age of 65, smokers and people with a high cholesterol, hypertension or family ...

Astronomers have detected the most promising signs yet of a possible biosignature outside the solar system, although they remain cautious. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, have detected the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b, which orbits its star in the habitable zone. On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by life, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton. While an unknown chemical process may be the source of these molecules in K2-18b’s atmosphere, the results are ...

The COVID-19 pandemic deepened existing health disparities and thrust children into a mental health epidemic, altering the landscape of health and wellbeing for a generation. This is the stark warning of Dr Jatinder Hayre in his critical analysis of ‘entrenched inequities’ in the UK, The Lost Generation of COVID-19. He presents a breadth of research to set out how, after a prolonged period of cuts to UK public services, Britain’s struggle with COVID-19 has fundamentally reshaped its social, economic, and health landscape. Dr Hayre, who led the Independent ...

Published in the journal Food Quality and Preference, the research highlights how physiological signals, particularly those transmitted via the vagus nerve, interact with socio-economic factors to shape dietary behaviour.  The study involved 96 students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds who participated in a chocolate tasting session.   In a controlled laboratory setting, each participant was presented with a plate containing 70 milk chocolate pieces and invited to sample and rate them at their leisure.   Researchers measured each student's heart rate variability (HRV) as a proxy for ...

New research to be presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2025, Malaga, Spain, 11-14 May) and published in The Journal of Internal Medicine shows that, in survivors of breast cancer, having an unhealthy metabolic profile or so called ‘metabolic syndrome’ increases the risk of breast cancer recurrence by 69%, and subsequent breast cancer mortality by 83%. The study is by Dr Sixten Harborg, Department of Oncology, Aarhus University/Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, ...

A new study by researchers at ProtectedSeas highlights the potential of marine radar technology to monitor speed of small vessels. The research, aimed at testing the accuracy of radar in assessing potential violations, found that the technology could detect speed violations with 95% confidence, offering a promising solution to help reduce the threat of vessel strikes on whale populations. The analysis was recently published in the journal Sensors. The impact of small vessels on whales is becoming a growing concern in busy marine environments due to the increasing number ...

The National Center to Reframe Aging — the leading organization for proven communication strategies and tools to effectively frame aging issues — is partnering with The West End Home Foundation (WEHF), an independent charitable foundation located in Nashville, Tennessee. The National Center to Reframe Aging will be a strategic partner to support the WEHF’s mission to enrich the lives of older people through grant making, advocacy, and community collaboration. Key leaders of the Tennessee Department of Disability and Aging and the Tennessee aging network will participate in educational opportunities and receive tools from the National Center ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2025 MINNEAPOLIS — A new study has found important clues about the roles age, sex, hormonal changes and genetics play in how certain biomarkers for dementia are expressed in the blood, according to a study published on April 16, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Blood tests that detect biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are emerging and as these tests are further developed, they are becoming important tools for understanding and diagnosing ...

Large, grand-design spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way are common in the nearby Universe. But they have proven hard to find in the early Universe, which is consistent with expectations that large disks with spiral arms should take many billions of years to form. However, assistant astronomer Christina Williams of NSF NOIRLab, which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, has discovered a surprisingly mature spiral galaxy just one billion years after the Big Bang [1]. This is the most distant, earliest known ...

Iron Age purple dye "factory" in Israel was in operation for almost 500 years, using mollusks in large-scale specialized manufacturing process     Article URL: https://plos.io/44elLDX Article title: Tel Shiqmona during the Iron Age: A first glimpse into an ancient Mediterranean purple dye ‘factory’ Author countries: U.S., Israel Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. END ...

In a new study of people with long-term vegan diets, most ate an adequate amount of total daily protein, but a significant proportion did not meet required levels of the amino acids lysine and leucine. Bi Xue Patricia Soh and colleagues at Massey University, New Zealand, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on April 16, 2025. Proteins are made up of various molecular “building blocks” known as amino acids. While the human body can synthesize most of the amino acids we need to live, we completely rely on the ...

The Harvard RoboBee has long shown it can fly, dive, and hover like a real insect. But what good is the miracle of flight without a safe way to land? A storied engineering achievement by the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory, the RoboBee is now outfitted with its most reliable landing gear to date, inspired by one of nature’s most graceful landers: the crane fly.    Publishing in Science Robotics, the team led by Robert Wood, the Harry Lewis and Marlyn McGrath Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences in the John A. Paulson School ...

Analysis of job applicant data from one large employer suggests that a policy meant to improve employment prospects for people with criminal records did not actually lead to changes in job offers for people with records. Deborah Weiss of Northwestern University, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on April 16, 2025. Parts of the U.S. have introduced “Ban-the-Box” (BTB) laws, which aim to improve job prospects for people with criminal records. ...

ANN ARBOR—Ancient Homo sapiens may have benefitted from sunscreen, tailored clothes and the use of caves during the shifting of the magnetic North Pole over Europe about 41,000 years ago, new University of Michigan research shows. These technologies could have protected Homo sapiens living in Europe from harmful solar radiation. Neanderthals, on the other hand, appear to have lacked these technologies and disappeared around 40,000 years ago, according to the study, published in Science Advances and led by researchers at Michigan Engineering and the U-M Department of Anthropology. The team found ...

Astronomers have found a planet that orbits at an angle of 90 degrees around a rare pair of peculiar stars. This is the first time we have strong evidence for one of these ‘polar planets’ orbiting a stellar pair. The surprise discovery was made using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Several planets orbiting two stars at once, like the fictional Star Wars world Tatooine, have been discovered in the past years. These planets typically occupy orbits that roughly align with the plane in which their host stars orbit each ...

Astronomers have discovered a planet that orbits at a 90-degree angle around a rare pair of strange stars – a real-life ‘twist’ on the fictional twin suns of Star Wars hero Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine. The exoplanet, named 2M1510 (AB) b, orbits a pair of young brown dwarfs — objects bigger than gas-giant planets but too small to be proper stars. Only the second pair of eclipsing brown dwarfs known – this is the first exoplanet found on a right-angled path to the orbit of its two host stars. An international team of researchers led ...

A QUT-led study analysing data from NASA’s Perseverance rover has uncovered compelling evidence of multiple mineral-forming events just beneath the Martian surface – findings that bring scientists one step closer to answering the profound question: did life ever exist on Mars? The QUT research team led by Dr Michael Jones, from the Central Analytical Research Facility and the School of Chemistry and Physics, includes Associate Professor David Flannery, Associate Professor Christoph Schrank, Brendan Orenstein and Peter Nemere, together with researchers from North America and Europe. The findings were published in the prestigious journal ...

Using advanced DNA sequence analysis, a research team led by NYU Tandon School of Engineering's Assistant Professor Elizabeth Hénaff has discovered that tiny organisms in Brooklyn's highly contaminated Gowanus Canal have developed a comprehensive collection of pollution-fighting genes. The findings were published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology on April 15, 2025. The team identified 455 species of microorganisms wielding 64 different biochemical pathways to degrade pollutants ...

Piezoelectric materials have long been celebrated for their ability to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy, making them indispensable in smart systems for sensing, actuation, and vibration control. However, incorporating porosity and multidirectional grading into these materials introduces a host of challenges in understanding their behavior under varying environmental conditions. These complexities are further compounded by the interaction of hygrothermal conditions with electrical and mechanical loads. As a result, there is a pressing need for more in-depth research to predict the real-world performance of these materials. Published ...

Switching from diesel to electric trains dramatically improved the air quality aboard the San Francisco Bay Area’s Caltrain commuter rail line, reducing riders’ exposure to the carcinogen black carbon by an average of 89%, finds a new study published today in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters.  The electrification of the system also significantly reduced the ambient black carbon concentrations within and around the San Francisco station, the study found. “The transition from diesel to electric trains occurred over just a few weeks, and yet we saw the same drop in black carbon concentrations in the station as California ...

A bioreactor that mimics a circulatory system can deliver nutrients and oxygen to artificial tissue, enabling the production of over 10 grams of chicken muscle for cultured meat applications. These results are publishing in the Cell Press journal Trends in Biotechnology on April 16. “Our study presents a scalable, top-down strategy for producing whole-cut cultured meat using a perfusable hollow fiber bioreactor,” says senior author Shoji Takeuchi of The University of Tokyo. “This system enables cell distribution, alignment, contractility, ...