Ladybirds' complex colors may result from a combination of pigments and physical properties of their wingcase Article URL: https://plos.io/4jnQti0 Article title: Decoding ladybird’s colours: Structural mechanisms of colour production and pigment modulation Author countries: France Funding: This study has been supported through the EUR grant NanoX n° ANR-17-EURE-0009 in the framework of the “Programme des Investissements d’Avenir.” Part of this research has also been supported by the University ...

NEW YORK, June 11, 2025 — Climate disasters may be leaving invisible imprints on developing brains before birth, according to new groundbreaking research from The City University of New York Graduate Center (CUNY Graduate Center) and Queens College. Scientists discovered that children whose mothers experienced Superstorm Sandy during pregnancy showed distinct brain differences that could affect their emotional development for years to come. The study, published in PLOS One, reveals that prenatal exposure to extreme climate events, particularly when combined with extreme heat, appears to rewrite critical emotion regulation centers in the developing brain.  "We're ...

Scientists have developed a low-cost, durable, highly-sensitive robotic ‘skin’ that can be added to robotic hands like a glove, enabling robots to detect information about their surroundings in a way that’s similar to humans. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and University College London (UCL), developed the flexible, conductive skin, which is easy to fabricate and can be melted down and formed into a wide range of complex shapes. The technology senses and processes a range of physical inputs, allowing robots to interact with the physical world in a more meaningful way. Unlike other ...

There are thousands of species of birds, and many of their names are well-known to us—blue jay, robin, and mallard, to name just a few. But we have little understanding of the holistic nature of avian nomenclature. Do birds’ names tend to stem from physical or biological traits, such as a black-and-white warbler, or, rather, from people—such as Bonaparte’s gull, which was named after Charles Lucien Bonaparte, an ornithologist and nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte? A new study by New York ...

Mercury levels in the world's rivers have more than doubled since the pre-industrial era, according to new research from Tulane University that establishes the first known global baseline for riverine mercury pollution. The study, published in Science Advances, developed a process-based model to simulate mercury transport in rivers and found that global rivers carried approximately 390 metric tons of mercury to oceans annually before 1850. Today, that figure has jumped to about 1,000 metric tons per year. Primary drivers of the increase ...

Now-live SOAR platform is a one-stop shop to help scientists explore how genes behave differently in various parts of the body, show them how cells might be talking to each other SOAR aggregates 3,461 tissue samples from 13 species and 42 tissue types to help scientists zero in on the exact biological processes that could be targeted to treat diseases Big Pharma is looking to use the tool in their research CHICAGO --- Scientists at Northwestern University have developed the largest open-access resource of its kind to help researchers shave off months of early-stage ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- As more connected devices demand an increasing amount of bandwidth for tasks like teleworking and cloud computing, it will become extremely challenging to manage the finite amount of wireless spectrum available for all users to share. Engineers are employing artificial intelligence to dynamically manage the available wireless spectrum, with an eye toward reducing latency and boosting performance. But most AI methods for classifying and processing wireless signals are power-hungry and can’t operate in real-time. Now, MIT researchers have developed a novel AI hardware accelerator that is specifically designed for wireless signal processing. Their optical processor ...

Why do people develop antibodies to food? While clinicians have long observed that healthy humans develop a particular type of antibody, called IgG, to the foods they eat, the reasons for this phenomenon have remained unknown. Researchers, led by investigators from Allergy and Immunology at Mass General Brigham, have identified the mechanism underlying IgG antibody development to food proteins. They discovered that humans are intrinsically predisposed to develop a particular type of IgG antibody to peanut by human antibody genes. These antibodies develop, whether or not they develop peanut allergy. Results are published in Science Translational ...

A new large-scale study has mapped the first molecular events that drive the formation of harmful amyloid protein aggregates found in Alzheimer’s disease, pointing towards a new potential therapeutic target. Published today (11 June) in Science Advances, researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Centre of Genomic Regulation (CRG) and Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia1 (IBEC) used large-scale genomics and machine learning to study over 140,000 versions of a peptide called Aβ42, which forms harmful plaques in the brain and is known to play a central role in Alzheimer’s disease. This research is a significant step towards helping scientists find new ...

The Minister for AI and Digital Government launched the UK’s first of its kind AI for Science Master’s programme at King’s College London. Feryal Clark MP joined leading King’s interdisciplinary scientists at the Quad to announce the new programme, which will draw expertise from across disciplines, including biosciences, humanities, social sciences, mathematics, security and law – preparing AI experts of the future in an ever-changing world. The Master’s is part of King’s major £45.5 million investment into science – helping to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing us all. The investment is advancing knowledge, ...

In a new study, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have used a cloud of atoms chilled down to incredibly cold temperatures to simultaneously measure acceleration in three dimensions—a feat that many scientists didn’t think was possible. The device, a new type of atom “interferometer,” could one day help people navigate submarines, spacecraft, cars and other vehicles more precisely. “Traditional atom interferometers can only measure acceleration in a single ...

Under what conditions would it be right — or is it never acceptable — to eliminate a harmful species from our planet? That’s what an international team of researchers, including Professor of Philosophy Dr. Clare Palmer from Texas A&M University, explores in a study published in Science. In the study, “Deliberate extinction by genome modification: An ethical challenge,” researchers examine the controversial idea of using genetic engineering for local and full species extinction as a conservation strategy. They conducted ...

Two recent studies suggest there is no significant benefit of early biologics over standard step-up care with methotrexate2,3, but these did not select for poor prognosis. The aim therefore of the SPEED trial (Severe Psoriatic arthritis – Early intervEntion to control Disease) – which was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) – was to compare disease activity in 192 PsA patients with poor prognostic factors when treated with one of three regimens: standard step-up with conventional systemic disease-modifying ...

By Beth Miller Excessive nutrients in wastewater can lead to detrimental discharges into natural water bodies, prompting harmful algal blooms with severe environmental and economic repercussions. To address this pressing issue, a team of engineers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has developed an innovative solution. Their novel composite nanotechnology removes and recovers nutrients from wastewater, subsequently upcycling them as agricultural fertilizers or as biorefinery feedstocks, ...

LONDON, ON – A groundbreaking clinical trial led by London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute (LHSCRI) and Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry may enhance how medical professionals detect hidden blood clots responsible for strokes. The study, published in The Lancet Neurology, is the first to show that extending imaging to include the heart within minutes of a patient’s arrival to hospital with an acute stroke significantly improves the ability to determine the stroke’s underlying cause. This innovative diagnostic approach can be used to determine an effective and tailored treatment plan for preventing future strokes.   Strokes ...

Ateneo de Manila University researchers warn that young Filipinos graduating with a degree in nursing or medicine face an uphill battle for stable employment, fair pay, and meaningful roles in the local public health system. This comes as the Philippines faces a massive shortage of health professionals, with less than eight doctors per 10,000 people—below the international standard of 10 per 10,000—and over 127,000 vacancies for nurses, particularly in rural areas and private facilities. The researchers found that many new graduates feel lost and unsupported ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The response to a 1969 oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, reveals how the modern environmental movement has been used to protect the interests of private homeowners, said a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researcher. Landscape architecture professor Pollyanna Rhee chronicled how affluent homeowners use what she calls “ownership environmentalism” to focus on protection of property and community norms, rather than society as a whole, in her new book “Natural Attachments: The Domestication of American Environmentalism, 1920–1970.” Rhee said she was interested in examining how ...

 Researchers released a peer-reviewed analysis in the academic journal Climate Policy today arguing that the urgent work of removing excess carbon from the atmosphere — known as carbon dioxide removal (CDR) — can’t just rely on complex, untested techniques to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) and inject it deep underground or pump it into the ocean. Rather, they show that nature-based solutions, which include restoring forests and other ecosystems that capture atmospheric CO2 using the ancient biochemical process ...

MISSION VIEJO, Calif. (June 11, 2025) – A new study suggests that eating one avocado a day may positively impact sleep. Science now confirms sleep is as important for good health as nutrition and exercise. In a secondary analysis of the largest randomized controlled trial on avocados to date, researchers found adults who consumed one avocado daily for six months reported better sleep compared to those who ate fewer than two avocados per month. As, per the CDC, getting enough sleep can help lower the risk factors for heart disease, these findings add to a growing body of evidence supporting avocados as a heart-healthy food and mark the first time avocado consumption ...

A team from the Institute for Neurosciences (IN), a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) in Elche, has revealed how a structure essential for fly flight, the haltere, is formed. This small organ, located behind the main wings, functions as a biological gyroscope that helps the insect stay stable in the air. The study, published in the journal Current Biology, was led by researcher José Carlos Pastor Pareja, head of the Cell-to-tissue architecture in the nervous system laboratory at the IN. This work shows that, contrary to previous ...

Telehealth patients were not more likely to develop substance use disorder Researchers found that a small number of people who received initial stimulant prescription via telehealth developed stimulant disorder and emphasize the importance of follow-up care Telehealth can make health care easier to access for patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who need treatment, but experts worry about an increased risk of substance use disorder for patients being prescribed controlled medications such as stimulants for ADHD during these appointments. Mass General Brigham researchers scrutinized this concern with the first-ever study comparing ...

The oceans are full of living things, with microscopic algae (phytoplankton) at the base of the marine food chain. These organisms make a living in the same way as land plants, using the sunlight that penetrates the upper 100 meters or so of the ocean as the energy source by which they synthesise organic matter for their cells. Every year, these tiny algae make about as much organic carbon as land plants. Like land plants, they obtain the building blocks of their cells from the surrounding environment – not a soil in this case but the seawater solution they live in. But unlike the land ecosystem, when these algae die, they fall into the dark ...

Bioengineering researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a soft, thin, stretchable bioelectronic device that can be implanted into a tadpole embryo’s neural plate, the early-stage, flat structure that folds to become the 3D brain and spinal cord. The researchers demonstrated that the device could integrate seamlessly into the brain as it develops and record electrical activity from single brain cells with millisecond precision, with no impact on normal tadpole embryo development or behavior. These so-called cyborg tadpoles offer a glimpse into a future in which profound mysteries of the brain could be illuminated, ...

Art restoration takes steady hands and a discerning eye. For centuries, conservators have restored paintings by identifying areas needing repair, then mixing an exact shade to fill in one area at a time. Often, a painting can have thousands of tiny regions requiring individual attention. Restoring a single painting can take anywhere from a few weeks to over a decade.  In recent years, digital restoration tools have opened a route to creating virtual representations of original, restored works. These tools apply techniques of computer vision, image recognition, and color matching, to generate a “digitally restored” version of a painting relatively quickly. Still, there has ...

Randomness is incredibly useful. People often draw straws, throw dice or flip coins to make fair choices. Random numbers can enable auditors to make completely unbiased selections. Randomness is also key in security; if a password or code is an unguessable string of numbers, it’s harder to crack. Many of our cryptographic systems today use random number generators to produce secure keys. But how do you know that a random number is truly random? Classical computer algorithms can only create pseudo-random numbers, and someone with enough knowledge of the algorithm or the system could ...