Contrary to previous assumptions, nerve cells in the human neocortex are wired differently than in mice. Those are the findings of a new study conducted by Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and published in the journal Science.* The study found that human neurons communicate in one direction, while in mice, signals tend to flow in loops. This increases the efficiency and capacity of the human brain to process information. These discoveries could further the development of artificial neural networks. The neocortex, a critical structure for human intelligence, is less than five millimeters thick. There, in the outermost layer of the brain, 20 billion neurons process ...

Scientists Identify Airway Cells That Sense Aspirated Water and Acid Reflux  The new work by UCSF researchers could lead to interventions to prevent pneumonia or treat certain types of chronic cough.  When a mouthful of water goes down the wrong pipe – heading toward a healthy person’s lungs instead of their gut – they start coughing uncontrollably. That’s because their upper airway senses the water and quickly signals the brain. The same coughing reflex is set off in people with acid reflux, when acid from the stomach reaches the throat.  Now, UC San Francisco scientists have identified the rare type of cell responsible ...

The land under nearly half of China’s major cities is undergoing moderate to severe subsidence, affecting roughly one-third of the nation’s urban population, according to a systematic national-scale satellite assessment. The findings suggest that within the next century, 22 to 26% of China’s coastal land will have a relative elevation lower than sea level, putting hundreds of millions of people at elevated risk of flooding due to sea-level rise. Over the last several decades, China has experienced one of the most rapid and extensive urban expansions in human history. This massive wave of urbanization may be threatened ...

Drugs of abuse, like cocaine and opioids, alter neuronal signaling in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), hijacking a key brain reward system involved with the fulfillment of innate needs for survival, according to a new study in mice. The findings provide mechanistic insights into the intensification of drug-seeking behaviors in substance use disorders. Persistent drug use is accompanied by a profound reprioritization of motivations, skewing decision-making behaviors toward a myopic focus on drug use over other innate needs, like eating or drinking water, often ...

The energy density of supercapacitors – battery-like devices that can charge in seconds or a few minutes – can be improved by increasing the ‘messiness’ of their internal structure. Researchers led by the University of Cambridge used experimental and computer modelling techniques to study the porous carbon electrodes used in supercapacitors. They found that electrodes with a more disordered chemical structure stored far more energy than electrodes with a highly ordered structure. Supercapacitors are a key technology for the energy transition and could be useful for certain forms of public transport, as well as for ...

An international research team led by scientists from the CNRS1 has discovered that the magnetic nanobubbles2 known as skyrmions can be moved by electrical currents, attaining record speeds up to 900 m/s. Anticipated as future bits in computer memory, these nanobubbles offer enhanced avenues for information processing in electronic devices. Their tiny size3 provides great computing and information storage capacity, as well as low energy consumption. Until now, these nanobubbles moved no faster than 100 m/s, which is too slow for computing applications. ...

Land subsidence is overlooked as a hazard in cities, according to scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Virginia Tech. Writing in the journal Science, Prof Robert Nicholls of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at UEA and Prof Manoochehr Shirzaei of Virginia Tech and United Nations University for Water, Environment and Health, Ontario, highlight the importance of a new research paper analysing satellite data that accurately and consistently maps land movement across China. While they say in their comment article that consistently measuring subsidence is a great achievement, they argue it is only the start of finding solutions. Predicting ...

With negotiations around the Global Plastics Treaty set to resume next week, an international group of scientists has renewed calls for the ambitions and commitments of the Treaty to be driven by robust scientific evidence that is free from conflicts of interest. Government officials from across the world, and around 4,000 observers representing different aspects in society will gather in Ottawa, Canada, from April 23 to 29 for the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4). It will be the fourth of an expected five sessions convened to negotiate an international and legally binding global treaty after the mandate ...

By Shawn Ballard Electrostatic capacitors play a crucial role in modern electronics. They enable ultrafast charging and discharging, providing energy storage and power for devices ranging from smartphones, laptops and routers to medical devices, automotive electronics and industrial equipment. However, the ferroelectric materials used in capacitors have significant energy loss due to their material properties, making it difficult to provide high energy storage capability. Sang-Hoon Bae, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in ...

Mount Sinai researchers, in collaboration with scientists at The Rockefeller University, have uncovered a mechanism in the brain that allows cocaine and morphine to take over natural reward processing systems. Published online in Science on April 18, these findings shed new light on the neural underpinnings of drug addiction and could offer new mechanistic insights to inform basic research, clinical practice, and potential therapeutic solutions. “While this field has been explored for decades, our study is ...

Sinking land is overlooked as a hazard in urban areas globally, according to scientists from Virginia Tech and the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.  In an invited perspective article for the journal Science, Virginia Tech’s Manoochehr Shirzaei collaborated with Robert Nicholls of the University of East Anglia to highlight the importance of recent research analyzing how and why land is sinking — including a study published in the same issue that focused on sinking Chinese cities.   Results from the accompanying research study showed that ...

Tulane University researchers have identified a promising new approach to treating persistent neurological symptoms associated with Lyme disease, offering hope to patients who suffer from long-term effects of the bacterial infection, even after antibiotic treatment. Their results were published in Frontiers in Immunology.  Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and transmitted through tick bites, can lead to a range of symptoms, including those affecting the central ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – April 18, 2024) Metabolic health (normal blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, among other factors) influences the effectiveness of influenza vaccinations. Vaccination is known to be less effective in people with obesity compared to those with a healthier body mass index (BMI), but St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have found it is not obesity itself, but instead metabolic dysfunction, which makes the difference. In a study published today in Nature Microbiology, the researchers found switching obese mice to a healthy diet before flu vaccination, but not after, completely protected ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $16 million in funding for four projects providing classroom training and research opportunities to train the next generation of accelerator scientists and engineers needed to deliver scientific discoveries.  U.S. global competitiveness in discovery science relies on increasingly complex charged particle accelerator systems that require world-leading expertise to develop and operate. These programs will train the next generation of scientists and engineers, providing the expertise needed ...

Marine Resource Economics (MRE) is pleased to announce the 2024 winners of the journal’s Publication of Enduring Significance Award:  Kenneth Ruddle, Edvard Hviding, and Robert E. Johannes for their 1992 article, “Marine Resources Management in the Context of Customary Tenure,” and Frank Asche for his 2008 contribution entitled “Farming the Sea.”    In “Marine Resources Management in the Context of Customary Tenure,” Ruddle, Hviding, and Johannes use a case study-based analysis to show how and why customary marine sea ...

Health-care professionals who work with people experiencing homelessness know many of the people may also be living with a mental health disorder. University of Calgary researchers wanted to better understand how often these two things are connected, and what they found surprised them. “We found 66-to-75 per cent of people who are experiencing homelessness have an underlying mental health condition” says Dr. Dallas Seitz, MD, PhD, a psychiatrist and clinician-researcher at the Cumming School of Medicine, and senior author of the paper. “We have always ...

The 2010 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon was the largest accidental oil spill in history. With almost 100 million gallons (379 million liters) of oil combined with dispersants suggested to remain in the Gulf, it is one of the worst pollution events ever. More than a decade later, its long-term effects  are still not fully understood. In a new study, researchers from Louisiana State University and Tulane University examined the endemic Gulf of Mexico fish species that may have been most impacted by the oil spill to see how their distribution has changed over the years. To get their data, they studied museum specimens from natural ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Have you ever felt reluctant to share ideas during a meeting because you feared judgment from senior colleagues? You’re not alone. Research has shown this pervasive issue can lead to a lack of diversity in public discourse, especially when junior members of a community don’t speak up because they feel intimidated. Anonymous communication can alleviate that fear and empower individuals to speak their minds, but anonymity also eliminates important social context and can quickly skew too far in the other direction, leading to toxic or hateful speech. MIT ...

Animal and plant populations have been extensively studied, which has helped to understand ecosystem processes and evolutionary adaptations. However, this has not been the case with microbial populations due to the impossibility of isolating, culturing and analyzing the genetic content of the different species and their individuals in the laboratory. Therefore, although it is known that populations of microorganisms include a great diversity, this remains largely uncharacterized. Now, a new study from the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) recently published in the journal Microbiome highlights the potential of marine microbial populations as indicators ...

Twin studies have proven invaluable for teasing out the effects of both genetics and the environment on human biology. In a study published April 2 in Cell Reports, researchers studied pairs of twins to look at how the interplay of genetics and environment affect cognitive processing—the way that people think. They found that some cognitive abilities appear to be regulated more by environmental factors than by genetics. “Past research has suggested that general intelligence—often referred to as intelligence quotient or IQ—has a heritability ranging from 50% to 80%,” says senior and corresponding author Xiaohong Wan of Beijing Normal University in China. ...

LA JOLLA (April 18, 2024)—Salk Institute Professor Satchidananda Panda has been named a 2023 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Panda is among 502 new AAAS Fellows spanning 24 scientific disciplines who were nominated by their peers for their distinguished efforts to advance science. The election recognizes his contributions to the field of chronobiology, particularly for applications to obesity and human health.  “The Salk community congratulates ...

A new urine test that measures 18 genes associated with prostate cancer provides higher accuracy for detecting clinically significant cancers than PSA and other existing biomarker tests, according to a study published April 18 in JAMA Oncology. The urine test, MyProstateScore 2.0 (MPS2), was shown to meaningfully reduce unnecessary prostate biopsies while providing highly accurate detection of worrisome prostate cancers, the researchers concluded.    “In nearly 800 patients with an elevated PSA level, the new test was capable of ruling out the presence of clinically significant prostate cancer with remarkable accuracy. This allows patients to avoid more burdensome and ...

Milan, April 17 2024 – The study, published in Nature Energy, is among the first to explore the FPV at the continental scale, finding that FPV installed at existing major reservoirs could produce 20-100% of the electricity expected from Africa’s planned hydropower dams.  Using a state-of-the-art energy planning model covering the continent’s entire energy system, the researchers found that FPV is cost-competitive with other renewables and thus a key part of Africa’s future energy mix. "Floating solar is fast becoming cost-competitive with land-based solar, and ...

Scientists in Cambridge University suggest molecules, vital to the development of life, could have formed from a process known as graphitisation. Once verified in the laboratory, it could allow us to try and recreate plausible conditions for life's emergence.  How did the chemicals required for life get there?   It has long been debated how the seemingly fortuitous conditions for life arose in nature, with many hypothesises reaching dead ends. However, researchers at the University of Cambridge have now modelled how these conditions could occur, producing the necessary ingredients for life in substantial ...

A geo-environmental scientist from Japan has composed a string quartet using sonified climate data. The 6-minute-long composition—entitled “String Quartet No. 1 “Polar Energy Budget”—is based on over 30 years of satellite-collected climate data from the Arctic and Antarctic and aims to garner attention on how climate is driven by the input and output of energy at the poles. The backstory about how the composition was put together publishes April 18 in the journal iScience as part of a collection “Exploring the Art-Science Connection.” “I strongly hope that this manuscript marks a significant turning point, transitioning ...