Aichi, Japan--Researchers from the Institute for Molecular Science (IMS)/SOKENDAI and Kyushu University have uncovered the molecular mechanism that drives the "ticking" of the circadian clock in cyanobacteria. Their study reveals how a clock protein called KaiC controls chemical reactions with remarkable precision, acting like the hand of a clock that waits, then moves at just the right moment. The findings were published in PNAS Nexus on April 28, 2025. To adapt to Earth's daily rotation, most living organisms, from simple, single-celled bacteria to complex, multicellular ...

A surgeon can excise breast cancer from the body, but even the most skilled scalpel may not be able to remove every cell — especially when the cells have spread from the original disease site elsewhere in the body. This proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells involves many still unknown molecular means, but researchers at Hiroshima University have elucidated at least one mechanism. With the discovery, they may have also uncovered how short chains of protein building blocks could serve as a novel anticancer drug.  The team published their findings on April 9 in the British Journal of Pharmacology. ...

A newly published analysis reveals that individuals with severe depression who received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) were 34% less likely to die by suicide compared to those treated with standard alternatives such as anti-depressant medication. This comprehensive meta-analysis (an analysis pooling and synthesizing previous studies), building on prior research and incorporating the most up-to-date evidence — is the first of its kind to demonstrate such a significant reduction in suicide risk linked to ECT. The findings also show that patients receiving ECT had 30% fewer deaths from any cause, suggesting broader health benefits beyond mental health. Researchers ...

Football’s governing body FIFA should drop Coca-Cola as sponsors of the 2025 Club World Cup which begins this week, urge doctors in The BMJ today. Dr Chris van Tulleken at University College London and Professor Carlos Monteiro at the University of São Paulo, say Coca-Cola and other sugary drinks companies have exploited the world's most popular sport for commercial gain - profiting off players and fans while contributing to a global health crisis. FIFA now has an opportunity to lead by example and send a powerful message - that health supersedes corporate sponsorship, they write. As FIFA’s official sponsor since 1978, Coca-Cola has leveraged its massive platform ...

For decades, scientists have used near-infrared light to study the brain in a noninvasive way. This optical technique, known as "fNIRS" (short for "functional near-infrared spectroscopy"), measures how light is absorbed by blood in the brain, to infer activity. Valued for portability and low cost, fNIRS has a major drawback: it can’t see very deep into the brain. Light typically only reaches the outermost layers of the brain, about 4 centimeters deep—enough to study the surface of the brain, but not deeper ...

Research Highlights: Being exposed to synthetic compounds called “forever chemicals” before birth was linked to higher systolic (top number) blood pressure in children, especially during their adolescent years. Compared to other children, the risk of elevated blood pressure was higher among boys and children born to Black mothers with high levels of forever chemicals in their blood around the time of delivery. The study underscores the importance of reducing exposure to forever chemicals during pregnancy, ...

Nearly 40% of U.S. cities analyzed in a new study in NPJ Complexity diverge from the common narrative that Republican-dominated areas have high levels of implicit racial bias while Democratic strongholds are more tolerant. Led by Santa Fe Institute Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Andrew Stier, the study combines prior research on implicit racial bias — people’s unconscious attitudes and beliefs about race — with voting data from the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections across 146 U.S. cities. Instead ...

The Rising T1DE Alliance (Rising T1DE), a national collaborative spearheading innovation in type 1 diabetes care, is transforming how healthcare systems leverage data, technology, and collaboration to drive improved patient outcomes. Launched in 2020 through grant supports from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Rising T1DE’s work is helping shape a future where proactive, integrated, real-time diabetes management becomes the new standard of care. A recent $5.1 million grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago adds Lurie Children’s to Rising T1DE’s leadership ...

Earned sick leave—short-term, paid time off for employees who are sick or injured or must care for sick or injured family members—has been found to reduce the spread of infectious diseases in the workplace and increase employee access to preventive care. Since 2019, seven states have implemented laws requiring employers to offer earned sick leave, bringing the total to 18 (plus Washington, D.C.). Despite this growth, however, little has been known until now about the policy’s effects on worker well-being across various industries. “This ...

Each human culture consists of a unique set of values, beliefs and practices. However, a common thread across cultures is the apparent importance of preserving aspects of those cultures throughout generations. In a new paper published in the journal Psychological Review, Cory Cobb, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, and colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin, proposed a cultural continuity hypothesis stating that humans are universally motivated to retain and preserve key parts of their cultures across time ...

Showing students audiovisual narratives that simulate homophobic bullying scenarios in schools can capture their attention and generate reflection on social prejudices, promoting respect and inclusion. This strategy is presented in an article published in the Journal of School Violence. In the study, supported by FAPESP, researchers from São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil investigated the extent to which this type of tool can serve as an instrument for research and educational intervention. According ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has joined a new partnership aimed at helping the United States regain its leadership in semiconductor manufacturing. While the U.S. was considered a powerhouse in chip production in the 1990s, fabricating more than 35% of the world’s semiconductors, that share has since dropped to 12%. Today, the U.S. manufactures none of the world’s most advanced chips which power technologies like smartphones, owned by 71% of the world’s population, as well as self-driving cars, quantum computers, and artificial intelligence-powered ...

Atmospheric rivers are responsible for most flooding on the West Coast of the U.S., but also bring much needed moisture to the region. The size of these storms doesn’t always translate to flood risk, however, as other factors on the ground play important roles. Now, a new study helps untangle the other drivers of flooding to help communities and water managers better prepare.   The research, published June 4 in the Journal of Hydrometeorology, analyzed more than 43,000 atmospheric river storms across 122 watersheds on the West Coast between 1980 and 2023. The researchers found that one ...

A team of researchers at Rice University have discovered a surprisingly simple method for vastly improving the stability of electrochemical devices that convert carbon dioxide into useful fuels and chemicals, and it involves nothing more than sending the CO 2 through an acid bubbler. Their study, published in Science, addresses a major bottleneck in the performance and stability of CO 2 reduction systems: the buildup of salt that clogs gas flow channels, reduces efficiency and causes the ...

Just when scientists thought they knew everything about crystals, a Northwestern University and University of Wisconsin-Madison collaboration has uncovered a hidden secret. Centrosymmetric crystals are a special type of material that is fully symmetrical in every direction from a central point. Previously, scientists thought only non-centrosymmetric materials could exhibit chiral behavior — a property in which an object acts differently from its mirror reflection. But, for the first time, researchers ...

Zachary Sexton and colleagues have developed a design platform that can rapidly generate vasculature trees that can then be bioprinted and used to successfully perfuse living tissue constructs. The platform improves the design and production of complex vascular networks that will be needed for manufacturing human tissues and organs in the future. As the researchers note, the manufacture of tissues with multiple cell types has improved recently. But like a city needs a full complement of main highways, side streets, and alleyways to carry traffic its furthest reaches, ...

A new evaluation of biological nitrogen fixation for inland and coastal waters concludes that these habitats are an overlooked but important source of fixation globally. Robinson Fulweiler and colleagues found that despite accounting for less than 10% of the globe’s surface area, inland and coastal aquatic systems create about 15% of the nitrogen fixed on land and in the open ocean. Biological nitrogen fixation is the microbial process that makes inert nitrogen gas available to organisms, fueling primary production and enhancing carbon ...

With the help of a technique called Massively Parallel Ribosome Profiling (MPRP), Shira Weingarten-Gabbay and colleagues identified more than 4000 open reading frames (ORFs) across 679 human-associated viral genomes. ORFs are a stretch of genetic material that can encode a protein. Researchers need to know more about viral proteomics to better understand viral effects on the immune system and to develop vaccines. But ORFs are notoriously difficult to detect in viruses using traditional computational methods, and the viruses themselves can be too dangerous to cultivate in a lab for experimental studies. To ...

Although there is no direct case law on liability using medical AI, the recent products liability case Dickson v. Dexcom Inc. may hold some lessons on future liability risk for manufacturers incorporating AI or machine learning (ML) technologies, according to Sara Gerke and David Simon. This legal finding could influence which products in this space are developed and marketed, with impacts on research and development and resulting benefits to the public. In this Policy Forum, Gerke and Simon discuss the case, which is the first to hold that federal law can preempt personal injury ...

Not all DNA looks like the familiar twisted ladder. Sometimes, parts of our genetic code fold into unusual shapes. One such structure, the G-quadruplex (G4), looks like a knot. These knots can play important roles in turning genes on or off. But if not untangled in time, they can harm our genome. Now, researchers from the Knipscheer Group at the Hubrecht Institute, in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute, have uncovered a surprising mechanism that keeps these knots in check. Their work, published in Science on June 12th, could lead to new ways to treat diseases like cancer. Our DNA is usually shaped like a double ...

Scientists have discovered a gruesome microbial survival strategy: when food is scarce, some bacteria kill and consume their neighbors. The study, published June 12 in Science, was conducted by an international team from Arizona State University, ETH Zurich, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag). The researchers show that under nutrient-limited conditions, bacteria use a specialized weapon — the Type VI Secretion System (T6SS) — to attack, kill, and slowly absorb nutrients from other bacterial cells. "The ...

Scientists have discovered a rapid molecular switch in plant roots that allows them to detect dry soils and redirect root growth to find water. This discovery could help in developing drought-resilient crops and addressing future food security challenges. Roots typically branch out in response to moisture in the soil, foraging for water and nutrients. However, when the growing root loses contact with moist soil, it temporarily halts the formation of lateral branches. This smart response helps plants redirect their root growth toward areas with higher water availability. In ...

Researchers have found that chunks of ‘flipped’ DNA can help fish quickly adapt to new habitats and evolve into new species, acting as evolutionary ‘superchargers’. Why are there so many different kinds of animals and plants on Earth? One of biology’s big questions is how new species arise and how nature’s incredible diversity came to be. Cichlid fish from Lake Malawi in East Africa offer a clue. In this single lake, over 800 different species have evolved from a common ancestor in a fraction of the time it took for humans and chimpanzees to evolve from their common ancestor. What’s ...

**EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL THURSDAY, JUNE 12, AT 2 P.M. ET** KEY TAKEAWAYS: Scientists say they have new experimental evidence of a novel role for bilirubin, a natural yellow pigment found in the body, in protecting humans from the worst effects of malaria and potentially other infectious diseases. Findings could advance the search for drugs that mimic the pigment bilirubin, or deliver it to the body to help protect people from severe forms of some infections. Bilirubin is also thought to play an important role in protecting the brain from neurodegenerative disease. New research suggests that a pigment that causes ...

Even tiny organisms can be brutal – not only eliminating potential competitors for resources but also using their neighbours as a source of nutrition. This is the conclusion reached by an international group of researchers from ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) and with contributions from other institutions. The researchers have just published their findings in the journal, Science. Poison tipped spear The researchers became aware of the bacteria's behaviour when they observed under a microscope two distinct species of rod-shaped bacteria from the sea in ...