Dense E.coli bacteria have several similar qualities to colloidal glass, according to new research at the University of Tokyo. Colloids are substances made up of small particles suspended within a fluid, like ink for example. When these particles become higher in density and more packed together, they form a “glassy state.” When researchers multiplied E.coli bacteria within a confined area, they found that they exhibited similar characteristics. More surprisingly, they also showed some other unique properties not typically found in glass-state materials. This study contributes to our understanding of glassy “active matter,” a relatively new field of ...

Weill Cornell Medicine has received $4.2 million to study how the immune system in some people infected with HIV can keep the virus under control, which could lead to novel therapeutic strategies for thwarting or eliminating HIV. Dr. Brad Jones, associate professor of immunology in medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine, was awarded a MERIT grant from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The “Method for Extending Research in Time” (MERIT) grant provides ...

According to Science Alert, neuroscientists from Johns Hopkins University have recently discovered a new treatment for Parkinson's disease using an FDA-approved cancer drug. A recent study published in Neuroscience Bulletin reveals the genetic cause of Parkinson's disease. The study discovered that a mutation in the Cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase (CARS) gene (c.2384A>T; p.Glu795Val; E795V) is responsible, offering a new path for prevention and control of the disease. This research was conducted by a team led by Zhang Jianguo, including researcher ...

People tend to become less narcissistic as they age from childhood through older adulthood, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association. However, differences among individuals remain stable over time -- people who are more narcissistic than their peers as children tend to remain that way as adults, the study found. “These findings have important implications given that high levels of narcissism influence people’s lives in many ways -- both the lives of the narcissistic individuals themselves and, maybe even more, the lives of their families and friends,” said lead author Ulrich Orth, PhD, of the University of Bern in Switzerland. The ...

A group of scientists have released a landmark report on glacial geoengineering—an emerging field studying whether technology could halt the melting of glaciers and ice sheets as climate change progresses. The white paper represents the first public efforts by glaciologists to assess possible technological interventions that could help address catastrophic sea-level rise scenarios. While it does not endorse any specific interventions, it calls for a “major initiative” in the next decades to research which, if any, interventions could and should be ...

New York, NY (July 11, 2024) – The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is embarking on biomedical research aiming to set new standard-of-care protocols for treating alopecia areata and atopic dermatitis in people with Down syndrome, or trisomy 21. Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD, the Waldman Professor and Chair of Dermatology at Icahn Mount Sinai, has been awarded more than $4 million for a five-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) R61/R33 grant to evaluate the long-term safety, efficacy, and mechanisms of medications known as JAK inhibitors in patients with Down syndrome. The medications have been approved ...

How do people like to interact with robots when navigating a crowded environment? And what algorithms should roboticists use to program robots to interact with humans?  These are the questions that a team of mechanical engineers and computer scientists at the University of California San Diego sought to answer in a study presented recently at the ICRA 2024 conference in Japan. “To our knowledge, this is the first study investigating robots that infer human perception of risk for intelligent decision-making in everyday settings,” said Aamodh Suresh, first author of the study, who earned his Ph.D. in the research group of Professor Sonia Martinez Diaz ...

Inflation rates may have cooled off recently, but a new poll shows many older adults are experiencing financial stress – especially those who say they’re in fair or poor physical health or mental health. Women and those age 50 to 64 are more likely than men or people over age 65 to report feeling a lot of stress related to their personal finances. So are people age 50 and older who say they’re in fair or poor physical or mental health. In all, 47% of people age 50 and older said inflation had impacted them a great deal in the past year, and 52% said they ...

In 1887, chemist Sir Arthur Michael reported a nucleophilic addition reaction to the β-position of α,β- unsaturated carbonyl compounds. These reactions, named Michael addition reactions, have been extensively studied to date. In contrast, the anti-Michael addition reaction, referring to the nucleophilic addition reaction to the α-position, has been difficult to achieve. This is due to the higher electrophilicity of the β-position compared to the α-position. Previous attempts to overcome these difficulties have involved two main methods. The first is restricting the addition position via intramolecular reactions, ...

Seagull chicks raised on an “urban” diet still prefer seafood, new research shows. University of Exeter scientists studied herring gull chicks that had been rescued after falling off roofs in towns across Cornwall, UK. Raised in captivity (before being released), they were given either a “marine” diet consisting mainly of fish and mussels, or an “urban” diet containing mostly bread and cat food. Every few days the gull chicks were presented with a choice of all four foods in different bowls, to test which they preferred – and all gulls strongly favoured fish. “Our results suggest that, even when reared on an ‘urban’ ...

Superconductors are materials that can conduct electricity with zero resistance when cooled to a certain temperature, called the critical temperature. They have applications in many fields, including power grids, maglev trains, and medical imaging. High-temperature superconductors, which have critical temperatures higher than normal superconductors have significant potential for advancing these technologies. However, the mechanisms behind their superconductivity remain unclear. Copper oxides or cuprates, a class of high-temperature superconductors, exhibit superconductivity ...

Scientists have taken a significant step towards the development of tailor-made chiral nanocarriers with controllable release properties. These nanocarriers, inspired by nature's helical molecules like DNA and proteins, hold immense potential for targeted drug delivery and other biomedical applications. The study, led by Professors Emilio Quiñoá and Félix Freire at the Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CiQUS), highlights the intricate relationship between the structure of helical polymers and their self-assembly into nanospheres. By carefully designing ...

The grants – each worth €150,000 – help researchers to bridge the gap between the discoveries stemming from their frontier research and the practical application of the findings, including early phases of their commercialisation.    Nanda Rea’s new project, called DeepSpacePULSE, aims to facilitate deep space exploration. Currently, to find their way, spacecraft and satellites use up a lot of energy exchanging vital navigation information with mission coordinators on Earth. Using ERC Proof of Concept funding, Prof. Nanda Rea ...

Native plants and non-native crops do not fare well in proximity to one another, attracting pests that spread diseases in both directions, according to two new UC Riverside studies.  “We have changed the landscape, and it’s created opportunities for pathogens to thrive,” said UCR entomologist Kerry Mauck, who co-authored the studies. “We have introduced pathogens that damage native plants, and on the other side of the coin we have endemic pathogens that mutate to infect ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – A small 3-ounce sensor capable of recording 2,400 data points of movement in just one second being tested and refined by researchers at Washington State University could be key in reducing the number of injuries to racehorses. Led by Dr. Warwick Bayly in WSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, researchers used the biometric sensors, developed by the company StrideSAFE, to track thoroughbreds as they raced and trained at some of the top racetracks in the country. Using collected data, the team was able to identify miniscule stride changes associated with increased risk ...

International joint research led by Akihisa Osakabe and Yoshimasa Takizawa of the University of Tokyo has clarified the molecular mechanisms in thale cresses (Arabidopsis thaliana) by which the DDM1 (Decreased in DNA Methylation 1) protein prevents the transcription of “jumping genes.” DDM1 makes “jumping genes” more accessible for transcription-suppressing chemical marks to be deposited. Because a variant of this protein exists in humans, the discovery provides insight into genetic conditions caused by such “jumping gene” mutations. The findings ...

Switching from a diet high in saturated animal fats to one rich in plant-based unsaturated fats affects the fat composition in the blood, which in turn influences long-term disease risk. A recent study published in Nature Medicine, conducted by a team of researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, the German Institute of Human Nutrition, Germany and several other universities, shows that it is possible to accurately measure diet-related fat changes in the blood and directly link them to the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. “Our study confirms with even more certainty the health benefits of ...

Bees and other beneficial bugs are disproportionately harmed by air pollution compared to crop-destroying pests, a new study published in Nature Communications has found. Researchers from the University of Reading analysed data from 120 scientific papers to understand how 40 types of insects in 19 countries respond to air pollutants like ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter. Pollinators - including bees and some moths and butterflies - experienced a 39% decline in foraging ...

For a long time, scientists associated crystal structures with an ordered arrangement of atoms in a repeating lattice-like pattern, believing it to be the most stable configuration. However, by the 1960s, advancements in crystallography revealed materials that did not fit the traditional model. These structures exhibit a non-periodic or non-repeating pattern and are called aperiodic crystals. There are two types of aperiodic crystals: quasicrystals (QCs), which exhibit ordered but aperiodic arrangements, and incommensurately (IC) modulated structures, where a three-dimensional periodic lattice structure ...

The possibility of hydrogen-powered flight means greater opportunities for fossil-free travel, and the technological advances to make this happen are moving fast. New studies from Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, show that almost all air travel within a 750-mile radius (1200 km) could be made with hydrogen-powered aircraft by 2045, and with a novel heat exchanger currently in development, this range could be even further.    “If everything falls into place, the commercialisation of hydrogen flight can go really fast now. As early as 2028, the first commercial hydrogen flights in Sweden could be in the air," says Tomas Grönstedt, Professor at Chalmers ...

Some people lose weight slower than others after workouts, and a Kobe University research team found a reason. They studied what happens to mice that cannot produce signal molecules that respond specifically to short-term exercise and regulate the body’s energy metabolism. These mice consume less oxygen during workouts, burn less fat and are thus also more susceptible to gaining weight. Since the team found this connection also in humans, the newly gained knowledge of this mechanism might provide a pathway for treating obesity. It is well known that exercise leads to the ...

In Rhode Island, USA, over one in four emergency department (ED) patients at high risk of overdose has a non-fatal opioid overdose in the 18 months post-discharge.  A parallel, two-arm, randomized controlled trial conducted in Rhode Island of over 600 ED patients at high risk of opioid overdose found that support from a peer recovery support specialist (a trained support worker with lived experience of addiction) was as effective in reducing opioid overdose as support from a licensed clinical social worker.  In other words, interviewing and intervention techniques informed by lived ...

Washington, July 11, 2024—Predictive algorithms commonly used by colleges and universities to determine whether students will be successful may be racially biased against Black and Hispanic students, according to new research published today in AERA Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. The study—conducted by Denisa Gándara (University of Texas at Austin), Hadis Anahideh (University of Illinois Chicago), Matthew Ison (Northern Illinois University), and Lorenzo Picchiarini (University of Illinois Chicago)—found ...

Understanding complex biological pathways, such as gene-gene interactions and gene regulatory networks, is crucial for exploring disease mechanisms and advancing drug development. However, manual literature curation of these pathways cannot keep pace with the exponential growth of discoveries. Large-scale language models (LLMs) trained on extensive text corpora contain rich biological information and can be leveraged as a biological knowledge graph for pathway curation. Recently, Quantitative Biology published a study titled "A Comprehensive ...

LA JOLLA, CA—Do you grab a fork and take a first bite of cake, or say no and walk away? Our motivation to eat is driven by a complex web of cells in the brain that use signals from within the body, as well as sensory information about the food in front of us, to determine our behaviors. Now, Scripps Research scientists have identified a group of neurons in a small and understudied region of the brain—the parasubthalamic nucleus (PSTN)—that controls when an animal decides to take a first bite of food. In the study, published in Molecular Psychiatry on July 4, 2024, the team of scientists set out to selectively manipulate a group of PSTN cells that dial up their ...