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 ...

Now, the work presented at the 2025 annual EULAR congress in Barcelona adds two important pieces to the puzzle. First, a large-scale real-world study reporting no significantly higher risk of cancer in RA patients treated with JAKi compared to bDMARDs, and second an abstract looking at whether the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) which are causing waves in many fields including diabetes and obesity might offer cardiovascular protection in RA.   Romain Aymon and colleagues set out to assess the cancer incidence in RA patients treated with JAKi compared to biologic ...

Social determinants of health (SDH), such as socioeconomic status and educational background are factors that are increasingly recognised as critical contributors to health outcomes in chronic diseases. Understanding how certain factors impact different RMDs is important, and new research into this for both systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and inflammatory arthritis was presented at the 2025 annual EULAR congress in Barcelona.  SLE is a chronic autoimmune disease that exhibits considerable clinical heterogeneity, and is associated with substantial morbidity ...

Researchers at the University of Adelaide have developed a new dry electrode for aqueous batteries which delivers cathodes with more than double the performance of iodine and lithium-ion batteries. “We have developed a new electrode technique for zinc–iodine batteries that avoids traditional wet mixing of iodine,” said the University of Adelaide’s Professor Shizhang Qiao, Chair of Nanotechnology, and Director, Centre for Materials in Energy and Catalysis, at the School of Chemical Engineering, who led the team. “We mixed active materials as ...

A team at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) Center for Molecular Spectroscopy and Dynamics (CMSD) — led by Director CHO Minhaeng (Professor of Chemistry, Korea University) and Professor YOON Tai Hyun (Department of Physics, Korea University) — has developed a powerful new spectroscopic technique that enables real-time tracking of how perovskite nanomaterials change under light. The technique, called asynchronous and interferometric transient absorption spectroscopy (AI-TA), provides ultrafast measurements of excited-state dynamics and structural transformations in light-responsive materials. It overcomes major limitations ...

Turin, Italy — 12 June 2025 — Eighteen UN entities joined forces today during the 2nd UN Virtual Worlds Day to urge governments, civil society, academia, and the private sector to harness the transformative potential of AI-powered virtual worlds to drive development that works for all. The call-to-action outlines 12 priorities—from expanding connectivity to promoting responsible use of emerging technologies—in order to ensure that no one is left behind in the fast-evolving digital era. The two-day global forum brought together leaders, innovators, and youth changemakers from around the world to spotlight how emerging technologies—from ...

A combination therapy that adds a recently approved drug to the current standard of care for newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) showed high rates of complete remission in an early-phase clinical trial conducted at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and 11 other sites nationwide. The trial findings will be published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) and presented at the European Hematology Association Congress in Milan, Italy, both on June 12. Joshua F. Zeidner, MD, associate professor of medicine ...

According to a new study, presented at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Care of the Athletic Heart 2025 conference, sleep apnea may be more prevalent in younger female athletes than previously believed, especially among female athletes with higher levels of training. While obstructive sleep apnea has been observed in younger male athletes, the prevalence in female athletes and the association with cardiovascular risk is largely unknown. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common sleep-related breathing disorder, impacting about 18 million Americans, and is prevalent in both men and women. It occurs when the throat muscles relax and ...

From counting sheep to white noise and weighted blankets, people have tried innumerable ways to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep disruptions can have far-reaching negative consequences, impacting cardiovascular and metabolic health, memory, learning, productivity, mood regulation, interpersonal relationships and more. It turns out that an important tool for improving sleep quality may have been hiding in plain sight…in the produce aisle. A new study led by researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine and Columbia University found that eating more fruits and vegetables during the day was associated with sleeping more soundly later that same ...

A clinical trial led by researchers at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa and published in the New England Journal of Medicine illustrates a powerful and efficient approach for comparing different standard treatments. The FLUID trial compared two intravenous fluids that have been commonly used for decades in hospitalized patients: normal saline and Ringer's lactate. Many millions of litres of these fluids are used every year in Canada alone, and there is no strong evidence favouring one over the other across the hospital. Unlike a traditional trial, which would randomly assign each patient ...

In a study publishing June 12 in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports Sustainability, researchers conducted the most comprehensive analysis to date on lithium supply and demand in China, Europe, and the USA. Despite that domestic lithium production in some of these regions could grow as much as 10 times by 2030, it would still fall short of the soaring demand for electric vehicles (EVs) without expanding imports or technological innovation. “Lithium today is as important as gasoline in the industrial revolution,” says author Qifan Xia of East China Normal University in Shanghai. “While lithium reserves are substantial around the world, they are distributed ...

Your breath is one of a kind. A study published June 12 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology demonstrated that scientists can identify individuals based solely on their breathing patterns with 96.8% accuracy. These nasal respiratory “fingerprints” also offer insights into physical and mental health.  The research stemmed from the lab’s interest in olfaction, or the sense of smell. In mammals, the brain processes odor information during inhalation. This link between the brain and breathing led researchers to wonder: since every brain is unique, wouldn’t ...

The population across developed countries is getting older and the associated frailty and debilitation are becoming major health problems. This gradual muscle loss is accelerated by the poor capacity to repair damage and injury, especially after falls or surgeries. Low muscle mass in the elderly — known as sarcopenia — leads to increased frailty and movement problems. Patients with sarcopenia are more likely to be hospitalized and develop other comorbidities, largely due to falls and fractures that tend to create health declines that quickly spiral out of control.   “We knew that a major contributor is the muscle stem cells that are needed to repair ...

All of us produce a growth factor – called IL-15 – which effectively protects us from cancers. It’s role is to boost the production of immune cells that can rapidly detect and kill cancer cells when they first appear. One of these cell-types is appropriately called Natural Killer Cells. The problem is that cancer cells evolve numerous strategies to suppress immune cells like NK cells, even when these cancer cell are producing the immune boosting factor IL-15, and too often the cancer cells win. ...

Gland, Switzerland (IUCN) –Experts from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have analysed how targeted management of invasive alien species (IAS) can reduce extinction risks for threatened species across the European Union (EU), in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Published in the open-access journal NeoBiota, and funded by the European Commission, a new study identifies where and how targeted action against IAS (species that have been introduced to areas outside their ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study, U.S. drug overdose death rates entered a new wave of sustained deceleration in 2023 after 2 decades of increase. This shift may reflect changes in drug markets, treatment access, harm reduction efforts, and population-level risk. Although the decline is encouraging, persistent disparities highlight the need for targeted interventions and improved understanding of the underlying drivers.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Lori Ann Post, PhD, email lori.post@northwestern.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The ...

About The Study: This study found that initiating fecal immunochemical test screening at age 40 to 49 was associated with further reduction in colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality and incidence compared with starting screening at age 50. These results provide strong empirical support for lowering the CRC screening age, with substantial public health implications. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Tony Hsiu-Hsi Chen, PhD, email chenlin@ntu.edu.tw. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2025.1433) Editor’s ...

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — About 30% of all respiratory tract infections are caused by coronaviruses, leading to widespread illnesses and, in some cases, to epidemic and even pandemic outbreaks, as we experienced with the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the development of groundbreaking technology that enables the design of prophylactic vaccines, access to those vaccines is not equal across the globe, especially in low-resource countries, and also other hesitations prevent their adoption.  In addition, coronavirus variants are emerging ...

Out-of-body experiences – where people feel like spirits disconnected from their physical form – may be a coping mechanism triggered by trauma or other overwhelming stress, new University of Virginia School of Medicine research suggests. That idea challenges the common assumption that out-of-body experiences, or OBEs, are solely a symptom of mental illness. Based on data from more than 500 people, the researchers, including UVA Health’s Marina Weiler, PhD, instead argue for a more nuanced perspective: that OBEs may represent an underlying issue that could be a better treatment target than the out-of-body experiences ...

WASHINGTON — In a new study, researchers carried out the most extensive coordinated comparison of optical clocks to date by operating clocks and the links connecting them simultaneously across six countries. Spanning thousands of kilometers, the experiment represents a significant step toward redefining the second and ultimately establishing a global optical time scale. “The accurate time and frequency signals provided by atomic clocks are essential for many everyday technologies — like GPS, managing power grids and keeping financial transactions in sync,” said  Helen Margolis, head of time and frequency ...

A third of the world’s population struggles with water scarcity. In many of these areas, fog holds water that could provide a lifeline — if only it could be captured. Harvesting that water more efficiently has become the work of researchers from two colleges at Virginia Tech, who recently improved on their original fog harp design with a model that more closely resembles another musical instrument: a guitar. Their latest findings have been published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Harvesting water from resources such as fog is not a new idea. Archaeologists have found evidence of ancient ...

We live in the age of -omics. We have genomics to study complete sets of DNA. We have proteomics focused on all the proteins within our cells. And we have metabolomics for metabolites like sugars and lipids. Despite their massive reach and intense focus, these fields have blind spots. They’re both in the margins and all around us. Today, we know we’re as much a product of our surroundings as our genetics. The question then becomes, “How do we measure the impacts of all these external factors in conjunction with one another—and with the biology ...