Years before tau tangles show up in brain scans of patients with Alzheimer's disease, a biomarker test developed at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine can detect small amounts of the clumping-prone tau protein and its misfolded pathological forms that litter the brain, cerebrospinal fluid and potentially blood, new research published today in Nature Medicine suggests. The cerebrospinal fluid biomarker test correlates with the severity of cognitive decline, independent of other factors, including brain amyloid deposition, thereby opening doors for early-stage disease diagnosis ...

Beryllium-10, a rare radioactive isotope produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere, provides valuable insights into the Earth's geological history. A research team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), in collaboration with the TUD Dresden University of Technology and the Australian National University (ANU), has discovered an unexpected accumulation of this isotope in samples taken from the Pacific seabed. Such an anomaly may be attributed to shifts in ocean currents or astrophysical events that occurred approximately 10 million years ago. The findings hold the potential to serve as a global time marker, representing a promising ...

A new mathematical model sheds light on how the brain processes different cues, such as sights and sounds, during decision making. The findings from Princeton neuroscientists may one day improve how brain circuits go awry in neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, and could help artificial brains, like Alexa or self-driving car technology, more helpful. The findings were published February 10 in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Walking to work, commuters encounter many sensory signals along their route, such as the glow of a crosswalk signal that indicates whether it’s safe to cross or beware of oncoming traffic. ...

Financial markets are reacting not just to Donald Trump's return to the White House but also to the unpredictability of this victory, according to a new study from the University of Surrey.  Investors must diversify their portfolios to mitigate risks associated with political volatility and to remain vigilant about the potential for abrupt market corrections.  A new study, published in Economics Letters, indicates that while there was an immediate surge in stock prices following Trump's election, this was quickly tempered by investor concerns over potential trade wars and international instability.   A group of ...

Why do our mental images stay sharp even when we are moving fast? A team of neuroscientists led by Professor Maximilian Jösch at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has identified a mechanism that corrects visual distortions caused by movement in animals. The study, conducted in mice, identifies a core function that can be generalized across the vertebrate visual system, including primates such as humans. The findings are published in Nature Neuroscience. Despite its rapid development in recent decades, the video camera industry is still catching up with the capabilities of the human eye. In particular, action cams are designed ...

Euclid blasted off on its six-year mission to explore the dark Universe on 1 July 2023. Before the spacecraft could begin its survey, the team of scientists and engineers on Earth had to make sure everything was working properly. During this early testing phase, in September 2023, Euclid sent some images back to Earth. They were deliberately out of focus, but in one fuzzy image Euclid Archive Scientist Bruno Altieri saw a hint of a very special phenomenon and decided to take a closer look. “I look at the data from Euclid as it comes in,” explains Bruno. “Even from that first observation, I could see it, but after Euclid made more observations of the area, ...

The report “Assessing Deep-Tech Innovation Hubs in Germany: The Case of Biotechnology” evaluates Germany’s performance in deep-tech innovation within biotech using a comprehensive index and examines five key hubs: Berlin, Heidelberg, Munich, Nuremberg-Erlangen, and Stuttgart. These hubs were analyzed in terms of fundamental research, research and development in biotech, startup activity, public infrastructure, and business environment.  Berlin, Munich, and Heidelberg are the leading biotech hubs Berlin leads the index due to its strong public infrastructure ...

Experiencing pain may increase the odds that cancer survivors will use cigarettes and cannabis, according to a recent study published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study also found that cigarette smoking and pain are linked to more treatment-related side effects and worse health among cancer survivors. Pain and use of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, alcohol, and cannabis commonly occur together in the general population. To characterize pain in relation to such non-opioid substance ...

Scientists have found that taking a playful approach to life doesn’t mean you don’t take your situation seriously, but it can mean you cope with it better. By surveying people about their experiences during a Covid-19 lockdown, they learned that more playful people were more positive about the future and coped more actively and creatively. Life gave them lemons, and they made lemonade.  “Our study revealed that playfulness and resilience are intimately connected through what we call ‘lemonading’ — the ability to imagine ...

Unresectable canine hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has limited nonsurgical treatment options. Sorafenib is a targeted therapy for unresectable canine HCC. However, there are limited reports on the expression of target genes. Therefore, the efficacy of the targeted therapies for canine HCC remains unclear. In HCC, the prognosis is generally good when complete surgical resection is possible. Unresectable nodular and diffuse HCC have a poor prognosis and limited nonsurgical treatment options. In humans, systemic therapies including ...

Opioid prescriptions in the emergency department (ED) were associated with small increases in later opioid prescriptions and hospital admissions, found new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241542. To understand the relationship between opioid prescribing in the ED and subsequent harm, researchers looked at opioid prescribing at all Alberta EDs from 2010 to 2020. Of the more than 13 million visits, 689 074 patients (5.3%) filled an opioid prescription. The researchers found that opioid prescriptions did not increase the risk of ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Adults with high levels of playfulness showed strong resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to less playful individuals, new research shows. The study led by Xiangyou “Sharon” Shen of Oregon State University is important because playfulness is a vital but underappreciated resource for building resilience and maintaining well-being during difficult periods such as the pandemic, Shen said. And it’s a resource that individuals can cultivate. “Understanding how playful people navigate adversity can inform interventions and strategies to help people cope with stress and uncertainty,” said Shen, an assistant professor ...

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have elucidated how hydrogen and carbon monoxide is adsorbed into solids containing a crown-motif structure of platinum and gold. Using quick-scan X-ray absorption measurements and theoretical calculations, they studied a solid of [PtAu8(PPh3)8]-H[PMo12O40] called PtAu8-PMo12 and found that gas adsorption is affected strongly by the dimension of nanoscale voids in the structure. This highlights the importance of engineering voids in materials for next generation sensors and gas separation.   Ligand-protected metal clusters have been a source of ...

A new study in Nature describing a fossil of a nearly complete and intact bird skull from Antarctica is shedding light on the early evolution of today’s birds and avian diversity at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. The skull is from Vegavis iaai, an extinct duck-like bird that lived during the Late Cretaceous, just before non-avian dinosaurs went extinct. It’s one of very few 3D bird skulls known to science from the Cretaceous — a 79-million-year geological period and the last era when ...

A UCLA research team has found that drugs being sold as fentanyl contain high amounts of the industrial chemical bis(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl) sebacate, or BTMPS. This new substance of concern emerged in the illicit drug supply nearly simultaneously in multiple U.S. locations from coast-to-coast. From June through October 2024, the team quantitatively tested samples of drugs sold as fentanyl that had high levels of the chemical, which belongs to a class of compounds called hindered amine light stabilizers ...

As many as 40% of Americans are obese, putting them at an increased risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart disease and certain cancers, according to the CDC. New research from the University of Delaware aims to tackle the issue by investigating obesity at the gene level.  Principal investigator Ibra Fancher, assistant professor of kinesiology and applied physiology in UD’s College of Health Sciences, discovered significant differences in gene expression in adipose tissue, more commonly known as fat. Formerly considered fat storage, adipose tissue is now recognized as a vital ...

Hoboken, N.J., February 7, 2025 — As winter storms and summer heat waves increasingly stress the nation’s power grids, Stevens researchers have developed a new way to identify the homes most vulnerable to blackouts — without even visiting them. The timing couldn't be more critical. With more than a quarter of U.S. homes already fully electric, and solar installations set to triple during the next five years, understanding vulnerabilities has become critical for emergency planning and public safety. "We're ...

  A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI  10.29026/oea.2025.240193 , discusses a novel approach towards robust construction of physical colors on lithium niobate crystal.   Color has a profound impact on the way humans observe, perceive and understand the world. It is like a silent language, subtly shaping our perception and response to the surrounding environment. From the first ray of sunshine in the morning to the twinkling stars in the night sky, colors are everywhere. They are not only a visual ...

  A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI  10.29026/oea.2025.240180 , discusses high-frequency enhanced ultrafast compressed photography technology.   Single-shot ultrafast imaging technology can characterize transient events under a wide range of conditions. It opens the door to explore the unrepeatable or difficult to reproduce ultrafast phenomena such as photosynthesis at the molecular or atomic scale in nature and the precision manufacturing of semiconductor ...

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI  10.29026/oea.2025.240182 , discusses a single-beam optical trap-based surface-enhanced Raman scattering optofluidic molecular fingerprint spectroscopy detection system.   Raman spectroscopy is a non-destructive analytical technique that allows for precise analysis of substances based on their unique molecular Raman spectral characteristics. However, traditional Raman spectroscopy techniques suffer from weak signal intensity, limiting their sensitivity in high-sensitivity detection applications. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology, on the other hand, can amplify Raman signals by several million ...

Research Highlights: Stroke survivors were more likely to have little or no disability after 90 days if a clot was removed from a large brain artery followed by the injection of the clot-dissolving medication tenecteplase directly into the artery near the blockage, compared to people receiving standard medical treatment after clot removal. In this trial, standard care was clot removal without clot-dissolving medication. The added treatment may work by dissolving blood clots in the small vessels (microcirculation) near the major blockage, reducing the amount of brain tissue deprived of blood. The ANGEL-TNK trial found that this approach was ...

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI  10.29026/oea.2025.240275, discusses A highly sensitive laser gas sensor based on a four-prong quartz tuning fork.   Trace gases, though have a volume fraction much less than 1% of the atmosphere, significantly impact various sectors. Despite their low concentration, typically between 10-12 to 10-6, gases like nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and greenhouse gases contribute to atmospheric pollution, a pressing global issue exacerbated by industrialization and urbanization. Moreover, detecting trace gases is crucial for industrial ...

  A new publication from Opto-Electronic Sciences; DOI   10.29026/oes.2025.240024, discusses generation of terahertz complex vector light fields on a metasurface driven by surface waves.   With the rapid development of information and communication technologies, especially in the context of 5G, 6G networks, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, the development of on-chip optical control devices with high bandwidth, high speed, low power consumption, and miniaturization ...

Research Highlights: In a randomized clinical trial in China, giving the clot-busting medication alteplase up to 24 hours after stroke symptoms first appeared increased the odds of better recovery by 50% compared to those who received standard antiplatelet treatment. The results might extend the time window for patient treatment worldwide, particularly in regions that lack access to advanced medical procedures. Note: The study featured in this news release is a research abstract. Abstracts presented at the American Heart ...

Five years removed from the COVID-19 outbreak, scientists around the world are still studying its effects and, more importantly, ways those effects can be mitigated in the future. An international team of researchers may have just found a critical clue in the quest, and a laboratory at Texas Tech University played a key role. The Ray Laboratory, led by Department of Biological Sciences Professor and Associate Chair David Ray, as part of a study on bat genomes published by the scientific journal Nature, helped identify the components of a genome in a specific species of bats that have shown more genetic adaptations in their immune systems than other animals. The study revealed that a gene ...