ITHACA, N.Y. – E. coli outbreaks in romaine lettuce have long been a public health concern. and now a new Cornell University paper suggests that a combination of efforts in the field, and even postharvest techniques, can minimize risk to human health. Co-authored by Renata Ivanek, a professor in the department of population medicine and diagnostic sciences, and Martin Wiedmann, professor in food safety, the paper outlines interventions likely to make a concrete difference in the safety of the nation’s romaine. “This study supports that interventions should focus on reducing produce contamination via contaminated irrigation water, on assuring ...

Some jumping spiders look so much like wasps that scientists named them for the predatory insects. But University of Cincinnati biologists wondered: Do these mimics really look like insect faces or is it just our own perceptual bias? After all, we see faces everywhere: tree trunks, rock outcrops, clouds. So when travel restrictions from COVID-19 shut down field research, UC biologists decided to turn to an objective third party, a computer. They presented digital portraits of jumping spiders, praying mantises and wasps to see if a computer algorithm could identify them correctly from shapes and patterns each contained. And surprisingly even the computer was fooled about 20% of the time. The ...

MINNEAPOLIS — A new study that examined older and newer medications to treat seizures has found that using some medications during pregnancy is linked to an increased risk of malformations at birth, or birth defects. The study is published July 16, 2025, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Seizures can lead to falls and other complications during pregnancy, so seizure control for those with epilepsy is crucial to protect the health of both the mother and child,” said study author ...

MINNEAPOLIS — Hispanic people have an increased risk of peripheral neuropathy compared to white people that cannot be explained by many health, lifestyle and social risk factors, according to a study published July 16, 2025, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Peripheral neuropathy is nerve damage that causes burning, tingling, pain and numbness in the feet and hands. It can be debilitating and may eventually lead to falls, infection and even amputation. One of the most common causes of neuropathy is diabetes due to high levels of blood sugar that can damage the nerves. Other causes include ...

Older adults who increased their regular walking pace by just 14 steps per minute were more likely to experience clinically significant improvements in a test of aerobic capacity and walking endurance Article URL: http://plos.io/45XmRFc Article title: Walking cadence as a measure of activity intensity and impact on functional capacity for prefrail and frail older adults High-resolution image link: http://plos.io/44A2RG6 Author countries: U.S. Funding: This research is supported by the National Institues of Health, National Institue on Aging with awards (www.nia.nih.gov) with award MD (R01AG060162) awarded to MD and (R03AG078957) ...

For adults with hearing loss, linear amplification (amplification across all sound levels, available with some hearing aids) might restore their ability to recognize emotion in voices Article URL: http://plos.io/4ldE7dQ Article title: Effects of mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss and signal amplification on vocal emotion recognition in middle-aged–older individuals Author countries: Sweden Funding:  Örjan Dahlström was partly funded through a grant from The Swedish Association of Hard of Hearing People. Ref 2016-531. https://hrf.se/ The ...

A new study describes factors associated with self-reported climate anxiety in the United States, publishing July 16, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Katherine Kricorian from For Good Measure, United States, and colleagues Karin Turner and Christopher Kricorian, who is also a current high school student.   Climate change has many adverse effects on the environment and human health, including higher rates of self-reported anxiety. In this study, Kricorian and co-authors ...

 Many people might be aware of an ongoing opioid epidemic, with thousands of people dying every year from overdoses. But many who are misusing opioids are also using—and dying from—stimulant drugs as well, according to a study published July 2 in the open access journal PLOS Mental Health by Yutong Li from the University of Alberta, Canada, and colleagues.  In 2021, more than 88,000 people passed away from opiate-related deaths in the United States and Canada—the latest in three major waves ...

Food insecurity is not only linked with, but directly causes symptoms of anxiety and depression, according to research published in the open access journal PLOS Mental Health. Melissa Bateson of Newcastle University, UK, and colleagues at École Normale Supérieure, Northumbria University and York University, collected monthly data from adults in the UK and France and found that changes in food insecurity one month resulted in changes in symptoms of anxiety and depression the next. The authors therefore ...

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have identified a new way of predicting whether a kidney donor and recipient are a good match for transplantation. The findings, published today in Science Translational Medicine, could complement existing methods to identify patients at higher risk of rejecting a new kidney and who may benefit from additional immunosuppression to reduce that risk. “The dream of any kidney transplant surgeon is one transplant for life,” said senior author Aravind Cherukuri, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, surgery and immunology at Pitt, co-director of clinical research at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation ...

Billionaires, oligarchs, and other members of the uber rich, known as "elites," are notorious for use of offshore financial systems to conceal their assets and mask their identities. Understanding the transnational offshore finance networks that they utilize has long been a challenge given the secrecy involved. But a new Dartmouth study reveals there are distinct patterns associated with the offshore system, which are specific to where a wealthy person comes from. Specifically, the quality of the governance in the home country of an elite is tightly associated with the patterns. The findings ...

A cheetah’s powerful sprint, a snake’s lithe slither, or a human’s deft grasp: each is made possible by the seamless interplay between soft and rigid tissues. Muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones work together to provide the energy, precision, and range of motion needed to perform the complex movements seen throughout the animal kingdom. Replicating this musculoskeletal diversity in robotics is extremely challenging. Until now, 3D printing using multiple materials has been one way to create soft-rigid robots, and while this approach may mimic the diversity of biological tissues, it means that key properties like stiffness ...

Frailty is a medically defined condition in older adults that increases vulnerability to everyday stresses, leading to a higher risk of falls, hospitalization and loss of independence. Warning signs of frailty include: Unintentional weight loss Moving slowly Feeling weak Persistent tiredness Low levels of physical activity Because most of these signs have a direct link to how active someone is, walking is a particularly effective way to help older adults improve their overall health and quality of life and maintain independence ...

The private health industry lobby group “Partnership for America’s Health Care Future” engages in marketing and publicity strategies similar to Big Tobacco and other unhealthy commodity industry groups to shape public perception of universal health care policies as negative in the United States, according to a study published July 16, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Kendra Chow from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, and colleagues.   The United States ...

In an opinion piece published July 16 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate, Jeremy Jacobs of Vanderbilt University and Shazia Khan of Yale School of Medicine draw attention to the rollback of government efforts to collect data on climate change, and how the loss of this infrastructure imperils public health efforts. Climate disasters like heatwaves, wildfires, floods and hurricanes can contribute to a range of health conditions, including heart disease, respiratory issues, disease outbreaks, mental health crises and traumatic injuries. The elimination of federal and state tools to ...

New York, NY—July 16, 2025—Today’s robots are stuck—their bodies are usually closed systems that can neither grow nor self-repair, nor adapt to their environment. Now, scientists at Columbia University have developed robots that can physically “grow,” “heal,” and improve themselves by integrating material from their environment or from other robots. Described in a new study published in Science Advances, this new process, called "Robot Metabolism," enables machines to absorb and reuse parts from other robots or their surroundings. "True autonomy means robots must not only ...

Promising therapeutic strategies for lung cancer, AML and advanced solid tumors Novel insights into ovarian cancer, blood disorders and chemotherapy-related secondary cancers New-onset diabetes as an early marker of pancreatic cancer HOUSTON, JULY 16, 2025 ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Specific co-mutations in KRAS-mutant NSCLC improve treatment response Read ...

A new Simon Fraser University-led study reveals interbreeding between humans and their ancient cousins, Neanderthals, as the likely origin of a neurological condition estimated to impact up to one per cent of people today. The study, published this week in the journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, was led by Kimberly Plomp, a recent postdoctoral fellow at SFU and Mark Collard, the Canada Research Chair in Human Evolutionary Studies and a professor in the Department of Archaeology. Their findings suggest that Chiari Malformation Type 1, a serious ...

Samples of extremely small crystal clots, each polished to the thickness of a human hair or thinner, have revealed information about the process triggering the major 2006 eruption of Alaska’s Augustine Volcano. Graduate student researcher Valerie Wasser at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute determined that the addition of hot new magma into Augustine’s reservoir of cooler, older magma increased the pressure enough to trigger the 2006 eruption. Wasser’s analysis of Augustine crystal clots was published May 29 in Geology, the journal ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 16, 2025 CONTACT: Camille Jewell cjewell@vancomm.com or 202-248-5460 NASHVILLE — The six-month follow-up results from the pioneering trial of robotic-assisted neuroendovascular aneurysm embolization using the CorPath GRX system were presented today by Vitor Pereira, MD on behalf of the investigators at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery’s (SNIS) 22nd Annual Meeting.   The adjudicated six-month results from the prospective, single-arm, international, multicenter, non-inferiority study demonstrated ...

Elephants that live near farms are more daring than their deep-forest counterparts, and that behavior could be the key to helping people and elephants get along. That’s the central finding of new research by CUNY Graduate Center alumna Sarah Jacobson (Ph.D. ’24, Psychology), published in Royal Society Open Science. Working with Professor Joshua Plotnik (GC/Hunter, Psychology), Jacobson found that wild elephants on the edge of agricultural land in Thailand were more curious and exploratory when presented with unfamiliar objects than elephants living in protected forests. The paper is a chapter of Jacobson’s dissertation, completed under Plotnik’s mentorship. ...

Autosomal dominant optic atrophy (ADOA), the most common genetic optic neuropathy, is an insidious disease. It often presents slowly during childhood by way of blurry vision, trouble reading or focusing, and sometimes only as a failed vision test. But behind these subtle signs lies progressive, irreversible vision loss in both eyes caused by deterioration of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) — the neurons responsible for carrying information from the eyes to the brain. In most cases, the damage is linked to mutations ...

MISSION VIEJO, Calif. (July 16, 2025) – Findings from a newly published randomized controlled trial offer surprising insights for the one in three adults at greater risk of heart disease because of prediabetes. The study explored how snacking on avocado at night affects health markers the next morning, in line with the “second-meal effect” – the idea that the composition of a previous meal can affect how the body processes the next meal. The results suggest snacking on avocado at night may promote healthier triglyceride metabolism the next morning. Triglycerides are the most common type of fat in the body, but elevated levels can be a sign of insulin resistance, ...

HOUSTON – July 16, 2025 – Chemotherapy used to target and kill bladder cancer cells may trigger an inflammatory response that ultimately may make the cancer more resistant to treatment, according to new research from scientists at Houston Methodist. The findings are highlighted in “Caspase-1–dependent pyroptosis converts αSMA+CAFs into collagen-III high iCAFs to fuel chemoresistantcancer stem cells,” which was recently published in Science Advances. The researchers examined why ...

Birds have developed a unique evolutionary solution to ensure the survival of males – a powerful microRNA. This tiny gene allows male embryos to survive despite a genetic imbalance between the sexes by balancing the activity of the sex chromosomes. An international research team led by biologists from Heidelberg University and the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) has discovered this previously unknown mechanism, which differs significantly from the system that mammals have developed in the course of evolution ...