New research in rats indicates that a Mediterranean plant may be an effective treatment for ulcerative colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel disease. The findings are published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Various antioxidant and anti-inflammatory medications are used to treat ulcerative colitis, but they can cause numerous side effects. To test the potential of the Arbutus unedo plant (often referred to as the strawberry tree) that is native to the Mediterranean region, investigators gave rats doses of an extract from the plant ...

A study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society indicates that social engagement may help older individuals live longer. In the study of 2,268 U.S. individuals aged 60 years and older who completed the Psychosocial and Lifestyle Questionnaires and provided blood samples in 2016, there was a strong association between engaging in social activities and a low risk of 4-year mortality. High social engagement was associated with a 42% lower mortality risk than low engagement. Specific activities, such as charity work, engaging with grandchildren, and participation in sports or social clubs, were particularly significant predictors of a reduced risk ...

Approval of recreational and medical cannabis laws in most U.S. states has allowed individuals to legally obtain cannabis to treat certain medical ailments that had typically been treated with prescription drugs. New research in Health Economics reveals the impact that cannabis laws have had on such traditional prescriptions. After analyzing prescription drug claims reported by small and large group insurers from 2010–2019 for working-age individuals, investigators found significant reductions in prescription drug claims per enrollee ...

New research in Wildlife Monographs provides extensive details into the movement of white-tailed deer, with implications for deer management across North America. For the study, investigators evaluated seasonal activity patterns, home ranges, and habitat selection for nearly 600 white-tailed deer in southwest Wisconsin, USA. The research revealed how an individual deer’s movement and use of space can affect chronic wasting disease transmission. Chronic wasting disease—a deadly neurological prion ...

A majority of U.S. workers (54%) said job insecurity has had a significant impact on their stress levels at work, and more than a third (39%) said they are concerned they may lose their job in the next 12 months due to changes in government policies, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2025 Work in America™ survey. Two-thirds of employed adults (65%) said their company or organization has been affected by recent government policy changes. The survey found that for some, these changes, as well as growing economic ...

A new camera setup can record three-dimensional movies with a single pixel. Moreover, the technique can obtain images outside the visible spectrum and even through tissues. The Kobe University development thus opens the door to holographic video microscopy. Holograms are not only used as fun-to-look-at safety stickers on credit cards, electronic products or banknotes; they have scientific applications in sensors and in microscopy as well. Traditionally, holograms require a laser for recording, but more recently, techniques that can record holograms with ambient light or light emanating from ...

Two important concepts in evolutionary biology, mutualism and altruism, were first made famous by the colorful anarchist prince Peter Kropotkin. He argued that cooperation could be an equally powerful driver of evolution as competition. Crucially, he was inspired by his youth as a geographer in the Russian Far East, where he observed how in particular the harsh climate favored cooperation, both within and between species. Now, researchers have shown that previously unknown apparent mutualisms allow biodiversity to flourish to ...

May 21, 2025   Taking the Guesswork out Birdsong Evolution Biologists from UMass Amherst are the first to comprehensively link bird songs’ pitch and volume, providing insight into bird evolution   AMHERST, Mass. — Biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced that they have released the first broad scale, comparative, fine-grained analysis linking the amplitude, or volume, of a birds’ song to its vocal frequency, or pitch. Though biologists have long wondered whether birds ...

A Korean research team has developed a light-powered artificial muscle that operates freely underwater, paving the way for next-generation soft robotics. The research team—Dr. Hyun Kim at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Prof. Habeom Lee at Pusan National University, and Prof. Taylor H. Ware at Texas A&M University—successfully developed artificial muscles based on azobenzene-functionalized semicrystalline liquid crystal elastomers (AC-LCEs) that actuate in response to light. Traditional soft ...

Plants that reproduce exclusively by self-pollination arise from populations with extremely low diversity to begin with. The Kobe University research not only adds a facet to possible evolutionary strategies, but also lends weight to Darwin’s suspicion that this strategy might be a path to extinction. Charles Darwin once remarked, “It is hardly an exaggeration to say that Nature tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors perpetual self-fertilization.” And yet, Kobe University botanist SUETSUGU Kenji knows of a few islands in Japan where orchids ...

Sudden cardiac death is responsible for an unusually high proportion of deaths in male bodybuilders worldwide with the highest risk among professional bodybuilders, according to research published in the European Heart Journal [1] today (Wednesday).   Sudden cardiac death is when someone dies suddenly and unexpectedly due to a problem with their heart. It is generally rare in young and apparently healthy individuals, but it is often linked to underlying heart conditions.   Researchers say their findings highlight the health risks associated with competitive ...

Researchers at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) made the discovery about galaxies by studying the gas distribution that helps create stars. Using CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, researchers explored the gas distribution in about 1,000 galaxies as part of the WALLABY survey. Lead author Seona Lee, a PhD student at The University of Western Australia node of ICRAR, said the findings give new insights into how stars ...

Poor mental health, rising obesity rates, exposure to violence and climate change are among the key challenges facing our adolescents today, according to a global report. The landmark report, by experts in adolescent health including from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), has revealed how supporting young people’s health and wellbeing could improve economic, social and public health for generations to come. The 2025 Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing found investment in adolescents’ health and wellbeing doesn’t match the scale of the problems faced by young people. Bringing together 44 Commissioners ...

Advanced tools offer improved insights into patients’ condition and their potential for recovery. What’s New: After more than half a century, assessment of traumatic brain injuries gets an overhaul.  Why It Matters: Clinicians say the proposed framework will lead to more accurate diagnoses and treatment, providing more rigorous care for some patients and preventing premature discussions about halting life support in others.  Trauma centers nationwide will begin to test a new approach for assessing traumatic brain injury (TBI) that is expected to lead to more accurate diagnoses and more appropriate treatment and follow-up for patients. The ...

Symptomatic infection with the virus responsible for cold sores around the mouth–herpes simplex 1, or HSV-1 for short—may have a key role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, suggests a large pharma industry-funded US study published in the open access journal BMJ Open. But treatment with antiviral therapy seems to be linked to a lower risk of this type of dementia, suggesting that treatment to quell HSV-1 symptoms may be protective, the findings indicate. Currently, around 35.6 million people worldwide live with dementia, and 7.7million new cases ...

Thousands of young children worldwide are still swallowing magnets despite an increase in regulations, finds a review of the available evidence, published online in the journal Injury Prevention. With US children among those seemingly most at risk, it’s time to bolster restrictions and use better evidence to inform policy, say the researchers.  The swallowing of small high powered magnets is a significant issue worldwide, especially among children under the age of 4, note the researchers, because they are commonly found in household ...

Standardising the colour and branding of disposable vaping devices may deter young people who have never smoked or vaped from trying them in the first place, suggests a comparative study, published online in the journal Tobacco Control. But a potential trade-off is that there is a risk it may lead to fewer people switching from smoking to vaping, say the researchers. Vaping has surged in popularity among young people in many countries over the past decade in tandem with the introduction of cheap disposable devices, point out the researchers. Previously ...

New analysis indicates that without targeted action by 2030 at least half of the world’s adolescents (over 1 billion) will still live in countries where they are at risk of experiencing poor health across many indicators, including mental health and overweight.   Over the past decade, progress in adolescent health and wellbeing has been mixed and uneven. While global rates of smoking and alcohol use have declined and educational participation - especially among young women - has increased, obesity-related diseases and mental health disorders are rising in all regions. The second Lancet Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing highlights that today's adolescents, ...

Scientists and medics have developed an ultra-rapid method of genetically diagnosing brain tumours that will cut the time it takes to classify them from 6-8 weeks, to as little as two hours – which could improve care for thousands of patients each year in the UK. The groundbreaking method, which is detailed in a new study published today in Neuro-Oncology, has been developed by scientists at the University of Nottingham along with clinicians at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH). In the published work, ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL: 2:15 p.m. PT, May 20, 2025 PULMONARY EMBOLISM IN CHILDREN MORE COMMON THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT Session: C98 — Palace of Fine Arts: Innovative Therapeutic Approaches and Survival Prediction in Pulmonary Hypertension High Frequency of Pulmonary Embolism in Symptomatic Children in the Emergency Department Date and Time: Tuesday, May 20, 2:15 p.m. PT Location:  Room 2001 (West Building, Level 2, Moscone Center)   ATS 2025, San Francisco – Pulmonary embolism in children has been acknowledged ...

(Wednesday, 21 May 2025, Helsinki, Finland) New research presented today at the European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC) 2025 revealed that the use of combined oral contraceptives (OCs) is associated with a threefold increase in the risk of cryptogenic ischaemic stroke (CIS) in young women.1 The findings add to a growing body of evidence linking hormonal contraception to vascular risk in women of reproductive age. Cryptogenic ischaemic stroke, which is stroke with no identifiable cause, accounts for up to 40% of all ischaemic strokes in young adults.2 Despite its prevalence, ...

A study carried out at the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, presents a new way to mitigate the rapid degradation of perovskite solar cells. The problem, which limits the use of these devices in everyday life, has challenged researchers in the field to find viable solutions. Perovskite solar cells are a very promising photovoltaic technology. They are as efficient as silicon cells and have lower production costs. In addition, they are light, flexible and semi-transparent, which opens up numerous possibilities for applications such as windows, clothing or tents that can generate electricity from sunlight. However, the commercialization of these cells ...

As researchers work to improve treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, new research by UCLA Health identified a candidate drug that reduces levels of a toxic form of a protein in the brain caused by the disease and improved memory in mice by boosting production of a protective protein. In a study published in the Nature journal npj Drug Discovery, UCLA Health researchers targeted the protein clusterin (CLU), which is crucial in preventing the build-up of amyloid-beta plaques and tau proteins that that disrupt ...

Scientists studying a promising quantum material have stumbled upon a surprise: within its crystal structure, the material naturally forms one of the world’s thinnest semiconductor junctions—a building block of most modern electronics. The junction is just 3.3 nanometers thick, about 25,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper. “This was a big surprise,” said Asst. Prof. Shuolong Yang. “We weren’t trying to make this junction, but the material made one on its own, and it’s one of the thinnest we’ve ever seen.” The discovery offers a way to build ultra-miniaturized electronic components, ...

URBANA, Ill. – Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a decline in U.S. vaccine uptake, while widespread misinformation and distrust make it challenging to craft effective public health responses. In a new paper, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers discuss three case studies exemplifying different vaccine attitudes and behaviors. Their findings underscore the need for flexible approaches to reach diverse audiences with disease prevention strategies.  The three cases were selected from a larger study of parents and childcare providers, conducted to investigate their experiences during the COVID-19 ...