TUCSON, Arizona — University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers identified a potential way to reduce female post-operative pain by inhibiting pituitary prolactin generated by pre-operative stress. The paper, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, could lead to ways to reduce post-operative pain and decrease the need for opioids for pain relief after surgical procedures in women. Prolactin, naturally found at higher levels in females than in males, is a neurohormone best known for assisting mammary gland development and stimulating milk production. Recent research led by Frank Porreca, ...

Changes in Body Mass Index (BMI) during adolescence play an important role in the association between air pollution exposure and insulin resistance, according to a new study led by investigators from the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The study, funded in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and published in JAMA Network Open, found that children who were exposed to higher levels of traffic-related air pollution—specifically nitrogen oxides—tended to have a higher BMI by age 13, and experienced rapid weight gain from adolescence to young adulthood. This, in turn, was linked to higher levels of insulin resistance in their mid-20s. “We estimated ...

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Researchers at Marshall University have developed a promising treatment strategy to address overdoses involving fentanyl and the veterinary sedative xylazine, a combination increasingly linked to severe health complications and reduced effectiveness of standard overdose reversal agents. In a new study published in The Journal of Translational Research, Michael Hambuchen, PharmD, PhD, associate professor at the Marshall University School of Pharmacy, and pharmacy graduate student Jyostna Yalakala, BVSc, MS, in collaboration with Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine clinical researcher Todd Davies, ...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Researchers have discovered the genetic region responsible for blackberries’ deploying of a type of pointy self-protection: thorns. They can scratch pickers and damage fruit, making thornless blackberry varieties the preferred option in the U.S. market. Now, a team of researchers has pinpointed the genetic location behind them, paving the way for plant breeders to speed up development of thornless varieties. Margaret Worthington, associate professor of fruit breeding and genetics for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research ...

The slimy algae topping Florida’s waterways are more than just unsightly. They are often toxic to humans, animals and the environment. To mitigate those risks, University of Florida researchers are collaborating with North Carolina State University and University of South Florida scientists on a next-day prediction model to warn and inform water managers about harmful algal blooms. The research is funded by two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers grants for two phases, totaling $4.4 million. The project is led by David Kaplan, Ph.D., a professor with the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and ...

NEW ORLEANS, May 20, 2025 – Sound can do more than just provide a nice beat. Sound waves have been used for everything from mapping the seafloor to breaking apart kidney stones. Thanks to a unique material structure, researchers can now move and position objects underwater without ever touching them directly. Dajun Zhang, a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will present his work on developing a metamaterial for underwater acoustic manipulation Tuesday, May 20, at 3:20 p.m. CT as part of the joint 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and 25th International Congress on Acoustics, running May 18-23. A ...

The ocean runs on size. Until now, we didn’t have the numbers. A new open-access resource, the Marine Organismal Body Size (MOBS) Database, is giving scientists, conservationists, and the public an unprecedented look at the true scale of ocean life—literally. Released this month alongside a peer-reviewed publication, MOBS 1.0 catalogs size data for over 85,000 marine animal species, from microscopic zooplankton to massive whales, offering a vital tool for understanding biodiversity and ecosystem function across the world’s oceans. “Body size isn’t ...

A team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine has identified flavonoids, natural compounds found in plants, that are toxic to bladder cancer cells cultured in the lab. The researchers report in the journal Pharmacological Research - Natural Products that Cell Painting technology enables them not only to identify compounds with potential anti-cancer properties but also uncover insights into their mechanism of action. “Cell Painting uses high-throughput microscopy to highlight cellular structures and, via custom image analysis pipelines, quantify changes in cultured cell populations,” said corresponding author  Dr. ...

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has issued guidance to help clinicians and patients use health data collected while wearing Apple Watch to effectively track and manage cardiovascular health. “With the rise in people using Apple Watch to be more proactive in their health, guidance and best practices for clinicians and patients is essential to ensure that data is collected accurately and shared effectively,” said Ami Bhatt, MD, FACC, ACC’s Chief Innovation Officer. “The ACC embraces technologies ...

The Andreas Grüntzig Ethica Award is traditionally given to those who have contributed in an extraordinary way to the PCR mission, that of serving the needs of patients by sharing knowledge, experience and practice in cardiovascular interventional medicine. ______________________________________________________________________ Paris, France, 20 May 2025 – On 22 May, at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, Professor Lars Wallentin and Professor Stefan James, both from the Uppsala Clinical Research Centre, Uppsala University, Sweden will receive the Andreas Grüntzig Ethica Award on behalf of a wider team of Swedish cardiovascular ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – May 20, 2025) The fundamental processes that govern neural development are complex and, as findings by scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital demonstrate, the underlying driving forces can even appear conflicting. The TEAD family of proteins is thought to promote self-renewal and proliferation of progenitor cells in the brain. However, St. Jude researchers have discovered that these same proteins can also play a role in differentiation when they have a different binding partner. This discovery sheds light on the intricate mechanisms of neural development and highlights ...

Scientists from The University of Texas at Arlington are among the researchers worldwide recognized with the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their contributions to the ATLAS Experiment. The $1 million award honors the team’s groundbreaking work at the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization of Nuclear Research, known as CERN—the world’s largest particle physics laboratory—which led to the discovery of the Higgs boson, often called the “God particle” for its key role in explaining the existence of mass in ...

Using the gene scissors CRISPR and stem cells, researchers at Stockholm University and the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) at King’s College London have managed to identify a common denominator for different gene mutations that all cause the neurological disease ALS. The research shows that ALS-linked dysfunction occurs in the energy factories of nerve cells, the mitochondria, before the cells show other signs of disease, which was not previously known. The study was recently published in the scientific journal Nature Communications. “We show that the nerve ...

Sets of metabolites found in blood and urine reliably correspond with how much energy from ultra-processed food a person consumes, according to a new study published May 20th in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Erikka Loftfield of the National Cancer Institute, USA, and colleagues. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) account for more than half of calories consumed in the average American diet, yet their impact on human health remains unclear, in part because it is so difficult to accurately track exactly how many UPFs people eat. In the new study, researchers analyzed blood and urine samples from 718 older adults, alongside detailed dietary recalls, to identify chemical fingerprints, ...

Our ability to store information about familiar objects depends on the connection between visual and language processing regions in the brain, according to a study published May 20th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Bo Liu from Beijing Normal University, China, and colleagues. Seeing an object and knowing visual information about it, like its usual color, activate the same parts of the brain. Seeing a yellow banana, for example, and knowing that the object represented by the word “banana” is usually yellow, both excite the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC). However, ...

NEW ORLEANS, May 20, 2025 – Offshore wind farms have the potential for large impacts on clean energy generation, as wind speeds are higher at sea than on land. However, this benefit comes at a high cost for marine life, which can suffer greatly during the installation of offshore wind foundations. Junfei Li, from Purdue University, will present work on mitigating the noise pollution during monopile offshore wind farm installation Tuesday, May 20, at 1:00 p.m. CT as part of the joint 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society ...

How life arose remains a looming question in science that researchers are seeking to answer by studying the features shared among life today. Everything alive is made up of cells, and what made the first cells different from chemical reactions occurring in the environment is a membrane. By investigating what properties these early membranes may have had, scientists can better understand how life began and evolved into the diversity of organisms we have today. An important feature of membranes is what they allow to pass through ...

Embargoed for Release Tuesday, May 20, 2025 2:00 p.m. ET Contact: NIH Office of Communications and Public Liaison 301-496-5787 NIHPress@nih.gov       For the first time, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identified patterns of metabolites in blood and urine that can be used as an objective measure of an individual’s consumption of energy from ultra-processed foods. Metabolites are left after the body converts food into energy, a process ...

Global partnerships and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be key to addressing the growing challenges posed by food contamination, a new study reveals. The study, co-authored by Professor Lord John Krebs, former Chair of the UK Food Standards Agency, analyses 116 peer-reviewed papers published between 2019 and 2024. It reveals that that a range of biological, chemical, and physical contaminants combined with emerging risks including demographic changes, economic trends, and environmental degradation could lead to increased health hazards for people around the ...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A word of caution to rice growers: the herbicide fluridone has become a valuable tool in fighting Palmer pigweed, but it can cause injury to some rice cultivars, depending on when it is used. Registered under the trade name Brake by SePRO Corporation, fluridone is a residual herbicide used to suppress grasses and broadleaf weeds before they emerge, also known as a preemergence herbicide. In 2023, fluridone was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use in rice at the three-leaf stage and onward. It had already ...

Christopher Kane, MD, CEO of the UC San Diego Health Physician Group and senior assistant vice chancellor of clinical affairs for UC San Diego Health Sciences, was recently appointed to the position of president of the American Board of Urology (ABU), the organization that sets and maintains the standards for the specialty certification of more than 11,000 urologists in the United States.  Kane is the first physician from UC San Diego Health to serve in this leadership role with the ABU. He has served as a trustee for the organization for five years and became eligible for the presidency in the final year of his six-year tenure. The organization’s mission ...

SAN ANTONIO — May 20, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has achieved a significant milestone, reaching new temperature records for testing materials in high-pressure environments. While conducting material testing for a high-pressure, high-temperature supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) turbine, SwRI achieved unprecedented conditions of 1,150 degrees Celsius (2,100 degrees Fahrenheit) at 300 bar (4,350 psi). These are the highest published temperature and pressure conditions ever reached in sCO2 materials testing. In 2020, SwRI received a $6.4 million contract ...

The call of American bullfrogs was deafening when scientists from the University of California, Davis, first began researching the impact of invasive bullfrogs on native northwestern pond turtles at Yosemite National Park. “At night, you could look out over the pond and see a constellation of eyes blinking back at you,” said UC Davis Ph.D. candidate Sidney Woodruff, lead author of a study chronicling the effects of removal. “Their honking noise is iconic, and it drowns out native species’ calls.” But the ponds of Yosemite sound different today, with a chorus of native species making themselves heard. The researchers’ study, published ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL: 9:15 a.m., Tuesday, May 20, 2025 MATERNAL AIR POLLUTION EXPOSURE WORSENS ASTHMA SEVERITY FOR OFFSPRING Study also finds exposure leads to epigenetic changes that can persist for generations. Session:  C19—Spatial and Single-Cell Analysis of Lung Disease: Bridging Early Mechanisms to Therapeutic Gaps An Epigenetic Association Between Heightened Airway Hyperreactivity and Maternal Exposure to Particulate Air Pollution Date and Time: Tuesday, May 20, 2025, 9:15 a.m. Location:  Room 3006/3008 (West Building, Level 3), Moscone Center   ATS 2025, San Francisco – A mother’s exposure to air pollution during pregnancy ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL: 9:15 a.m., Tuesday, May 20, 2025 POST-INTENSIVE CARE SYNDROME LINKED TO LONG-TERM DEFICITS Older age, frailty increase risk more than clinical factors, study finds Session:  C17—Delirium, Disparities, and Disability: Advancing Equity in Critical Illness Outcomes Characterizing Critical Illness Recovery Trajectories: Exploring Risk Factors for Post Intensive Care Syndrome Date and Time: Tuesday, May 20, 2025, 9:15 a.m. Location:  Room 2009/2011 (West Building, Level 2), Moscone Center ATS 2025, ...