People displaying high problematic (excessive and dependent) social media use are more likely to engage with and believe fake news Article URL: https://plos.io/3EFkKKP Article title: Problematic social media use is associated with believing in and engaging with fake news Author countries: U.S. Funding: DM and MDM received funding for this research from the Michigan State University Trifecta Initiative for Interdisciplinary Health Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. END ...

Better physical health probably follows religious and spiritual engagement, rather than vice versa, per six year longitudinal U.S. study aiming to tease out this relationship Article URL: https://plos.io/42vnJyK Article title: “Which comes first”: Religious/spiritual engagement or health? Initial observations from longitudinal analyses Author countries: U.S. Funding: Dr. Neal Krause received funding for Wave 1 of this study (Grant ID: 40077), and Dr. Gail Ironson received funding for Wave 2 of this study (Grant ID: 61430), from ...

Excess weight, including overweight and obesity, is linked with experiencing Long Covid neurological symptoms including headaches, vertigo, sleep problems and depression, per meta-analysis of studies comprising almost 140,000 total participants Article URL: https://plos.io/4lNLY2G Article title: Excess weight is associated with neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms in post-COVID-19 condition: A systematic review and meta-analysis Author countries: Brazil, Australia, China Funding: This research received a grant from the ...

What is the trick to aging successfully? If you’re curious about learning the answer, you might already be on the right track, according to an international team of psychologists including several from UCLA. Their research shows that some forms of curiosity can increase well into old age and suggests that older adults who maintain curiosity and want to learn new things relevant to their interests may be able to offset or even prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Conversely, those who show muted curiosity and disinterest may be at risk for dementia. The finding contradicts prior research that showed that curiosity ...

In Reddit posts about climate change, just 1 in 25 links are to scientific sources - versus mass media and social media sources - evidencing the lack of science-based debate. #### Article URL: https://plos.io/4jZKIYA Article Title: The role of science in the climate change discussions on Reddit Author Countries: Austria, Italy Funding: The authors acknowledge support from the Lagrange Project of the Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation (ISI Foundation, to PC, MT, KK, DP, YM) funded by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino (Fondazione CRT), Italy. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, ...

4 in 10 mpox social media memes spread misinformation or stigmatize minorities, though the majority are accurate and promote awareness, per analysis of 200 memes circulated during the global public health emergency. 4 in 10 mpox social media memes spread misinformation or stigmatize minorities, though the majority are accurate and promote awareness, per analysis of 200 memes circulated during the global public health emergency.  #### Article URL: https://plos.io/42ZABMv Article Title: Short communication: Mpox memes, the gift that conceals a blade Author Countries: Uganda Funding: The authors received no specific funding ...

(Saunderstown, RI — May 7, 2025) In a groundbreaking study published today in Science Advances, researchers from Ocean Discovery League reveal that only a minuscule fraction of the deep seafloor has been imaged. Despite covering 66% of Earth's surface, the deep ocean remains largely unexplored. The study, "How Little We've Seen: A Visual Coverage Estimate of the Deep Seafloor," is the first to document that, in decades of deep-sea exploration, humans have observed less than 0.001% of the deep seafloor. This total area is roughly the size of Rhode Island or one-tenth the size of ...

Current treatments to prevent organ transplant rejection focus mainly on suppressing T cells, part of the adaptive immune system. However, the innate immune system—the body’s first line of defense that triggers early inflammation after transplantation—has largely remained untargeted by modern therapies. In a new study, researchers from Mass General Brigham identified a natural “brake” within the innate immune system: the inhibitory receptor Siglec-E (SigE) and its human counterparts, Siglec-7 and Siglec-9. This receptor helps prevent overactivation of immune cells that drive rejection. When this brake ...

A majority of individuals who are deaf or have hearing loss face significant communication barriers when accessing care through the National Health Service (NHS), with nearly two-thirds of patients missing half or more of vital information shared during appointments. A team of patients, clinicians, researchers and charity representatives, led by the University of Cambridge and the British Society of Audiology, surveyed over 550 people who are deaf or have hearing loss about their experiences with the NHS – making it the largest study of its kind. Their findings, reported in the journal PLOS ...

A team of researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of Georgia (UGA) has received more than $4 million from federal and non-governmental organizations to support research on Chagas disease prevalence, diagnostics and treatment to benefit both dogs and humans. Chagas disease is a tropical illness caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which is most commonly spread by the fecal matter of triatomine bugs — also known as “kissing bugs” because they bite their hosts to feed on blood. The disease — common in humans and dogs — often goes unnoticed in early stages, but ...

Imagine concrete healing its own cracks like human skin recovering from a cut. That’s the vision behind the latest research of Dr. Congrui Grace Jin, published in Materials Today Communications.  Addressing one of the most persistent and expensive problems in construction, Jin, an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution, has taken inspiration from nature to develop a synthetic lichen system to enable concrete to self-repair. Concrete is the most widely used building material on Earth, yet it suffers from the dangerous flaw of cracking easily. These cracks, big or small, can lead to catastrophic structural failure, ...

Tens of millions of people in Africa are infected by parasitic worms that cause lymphatic filariasis (also called elephantiasis), a disease that leads to severe swelling and deformities of the limbs and genitals. Despite widespread treatment programs that have successfully reduced the risk of contracting lymphatic filariasis, hundreds of millions of people remain vulnerable to the infection. A small clinical trial in Cote d’Ivoire, led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, shows that the anti-parasitic drug moxidectin – currently approved to ...

MISSION VIEJO, Calif. (May 7, 2025)  -- An observational study among 2,272 mother-child pairs in Finland found that infants had 44% lower odds of developing food allergies at 12 months if their mother consumed fresh avocado during pregnancy, after adjusting for other lifestyle, delivery, and maternal health factors. Decades of research have explored the relationship between maternal diet and allergic outcomes in infants, but this is the first published study to link avocados in the maternal diet to ...

An inexpensive paper sensor along with a smartphone-based reader developed by a Washington State University-led team can rapidly provide information on a person’s personal smoke exposure during wildfire season. The sensor can provide valuable information for firefighters and others to clarify just how much harmful pollution they might inhale during smoky conditions. The researchers, including from University of Washington and University of Georgia, report on their work in the journal, ACS Applied ...

About The Study: In this phase 3 study, mRNA-1083, an investigational, multicomponent vaccine against seasonal influenza and SARS-CoV-2, met noninferiority criteria and induced higher immune responses than recommended standard care influenza (standard and high dose) and COVID-19 vaccines against all 4 influenza strains (among those ages 50-64), the 3 clinically relevant influenza strains (among those age 65 and older), and SARS-CoV-2 (all ages), with an acceptable tolerability and safety profile. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Amanda K. Rudman Spergel, MD, email Amanda.RudmanSpergel@modernatx.com. To ...

Life depends on genes being switched on and off at exactly the right time. Even the simplest living organisms do this, but usually over short distances across the DNA sequence, with the on/off switch typically right next to a gene. This basic form of genomic regulation is probably as old as life on Earth.  A new study published today in Nature by researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Centre Nacional d’Anàlisi Genòmica (CNAG) finds that the ability to control genes from far away, over many tens of thousands of DNA letters, evolved between 650 and 700 million years ...

Climate change's disproportionate burden on youth  Climate extremes, including heatwaves, crop failures, river floods, tropical cyclones, wildfires and droughts, will intensify with continued atmospheric warming. Today’s children will endure more climate extremes then any previous generation.   “In 2021, we demonstrated how children are to face disproportionate increases in extreme event exposure – especially in low-income countries. Now, we examined where the cumulative exposure to climate extremes across one’s lifetime will far exceed that which would have ...

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens. Newer vehicles and driver assistance technologies show promise in reducing crashes and injury severities.  Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital reviewed national fatal crash data (2016-2021) and examined the vehicle age and driver assistance technologies of vehicles driven by teen and middle-aged drivers, and their associations with driver deaths during fatal crashes.  In a study published today ...

New York, NY [May 7, 2025]—An artificial intelligence (AI) model improved outcomes in hospitalized patients by quadrupling the rate of detection and treatment of delirium. The model identifies patients at high risk for delirium and alerts a specially-trained team to assess the patient and create a treatment plan, if needed. The model, developed by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has been integrated into hospital operations, helping health care providers identify and manage delirium, a condition that can affect up to one-third of hospitalized ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that older vehicles and those with fewer driver assistance technologies are associated with increased risk of driver death in fatal crashes; thus, teens should drive the safest vehicles available, not older family cars. The findings underscore the urgent need to ensure teens drive safer vehicles to protect their lives. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jingzhen Yang, PhD, MPH, email ginger.yang@nationwidechildrens.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...

About The Study: The findings of this meta-analysis suggest that differences in reporting race and ethnicity across geographic locations and underrepresentation of certain racial and ethnic groups in U.S.-based randomized clinical trials highlight the need for international guidelines to ensure equitable recruitment and reporting in clinical trials.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Alessio Bellato, PhD, email a.bellato@soton.ac.uk. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.0666) Editor’s ...

About The Study: There was no evidence supporting a diagnosis of neurological syndrome of unknown cause (NSUC) in this cohort. The data inclusive of independent examinations and neuropathology strongly supported the presence of several neurodegenerative and non-neurodegenerative conditions. Unfounded concerns that a potentially fatal mystery disease, possibly induced by an environmental toxin, is causing the patients’ neurological symptoms has been amplified in traditional and social media. Second, independent clinical evaluations ...

Medulloblastoma is one of the most common malignant tumors of the central nervous system (CNS) in children and adolescents. It develops in the area of the cerebellum, which is responsible for movement coordination, among other things. Medulloblastomas enlarge rapidly, often grow into surrounding tissue and can also form metastases. The wide variety of this tumor group also makes it difficult to find the right treatment. A team of researchers at the Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ), the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Heidelberg University ...

Current anticancer treatments essentially target the primary tumour cells that proliferate quickly, but do not effectively eliminate specific cancer cells able to adapt to existing treatments and which exhibit high metastatic potential1. Yet metastases are responsible for 70% of cancer deaths. A French research team from Institut Curie, the CNRS and Inserm has just developed a new class of small molecules that bring about the destruction of cell membranes, and hence triggers cell death. Led by scientists at the Laboratory of Biomedicine (Institut Curie/CNRS/Inserm)2, ...

A landmark study published by scientists at the University of California San Diego is redefining science’s understanding of the way learning takes place. The findings, published in the journal Nature and supported by the National Institutes of Health and U.S. National Science Foundation, provide novel insights on how brain wiring changes during learning periods, offering a path to new therapies and technologies that aid neurological disorders. For many years, neuroscientists have isolated the brain’s primary ...