Researchers at the University of Kent, UK, introduced LiteRBS (Lightweight and Rapid Bidirectional Search), a novel grid-based pathfinding algorithm designed for efficient and scalable navigation in mobile robots. Published in ELSP Journal, the work demonstrates that LiteRBS achieves high computational performance with low memory usage, outperforming classical algorithms such as A*, Bidirectional A*, Jump Point Search (JPS), and the Shortest Path Faster Algorithm (SPFA). Path planning is a central component of robotic navigation, ...

Whether strolling through the woods or taking a rest from outdoor labors, autumn is a time when people contemplate the value of our trees and forests. The curious can now also explore the historical documents of the nation’s biggest trees dating back to the 1940s online, in one place, for the first time. The National Champion Tree Program at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture has compiled historical records dating back to the program’s inception. “We are thrilled to release this compilation of more than 80 years of big tree history,” ...

A new 3D human brain tissue platform developed by MIT researchers is the first to integrate all major brain cell types, including neurons, glial cells and the vasculature into a single culture. Grown from individual donors’ induced pluripotent stem cells, these models—dubbed Multicellular Integrated Brains (miBrains)—replicate key features and functions of human brain tissue, are readily customizable through gene editing, and can be produced in quantities that support large-scale research.  Although each unit is smaller than a dime, miBrains may be worth a great deal to researchers and drug developers who need more complex living ...

Key Messages Avoiding temperature overshoot through stringent climate policies such as net-zero could prevent 207,000 premature deaths by 2030. Such policies could also avoid $2,269 billion USD in economic damages, roughly 2% of 2020 global GDP. Benefits are particularly large in China and India, where air pollution and population density are high, and substantial emission reductions are predicted. Air pollution is one of the world’s leading health risks, contributing to nearly 1 in 8 deaths globally. A new study published in Science Advances ...

How immune cells deliver their deadly cargo When immune cells strike, precision is everything. New research reveals how natural killer and T cells orchestrate the release of toxic granules – microscopic packages that destroy virus-infected or cancerous cells. The study led by researchers from CeMM, St. Anna CCRI, MedUni Vienna, Med Uni Graz, the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn, published in Science Immunology (DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.ado3825), uncovers an unexpected link between lipid metabolism and the immune system’s ability to deliver its ...

When we are engaged in a task, our brain’s auditory system changes how it works. One of the main auditory centers of the brain, auditory cortex, is filled with neural activity that is not sound driven – rather, this activity times the task, each neuron ticking at a different moment during task performance. Researchers at Hebrew University have discovered how this happens. The study, led by Prof. Israel Nelken from the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC) and the Institute of Life Sciences, is based on the PhD research of Ana Polterovich, with contributions from Alex Kazakov, Maciej M. Jankowski, and Johannes Niediek. They ...

Two types of industrially processed hard fats, widely used in everyday foods such as bakery products, margarines and spreads, are unlikely to affect heart health when consumed in levels achievable in most people’s diets. The study, led by researchers at King’s College London and Maastricht University and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, investigated the health effects of interesterified (IE) fats which are rich in either palmitic acid (from palm oil) or stearic acid (from other plant fats). These fats are often used by the food industry as alternatives to other hard fats, including trans fats and animal fats, which have known risks to ...

Researchers from Rutgers Health and other institutions have discovered why a powerful leukemia drug eventually fails in most patients – and found a potential way to overcome that resistance. Team members identified a protein that lets cancer cells reshape their energy-producing mitochondria in ways that protect them from venetoclax (brand name, Venclexta), a standard treatment for acute myeloid leukemia that often loses effectiveness after prolonged use. Blocking that protein with experimental compounds in mice with human acute myeloid leukemia restored the drug's effectiveness and ...

Sandra Shi MD, MPH, has been named a 2025 STAT Wunderkind. Dr. Shi is a geriatrician, instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, and assistant scientist at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife.  STAT Wunderkinds is a chance to celebrate early-career researchers who are not yet independent scientists or program leaders. It honors postdoctoral researchers, interns, and fellows — those who have terminal degrees in hand, but aren’t ...

Across the world, more than 1.5 billion people suffer from chronic liver disease. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that it kills more than 52,000 people a year in the United States alone — the ninth most common cause of death in the nation. Despite this significant impact on society, alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD) remains largely unaddressed by medical research. Texas A&M University researcher Dr. Jyothi Menon aims to change that with a promising new therapy that she’s developing. ...

Plastic is ubiquitous in the modern world, and it’s notorious for taking a long time to completely break down in the environment — if it ever does. But even without breaking down completely, plastic can shed tiny particles — called nanoplastics because of their extremely small size — that scientists are just now starting to consider in long-term health studies. One of those scientists is Dr. Wei Xu, an associate professor in the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences’ Department of Veterinary Physiology & Pharmacology. Xu’s ...

Preexisting hyperlipidemia in pregnancy is associated with heightened risks of obstetric complications and early cardiovascular events in the first five-years postpartum, according to a new study being presented at ACC’s Cardio-Obstetrics Essentials: Team-Based Management of Cardiovascular Disease and Pregnancy conference. The researchers call for clinicians to incorporate lipid screening into preconception care and closely monitor women with hyperlipidemia during and after pregnancy. “Pre-pregnancy hyperlipidemia is not just a metabolic concern; it ...

As artificial intelligence (AI) use continues to grow in nearly every industry, it is important to establish guardrails to make sure the technology is used ethically and responsibly. This is especially true in the field of medicine, where errors can be a matter of life and death and patient information must be protected. A group of stroke physicians, researchers and industry representatives discussed the current use and future of AI in stroke clinical trial design at the Stroke Treatment Academic Industry Roundtable meeting March 28. Led by the University of Cincinnati’s Joseph Broderick, MD, the researchers published an article in the ...

Climate models suggest that climate change could reduce the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2). However, observational data actually shows that this ability has seen no significant decline in recent decades. In a recent study, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute have discovered what may be causing this. Low-salinity water in the upper ocean has typically helped to trap carbon in the deep ocean, which in turn has slowed its release into the atmosphere – until now, that is, because climate change is increasingly altering the Southern Ocean and its function as a carbon sink. The study ...

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have accomplished a unique proof of concept to treat infertility by turning skin cells into eggs capable of producing early human embryos. The research published today in the journal Nature Communications. The development offers a potential avenue for in vitro gametogenesis — the process of creating gametes — to treat infertility for women of advanced maternal age or those who are unable to produce viable eggs due to previous treatment of cancer or other causes. “In addition to offering hope for millions of people with infertility due to ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When recognizing faces and emotions, artificial intelligence (AI) can be biased, like classifying white people as happier than people from other racial backgrounds. This happens because the data used to train the AI contained a disproportionate number of happy white faces, leading it to correlate race with emotional expression. In a recent study, published in Media Psychology, researchers asked users to assess such skewed training data, but most users didn’t notice the bias — unless they were in the negatively portrayed group. The study was designed to examine whether laypersons understand that unrepresentative data used to train ...

Images   Georgia and northern Florida are likely to be hardest hit by increasing hurricane-induced power outages along the Atlantic coast in the future, with Hispanic, non-white, low-income and elderly populations most affected, according to new research led by the University of Michigan.   Hurricanes are predicted to become even more frequent and severe in the coming years if the planet's temperatures rise by another 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels—expected by the end of the century without drastic action taken.    The total 3 C rise will bring increased outages to areas ...

Like the surface of the moon, new research published today in Cell finds the existence of craters on the surface of melanoma cells that serve as immune hubs, becoming major sites for tumor killing. These craters could serve as good markers for immunotherapy success. This research provides insight into a key function of immune check-point blockade (ICB) cancer therapy that was previously unknown. ICB works by re-activating CD8+ T cells against tumors which shrinks and eventually kills the cancer cells. However, what facilitates local tumor killing by the infiltrating CD8+ T cells has remained a ...

Nirupama Yechoor, MD, MSC, of the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, is the senior author of a paper published in JAMA Network Open, “Coherence of Stroke Survivors’ Lived Experiences and the Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale.” Q: How would you summarize your study for a lay audience? As doctors who care for stroke survivors, we recognize that recovery is a long journey shaped by physical, emotional, mental and social challenges that extend beyond the hospital walls. We also recognize that many changes are needed to help all stroke survivors achieve their best recovery, which means optimizing both their health and their wellbeing. ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that despite increasing screening overall, which led to reduced geographic variation in screening, local clusters of high and low screening persisted in the Northeast and Southwest U.S., respectively. Future studies could incorporate county-level health care access characteristics to explain why areas of low screening did not catch up to optimize cancer screening practices.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Timothy R. Rebbeck, PhD, email timothy_rebbeck@dfci.harvard.edu. To access the ...

About The Study: This study’s findings indicate cannabis may be a substitute for opioids in the management of cancer-related pain. However, further research directly observing cannabis use is needed to evaluate the efficacy of cannabis as a treatment for cancer-related pain. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Victoria Bethel, MSN, email vbethel@uga.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2025.3512) Editor’s Note: Please see the article ...

Dominika Pilat, PhD, and Ana Griciuc, PhD, of the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital are the lead and senior authors of a paper published in Neuron, “The Gain-of-Function TREM2-T96K Mutation Increases Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease by Impairing Microglial Function.” Q: How would you summarize your study for a lay audience? Our team wanted to understand how immune cells of the brain, called microglia, contribute to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. It’s known that subtle changes, or mutations, in genes expressed in microglia are associated with an increased ...

Faulty brain circuits seen in Down syndrome may be caused by the lack of a particular molecule essential for the development and function of the nervous system, new research suggests. Restoring the molecule, called pleiotrophin, could improve brain function in Down syndrome and other neurological diseases – possibly even in adults, the researchers say. The scientists conducted their work in lab mice, rather than in people, so the approach is far from being available as a treatment. But the researchers found that administering pleiotrophin improved brain function in adult ...

About The Study: The 1-year success rate in eyes undergoing Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) with successfully prepared tissue was very high regardless of donor diabetes status. These results, supported by the separately reported finding that endothelial cell loss and cornea morphometry after 1 year were not affected by donor diabetes status, provide strong support for having no restrictions on the use of tissue from donors with diabetes for DMEK.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jonathan H. Lass, MD, email deks@case.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link ...

About The Study: This randomized clinical trial found that endothelial cell loss and morphometry 1 year after Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) were not affected by cornea donor diabetes status. With comparable 1-year graft success with tissue from donors with and without diabetes demonstrated in this trial, these findings support the use of corneas from donors with diabetes for endothelial keratoplasty procedures.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jonathan ...