Humans live in a world abundant in salt, but this everyday seasoning is a luxury for wild herbivores, and it’s far from clear how these animals get enough.    A new study published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution and authored by Northern Arizona University researchers and collaborators found the density and distribution of Earth’s largest land animals, including elephants, giraffes and rhinos, appear to be limited by this kitchen essential. There are only a few areas ...

WASHINGTON –   A new finding from researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center shows that the learning process of associating cues with rewards can be altered by increased or decreased activity of a specific protein in the brain. Knowing when to respond positively to cues that result in beneficial outcomes or rewards vs. ignoring cues that result in bad habits, such as smoking addiction, is an essential part of learned behaviors. “Our ability to link certain cues or stimuli ...

Researchers have discovered that not all atoms in a liquid are in motion and that some remain stationary regardless of the temperature, significantly impacting the solidification process, including the formation of an unusual state of matter—a corralled supercooled liquid.   The formation of solids is essential in various natural processes, including mineralisation, ice formation, and the folding of protein fibrils. It also plays a significant role in technological applications such as pharmacy and industries ...

A new study has developed a powerful computational method that can detect how genes interact with each other to influence complex traits in humans at a scale previously impossible. The new method was applied to massive datasets that pair individual genomes and traits to find evidence for such interactions. The findings, published in Nature Genetics, show that a person's genetic background can substantially modify how individual genetic variants affect their traits. Why it matters Understanding how genes interact to influence complex traits, such as Body Mass Index or total ...

Herbivores require a steady intake of sodium to keep their metabolism running smoothly. This is why farm animals have long been given salt or mineral licks. Animals in the wild, however, need to get their salt from sources in their habitats. In some areas, plants and other natural sources of salt provide sufficient sodium, while in others sodium levels are scarce. These differences can influence where certain species settle or how far they will migrate to find natural salt licks. A new study conducted in collaboration with the University ...

When cell division (mitosis) takes too long, it can be a sign that something is wrong with the cells, for example DNA damage or chromosomal instability. That’s why our cells come with an innate ability to tell the time, with a stress response known as the mitotic stopwatch pathway activating after prolonged mitosis, and triggering cell cycle arrest, or even cell death. Now, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have found that certain cancers can ‘lose their sense of time’ to avoid cellular stress responses, revealing new insights that could shape future anti-cancer therapeutics. The research published in Nature Communications ...

Magnonics is an emerging engineering subfield that targets high-speed, high-efficiency information encoding without the energy loss that burdens electronics. This energy loss occurs when electrons flowing through a circuit generate heat, but magnonic systems don’t involve any electron flow at all. Instead, an external magnetic field is applied to a magnet, upsetting the magnetic orientation (or ‘spin’) of the magnet’s electrons. This upset enables a tailored collective excitation called a spin wave (magnon), which travels through ...

Leading X-ray space telescopes XMM-Newton and XRISM have spotted a never-seen-before blast from a supermassive black hole. In a matter of hours, the gravitational monster whipped up powerful winds, flinging material out into space at eye-watering speeds of 60 000 km per second. The gigantic black hole lurks within NGC 3783, a beautiful spiral galaxy imaged recently by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers spotted a bright X-ray flare erupt from the black hole before swiftly fading away. As it faded, fast winds emerged, raging at one-fifth of the speed of light. “We’ve not watched a black ...

A new study from City St George’s, University of London has found that people’s newspaper reading habits are a reliable predictor of their attitudes towards autism, even when many other factors such as age, education, political views and personal experiences are taken into account. The research, published in the journal Autism, reveals that around 10% of the differences in automatic, unconscious bias were linked to what newspapers people read. People who read right-leaning tabloid papers more ...

Artificial turf football pitches are better than natural turf from a sustainability perspective – at least as long as the artificial turf material is recycled and the natural turf is cut using fossil fuel-powered lawn mowers. This is demonstrated by researchers at Linköping University in a new study comparing the environmental impact of the different pitches with the help of life cycle analyses. “The Nordic climate is tough on football pitches and there isn’t much research on the subject. But there is a great deal of interest from the municipalities as regards sustainability and weighing artificial turf against natural ...

A new study shows that in 2023, substance use disorders led to nearly $93 billion in lost productivity in the United States from missed work, reduced job performance, inability to work, and lost household productivity. The novel analysis appearing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, highlights the need for prevention and treatment strategies to reduce harm and costs. “Substance use disorders can impair cognitive and behavioral functioning, resulting in productivity losses,” said the team of investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “While ...

More than half of psychologists experimented with artificial intelligence tools in their practices in the past year, but almost all cite concerns about how the technology may affect their patients and society, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2025 Practitioner Pulse Survey. This annual survey, conducted by APA and its companion organization, APA Services, Inc., was completed by 1,742 psychologists in September 2025. It found that 56% of psychologists reported using AI tools ...

Ammonia fuels agriculture, supports industry, and is increasingly viewed as a key player in future clean-energy systems. Yet producing it is heat and pressure intensive. A research team has developed an electrocatalyst that helps turn nitrate--a common pollutant found in groundwater and agricultural runoff--into ammonia under far milder conditions. Details of their findings were published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials on November 4, 2025. "Our new catalyst has two main benefits: first, it reduces the emissions linked to fertilizer and chemical manufacturing, ...

Background and Motivation In recent years, the rise of common institutional ownership—where large institutional investors hold significant shares in multiple competing firms within the same industry—has sparked intense debate among scholars and regulators. While some argue it fosters information sharing and improves governance, others warn it may reduce competition and encourage collusion. Despite growing attention, little research has examined how this ownership structure affects overall business strategy. This study investigates whether common institutional ownership makes companies more or less aggressive in ...

Background and Motivation China’s national carbon market has grown rapidly in recent years, emerging as one of the world’s largest Emissions Trading Systems (ETS). Carbon price volatility not only affects market stability and pricing credibility but also influences corporate investment and emissions strategies. While prior research has identified various factors affecting carbon price fluctuations, most studies focus on a narrow set of variables and rarely compare broader potential drivers across regions. This leaves a gap in understanding which factors are truly critical in explaining volatility ...

Researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), and NHG Health’s Institute of Mental Health (IMH) have mapped how brain networks differ in individuals at Clinical High Risk (CHR) for psychosis, providing a new perspective on the mechanisms underlying the disease onset. Published in Molecular Psychiatry, the study utilised advanced neuroimaging methods to identify early, network-level changes in more than 3,000 individuals at varying levels of risk.   The study – led by Dr Siwei Liu, Senior Research Scientist, and Associate Professor Juan Helen Zhou, Director, both at the Centre for Translational Magnetic Resonance Research ...

About The Study: Cryopreserved platelets did not meet the predefined threshold for noninferiority in hemostatic effectiveness at 24 hours after intensive care unit admission. Additional predefined end points consistently indicated diminished hemostatic effectiveness, although prespecified adverse events were comparable. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Michael C. Reade, MBBS, DPhil, email m.reade@uq.edu.au. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.23355) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, ...

About The Study: In this economic evaluation, cryopreserved platelets were dominated by liquid-stored platelets for managing bleeding in cardiac surgery. Further research is needed to assess the potential economic benefits of cryopreserved platelets in broader populations, particularly in regional and remote hospitals where platelet availability is limited.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Alisa M. Higgins, PhD, email lisa.higgins@monash.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.54363) Editor’s Note: Please see ...

Precise Point Positioning (PPP) is widely used for high-accuracy navigation, but broadcast ephemeris from the BDS-3 system still suffers from hourly discontinuities that degrade real-time performance. This study introduces a new PPP strategy that integrates a covariance-adaptive Kalman filter to compensate for sudden orbit and clock jumps during each ephemeris update. By incorporating systematic parameters and dynamically scaling process noise, the algorithm better captures unexpected changes in satellite signals. Tests using one week of static global data and a 10-hour marine kinematic dataset show significant gains in accuracy, demonstrating that the proposed ...

Patients who receive T-cell redirecting therapies are typically hospitalized for several days after treatment to watch for side effects. Now new research by Fox Chase Cancer Center physicians shows that these patients can safely be monitored at home. The study, presented today at the 67th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, showed that a structured outpatient model significantly reduced the number of days patients spent in the hospital, with no negative outcomes. Fewer Hospital Days, No Safety Compromises “There are multiple benefits to our approach,” ...

A researcher at the Department of Physics at Tohoku University has uncovered a surprising quantum phenomenon hidden inside ordinary crystals: the strength of interactions between electrons and lattice vibrations - known as phonons - is not continuous, but quantized. Even more remarkably, this strength is universally linked to one of physics' most iconic numbers: the fine-structure constant. What makes this dimensionless number (α ≈ 1/137) so iconic is its ability to explain electromagnetic interactions, ...

The Institute for Frontier Science and Engineering at Okayama University of Science (OUS) is developing various international collaboration projects with the aim of forming a research hub where international talents gather. Based on the education and research agreement between OUS and Mapúa University (MU) in the Philippines, a joint colloquium was held to foster exchanges among researchers and students from both universities. This was the third time the colloquium was held. Three professors — Haruo Akashi (Institute for Frontier Science and ...

Young adolescents, especially boys, who participated in organized sports between ages 6 and 10 are less likely to defy their parents, teachers and other authority figures, a new study by researchers in Canada and Italy suggests. “Oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) is often under-diagnosed and can co-occur with other developmental disorders," said the study's lead author Matteo Privitera, a doctoral student at the University of Pavia (UofP), supervised by Linda Pagani, a professor at Université de Montréal's School of Psycho-Education. "Symptoms of the disorder include persistent patterns of irritability, defiance and hostility toward ...

LOS ANGELES — Researchers from City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States with its National Medical Center ranked among the nation’s top cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, presented scientific results on novel therapies, treatment strategies, and approaches to managing side effects and complications for blood cancer patients at the 2025 American Society of Hematology (ASH) conference in Orlando, Florida, held Dec. 6 to 9. City of Hope was involved in one ASH plenary. In addition, its scientists ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  EMBARGOED UNTIL DECEMBER 8, 2025  Research Aims to Strengthen the Security of In-Person Voting Machines  New study on election security evaluates potential vulnerabilities  in widely used Precinct Count Optical Scanners    Washington, D.C., December 8, 2025 – About 70% of Americans voted in person in the 2024 presidential election, their ballots counted by machines called Precinct Count Optical Scanners (PCOS). Researchers at Towson University have systematically analyzed thousands ...