January 27, 2025   Scientists at UMass Amherst Engineer Plant-based method of Precious Mineral Mining Their research manipulates the superplant Camelina sativa to accumulate nickel, provide oil for biofuel and clean contaminated soil   AMHERST, Mass. — As unassuming plant—considered a noxious weed by some—may be the key to fueling a green economy in the U.S. University of Massachusetts Amherst scientists are working with Camelina sativa, a member of the mustard family, to enhance a trio of the plant’s superpowers: absorbing ...

The subject of when early hominins, closely related ancestors to humans, first left Africa to begin their slow dispersal across the globe is a matter of ongoing discussion among anthropologists. The general consensus has been that hominins were present in Eurasia at least 1.8 million years ago, but some ephemeral traces of hominins have hinted at an earlier presence. New evidence by an international team of researchers now pushes that date back to almost 2 million years ago.  This evidence for hominins in Eurasia earlier than ...

In an international effort, researchers at Western University, the University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD) and Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) uncovered how specific patterns in brain activity can predict an individual’s sensitivity to pain, expanding opportunities for improved pain management strategies.   The new study was published Jan. 27 in JAMA Neurology. It found the combination of two biomarkers in the brain – corticomotor excitability (CME), excitability in the region of the brain that controls movement, and peak alpha frequency (PAF), a neural marker associated with cognitive performance – can accurately and reliably distinguish high- ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – In the same way that terrestrial life evolved from ocean swimmers to land walkers, soft robots are progressing, too, thanks to recent Cornell University research in battery development and design. A modular worm robot and jellyfish demonstrate the benefits of “embodied energy” – an approach that incorporates power sources into the body of a machine, to reduce its weight and cost. The worm and jellyfish are direct descendants of an aqueous soft robot, inspired by a lionfish and unveiled in 2019, that could store energy and power its applications via a circulating hydraulic fluid – i.e., “robot blood.” Similar blood sustains ...

Hebrew SeniorLife, New England’s largest nonprofit provider of senior health care and living communities and the only senior care organization affiliated with Harvard Medical School, announces that its Deanna and Sidney Wolk Center for Memory Health has been recognized by the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as an Age-Friendly Health System, level 2, Committed to Care Excellence. To qualify as an Age-Friendly Health System, level 2, the Wolk Center, which provides comprehensive outpatient care related to brain health, cognitive and behavioral problems, and memory loss, whether due to Alzheimer’s disease, other dementias, or other neurological or psychiatric ...

Absorbing layers have been fundamental to advancements in technologies like energy harvesting, stealth systems, and communication networks. These absorbers efficiently capture electromagnetic waves across broad frequency ranges, enabling the development of sustainable, self-powered devices such as remote sensors and internet of things (IoT) systems. In addition to energy applications, these layers are pivotal in stealth technology, where they minimize radar visibility and enhance the performance of aircraft and naval systems. They also play a crucial role in improving communication networks by reducing ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – While floating solar – the emerging practice of putting solar panels on bodies of water – is promising in its efficiency and its potential to spare agricultural and conservation lands, a new experiment finds environmental trade-offs. In the first manipulative field study examining the environmental impacts of floating solar, published in Environmental Science and Technology, researchers found that floating solar panels increased greenhouse gas emissions on small ponds by nearly 27%. “There ...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Jan. 27, 2025) — A person’s lifetime risk for cancer may begin before they are even born, reports a paradigm-shifting study by Van Andel Institute scientists.    The findings, published in Nature Cancer, identified two distinct epigenetic states that arise during development and are linked to cancer risk. One of these states is associated with a lower lifetime risk while the other is associated with a higher lifetime risk.   If cancer does develop in the lower risk state, it ...

On the barrier islands of Miami, 35 skyscrapers – including Trump Tower III - have sunk as much as eight centimeters, or three inches, into the ground since 2016, and researchers from the University of Houston have played a pivotal role in uncovering the reason why – urban development.   The findings, published in Earth and Space Science, reveal alarming rates of subsidence – or land sinking – in coastal structures between 2016 and 2023.    According to the report, "About half of the subsiding structures are younger than 2014 and at the majority of them subsidence decays with ...

Kun Sun, Professor, Information Sciences and Technology, Center for Secure Information Systems, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), received funding for: “CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: EAGLE: Empowering American Government Leadership in Cybersecurity through Education.”                                                                                     Due to the proliferation of cyber-attacks, the ...

Relapse is common when someone is trying to quit, regardless of whether they’re giving up opioids or alcohol or cigarettes. To better inform treatment, researchers with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC’s Addiction Recovery Research Center wanted to better understand how the experience of quitting differed across substances.  “When we talk about intervention for addiction, we know that we are far from the ideal model of treatment,” said Rafaela Fontes, a research scientist at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and first author on the study, “Beyond ...

The sense of smell promotes adaptive behaviors such as feeding and soothing, but how early humans begin to process odors represents a gap in knowledge for researchers. In a new study in JNeurosci, Thorsten Kahnt from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and colleagues explored olfaction development in humans and reveal how early humans begin to smell. The researchers used fMRI to image the brains of sleeping infants as they inhaled appetitive (pleasant) and aversive (unpleasant) odors. As early as one month of age, odors triggered activity in brain regions strongly associated ...

The underwater volcano Borealis Mud Volcano is located in the Barents Sea and was first discovered by researchers at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in 2023. The discovery received a lot of attention, and images of the volcano circulated around the world. Now researchers from UiT, in collaboration with REV Ocean, have finally published the results from an interdisciplinary investigation showing that Borealis mud volcano has a unique ecological role as a natural sanctuary for several marine species in the Barents Sea. While some parts of the ...

A national shortage in a common treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder was associated with changes in stimulant prescriptions filled for children over recent years, a new study suggests. The dispensing of prescription stimulants – a crucial therapy option for children with ADHD – fell sharply at the onset of the 2020 COVID pandemic but then began to recover, according to the research in Pediatrics. The Federal Drug Administration’s announcement of a shortage in the stimulant Adderall in October ...

Basal cell carcinomas, the most common form of skin cancer, occur in chronically sun-exposed areas such as the face.  Locally advanced tumours in particular can be difficult to treat surgically. A research team from MedUni Vienna and University Hospital Vienna has now investigated the effectiveness of a new type of therapy and achieved promising results: The active substance TVEC led to a reduction in the size of the basal cell carcinoma in all study participants, which not only improved surgical removal, but also ...

“Taken together, our results suggest that in addition to physiological age, comorbidities and unfavorable clinical traits, intense surgical manipulation from the tumor’s extent, may result in greater tissue damage and elevated cfDNA release.” BUFFALO, NY – January 27, 2025 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget’s Volume 16 on January 21, 2025, titled “Assessment of cfDNA release dynamics during colorectal cancer surgery.” Researchers from the University of Brasília investigated how cell-free DNA (cfDNA) levels in the blood change before, during, and after colorectal cancer surgery. ...

Climate change will likely result in a significant rise in deaths from heat across Europe, substantially surpassing any decrease in cold-related deaths. This trend persists across climate change scenarios and even under high adaptation to heat, reinforcing the need for aggressive mitigation policies. A modelling study, led by researchers from the Environment & Health Modelling (EHM) Lab at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and published in Nature Medicine, estimates that changes to the climate could directly result in over 2.3 million additional temperature-related deaths in 854 European cities by 2099 if urgent action ...

RICHMOND, Va. (Jan. 27, 2025) — Infant mortality in the United States decreased by 24.2% between 1999 and 2022. Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU discovered this improvement in a study published Jan. 27 in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. In the same study, however, they found mortality rates from Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) rose significantly – by 11.8% – from 2020 to 2022.   “Although a prior CDC study – using data until 2020 – found that Sudden Unexpected Infant Death was increasing for Black infants, ...

About The Study: This cohort study showed that, during the 2022 to 2023 season, infection with SARS-CoV-2 was associated with more severe disease outcomes than influenza or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), whereas differences were less pronounced during the 2023 to 2024 season. During both seasons, RSV remained a milder illness, whereas COVID-19 was associated with higher long-term mortality. Vaccination attenuated differences in disease severity and long-term mortality.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Kristina L. Bajema, MD, email kristina.bajema@va.gov. To access the ...

About The Study: This cohort study evaluating hospitalizations for firearm-related injuries during the COVID-19 pandemic has 2 principal findings. From 2020 to 2021, there was a 34% increase in firearm-related hospitalizations, consistent with an additional 13,268 admissions. Second, the increase in firearm-related hospitalization disproportionately affected children, patients enrolled in Medicaid, and Black individuals. Taken together, these findings raise new concerns about the sustained increase in firearm-related injury that disproportionately ...

About The Study: This study found that infant mortality from sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) has increased significantly. Previous data through 2020 showed that SUID increased among Black infants. The current analysis, which included 2021 and 2022 data, showed a more generalized increase. Possible explanations include COVID-19 or other respiratory illnesses, maternal opioid use, and social media’s influence on infant sleeping practices. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Elizabeth R. Wolf, MD, ...

About The Study: This study provides evidence for a sensorimotor cortical biomarker signature for pain sensitivity. The combination of accuracy, reproducibility, and reliability suggests the peak alpha frequency/corticomotor excitability biomarker signature has substantial potential for clinical translation, including predicting the transition from acute to chronic pain. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, David A. Seminowicz, PhD, email dseminow@uwo.ca. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this ...

Firearm injuries that sent victims to the hospital had gone down steadily over the five years before the COVID-19 pandemic began, but reversed course sharply over the next two years, a new University of Michigan study finds. In all, 34% more people were hospitalized for a firearm-related injury in 2020 and 2021 than would have been predicted based on pre-pandemic trends. The gap between expected and actual hospitalizations was even bigger for patients under the age of 18, those covered by Medicaid insurance for people with low incomes or disabilities, and those who are Black. The study is published in JAMA Network Open. These ...

New York, NY – January 27, 2025 – ProCure On-Demand’s 500th transplanted organ, being announced today, is emblematic of the gaps and inefficiencies in the current transplant system that the organ recovery, technology and logistics company is regularly solving.   The case involving the transplant of the 500th organ underscores ProCure's reputation for quality work, efficient logistics and swift turnaround times, which have become integral to their success. With less than five hours to recover bilateral lungs, ProCure tapped into its unique Recovery Team Network, to deploy a surgeon within seven miles ...

Monday 27 January, 2025: A new international study has unveiled critical insights in understanding post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE), a condition that can develop following traumatic brain injury. Led by researchers at FutureNeuro, the Research Ireland Centre for Translational Brain Science and RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and published in Theranostics, the study highlights the important role played by a receptor in the brain called P2X7. It suggests how we could both reduce epilepsy ...