In a new National Institutes of Health-funded study led by scientists at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have determined that low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, may promote a breakdown of the blood-retinal barrier, an important boundary that regulates the flow of nutrients, waste and water in and out of the retina. The research, which investigated the phenomenon in diabetic mice, provides insights into the origin of diabetic retinopathy, specifically in patients with episodes of hypoglycemia. Diabetic retinopathy, a severe complication of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, can cause permanent vision damage ...

Highlights: Fermenting organic matter can produce biogas, which includes methane, and suggests a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. Alfalfa, often used as feed, produces biogas after fermentation. Adding fruit waste and Lactobacillus acidophilus to alfalfa boosts biogas production and improves fermentation, according to a new study. The process points to a useful way to dispose of fruit waste, produce energy and enhance agricultural feed. Washington, D.C.—Alfalfa is more than a protein-rich feed for livestock; it may also be an excellent source of biogas. This mixture of methane and other gases is produced when plants (or ...

Up to 250,000 deaths from poor air quality could be prevented annually in central and western Europe by 2050 if greenhouse gas emissions are drastically reduced, say researchers. A study by atmospheric scientists at the University of Leeds has revealed that the number of deaths could be significantly reduced, but only if there is a strong focus on reducing greenhouse gases and air pollutants. As well as finding that strong climate mitigation would result in large reductions in air quality mortality, the team has also discovered that it reduces the inequitable burden of air quality mortality in more deprived parts of Europe. Their findings are published today (6 May) in the journal Earth’s ...

Satellite communication is an indispensable part of sixth generation of mobile communication systems (6G) given its global coverage and long-distance propagation. Energy consumption and channel acquisition are two critical issues in satellite communication systems. On the one hand, with the rapidly increasing energy wastage in wireless systems, green communication technology has attracted extensive attentions and energy efficiency (EE) becomes the key performance indicator in the transmission scheme design of satellite communications. On the other hand, channel state information (CSI) is well required in designing the beamforming, but it is infeasible for gateway ...

BALTIMORE, May 6, 2025— A newly published trial from Kennedy Krieger Institute reveals a promising path forward for infants showing early signs of social communication delays. The study found that targeted coaching for caregivers of infants as young as 8 months significantly enhances babies’ communication and cognitive development. Caregivers in the trial received 16 in-home sessions with a trained developmental psychologist. Strategies included narrating an infant’s actions, such as saying “you rolled the ball,” and choosing toys that support language, attention, and engagement. This is one of the ...

The partnership between Duke University Press and the MIT Press will begin in 2026, greatly expanding the reach of quality open access scholarship through Direct to Open The MIT Press is proud to announce that beginning in 2026, Duke University Press will join our Direct to Open (D2O) program. This collaboration marks the first such partnership with another university press for the D2O program, and reaffirms our shared commitment to open access publishing that is ethical, equitable, and sustainable. Launched in 2021, D2O is the MIT Press’s ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When picturing a “typical” alcoholic, people tend to imagine a person drinking at home alone. But that focus overlooks the social origins of many serious alcohol problems, say the authors of a new review paper in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. “Evidence for the centrality of social motives in problem drinking surround us,” write the authors, Catharine Fairbairn, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Dahyeon Kang, of the University of Washington. “While solitary drinking might serve as a useful early indicator of alcohol use disorder risk … ...

Now in its fourth year, the successful partnership between BMW Group and ESMT Berlin continues to evolve. The BMW Group Change Maker Fellowships, launched in 2022, are being extended in 2025 to include ESMT’s full-time MBA and MSc programs alongside the global online MBA and will focus on shaping leadership for a digital future. For the upcoming academic year, eight fellowships will be offered:  two fellowships for the full-time MBA program (January 2026 intake)  two ...

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur have developed a new low-cost mobile tool to detect arsenic contamination in water sources, addressing a critical threat to human health and the environment.   Published in IOP Publishing’s academic journal Nanotechnology the new tool offers a low-cost, onsite solution for monitoring water quality, especially useful in low-income regions where access to safe drinking water is a major challenge. The sensor is the first to provide on-site, accurate and repeatable results without the need for complex lab equipment ...

Birmingham scientists have identified essential genetic code for a method called plasmid curing, which aims to ‘displace’ antibiotic resistance genes from bacteria.   Plasmids, which are small, circular strands of DNA, play a crucial role in allowing bacteria to share beneficial genes rapidly in a changing environment, most concerningly when they carry genes conferring resistance to antibiotics. Professor Chris Thomas from Birmingham’s School of Biosciences has investigated plasmid curing ...

Jerusalem, Israel – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is proud to announce that Dr. Chaim Garfinkel, Professor in the Institute of Earth Sciences, has been named a 2025 Laureate of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel, one of the country’s most prestigious honors for early-career researchers. Dr. Garfinkel is the recipient in the Physical Sciences & Engineering category for his pioneering work in climate modeling and atmospheric dynamics and will receive US$100,000 in unrestricted funds for his research, which focuses on advancing the global scientific community’s understanding of how large-scale atmospheric phenomena influence climate variability ...

NEW YORK, USA, 6 May 2025 -- In a thought-provoking Genomic Press editorial, the Psychedelics journal has formally expanded its scope beyond classical psychedelic compounds to embrace the broader landscape of consciousness-altering substances. The publication, which previously focused primarily on serotonergic compounds, now explicitly includes all psychoactive drugs in its research purview. A Quiet Correction, Not a Rebranding The editorial, authored by Editor-in-Chief Dr. Julio Licinio, reflects on the inherent limitations of categorizing mind-altering ...

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA, 6 May 2025 -- In a compelling Genomic Press interview published today, rising scientific star Dr. Michael Wheeler unveils revolutionary findings about how psychedelics reshape communication between the brain and immune system, potentially transforming treatments for psychiatric disorders and inflammatory diseases alike. Bridging the Mind-Body Divide As an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and investigator at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dr. Wheeler stands at the frontier of neuroimmunology, a field ...

“Hic sunt leones,” remarks Stefano Liberati, one of the authors of the paper and director of IFPU. The phrase refers to the hypothetical singularity predicted at the center of standard black holes — those described by solutions to Einstein’s field equations. To understand what this means, a brief historical recap is helpful. In 1915, Einstein published his seminal work on general relativity. Just a year later, German physicist Karl Schwarzschild found an exact solution to those equations, which implied the existence of extreme objects now known as black holes. These are objects with mass so concentrated that nothing — not even light — ...

Growing communities and extensive agriculture throughout the Western United States rely on meltwater that spills out of snow-capped mountains every spring. The models for predicting the amount of this streamflow available each year have long assumed that a small fraction of snowmelt each year enters shallow soil, with the remainder rapidly exiting in rivers and creeks. New research from University of Utah hydrologists, however, suggests that streamflow generation is much more complicated. Most spring runoff heading to reservoirs is actually several years old, indicating ...

In coral reefs throughout the world, visually striking bands of bare sand surrounding reefs are often visible in satellite imagery but their cause remains a mystery. One theory is fear. Parrotfish and other herbivores will leave a reef's shelter to eat algae or the surrounding seagrass, but their fear of being gobbled up by predators may keep them from roving too far or eating too much, creating, what's known as "grazing halos"–bands encircling reefs where vegetation once existed.  Prior studies have proposed that ...

An updated systematic review finds that consuming cannabis while pregnant appears to increase the odds of preterm birth, low birth weight and infant death. The study by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University published today in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. The lead author is a physician-scientist who provides prenatal care for high-risk pregnancies at OHSU. “Patients are coming to me in their prenatal visits saying, ‘I quit smoking and drinking, but is it safe to still use cannabis?’” said lead author Jamie Lo, M.D., ...

Researchers have developed a new protocol for benchmarking quantum gates, a critical step toward realizing the full potential of quantum computing and potentially accelerating progress toward fault-tolerant quantum computers. The new protocol, called deterministic benchmarking (DB), provides a more detailed and efficient method for identifying specific types of quantum noise and errors compared to widely used existing techniques. “Quantum computing is ultimately limited by how accurately we can implement gates — the basic operations of a quantum processor,” said Daniel Lidar, co-corresponding author of the study and ...

People who are given a vaccine for shingles have a 23% lower risk of cardiovascular events, including stroke, heart failure, and coronary heart disease, according to a study of more than a million people published in the European Heart Journal [1] today (Tuesday).   The protective effect of the vaccine lasts for up to eight years and is particularly pronounced for men, people under the age of 60 and those with unhealthy lifestyles, such as smoking, drinking alcohol and being inactive.   The study was led by Professor Dong Keon Yon from the Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea. He said: “Shingles ...

Many behavioral studies suggest that using landmarks to navigate through large-scale spaces — known as map-based navigation — is not established until around age 12. A neuroscience study at Emory University counters that assumption. Through experiments combining brain scans and a virtual environment the researchers dubbed Tiny Town, they showed that five-year-olds have the brain system that supports map-based navigation. The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published ...

A recent study conducted by researchers from Universidad San Francisco de Quito and Johns Hopkins University has revealed critical insights into the mental health of healthcare providers in Ecuador during the COVID-19 pandemic. Published in journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, this research examines the balance between compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress among healthcare professionals working in public institutions across Ecuador, a low-and middle-income country.  The study surveyed 2,873 healthcare providers from 111 public institutions across 23 provinces in Ecuador ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has announced a new strategic direction for its NIKE laser-target facility to align its world-class capabilities with the Department of Defense’s (DoD) nuclear strategic priorities. The new strategic direction marks a shift from the facility’s historical focus on Department of Energy (DoE) missions, specifically those related to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The initiative emphasizes NRL’s commitment to advancing national security through cutting-edge science and technology. Originally constructed in 1995 with support from the NNSA, the NIKE (pronounced nai-kee) laser was designed ...

In a first-of-its-kind clinical study, scientists at The University of Texas at Dallas and Baylor University Medical Center showed that patients with treatment-resistant PTSD were symptom-free up to six months after completing traditional therapy paired with vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). The results of the nine-patient Phase 1 trial, conducted by scientists from UT Dallas’ Texas Biomedical Device Center (TxBDC) in collaboration with researchers from the Baylor Scott & White Research Institute (BSWRI), were published online March 15 in Brain Stimulation. Dr. Michael Kilgard, the Margaret Fonde Jonsson Professor of neuroscience in the School of Behavioral ...

A novel health-assessment tool uses eight metrics derived from a person’s physical exam and routine lab tests to characterize biological age. It may be able to predict a person’s risk of disability and death better than current health predictors. University of Washington School of Medicine researchers describe their method in a May 5 Nature Communication paper. The method, called the Health Octo Tool, might make it possible to identify new factors that affect aging, and to design interventions that prolong life, said the report’s first author, Dr. Shabnam ...

Key takeaways: Retail pharmacies excluded from Part D networks were as much as 4.5 times more likely to close in the past decade Growing use of preferred networks disadvantages independent pharmacies, as well as those in low-income or minority neighborhoods Use of preferred pharmacy networks has soared amid mergers of major PBMs and retail pharmacy chains PBM ownership of pharmacies has recently drawn scrutiny from federal and state officials Retail pharmacies excluded from Medicare Part D networks maintained by drug benefits middlemen were much more ...