Hitting the current national 2030 quotas for solar and wind energy could reduce the volatility of electricity markets by an average of 20% across 29 European countries, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge.   The intensity of spikes in power prices are predicted to fall in every country by the end of the decade if commitments to green energy are met, as natural gas dependency is cut.   The UK and Ireland would be the biggest beneficiaries, with 44% and 43% reductions in the severity of electricity price spikes by 2030, compared with last year. Germany could experience a 31% decline in electricity price ...

Honey bee mortality can be significantly reduced by ensuring that treatments for the parasitic Varroa mite occur within specific timeframes, a new study reveals. The mites—belonging to the species Varroa destructor—feed on the larvae of bees and can destroy colonies if not treated at key points to reduce or remove infestations. But researchers have found that more than a third of beekeepers surveyed in England and Wales deviate from recommended treatment guidelines, including application windows. Crucially, they found that beekeepers who mistimed Varroa mite treatments experienced exacerbated colony losses, with the effect occurring ...

Engineered immune cells called CAR-T cells are used in the treatment of cancer. Researchers from Uppsala University have now discovered that CAR molecules can be transferred from the CAR-T cells to other T cells in the tumour microenvironment. The researchers also pinpoint how this transfer is regulated, which may be used to improve the efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy. The study has been published in the journal Science Immunology.  Immune cells have a capacity to exchange cell surface molecules between one another. This exchange is called trogocytosis and may potentially impact the immune response since it allows different proteins to be transferred between cells.  Chimeric antigen ...

by Nishith Mishra, Martina Elia Vitoloni, and Dr Joseph Pelton Mining ocean resources needed for electric cars and other devices is currently a hot issue of dispute. Final resolution of how or whether the seabed should be expl18oited is pending. Outcomes in this contentious area could create precedents that could impact decisions about mining the moon. These precedents might shape the how and why of mining the Moon and shape the future and the sustainability of space activities of human beings. But this is only one possible precedent that could reshape the future of space. Pending international discussions on space traffic management, space debris removal, and limiting ...

Disinfecting surfaces is crucial in keeping bacteria and viruses at bay, but the cleaning solutions could be ineffective if met with neutralizing compounds. Ozonated water has a strong disinfection effect on mold and bacteria, and is also shown to work on SARS-CoV-2, which is responsible for COVID-19. The downside is that ozonated water breaks down quickly in the presence of organic matter, which reduces its effectiveness. SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted through droplets mixed with bodily fluids, such as saliva and nasal mucus which contain organic matters. For this reason, it is necessary to investigate how effective ozonated water is in the presence of ...

Alcohol-related deaths increased 18% during the pandemic, as did hospitalizations related to alcohol use, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241146. In the early part of the pandemic, retail alcohol sales volume in Canada increased by 2% (2020/21 v. 2019), the highest increase in 10 years, despite few international visitors. More than 1 in 4 people (26%) reported drinking more, and 18% reported heavy drinking (defined as ...

The risk of being admitted to the hospital with heart disease is twice as high the year after birth for mothers of twins compared to singleton births, according to research published in the European Heart Journal [1] today (Monday). The risk is even higher in mothers of twins who had a high blood pressure condition during pregnancy.   The research was led by Professor Cande Ananth from the Department of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Jersey, USA.   He said: “The rate of twin pregnancies worldwide ...

Research led by Lancaster University has revealed clear evidence that changes in the orchestration of brain oxygenation dynamics and neuronal function in Alzheimer’s disease contribute to the neurodegeneration. The study “Neurovascular phase coherence is altered in Alzheimer’s Disease” is published in Brain Communications. The lead author is Aneta Stefanovska with Juliane Bjerkan,  Gemma Lancaster, Peter McClintock and Trevor Crawford from Lancaster University and Bernard Meglič and Jan Kobal from the University of Ljubljana Medical Centre in Slovenia. Professor Stefanovska said: “Alzheimer's can be hypothesised as being a result ...

It’s a little pill with big responsibilities. But despite its primary role to prevent pregnancy, the contraceptive pill (or ‘the Pill’) could also help reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, according to new research from the University of South Australia.   Screening for risk factors of ovarian cancer using artificial intelligence, UniSA researchers found that the oral contraceptive pill reduced the risk of ovarian cancer by 26% among women who had ever used the Pill, and by 43% for women who had used the Pill after the age of 45.   The study also identified some biomarkers associated with ovarian cancer risk, including several characteristics of red blood ...

2nd February 2025 Greifswald/Aarhus/Helsinki - On time for World Wetlands Day, the European Wetland Map (‘EWM’) significantly enhances knowledge of wetlands across Europe by locating, assessing and merging the latest geospatial data. It combines various geographic information system (GIS) data on wetland types and their distribution on mineral soil in coastal environments, floodplains, and a large variety of peatlands in one most comprehensive, easily accessible resource.   "Over a period of two years, we collected, checked and merged more than 200 geodata on wetlands and especially ...

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago launched a newborn screening awareness campaign, with signage on public transit and billboards across Chicago urging parents to contact their child’s pediatrician immediately if results are out of normal range. For some conditions, such as cystic fibrosis, that are included in newborn screening, timely diagnosis and early treatment are key to optimal health, while delays can lead to more severe disease. All U.S. states screen for at least 33 metabolic and ...

A new study from the University of Chicago Medicine reveals that people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and depression experience high levels of stimulation and pleasure when intoxicated, similar to drinkers who do not have depression. The findings counter the long-held belief that the pleasure people experience when drinking alcohol decreases with addiction and that drinking to intoxication is mainly to reduce negative feelings as a form of self-medication.  "We have this folklore that people drink excessively when they're feeling depressed ...

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have studied how nurses perceive words showing high and low risk ailments. They looked for directional bias, e.g. whether words denoting lower (higher) risk led to a quicker response when placed on the left (right) side or vice versa. They found faster response for significantly higher or lower risk, but different people had different directional biases. Their findings might inform better ways to present clinical information.   With every incoming medical emergency, nurses are required ...

High-risk pregnancy specialists from the Raquel and Jaime Gilinski Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai are presenting research at the Annual Pregnancy Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) in Denver from January 27- February 1. The Mount Sinai doctors are available for interview about their research findings, and can also provide commentary on other women’s health topics, breaking news, and studies. PRESENTATIONS and POSTER SESSIONS *All abstracts are under embargo until the below listed times* Thursday, ...

University of Cambridge media release   ‘Altar tent’ discovery puts Islamic art at the heart of medieval Christianity   UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL 00:01AM (UK TIME) ON SATURDAY 1ST FEBRUARY 2025   A 13th-century fresco rediscovered in Ferrara, Italy, provides unique evidence of medieval churches using Islamic tents to conceal their high altars. The 700-year-old fresco is thought to be the only surviving image of its kind, offering precious evidence of a little-known Christian practice.   The partially-visible fresco, identified by Cambridge University historian Dr Federica Gigante, almost certainly depicts a real tent, ...

Prison violence remains a significant yet underreported issue in the U.S. criminal justice system, leading to unsafe conditions for both incarcerated persons and staff. To address this pressing problem, a team of researchers has conducted a study aimed at understanding prison violence to develop strategies for reducing and preventing it in correctional facilities nationwide. The researchers present their work in two recently released policy briefs — “The Dark Figure of Prison Violence: A Multi-Strategy Approach to Uncovering the Prevalence of Prison Violence” and “Sources and Consequences ...

New research from the University of Minnesota and Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) shows that death rates for early adults, or adults aged 25-44, rose sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic and remain higher than expected post-pandemic. Heightened death rates during the COVID-19 pandemic intensified an already negative trend for early adults, which began around 2010. As a result, early adult death rates in 2023 were about 70 percent higher than they might have been if death rates had not begun to rise about a decade before the pandemic.  The researchers analyzed death rates between 1999-2023. Published in JAMA ...

Recycling lithium-ion batteries to recover their critical metals has significantly lower environmental impacts than mining virgin metals, according to a new Stanford University lifecycle analysis published in Nature Communications. On a large scale, recycling could also help relieve the long-term supply insecurity – physically and geopolitically – of critical battery minerals. Lithium-ion battery recyclers source materials from two main streams: defective scrap material from battery manufacturers, and so-called “dead” batteries, mostly ...

People undergoing hemodialysis treatment for kidney failure often experience chronic pain related to their condition, but it can be difficult to manage with opioid medication and other conventional treatments. A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine finds that offering these patients pain coping skills training (PCST) significantly reduced their suffering and improved their quality of life. “This is particularly important for these patients, since the therapeutic choices for pain management are limited and the use of opioids has been shown ...

Much like the windy weather patterns that affect the Earth’s surface, our planet’s oceans experience their own distinct weather patterns. These weather patterns, known as eddies, are circular currents of water that are typically about 100 kilometers wide. A new study of satellite imagery and high-resolution climate model data by scientists at the University of Rochester upends previous assumptions and provides insight about how those surface and ocean weather patterns interact. Scientists formerly believed atmospheric wind had a damping effect, ...

The ambitious project PIPEON* will develop new robotic and AI-based technologies for mapping, monitoring, and maintaining Europe’s sewer networks using autonomous “thinking” robots and AI-based modelling and analysis tools. The development and application of such new technologies would have major societal, environmental and economic impact. Instead of repairing in-sewer defects and removing blockages after streets and homes have been flooded with sewage, defects can be quickly identified and repaired and blockages removed when they are still small. Early, preventative repair and maintenance actions will limit the frequency and ...

Microsoft's Azure AI Speech platform achieved “significant improvements” in recognizing non-standard English speech thanks to recordings and transcripts from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Speech Accessibility Project participants. Its accuracy gains range from 18% to 60%, depending on the speaker’s disability. The changes are currently rolling out on Microsoft's Cloud endpoint for third-party customers. Until now, the majority of voice recognition technology trained using recordings and transcriptions from audiobooks. But an audiobook narrator and an individual with aphasia after a stroke sound different. When the Speech ...

In India, tigers haven’t just survived − they’ve made a comeback. Despite a growing population and increasing pressure on their habitats, the number of wild tigers is rising. The reason? A combination of ecological restoration, economic initiatives, and political stability. And just as important: a deeply rooted reverence for tigers that has fostered a culture where humans and predators can coexist. How do you protect an endangered species when that species is a tiger − a predator that also poses a threat to humans? India has found a way by combining protected reserves with areas where tigers and people share space. The result? A 30% increase in ...

Arthur Paul Pedersen, faculty research scientist with the CUNY Remote Sensing Earth Systems (CREST) Institute and adjunct assistant professor of computer science at The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering, is lead author of a critical essay on measurement in scientific discourse. The essay, published in the journal of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, warns of the dangerous implications of measurement illiteracy in contemporary scientific discourse and urges broad, ...

TAMPA, Fla. (Jan. 31, 2025) — A new study from Moffitt Cancer Center could help doctors predict how well patients with a specific type of lung cancer will respond to new therapies. The research, published in Clinical Cancer Research, found that measuring the interaction between two proteins, RAS and RAF, could provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of treatments for patients with KRASG12C-mutant non-small cell lung cancer, a type of lung cancer known for being particularly difficult to treat. The findings revealed that tumors with higher levels ...