Calcium ions are essential for cells, but can be toxic in higher concentrations. A team of researchers has now designed and prepared a combination drug that kills tumor cells by modulating the calcium influx into the cell. An external calcium source is not necessary because only the calcium ions already present in the tumor tissue are used, according to the study published in the journal Angewandte Chemie. Biological cells need calcium ions, among other things, for the proper functioning of the mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cells. However, ...

A University of Houston optometry researcher is warning against the use of low-level red light (LLRL) therapy as a method to control myopia, or nearsightedness, especially in children. Over the last few years, LLRL has emerged as a viable myopia treatment after studies reported the treatment as effective and responsible for significant reduction in myopia progression. The company behind one of the devices reports that it is already being used to address myopia in over 100,000 pediatric patients.   But the excitement over its results as a myopia treatment may have come too soon, ahead of its proven safety.  "Based on measurements in our laboratory, ...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29, 2024 — Counterfeit detector pens use a starch-iodine reaction to identify fake bills. But could you fool them with chemistry? In today’s episode, we dive into the chemistry of iodine, its color and its clock reactions, all while making a little extra cash on the side.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDaVCyOBSsY Reactions is a video series produced by the American Chemical Society and PBS Digital Studios. Subscribe to Reactions at http://bit.ly/ACSReactions and follow us on Twitter @ACSReactions. The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader ...

Humans and our closest relatives, living apes, display a remarkable diversity of types of locomotion—from walking upright on two legs to climbing in trees and walking using all four limbs.  While scientists have long been intrigued by the question of how humans’ bipedal stance and movement evolved from a quadrupedal ancestor, neither past studies nor fossil records have permitted the reconstruction of a clear and definitive history of the early evolutionary stages that led to human bipedalism. However, a new study, which centers on recently discovered evidence from skulls of a 6-million-year-old fossil ape, Lufengpithecus, ...

Five cases of Alzheimer’s disease are believed to have arisen as a result of medical treatments decades earlier, reports a team of UCL and UCLH researchers. Alzheimer’s disease is caused by the amyloid-beta protein, and is usually a sporadic condition of late adult life, or more rarely an inherited condition that occurs due to a faulty gene. The new Nature Medicine paper provides the first evidence of Alzheimer’s disease in living people that appears to have been medically acquired and due to transmission of the amyloid-beta protein. The people described in the paper had all been treated as ...

About The Study: Although the association of food security and life expectancy varied across sex and racial and ethnic groups, overall, lower levels of food security were associated with a higher risk of premature mortality and a shorter life expectancy in this study of 57,000 adults. The findings of this study highlight the potential importance of improving food security in promoting population health and health equity.  Authors: Lu Qi, M.D., of Tulane University in New Orleans, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed ...

About The Study: The findings of this study of 35,000 adults age 50 or older suggest that wealth inequality in the U.S. is associated with significant inequities in survival. Wealth redistribution policies may substantially reduce those inequities and increase population longevity.  Authors: Kathryn E. W. Himmelstein, M.D., M.S.Ed., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.7975) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and ...

About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial including 1,068 smokers, electronic cigarettes were as effective as varenicline and more effective than nicotine chewing gum as a stop-smoking aid when all three treatments were provided with minimal behavioral support.  Authors: Zhao Liu, Ph.D., of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.7846) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...

BOSTON –High school students who reported using cannabis, alcohol, or nicotine were more likely to have thoughts about suicide, feel depressed or anxious, have unusual experiences, and exhibit inattention or hyperactivity, according to recent survey-based study conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the University of Minnesota. The study, which is published in JAMA Pediatrics, included 2022–2023 survey results from more than 15,000 high school students across Massachusetts. “We sought to determine ...

Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 DALLAS, January 29, 2024 — A new scientific statement from the American Heart Association emphasizes the need to increase patients’ and physicians’ awareness of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) to improve the recognition of this condition and initiate prompt medical treatment. The new statement, Diagnosis and Management of Cerebral Venous Thrombosis, published today in the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s peer-reviewed journal Stroke. ...

Researchers mapped genetic blueprints for 51 species including cats, dolphins, kangaroos, penguins, sharks, and turtles, a discovery that deepens our understanding of evolution and the links between humans and animals.  “Being able to access that genetic information will have huge implications for understanding human health and evolution,” said lead author Michael Schatz, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of computer science and biology at Johns Hopkins University. “A lot of work ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Approximately four of five primary care clinicians consider themselves on the front lines of brain health. In the U.S., clinicians are the first point of contact for patients worried about memory loss and are most likely the first to detect and evaluate patients experiencing mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias. In a new study focused on understanding the barriers of clinician-patient conversations about brain health and cognitive concerns, Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine Research Scientist Malaz Boustani, M.D., MPH, found that early conversations about brain health between ...

Global warming continues to pose a threat to human society and the ecological systems, and carbon dioxide accounts for the largest proportion of the greenhouse gases that dominate climate warming. To combat climate change and move towards the goal of carbon neutrality, researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have developed a durable, highly selective and energy-efficient carbon dioxide (CO2) electroreduction system that can convert CO2 into ethylene for industrial purposes to provide an effective solution for ...

So how can the speed of dark matter be measured? The prerequisite is to find a galaxy in the universe that moves relative to dark matter. Since everything in the universe is in motion and there is a great deal of dark matter, it is not difficult to find such galaxies. Heavy objects, like galaxies, attract all types of matter, whether it is dark matter or visible matter that we encounter on a daily basis. As dark matter moves past a galaxy, the galaxy begins to pull the dark matter particles towards it. However, the change of speed direction of the particles takes time. Before ...

A common test used to decide whether breast cancer patients should get chemotherapy may be making bad recommendations for some Black women, leading them to forgo chemotherapy when it might have helped, according to new research from the University of Illinois Chicago.  The test, known as the 21-gene breast recurrence score, is the most commonly ordered biomarker test used to guide doctor’s recommendations for patients with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer — the most common ...

Great whites, the largest predatory sharks in the world with the most fatal attacks on humans, are tough to imagine as newborn babies. That is partially because no one has seen one in the wild, it seems, until now.  Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna and UC Riverside biology doctoral student Phillip Sternes were scanning the waters for sharks on July 9, 2023, near Santa Barbara on California’s central coast. That day, something exciting appeared on the viewfinder of Gauna’s drone camera. It was a shark ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Plant biologists report that a species of tree fern found only in Panama reanimates its own dead leaf fronds, converting them into root structures that feed the mother plant. The fern, Cyathea rojasiana, reconfigures these “zombie leaves,” reversing the flow of water to draw nutrients back into the plant. Watch a video about the findings. This weird phenomenon occurs only after the leaves die and droop to the ground, said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign plant biology professor James Dalling, ...

Organic compounds in the field of chemistry range from simple hydrocarbons to complex molecules, with diverse functional groups added to the main carbon backbone. These functional groups impart the compounds distinct chemical properties as well as participate in various chemical transformations, making them important precursors for the synthesis of diverse compounds. Scientists have, therefore, actively engaged in creating molecules that feature novel and highly reactive functional groups. One such class of compounds are dibenzothiophenes and their derivatives containing ...

A sequence variant that increases risk of pregnancy loss Scientists at deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen and their collaborators from Iceland, Denmark and USA published a study today in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology titled “Variant in the synaptonemal complex protein SYCE2 associates with pregnancy loss through effects on recombination”. While it is well established that chromosomal abnormalities are a major cause of miscarriages the biology behind pregnancy losses with or without chromosomal errors is not well understood. Over 114 thousand women from Iceland, Denmark, UK, USA and Finland who have ...

The number of people with obesity has nearly tripled since 1975, resulting in a worldwide epidemic. While lifestyle factors like diet and exercise play a role in the development and progression of obesity, scientists have come to understand that obesity is also associated with intrinsic metabolic abnormalities. Now, researchers from University of California San Diego School of Medicine have shed new light on how obesity affects our mitochondria, the all-important energy-producing structures of our cells. In a study published January ...

Cancer Research UK-funded scientists have made an unusual discovery that could help to identify patients who are up to two and a half times more likely to respond to currently available cancer drugs.  Scientists at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in the USA have “rewired” the DNA of mitochondria – energy factories found in every living cell. They found that creating mutations in parts of this DNA determines how well cancer will respond to immunotherapy – treatments which harness the body’s natural defences ...

For decades scientists have been trying to solve Feynman’s Sprinkler Problem: How does a sprinkler running in reverse—in which the water flows into the device rather than out of it—work? Through a series of experiments, a team of mathematicians has figured out how flowing fluids exert forces and move structures, thereby revealing the answer to this long-standing mystery. “Our study solves the problem by combining precision lab experiments with mathematical modeling that explains how a reverse sprinkler operates,” explains Leif Ristroph, an associate professor at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the senior author ...

(Utrecht/Vienna, 29.1.2024) Neuroblastoma mainly affects toddlers and young children - in the EU region there are 1500 new cases per year. Neuroblastoma is a malignant tumor of the peripheral nervous system and around 50% of patients are high-risk cases. Recurrences occur frequently, and conventional therapies are no longer effective for these children. With liquid biopsies it is possible to monitor therapy success and to predict the recurrence of the tumor in time to take medical countermeasures. Scientists from leading European ...

Social robots can help us with many things: teaching, learning, caring. Because they’re designed to interact with humans, they’re designed to make us comfortable — and that includes the way they talk. But how should they talk? Some research suggests that people like robots to use a familiar accent or dialect, while other research suggests the opposite.  “Surprisingly, people have mixed feelings about robots speaking in a dialect — some like it, while others prefer standard language,” said Katharina Kühne of the University of Potsdam, lead author ...

Harvesting energy sources such as heat, vibration, light, and electromagnetic waves from everyday environments such as industrial sites and automobiles and converting them into electrical energy is known as energy harvesting. Energy harvesting makes it easier to power today's popular IoT sensors and wireless devices that are located in environments where battery replacement is difficult. Dr. Hyun-Cheol Song and Dr. Sunghoon Hur of Electronic Materials Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have developed a hybrid energy harvesting ...