The ricefield eel (Monopterus albus) is the only protogynous hermaphrodite freshwater fish. While the mechanism underlying the natural sex change in this species has been fascinating scientists for a long time, it remains elusive and mysterious. In a new study published in Water Biology and Security, a team of researchers in China reported a temperature-induced sex reversal mechanism in ricefield eel. “We show that warm temperature induces the expression of male sex determination genes in ovarian tissues, ...

FLUID, an open-source, 3D-printed robot, offers an affordable and customizable solution for automated material synthesis, making advanced research accessible to more scientists. A team of researchers led by Professor Keisuke Takahashi at the Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, have created FLUID (Flowing Liquid Utilizing Interactive Device), an open-source robotic system constructed using a 3D printer and off-the-shelf electronic components. To demonstrate FLUID’s capabilities, the team used the robot to automate the co-precipitation of cobalt and nickel, creating ...

A new study by psychologists has shed light on the way lip size could influence perceptions of facial attractiveness. Led by Professor David Alais in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney, researchers have uncovered gender-specific biases and the potential influence of cosmetic procedures on Western perceptions of beauty. The study used digitally manipulated images to alter lip size on both male- and female-appearing faces and asked participants to rate their attractiveness. The results showed a difference in ...

The prevalence of tooth and gum issues among teenage (academy) professional footballers in England is high, finds research published in the open access journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. Inadequate oral hygiene, poor diet, and infrequent routine visits to the dentist, are all contributory factors, the findings suggest, prompting the researchers to call for remedial action to promote good oral health. This is essential for wellbeing, quality of life, long term health, and ultimately sporting performance, they emphasise. Previously published research indicates high levels of tooth and gum disease among professional senior team footballers in England ...

Hearing loss is linked to a heightened risk of developing heart failure, with the psychological distress caused by the impairment taking a key role in the observed association, finds a large long term study, published online in the journal Heart. Hearing loss is increasingly common, particularly as people age, while the prevalence of heart failure is also on the rise, affecting around 64 million people worldwide, note the researchers. While impaired hearing is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, principally, it is thought, as a result of the resulting ...

Relaxation techniques may help lower high blood pressure—at least in the short term—but the longer term effects are unclear, finds a pooled data analysis of the existing research published in the open access journal BMJ Medicine. And the risk of bias in the existing body of research means that further, more rigorously designed and longer studies are needed to confirm whether these techniques have a constructive role in the treatment of high blood pressure, conclude the researchers. High blood pressure affects around a third of 30-79 year olds and is one of the leading attributable causes of deaths in both men and women, note the researchers. While ...

Plans to ban junk food adverts from bus stops and billboards to protect public health are being stymied by advertising industry lobbying, reveals an investigation published by The BMJ today. The BMJ sent Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to 52 of the 317 councils in England to uncover how advertising firms and lobby groups were targeting council policies to restrict ‘out-of-home’ junk food adverts. McDonald's was the largest out-of-home advertiser in 2024 with a spend of £86.3 million, according to trade body Outsmart. Others in the top 20 include Pepsico, Coca Cola, KFC, Mars and Mondelez, the US owners of Cadbury. The FOI responses ...

General practitioners are now “prescribing" parkrun for their patients as part of a social prescribing initiative to promote preventative care. But in The BMJ today, Dr Margaret McCartney argues that turning parkrun into a prescription medicalises a walk in the park and is a retrograde step. Parkrun is an organised, timed, and free 5 km run, jog, walk, or wheel on Saturday mornings—in parks, on beaches, or on trails around the world but mainly in the UK, where it originated.  Parkrun ...

The American Meteorological Society continuously publishes research on climate, weather, and water in its 12 journals. Many of these articles are available for early online access–they are peer-reviewed, but not yet in their final published form. Below are some recent examples. JOURNAL ARTICLES Multi-factor Change in Western U.S. Nighttime Fire Weather Journal of Climate Western fires become less prone to “lay down” at night. Wildfires typically calm down at night–a crucial break for firefighters–yet firefighter and satellite measurements confirm increased nocturnal fire activity in the western U.S. from 1980 to 2020. This study shows increases in meteorological ...

  People’s political affiliation can be shown in their brain activity when they carry out mundane chores such as buying food, a new study shows. How the brain reacts to food purchasing decisions can be used to determine people’s political affiliation with almost 80 per cent accuracy, researchers have found. Although buying eggs and milk can lack emotional potency and political content, understanding how the neural systems lead people to make indistinguishable choices may help to explain the broader mechanisms of partisanship. Experts from Iowa State University, the ...

Berlin, Germany – April 7, 2025 — With antimicrobial resistance rising as one of the world's most pressing health threats, the 8th World Congress on Targeting Phage Therapy 2025 will bring together the global phage community to shape the future of infection control and microbiota modulation. Taking place on June 10–11, 2025, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Berlin Ku'damm, this landmark event will showcase cutting-edge research, real-world clinical insights, and groundbreaking applications of bacteriophage therapy across medicine, oncology, agriculture, and industry. Strategic Importance Phage therapy has entered a new ...

SAN ANTONIO — April 8, 2025 – Southwest Research Institute has launched a new markerless motion capture system that simplifies how film and gaming studios capture human movement for 3D animations. SwRI’s Biomechanical Evaluation and Animation Motion Capture (BEAMoCap™) tool converts video into realistic 3D animations without the conventional marker suits worn by actors. BEAMoCap won a 2025 Technology Innovation Award from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). SwRI staff accepted the award at ...

Xiamen University (XMU) has joined the Bentham Science Institutional Membership Program. This membership enables XMU researchers to publish their articles as Open Access under the CC-BY 4.0 license at concessionary rates in any Bentham Science journal. Through collaborations with institutions and organizations worldwide, Bentham Science is committed to promoting open research and fostering scientific advancements in science, medicine, and technology. Xiamen University (XMU), founded in 1921, is a prestigious comprehensive university ...

Two mixtures of common food additives, including aspartame, sucralose, xanthan & guar gums, modified starches, carrageenan and citric acid, are linked with slightly increased risk of type II diabetes, per French cohort study of more than 100,000 adults   In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Medicine: https://plos.io/3RkrNLv   Article title: Food additive mixtures and type 2 diabetes incidence: Results from the NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort Author countries: France Funding: see manuscript END ...

Food additive mixtures are an everyday feature of our diets, especially through ultra-processed foods. Until recently, safety evaluations of these additives have been conducted substance by substance due to a lack of data on the effect of them ingested together. In a new study, researchers from Inserm, INRAE, Sorbonne Paris Nord University, Paris Cité University and Cnam, as part of the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (CRESS-EREN), examined the possible links between exposure to mixtures of ...

Though the sense of touch underlies how we and most other animals interact with the world around us, much remains unknown about how this sense is processed in the brain. Researchers from Heidelberg University and Ludwig Maximillan University Munich in Germany measured the neuronal activity differences between active touch and passive touch in mice. As reported April 8th in the open-access journal, PLOS Biology, the researchers find that active and passive touch are processed by different pathways in the brain. Active touch can be thought of as grabbing something with your hand, while passive ...

University of Florida scientists have helped identify a novel drug compound that selectively activates pain-altering receptors in the body, offering a potentially safer alternative to conventional pain medications. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers describe how this drug compound provides pain relief without the dangerous side effects commonly associated with opioids administered to patients. The National Institutes of Health funded the study. The human body relies on three kinds of opioid receptors to regulate pain, much like traffic control systems on a busy highway. Understanding these pathways ...

Tuesday, April 8, 2025, Cleveland: A Cleveland Clinic-led clinical trial of tolebrutinib, an investigational oral Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor, a group of drugs originally developed to treat lymphomas and related blood disorders, demonstrated a 31% delay in the onset of six-month confirmed disability progression (CDP) in patients with non-relapsing secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). The first peer-reviewed results of the Phase 3 HERCULES trial published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine and were simultaneously presented during a clinical trials plenary session at the American Academy of Neurology 2025 ...

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is lauding a Community Review Board after it voted unanimously on Monday to reject a merger between Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), which houses one of seven primate research centers left in the United States, and Legacy Health. “Instead of showing a real focus on patient care and ethical behavior, OHSU has been wasting money on drug, alcohol, and sex experiments on monkeys, and the public knows it,” said Neal Barnard, MD, FACC, ...

Philadelphia, April 8, 2025 – In the first comprehensive, cell-by-cell analysis of brain tissue from individuals with Tourette syndrome, researchers have pinpointed exactly which cells are perturbed and how they malfunction, revealing how different types of brain cells are affected by the condition. Findings from this groundbreaking study in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier, provide unprecedented insights into the interplay of different brain cell types in Tourette syndrome, suggesting new therapeutic directions. What makes this study particularly groundbreaking ...

Experimental drug NU-9 — a small molecule compound approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical trials for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — improves neuron health in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new Northwestern University study. Like ALS, Alzheimer’s disease also results from misfolded proteins that damage brain health. Rather than treating symptoms from specific diseases, NU-9 instead addresses the underlying mechanisms of disease. Results from the new study give scientists hope that the drug should demonstrate effectiveness in the common ...

A recent publication in the International Journal of Cardiology, Pulmonary artery denervation in pulmonary hypertension: A comprehensive meta-analysis, has shed light on the potential of pulmonary artery denervation (PADN) as an innovative intervention for pulmonary hypertension (PH), a condition that places patients at risk for right heart failure and death. Co-authored by Dr. James Jenkins, a cardiologist at Ochsner Health, the study analyzed data from multiple clinical trials to assess the therapeutic and clinical impact of PADN ...

CHARLOTTE, April 8, 2025 — The American Heart Association and The David & Nicole Tepper Foundation (DNTF) have teamed up to increase bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) education through the Association’s Nation of Lifesavers™ movement. DNTF’s $600,000 commitment to support training in Charlotte youth sports will help prepare coaches, athletes and sports leagues officials to respond immediately and appropriately in a cardiac emergency situation. DNTF’s gift will also support CPR education within the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Department as well as affordable housing communities. “This ...

New research from Weill Cornell Medicine has uncovered a surprising culprit underlying cardiovascular diseases in obesity and diabetes—not the presence of certain fats, but their suppression. The study, published Feb. 25 in Nature Communications, challenges the conventional belief that a type of fat called ceramides accumulates in blood vessels causing inflammation and health risks. Instead, their findings reveal that when ceramides decrease in endothelial cells lining blood vessels, it can be damaging and cause chronic illnesses. Ironically, the findings ...

Oak Brook, IL (USA) – The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) is pleased to announce Vasumitra “Vasu” Rao, M.S., Ph.D. candidate in the Biomedical Engineering program at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA), as the 2025 SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant recipient. Rao’s innovative work at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), laboratory automation and microbiology exemplifies SLAS’s mission to support emerging leaders in quantitative biosciences through the grant. The awarded funding will enable Rao to continue his research under advisor Paul Jensen, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering) ...