Medicine Technology 🌱 Environment Space Energy Physics Engineering Social Science Earth Science Science
Medicine 2025-03-28

Drexel researchers develop new DNA test for personalized treatment of bacterial vaginosis

Roughly one out of three women ages 14-49 in the United States develop a vaginal bacterial imbalance known as bacterial vaginosis (BV) during their lifetime. BV is characterized by unpleasant odors, and potentially painful side effects, as well as the risk of associated health issues later in life. More than half of the patients who seek medical care do not respond to the first-line treatment, the antibiotic metronidazole, leading to recurrence. Now Drexel researchers have developed ...
Read more →
Medicine 2025-03-28

Keith T. Flaherty, MD, FAACR, elected as American Association for Cancer Research President-Elect for 2025-2026

PHILADELPHIA – The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected Keith T. Flaherty, MD, Fellow of the AACR Academy, as the AACR President-Elect for 2025-2026. Flaherty will become President-Elect on Monday, April 28, during the AACR’s Annual Business Meeting of Members at the AACR Annual Meeting 2025 in Chicago, Illinois and will assume the Presidency in April 2026 at the AACR Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. Flaherty is director of clinical cancer research and the Richard Saltonstall Endowed Chair in Oncology at Mass General Cancer Center, ...
Read more →
Science 2025-03-28

Brownie points for ChatGPT’s food analysis skills

URBANA, Ill. — AI is changing the way we work, create, and share information — but brownies? A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores how ChatGPT can be used in the sensory evaluation of foods, specifically brownies. The study offers insights that could streamline development of new products, and possibly enhance recipes moving forward.  But, why use AI for brownie tasting? Most people would gladly line up to sample chocolatey treats. However, in the food industry, sensory evaluation is an essential yet rigorous and costly process. Companies ...
Read more →
Social Science 2025-03-28

The Giants Foundation provide 12 schools with CPR resources to improve cardiac emergency outcomes

NEW JERSEY, March 27, 2025 — The American Heart Association and The Giants Foundation, the nonprofit organization of the New York Giants, gathered representatives from 12 local schools for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) training on March 20 at MetLife Stadium. According to American Heart Association data, nearly 9 out of 10 people who experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital die, in part because they do not receive immediate CPR more than half of the time. CPR, especially if performed immediately, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival. “Early recognition and action in a cardiac emergency ...
Read more →
Why scientists are worried about weasels
Science 2025-03-28

Why scientists are worried about weasels

When monitoring the health of mammal populations, scientists often use camera traps to observe the animals in their habitats.  But weasels are so sneaky they’re rarely caught on camera – leaving scientists with questions about this population of predators. “We’re a little worried about the weasels,” says Roland Kays, a research professor at North Carolina State University and scientist at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. “We don’t see them very often, but it’s ...
Read more →
Medicine 2025-03-28

American College of Cardiology recognizes 21 Distinguished Award recipients

The American College of Cardiology is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Distinguished Awards. The twenty-one recipients have made remarkable contributions to the cardiovascular professional, helping the ACC in its mission to transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health for all. Awardees will be recognized during Convocation at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session (ACC.25) taking place March 29 – 31, 2025, in Chicago. The 2025 Distinguished Award winners are: 2025 Bernadine Healy Leadership in Women’s Cardiovascular Disease Malissa J. Wood, MD, FACC 2025 Distinguished Cardiovascular ...
Read more →
Medicine 2025-03-28

American College of Cardiology recognizes three recipients of the Hani Najm Global Scholar Award Observership Program

The American College of Cardiology will honor three early career cardiologists with the Hani Najm Global Scholar Award Observership Program at ACC's Annual Scientific Session (ACC.25), taking place March 29 – 31, 2025, in Chicago. Established in 2020 at the Saudi Heart Association’s Annual Conference, the Hani Najm Global Award Observership Program encourages and fosters the sharing of knowledge between international cardiology professionals, specifically early career cardiologists in the Middle East and Africa. Through its Observership Program, recipients have the opportunity to ...
Read more →
DNA helps electronics to leave flatland
Medicine 2025-03-28

DNA helps electronics to leave flatland

Researchers at Columbia Engineering have for the first time used DNA to help create 3D electronically operational devices with nanometer-size features. "Going from 2D to 3D can dramatically increase the density and computing power of electronics," said corresponding author Oleg Gang, professor of chemical engineering and of applied physics and materials science at Columbia Engineering and leader of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials' Soft and Bio Nanomaterials Group at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The new manufacturing technique could also contribute to the ongoing effort ...
Read more →
Medicine 2025-03-28

Studying cardiac cells in space to repair heart damage on Earth

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER (FL), March 28, 2025 – Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for one in five deaths. The inability of damaged heart muscle tissue to regenerate makes heart disease difficult to treat, and end-stage heart failure patients have no choice but to join a long list of people waiting for a heart transplant. Researchers from Emory University are working to provide another option for such patients. To do this, the team took their research to a laboratory unlike any on Earth—the International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station). Chunhui ...
Read more →
Studies evaluate the health effects of bioactive compounds obtained from plants
Medicine 2025-03-28

Studies evaluate the health effects of bioactive compounds obtained from plants

Fruits and plant extracts contain bioactive compounds that can help treat or prevent diseases. To characterize and understand their mechanism of action, researchers from universities and research institutions in Brazil and Germany have conducted independent but complementary studies. Some of the results were presented at a lecture session on the future of food and nutrition research on March 25th during FAPESP Week Germany at the Free University of Berlin. According to Ulrich Dobrindt, a professor at the University of Munich in Germany, medicinal plants contain different types of phytochemicals (natural ...
Read more →
Howard University physicist revisits the computational limits of life and Schrödinger’s essential question in the era of quantum computing
Technology 2025-03-28

Howard University physicist revisits the computational limits of life and Schrödinger’s essential question in the era of quantum computing

WASHINGTON, DC – (March 28, 2025) More than 80 years ago, Erwin Schrödinger, a theoretical physicist steeped in the philosophy of Schopenhauer and the Upanishads, delivered a series of public lectures at Trinity College, Dublin, which eventually came to be published in 1944 under the title What is Life? Now, in the 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, Philip Kurian, a theoretical physicist and founding director of the Quantum Biology Laboratory (QBL) at Howard University in Washington, D.C., has used the laws of quantum mechanics, which Schrödinger postulated, and the QBL’s discovery of cytoskeletal ...
Read more →
Navigating a US bioscience career despite anticipated cuts in funding for biomedicine
Medicine 2025-03-28

Navigating a US bioscience career despite anticipated cuts in funding for biomedicine

Many young and midcareer scientists in the U.S. are understandably anxious about potential cuts to government funding and the rise of junk science. Although your future in biomedicine may not be what you originally planned, it might actually become more interesting and filled with new possibilities and opportunities for innovation. Don’t think of this time to hunker down and disappear. Do the opposite with the understanding that you are more powerful and brilliant than you may realize.   In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to ...
Read more →
How the failure of two dams amplified the Derna Flood tragedy
Medicine 2025-03-28

How the failure of two dams amplified the Derna Flood tragedy

A new study reveals that the devastating 2023 flood in Derna, Libya, was not merely the result of extreme rainfall but was drastically intensified by a major design shortcoming and its resulting collapse of two embankment dams. Through advanced hydrological modeling and satellite data analysis, researchers found that while Storm Daniel brought heavy rainfall, the catastrophe stemmed from dam failures and flawed risk assessment and communication—amplifying the destruction nearly twentyfold. The findings highlight the urgent need for improved flood mitigation strategies, especially in dryland regions where high uncertainty ...
Read more →
Medicine 2025-03-28

Oral contraceptives and smoking impact steroid hormone levels in healthy adults

Steroid hormone levels in healthy adults are influenced by oral contraceptives and smoking, as well as other lifestyle choices and factors such as biological sex and age, according to new research that has just been published in leading international journal Science Advances. The objective of the research was to expand knowledge and understanding of steroid hormone levels, including corticoids and sex hormones, in healthy women and men over a broad age range. This is the first study to analyse such a large number of hormones in nearly 1,000 healthy people, filling a ...
Read more →
Medicine 2025-03-28

C-Path’s predictive safety testing consortium advances a transformative test to detect drug induced liver injury

TUCSON, Ariz., March 27, 2025 – Researchers from Critical Path Institute’s® (C-Path) Predictive Safety Testing Consortium have proposed glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH) as a more liver-specific biomarker for detecting liver injury, supporting clearer decision-making. Currently, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase (ALT and AST) are considered the “gold standard” biomarkers in clinical practice and drug development. However, these biomarkers are not specific to the liver and can reflect changes in other tissues, which may lead to unclear diagnoses, particularly in individuals with muscle conditions ...
Read more →
Green solvent innovation: high-speed doctor-blading boosts organic solar cell efficiency
Medicine 2025-03-28

Green solvent innovation: high-speed doctor-blading boosts organic solar cell efficiency

In a recent advancement, researchers have developed a high-speed doctor-blading technique that enhances the efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs) while using eco-friendly, non-halogenated solvents. This innovative method not only addresses the environmental and scalability challenges of traditional solvents, such as chloroform, but also achieves impressive power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 18.20% and 17.36% with green solvents like o-xylene and toluene, respectively. With a module efficiency of 16.07%, this breakthrough sets the stage for more sustainable, ...
Read more →
Science 2025-03-28

C-Path announces successful conclusion of the ECOA: getting better together initiative

TUCSON, Ariz., March 26, 2025 – Critical Path Institute® (C-Path)Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) Consortium and Electronic Clinical Outcome Assessment (eCOA) Consortium are pleased to announce the successful conclusion of the eCOA: Getting Better Together Initiative. This initiative, driven by a shared commitment to advancing patient-focused drug development, has culminated in meaningful, lasting changes that will benefit all stakeholders across the eCOA ecosystem. Beginning in 2019, this C-Path-led collaborative, pre-competitive initiative brought ...
Read more →
Brain channels ‘stopped in time’ reveal chemical flow that enables learning and thinking
Medicine 2025-03-28

Brain channels ‘stopped in time’ reveal chemical flow that enables learning and thinking

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE In an effort to understand how brain cells exchange chemical messages, scientists say they have successfully used a highly specialized microscope to capture more precise details of how one of the most common signaling molecules, glutamate, opens a channel and allows a flood of charged particles to enter. The finding, which resulted from a study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers, could advance the development of new drugs that block or open such signaling channels to treat conditions as varied as epilepsy and some intellectual disorders.  A report on the experiments, funded by the National ...
Read more →
PET imaging confirms direct involvement of dopamine in cognitive flexibility
Social Science 2025-03-28

PET imaging confirms direct involvement of dopamine in cognitive flexibility

Reston, VA (March 16, 2025)—For the first time, scientists have confirmed a neurobiochemical link between dopamine and cognitive flexibility, according to new research published in the March issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. PET imaging shows that the brain increases dopamine production when completing cognitively demanding tasks, and that the more dopamine released, the more efficiently the tasks are completed. Armed with this information, physicians may soon be able to develop more precise treatment strategies for neurological and psychiatric disorders. Cognitive flexibility is the ability to adapt one’s thinking and behavior appropriately to ...
Read more →
Medicine 2025-03-28

Understanding the immune response to a persistent pathogen

Most humans have long-lived infections in various tissues—including in the nervous system—that typically do not result in disease. The microbes associated with these infections enter a latent stage during which they quietly hide in cells, playing the long game to evade capture and ensure their own survival. But a lack of natural models to study these quiescent stages has led to gaps in scientists’ understanding of how latency contributes to pathogen persistence and whether these stages can be targeted by the immune system. Now, a team led by University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine researchers ...
Read more →
Medicine 2025-03-28

GSA conducting April 1 congressional briefing on impact of obesity as we age

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) invites you to a congressional briefing: Title: The Impact of Obesity and Opportunity for CMS to Address When: Tuesday, April 1, from 12 to 1 p.m. ET Where: Virtual Click to RSVP GSA is a professional membership organization committed to promoting the best available interdisciplinary aging research to advance innovations in practice and policy. This is especially key to managing the chronic condition of obesity in health care. Older people with obesity and overweight require access to proven treatment options and care to improve overall health and reduce other related health care costs. ...
Read more →
Professor receives pilot funding to conduct study to increase forest farming in Appalachia
Science 2025-03-28

Professor receives pilot funding to conduct study to increase forest farming in Appalachia

Appalachia is globally recognized as a key supplier of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) with growing demand for its resources. Nearly half of the woodland medicinal species in the global nutraceutical market come from the region, contributing to a multibillion-dollar industry. Species such as ginseng, slippery elm, and black cohosh are prominent understory sources of medicinal material. Appalachian edible products are also gaining popularity beyond the region. Ramps, a wild Appalachian plant, can sell for more than $20 per pound in places such as New York City. Spanning 205,000 square miles, Appalachia is home to over ...
Read more →
New PET radiotracer provides first look at inflammation biomarker in the human brain
Medicine 2025-03-28

New PET radiotracer provides first look at inflammation biomarker in the human brain

Reston, VA (March 28, 2025)—A novel PET imaging approach can effectively quantify a key enzyme associated with brain inflammation, according to research published in the March issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The first-in-human study, which imaged the COX-2 enzyme, offers a never-before-seen view of inflammation in the brain, opening the door for COX-2 PET imaging to be used in clinical and research settings for various brain disorders. COX-2 is an enzyme in the brain that can be markedly upregulated by inflammatory stimuli and neuroexcitation. Researchers say that the density of COX-2 in the brain may be a biomarker and effect of inflammation, ...
Read more →
Science 2025-03-28

Genes may influence our enjoyment of music

Music is central to human emotion and culture. Does our ability to enjoy music have a biological basis? A genetic twin study, published in Nature Communications, shows that music enjoyment is partly heritable. An international team led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, uncovered genetic factors that influence the degree of music enjoyment, which were partly distinct from genes influencing general enjoyment of rewarding experiences or musical ability. Music plays an important role in human emotion, social bonding, and cultural expression. As Darwin already noted, music "must ...
Read more →
Global patterns in seed plant distribution over millions of years
Science 2025-03-28

Global patterns in seed plant distribution over millions of years

Why do some plants thrive in specific regions but not in others? A study led by researchers at the University of Göttingen explores the factors shaping plant distributions and how these patterns have changed over millions of years. Analyzing nearly 270,000 seed plant species worldwide, the research highlights the roles of environmental conditions and dispersal barriers in influencing global plant diversity. The results were published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.   Using advanced methods that integrate plant distributions with phylogenetic information – meaning data about the evolutionary relationships among plant species – researchers ...
Read more →