When we walk down the street, we have an internal sense of which way we are heading, from looking at street signals and physical landmarks, and also a sense of where we’d like to go. But how does the brain coordinate between these directions, doing the mental math that tells us which way to turn? Now, new research describes such a neural process in fruit flies, providing insight into how an animal’s brain steers it in the right direction. The study, published in Nature , shows how neurons that signal the direction in which a fly is currently oriented work together with neurons that signal the direction in which way the ...

SAN ANTONIO — February 8, 2024 —Dr. Alan Stern, a planetary scientist and associate vice president of Southwest Research Institute’s Space Sector, has been named a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Fellows are recognized for their notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences or technology of aeronautics and astronautics. AIAA cited Stern “for outstanding contributions to the exploration of the solar system and the development of commercial spaceflight.” “I am honored beyond words to be named an AIAA Fellow and thank my nominators very much, including SwRI Vice President Dr. Ben Thacker, who led the nomination,” ...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease that usually leads to permanent disabilities. It affects around 2.9 million people worldwide, and around 15,000 in Switzerland alone. One key feature of the disease is that it causes the patient’s own immune system to attack and destroy the myelin sheaths in the central nervous system. These protective sheaths insulate the nerve fibres, much like the plastic coating around a copper wire. Myelin sheaths ensure that electrical impulses travel quickly and efficiently from nerve cell to nerve cell. If they are damaged or become thinner, this can lead to irreversible visual, ...

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (February 8, 2024) – Cacao of Excellence, a programme of the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) announced today the winners of the 2023 Cacao of Excellence Awards, honouring excellence in the cultivation of cacao, while also supporting and encouraging a more sustainable sector. The full list of Gold, Silver and Bronze winners can be found below and on the Cacao of Excellence website. The winners were announced ...

Genetic expression, often leading to protein synthesis, requires a complex coordination of molecular machinery across several stages. A vital step in protein-coding gene expression is messenger RNA (mRNA) export, which involves shuttling mature mRNAs from the cell’s nucleus to the cytoplasm. The mRNA export process relies on mRNA–protein complex formation, with the evolutionary conserved ATP-bound TREX complex playing a pivotal role. Among its components, the RNA helicase UAP56 is perhaps the most important one during its assembly. Not only does UAP56 participates during mRNA splicing in some transcripts, but it also recruits ...

An advanced human heart organoid system can be used to model embryonic heart development under pregestational diabetes-like conditions, researchers report February 8 in the journal Stem Cell Reports. The organoids recapitulate hallmarks of pregestational diabetes-induced congenital heart disease found in mice and humans. The findings also showed that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and lipid imbalance are critical factors contributing to these disorders, which could be ameliorated with exposure to omega-3s. “The new stem cell-based organoid technology employed will enable physiologically relevant studies in humans, allowing us to bypass animal models and obtain more information ...

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 8, 2024 — In a new study of nasal decongestant purchasing patterns, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that phenylephrine remained the most popular choice year after year, despite decades of concerns over a lack of evidence supporting its effectiveness. Published today in JAMA, the research letter points to a coming wave of supplychain disturbances if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moves to pull oral phenylephrine from the shelves, as recommended by an FDA advisory panel in 2023 that found the medication ineffective. The researchers ...

About The Study: Despite a lack of clinical efficacy evidence, phenylephrine was the most common oral decongestant in the U.S. from 2012-2021, with hundreds of millions of units purchased by retail pharmacies annually, and sales remained stable during this time. In contrast to pseudoephedrine, which is often formulated as a stand-alone product, most phenylephrine products were co-formulated with antihistamines or antitussives, which are likely to provide some symptom relief for cough and cold symptoms.  Authors: Timothy S. Anderson, M.D., M.A.S., of the University of Pittsburgh, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at ...

About The Study: The results of this study demonstrated that home environment features, particularly lighting, may influence home activity metrics in older adults with visual impairment. Further prospective studies would be needed to confirm if home modifications can improve at-home activity. Authors: Pradeep Y. Ramulu, M.D., M.H.S., Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, 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/jamaophthalmol.2023.6436) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional ...

BOSTON – The vast majority of liver transplant centers in the United States use language on their websites that can be considered stigmatizing through their use of words like “alcoholism,” “alcoholic” and “alcohol abuse,’ potentially hindering care and the willingness of patients to seek treatment, a study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has found. In highlighting a significant gap between that online usage and the practice recommendations of medical ...

One of the country’s best-known science museums, San Francisco’s Exploratorium, is located less than three miles north of Gladstone Institutes—a proximity that has resulted in creative, high-science collaborations like the permanent exhibit featured in the latest issue of Stem Cell Reports. Among the museum’s most popular exhibits, “Give Heart Cells A Beat” opens a rare window into the microscopic world of the beating human heart, using technology and materials made ...

Since 2004, several clinical studies have reported that patients with OXA frequently experienced adverse effects of liver injury (LI), typically characterized by hepatic sinusoidal injury, splenomegaly, decreased platelet count and noncirrhotic portal hypertension, which can progress to nodular regenerative hyperplasia with long-term treatment. LI also decreased hepatic functional reserve and aggravated the postoperative course of colorectal cancer patients after hepatectomy, and may affect intraoperative bleeding, postoperative morbidity, and overall survival. LI can ...

Natural scientist and author Robert Rothman takes readers on a reptillian tour of the Galápagos Islands in his new book, A Paradise for Reptiles: Lizards, Snakes, and Giant Tortoises of the Galápagos Islands Vol. 1: Tortoises, Geckos, and Snakes, published by RIT Press. For more than 30 years, Rothman has led hundreds of Rochester Institute of Technology students on tours to the Galápagos Islands to observe the wildlife and landscape that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Rothman’s A Paradise for Reptiles, an homage to the 19th century scientist, is an accessibly written guide for anyone interested in Darwin, the Galápagos, ...

Language use in social media can be a useful tool for social scientists, because it reflects living conditions in areas the posts originate from. “There is a correlation between social inequalities and language patterns in social media,” says Associate Professor Lucas M. Bietti at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU’s) Department of Psychology. Researchers studied 30 million X/Twitter posts from the United States. They compared the language used in the tweets to the living conditions in the counties from which the ...

For some leukemia patients, the only potential chemotherapy option is a drug that also carries a high risk of heart failure. This means that some patients who recover from their cancer will end up dying of heart disease brought on by the cure. In a new study, researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago and other universities have identified mechanisms that cause the drug, ponatinib, to harm the heart. They also identified a promising treatment that could reverse this process. The paper, with senior author Sang Ging Ong, assistant professor of pharmacology and medicine at UIC, is published in Circulation Research. The study is part of a growing field called cardio-oncology ...

UC Riverside scientists have discovered a tiny worm species that infects and kills insects. These worms, called nematodes, could control crop pests in warm, humid places where other beneficial nematodes are currently unable to thrive. This new species is a member of a family of nematodes called Steinernema that have long been used in agriculture to control insect parasites without pesticides. Steinernema are not harmful to humans or other mammals and were first discovered in the 1920s.  “We spray trillions of them on crops every year, and they’re ...

In a study that signals potential reproductive and health complications in humans, now and for future generations, researchers from McGill University, the University of Pretoria, Université Laval, Aarhus University, and the University of Copenhagen, have concluded that fathers exposed to environmental toxins, notably DDT, may produce sperm with health consequences for their children. The decade-long research project examined the impact of DDT on the sperm epigenome of South African Vhavenda and Greenlandic ...

UPTON, NY—Biologists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have demonstrated a new way to boost the oil content of plant leaves and seeds. As described in the journal New Phytologist, the scientists identified and successfully altered key portions of a protein that protects newly synthesized oil droplets. The genetic alterations essentially protect the oil-protector protein so more oil can accumulate. “Implementing this strategy in bioenergy or oil crop plants could ...

Québec, February 8, 2024 - Contrary to popular belief, the benefits of physical activity do not outweigh the risks of cardiovascular disease associated with drinking sugar-sweetened beverages, according to a new study led by Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Jean-Philippe Drouin-Chartier, professor at Université Laval’s Faculty of Pharmacy, was a co-author.   Sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest source of added sugars in the North American diet. Their consumption is associated with ...

(BOSTON: Thursday, February 8, 2024) – Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) will award up to US$1.8 million to biotechnology company, Visby Medical, to develop a portable rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic to detect the presence of the pathogen that causes gonorrhea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), and its susceptibility to ciprofloxacin, a former frontline oral antibiotic that can no longer treat resistant NG. A rapid result on when ciprofloxacin may be effective could enable physicians to treat gonorrhea patients with confidence, while reserving ceftriaxone, the only antibiotic that remains effective against resistant NG. Visby ...

GARCHING and OXFORD (8 February 2024) – The Joint European Torus (JET), one of the world’s largest and most powerful fusion machines, has demonstrated the ability to reliably generate fusion energy, whilst simultaneously setting a world-record in energy output. These notable accomplishments represent a significant milestone in the field of fusion science and engineering. In JET's final deuterium-tritium experiments (DTE3), high fusion power was consistently produced for 5 seconds, resulting in a ground-breaking record of 69 megajoules using a mere 0.2 milligrams of fuel. JET is a tokamak, a design which uses powerful ...

Electronically conducting two-dimensional (2D) materials are currently hot topics of research in both physics and chemistry owing to their unique properties that have the potential to open up new avenues in science and technology. Moreover, the combination of different 2D materials, called heterostructures, expands the diversity of their electrical, photochemical, and magnetic properties. This can lead to innovative electronic devices not achievable with a single material alone. Heterostructures can be fabricated in two ways: vertically, with materials ...

An eye-catching new study shows just how different the experience of walking home at night is for women versus men. The study, led by Brigham Young University public health professor Robbie Chaney, provides clear visual evidence of the constant environmental scanning women conduct as they walk in the dark, a safety consideration the study shows is unique to their experience. Chaney and co-authors Alyssa Baer and Ida Tovar showed pictures of campus areas at four Utah universities — Utah Valley University, ...

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey have uncovered the first direct evidence that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shrunk suddenly and dramatically at the end of the Last Ice Age, around eight thousand years ago. The evidence, contained within an ice core, shows that in one location the ice sheet thinned by 450 metres — that’s more than the height of the Empire State Building — in just under 200 years. This is the first evidence anywhere in Antarctica for such a fast loss of ice. Scientists are worried that today’s rising temperatures ...

LA JOLLA (February 8, 2024)—Cells in the human body contain power-generating mitochondria, each with their own mtDNA—a unique set of genetic instructions entirely separate from the cell’s nuclear DNA that mitochondria use to create life-giving energy. When mtDNA remains where it belongs (inside of mitochondria), it sustains both mitochondrial and cellular health—but when it goes where it doesn’t belong, it can initiate an immune response that promotes inflammation. Now, Salk scientists ...