The press release
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Medicine13 Mar 2025

Improving rehabilitation after spinal cord injury using a small compound oral drug

Spinal cord injury (SCI)—a condition that leads to partial or complete paralysis—has a profound impact on millions of individuals globally. Despite recent advances in SCI treatment, restoring lost motor functions, such as hand movement, remains a significant challenge. Now, in a new study published online in Brain Communications on March 13, 2025, a team led by Professor Takuya Takahashi from the Department of Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine at Yokohama City University, Japan, along with Dr. Yukio Nishimura, ...

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Science13 Mar 2025

The long wait for bees to return to restored grasslands

Recovered grasslands need more than 75 years of continuous management to regain their biodiversity because specialized pollinators are slow to return. Kobe University's finding underscores the importance of preserving old grasslands as reservoirs of biodiversity, even if it is just as ski slopes. Grasslands worldwide are rapidly disappearing due to land-use conversion and abandonment, leading to a well-documented loss of grassland biodiversity. Restoring abandoned grasslands by removing woody vegetation and resuming traditional land management practices has positive effects ...

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Social Science13 Mar 2025

For Nairobi’s informal settlements, diverse school lunches make a big difference

For residents of Kibera, one of Nairobi’s largest informal settlements, access to nutritious food is often scarce. School meals are a lifeline for many families. But the case study of one small school is proving that- with the right ingredients- school meal programs can become even more beneficial. Research just published in Sustainability found that incorporating locally available, nutrient-rich crops into school meal programs can significantly improve nutrition for children while cutting costs. Changing the Menu In this ...

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Medicine13 Mar 2025

Why it’s good to be nostalgic – an international study suggests you may have more close friends!

Do you have lots of close friends – and work hard to keep it that way? If you’ve answered “yes”, you are probably nostalgic. People who are prone to nostalgia have more close friends and put more effort into maintaining their friendships and other relationships than less sentimental sorts. That’s the finding of a new study of almost 1,500 individuals in the U.S. and Europe, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cognition and Emotion. The finding is important because maintaining close relationships with others is essential ...

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Medicine13 Mar 2025

New antibody reduces tumor growth in treatment-resistant breast and ovarian cancers

Antibody treatment which activates the patient’s own immune system against cancer, known as immunotherapy, is increasingly being investigated as an alternative for chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This is because it specifically targets the cancer cells, which reduces the side effects seen with more conventional therapies. Tumours, such as some breast and ovarian cancers, can express the marker HER2. HER2 is responsible for cancer growth and is the target of existing therapies, such as the most commonly used type of antibodies, IgG. However, this treatment ...

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Space13 Mar 2025

Violent supernovae 'triggered at least two Earth extinctions'

Royal Astronomical Society press release RAS PR 25/10 Embargoed until 00:01 on Thursday 13 March 2025 At least two mass extinction events in Earth's history were likely caused by the "devastating" effects of nearby supernova explosions, a new study suggests. Researchers at Keele University say these super-powerful blasts – caused by the death of a massive star – may have previously stripped our planet's atmosphere of its ozone, sparked acid rain and exposed life to harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. They believe a supernova explosion close to Earth could be to blame for both the late Devonian and Ordovician ...

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Medicine12 Mar 2025

Over 1.2 million medical device side-effect reports not submitted within legal timeframe

Over 1.2 million medical device adverse event reports were not submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) within the deadline set by federal regulations, finds an analysis of recent data published by The BMJ today. Of these late reports, more than 400,000 were submitted more than six months after the manufacturer was notified of an adverse event. The researchers warn that late adverse event reporting may prevent early detection of patient safety concerns. Most medical devices in the US are approved on the condition that manufacturers report to the FDA when they learn that any of their devices have malfunctioned or may ...

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Medicine12 Mar 2025

An easy-to-apply gel prevents abdominal adhesions in animals in Stanford Medicine study

Surgical adhesions — common, sometimes life-threatening complications that arise after open or laparoscopic abdominal surgery — can be prevented in mice and pigs by a gel impregnated with a molecule that blocks a key signaling pathway in the formation of scar tissue. The gel can be applied as a spray or a wash to the inside of the abdominal cavity immediately after surgery. Over a period of two weeks, the gel releases a small molecule, T-5224, that blocks the activation of adhesion-forming ...

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Energy12 Mar 2025

A path to safer, high-energy electric vehicle batteries

Nickel’s role in the future of electric vehicle batteries is clear: It’s more abundant and easier to obtain than widely used cobalt, and its higher energy density means longer driving distances between charges. However, nickel is less stable than other materials with respect to cycle life, thermal stability, and safety. Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and Argonne National Laboratory aim to change that with a new study that dives deep into nickel-based cathodes, one of the two electrodes that facilitate energy storage in batteries. "High-nickel cathodes ...

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Medicine12 Mar 2025

openRxiv launch to sustain and expand preprint sharing in life and health sciences

openRxiv has officially launched as an independent nonprofit to oversee bioRxiv and medRxiv, the world's leading preprint servers for life and health sciences. openRxiv ensures that researchers worldwide can continue to share discoveries rapidly and openly. With a researcher-led governance model, openRxiv strengthens the foundation of preprint sharing, empowering scientists to communicate findings at the speed of discovery. "We want openRxiv to be a home for all scientists—whether they're early-career researchers, established scholars, or from institutions large and small ...

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Medicine12 Mar 2025

“Overlooked” scrub typhus may affect 1 in 10 in rural India, and be a leading cause of hospitalisations for fever

A study of over 32,000 people living in Tamil Nadu, India suggests scrub typhus infection may affect up to 10% of rural populations annually and is a leading yet under-recognised cause of hospitalisations for fever across India. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was conducted as part of a collaboration between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the Christian Medical College Vellore, India. Scrub typhus is a potentially life-threatening infection caused by the bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi, which belongs to the rickettsia family. It is spread to humans through the bite of infected larval mites or chiggers. Chiggers are found ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Vocal changes in birds may predict age-related disorders in people, study finds

University of Arizona neuroscientists studying the brains of songbirds have found that aging alters the gene expressions that control the birds' song. The finding could lead to earlier diagnoses and better treatments for human neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, which are known to hinder vocal production in their early stages. The study, published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, found that networks of interacting genes, in a region of the bird's ...

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Medicine12 Mar 2025

Spotiphy integrative analysis tool turns spatial RNA sequencing into imager

Spatial transcriptomics is a cutting-edge technique that characterizes gene expression within sections of tissue, such as heart, skin or liver tissue. These snapshots provide insights into how spatial organization affects cellular functions across the spectrum of biology and disease. Up to now, researchers conducting spatial transcriptomics have had to choose between two options based on their needs: genome-wide coverage or single-cell resolution. To solve this tradeoff, scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University of ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Dynamic acoustics of hand clapping, elucidated

ITHACA, N.Y. -- In a scene toward the end of the 2006 film, “X-Men: The Last Stand,” a character claps and sends a shock wave that knocks out an opposing army. Sunny Jung, professor of biological and environmental engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, was intrigued. “It made me curious about how the wave propagates when we clap our hands,” Jung said. Jung is senior author of a study, published March 11 in Physical Review Research, that elucidates the complex physical mechanisms and fluid dynamics involved in a handclap, with potential applications in bioacoustics ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

AAN, AES and EFA issue position statement on seizures and driving safety

MINNEAPOLIS — The American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the American Epilepsy Society (AES) and the Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA) have issued a consensus position statement on seizures, driver licensure and medical reporting. The position statement is published on March 12, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). It was developed with the Ethics, Law, and Humanities Committee, a joint committee of the AAN, the American Neurological ...

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Medicine12 Mar 2025

Do brain changes remain after recovery from concussion?

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2025 MINNEAPOLIS — For college athletes with concussion, brain changes may remain visible in brain scans up to a year after they are cleared to return to play, according to a study published on March 12, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). “Concussion can have long-term effects on brain health, and there is growing evidence that brain recovery may persist months to years, even after symptoms like headache, fatigue and balance problems resolve,” said author Nathan Churchill, PhD, of ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Want to climb the leadership ladder? Try debate training

For those looking to climb the corporate ladder in the U.S., here’s an idea you might not have considered: debate training. According to a new research paper, people who learn the basics of debate are more likely to advance to leadership roles in U.S. organizations, compared to those who do not receive this training. One key reason is that being equipped with debate skills makes people more assertive in the workplace. “Debate training can promote leadership emergence and advancement by fostering individuals’ assertiveness, which is a key, valued leadership characteristic in U.S. organizations,” says MIT Associate Professor Jackson Lu, one of the scholars ...

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Environment12 Mar 2025

No countries on track to meet all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals

A new analysis reveals complex linkages among the United Nations’ (UN’s) 17 Sustainable Development Goals—which include such objectives as gender equality and quality education—and finds that no country is on track to meet all 17 goals by the target year of 2030. Alberto García-Rodríguez of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on March 12, 2025. In 2015, UN member countries adopted the Sustainable Development ...

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Technology12 Mar 2025

Robotics and spinal stimulation restore movement in paralysis

Spinal cord injuries are life-altering, often leaving individuals with severe mobility impairments. While rehabilitation robotics—devices that guide movement during therapy—have improved training for those with spinal cord injuries, their effectiveness remains limited. Without active muscle engagement, robotic-assisted movement alone does not sufficiently retrain the nervous system. A team at .NeuroRestore, led by Grégoire Courtine and Jocelyne Bloch, has now developed a system that seemlessly integrates an implanted spinal cord neuroprosthesis with rehabilitation robotics. The researchers’ device delivers well-timed electrical pulses to stimulate ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

China discovers terrestrial "Life oasis" from end-Permian mass extinction period

A new study reveals that a region in China's Turpan-Hami Basin served as a refugium, or "Life oasis" for terrestrial plants during the end-Permian mass extinction, the most severe biological crisis since the Cambrian period. The research, published in Science Advances, challenges the widely held view that terrestrial ecosystems suffered the same catastrophic losses as marine environments during this period. The discovery, led by Prof. LIU Feng from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (NIGPAS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, provides the first conclusive fossil evidence ...

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Science12 Mar 2025

Poor sleep may fuel conspiracy beliefs, according to new research

A new study from the University of Nottingham has revealed that poor sleep quality may increase susceptibility to conspiracy beliefs, with depression likely playing a key role in this relationship. Experts from the University’s School of Psychology examined the link between sleep quality and conspiracy beliefs in two studies involving over 1,000 participants. Their findings, published in the Journal of Health Psychology, indicate that individuals with poorer sleep quality over the past month were more likely to endorse conspiracy theories, particularly after exposure to conspiratorial content. Conspiracy theories claim that powerful, secretive ...

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Physics12 Mar 2025

Adolescent boys who experience violence have up to 8 times the odds of perpetrating physical and sexual intimate partner violence that same day, per South African study collecting real-time data over

Adolescent boys who experience violence have up to 8 times the odds of perpetrating physical and sexual intimate partner violence that same day, per South African study collecting real-time data over mobile phones Article URL: https://plos.io/4brsDzz Article title: Measuring real-time violence exposure and its impact on intimate partner violence perpetration among adolescents Author countries: US, South Africa Funding: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health under Award R01MH119878. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors ...

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Environment12 Mar 2025

Critically endangered hawksbill turtles migrate up to 1,000km from nesting to foraging grounds in the Western Caribbean, riding with and against ocean currents to congregate in popular feeding hotspot

Critically endangered hawksbill turtles migrate up to 1,000km from nesting to foraging grounds in the Western Caribbean, riding with and against ocean currents to congregate in popular feeding hotspots Article URL: https://plos.io/41LfJZK Article title: Inter-nesting area use, migratory routes, and foraging grounds for hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Western Caribbean Author countries: US, Honduras, Costa Rica Funding: Funding for this project was provided by the Boyd Lyon Sea Turtle Fund to QDB, ...

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Medicine12 Mar 2025

UAlbany researchers unlock new capabilities in DNA nanostructure self-assembly

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 12, 2025) — University at Albany researchers at the RNA Institute are pioneering new methods for designing and assembling DNA nanostructures, enhancing their potential for real-world applications in medicine, materials science and data storage. Their latest findings demonstrate a novel ability to assemble these structures without the need for extreme heat and controlled cooling. They also demonstrate successful assembly in unconventional “buffer” substances including nickel. These developments, published today in the journal Science Advances, unlock new possibilities in DNA nanotechnology. DNA ...

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Medicine12 Mar 2025

PM2.5 exposure may be associated with increased skin redness in Taiwanese adults, suggesting that air pollution may contribute to skin health issues

PM2.5 exposure may be associated with increased skin redness in Taiwanese adults, suggesting that air pollution may contribute to skin health issues. #### Article URL: https://plos.io/4iDTuuo Article Title: Association between PM2.5 and skin redness features in Taiwan Author Countries: Taiwan, United States Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. END ...

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