Charging forward at top speed, a garden snail slimes up 1 millimeter of pavement per second. By this logic, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology researchers’ new 3D printing process speeds past existing methods — at a snail’s pace. Researchers in Beckman’s Autonomous Materials Systems Group created “growth printing,” which mimics tree trunks’ outward expansion to print polymer parts quickly and efficiently without the molds and expensive equipment typically associated with 3D printing. Their work appears in the journal Advanced Materials. “Humans ...

Even cells experience peer pressure. Scientists have long studied the ins and outs of cancer cells to learn more about the disease, but they’re increasingly finding that noncancerous cells near the cancer cells exert a powerful influence over a tumor’s trajectory. “Not all cells in a tumor are cancer cells — they’re not even always the most dominant cell type,” said Sylvia Plevritis, PhD, chair of Stanford Medicine’s department of biomedical data science. “There are many other cell types that support tumors.” To better capture the whole picture of cells’ locations and interactions, Plevritis ...

As major changes continue for our planet’s climate, scientists are concerned about how plants will grow and adapt. Researchers in the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, or PRL, Sharkey lab are studying changes in plant metabolism that occur when plants are grown in high light, high CO2 (HLHC) conditions. They found that under these conditions, plants photosynthesize more, which can lead to larger plants, and potentially larger crop yields. However, there are tradeoffs; scientists also found that plants lose carbon under these conditions, which they need to make food. This ...

With Australia’s National Assessment Program (NAPLAN) beginning today, new research from the University of South Australia highlights a critical but often overlooked factor in student success – wellbeing.   In a world first* study of more than 215,000 students, UniSA researchers found that while standardised tests measure academic skills, different dimensions of wellbeing - emotional wellbeing, engagement, and learning readiness - can play a crucial role in performance.   Specifically, the study found that learning readiness ­- which includes foundational skills such as perseverance, confidence, and engagement ...

Among 289 million adults in 18 European countries, more than 16 million years of life were lost from 2020 through 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study published March 11th in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Sara Ahmadi-Abhari of Imperial College London, UK, and colleagues. The direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on both total and disability-free years of life lost are important for policy setting and resource allocation, but they have not been thoroughly investigated. In the new study, researchers ...

A simple neural change alters mating preferences in male butterflies, aiding rapid behavioral evolution, Nicholas VanKuren and Nathan Buerkle at the University of Chicago, US, and colleagues, report March 11th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. Heliconius are a group of tropical butterflies known for their wide variety of wing patterns and colors, which act as a warning to predators. Because wing coloration is crucial for their survival, males have evolved a preference for females with the same wing color. But the sensory and neurological mechanisms behind these preferences are poorly understood. Researchers ...

SAN ANTONIO — March 11, 2025 —Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has received a three-year, $2,999,998 million grant from NASA to identify and characterize life and its biosignatures in frozen sand dunes in Alaska, under conditions similar to dune fields on early Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan. The Assessing Regional Reflectors of Astrobiology in Kobuk dunes for Interplanetary Science (ARRAKIS) project team, which includes researchers from Brigham Young University and the University of California—Davis, seek insight into ...

A unique analysis of district-level data reveals why inequality is so destructive to the home consumption welfare of people living below the poverty line, especially during times of significant economic decline, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. During negative economic growth, the welfare of the poor should be the main focus area. Research from the University of Johannesburg shows how inequality can demolish most of the benefits of positive economic growth and social grants for people living in poverty, especially during economic downturns. The study by Prof ...

At this year’s American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) annual meeting, investigators at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) presented several significant studies, with three focused on new ways to help patients recover faster after total knee arthroplasty (TKA), also known as knee replacement surgery. What follows are highlights from these studies: Limiting Use of Tourniquets During Knee Replacement Surgery Improves Patient Outcomes Tourniquets have traditionally been used during TKA to reduce blood loss and the need for transfusions. However, a new study of almost 18,000 patients from 2019 to 2023 found that prolonged tourniquet use was linked ...

Catalytic function and its efficiency play a significant role in industrial reactions, and consistent reforms are made in the methodology to enhance the large-scale synthesis of drugs, polymers, and other desired products. Available catalysts can be homogeneous, which means that they possess the same phase as the reactants and products, making them difficult to separate from the reaction mixture. On the other hand, heterogeneous catalysts are a preferred choice for such reactions because of their ease of separation and reusability. The past decade has seen the emergence of porous ...

A discovery made by a team led by researchers at the University of Michigan tugs at the seams of some key cosmic lessons we thought we had learned from our own galaxy. This new knowledge comes from the outskirts of Andromeda, the Milky Way's nearest major galactic neighbor, where astronomers have found the system's smallest and dimmest satellite galaxy to date. This dwarf galaxy, named Andromeda XXXV and located roughly 3 million light-years away, is forcing astronomers to rethink how galaxies evolve in different cosmic environments and survive different epochs of the universe. Although the discovery bears ...

Workplace culture plays an integral role in the successful adoption of lifestyle medicine programming within health systems, according to a new study published in BMJ Open. Researchers developed case studies of health systems with lifestyle medicine programming that had a diversity of size, location, payer model and patient population. More than 40 individuals from those health systems, including administrative leaders, physicians and other team members involved in lifestyle medicine programs, participated in the data collection. The study found ...

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for food insecurity on health outcomes in the primary care setting. According to survey data, 12.8% of households experienced food insecurity in 2022, with 7.7% of households experiencing low food security and 5.1% experiencing very low food security. Nearly one-third of households with incomes below the federal poverty threshold are food insecure. Food insecurity is one among a multitude of medical, psychological, and social conditions ...

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2025 – Coral reefs are some of the world’s most diverse ecosystems. Despite making up less than 1% of the world’s oceans, one quarter of all marine species spend some portion of their life on a reef. With so much life in one spot, researchers can struggle to gain a clear understanding of which species are present and in what numbers. In JASA, published on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution combined acoustic monitoring with a neural network to identify fish activity on coral reefs ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that promoting cardiovascular health in older adults may help alleviate the burden of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly among Black adults, who are known to experience a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Anisa Dhana, MD, MSc, email anisa_dhana@rush.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.0527) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, ...

About The Study: In this survey study, participants expressed a mild preference for messages written by artificial intelligence (AI) but had a slightly decreased satisfaction when told AI was involved. Patient experience must be considered along with ethical implementation of AI. Although AI disclosure may slightly reduce satisfaction, disclosure should be maintained to uphold patient autonomy and empowerment. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Anand Chowdhury, MD, MMCi, email anand.chowdhury@duke.edu. To access the embargoed study: ...

DURHAM, N.C. – In a Duke Health-led survey, patients who were shown messages written either by artificial intelligence (AI) or human clinicians indicated a preference for responses drafted by AI over a human. That preference was diminished, though not erased, when told AI was involved.   The study, publishing March 11 in JAMA Network Open, showed high overall satisfaction with communications written both by AI and humans, despite their preference for AI. This suggests that letting patients know AI was used does not greatly reduce confidence in the message.   “Every health system is grappling with this issue of whether we disclose the use of AI and how,” ...

Due to the physical, psychological, and socioeconomic consequences of a cancer diagnosis and treatment, people with cancer are especially vulnerable during extreme weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires, which are becoming more common and damaging with climate change. A new national study led by American Cancer Society (ACS) and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers finds patients whose facility was impacted by a wildfire disaster during recovery from lung cancer surgery had longer length of stay (LOS) than similar patients treated at the same facility, but at times when no disaster occurred. The findings are out today in the Journal ...

A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has discovered “berkelocene,” the first organometallic molecule to be characterized containing the heavy element berkelium. Organometallic molecules, which consist of a metal ion surrounded by a carbon-based framework, are relatively common for early actinide elements like uranium (atomic number 92), but they are scarcely known for later actinides like berkelium (atomic number 97). “This is the first time that evidence for the formation of a chemical bond between berkelium and carbon has been obtained. The discovery provides ...

Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is a common and potentially life-threatening condition that requires prompt and accurate diagnosis. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and colonoscopy are the primary diagnostic modalities, but initial examinations may sometimes fail to identify the bleeding source. In such cases, repeated endoscopic evaluations can improve detection rates. This review explores the role of repeat EGD and colonoscopy in diagnosing GI bleeding, highlighting the conditions under which they are most beneficial and the challenges associated with their use.   Incidence and Causes of Gastrointestinal ...

PHILADELPHIA – Since 2017, firearm-related injuries in the United States have been the most common cause of death from injury among children through young adults, ages 1 to 24, surpassing motor vehicle accidents, according to a 2022 study. Access to firearms in one’s home increases the risk of suicide and accidental death. But over a third of Americans with guns in their homes say they do not store all of them in a locked location (37%), according to the latest health survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. ...

“Environmental exposures may cause genetic damage, lead to mutations in key genes, and/or block the DNA repair mechanisms increasing the risk of cancer.” BUFFALO, NY – March 11, 2025 – A new editorial was published in Oncotarget, Volume 16, on March 10, 2025, titled “EXPOSOMES and GENES: The duo influencing CANCER initiation and progression.” In this editorial, Drs. Uzma Saqib, Katherine E. Ricks, Alexander G. Obukhov, and Krishnan Hajela from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) in Indore, India, discuss how environmental factors, known as exposomes, interact with genes to influence cancer risk. The authors highlight how pollution, diet, ...

A recent study published in Engineering delves into the complex impacts of elevated CO2 levels on food security, plant growth, and crop quality. As the global atmospheric CO2 concentration continues to rise, understanding these effects is crucial for ensuring future food supplies. On one hand, elevated CO2 can have some positive effects on plants. For C3 plants, it can stimulate photosynthesis, leading to increased dry matter yield and grain production. In legumes, it enhances N2 fixation, which is beneficial for reducing reliance on chemical fertilizers. Additionally, ...

Researchers from RMIT University and the University of Melbourne have discovered that water generates an electrical charge up to 10 times greater than previously understood when it moves across a surface. The team, led by Dr Joe Berry, Dr Peter Sherrell and Professor Amanda Ellis, observed when a water droplet became stuck on a tiny bump or rough spot, the force built up until it “jumped or slipped” past an obstacle, creating an irreversible charge that had not been reported before. The new understanding of this “stick-slip” motion of water over a surface paves the way for surface design with controlled electrification, with ...

Miami (March 11, 2025) – People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and arthritis have a higher risk of death than people with arthritis who do not have COPD, according to a new study. The study is published in the January 2025 issue of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal. COPD is an inflammatory lung disease, comprising several conditions, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and can be caused by genetics and irritants like smoke or pollution. The disease affects more than 30 million Americans and is the fourth leading cause of death ...