ITHACA, N.Y. – It’s common knowledge that sugar causes cavities, but new Cornell University research provides evidence that – depending on your genetic makeup – starches could also be a contributing factor. The study, published in Microorganisms, explores the response of the oral microbiome to starch, finding that the number of copies of a particular gene, AMY1, in combination with starch, alters the complex composition of bacteria that play a role in oral health. “Most people have been warned that if you eat a bunch of sugar, make sure you brush your teeth,” said Angela Poole, senior author and assistant professor of molecular nutrition. “The ...

A new study of more than 2,900 patients provides evidence that it’s likely best to use as little corticosteroid medicine as possible when treating people who have lupus pericarditis, a common heart complication of the autoimmune disease Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). This study, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and led by Johns Hopkins Medicine cardiologists and rheumatologists who led the study say their analysis of data affirms that using steroids to curb heart inflammation and other painful symptoms for lupus patients ...

UCLA scientists have identified a potential new strategy for treating glioblastoma, the deadliest form of brain cancer, by reprogramming aggressive cancer cells into harmless ones.   The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate that combining radiation therapy with a plant-derived compound called forskolin can force glioblastoma cells into a dormant state, making them incapable of dividing or spreading. When tested in mice, the addition of forskolin to radiation prolonged survival, offering a potential new avenue for combating glioblastoma, a disease with limited treatment options and a median ...

Researchers at University of California San Diego have revealed promising results from a study evaluating the university’s “Strong Foundations” program, a digitally delivered fall prevention initiative for older adults. The findings, recently published in JMIR-Aging, emphasize the program’s effectiveness in improving posture, balance and strength — key factors in reducing fall risk. “This study showcases the potential of accessible, online exercise programs to significantly enhance physical function for older adults,” said Ryan Moran, ...

Immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of many cancers, but brain tumors such as gliomas remain particularly difficult to treat, in part because they potently suppress immune responses. New findings from researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) could help make immunotherapies for brain cancer more effective. The team analyzed almost 200,000 individual immune cells called myeloid cells from tumor samples from patients with glioma, the most common and aggressive type of primary brain cancer. In a new study in Nature, ...

ROCKVILLE, MD – The Obesity Society (TOS) acknowledges the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recent announcement declaring the end of shortages for Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Ozempic; two critical medications in the treatment of obesity and diabetes. This development signifies a pivotal advancement in patient care, ensuring broader access to these essential, FDA-approved therapies. This announcement follows the agency’s December 19th decision that Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide, marketed as Zepbound for weight loss, was no longer in shortage and it would give compounders 60 to 90 days before putting a stop to their production of the copycat GLP-1s.  During ...

PHILADELPHIA (February 26, 2025) – Imagine a future where the grip of cocaine use disorder can be loosened, where cravings fade, and the risk of relapse diminishes. A new study published in Science Advances, led by Penn Nursing’s Heath Schmidt, PhD, brings this vision closer to reality. The research has identified a critical brain circuit that plays a pivotal role in regulating cocaine-seeking behavior. Cocaine use disorder casts a long shadow, trapping individuals in a cycle of dependence and leaving limited options for effective treatment. This study delves deep into the brain, offering ...

Education experts at the University of South Australia are encouraging schools to consider problem-based learning (PBL) in a move to improve engagement and creativity among high school students.   The call follows new Productivity Commission data that shows national school attendance rates over the past year have decreased from 88.8% in Year 7 to 84% in Year 10. Government schools are worst hit, with only 73% of public-school students completing year 12, as compared with nearly 80% in 2017.   New UniSA research demonstrates how hands-on, community-based projects can deliver successful ...

Please mention in your story that the study is published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. MINNEAPOLIS — ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, can sometimes be difficult to diagnose or to predict how quickly the disease is likely to progress. A new study helps determine which blood tests are best at identifying and monitoring ALS. The study is published in the February 26, 2025, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Having an effective biomarker can be highly valuable—in addition to helping ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2025 Media Contacts: Renee Tessman, rtessman@aan.com, (612) 928-6137 Natalie Conrad, nconrad@aan.com, (612) 928-6164 Drug may prevent some migraine attacks in children and teens MINNEAPOLIS – For children and teens living with migraine, there may be a new preventive treatment, according to a preliminary study released today, February 26, 2025, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 77th Annual Meeting taking place April 5–9, 2025, in San Diego ...

Although preventing all the consequences of climate change is now impossible, we can adopt policies to mitigate its impact. In a set of policy recommendations produced by the University of Jyväskylä, researchers examine the development of sustainable livelihoods in the Sundarbans, a coastal region of India and Bangladesh that is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The Sundarbans is one of the largest threatened mangrove ecosystems, which efficiently store carbon dioxide and protect coastal areas from cyclones. In a research project funded by the Research Council ...

Shark sightings by scuba divers reveal the movements of marine predators throughout the year, according to a study published February 26, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by George Balchin, William Hughes and colleagues at the University of Sussex, U.K., and Aquaplanet Dive Center, South Africa. Many sharks move through different habitats as they follow food or search for mates. Since they are major predators, they change the shape of the ecosystems they visit. Examining these movements is key to understanding the health of ocean habitats as well as the impacts of human activity, but it is notoriously ...

Eavesdropping on baleen whale songs in the Pacific Ocean reveals year-to-year variations that track changes in the availability of the species they forage on, reports a new study led by John Ryan, of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), U.S., published February 26, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One. In the vast oceans, monitoring populations of large marine animals can be a major challenge for ecologists. Scientists deploy underwater microphones called hydrophones to study and track baleen whales, which communicate ...

In a survey study of 200 U.K. teachers, 76 percent of secondary school teachers and 60 percent of primary school teachers expressed extreme concern about the influence of online misogyny on their students. Harriet Over of the University of York, U.K., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on February 26, 2025. Prior research has shown that young students are increasingly exposed to social media content created by misogynistic influencers, such as Andrew Tate and members of the incel movement. However, few researchers have examined ...

A comprehensive analysis of social media platform Bluesky provides insights into its structure, polarization and political leanings, in a new study published in open-access journal PLOS One on February 26, 2025, by Dorian Quelle and Alexandre Bovet, from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Many social media platforms rely on proprietary algorithms to recommend content, a methodology that has received increasing backlash over the years. However, Bluesky instead allows users the ability to curate their experiences. The authors of the present study analyzed the social media site’s trajectory from its invite-only launch ...

Fossil eggshells from Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation include Cretaceous period eggs from 3 feathered bird-like dinosaurs, 2 herbivorous dinosaurs, and a crocodile-like species found for the first time outside Europe     Article URL: https://plos.io/42XpPYx Article title: Fossil eggshell diversity of the Mussentuchit Member, Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah Author countries: U.S., South Africa Funding: This research was supported by Canyonlands Natural History Association, Global Creatures, and MagicSpace ...

A new USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology study suggests greater exposure to extreme heat may accelerate biological aging in older adults, raising new concerns about how climate change and heat waves could affect long-term health and aging at the molecular level. People in neighborhoods that experience more days of high heat show greater biological aging on average than residents of cooler regions, said Jennifer Ailshire, senior author of the study and professor of gerontology and sociology at the USC Leonard Davis School. Biological age is a measure of how well the body functions at the molecular, cellular, and system ...

Springtails, small bugs often found crawling through leaf litter and garden soil, are expert jumpers. Inspired by these hopping hexapods, roboticists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have made a walking, jumping robot that pushes the boundaries of what small robots can do. Published in Science Robotics, the research glimpses a future where nimble microrobots can crawl through tiny spaces, skitter across dangerous ground, and sense their environments without ...

KINGSTON, R.I. – Feb. 26, 2025 – Animal antics have captured public attention and viral views across the U.S. in the last few years with the advent of mini cameras that capture the movements of animals in front yards nationwide, from bear to deer. A University of Rhode Island-based group has taken the camera concept one step further and then some, generating a massive dataset of animal images, not for entertainment, but for science.  When the Global Animal Diel Activity Project results were analyzed, researchers made some unique discoveries.  Put together, researchers across the country and around the world generated a more focused picture of animal ...

From mountain goats that run up near-vertical rock faces to armadillos that roll into a protective ball, animals have evolved to adapt effortlessly to changes in their environment. In contrast, when an autonomous robot is programmed to reach a goal, each variation in its pre-determined path presents a significant physical and computational challenge. Researchers led by Josie Hughes in the CREATE Lab in EPFL’s School of Engineering wanted to develop a robot that could traverse diverse environments as adeptly as animals by changing form on the fly. With GOAT (Good Over All Terrains) they have achieved just that – and created a new paradigm for robotic ...

A groundbreaking study published in Science Advances sheds new light on the mysterious origins of free-floating planetary-mass objects (PMOs)—celestial bodies with masses between stars and planets. Led by Dr. DENG Hongping of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an international team of astronomers used advanced simulations to uncover a novel formation process for these enigmatic objects. The research suggests that PMOs can form directly through violent interactions between circumstellar disks in young star clusters. The Mystery of Rogue Planetary-Mass ...

ANN ARBOR—Earthquakes occur along fault lines between continental plates, where one plate is diving beneath another. Pressure builds between each plate, called fault stress. When this stress builds enough to release, the plates slip and grind against each other, causing an earthquake.  Researchers have long thought that this force is the central driver of earthquakes. But another force is also in the mix: the properties of the rocks in the fault zones along the plate interface. This includes both the structure of the rock as well as how the rocks are arranged along the zones.  Now, a University of Michigan study looking at a small ...

Dr Jonathan Cox writes in Microbiology about the pathogens in raw sewage and the “significant” danger to public health when it ends up in the sea He contracted a lung infection in 2024, likely from exposure to raw sewage in the sea where he had been swimming He urges people to check for sewage reports before heading to the beach and calls for investment to improve infrastructure. Aston University microbiologist Dr Jonathan Cox has written an article for the journal Microbiology on ...

Using the Frontier supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, researchers have developed a new technique that predicts nuclear properties in record detail. The study revealed how the structure of a nucleus relates to the force that holds it together. This understanding could advance efforts in quantum physics and across a variety of sectors, from to energy production to national security. “Our reliable predictions will bring new insights to the study of nuclear forces and structure,” said Zhonghao Sun of Louisiana State University, formerly of ORNL. The team’s findings, published in the ...

During and after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth appointments became a more common part of the American health care system. But even as telehealth options grow, barriers such as long waitlists or a lack of a stable internet connection mean many communities still do not have access to care, particularly for mental health services. The University of Cincinnati, the Adams County Health Department (ACHD) and other local partners are testing a new collaborative care model that aims to remove these barriers and provide more students access to telemental health care. The team recently received a $1.75 million grant from the Health ...