Researchers have harnessed a new statistical technique that allows forest managers to use incomplete satellite imagery for precise forest inventories, bypassing the need for complex and often uncertain data repair processes. The method, known as a "hybrid estimator," is particularly valuable for leveraging decades of archived data from the aging Landsat 7 satellite, which has been collecting images with systematic gaps since 2003. The study, published in Forest Ecosystems, addresses a critical challenge in forestry and climate science. Remote sensing is vital for large-scale ...

A chemical found in dark chocolate could slow the rate of biological ageing. Research from King’s College London has found that the chemical theobromine, a common plant compound that comes from cocoa, could have anti-ageing properties. The study, published today in Aging, compared levels of theobromine in people’s blood, with blood-based markers of biological ageing. Biological age markers indicate how old your body seems based on its health and function, as opposed to the years you have lived. These markers ...

Chronic hepatitis C infection affects an estimated 50 million people globally, causes approximately 242,000 deaths per year mostly due to cirrhosis and liver cancer Same-day results will help kickstart treatment for infection, which is curable with medication  Johns Hopkins scientists independently confirmed test’s 100% agreement when compared to commercial platforms CHICAGO --- Scientists at Northwestern University have developed the fastest test yet for diagnosing hepatitis C virus (HCV). The highly accurate diagnostic delivers results to patients in just 15 minutes — up to 75% faster than other rapid HCV tests. This ...

The planets in the Solar System are typically divided into three categories based on their composition: the four terrestrial rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars), followed by the two gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn), and finally two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune).  According to the work carried by the UZH scientific team, Uranus and Neptune might actually be more rocky than icy. The new study does not claim the two blue planets to be one or the other type, water- or rock- rich, it rather challenges that ...

Ex vivo cultured organoids, tissue slices, and isolated organs are essential models for studying disease mechanisms and evaluating drug responses. Real-time, multisite electrophysiological monitoring is critical for capturing their dynamic behavior. However, conventional microelectrode arrays are limited in dynamic environments due to rigid structures, fixed electrode layouts, and cable constraints. Advances in soft, stretchable electronics offer solutions, but most devices lack active repositioning capabilities. “Magnetically actuated soft robots ...

Dementia is a group of disorders that gradually impair memory, thinking and daily functioning. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, affects about 7.2 million Americans aged 65 and older in 2025. Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), while rarer, is the second most common cause of early-onset dementia, often striking people in their 40s to 60s. Although both diseases damage the brain, they do so in distinct ways. AD primarily affects memory and spatial awareness, while FTD targets regions responsible for behavior, personality and language. Because their symptoms can overlap, it often leads to misdiagnosis. ...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignancy characterized by the clonal proliferation of myeloid hematopoietic progenitor or stem cells, primarily affecting adults with a relatively high incidence and poor prognosis, with a 5-year survival rate of only 25% to 40%. Although the “7 + 3” induction chemotherapy regimen remains the standard treatment for AML, its nonselective cytotoxic mechanism often results in severe myelosuppression and organ toxicity, thus limiting long-term efficacy. AML exhibits considerable ...

Global Virus Network Announces Appointment of New Board Members Global leaders in science, medicine, and journalism join GVN’s Board to strengthen pandemic preparedness and global health Tampa, FL, USA – December 10, 2025 – The Global Virus Network (GVN), a worldwide coalition of leading human and animal virologists from 90+ Centers of Excellence and Affiliates in more than 40 countries dedicated to advancing research and strengthening pandemic preparedness against viral threats to public ...

VANCOUVER, Wash. — The use of artificial beaver dams to replicate the ecological benefits created by the industrious rodents shows promise for offsetting damage to fish habitat, water quality, and biodiversity arising from climate change. But as the use of such “beaver mimicry” spreads, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, there are key gaps in the research and a need for more studies that examine whether the outcomes seen in specific projects are broadly applicable. That is a key takeaway from a new review of scientific literature by Washington State University researchers and ...

For millions suffering from long COVID, their persistent breathlessness, brain fog and fatigue remain a maddening mystery, but a group of leading microbiologists think they may have cracked the case.  The culprit for some long COVID cases, they suggest, might be other infections that accompany SARS-CoV-2. A review published in eLife by 17 experts, including those from Rutgers Health, argues that co-infections acquired before or during COVID could cause symptoms to persist indefinitely for many people. "This is an aspect of long COVID that is not talked about a lot," ...

About The Study: Initiating resuscitation of preterm infants with fraction of inspired oxygen of 0.6 vs 0.3 did not affect the risk of death or brain injury by 36 weeks’ corrected gestational age. These results lay a foundation for future trials evaluating the effectiveness and safety of using higher initial fraction of inspired oxygen levels for preterm infant resuscitation. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Ju Lee Oei, MD, email j.oei@uq.edu.au. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.23327) Editor’s ...

Using machine learning models, researchers at Michigan Medicine have identified a potential way to diagnose amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, earlier from a blood sample, a study suggests. The models, which analyze blood for biomarkers through gene expression with RNA sequencing to detect ALS, also have the potential to predict disease severity — and how long a person might live with the neurodegenerative condition. The results are published in Nature Communications. “Our findings present an ...

Adhesives are essential in various industries, including aerospace, electronics, construction, marine, automotive, and biomedical fields. As these fields continue to advance, the demand for high-performance, multifunctional adhesives is also growing. However, such widespread use has also highlighted their environmental issues. Conventional adhesives, while effective and economical, release petroleum-based chemicals that are harmful to soil and water quality. Their production also contributes to environmental ...

The Jahn–Teller effect, proposed by Jahn and Teller in 1937, describes how molecules or crystals with degenerate electronic orbitals can lower their total energy by distorting their structure. This distortion lifts the degeneracy, stabilizing certain orbitals that become occupied by electrons. While many materials exhibiting this effect have been found, the involvement of spin—the source of magnetism—has rarely been observed because magnetic ordering usually occurs at much lower temperatures than structural distortions caused by the Jahn–Teller ...

As life expectancy continues to climb globally, the focus of many people has moved from longevity alone to living in good health. This has drawn attention to the need to extend “healthspan,” the period during which an individual maintains their vitality, independence, and good health, and is free from major age-related issues. Mitochondria, known popularly as the powerhouse of the cell, are central to this goal as they produce the energy essential for life in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Given that many age-related diseases and aging itself are strongly linked to the decline of mitochondrial function, mitochondria ...

Everyday acts of care—tightening a loose hinge, patching up a wall, or simply moving a crate—may seem mundane. But a new study from Ritsumeikan University shows that these small repairs are key to sustaining autonomy and an inclusive social life in a squatted space in Japan. The research, led by Associate Professor Kyoko Tominaga from the College of Social Sciences at Ritsumeikan University, Japan, explores how spatial practices within the squat at the Takayama Architecture Summer School (TASS) enable diverse residents to coexist through collaborative ...

            Today, the Arabian Gulf is home to manatee-like marine mammals called dugongs that shape the seafloor as they graze on seagrasses. A newly described fossil site in Qatar reveals that ancient sea cows engineered aquatic ecosystems in a similar way more than 20 million years ago.             In a paper published today in the journal PeerJ, researchers at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History worked with collaborators at Qatar Museums to also name a new species of sea cow that was a miniature version ...

Termite pellets can linger long after the insects that dropped them have disappeared. By testing for microbes in the excrement, researchers can distinguish old droppings from fresh, and whether a colony is actively chewing its way through a home. Previous efforts to determine pellet age focused on testing hydrocarbon compounds or other chemicals in the pellets.  These studies have required expensive, specialized laboratory equipment and complicated extraction processes.  In some cases, researchers ...

Research Highlights: Long-term heart disease risk among women diagnosed with uterine fibroids was more than 80% higher than in women without uterine fibroids, according to a 10-year study of more than 2.7 million U.S. women. The elevated heart disease risk among those with uterine fibroids persisted among all races and ages but was particularly strong in women younger than 40. Researchers said more studies are needed to better understand and confirm the relationship between having uterine fibroids and increased heart ...

A new major study from Queen Mary University of London has found that smokers who use both cigarettes and e-cigarettes at the same time – known as dual use – are reducing their intake of harmful chemicals and are also more likely to eventually quit smoking than those who continue to smoke only. This challenges common fears about dual use. The study examined data from a large trial, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK), which followed 886 adult smokers ...

A research team at the Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research (CNIR) within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), together with Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), has developed a new class of ultra-thin, flexible bioelectronic material that can seamlessly interface with living tissues. The researchers introduced a novel device called THIN (Transformable and Imperceptible Hydrogel-Elastomer Ionic-Electronic Nanomembrane). THIN is a membrane just 350 nanometers thick that transforms from a dry, rigid film into an ultra-soft, tissue-like interface ...

When two homozygous plant lines with different characteristics are crossed, the resulting offspring are often more robust and productive than their parents. This phenomenon is called heterosis. It can be caused by positive variants of genes that dominate negative ones, or by complex interactions among numerous genes that ‘communicate’ with each other and influence one another. The research team has developed a new statistical method that can analyse these gene interactions more quickly and accurately. Rather than testing billions of possible gene combinations individually, the new method, hQTL-ODS ...

Astronomers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS, and the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (IREx) at the University of Montreal (UdeM) have made a striking discovery using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). For the very first time, scientists have continuously monitored the atmosphere escaping from an exoplanet throughout a complete orbit. The result: the gas giant WASP-121b is surrounded not by one, but by two immense helium tails ...

Much remains to be known about the chemical composition of small asteroids. Their potential to harbour valuable metals, materials from the early solar system, and the possibility of obtaining a geochemical record of their parent bodies makes them promising candidates for future use of space resources. A team led by the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) has analyzed samples of C-type asteroids, carbon-rich minor bodies of the Solar System, progenitors of the carbonaceous chondrites. Their findings, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, support the idea that these asteroids ...

One in five young people in the UK now access specialist mental health care by age 18 – a four-fold increase in under two decades, new research suggests.  Figures from Wales – which researchers say serve as an accurate indicator for the whole of the UK – indicate a consistent year-on-year rise in service use, with a sharp acceleration after 2010.   Experts warn that existing services may no longer meet the needs of today’s young people, with many treatment decisions based on decades-old evidence.  Rates of mental ill health among young people have been rising across the world. Despite this, there has been a lack of evidence on the proportion ...