Some babies are born with early blindness due to dense bilateral congenital cataracts, requiring surgery to restore their sight. This period of several months without vision can leave a lasting mark on how the brain processes visual details, but surprisingly little on the recognition of faces, objects, or words. This is the main finding of an international study conducted by neuroscientists at University of Louvain (UCLouvain), in collaboration with Ghent University, KU Leuven, and McMaster University (Canada), published in the prestigious ...

Research Highlights: Chronic pain may be linked to the development of high blood pressure. The duration and location of pain was associated with the likelihood of developing high blood pressure. In addition, depression and inflammation explained some of the association between chronic pain and high blood pressure. These findings highlight the importance of pain management in the prevention and control of high blood pressure, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and death, researchers said. Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET Monday, ...

A new study has discovered a molecular signal that tumors exploit to exhaust the T cells meant to destroy them—and how silencing that signal could revive the body’s immunity. The study led by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers was published Nov. 17 in Nature Immunology and shows that tumors not only evade the immune system but can actively reprogram immune cells to stop fighting. “Our dream is to make immune-based therapies available to every patient. To overcome resistance, we must unlock the power of exhausted T cells, reviving them to destroy cancer. This discovery moves us closer to a future where the immune system itself defeats ...

The oceans have to play a role in helping humanity remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to curb dangerous climate warming. But are we ready to scale up the technologies that will do the job? The answer, according to an expert group reporting to the European Union, is no. At least, not yet – not until there are measures in place to ensure these technologies, called marine carbon dioxide removal technologies, are doing what they are supposed to do and won’t do more harm than good. Marine carbon dioxide removal technologies build on the ocean’s ability to ...

Each year, thousands of stroke survivors are left with hemianopia, a condition that causes loss of half of their visual field (the “vertical midline”). Hemianopia severely affects daily activities such as reading, driving, or just walking through a crowded space. There are currently no treatments that can restore lost visual function in hemianopia satisfactorily. Most available options focus on teaching patients how to adapt to loss of vision rather than recovering it. To achieve some degree of recovery, months of intensive neurorehabilitative training are required for only ...

A new study led by the University of St Andrews, has found that Critically Endangered African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) are significantly more likely to forage in the same areas as commercial fishing vessels during years of low fish abundance, increasing competition for food and adding pressure to a species already in crisis.  Published today (17 November) in the Journal of Applied Ecology, the research introduces a novel metric called “overlap intensity” ...

With an increasing intensity and severity of heat waves in the U.S., Rutgers Health researchers, in collaboration with the City University of New York (CUNY), found that older workers, particularly Black, Latino and low-income individuals, face an increased risk of work disability because of exposure to extreme heat. Their study, published in the journal Generations, explores how heat-sensitive occupations contribute to health-related work limitations among adults aged 50 and older. Using nationally representative data, the researchers found that workers ...

Physician responses to patient expectations can affect physician incomes and may help explain lower incomes for many women, racialized, and immigrant physicians, found a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.250665. Researchers from McMaster University aimed to understand persistent identity-related income differences among physicians practising in Canada. They conducted a qualitative study that included interviews with 55 Ontario family physicians. “Pay disparities related to gender, race, and immigration status persist ...

In patients of reproductive age who have cancer, fertility preservation for potential children in the future should be a high priority. A practice article published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.250519 describes the successful preservation of ovarian tissue in a young woman undergoing urgent chemotherapy and demonstrates a novel model of care for Canada. “This case illustrates the complex challenges faced by young patients with cancer who desire biological children but require urgent treatment that threatens their reproductive potential,” ...

Generative Artificial Intelligence could result in a renewed emphasis on conversational approaches to teaching, researchers say, as chatbots make it easier to bypass recall-based learning and test the limits of traditional exams. In a new conceptual paper, researchers at the University of Cambridge argue that AI raises questions for aspects of traditional models of education which focus on absorbing and memorising information. The authors suggest that AI, like many earlier communications technologies, is forcing a rethink ...

Milestone results released by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) on November 16 have solved a decades-old mystery about the cosmic ray energy spectrum—which shows a sharp decrease in cosmic rays above 3 PeV, giving it an unusual knee-like shape. The cause of the "knee" has remained unclear since its discovery nearly 70 years ago. Scientists have speculated that it is linked to the acceleration limit of the astrophysical sources of cosmic rays and reflects the transition of the cosmic ray energy spectrum from one power-law distribution to another.  Now, however, two recent studies—published in National ...

Researchers led by Keiya Hirashima at the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) in Japan, with colleagues from The University of Tokyo and Universitat de Barcelona in Spain, have successfully performed the world’s first Milky Way simulation that accurately represents more than 100 billion individual stars over the course of 10 thousand years. This feat was accomplished by combining artificial intelligence (AI) with numerical simulations. Not only does the simulation represent 100 times more individual stars than previous state-of-the-art models, but ...

Over 30 years in his lab at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, Picower Professor Earl K. Miller has studied how the brain’s cortex produces thought. On Nov. 15, in an invited presidential lecture at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, he will tell the audience what reams of experimental evidence have led him to propose: Cognition and consciousness emerge from the dynamic organization of the cortex produced by traveling brain waves performing analog computations. Analog computing is an old ...

SAN DIEGO -- Veterans with Gulf War Illness experienced significant improvement in migraine symptoms after following a diet low in glutamate, a component of flavor enhancing food additives commonly found in processed foods, according to new research presented by Georgetown University and American University scientists. Brain scans also revealed decreased cortical thickness in patients on the diet — providing evidence, for the first time, that the improvement in symptoms was linked to measurable changes in the brain.  The findings point to a potential low-cost ...

Please note that each item in this release references a different embargo time! ROCKVILLE, Md. — Embargoed press materials are now available for the Association for Molecular Pathology 2025 Annual Meeting & Expo. Top clinicians, scientists and educators in the field will gather at the meeting Nov. 11–15 in Boston. Reporters are invited to attend an exciting lineup of in-person scientific sessions or access press materials electronically. See registration requirements. Featured research findings include: Using shelved DNA samples to understand the evolution of colorectal cancer Faster ...

Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School have developed a targeted genetic test to improve diagnosis for X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism (XDP), a rare and disabling movement disorder that affects primarily men of Filipino ancestry. The work will be presented at the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) 2025 Annual Meeting & Expo, taking place Nov. 11–15 in Boston. XDP causes symptoms like those of Parkinson’s disease, such as muscle spasms, tremors and abnormal postures and movements. It usually first presents in the face, jaw or neck. As it progresses, speech, walking and independent ...

With the advancement of Internet applications, the global demand for broadband satellite communication services is incessantly escalating. Furthermore, there exists an exponential surge in the requisition for the capacity of satellite communication systems. In response to this evolving demand, the domain of satellite communication technology is progressively evolving toward the realm of high-throughput satellite (HTS) communication systems. The typical technical characteristics of HTS are: (a) the satellite adopts multibeam technology for beam overlapping coverage of the service area, which improves the quality ...

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have applied ideas from polymer physics to illuminate the mechanism behind a key pathology in Alzheimer's disease, the formation of fibrils of tau proteins. They showed that fibril formation is preceded by the birth of large protein clusters, mirroring the crystallization of polymers. Crucially, dissolving these clusters helped to prevent fibrils forming in solution. Their work signals a paradigm shift for the development of treatments for neurodegenerative ...

Ferroelectric materials are used in infrared cameras, medical ultrasounds, computer memory and actuators that turn electric properties into mechanical properties and vice-versa. Most of these essential materials, however, contain lead and can therefore be toxic.  “For the last 10 years, there has been a huge initiative all over the world to find ferroelectric materials that do not contain lead,” said Laurent Bellaiche, Distinguished Professor of physics at the University of Arkansas.  The atoms in a ferroelectric material can have more than one crystalline structure. Where two crystalline structures meet is ...

Body composition—including bones, muscles, and adipose compartments—constitutes a crucial imaging biomarker for cardiometabolic risk stratification, as supported by extensive evidence; however, conventional imaging quantification remains constrained by labor-intensive workflows and limited anatomical coverage, hindering scalable and comprehensive assessment. Meanwhile, existing deep-learning efforts have largely focused on abdominal fat compartments (e.g., VAT and SAT), overlooking critical tissues such as muscle, ...

UNIVERSTIY PARK, Pa. — Counties in Pennsylvania that contained or were near cultivated cropland had significantly higher melanoma rates compared to other regions, according to a new study led by scientists at Penn State. Researchers at Penn State Cancer Institute analyzed five years of cancer registry data, 2017 through 2021, and found that adults over the age of 50 living in a 15-county stretch of South Central Pennsylvania were 57% more likely to develop melanoma, the deadliest form of skin ...

ITHACA, N.Y. –  In the growing gig economy, where a company’s success depends on contractors whose schedules they can’t control, businesses often turn to bonuses to lure and retain these workers. But according to new Cornell-led research, bonuses can be a losing strategy for the stakeholders involved in platform operations. “Bonus Competition in the Gig Economy,” published in the journal Production and Operations Management, shows that not all bonuses are created equal, and the availability of labor dictates which type of bonus is more effective for firms. Fixed bonuses, also known as subsidies – given as part of the contract – ...

A joint research team from the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGCAS) and Shandong University has for the first time identified crystalline hematite (α-Fe2O3) and maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) formed by a major impact event in lunar soil samples retrieved by China's Chang'e-6 mission from the South Pole–Aitken (SPA) Basin. This finding, published in Science Advances on November 14, provides direct sample-based evidence of highly oxidized materials on the lunar surface. Redox reactions are a fundamental component of planetary formation and evolution. ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC — A study out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has unveiled new insights into the inflammatory processes behind periodontitis, a common and debilitating gum disease. Research conducted by UNC Adams School of Dentistry’s Julie Marchesan, DDS, PhD, and UNC School of Medicine’s Jenny Y. Ting, PhD, found that a part of the immune system called the inflammasome plays a key role in disease development, and that blocking this system prevents bone resorption only in males. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests developing treatments specifically for male patients can have benefits and prompted ...

HOUSTON, NOV. 12, 2025 ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today launches its historic $2.5 billion comprehensive philanthropic campaign, Only Possible Here, The Campaign to End Cancer. The campaign represents the largest fundraising effort in MD Anderson’s 84-year history, bringing together philanthropic support from around the world to advance the institution’s mission to end cancer. Initial donor support already has raised $1.9 billion toward the campaign goal. “We are ...