The two main approaches for discovering disease genes reveal distinct aspects of biology, a new study shows. While both methods are widely used, the research found that they identify different genes, with major implications for drug development. Publishing online Nov. 5 in Nature, the study revolves around the human genome, which contains thousands of genes that provide instructions for making proteins, as well as regulatory DNA that controls when genes turn on. The new investigation takes a genome-wide ...

NYU Langone Health researchers found that a type of cell death caused by a buildup of highly reactive molecules suppresses lung tumor growth. The process, called ferroptosis, evolved to let the body signal for self-destruction of cells that are overly stressed for various reasons. This includes cancer cells, but they in turn evolved to have mechanisms that counter ferroptosis so they can continue their uncontrolled growth despite the stress it creates. Published online November 5 in Nature, the new study showed that an experimental treatment  blocked the action in cancer ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Despite lithium-ion (Li) batteries’ role as one of the most widely used forms of energy storage, they struggle to operate at full power in low temperatures and sometimes even explode at high temperatures. Researchers at Penn State, however, have proposed a design that could hold the key to effective and stable power storage in a variety of climates.   The research, which was published today (Nov. 5) in Joule, investigated a state-of-the-art Li battery design known as an all-climate battery (ACB). Previous design approaches ...

In a major step toward practical quantum computers, Princeton engineers have built a superconducting qubit that lasts three times longer than today’s best versions. “The real challenge, the thing that stops us from having useful quantum computers today, is that you build a qubit and the information just doesn’t last very long,” said Andrew Houck, leader of a federally funded national quantum research center, Princeton’s dean of engineering and co-principal investigator on the paper. “This is the next big jump forward.” In a Nov. 5 article in the journal Nature, the Princeton team reported their new ...

People who have been treated in psychiatric care against their will are at increased risk of taking their own lives after hospital discharge. This is shown by a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health – Europe. The results highlight a need for follow-up care after discharge. Every year, more than 10,000 people in Sweden receive involuntary inpatient psychiatric care. This compulsory care is provided in cases of serious mental disorder where there is an urgent need for inpatient care, but the person refuses care. A new study now shows that ...

Across Asia's vast drylands, a new study reveals a critical imbalance between degradation and recovery. Researchers analyzed two decades of satellite data and developed an integrated ecohealth-neutrality framework to track how land ecosystems have changed from 2000 to 2020. The findings show that while ecohealth began improving after 2012, degradation still dominates, with about 22% of the region's land (196 million hectares) remains degraded, compared to only 13% (119 million hectares) showing recovery. This 8% “land debt” indicates the fragile balance between human activity ...

A new Hebrew University study reveals that while Israel could technically sustain itself through local vegetative food production, the economic price would be staggering. The model shows that complete self-sufficiency would demand massive farming subsidies and major shifts in agricultural output, making it an impractical goal. Instead, the researchers argue, a balanced approach, combining agricultural innovation, diversified import sources, and strategic food storage, offers the most sustainable path ...

A team of researchers from the Max Born Institute (MBI) in Berlin and DESY in Hamburg has demonstrated a plasma lens capable of focusing attosecond pulses. This breakthrough substantially increases the attosecond power available for experiments, opening up new opportunities for studying ultrafast electron dynamics. The results have now been published in Nature Photonics. Attosecond pulses—bursts of light lasting only billionths of a billionth of a second—are essential tools for observing and controlling electronic motion ...

New prostate cancer research from an international team led by the Center for Genetic Epidemiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC has yielded discoveries that could improve screening and treatment for patients of African ancestry. The scientists identified variants of five genes linked in this population to aggressive disease or to cancer that spreads, or metastasizes, to other organs. The study also found a wide range of risk among participants. By combining data on the five specific genes with other methods of determining risk, the researchers introduced a method that could help identify those most likely to face deadlier forms of the disease.  Screening ...

Nerve injuries can have long-lasting effects on the immune system that appear to differ between males and females, according to preclinical research from McGill University. Nerve injuries are common and can happen from stretching, pressure or cuts. They can have lasting consequences, including chronic pain. While the immune system typically helps repair the damaged area, a new study shows that nerve injuries can also disrupt the body’s entire immune system. Analysis of blood samples from mice revealed signs of widespread inflammation throughout the body after a nerve injury. To the researchers’ surprise, male and female ...

Beneath the surface of lakes and coastal waters lies a hidden world of sediment that plays a crucial role in the health of aquatic ecosystems. “Benthic fluxes” of nitrogen and phosphorus, such as releases of these dissolved nutrients from sediments to their overlying waters, can fuel algae growth and toxic harmful algal blooms (HABs), which degrade water quality, disrupt wildlife and recreation, and reduce property values. Sediments act as a natural archive, offering historical insights into ecosystem health. However, to fully understand nutrient exchanges between sediment and water, scientists rely on measurements of benthic fluxes, like the amount of nitrogen transported across ...

Young women attending college face a dramatically higher risk of sexual violence than those who don’t, especially if they live on campus, according to a new analysis of national crime data by Washington State University researchers. The findings were stark: Between 2015 and 2022, the six-month risk of sexual violence was 74% higher for college-enrolled women ages 18-24 than for those not enrolled. Among college students, the rate among women living on campus was triple that of commuter students. Those figures represented a sharp change from 2007-2014, when the risk of sexual violence was similar between college women and those not attending college — and ...

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Baystate Health has been awarded a new one-year award for $452,985 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to enhance support for parents recovering from substance use disorders (SUDs) by strengthening the parent-child relationship. The funded project, Relational Health Enhanced Parenting Support (RHEP), seeks to improve the provision of parenting support within family-focused peer recovery support services (PRSS). Under the leadership of Dr. Lili Peacock-Chambers, pediatrician and researcher at Baystate Health and associate professor at UMass Chan Medical School - Baystate, and co-PI ...

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (11/05/2025) — Materials scientists at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have found a way to create and control tiny “flaws” inside ultra-thin materials. These internal features, known as extended defects, could give next-generation nanomaterials entirely new properties, opening the door to advances in nanotechnology. The study, published in Nature Communications, demonstrated that patterned regions of the material could achieve a density of extended defects—atomic-scale disruptions in the crystal lattice—up to 1,000 times higher than in unpatterned areas. “These extended defects are exciting because they ...

A technique used for the long-term preservation of human and animal remains is now being tested on one of Canada’s most iconic building materials—the Western red cedar. Plastination, originally designed to embalm the dead, is now being used to improve the functionality and durability of advanced composite materials. A team from UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering has been experimenting with the technique and previously published a study that examined the plastination of bamboo to create a strong and durable composite building material. The researchers have taken that work one step further, and in their latest study demonstrated the ...

Robots have never felt as close to becoming a part of everyday life as they do today. Their widespread use now seems likely in the near future. But as technology advances, important social questions remain. Are we ready to live and work alongside robots? Many people worry about safety, the loss of human contact, high costs, and the potential for robots to take over human jobs. These concerns are especially important when it comes to caregiving robots that assist older adults.   A new study by researchers at Chiba University in Japan reveals a general openness to using home-care ...

Cambridge researchers have discovered why living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood may be linked to an increase in an individual’s risk of dementia. In research published today, they show how it is associated with damage to brain vessels – which can affect cognition – and with poorer management of lifestyle factors known to increase the chances of developing dementia. Dementia disproportionately affects people who live in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Individuals living in such areas show greater cognitive decline throughout their lives ...

People need to feel that climate change is affecting them now or that taking action is a patriotic act for their country to overcome apathy towards environmental efforts, a new global study has found.   In a paper published in Communications Psychology today, a global team of researchers led by the University of Birmingham have found that motivational interventions to successfully make climate action more important to people include showing how climate change is happening now and affecting them or others like them.   The research team worked with participants from six countries ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA – What if clinicians could place tiny electronic chips in the brain that electrically stimulate a precise target, through a simple injection in the arm? This may someday help treat deadly or debilitating brain diseases, while eliminating surgery-related risks and costs. MIT researchers have taken a major step toward making this scenario a reality. They developed microscopic, wireless bioelectronics that could travel through the body’s circulatory system and autonomously self-implant in a target region ...

Earth is reflecting less sunlight, and absorbing more heat, than it did several decades ago. Global warming is advancing faster than climate models predicted, with observed temperatures exceeding projections in 2023 and 2024. These trends have scientists scrambling to understand why the atmosphere is letting more light in.  A new study, published Nov. 5 in Nature Communications, shows that reducing air pollution has inadvertently diminished the brightness of marine clouds, which are key regulators of global temperature.  Between 2003 and 2022, clouds over the Northeastern Pacific and Atlantic ...

A new method vastly improves on the existing approach for single-cell genetic sequencing, enabling scientists to read the genomes of individual cells and viral particles in the environment more quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively. In a new study in Nature Microbiology, researchers from Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and Atrandi Biosciences provide the first environmental application of the approach, which they call environmental microcompartment genomics. Sequencing the microbiome in a sample of surface seawater from the Gulf of Maine, the researchers showcased the method’s advantages compared ...

Frankfurt. Black holes are considered cosmic gluttons, from which not even light can escape. That is also why the images of black holes at the center of the galaxy M87 and our Milky Way, published a few years ago by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, broke new ground. “What you see on these images is not the black hole itself, but rather the hot matter in its immediate vicinity,” explains Prof. Luciano Rezzolla, who, along with his team at Goethe University Frankfurt, played a key role in the findings. “As long as the matter is still rotating outside the event horizon – before being inevitably pulled in – it can emit final signals of light that we ...

A poorly characterized protein, historically thought to be a chaperone or enzyme, may actually be a key player in prostate cancer. In a systematic CRISPR screen, scientists from Arc Institute, UCSF, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center have identified PTGES3, known as the third prostaglandin E synthase protein as an unexpected regulator of the androgen receptor. This discovery, published November 5 in Nature Genetics, not only redefines PTGES3’s biological role in regulating gene expression, but also reveals a promising new target for treating ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Ancient trees may have played a key role in regulating Earth’s climate during the last ice age — by breathing less efficiently.   A new study, led by a researcher at Penn State and published today (Nov. 5) in the journal Nature Geoscience, examined chemical fingerprints in subfossil wood, or preserved trees, from across North America to understand how plants responded to the low carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and cooler ...

Key points Viruses have the ability to ‘do so much with so little’ when they infect and ‘take over’ our cells Understanding how small viruses can do so much has been a major challenge Researchers have found an answer, which could change how we view viral biology New antivirals and vaccines could follow the discovery by Australian researchers of strategies used by viruses to control our cells. Led by Monash University and the University of Melbourne, and published in Nature Communications, the study reveals how rabies virus manipulates so many cellular processes despite being armed ...