Streptococcus pyogenes or invasive Group A Streptococcus (iGAS) is a major clinical concern around the world, since iGAS infections can quickly escalate into life-threatening conditions such as necrotizing fasciitis, septic shock, and pneumonia. In recent years, scientists have noticed that the prevalence of various pathological strains of iGAS has been evolving. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalent strain in Western Europe was Emm1. However, in the last five years, a potentially more virulent strain called M1uk has been seen in several European countries. It is not clear whether ...

PRESS EMBARGO! NOT FOR RELEASE UNTIL THURSDAY NOVEMBER 6 AT 12H00 NOON GMT Three new toad species skip the tadpole phase and give birth to live toadlets An international team of researchers have identified three new species of enchanting, pustular, tree-dwelling toads from Africa. Their solution for having offspring away from water? Skipping the tadpole phase altogether, and giving birth to live toadlets. The study is published today in the open access scientific journal Vertebrate Zoology.   Most textbooks ...

About The Study: The findings of this study confirm that negative reinforcement is a core mechanism in opioid addiction, which is well established in preclinical research but less represented in treatment. Importantly, it is not limited to the later stages of addiction but is even observed after regular opioid use, potentially contributing to the development of addiction, which may have important implications for the development of more effective preventive and therapeutic interventions.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Karen D. Ersche, PhD, email ke220@cam.ac.uk. To ...

RODIN - Cell-mediated Sculptable Living Platforms-, is set to revolutionize the field of biomaterials and tissue engineering by shifting the focus from designing materials for cells to empowering cells to design their own environments. The team composed by Professor João Mano at the Associate Laboratory CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials from University of Aveiro (Portugal) - The Biomaterials Engineer, Professor Tom Ellis at Imperial College London (UK)- The Synthetic Biologist and Professor Nuno Araújo at Faculty of Sciences, from the University of Lisbon (Portugal)- The Physicist, will combine expertise to rethink how living ...

Diagnosing and treating tumors in real time during endoscopy, with theragnostics: the tumor is identified and characterized with a high-resolution ‘optical biopsy’ and, at the same time, treated with ‘cold plasma’ (that does not involve thermal energy and is therefore much safer). This is the core of ‘MULTIPROBE’, a multicenter project conducted by researchers from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, campus di Roma, Fondazione Universitaria Policlinico Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, Sapienza Università di Roma, and the University of Limoges, France, which won the prestigious ERC Synergy Grant 2025 research ...

Professors Jun Borras, Esteve Corbera, Ian Scoones and Anna Tsing, working at universities in the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and Denmark, have been awarded an €8.33 million European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant for their five-year project, Land and Life in the Anthropocene: Landscape reform (LAND). The project asks a pressing question: How can we learn to live on Earth in new ways?    The innovation of the project is to move from land reform to landscape reform, that is, liveable and justice-based transformations for more-than-human life. LAND starts from the recognition that economies, politics, social ...

A new study led by researchers at the University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa published today in Nature Communications is the first of its kind to show that waste discharged from deep-sea mining operations in the Pacific’s biodiverse Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) could disrupt marine life in the midwater “twilight zone” — a vital region 200-1,500 meters below sea level that supports vast communities of zooplankton, tiny animals that serve as the ocean’s basic food building blocks. Specifically, it finds that 53% of all zooplankton and 60% of micronekton, which feed on zooplankton, would be impacted by the discharge, which could ...

BALTIMORE, MD., November 6, 2025--Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) reported encouraging results from an early phase clinical trial that found an experimental intranasal vaccine triggered a broad immune response against multiple strains of H5N1 “bird flu”. The study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, highlights the potential of mucosal immunization strategies--where vaccines are squirted into the nostrils--to prime immune defenses against diverse influenza strains. The spread of H5N1 influenza in animals with spillover into human ...

Each year, about 100,000 Americans experience psychosis, a serious condition that disrupts thoughts and perceptions so profoundly that it can distort a person’s sense of reality. Now—just over a year after the first new schizophrenia drug in half a century was approved—a study in Nature Mental Health looks at how patients respond to it, offering early clues for more personalized treatment. The study, led by Michael Halassa, professor of neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine, analyzed electronic medical records from 49 patients hospitalized for schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder ...

Type 1 Diabetes: Risk Differs Depending on Affected Family Member Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system destroys the body’s own insulin-producing beta-cells in the pancreas, leaving patients with a lifelong dependency on external insulin. Children whose parents or siblings have type 1 diabetes have an 8- to 15-fold increased risk of developing the autoimmune disease themselves. However, this risk is not evenly distributed: the child of a mother with type 1 diabetes has a lower risk of developing type 1 diabetes than a child with a father or sibling with type 1 diabetes. Of interest, ...

For over two years, the Austrian mini-satellite PRETTY has orbited the Earth at an altitude of just over 500 kilometres in a sun-synchronous polar orbit. Following the commissioning phase at the end of 2023, it provided continuous data on changes in polar ice and sea levels, as well as the effects of space weather on a satellite’s lifespan. Although the mission was originally planned to last one year, it is now certain that the mission of the satellite (jointly developed by TU Graz, Beyond Gravity Austria, and Seibersdorf Laboratories) will continue in a new form under the name OPS-SAT PRETTY. This has been confirmed by the Austrian ...

Ahead of the critical climate summit in Belém, a new report from Earth4All argues that Brazil’s greatest assets in tackling the climate crisis are not only its vast forests and renewable energy potential, but the power of trust and social cohesion.  The study, Earth4All: Brazil, identifies possible future scenarios for the country and shows that policies promoting fairness, inclusion and institutional trust are decisive for accelerating decarbonisation and building resilience. Without them, progress risks stalling in the face of inequality and social division.  “Our ...

Loneliness and emotional disconnection appear to have become a defining feature of life in America, as a majority of U.S. adults say societal division is a significant source of stress in their lives, according to the latest Stress in America™ survey released today by the American Psychological Association. More than six in 10 U.S. adults reported feeling this way, while half or more adults said they felt isolated (54%), left out (50%) or lacking companionship (50%) often or some of the time.   The survey, conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of APA, found that among more than 3,000 U.S. adults, nearly seven in ...

by Prof Carla Jaimes Betancourt In September 2021, a multidisciplinary expedition explored one of the least-known regions of the Bolivian Amazon: the Great Tectonic Lakes of Exaltación in the department of Beni. Organized by the Grupo de Trabajo para los Llanos de Moxos (GTLM), the mission brought together researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the National Museum of Natural History, the Institute of Ecology, the Biodiversity and Environment Research Center , the Aquatic Resources Research Center, and the Department of Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn. Landscapes as Living Archives In southwestern Amazonia, the great tectonic Lakes Rogaguado ...

Highlights - Demonstrated the world’s first entanglement swapping using sum-frequency generation between single photons, one of the fundamental quantum communication protocols. - Successfully observed sum-frequency generation between single photons with a high signal-to-noise ratio, made possible by NICT’s state-of-the-art technologies. - Expected to contribute to the miniaturization and efficiency improvement of photonic quantum information processing circuit, as well as the extension of transmission distance in device ...

Bottom Line: Adding the investigational antibody ianalumab (VAY736) to ibrutinib (Imbruvica) allowed some patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) to discontinue daily therapy and potentially improve their quality of life. Journal in Which the Study was Published: Clinical Cancer Research, a journal for the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Authors: John C. Byrd, MD, director of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and associate vice chancellor for cancer affairs at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Kerry A. Rogers, MD, ...

Research Background    Auroras: Auroras are natural phenomena where electrons from space collide with Earth's atmosphere (oxygen and nitrogen) and emit light. The various colors — red, green, purple, etc. —depend on "which atoms or molecules emit light" and "how the energy changes." This light contains hidden information about the "velocity of particles falling down" and "conditions of the atmosphere."    At ...

People with signs of damage to their heart during middle age are more likely to develop dementia in later life, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers. The study, published in the European Heart Journal and funded by the British Heart Foundation, found middle-aged people with higher levels of a protein called cardiac troponin I in their blood were more likely to go on to develop dementia in later life. The team found higher troponin levels in those with dementia, compared to those without, as far back as 25 years before their diagnosis. Troponin is released into the bloodstream when heart muscle is damaged. Doctors look for very high ...

A new study has revealed both the promise and the complexity of using duckweed as a biological tool for managing nitrogen pollution in rice agriculture. While this tiny floating plant can sharply curb certain harmful nitrogen oxide emissions, it may also unintentionally boost releases of ammonia and a potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide. These findings highlight the importance of smart, integrated strategies for sustainable farming and environmental protection. Nitrogen: Friend to Farmers, Challenge to Planet Rice feeds nearly half the world’s population, ...

Medical and scientific evidence is proving invaluable in holding public authorities accountable for the impact of unlawful air pollution on people’s health, say experts in The BMJ’s climate issue today. Gaia Lisi and Rupert Stuart-Smith at the University of Oxford say that relatively few studies attributing health impacts to climate change have been published so far, but as this research field matures, methods are becoming more widely recognised, opening up new routes for climate accountability. They describe recent cases where ...

The combined impact of climate change and conflict “can produce synergistic effects, leading to more severe and complex outcomes,” warn experts in The BMJ’s climate issue today. From 1995 to 2015, more than 10 million child deaths were attributed to conflict, while women of reproductive age in high intensity conflict zones experienced mortality rates three times higher than those in peaceful areas, they explain. Additionally, over 60,000 heat related deaths occurred in 32 European countries during both the exceptionally hot summers of 2022 and 2024, with women substantially more affected than men. Beyond direct loss of life, climate and conflict ...

Action is needed locally, nationally, and internationally to curb sales of new Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) to reduce their potential harms to health and the environment, say experts in The BMJ’s climate issue today. Their call comes as Cardiff looks set to be the first city in the UK to charge higher parking fees for larger vehicles, following in the footsteps of Paris. Sports utility vehicles (SUVs) are passenger cars that have a chassis with extra ground clearance and are generally taller, ...

Higher levels of greenness are associated with lower risks of hospital admissions for mental disorders, finds an analysis of data from seven countries over two decades, published in The BMJ’s climate issue today. The results suggest that this protective effect increases with greater exposure to greenness, with no clear threshold - evidence that can inform urban design and health policy to better protect mental health, say the researchers. Mental wellbeing remains a global challenge. It’s estimated that 1.1 billion ...

Beyond direct injuries, exposure to tropical cyclones is associated with higher risks of death across a range of causes including kidney, heart and lung diseases, neuropsychiatric conditions, and diabetes, finds a study published in The BMJ’s climate issue today. Risks were substantially higher in deprived communities and areas that have previously experienced fewer tropical cyclones, suggesting an urgent need to integrate more evidence on tropical cyclone activity into disaster response plans, say the authors. Tropical cyclones are one of the most devastating ...

The world’s largest collection of curated eye imaging and linked clinical data is expanding across the country, in an initiative led out of Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL (University College London). The INSIGHT Health Data Research Hub for Eye Health and Oculomics is benefiting from investment funding of £3.7 million awarded by UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). INSIGHT will expand from Moorfields Eye Hospital and create a blueprint for linking ...