Kyoto, Japan -- Opioids like morphine are widely used in medical practice due to their powerful pain-relieving effects. However, they carry the risk of serious adverse effects such as respiratory depression and drug dependence. For this reason, Japan has strict regulations in place to ensure that these medications are prescribed only by authorized physicians. In the United States, however, the opioid OxyContin was once prescribed frequently triggering a surge in the misuse of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. As a result, the number of deaths caused by opioid overdose surpassed 80,000 in 2023, escalating ...

The evolutionary success of our species may have hinged on minute changes to our brain biochemistry after we diverged from the lineage leading to Neanderthals and Denisovans about half a million years ago  Two of these tiny changes that set modern humans apart from Neanderthals and Denisovans affect the stability and genetic expression of the enzyme adenylosuccinate lyase, or ADSL. This enzyme is involved in the biosynthesis of purine, one of the fundamental building blocks of DNA, RNA, and other important biomolecules. In a study now published in PNAS, researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Japan and the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary ...

Ukrainian refugees prefer countries with better job opportunities to countries with higher social benefits. This is the finding of a recent study by the ifo Institute and LMU Munich, which surveyed over 3,300 Ukrainian refugees in Europe. “The prospect of a job that matches their qualifications and a higher wage level has a much stronger effect on refugees than social assistance or child benefits,” says Panu Poutvaara, Director of the ifo Center for Migration and Development Economics and professor at LMU’s Faculty of ...

Scientists have uncovered the remains of a vast animal community that lived in the European Arctic 75,000 years ago.   The bones of 46 types of animals – including mammals, fish and birds – were discovered in a cave on the coast of Northern Norway, representing the oldest example of an animal community in the European Arctic during this warmer period of the ice age.   The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).   The research team believe the bones will help scientists understand how wildlife once responded to dramatic climate shifts, insights that ...

PHILADELPHIA (August 1, 2025) – Faculty and doctoral students at Penn Nursing are at the forefront of advancing human milk feeding through a series of research studies, featured in the current issue of MCN The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing. The issue, edited by Penn Nursing's Diane L. Spatz, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN, FAWHONN, the Helen M. Shearer Professor of Nutrition and Professor of Perinatal Nursing in the Department of Family and Community Health, highlights articles showcasing critical strategies to enhance lactation care and improve outcomes for families. These investigations highlight critical strategies, from empowering frontline healthcare providers and fostering ...

A new review article published in JAMA underscores the critical need for comprehensive long-term medical care for patients treated for firearm injuries, which has become an epidemic in the U.S. fueled by years of rising gun violence. More than 48,000 people died of firearm injuries in the U.S. in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with 120,000 suffering from gunshot wounds that they recover from. While emergency care protocols are well established, long-term recovery pathways for survivors—particularly in the outpatient setting—remain poorly defined and inconsistently applied, according to the review paper ...

Researchers from South Dakota State University presented a high-tech system to help farmers optimize crop yields while lowering costs at the 2025 annual meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. The system, detailed in Integrating IoT and secure data transmission in a crop monitoring system, tracks and analyzes crop development through data collected by sensors, biosensors, the Internet of Things and AI. While the majority of projects that build systems utilizing IoT only simulate post-quantum security on super computers, ...

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a simple yet powerful method to characterize lithium metal battery performance with the help of a widely used imaging tool: scanning electron microscopy. The advance could accelerate the development of safer, longer-lasting and more energy-dense batteries for electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage. The work was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lithium metal batteries have the potential to store twice as much energy as today’s lithium-ion batteries. That could double the range of electric cars and ...

Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) limits jaw function and is so painful that it lessens the quality of life. Botulinum toxin—also known as botox—is emerging as an effective treatment option, but there are concerns about side effects, like muscle dysfunction. Eungyung Kim and Yu Shin Kim, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, led a study using a mouse model of TMD to explore the possibility of using botox as a treatment.  In their JNeurosci paper, the researchers discovered that injecting botox directly into the male mouse temporomandibular joint (TMJ) instead of surrounding muscle tissue reduced TMD-related ...

When faced with difficult tasks, sometimes people hit a mental wall and make the decision to “sleep on it.” Returning to the task after sleeping, they often perform better. Why? Rhythmic brain activity during sleep transforms task-related information into stronger, longer-term memory. A new JNeurosci paper on research led by Dara Manoach, from Harvard Medical School, advances understanding of where in the brain this rhythmic activity appears to improve motor learning.  In the study, 25 participants learned a typing sequence while the researchers recorded their brain activity. After training, brain recordings continued as study participants napped. During sleep, ...

Peking University, August 4, 2025: Why do young children often miss the emotions behind adult expressions? A pioneering study led by researcher Xie Wanze from Peking University’s School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, in collaboration with professor Seth Pollak from the University of Wisconsin, reveals that the answer lies in a cognitive shift. Published in Nature Communications, their research shows how children aged 5-10 transition from merely “seeing” facial expressions to deeply understanding emotions, relying less on instinct and more on learned insight. Background: The Importance ...

Peking University, June 18, 2025: A collaborative research team led by Professor Pan Feng from the School of New Materials at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School has developed a topology-based variational autoencoder framework (PGH-VAEs) to enable the interpretable inverse design of catalytic active sites. Their study, titled “Inverse design of catalytic active sites via interpretable topology-based deep generative models” and published in npj Computational Materials, introduces a novel integration of graph-theoretic structural chemistry, algebraic topology, and deep generative models, enabling ...

Peking University, July 30, 2025: In a landmark advancement for next-generation electronics, researchers from the International Center for Quantum Materials at Peking University in collaboration with Renmin University of China have successfully fabricated wafer-scale two-dimensional indium selenide (InSe) semiconductors. Led by Professor Liu Kaihui, the team developed a novel “solid–liquid–solid” growth strategy that overcomes long-standing barriers in 2D semiconductor manufacturing. Published in Science under ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug 4, 2025 — The latest issues of three American Psychiatric Association journals (The American Journal of Psychiatry, Psychiatric Services, and Focus) are now available online. The August issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry brings together research on psychiatric genetics and telehealth prescribing of controlled substances. Highlights of the issue include: Psychiatric Genetics in Clinical Practice: Essential Knowledge for Mental Health Professionals. (AJP Deputy Editor Daniel Pine, ...

Decoding cosmic evolution depends on accurately predicting the complex chemical reactions in the harsh environment of space. Traditional methods for such predictions rely heavily on costly laboratory experiments or expert knowledge, both of which are resource-intensive and limited in scope. Recently, a research team developed an innovative AI tool that predicts astrochemical reactions with high accuracy and efficiency, demonstrating that deep learning techniques can successfully address data limitations in astrochemistry. Titled “A Two-Stage End-to-End Deep Learning Approach for Predicting Astrochemical Reactions,” this research was published ...

A new analysis of the bite strength of 18 species of carnivorous dinosaurs shows that while the Tyrannasaurus rex skull was optimized for quick, strong bites like a crocodile, other giant, predatory dinosaurs that walked on two legs—including spinosaurs and allosaurs—had much weaker bites and instead specialized in slashing and ripping flesh. Reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on August 4, these findings demonstrate that meat-eating dinosaurs followed different evolutionary paths in terms of skull design and feeding style despite their similarly gigantic sizes.   “Carnivorous dinosaurs took very different paths as they ...

In the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, a group of researchers reveals the culprit behind sea star wasting disease, a marine epidemic that has decimated sea star populations along the west coast of North America. Understanding the cause is essential for the recovery of sea stars and their kelp forest ecosystems.   AUGUST 4, 2025 - Today in Nature Ecology & Evolution, a group of researchers reveals the cause of sea star wasting disease (SSWD). This discovery comes more than a decade after the start of the marine epidemic that has killed billions of sea stars—representing over 20 different species from Alaska to Mexico. SSWD is considered the largest marine ...

When given nutritionally matched diets, participants lost twice as much weight eating minimally processed foods compared to ultra-processed foods, suggesting that cutting down on processing could help to sustain a healthy weight long term, finds a new clinical trial led by researchers at UCL and UCLH. The study, published in Nature Medicine, is the first interventional study comparing ultra-processed food (UPF) and minimally processed food (MPF) diets in ‘real world’ conditions, as well as being ...

About The Studies: This issue of JAMA includes three studies on colorectal cancer incidence and screening among younger U.S. adults. Colorectal Cancer Incidence in US Adults After Recommendations for Earlier Screening After a stable 15-year trend, local-stage colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence increased steeply in adults ages 45 to 49 during 2019-2022, including a 50% relative increase between 2021 and 2022. This trend contrasts with consistent increases of distant-stage diagnoses in this age group and likely reflects diagnosis of prevalent asymptomatic cancer through first-time screening due to recommendations for adults to begin ...

Researchers from University of California San Diego have found that a novel treatment called regulation of cues combined with behavioral weight loss (ROC+BWL) was more effective than standard cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in reducing binge eating among veterans with overweight or obesity. The benefits of the new treatment were sustained even six months after treatment ended, particularly for veterans with Binge Eating Disorder (BED). The results were published in JAMA Network Open. “The study showed that our treatment could reduce binge eating more than standard therapy even after the six-month follow up,” said Kerri Boutelle, ...

About The Study: In this cohort study, oseltamivir treatment during influenza episodes was associated with a reduced risk of serious neuropsychiatric events among children and adolescents. These findings support oseltamivir use for prevention of these influenza-related complications. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, James W. Antoon, MD, PhD, MPH, email james.antoon@vumc.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2025.1995) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial, among East Asian adults with overweight or obesity, with or without type 2 diabetes, oral semaglutide, 50 mg, led to a superior and clinically meaningful reduction in body weight compared with placebo, with a safety profile consistent with the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist class.  Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Takashi Kadowaki, MD, PhD, (t-kadowaki@toranomon.kkr.or.jp) and Kyoung-Kon Kim, MD, PhD, (zaduplum@gilhospital.com). To access the embargoed ...

About The Study: This study found that nearly 17 million adolescents and young adults were eligible for glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) therapy. One in 5 young adults eligible for GLP-1RAs were uninsured and one-third denied having a routine place for health care—a barrier to identifying, treating, and preventing cardio-kidney-metabolic diseases.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Ashwin K. Chetty, BS, email ashwin.chetty@yale.edu. To ...

A new study from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus finds that older adults become more socially active after moving into long-term care communities like nursing homes or assisted living facilities but we might not all benefit equally. The study was published today in JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers analyzed data from more than 600 Americans aged 65 and older who moved into a nursing home or assisted living facility between 2011 and 2019 through the National Health and Aging Trends Study. The average participant was 85-years-old when they moved. “Long-term care communities can be an important source of help ...

A team of Chinese researchers led by Prof. GAO Caixia from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed two new genome editing technologies, known collectively as Programmable Chromosome Engineering (PCE) systems. The study, published online in Cell on August 4, achieves multiple types of precise DNA manipulations ranging from kilobase to megabase scale in higher organisms, especially plants. Extensive research has demonstrated the immense potential of the site-specific recombinase Cre-Lox ...