Seven Australopithecus specimens uncovered at the Sterkfontein fossil site in South Africa were herbivorous hominins who did not eat substantial amounts of meat, according to a new study by Tina Lüdecke and colleagues. Lüdecke et al. analyzed organic nitrogen and carbonate carbon isotopes extracted from tooth enamel in the fossil specimens to determine the hominin diets. Some researchers have hypothesized that the incorporation of animal-based foods in early hominin diets led to increased brain size, smaller gut size ...

Guided by a multimodal generative language model called ESM3, Thomas Hayes and colleagues generated and synthesized a previously unknown bright fluorescent protein, with a genetic sequence so different from known fluorescent proteins that the researchers say its creation is equivalent to ESM3 simulating 500 million years of biological evolution. The model could provide a new way to “search” the space of protein possibilities with an eye to better understanding how naturally evolved proteins work, as well as developing novel proteins for uses in medicine, environmental remediation, and a host of other applications. ESM3 can reason over protein ...

You can probably complete an amazing number of tasks with your hands without looking at them. But if you put on gloves that muffle your sense of touch, many of those simple tasks become frustrating. Take away proprioception — your ability to sense your body’s relative position and movement — and you might even end up breaking an object or injuring yourself. “Most people don’t realize how often they rely on touch instead of vision — typing, walking, picking up a flimsy cup of water,” said Charles Greenspon, PhD, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago. “If you can’t feel, you have ...

EVANSTON, Il. --- In a remarkable feat of chemistry, a Northwestern University-led research team has developed the first two-dimensional (2D) mechanically interlocked material. Resembling the interlocking links in chainmail, the nanoscale material exhibits exceptional flexibility and strength. With further work, it holds promise for use in high-performance, light-weight body armor and other uses that demand lightweight, flexible and tough materials. Publishing on Friday (Jan. 17) in the journal ...

Increasingly common since 1980, persistent multi-year droughts will continue to advance with the warming climate, warns a study from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research (WSL), with Professor Francesca Pellicciotti from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) participating. This publicly available forty-year global quantitative inventory, now published in Science, seeks to inform policy regarding the environmental impact of human-induced climate change. It also detected previously ‘overlooked’ events. Fifteen years of a persistent, devastating megadrought—the longest lasting in a thousand years—have nearly dried out ...

When we think about the immune system, we usually associate it with fighting infections. However, a study published in Science by the Champalimaud Foundation reveals a surprising new role. During periods of low energy—such as intermittent fasting or exercise—immune cells step in to regulate blood sugar levels, acting as the “postman” in a previously unknown three-way conversation between the nervous, immune and hormonal systems. These findings open up new approaches for managing conditions like diabetes, obesity, and cancer. Rethinking the Immune ...

The trick to creating a better quantum sensor? Just give it a little squeeze. For the first time ever, scientists have used a technique called “quantum squeezing” to improve the gas sensing performance of devices known as optical frequency comb lasers. These ultra-precise sensors are like fingerprint scanners for molecules of gas. Scientists have used them to spot methane leaks in the air above oil and gas operations and signs of COVID-19 infections in breath samples from humans. Now, in a series of lab experiments, researchers have laid out a path for making those kinds of measurements even more sensitive and faster—doubling the speed of ...

New research co-led by the University of Maryland reveals that drought and increased temperatures in a CO2-rich climate can dramatically alter how grasslands use and move water. The study provides the first experimental demonstration of the potential impacts of climate change on water movement through grassland ecosystems, which make up nearly 40% of Earth’s land area and play a critical role in Earth’s water cycle. The study appears in the January 17, 2025, issue of the journal Science. “If we want to predict the effects of climate change ...

EMBARGO: THIST CONTENT IS UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 2 PM U.S. EASTERN STANDARD TIME ON JANUARY 16, 2025. INTERESTED MEDIA MAY RECIVE A PREVIEW COPY OF THE JOURNAL ARTICLE IN ADVANCE OF THAT DATE OR CONDUCT INTERVIEWS, BUT THE INFORMATION MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, OR POSTED ONLINE UNTIL AFTER THE RELEASE WINDOW.  Researchers at Colorado State University and their partners have developed an adhesive polymer that is stronger than current commercially available options while also being biodegradable ...

The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded a significant grant of $1.5 million to Jianyang Du, PhD, of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, for a research study aimed at uncovering the cellular and molecular mechanisms that lead to neurological disorders caused by long COVID-19. Dr. Du is an associate professor at the College of Medicine in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. Colleen Jonsson, PhD, director of the UT Health Science Center Regional Biocontainment Laboratory and professor in the Department of Microbiology, is co-investigator on the grant, and Kun Li, PhD, assistant ...

A University of Massachusetts Amherst-Ernest Pharmaceuticals team of scientists has made “exciting,” patient-friendly advances in developing a non-toxic bacterial therapy, BacID, to deliver cancer-fighting drugs directly into tumors. This emerging technology holds promise for very safe and more effective treatment of cancers with high mortality rates, including liver, ovarian and metastatic breast cancer. Clinical trials with participating cancer patients are estimated to begin in 2027. “This is exciting because we now have all the critical pieces for getting an effective bacterial ...

Siblings share a unique bond built from shared memories, family rituals and the occasional argument. But ask almost anyone with a brother or sister and you’ll likely find a longstanding debate: who’s the favorite? New research from BYU sheds some light on that playful rivalry, revealing how parents might subtly show favoritism based on birth order, personality and gender. The study, conducted by BYU School of Family Life professor Alex Jensen, found that younger siblings generally receive more favorable ...

A mussel bed along Northern California’s Dillon Beach is as healthy and biodiverse as it was about 80 years ago, when two young students surveyed it shortly before Pearl Harbor was attacked and one was sent to fight in World War II.  Their unpublished, typewritten manuscript sat in the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory’s library for years until UC Davis scientists found it and decided to resurvey the exact same mussel bed with the old paper’s meticulous photos and maps directing their way. The new findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, document ...

ATLANTA, January 16, 2025 — The American Cancer Society (ACS) today released Cancer Statistics, 2025, the organization’s annual report on cancer facts and trends. The new findings show the cancer mortality rate declined by 34% from 1991 to 2022 in the United States, averting approximately 4.5 million deaths. However, this steady progress is jeopardized by increasing incidence for many cancer types, especially among women and younger adults, shifting the burden of disease. For example, incidence rates in women 50-64 years of age have surpassed those in ...

“[…] the results of this study indicate that pioglitazone might be useful in treating refractory skin ulcers, a typical condition that reduces the quality of life of patients with WS.” BUFFALO, NY- January 16, 2025 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as “Aging (Albany NY)” and “Aging-US” by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 22 on December 2, 2024, entitled “Less frequent skin ulcers among patients with Werner syndrome treated with pioglitazone: findings from the Japanese Werner Syndrome Registry.” Scientists ...

Scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Harvard Medical School, and McLean Hospital have discovered a surprising mechanism by which the inherited genetic mutation known to cause Huntington’s disease leads to the death of brain cells. The findings change the understanding of the fatal neurodegenerative disorder and suggest potential ways to delay or even prevent it. For 30 years, researchers have known that Huntington’s is caused by an inherited mutation in the Huntingtin (HTT) gene, but they didn’t ...

Scientists from Delft, Vienna, and Lausanne discovered that the protein machines that shape our DNA can switch direction. Until now, researchers believed that these so-called SMC motors that make loops into DNA could move in one direction only. The discovery, which is published in Cell, is key to understanding how these motors shape our genome and regulate our genes. Connecting DNA “Sometimes, a cell needs to be quick in changing which genes should be expressed and which ones should be turned off, for example in response to food, alcohol or heat. To turn genes off and on, cells use Structural Maintenance ...

An early human ancestor of our species successfully navigated harsher and more arid terrains for longer in Eastern Africa than previously thought, according to a new study published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment. Homo erectus, the first of our relatives to have human-like proportions and the first known early human to migrate out of Africa, was the focus of the new study led by the international research team. The researchers analysed evidence from Engaji Nanyori in Tanzania’s Oldupai Gorge, revealing Homo erectus thrived ...

Homo erectus was able to adapt to and survive in desert-like environments at least 1.2 million years ago, according to a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment. The findings suggest that behavioural adaptations included returning repeatedly over thousands of years to specific rivers and ponds for fresh water, and the development of specialised tools. The authors propose that this capability to adapt may have led to the expansion of H. erectus’ geographic range. There has been significant debate over ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of Medicaid beneficiaries with schizophrenia, telemental health care diffused rapidly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in state-operated agencies. Together, agency-level and beneficiary-level race and ethnicity findings suggest within-agency racial and ethnic differences in diffusion of telemental health care. States should monitor the diffusion of innovations across vulnerable populations.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Sharon-Lise Normand, PhD, email sharon@hcp.med.harvard.edu. Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This ...

About The Study: In this serial cross-sectional analysis of people ages 15 to 49 before Dobbs and 1 year after Dobbs, findings suggested that national support for expanded access to medication abortion has grown. Alternative models of care, such as advance provision and over-the-counter, have the potential to offer a promising approach to abortion care, particularly for people living in abortion-restricted states.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, M. Antonia Biggs, PhD, email antonia.biggs@ucsf.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit ...

Francis Crick Institute press release Under strict embargo: 16:00hrs GMT Thursday 16 January 2025 Peer reviewed Observational study People and cells Protein level predicts immunotherapy response in bowel cancer Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, have shown that the amount of a protein called CD74 can indicate which people with bowel cancer may respond best to immunotherapy. If integrated into the clinic, testing for this protein could potentially allow hundreds of previously ineligible patients to benefit ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Young nearsighted kids who wear bifocal contact lenses that slow uncoordinated eye growth do not lose the benefits of the treatment once they stop wearing the lenses, new research shows. The study is a follow-up to a clinical trial published in 2020 showing that soft multifocal contact lenses with a heavy dose of added reading power dramatically slowed further progression of myopia in kids as young as 7 years old. Researchers wondered if discontinuing that treatment might cause a rebound of faster-than-normal eye growth that wipes out the benefit. In the new trial, nearsighted kids wore ...

Background and Aims The quantitative effects of alcohol consumption on cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are unknown. This study aimed to establish a dose-dependent model of alcohol consumption on the risks of cirrhosis and HCC. Methods PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and four Chinese databases were searched for studies published from their inception to 15 May 2024. A random-effects model was used to pool the data on the incidence of cirrhosis and HCC, and a dose-dependent model of alcohol’s effect on cirrhosis and HCC was established. Results A total of 33,272 HBV patients ...

January 16, 2025 – New York, NY – The International Alliance for Primary Immunodeficiency Societies (IAPIDS) and Rockefeller University Press (RUP) have entered a partnership to launch Journal of Human Immunity (JHI), the official open access journal of IAPIDS. This collaboration will ensure that JHI emerges as the destination for exciting research into human immunity, with a particular focus on inborn errors of immunity. “The Journal of Human Immunity represents a bold step forward in advancing ...