Intestinal bacteria are important for human health as they help digest food and regulate immune function. Thus, in recent years, it has become clear that gut microbiota dysbiosis, an imbalance in types and composition of intestinal bacteria, is associated with digestive disorders and other diseases. However, the mechanism by which bacteria interact in the intestine to maintain the microbiota balance remains unclear. A research group led by Associate Professor Koji Hosomi at Osaka Metropolitan University’s Graduate School of Veterinary Science studied two bacteria: Fusobacterium varium (F. varium), an oral and intestinal bacterium linked to inflammation and colon ...

Hearing loss is the most common form of sensory disability. Approximately 1.6 billion people around the world currently live with from some degree of hearing loss, and the WHO has forecast that this number will rise to 2.5 billion by 2050. People with hearing loss tend to experience more stress and anxiety at school or work, and as a result take more days off sick. The annual global cost of unaddressed hearing loss may run to $1 trillion. Now, a long-term observational study has found that young adults with hearing difficulties in the US have less educational ...

Dr. Jung-Dae Kwon's research team at the Energy & Environmental Materials Research Division of the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS, President Chul-Jin Choi) has successfully developed an amorphous silicon optoelectronic device with minimal defects, even using a low-temperature process at 90°C. Notably, the team overcame the limitations of high-temperature processing by precisely controlling the hydrogen dilution ratio—the ratio of hydrogen to silane (SiH₄) gas—enabling the fabrication of high-performance ...

Trigger warnings may not help students feel more supported, but safe space messages do. A new study found that being told they were in a ‘safe space’ made students feel more comfortable, trusting, and positive toward the person delivering them. Researchers from Flinders University and collaborators in the United States studied the responses of 738 U.S based university students. Each student watched a short trauma-related lecture introduced by an instructor with either a trigger warning, a safe space message, both, or neither. Students ...

A synthetic opioid 1000 times more potent than morphine is infiltrating the street drug trade in Adelaide, Australia, sparking fears of a wave of overdoses that could be lethal. In the first study of its kind in South Australia, University of South Australia researchers have detected traces of nitazene in samples of discarded injecting equipment, plastic bags, vials and filters from public disposal bins at local needle and syringe program sites. Their findings are published today in the Drug & Alcohol Review. Using highly sensitive ...

Researchers from RMIT University have developed a wearable wound monitoring device with integrated sensors that could reduce infection risks by minimising the need for frequent physical contact. Standard methods require regular removal of wound dressings for assessments, often delaying crucial interventions, whereas this invention monitors healing remotely via a Bluetooth connection. The proof-of-concept device is designed for reuse, making it more cost-effective and practical than disposable smart bandages ...

A new study by Bournemouth University (BU) and University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) has revealed the benefits of spinning for patients with hip osteoarthritis. The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and will be published in Lancet Rheumatology at 23:30 UK time on Thursday 31st July 2025.  Participants within the study who took part in the weekly cycling and education sessions reported better recovery outcomes compared to participants who undertook regular physiotherapy. The results reveal that better outcomes for patients can be achieved in a group setting using the cycling and ...

LA JOLLA (July 31, 2025)—Proteins sustain life as we know it, serving many important structural and functional roles throughout the body. But these large molecules have cast a long shadow over a smaller subclass of proteins called microproteins. Microproteins have been lost in the 99% of DNA disregarded as “noncoding”—hiding in vast, dark stretches of unexplored genetic code. But despite being small and elusive, their impact may be just as big as larger proteins. Salk Institute scientists are now exploring the mysterious dark side of the genome in search of microproteins. With their new tool ShortStop, researchers ...

Researchers at The City College of New York have linked chemotherapy treatment to lasting cognitive changes in rats – potentially shading light, for the first time, on cognitive problems some cancer survivors experience long after treatment ends. Entitled “Chemotherapy treatment alters DNA methylation patterns in the prefrontal cortex of female rat brain,” the study appears in the journal Nature: Scientific Reports. “Our study explored how chemotherapy affects the brain at the molecular level using an animal ...

Heart attacks remain a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. The permanent loss of heart muscle cells—known as cardiomyocytes—and the heart’s limited regenerative capacity often led to chronic heart failure. Current treatment strategies manage symptoms but do not repair the underlying damage. Now, researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University have identified a new strategy that may help repair damaged heart tissue by reactivating an important developmental gene. In a study published in Theranostics, a multidisciplinary team led by Raj Kishore, PhD, Laura H. Carnell Professor, Vera J. Goodfriend ...

New research published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology reveals how extremist groups are exploiting the popularity of video games to recruit and radicalise impressionable users.   The study shows that gaming-adjacent platforms, which allow users to chat and live stream while playing, are being used as “digital playgrounds” for extremist activity and that video game players are being deliberately “funnelled” by extremists from mainstream social media platforms to these sites, in part ...

Despite national guidelines, state laws and known safety benefits of child passenger restraint systems (CRS), suboptimal practices were found in nearly 70% of children under 13 years old who were involved in car crashes with a fatality from 2011 to 2021, according to a study published in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention. “Given the continued problem of suboptimal child passenger safety practices among children across the country, there is a need for innovative, targeted programs to promote correct and consistent use of age-appropriate car seats, ...

About one quarter of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) may be treated and derive a benefit with the current standard chemotherapy. To better understand why some tumors resist chemotherapy and identify better ways to treat those cancers, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have conducted a detailed molecular analysis of MIBC tumors. The results, published in Cell Reports Medicine, offer potential new ways to identify which patients will benefit from chemotherapy and reveal possible new treatment strategies. “One of our goals was to identify molecular markers in patient tumors that would help us predict which patients were ...

You may have heard the phrase “my heart skipped a beat” when someone was talking about a romantic encounter. In truth, hearts that beat irregularly are dangerous for your health. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of irregular heartbeat, and over time, it can worsen and become a permanent condition, a severe disorder that’s the leading preventable cause of ischemic stroke, according to the NIH. Nicolae Moise, a research scientist in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Ohio State University ...

Doorbell cameras are already used for home security. But what if they could save you money on your water bill?  Researchers from Texas A&M University have developed an innovative irrigation system that combines doorbell cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) to make lawn irrigation more efficient. Their recently published paper details this sustainable irrigation system, dubbed ERIC by the researchers.  The ERIC system makes home irrigation smarter, leading to increased efficiency and sustainability. The study shows that ERIC can help users save ...

Measuring elevated levels of insulin in blood, called hyperinsulinemia, is a proven way to measure metabolic health and can show risk of developing future health concerns, including Type 2 diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Now, a team of UBC Okanagan researchers has found that measuring insulin levels in saliva offers a non-invasive way to do the same test—without the need for needles or lab-based blood work. Dr. Jonathan Little, Professor with UBC Okanagan’s School of Health and Exercise Sciences, says that a simple spit ...

Rather than completely burning up when a spacecraft reenters Earth’s atmosphere, its heat shield’s outer surface is sacrificed to protect the rest of the vehicle. The carbon fibers decompose, dissipating the heat. It was assumed that this only happens on the surface, but in a recent study, researchers from The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and four other institutions gained new information about how the protective carbon fiber material evolves, not just at the surface, but beneath, where structural failure could occur and threaten the life of the vehicle. According ...

Animals that hibernate are incredibly resilient. They can spend months without food or water, muscles refusing to atrophy, body temperature dropping to near freezing as their metabolism and brain activity slow to a crawl. When they emerge from hibernation, they recover from dangerous health changes similar to those seen in type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and stroke. New genetic research suggests that hibernating animals’ superpowers could lie hidden in our own DNA—and provides ...

As early humans spread from lush African forests into grasslands, their need for ready sources of energy led them to develop a taste for grassy plants, especially grains and the starchy plant tissue hidden underground. But a new Dartmouth-led study shows that hominins began feasting on these carbohydrate-rich foods before they had the ideal teeth to do so. The study provides the first evidence from the human fossil record of behavioral drive, wherein behaviors beneficial for survival emerge before the physical adaptations that make it easier, the researchers report in Science. The study authors analyzed ...

In a Policy Forum, Rishi Bommasani et al. argue that successful artificial intelligence (AI) policy must be grounded in solid evidence and scientific understanding rather than hype or political expediency. “AI policymaking should place a premium on evidence: Scientific understanding and systematic analysis should inform policy, and policy should accelerate evidence generation,” write Bommasani et al. Although developing sound AI policy hinges on clearly defining and effectively using credible evidence, the authors ...

In a Review, Tiffany Morrison and colleagues discuss the risks associated with rapidly emerging marine-climate intervention approaches. Because current governance systems are ill-suited to the scale and novelty of these new interventions, the authors argue, new regulatory frameworks are urgently needed to balance risk and reward, avoid harm, and ensure that ocean-based climate solutions are safe, equitable, and effective. Rapid climate-driven changes are occurring in marine ecosystems worldwide. As ...

Aging selectively impairs the production of crucial DNA- and RNA-binding proteins, which contributes to hallmarks of aging in the brains of killifish, according to a new study. The findings advance our understanding of the relationship between aging and the risk of pathologies including neurodegenerative disease. “A critical next step will be to determine whether these mechanisms are conserved in mammals, particularly in humans, where translational control is intricately linked to neurodegeneration and other age-associated diseases,” ...

New isotopic and fossil evidence suggests that early primates, including hominins, began eating grasses long before their bodies evolved the traits needed to process them efficiently – findings that support the long-hypothesized concept of behavioral drive, researchers report. The concept of behavioral drive – the idea that major shifts in animal behavior can lead to new selective pressures and, ultimately, catalyze the evolution of new physical traits – has long shaped evolutionary theory. However, detecting behavioral drive in the fossil record is challenging because behaviors are often inferred from physical traits, making it difficult to assess them independently ...

Climate interventions are accelerating in our oceans – but without responsible governance, they could do more harm than good, according to new research. Coral bleaching, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss are no longer distant threats – they are unfolding now, with profound consequences for marine ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. In response, scientists, governments, and industries are racing to develop and deploy a suite of interventions to help the ocean respond to climate change. The new study, published today in Science, reviewed the array of novel interventions that are being used in urgent ...

In brief: Using 35 years of satellite data, researchers observed a consistent pattern for ice cloud formation stemming from desert dust in the atmosphere. The way clouds freeze is vital piece of the puzzle for climate models. For the first time, researchers demonstrate that ice formation follows the same pattern at different scales expanding the scope of this type of research. A new study shows that natural dust particles, swirling in from faraway deserts can trigger freezing of clouds in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere. This subtle mechanism influences how much sunlight clouds reflect and how they produce rain and snow — with major implications for climate ...