MADISON — How and when did dinosaurs first emerge and spread across the planet more than 200 million years ago? That question has for decades been a source of debate among paleontologists faced with fragmented fossil records. The mainstream view has held that the reptiles emerged on the southern portion of the ancient supercontinent Pangea called Gondwana millions of years before spreading to the northern half named Laurasia.             But now, a newly described dinosaur whose fossils were uncovered by University of Wisconsin–Madison paleontologists is challenging ...

-With images-   Scientists at Durham University have developed a theoretical framework to predict the efficacy of quenching of electrical pulses in excitable media, such as those found in the human heart.   This breakthrough could significantly accelerate the development of more efficient defibrillation techniques for treating cardiac arrhythmias.   The study, published in Physical Review E, addresses a longstanding challenge in understanding how stable excitation waves in systems like cardiac tissue can be effectively neutralised through small changes.   These electrical waves, when irregular, are thought to underly serious conditions such as fibrillation, ...

Around the globe day and night, the microelectronics behind much of modern technology help run computers, medical devices and state-of-the-art instruments that power scientific discoveries. But all of that technology consumes energy, and adding artificial intelligence to the mix increases our energy needs dramatically. Some experts caution that this pace of energy usage is unsustainable. To tackle this challenge, the Department of Energy (DOE) has announced funding $179 million for three Microelectronics ...

Researchers from Southern Methodist University and University of Michigan published a new Journal of Marketing study that examines platforms’ A-B testing of online ads and uncovers significant limitations that can create misleading conclusions about ad performance. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Where A-B Testing Goes Wrong: How Divergent Delivery Affects What Online Experiments Cannot (and Can) Tell You About How Customers Respond to Advertising” and is authored by Michael Braun and Eric M. Schwartz. Consider a landscaping company whose designs focus ...

A recent study analyzing data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) found that past-year recreational ketamine use among adults has increased dramatically since 2015, including significant shifts in associations with depression and sociodemographic characteristics such as race, age and education status. Ketamine use has shown promise in clinical trials therapy for several mental illnesses, including treatment-resistant depression, and the new research suggests that ongoing monitoring of recreational use trends is crucial to balancing these ...

A study of Chinese agriculture recommends planting areas currently growing maize and rapeseed with alternative crops to reduce environmental costs while maximizing food production as the climate changes.  Chinese food production has nearly doubled since the 1980s, mainly thanks to intensified nutrient usage and irrigation. Given that China’s demand for food is forecast to increase further, Qi Guan and colleagues modeled the country’s agricultural system under varying climate change scenarios in the 21st century, using a dynamic global vegetation model. The authors created scenarios ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – In a large-animal model study, researchers have found that heart attack recovery is aided by injection of heart muscle cell spheroids derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells, or hiPSCs, that overexpress cyclin D2 and are knocked out for human leukocyte antigen classes I and II. This research, published in the journal Circulation Research, used a pig model of heart attacks. Pig hearts more closely resemble the human heart in size and physiology, and thus have a higher clinical relevance to human disease, compared to studies in mice. University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers, led by Jianyi “Jay” ...

Recycling takes place in our cells at all times: in a process called autophagy, cell components that are no longer needed are enclosed by membranes and broken down into their basic building blocks. This vital process prevents the formation of harmful aggregates and makes nutrients available again. A research team co-led by Prof. Dr. Claudine Kraft from the CIBSS Cluster of Excellence at the University of Freiburg and Dr. Florian Wilfling from the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt has now discovered the conditions necessary for autophagy to start. They were also able ...

New Haven, Conn. — If you like the smell of spring roses, the sounds of summer birdsong, and the colors of fall foliage, you have the stabilization of the ozone layer to thank for it. Located in the stratosphere, where it shields the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation, the ozone layer plays a key role in preserving the planet’s biodiversity. And now we may have a better idea of why that took so long — more than 2 billion years — to happen. According to a new, Yale-led study, ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, January 7, 2025 Contact: Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu  Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu  ##  More than half of US college students experienced alcohol-related harms caused by others, according to the first national probability-based survey of such harms conducted in 20 years. The findings, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review in December, shed light on how others’ drinking affects students’ health, academics, and safety.  “Our research ...

URBANA, Ill.– Food drying is a common process for preserving many types of food, including fruits and meat; however, drying can alter the food’s quality and nutritional value. In recent years, researchers have developed precision techniques that use optical sensors and AI to facilitate more efficient drying. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign discusses three emerging smart drying techniques, providing practical information for the food industry. “With traditional drying systems, you need to remove samples to monitor the process. But with smart drying, or precision drying, you can continuously ...

The typical cost of developing new medications may not be as high as generally believed, with a few ultra-costly medications skewing public discussions about the cost of pharmaceutical research and development, according to a new RAND study.  Using a novel method to assess spending on research and development for 38 drugs that were recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, researchers found that the mean, or average, cost of developing a new drug was much higher than the mid-point (median) cost of development.  Researchers estimated a median direct research and development cost of $150 million compared to a mean of $369 million.  Costs ...

HERSHEY, Pa. — Autoimmune diseases, where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own healthy cells and tissues, often have a preclinical stage before diagnosis that’s characterized by mild symptoms or certain antibodies in the blood. However, in some people, these symptoms may resolve before culminating in the full disease stage. Knowing who may progress along the disease pathway is critical for early diagnosis and intervention, improved treatment and better disease management, according to a team led by researchers from the ...

Love doesn’t come with an instruction manual, but for autistic adults seeking to navigate the complexities of romance, a UCLA Health program offers a roadmap to finding and sustaining meaningful relationships through the launch of a new research study, called PEERS for Dating. Led by the UCLA Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relationship Skills (PEERS) Clinic, the new 20-week program aims to demystify the often complex social rules surrounding dating and help participants gain a deeper understanding of relationship dynamics “Romantic relationships can be transformative, but for many autistic adults, the path to connection can feel uncertain,” ...

How would you summarize your study for a lay audience? Our research focuses on sleep spindles—short bursts of brain activity during sleep that are crucial for stabilizing sleep and supporting memory. Sleep spindles are of great interest because changes in spindle activity have been linked to many neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and autism. While many factors influence when and how these spindles occur, such as sleep stages or brain rhythms, we discovered that short-term patterns, like a musical rhythm spanning just a few seconds, play the most ...

Researchers from Princeton University and the University of Arizona have created a simulation that maps underground water on a continental scale. The result of three years’ work studying groundwater from coast to coast, the findings plot the unseen path that each raindrop or melted snowflake takes before reemerging in freshwater streams, following water from land surface to depths far below and back up again, emerging up to 100 miles away, after spending from 10 to 100,000 years underground. The simulation, published Jan. 6 in the journal Nature Water, shows that rainfall and snowmelt ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A diverse group of 164 undergraduate students and six faculty will participate in unique workforce development programs at 11 of the nation’s national laboratories and a fusion facility during Spring 2025.     This opportunity is part of a continuing effort by the Department of Energy (DOE) to ensure the nation has a strong, sustained workforce trained in the skills needed to address the energy, environment, and national security challenges of today and tomorrow.   “The ...

January 7, 2025, Mountain View, CA -- The SETI Institute announces the 2024 SETI Forward Award recipients: Gabriella Rizzo and Pritvik Sinhadc. This year's recipients worked on research projects to understand extremophiles in deep-sea hydrothermal vents and to analyze gravitational wave signals for potential extraterrestrial technosignatures. Established by Lew Levy, SETI Forward committee founder and member of the SETI Institute’s Council of Advisors, this award is a beacon for promising young scientists. The goal is to connect students with opportunities that foster their ...

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) has announced the 2024 Leading Research Achievements by BBRF grantees, prizewinners, and scientific council members. It includes important studies of suicide, childhood anxiety, depression, eating disorders, cocaine addiction, and other aspects of brain and behavior illness. The 2024 Leading Research Achievements are: Suicide Risk Fluctuates Across the Menstrual Cycle, Affecting Different Women Differently Tory Anne Eisenlohr-Moul, Ph.D., University of Illinois, Chicago Preliminary Trial of Psychoactive ...

Florida Atlantic University has named Lewis S. Nelson, M.D., as the new dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. Nelson previously served as professor and inaugural chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology and Addiction Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, and chief of the Emergency Department at University Hospital of Newark, a public safety net hospital. He assumed his role as dean on Jan. 6.  Nelson has more than 30 years of academic and clinical leadership experience with a proven record of fostering innovation, research, and clinical excellence. During his eight-year tenure ...

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 7, 2025 – A study led by the University of California, Irvine has found cardiovascular conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, which are known to contribute to brain blood vessel damage in younger populations, not to be associated with an increased risk of such harm in individuals 90 and older.   The work, published online today in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, suggests that the relationship among blood pressure, vascular health and brain aging is more complex than previously thought.   “For decades, we’ve known that factors like high blood ...

Concussions and repetitive head trauma in sports like football and boxing, once accepted as an unpleasant consequence of intense athletic competition, are now recognized as serious health threats. Of particular concern is the connection between head injuries and neurodegenerative diseases such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease, prompting sports governing bodies to adjust protective equipment and rules of play to minimize the risk. Researchers at Tufts University and Oxford University have now uncovered mechanisms that may ...

Crucial research on brain diseases Neural implants are crucial in order to study the brain and develop treatments for patients with diseases like Parkinson's or clinical depression. Neural implants electrically stimulate, block, or record signals from neurons or neural networks in the brain. For study and treatment, and specifically for chronic use, these neural implants must be durable. "Miniaturized neural implants have enormous potential to transform healthcare, but their long-term stability in the body ...

SAN ANTONIO — January 7, 2025 —A NASA postdoctoral researcher at Southwest Research Institute has used advanced models that indicate that the formation of Pluto and Charon may parallel that of the Earth-Moon system. Both systems include a moon that is a large fraction of the size of the main body, unlike other moons in the solar system. The scenario also could support Pluto’s active geology and possible subsurface ocean, despite its location at the frozen edge of the solar system. “We ...

An analysis led by New York University researchers determines which public policies effectively prevent suicide deaths in the United States. But it’s not just policies that limit firearms and expand access to health care—many economic and social policies that are not explicitly focused on mental health can also prevent suicide, according to their article published in the Annual Review of Public Health. “Most of the policies that demonstrate evidence do not mention suicide and were not passed to prevent ...