New UC Riverside-led research suggests Alzheimer’s arises not simply from plaques forming in the brain, as is widely believed, but from one protein interfering with the normal job of another.  For decades, much Alzheimer’s research has focused on the idea that clumps of amyloid beta or a-beta proteins cause the disease. Genetic mutations that increase a-beta are known to trigger early onset Alzheimer’s, reinforcing this view.  Yet thousands of clinical trials aimed at removing a-beta have failed to stop or reverse the disease.  Scientists ...

Infectious diseases are a major cause of death worldwide, and diagnosing bacterial infections remains a challenge in medicine. And doing so reliably is more important than ever, given the increasing frequency of antibiotic resistance. Now, research published in ACS Central Science could help healthcare professionals non-invasively diagnose bacterial infections, using breath-based tests. Initial experiments demonstrated the approach in animals with pneumonia and infections in the bloodstream, muscles and bones.  “In designing this study, we were motivated by a developing trend in ...

For more than a century, heparin has been the go-to anticoagulant to prevent harmful blood clots in blood vessels or the heart from forming or getting larger. However, a major side effect is an increased risk of excessive bleeding, even from minor injuries like small cuts on the skin. In ACS Central Science, researchers report the discovery of a snail-derived compound that blocks clot formation while still preserving bleeding control in mouse models.  Blood clots are natural temporary bandages that ...

Companies invest heavily in breakthrough technologies, from industrial software to AI-powered platforms. Yet many radical innovations fail not because customers reject them, but because sales teams hesitate to promote them. A new study by ESMT Berlin reveals a key psychological barrier behind this hesitation: salespeople’s fear of “losing face” in front of customers.  The study was co-authored by Bianca Schmitz (ESMT), Julian Schmalstieg (Freie Universität Berlin), Olaf Ploetner (ESMT), Andreas Eggert (Freie Universität Berlin), and Johannes Habel (University of Houston). The article ...

The trajectory of base editing has been remarkable, progressing from the laboratory to patient care, treating debilitating or terminal illnesses, in less than a decade. A type of gene editing that makes chemical changes to our DNA, base editing was developed by Alexis Komor, associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the University of California San Diego. For all of base editing’s success, it is still a relatively new technology, and researchers like Komor are working to improve its efficiency, while lowering ...

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (03/18/2026) — University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers working on the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) experiment are part of a team who successfully cooled the experiment to its base temperature—the temperature required for the superconducting detectors to become operational, which is hundreds of times colder than outer space. Reaching base temperature marks a major transition for SuperCDMS, from construction and installation to commissioning and science operations. For SuperCDMS, that temperature is thousandths of a degree ...

A team of researchers co-led by the University of California San Diego, University of Michigan, and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) at Laboratory of Acoustics of Le Mans University has demonstrated a new way to remotely control how a material behaves — using sound. The findings could lead to the development of protective gear, robotic muscles or medical implants that adjust their stiffness on demand. In a study published in Nature Communications, the team showed for the first ...

A powerful new real-world data platform could transform how scientists predict and understand Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease related dementias (AD/ADRD), reports a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and collaborators at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the School of Nursing as well as the University of Miami and University of Chicago. The project, known as the M3AD Study and Real-World Data Metaplatform, represents one of the most ...

Approximately 43 percent of the world’s population is infected with this bacterium. It can cause chronic inflammation of the stomach lining, lead to gastric ulcers, and is considered a key risk factor for stomach cancer. Standard therapies are primarily based on the antibiotic metronidazole. However, H. pylori is becoming increasingly resistant to it. As a result, ever higher doses and combinations with additional antibiotics are required. The team led by Prof. Stephan A. Sieber, Chair of Organic Chemistry II at the TUM School of ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people worldwide, yet the illness is hardest to catch at the very beginning, when new treatments may work best. In a new study, Duke Health researchers show that a quick, outpatient nasal swab can pick up early biological changes linked to Alzheimer’s, even before thinking and memory problems appear. The study, published March 18 in Nature Communications, used a gentle swab placed high inside the nose to collect nerve and immune cells. When researchers analyzed these cells, they found clear patterns that separated people with early or diagnosed Alzheimer’s from ...

Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new type of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) that could one day serve as a universal immunotherapy for cancers that form solid tumors, including common variants such as cancers of the breast, liver and colon. One of the greatest challenges in immunotherapy is the exhaustion of T cells, the white blood cells responsible for detecting and destroying cancer cells. Many tumors produce an enzyme called IDO that dampens immune activity. Over time, exposure to the harsh environment ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- One of the symptoms of schizophrenia is difficulty incorporating new information about the world. This can lead patients to struggle with making decisions and, eventually, to lose touch with reality. MIT neuroscientists have now identified a gene mutation that appears to give rise to this type of difficulty. In a study of mice, the researchers found that the mutated gene impairs the function of a brain circuit that is responsible for updating beliefs based on new input. This mutation, in a gene called grin2a, was originally identified in a large-scale screen of patients with schizophrenia. The new study suggests that ...

Proteins, one of the smallest building blocks of life on Earth, hold promise for answering some of biology’s biggest questions. Consisting of amino acids strung together into peptide chains, these molecules perform much of the work inside living cells. While they execute life’s most essential functions with apparent ease, decoding their precise sequence and structure has long been one of biology’s hardest challenges. Now, a team led by bioengineers at Stanford University has developed a novel approach to visualize proteins at unprecedented scale and sensitivity. The work, ...

Researchers at the University of Konstanz have uncovered a new mechanism of sliding friction: resistance to motion that arises without any mechanical contact, driven purely by collective magnetic dynamics. The study shows that friction does not necessarily increase steadily with load, as postulated by Amontons’ law – one of the oldest and most fundamental empirical laws of physics – but can instead exhibit a pronounced maximum when internal magnetic ordering becomes frustrated. For more than three centuries, Amontons’ law has linked friction directly to load, reflecting the everyday experience ...

Researchers at the University of St Andrews have unveiled two breakthrough techniques for chemically recycling and upcycling nitrile‑rubber products, such as disposable gloves, seals, and industrial parts, into new materials that are also capable of capturing carbon dioxide.  The development of sustainable methods for the upcycling of plastic waste is one of the most important challenges in achieving a circular economy and can play a significant role in tackling the climate crisis.   Among ...

Leptomeningeal metastasis occurs when cancer spreads to the thin layers of tissue and fluid that surround the brain and spinal cord  Treatment for leptomeningeal metastasis is limited, and the disease often has poor outcomes  Targeted therapy plus chemotherapy regime is found to be safe and effective in Phase II trial  HOUSTON, MARCH 18, 2026 ― Patients with leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) have historically had few treatment options. ...

Sea ice around Antarctica expanded for several decades until a dramatic decline in 2015. The reasons behind this are revealed by research from the University of Gothenburg. Antarctic sea ice plays a crucial role in the ecosystem and physical environment of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Since the ice reflects the sun's rays and blocks heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, it is critical to our weather and climate. Therefore, we need to understand what affects its extent to improve future climate models and prediction. While Arctic sea ice has been steadily declining since satellite measurements of sea ice began, Antarctic sea ice has exhibited ...

Beavers could engineer riverbeds into promising carbon dioxide sinks, according to a new international study led by researchers at the University of Birmingham. The new paper, published in Communications Earth & Environment today, has for the first time calculated the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted and sequestered due to engineering work done by beavers in suitable wetland areas. The research was led by the University of Birmingham, Wageningen University, the University of Bern, and numerous international partners and the study was conducted in a stream corridor in northern Switzerland which has seen ...

As human-caused climate change continues to raise temperatures across the globe, understanding how birds regulate their temperature is vital for their conservation. But how much heat birds emit—an invisible spectrum of radiation known as mid-infrared—has never been studied, until now. Published in the journal Integrative Organismal Biology, a groundbreaking collaboration between material engineers and museum biologists explored the impact of mid-infrared on birds for the first time in history, ...

PULLMAN, Wash. — Entomologists have discovered a new species of mining bee that has an unusually tight relationship with cenizo, the official state shrub of Texas. Silas Bossert, assistant professor in Washington State University's Department of Entomology, worked with colleagues in Texas and Kansas to identify and describe the new mining bee, Andrena cenizophila. Published in the Journal of Melittology, their findings offer new insights into the diverse group of native pollinators. The new bee species’ name, “cenizophila,” means lover of cenizo, the native ...

Researchers from King’s College London and the University of Surrey have developed a new technique to measure the content of individual human cells infected with bacteria that model tuberculosis – and it is already revealing biological changes that conventional analysis would miss. Using the new method, the researchers have shown how bacteria used to model tuberculosis (TB) infection influences the metabolism of the human cell. The findings could help to understand why some human cells are vulnerable to infection while others remain uninfected. Abigail Cook, ...

Burnout is at an all-time high, with some studies saying two-thirds of employees now cite job burnout as a major challenge[1]. Overwork and chronic stress do not just drain energy, they can erode health, contributing to a wide range of psychological and physical problems, including depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease and even increased stroke risk. Shaina Siber offers solutions rooted in science in her new book, Using ACT and CFT for Burnout Recovery: The Beyond Burnout Blueprint, with strategies to help people in high pressure situations break the cycle of exhaustion. What is burnout The term “burnout,” ...

Plastic trash has reached the world’s most remote locations, from the bottom of the Mariana Trench to the summit of Everest. Hundreds of plastic-eating microbes that could help us clean up have been discovered over the past quarter of a century, but there is a long way to go before they can be put to work in natural environments: microbial digestion of plastic is still slow, requires high temperatures, and only proceeds efficiently in bioreactors. Moreover, most plastic-eating microbes discovered so far can only digest a single kind of plastic. One solution would be to combine ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (March 18, 2026)—Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) and Life’s Crucial 9 (LC9) from the American Heart Association are industry-accepted metrics that summarize overall cardiovascular health. A new study documented inverse associations between these indicators and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in postmenopausal women. Adiposity and systemic inflammation showed partial statistical mediation of these associations. Results of the study are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in women worldwide. Due ...

A paper titled "Tip-enhanced sum frequency generation spectroscopy using temporally asymmetric pulse for detecting weak vibrational signals," published on February 19, 2026 by a research team from the Institute for Molecular Science (Atsunori Sakurai, Shota Takahashi, Tatsuto Mochizuki, and Toshiki Sugimoto) and Tohoku University (Tomonori Hirano and Akihiro Morita), has been selected as a "Featured Article" in The Journal of Chemical Physics, published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP), in recognition of its particularly noteworthy ...