The holidays may be over, but neuroscientists are getting a special gift to kick off the new year: access to a greatest hits collection from one of Janelia’s longest running and successful Project Teams. Janelia’s FlyLight Project Team, which has worked for more than a decade to create tools to study the fly brain, is making a core collection of their best genetically engineered fly strains available to researchers worldwide through the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center. The brain images of these flies, along with hundreds of thousands of images from thousands of additional fly lines, are also now freely accessible through Janelia websites. These ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Moore's Law, a fundamental scaling principle for electronic devices, forecasts that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years, ensuring more computing power — but a limit exists. Today's most advanced chips house nearly 50 billion transistors within a space no larger than your thumbnail. The task of cramming even more transistors into that confined area has become more and more difficult, according to Penn State researchers. In a study ...

Hummingbirds use two distinct sensory strategies to control their flight, depending on whether they’re hovering or in forward motion, according to new research by University of British Columbia (UBC) zoologists.  “When in forward fight, hummingbirds rely on what we call an ‘internal forward model’—almost an ingrained, intuitive autopilot—to gauge speed,” says Dr. Vikram B. Baliga, lead author of a new study on hummingbird locomotion published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. ...

Environmental epidemiologists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Oregon State University, Pacific Northwest National Labs, and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, report on the findings of a new study of air pollution exposures collected using personal wristband monitors worn by pregnant individuals in New York City matched with data from a questionnaire. Factors predictive of exposures to air pollution include income, time spent outdoors, maternal age, country of birth, transportation type, and season. The researchers examined an unprecedented number ...

URBANA, Ill. — Urban agriculture has the potential to decentralize food supplies, provide environmental benefits like wildlife habitat, and mitigate environmental footprints, but researchers have identified knowledge gaps regarding both the benefits and risks of urban agriculture and the social processes of growing more food in urban areas. In a new paper published in Nature Food, an interdisciplinary group of experts, including a researcher from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, survey ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – Black people consistently had a higher rate of stroke than white people over a recent 22-year period, according to a study published in the January 10, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study also found that the average age of Black people experiencing stroke was nearly 10 years younger than that of white people, another inequity that grew over time. “We found that the rate of stroke is decreasing over time in both Black and white people—a very encouraging trend for U.S. prevention efforts,” said study ...

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology today announced its 2024 class of fellows. The honorific program recognizes scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the field through their research, teaching, mentoring or other forms of service. Edward Eisenstein, an associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Maryland and ASBMB Membership Committee chair, and Judith Bond, an adjunct professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and ...

In nature, organic molecules are either left- or right-handed, but synthesizing molecules with a specific “handedness” in a lab is hard to do. Make a drug or enzyme with the wrong “handedness,” and it just won’t work. Now chemists at the University of California, Davis, are getting closer to mimicking nature’s chemical efficiency through computational modeling and physical experimentation.   In a study appearing Jan. 10 in Nature, Professor Dean Tantillo, graduate students William DeSnoo and Croix Laconsay, and colleagues at the Max Planck ...

Overdose deaths in North America have skyrocketed, primarily because of the spread of illegally manufactured fentanyl. In a new study, researchers analyzed an early and prominent fentanyl-selling operation on the dark web. The organization sustained a significant growth rate, which allowed it to offer consumers steep discounts. In light of these findings, the authors conclude that it might be challenging to constrain supply by shuttering individual organizations since remaining organizations could grow rapidly to fill unmet demand. The study was conducted by researchers at Carnegie ...

Waltham — January 10, 2024 — Bottled water marketed as "alkaline water" is unlikely to be an effective alternative for prevention of recurrent urinary stones, reports a study in the January issue of The Journal of Urology®, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.  "While alkaline water products have a higher pH than regular water, they have a negligible alkali content – ...

WACO, Texas (Jan. 10, 2024) – A first-of-its-kind tactile learning device developed by Baylor University chemistry professors to make science accessible to students with blindness or low vision (BLV) has opened the possibility of the transfer of any scientific data or images for sighted students into functional, thorough formats for students with blindness. The study was published today in the journal Science Advances. The latest research from Bryan F. Shaw, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Baylor, focused on the development of a codex using lithophane – an ancient art form – to convert images from scientific textbooks into tactile ...

Photonics offers various advantages, including enablement of high-speed and low-loss communication by leveraging light properties in optical data communication, biomedical applications, automotive technology, and artificial intelligence domains. These advantages are realized through complex photonic circuits, comprising diverse photonic elements that are integrated on a photonic chip. Electronic chips are then added to supplement the photonic chips for certain functions, such as light source operation, modulation, and amplification. The close integration of electronic and photonic chips on a substrate is a critical aspect of photonic packaging. Photonic packaging plays a vital role in ...

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 10, 2024 – University of Pittsburgh Schools of Medicine researchers uncovered a fundamental mechanism that controls the body’s response to limited oxygen and regulates blood vessel disease of the lung. By combing through genomes of more than 20,000 individuals in the U.S., France, England and Japan and combining the results with molecular studies in the lab, the team discovered a shared genetic trait that could predict a higher risk of small lung vessel disease called pulmonary hypertension and its more severe ...

By exploiting the technology used in Covid-19 vaccines, a team led by UCL, King’s College London and Moderna scientists has created an effective therapy for a rare disease, in a study in mice, demonstrating the technology’s potential therapeutic use in people. The research, published in Science Translational Medicine, found that messenger RNA (mRNA) could be used to correct a rare liver genetic disease known as argininosuccinic aciduria in a mouse model of the disease. Argininosuccinic aciduria is an inherited metabolic disorder that affects how the body ...

Increases in symptoms of depression are associated with a subsequent increase in bodyweight when measured one month later, new research from the University of Cambridge has found. The study, published today in PLOS ONE, found that the increase was only seen among people with overweight or obesity, but found no link between generally having greater symptoms of depression and higher bodyweight. Research has suggested a connection between weight and mental health – with each potentially influencing the other – but the relationship is complex and remains poorly understood, ...

WHAT: An atlas revealing the activity of individual placental cells during childbirth offers insight on what happens at the maternal-fetal interface during term labor, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The atlas provides a single-cell analysis of the human placenta and its surrounding membranes and is the first to use this method to understand the communication that occurs between maternal and fetal cells during the process of labor. Studying these processes aids understanding of typical labor and delivery at term, as well as preterm labor and delivery, which occurs before ...

Rapid-acting antidepressants, including ketamine, scopolamine and psilocybin, have been found to have immediate and lasting positive effects on mood in patients with major depressive disorder but how these effects arise is unknown. New research led by the University of Bristol explored their neuropsychological effects and found that all three of these drugs can modulate affective biases associated with learning and memory. The paper, published in Science Translational Medicine today [10 January] was carried out in collaboration with researchers at Compass Pathways, Boehringer Ingelheim, and the University of Cambridge. Negative affective ...

Record heat across the world profoundly impacted the global water cycle in 2023, contributing to severe storms, floods, megadroughts and bushfires, new research from The Australian National University (ANU) shows.  The findings are outlined in a new report released today by the Global Water Monitor Consortium and led by ANU researchers.  Lead author Professor Albert Van Dijk, from ANU, said the report underscores the consequences of persistent fossil fuel burning on natural disasters, water resources, biodiversity and food security.  “Record-breaking heat waves swept across the globe in 2023, shattering previous records, from Canada to Brazil and from Spain to Thailand,” ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Recent developments at MD Anderson include insights into the effects of the gut microbiome on remote tumors, a screening strategy for ovarian cancer early detection, a combination approach ...

More than 200 genes linked to depression have been newly identified in a worldwide study led by UCL researchers. The research, published in Nature Genetics, found more than 50 new genetic loci (a locus is a specific position on a chromosome) and 205 novel genes that are associated with depression, in the first large-scale global study of the genetics of major depression in participants of diverse ancestry groups. The study also showcases potential for drug repurposing, as one of the identified genes encodes a protein targeted by a common diabetes drug, while also pointing to new targets for drugs that ...

From intensifying wildfires to record-breaking floods year on year, the effects of climate change have manifested in devastating outcomes on ecosystems that threaten species all over the world. One such ecosystem in peril is coral reefs, which play a major role in sustaining biodiversity in the planet’s oceans but are facing increasingly severe conditions as waters heat up leading to a phenomenon known as marine heat waves. For nearly a decade, Katie Barott, assistant professor of biology at the University ...

JMIR Publications is pleased to announce that JMIR Aging has been accepted for inclusion in MEDLINE, which is the U.S. National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database. JMIR Aging had already been indexed in PubMed previously. MEDLINE is a more selective subset of PubMed, consisting of the top 5,200 biomedical journals. Indexing in MEDLINE also means that articles are now also indexed with NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH terms) and other metadata. Selection for MEDLINE is a result of a thorough review of the journal by reviewers from the Literature ...

The widely used dry-cleaning and degreasing solvent perc can be converted to useful chemicals by a new clean, safe and inexpensive procedure. The Kobe University discovery using on-demand UV activation may open the path to upcycling perc and thus contribute to a more sustainable society. Organic synthesis is the production of useful chemicals, such as drugs, from other available chemicals. In general, chemists use source materials to create simple building blocks, such as carbonate esters, and combine them to increasingly complex structures. The source materials for this need to be reactive, but that also usually makes them toxic, such as the commonly ...

The global fertility rate is declining and most governments are failing to recognize and address the impact on economies and societies, say a group of physicians invited by the International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS) in a new paper and campaign launched today. “Not including the effects of migration, many countries are predicted to have a population decline of more than 50% from 2017 to 2100,” the physicians write in “Declining global fertility rates and the implications for family planning and family building,” published January 10, 2024 in Human Reproduction Update.  “By 2050, 77% of predominantly high-income countries, and ...

Researchers at Stockholm University have for the first time been able to study the surface of iron and ruthenium catalysts when ammonia is formed from nitrogen and hydrogen; the results are published in the scientific journal Nature. A better knowledge of the catalytic process and the possibility of finding even more efficient materials opens the door for a green transition in the currently very CO2-intensive chemical industry. Ammonia, produced in the Haber-Bosch process, is currently one of the most essential base chemicals for the world to produce fertilizers, with an annual production of 110 million tones. The journal ...