A million years ago, the oldest known species to walk upright like a human, the Homo Erectus, had a human-like fascination with crystals. Historians can even pin down the possible reasons – crystals didn’t look like anything around at the time - trees, valleys, mountains. Crystals were a material to ponder, a fascinating diversion for the mind.   To this day, the human preoccupation with the magic of crystals continues to fill the mind’s eye of scientists who have developed ways to use crystals for everything from malaria cures to solar cells and semiconductors, catalysts and optical elements. Over the years crystals have become crucial constituents ...

A multi-disciplinary research team specializing in canine behavior and Artificial Intelligence has developed an AI algorithm that automates the high-stakes process of evaluating potential working dogs’ personalities. They hope to help dog training agencies more quickly and accurately assess which animals are likely to succeed long term in careers such as aiding law enforcement and assisting persons with disabilities. The personality test could also be used for dog-human matchmaking, helping shelters with proper placement, thus reducing the number of animals returned ...

– By Linda Vu For more than 50 years, the National Hurricane Center has used the Saffir-Simpson Windscale to communicate the risk of property damage; it labels a hurricane on a scale from Category 1 (wind speeds between 74 - 95 mph) to Category 5 (wind speeds of 158 mph or greater). But as increasing ocean temperatures contribute to ever more intense and destructive hurricanes, climate scientists Michael Wehner of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and James Kossin of the First Street Foundation wondered whether the ...

What do a synthetic chemist, a medical imaging expert, and a neurologist have in common? They’re coming together in the Biomedical Imaging Center at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology to develop better diagnostic tools and imaging agents to detect early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. The dream team A team led by Liviu M. Mirica along with Wawryzneic “Wawosz” Dobrucki and Dr. Daniel A. Llano received a $3 million grant from the U.S. National Institute on ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The bacteria and microorganisms that live within the human body — the microbiota — can impact human health, disease risk and even how the body absorbs medications, but the details of these processes are unclear. To help understand how complex communities of microbes impact human health, the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Science has awarded a 5-year, $1.9 million Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award to Jordan Bisanz, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Penn State Eberly College of Science. “It is clear that the diversity of microbes in the ...

Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene conducted the first representative survey of energy insecurity and health of New York City residents. The study’s findings – including that energy insecurity is experienced by approximately 30 percent of New York City (NYC) residents – are published online and in print, in the February issue of the journal Health Affairs. The study and its results help officials understand challenges faced by residents and develop possible interventions and efforts in response. Results ...

Brigham researchers found that participation in a housing program was associated with fewer outpatient visits, improved physical and mental health, and stronger connections to their primary care clinics and care team.  Lack of safe and affordable housing is a critical issue in the United States and creates immense challenges for patients’ health, well-being, and ability to access care. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, evaluated data from a social ...

MSU has a satellite uplink/LTN TV studio and Comrex line for radio interviews upon request. EAST LANSING, Mich. – A team of Michigan State University scientists has unveiled a potential game-changer in the fight against glioblastoma, the most common and currently incurable form of brain cancer. A team of Michigan State University scientists has unveiled a potential game-changer in the fight against glioblastoma, the most common and currently incurable form of brain cancer. Their weapon of choice? ...

People with depression have higher body temperatures, suggesting there could be a mental health benefit to lowering the temperatures of those with the disorder, a new UC San Francisco-led study found. The study, publishing today in Scientific Reports, doesn’t indicate whether depression raises body temperature or a higher temperature causes depression. It’s also unknown whether the higher body temperature observed in people with depression reflects decreased ability to self-cool, increased generation of heat from metabolic processes or a combination of both.  Researchers analyzed data from more than 20,000 international ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 5 February 2024   Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet    @Annalsofim   Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also ...

U.S. adults experienced considerable psychological distress and adverse mental health effects as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic according to a study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Based on insurance claims, mental health care provider surveys, and electronic health records the research further revealed a decline in in-person outpatient mental health visits during the acute phase of the pandemic. Findings are reported ...

UPTON, NY—Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that adding a layer of magnesium improves the properties of tantalum, a superconducting material that shows great promise for building qubits, the basis of quantum computers. As described in a paper just published in the journal Advanced Materials, a thin layer of magnesium keeps tantalum from oxidizing, improves its purity, and raises the temperature at which it operates as a superconductor. All three may increase tantalum’s ability ...

In a recent breakthrough, DNA sequencing technology has uncovered the culprit behind cassava witches’ broom disease: the fungus genus Ceratobasidium. The cutting-edge nanopore technology used for this discovery was first developed to track the COVID-19 virus in Colombia, but is equally suited to identifying and reducing the spread of plant viruses. The findings, published in Scientific Reports, will help plant pathologists in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand protect farmers’ valued cassava harvest. “In Southeast ...

CHICAGO, Feb. 5, 2024 – Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) taken alone or along with acetaminophen are recommended as first-line treatments for managing short-term dental pain in adults and adolescents aged 12 or older, according to a new clinical practice guideline developed by the American Dental Association (ADA), the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine and the Center for Integrative Global Oral Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. The guideline has been endorsed by the ADA and is now available in the February issue of The Journal ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – White Americans are more likely than Black and Hispanic people in the United States to experience “deaths of despair” even though they are less likely to suffer from severe psychological distress, a new study finds.   The results suggest that, for some reason, whites are more vulnerable to the damaging effects of psychological distress than Blacks or Hispanics, said Hui Zheng, lead author of the study and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University. Zheng is currently on leave at the University of Hong Kong.   “The white population has an increasing trend of despair-related mortality after 2000,” Zheng said. ...

EVANSTON, Ill. — When carbon molecules from plants enter the soil, they hit a definitive fork in the road. Either the carbon gets trapped in the soil for days or even years, where it is effectively sequestered from immediately entering the atmosphere. Or it feeds microbes, which then respire carbon dioxide (CO2) into the ever-warming environment. In a new study, Northwestern University researchers determined the factors that could tip plant-based organic matter in one direction or the other.  By combining laboratory experiments and molecular modeling, researchers ...

Climate change is already harming agricultural yields and may one day pose a significant threat to the world’s food supply. Engineering more resilient crops, including those able to thrive in the face of drought or high soil salinity levels, is an increasingly urgent need. A new study from the Keck School of Medicine of USC, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, reveals details about how plants regulate their responses to stress that may prove crucial to those efforts. Researchers found that plants use their circadian clocks to respond to changes in external water and salt levels throughout the day. That same circuitry—an ...

Methods commonly used to measure poverty can lead to vastly different conclusions about who actually lives in poverty, according to a new Stanford University-led study. Based on household surveys in sub-Saharan Africa, the first-of-its-kind analysis, published Feb. 5 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, underscores the importance of accurately defining and measuring poverty. Its findings could help inform how governments, nonprofit organizations, and international development agencies allocate resources and evaluate the effectiveness of poverty-alleviation policies around the world. “They say you can’t manage what ...

The workings of the ultrasonic warning sounds produced by the wings of a species of moth have been revealed by researchers at the University of Bristol. Scientists recently discovered that moths of the genus Yponomeuta (so-called ermine moths) have evolved a very special acoustic defence mechanism against their echolocating predators—bats. Ermine moths produce ultrasonic clicking sounds twice per wingbeat cycle using a minute corrugated membrane in their hindwing. Strikingly, these moths lack hearing organs and are therefore not aware of their unique defence mechanism, nor do they have the capability to control it using muscular ...

A new analysis by MIT researchers shows the places in the U.S. where jobs are most linked to fossil fuels. The research could help policymakers better identify and support areas affected over time by a switch to renewable energy. While many of the places most potentially affected have intensive drilling and mining operations, the study also measures how areas reliant on other industries, such as heavy manufacturing, could experience changes. The research examines the entire U.S. on a county-by-county level. “Our result ...

  THIS PRESS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL FEBRUARY 5, 2024 at 3:00 PM U.S. EASTERN TIME   Many Indigenous peoples and local communities around the world are leading very satisfying lives despite having very little money. This is the conclusion of a study by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), which shows that many societies with very low monetary income have remarkably high levels of life satisfaction, comparable to those in wealthy countries.  Economic growth is often prescribed as a sure way of increasing the well-being of people in low-income countries, and ...

Many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, are difficult to diagnose before symptoms begin to appear. However, disease-related biomarkers such as aggregated proteins called amyloids could provide important insight much earlier, if they can be readily detected. Researchers publishing in ACS Sensors have developed one such method using an array of sensor molecules that can light up amyloids. The tool could help monitor disease progression or distinguish between different ...

Janelia scientists and longtime collaborators Eric Betzig and Harald Hess will be inducted into the 2024 class of the National Inventors Hall of Fame for their invention of photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM), a pioneering imaging technology that enables scientists to image live cells in super-resolution to study biological structures and processes in unprecedented detail. Betzig, a senior fellow at Janelia and an HHMI Investigator at the University of California, Berkeley, and Hess, a senior ...

Violence spreads in a contagious way like a disease among members of the Italian mafia, a new study shows. Researchers have found committing violent acts with others increases the likelihood people in these groups will go on to carry out more violent offences in the future. The analysis of the criminal careers of organised crime offenders shows previous violence has a “persistent and long-lasting” impact on their behaviour. Prior violent co-offending has a greater impact than prior violent solo offending on the probability of future violence. Prior violent co-offending increases the probability ...

Petrina Kamya, PhD, Head of AI Platforms and President of Insilico Medicine Canada, will present at the BIO CEO & Investor Conference happening Feb. 26-27 at the New York Marriott Marquis in New York City. Dr. Kamya will speak as part of the panel “AI within Biopharma: Separating Value from Hype,” on Feb. 27, 1pm ET along with Michael Nally, CEO of Generate: Biomedicines and Liz Schwarzbach, PhD, CBO of BigHat Biosciences. The session will look at how the latest artificial intelligence (AI) tools – including generative AI and large language models – ...