Scientists at the University of Helsinki discovered how plants heal their protective outer layer, the periderm. The diffusion of ethylene and oxygen through a wound triggers repair – a finding with potential implications for crop resilience, and food preservation. All living organisms rely on protective barrier tissues to shield them from the environment. In plants, the periderm which forms the tough outer cork layer plays this role, helping to prevent water loss and block harmful microbes, for example in potato skin and tree bark. But what happens ...

Forging a novel therapeutic path for patients with Rett Syndrome using AI AI-enabled drug discovery approach identified potentially game-changing treatment which has been advanced from the lab bench to an FDA Orphan Drug Designation in record time By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Rett syndrome is a devastating rare genetic childhood disorder primarily affecting girls. Merely 1 out of 10,000 girls are born with it and much fewer boys. It is caused by mutations in the MeCP2 gene on the X chromosome, leading to a spectrum of cognitive and physical impairments, including ...

Fuelled by climate change and relentless pressure on land and water resources, some of the most widespread and damaging drought events in recorded history have taken place since 2023, according to a UN-backed report launched today. Prepared by the U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), with support from the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), the report, "Drought Hotspots Around the World 2023-2025," provides a comprehensive account of how droughts compound poverty, ...

PULLMAN, Wash. -- As customers face more and more prompts to add a tip to the bill in places where gratuities were not customary only a few years ago—and often before any service has been rendered—their attitudes toward the practice have turned sharply negative. “Businesses should seriously consider whether they want to offer that tipping request,” said Ruiying Cai, an assistant professor in the WSU’s Carson College of Business and co-author of a new study published in the International Journal of Hospitality ...

Most of Earth’s water is in the oceans and too salty to drink. Desalination plants can make seawater drinkable, but they require large amounts of energy. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Energy Letters have developed a sponge-like material with long, microscopic air pockets that uses sunlight and a simple plastic cover to turn saltwater into freshwater. A proof-of-concept test outdoors successfully produced potable water in natural sunlight in a step toward low-energy, sustainable desalination. This isn’t the first time scientists have created spongy materials that use sunlight as ...

Around 1 in 6 older adults take aspirin as their primary method of preventing cardiovascular disease – despite stricter guidelines that no longer always call for it, a study finds.   Almost one-quarter of those aspirin users started taking the medication without a physician recommendation and 8% had not discussed their use with any health care provider.   The results, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, come from a survey of more than 2,500 adults aged ...

BETHESDA, MD – July 2, 2025 | In response to the continued need for evidence-based reviews of newborn screening (NBS) conditions following the recent dissolution of the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children (ACHDNC), the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) is moving forward with organizing a new advisory framework to uphold the integrity and scientific rigor of nationally coordinated NBS recommendations. To initiate this process, the ACMG will convene a virtual stakeholder roundtable this summer to gather ...

Cancer cells have the capacity to multiply rapidly. The aggressive cancer cells undergo conversion from their tightly connected epithelial state into a mesenchymal state, which lacks contact restrictions and spreads easily to other parts of the body. Such epithelial-to-mesenchymal plasticity also makes the cancer cells resistant to elimination by anticancer therapies. The search is ongoing for newer anticancer agents that can overcome this acquired resistance to therapy and destroy the ‘rogue’ cancer cells. A group of researchers led by Dr. Hideyuki Saya, Director of the Oncology Innovation Center, Fujita Health University, ...

Bacteria are ubiquitous microscopic organisms capable of rapid growth. While beneficial strains like lactic acid bacteria (LAB) promote gut health and food preservation, pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus can cause severe infections. These harmful microbes produce toxins and enzymes that compromise health and, increasingly, show resistance to conventional antibiotics. In recent years, scientists have explored alternative approaches to tackle pathogenic bacteria. Among them, endolysins—enzymes that degrade bacterial cell walls—have emerged as potent tools. These proteins, often derived from bacteriophages or engineered microbes, offer ...

Many experts suggest using the entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE) approach to help grow Africa’s economy, especially in poorer countries. EE looks at how things like roads, money, rules, and skilled people can come together to support business growth. But Africa already has more entrepreneurs than anywhere else—mostly people working for themselves because they have no other choice. This raises an important question: Is encouraging even more entrepreneurship really the best path for Africa’s growth? To gain more insights, ...

Sexual behavior and sex preference in animals and humans are shaped by complex interactions between the brain and hormones during early development. One critical factor is exposure to androgens (male sex hormones) during fetal development, which influences the sexual differentiation of the brain. This early hormonal exposure is linked to a wide range of adult behaviors, like sexual behavior and cognitive traits, but finding a reliable, non-invasive biological marker for the same has remained a challenge.   Now, a team of researchers led by Professor Hirotaka Sakamoto, along with Dr. Himeka Hayashi from Okayama University, ...

Quantum computers still face a major hurdle on their pathway to practical use cases: their limited ability to correct the arising computational errors. To develop truly reliable quantum computers, researchers must be able to simulate quantum computations using conventional computers to verify their correctness – a vital yet extraordinarily difficult task. Now, in a world-first, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, the University of Milan, the University of Granada, and the University of Tokyo have unveiled a method for simulating ...

Scientists have revealed how certain immune cells may be quietly helping prostate cancer grow — and how blocking them could help the body fight back. The study, published July 2 as the cover story in Molecular Cancer Research, identifies a group of cells called macrophages that, instead of protecting the body, appear to shield tumors from attack and promote tumor metastasis.  These cells are typically the immune system’s housekeeping crew — engulfing dead cells and responding to infection ...

Foams have numerous possible potential applications, for example ranging from the automotive, household and mechanical engineering sectors to leisure and sports applications. Until now, it has been common practice to produce these materials from crude oil, which negatively impacts their ecological footprint. In the EU project BreadCell, an international consortium has developed cellulose-based foams that are produced using a process similar to baking bread. These foams are completely biodegradable and recyclable. ...

University of Leeds news  Embargoed until 10:30 BST, 2 July 2025  Images available here   New fossils from Earth’s most famous extinction show climate tipping point was crossed  The collapse of tropical forests during Earth’s most catastrophic extinction event was the primary cause of the prolonged global warming which followed, according to new research.  The Permian–Triassic Mass Extinction – sometimes referred to as the "Great Dying," happened around 252 million years ago, leading to the massive loss of marine species and significant declines in terrestrial plants and ...

A new AI model is much better than doctors at identifying patients likely to experience cardiac arrest. The linchpin is the system’s ability to analyze long-underused heart imaging, alongside a full spectrum of medical records, to reveal previously hidden information about a patient’s heart health. The federally-funded work, led by Johns Hopkins University researchers, could save many lives and also spare many people unnecessary medical interventions, including the implantation of unneeded defibrillators. “Currently ...

For the first time, astronomers have obtained visual evidence that a star met its end by detonating twice. By studying the centuries-old remains of supernova SNR 0509-67.5 with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), they have found patterns that confirm its star suffered a pair of explosive blasts. Published today, this discovery shows some of the most important explosions in the Universe in a new light. Most supernovae are the explosive deaths of massive stars, but one important variety comes from an unassuming source. White dwarfs, the small, inactive cores left over after stars like our Sun burn ...

Gene therapy can improve hearing in children and adults with congenital deafness or severe hearing impairment, a new study involving researchers at Karolinska Institutet reports. Hearing improved in all ten patients, and the treatment was well-tolerated. The study was conducted in collaboration with hospitals and universities in China and is published in the journal Nature Medicine. “This is a huge step forward in the genetic treatment of deafness, one that can be life-changing for children and adults,” says Maoli Duan, consultant and docent at the Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, ...

Irvine, Calif., July 2, 2025 — President Donald Trump’s approval ratings among California residents are tanking while Gov. Gavin Newsom’s favorability has improved, according to the latest UCI-OC Poll, administered by the University of California, Irvine School of Social Ecology.  In late May and early June, Newsom’s approval ratings looked nearly as bad as those for Trump. Fifty-nine percent of Californians disapproved of the governor’s job performance, nearly a third ...

The downstream consequences of religion, politics and war can have far-reaching effects on the environment and on the evolutionary processes affecting urban organisms, according to a new analysis from Washington University in St. Louis.  Typically viewed from a sociological perspective, the implications of religion, politics and war are rarely discussed in the field of evolutionary biology. That should change, according to an international team of biologists, including Elizabeth Carlen in Arts & Sciences at WashU, co-lead author ...

New research reveals a surprising geometric link between human and machine learning. A mathematical property called convexity may help explain how brains and algorithms form concepts and make sense of the world. In recent years, with the public availability of AI tools, more people have become aware of how closely the inner workings of artificial intelligence can resemble those of a human brain. There are several similarities in how machines and human brains work, for example, in how they represent the world in abstract form, generalise from limited data, ...

Catalysis – the acceleration of a chemical reaction by adding a particular substance – is extremely important in industry as well as in everyday life. Around 80 % of all chemical products are produced with the help of catalysis, and technologies like exhaust catalysts or fuel cells are also based on this principle. One particularly effective and versatile catalyst is platinum. However, because platinum is a very rare and expensive precious metal whose production causes a lot of CO2 emissions, it is important to use as little of it as possible while maximizing its efficiency. Catalysts with single ...

Tokyo, Japan – Operators have pumped water to cool the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant  (FDNPP) since the accident in 2011 and treated this cooling water with the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which is a state-of-the-art purification system that removes radioactive materials, except tritium. As part of the water molecule, tritium radionuclide, with a half-life of 12.32 years, is very costly and difficult to remove. The ALPS-treated water was accumulating and stored at the FDNPP site and there is limited space to store this ...

Canada must address the growing crisis of communicable diseases that has occurred in tandem with a rise in misinformation that threatens our health systems, argue authors in an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.250916. “A crisis of communicable diseases is unfolding in North America, just as Canada’s health systems’ responses are being hampered by the dismantling of public health and research infrastructure in the United States,” writes family physician Dr. Shannon Charlebois, medical editor, CMAJ, with ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (July 2, 2025)—There has been a lot of research focused on understanding women’s experiences with depression during the menopause transition and early menopause, but there are few studies on perimenopausal women’s experiences with emotional arousal, such as anger. A new study shows that women’s anger traits significantly decrease with age starting at midlife. Results of the study are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. Anger is defined as antagonism toward someone or something, often accompanied by a propensity to experience and express it indiscriminately. ...