In brief - ETH materials researchers have developed a groundbreaking method that enables the near-complete recycling of Plexiglas for the first time. - The polymer chains are broken down into their individual monomer building blocks, which can then be purified using straightforward distillation processes. - The mechanism relies on a chlorinated solvent. When exposed to UV light, a chlorine radical is released from the solvent, which then triggers the breakdown of the polymer chain. Today, plastics recycling is primarily limited to the collection of sorted PET or polyethylene beverage bottles. The plastic collected is of identical chemical composition, with polymer molecules of similar ...

Caring for a baby is a full-time job, often causing new mothers to overlook their own health needs. This situation is exemplified by the low compliance with postpartum glucose screening among women who had gestational diabetes—a condition that significantly increases their risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Now new research published today in Diabetes Care  indicates that a shorter, one-hour glucose tolerance test outperforms the standard two-hour test in predicting future risk of diabetes and could transform clinical practice. The research was led by Dr. Ravi Retnakaran, a Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, an Endocrinologist ...

By pooling the resources and expertise from alliance members, the initiative addresses common challenges in VR adoption for education, such as high development costs and lack of in-house technical expertise. The module provides a device-agnostic, 3D and 2D-accessible VR experience, enabling immersive learning opportunities for students and executives worldwide. As part of the module, a 20-minute pilot scenario allows users to engage in crisis management exercises, honing their soft skills through interactions with a digital counterpart (avatar). By uniting under a shared mission, individual alliance members’ ...

A decade after scientists in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT first began testing whether sensory stimulation of the brain’s 40Hz “gamma” frequency rhythms could treat Alzheimer’s disease in mice, a growing evidence base supporting the idea that it can improve brain health—in humans as well as animals—has emerged from the work of labs all over the world. A new review article in PLOS Biology describes the state of research so far and presents some of the fundamental and clinical questions at the forefront of the non-invasive gamma stimulation now. “As ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – In our polarized society, a new study offers hope for the future: Even young children can learn to discuss and argue about meaningful problems in a respectful and productive way.   Researchers at The Ohio State University found success in a social studies curriculum for fourth graders based on teaching what they called “civic competencies.”   Over the course of a school year, findings showed that the students participating in the curriculum significantly improved their argumentation skills and disciplinary thinking.   “This will give them the ability to collaborate, communicate effectively and consider multiple perspectives”, ...

The adipose tissue, which serves as an endocrine organ, releases various molecules that regulate the repair of other damaged tissues, including the skin. Hence, adipose tissues can potentially be reengineered to regenerate the damaged organs. Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technology has revolutionized regenerative medicine by enabling the generation of engineered and functional 3D organs or tissues, including adipose tissues. However, the currently used tissue biofabrication methods cannot replicate ...

A team of scientists has developed a method to illuminate the dynamic behavior of nanoparticles, which are foundational components in the creation of pharmaceuticals, electronics, and industrial and energy-conversion materials. The advance, reported in the journal Science, combines artificial intelligence with electron microscopy to render visuals of how these tiny bits of matter respond to stimuli.  “Nanoparticle-based catalytic systems have a tremendous impact on society,” explains Carlos Fernandez-Granda, director of NYU’s Center for Data Science and a professor of mathematics and data science, one of the paper’s authors. “It is estimated that 90 percent ...

Gut microbes that were thought to feed exclusively on dietary fiber also get fed sugar from our guts, from which they produce short-chain fatty acids that are crucial to many body functions. The Kobe University discovery of this symbiotic relationship also points the way to developing novel therapeutics. Gut microbes produce many substances that our body needs but cannot produce itself. Among them are short-chain fatty acids that are the primary energy source for the cells lining our guts but have other important roles, too, and ...

Approximately one in five of pregnant and postpartum individuals experience depression and anxiety, yet less than 10 per cent receive proper treatment. To address this problem, a team of interdisciplinary researchers from Canada and the United States investigated if talk therapy can be effectively delivered by non-mental health specialists and telemedicine to increase access. In a paper published today in Nature Medicine, they share results from the Scaling Up Maternal Mental health care by Increasing access to Treatment (SUMMIT) Trial, which reveals promising strategies to provide the necessary support and treatment more effectively and inclusively ...

EVANSTON, Ill. --- You’ve probably heard the phrase, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it,” and now, science backs it up. A first-of-its-kind study from Northwestern University’s School of Communication, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Wisconsin-Madison reveals a region of the brain, long known for early auditory processing, plays a far greater role in interpreting speech than previously understood.  The multidisciplinary study being published Monday, March ...

NEW YORK, NY (March 3, 2025)--Several studies in the past decade have revealed that up to a quarter of unresponsive patients with recent brain injuries may possess a degree of consciousness that’s normally hidden from their families and physicians. New research from Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian may soon help physicians identify unresponsive brain-injury patients with hidden consciousness who are likely to achieve long-term recovery by looking for brain waves that are indicative of normal sleep patterns.  “We’re at an exciting crossroad in neurocritical care where we know that many patients appear to be unconscious, but some are recovering without ...

Two new landmark studies show how a seeming tangle of DNA is actually organized into a structure that coordinates thousands of genes to form a sperm cell. The work, published March 3 as two papers in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, could improve treatment for fertility problems and developmental disorders.  “We are finding the 3D structure of the genome,” said Satoshi Namekawa, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of California, Davis and senior author on one of the papers. “This is really showing us how the genomic architecture guides development.” Although DNA is a long, stringy molecule, in living ...

Bottom Line: Colorectal cancer and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma that harbored the KRAS G12C mutation often carried other genetic alterations that can be associated with resistance to KRAS G12C inhibitors, despite no prior treatment with this therapy, according to recent results from a large multidatabase analysis. Journal in Which the Study was Published: Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Author: Hao Xie, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center Background: “The KRAS pathway plays a crucial role in cell biology by regulating ...

Melting ice sheets are slowing the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), the world’s strongest ocean current, researchers have found.  This melting has implications for global climate indicators, including sea level rise, ocean warming and viability of marine ecosystems.  The researchers, from the University of Melbourne and NORCE Norway Research Centre, have shown the current slowing by around 20 per cent by 2050 in a high carbon emissions scenario.  This influx of fresh water into the Southern Ocean is expected to change ...

People seeking emergency care for hallucinogen use were at 2.6-fold higher risk of death within 5 years than the general population, according to a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241191. The use of hallucinogens, such as ketamine, psychedelics, psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, and MDMA (Ecstasy), has rapidly increased since the mid-2010s, especially in Canada and the United States. In the US, the percentage of people reporting they used hallucinogens more than doubled from 3.8% in 2016 to 8.9% in 2021. “In Canada, an estimated 5.9% of people used a psychedelic ...

Niigata, Japan - The Department of Neurology at Niigata University and National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry（NCNP） has identified pathogenic thresholds for the CAG repeat units (RU) of the CACNA1A gene that causes SCA6. They investigated the SCA6 causative gene in 2,768 patients. They carefully examined the relationship between RU, age of onset, and family history. First, in cases with 18 or fewer RU, the proportion of family history was low. For 19 or more RU, the proportion of family history ...

Niigata, Japan - Organic molecules that serve as the building blocks of life are believed to form in space, but their exact formation sites and delivery mechanisms to planets remain a major mystery in astronomy and planetary science. One of the key elements in solving this mystery is the presence of ice in interstellar environments. In cold, dense, and shielded regions of the galaxy, atoms and molecules adhere to the surfaces of submicron-sized solid particles (dust), leading to the formation of interstellar ices. This process is similar to how snow forms in Earth’s clouds. Astronomers from Niigata University and ...

A ‘chasm of misunderstanding and miscommunication’ is often experienced between clinicians and patients, leading to autoimmune diseases such as lupus and vasculitis being wrongly diagnosed as psychiatric or psychosomatic conditions, with a profound and lasting impact on patients, researchers have found. A study involving over 3,000 participants – both patients and clinicians – found that these misdiagnoses (sometimes termed “in your head” by patients) were often associated with long term impacts on patients’ physical health and wellbeing and damaged trust in healthcare services. The researchers are calling for greater awareness ...

A clinical trial has found that the medication omalizumab, marketed as Xolair, treated multi-food allergy more effectively than oral immunotherapy (OIT) in people with allergic reactions to very small amounts of common food allergens. OIT, the most common approach to treating food allergy in the United States, involves eating gradually increasing doses of a food allergen to reduce the allergic response to it. Thirty-six percent of study participants who received an extended course of omalizumab could tolerate 2 grams or more of peanut protein, or about eight peanuts, and two other ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2025 Media Contacts: Renee Tessman, rtessman@aan.com, (612) 928-6137 Natalie Conrad, nconrad@aan.com, (612) 928-6164 Sleep apnea linked to increased risk of Parkinson’s, but CPAP may reduce risk Risk reduced if treatment started within two years of diagnosis MINNEAPOLIS – People with obstructive sleep apnea have an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, but if started early enough, continuous positive airway pressure ...

A recent study published in Engineering delves into the complex mechanisms of drug addiction, highlighting the crucial role of astrocytic G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). This research offers fresh perspectives on understanding and potentially treating substance-use disorders (SUDs). For a long time, neuroscience research on drug addiction mainly focused on neuronal mechanisms. However, emerging evidence shows that astrocytes, the most abundant glial cells in the central nervous system, also play a significant part. Astrocytes ...

A recent study published in the journal Engineering delves into the potential of digital twin (DT) technology in revolutionizing road engineering and its lifecycle applications. As road infrastructure worldwide faces the challenge of digitalization, DT has emerged as a promising solution. The research, conducted by a team of scholars from Tongji University and Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), systematically reviews DT-enabling technologies, including model creation, condition sensing, data processing, and interaction. The development of DT in road engineering has been ...

A new study published in Engineering explores how next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are revolutionizing crop breeding, with potential far-reaching implications for global food security. Crop breeding has come a long way, evolving through distinct stages from domestication breeding to the current era of big data intelligent design breeding. The latest stage, “Breeding 4.0,” integrates biotechnology, big data, and AI. This convergence aims to achieve efficient, personalized breeding of new crop varieties, marking a significant shift from traditional “scientific” ...

In a recent publication in Engineering, researchers from Jinan University in China and the University of Illinois Chicago in the US presented an in-depth perspective on the biomimetic synthesis of natural products. This research area, which bridges chemistry, biology, and pharmacy, has seen significant progress in recent years. Natural products are crucial in drug discovery, providing essential scaffolds for developing new medications. However, obtaining sufficient quantities of these compounds for research and production is challenging due to resource limitations. Traditional chemical synthesis and biosynthesis methods also face their own set of ...

Tokyo, Japan – A team led by a member of Tokyo Metropolitan University have made advances in the search for dark matter, observing galaxies using new spectrographic technology and the Magellan Clay Telescope. With a mere 4 hours of observations, precise measurements in the infrared range have set new limits on the lifetime of dark matter. Their findings highlight the crucial utility of their technology and extend the search to less explored parts of the spectrum.   Over the past century, cosmologists have grappled with an apparent inconsistency in what they saw in the universe. Observations of the rotation of galaxies, for example, imply that there is a lot of mass out ...