As we age, we begin to lose the connections that wire up our brains—and neuroscientists aren’t sure why.  It is increasingly clear, though, that the loss of synapses—the flexible and adaptive relay stations central to our brains’ ability to think, learn, and remember—is central to the rise of cognitive decline and dementia in old age. Now, researchers supported by the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience have discovered clues that may tie synapse loss to another hallmark of brain aging: the declining ability of brain cells to break down and recycle damaged proteins. Published January 21, 2026, in Nature, the study shows ...

Key Takeaways Harvard SEAS researchers have developed a mathematical framework for optimizing the design of rolling contact joints, which are made of rolling surfaces and flexible connectors. To demonstrate their method, they developed a knee-like joint that reduced misalignment by 99% compared with standard mechanisms, and a robotic gripper that could hold three times the weight of a conventionally designed gripper.  Consider the marvelous physics of the human knee. The largest hinge joint in the body, it has two rounded bones held together ...

  Prior to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, Americans lived in communities awash with lead from industrial sources, paint, water supply pipes and, most significantly, tailpipe emissions. A dangerous neurotoxin that accumulates in human tissues and is linked to developmental deficits in children, environmental lead levels have come way down in the years since, and so have human exposures. The proof is in your hair. An analysis of hair samples conducted by University of Utah scientists show precipitous reductions in lead levels since 1916. “We were able to show through our hair samples what the lead concentrations ...

Markus Knaden's Odor-guided Behavior research group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology has been studying the effects of ozone on chemical communication in insects for some time. The research team was able to show that increased ozone levels alter the mating signal in fruit flies because ozone breaks down the carbon-carbon double bonds in the insects' sex pheromones. After male flies were exposed to ozone, they were no longer able to distinguish females from other males (see press release Air ...

You check into a hotel and toss and turn all night, but your sleep improves the following night. Scientists at Nagoya University wanted to understand why this happens. Working with mice, they have identified a group of neurons that become active when an animal enters a new environment. These neurons release a molecule called neurotensin that maintains wakefulness. The effect protects them from potential dangers in unknown surroundings. The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This discovery may explain the "first ...

Some tropical land regions may warm more dramatically than previously predicted, as climate change progresses, according to a new CU Boulder study that looks millions of years into Earth’s past. Using lake sediments from the Colombian Andes, researchers revealed that when the planet warmed millions of years ago under carbon dioxide levels similar to today’s, tropical land heated up nearly twice as much as the ocean. The study was published February 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  “The tropics are ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have developed a novel liquid biopsy approach to identify early-stage cancers by measuring the random variation in DNA methylation patterns, rather than the absolute level of those patterns as in other liquid biopsies. The method, which utilizes a new metric called the Epigenetic Instability Index (EII), successfully distinguished — with high accuracy — patients with early-stage lung and breast cancers from healthy individuals. ...

The familiar labels “night owl” and “early bird,” long used in sleep research, don’t fully capture the diversity of human internal clocks, a new study has found. The McGill University-led study published in Nature Communications found the two sleep-wake patterns, called chronotypes, contain a total of five distinct biological subtypes, each associated with different patterns of behaviour and health. A chronotype is based on the parts of a 24-hour period when a person naturally feels most alert or ready to sleep. Previous research has linked late chronotypes to worse health outcomes, but results have often been inconsistent. ...

Current school-based mental health support for children from multilingual backgrounds can be “lost in translation” because it is reliant on good proficiency in English, a new study warns. Alongside language barriers, cultural differences and mental-health related stigma mean some aspects of the psychological therapies children can access in schools may be less effective and inaccessible for those who speak English as an additional language, The study says greater linguistic flexibility, including more ...

New York, NY, February 2, 2026—The Vilcek Foundation celebrates its 20th year of awarding immigrants and cultural leaders. We present prizes to 14 individuals working in biomedical research, art history, and fashion. These prizewinners hail from 12 countries: Austria, Canada, Colombia, France, India, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Togo, Turkey, the United States, and Vietnam. Presented annually since 2006, the Vilcek Foundation prizes salute immigrant contributions to societal advancement in the United States, and recognize excellence in the arts and sciences. Since the inception of the prizes ...

Moths are under threat from increasing light pollution: streetlights and other artificial light sources in cities and populated areas disrupt the orientation of these nocturnal insects, which reduces their chances of mating. Scientists have been studying the effects of streetlights on moths for years but remain largely in the dark about the underlying mechanisms. The Lightstar project aims to provide new insights. “We want to create a more detailed database on how light pollution affects the ...

The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), the Consortium of Organizations for Strong Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS) and SSA are pleased to announce that Eduardo Miranda of Stanford University is the recipient of the 2026 Bruce Bolt Medal. Miranda was recognized for his contributions in developing new ground motion models and intensity measures, refining damping modification factors, and improving methods for assessing seismic demands on structures and nonstructural components. His work has shaped seismic design provisions, and he has emphasized the use of strong-motion ...

Dr. George Coukos, a physician-scientist and international authority on tumor immunology and cellular immunotherapy, is joining Weill Cornell Medicine on Feb. 1 to lead the new Ludwig Laboratory for Cell Therapy. He previously was founding director of the Ludwig Lausanne Branch in Switzerland. The Ludwig Laboratory for Cell Therapy will be housed within the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center. It will build on Dr. Coukos’s scientific achievements as director of Lausanne Branch, among them a bench-to-bedside research program for the development, production and clinical evaluation of cellular immunotherapies ...

Physical Chemistry applies the principles and concepts of physics to understand the basics of chemistry and explain how and why transformations of matter take place on a molecular level. One of the branches of this field focusses on understanding how molecules change in the course of a chemical reaction or process. Understanding the interactions of chiral molecules with water is crucial, given the central role that water plays in chemical and biological processes. Chiral molecules are those that, despite comprising the same atoms, cannot ...

The loss of social connectedness as people age increases the odds of cognitive-related disorders and can worsen health outcomes in older populations. But is there a direct relationship between social behavior and cognition? Subhadeep Dutta Gupta, Peter Rapp, and colleagues, from the National Institute on Aging, developed a rat model to probe social cognition in the aging brain.   As presented in their eNeuro paper, the researchers used 169 young and aged male rats to discover that while older ...

New in JNeurosci, Mary Schneider and Alexander Converse, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led an interdisciplinary study to explore how prenatal alcohol and stress exposure affect rhesus monkey offspring in adulthood.  Pregnant rhesus monkeys either drank moderate amounts of alcohol, experienced mild stress, or both. The researchers later assessed changes to the brain’s dopamine system and alcohol drinking in adult offspring. Prenatal stress and alcohol influenced the dopamine ...

A prevention strategy developed by Canadian researchers can reduce the risk of the most common and deadly form of ovarian cancer by nearly 80 per cent, according to a new study published today in JAMA Network Open by researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC).  The strategy, known as opportunistic salpingectomy (OS), involves proactively removing a person’s fallopian tubes when they are already undergoing a routine ...

GLENCOE AND LISLE, ILL. (Feb. 2, 2026)— The Chicago Botanic Garden and The Morton Arboretum are pledging to safeguard threatened tree and plant species across continents as part of Reverse the Red Day, held annually worldwide on Feb. 7 to celebrate conservation success.  Reverse the Red is a global coalition of partners working to halt extinctions and reverse declines shown on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, and to recover species. Botanical gardens and arboreta play a critical role in collaborative and cross-sector plant conservation efforts locally and globally. At a time when government ...

The idea Improvements in public health have allowed humankind to survive to older ages than ever before, but, for many people, these added golden years are not spent in good health. Aging is a natural part of life, but it is associated with a greatly increased incidence of most chronic diseases, including various cancers, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. The laboratory of Kris Burkewitz, assistant professor of cell and developmental biology, wants to figure out if there is a way to break the links between the aging process and disease so that we can stay healthy longer, allowing ...

Toronto, ON, February 2, 2026 — A new study suggests that people born more recently are being diagnosed with psychotic disorders (e.g., schizophrenia) more often and at younger ages compared with people born earlier.   The study included over 12 million individuals who were born between 1960 and 2005 and followed them for new diagnoses of a psychotic disorder between 1993 and 2023. Over the study, 152,587 individuals were diagnosed with a psychotic disorder. Researchers from ICES, North York General, The Ottawa Hospital, and Bruyère Health Research Institute found that the rate of new diagnoses of psychotic disorders ...

About The Study: In 2021-2023, most U.S. adults with uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) were not taking antihypertensive medication. Approximately two-thirds of U.S. adults with uncontrolled BP who were not taking antihypertensive medication had systolic BP and diastolic BP within 10 mm Hg of the 2025 AHA/ACCBP goal, indicating that many could potentially achieve BP control with initiation of antihypertensive medication and lifestyle modification. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding ...

About The Study: Existing evidence demonstrates that opportunistic salpingectomy (removal of the fallopian tubes during unrelated pelvic or abdominal surgery) is significantly associated with a lower risk of developing tubo-ovarian carcinoma. Clinicians should include this prevention intervention in preoperative counseling of eligible women. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Maria Kyrgiou, MD, PhD, email m.kyrgiou@imperial.ac.uk. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.24510) Editor’s Note: Please ...

About The Study: Rural regions have benefited from immigration policies that direct international-born physicians to underserved areas; the Conrad 30 waiver enabled thousands of J-1 visa holders to remain in the U.S. in exchange for rural service, caring for approximately 44 million patients. H1-B visas are additional vehicles for immigrant clinicians.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Manav Midha, BA, email manav.midha@icahn.mssm.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media ...

About The Study: The data from this study support the potential benefit of oral semaglutide in reducing heart failure events in people with type 2 diabetes and heart failure.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Rodica Pop-Busui, MD, PhD, email busui@ohsu.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.7774) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and ...

HERSHEY, Pa. — Traditional stroke rehabilitation therapy focuses on restoring strength and movement to the more impaired side of the body, but a new randomized clinical trial has revealed that targeted therapy for the less impaired arm significantly improved movement and control for stroke survivors. The trial, led by researchers from Penn State and the University of Southern California (USC), compared the new approach to the standard best-practice therapy currently in use. The team said the findings, published today (Feb. 2) in JAMA Neurology, ...