WASHINGTON, May 13, 2025 – Butterflies’ flight trajectories often appear random or chaotic, and compared with other hovering insects, their bodies follow seemingly mysterious, jagged, jerking motions. These unique hovering patterns, however, can potentially provide critical design insights for developing micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) with flapping wings. To help achieve these applications, researchers from Beihang University studied how butterflies use aerodynamic force generation to achieve hovering. They discuss ...

A new treatment approach significantly improves survival rates for patients with aggressive, inherited breast cancers, according to Cambridge researchers. In a trial where cancers were treated with chemotherapy followed by a targeted cancer drug before surgery, 100% of patients survived the critical three-year period post-surgery. The discovery, published today in Nature Communications, could become the most effective treatment to date for patients with early-stage breast cancer with inherited BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations. Breast cancers with faulty copies of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are challenging to treat, and came to public ...

About The Study: In this study, associations of structural and social determinants of health with mortality persisted with adjustment for percentage African genetic ancestry. The findings support the hypothesis that structural and social determinants of health should be the primary factors to consider for eliminating health disparities. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Hari S. Iyer, ScD, MPH, email hi97@cinj.rutgers.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.10016) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study examining clinical notes of more than 18,000 patients admitted for labor and birth, there were notable disparities in how stigmatizing and positive language was documented across racial and ethnic groups. This underscores the necessity for improving documentation and communication practices to reduce the use of stigmatizing language. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Veronica Barcelona, PhD, RN, email vb2534@cumc.columbia.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.9599) Editor’s ...

Background and Aims Inherited metabolic liver diseases (IMLDs) have complex etiologies and vary widely in clinical presentation, with a significant overall incidence. With the advancements in diagnostic and treatment technologies, an increasing number of children with inherited metabolic diseases are surviving into adolescence and adulthood. These advancements have improved our understanding of the IMLD disease spectrum and clinical outcomes. This study aimed to analyze changes in the disease spectrum and epidemiological characteristics of inherited metabolic liver diseases (IMLD) over the past 20 years in two specialized liver disease hospitals in northern China. Methods A ...

Radiation sterilization technology destroys the DNA and cellular structures of bacteria and microorganisms using electromagnetic waves with far higher energy than ultraviolet radiation. This technique has become indispensable for sterilization in various fields, including medical devices (e.g., disposable syringes, catheters, artificial joints), pharmaceuticals (e.g., raw materials, tissue grafts), and food products (e.g., sprout inhibition in potatoes). Traditionally, it has been believed that the effectiveness of radiation sterilization depends solely on the total irradiation ...

A research paper by scientists at Shandong University presented a novel coordinated motion distribution and tracking algorithm for quadruped manipulators. The research paper, published on Mar. 19, 2025 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems. Quadruped manipulators can use legs to mimic legged animals for crossing unstructured environments. They can also use a bionic arm to execute manipulation tasks. The increasing demands for such robots have pushed research progress. However, there remain challenging works ...

(Toronto, May 13, 2025) JMIR Publications invites submissions to a new theme issue titled “AI-Powered Therapy Bots and Virtual Companions” in its open access journal JMIR Mental Health (2024 Impact Factor 4.8). The premier, peer-reviewed journal is indexed in PubMed Central and PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Sherpa/Romeo, DOAJ, EBSCO/EBSCO Essentials, SCIE, PsycINFO and CABI.    Artificial intelligence (AI)–driven mental health tools—including chatbots, avatars, and virtual agents—have gained traction for their accessibility and scalability. However, most studies to date have focused ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – In one of the larger studies of its kind, researchers have identified six breast texture patterns that may be associated with increased cancer risk, according to a new study published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Women with dense breasts, which are breasts with a higher proportion of glandular tissue compared to fatty tissue, make up a large proportion of screening-eligible women. Breast cancer can be difficult to detect on mammograms of dense breasts due to the similarity ...

Martela’s latest study finds that generative AI meets all three of the philosophical conditions of free will —  the ability to have goal-directed agency, make genuine choices and to have control over its actions. It will be published in the journal AI and Ethics on Tuesday. Drawing on the concept of functional free will as explained in the theories of philosophers Daniel Dennett and Christian List, the study examined two generative AI agents powered by large language models (LLMs): the Voyager agent in Minecraft and fictional ‘Spitenik’ killer drones with the cognitive function of today's unmanned aerial vehicles. ...

A research paper by scientists at Kyushu University presented a novel needle-free reagent injection method that improves the depth of reagent injection by reflecting shock waves through microbubble dynamics. The research paper, published on Mar. 19, 2025 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems. Currently, drug administration for disease treatment and prophylaxis generally adopts an injector with a metal needle. However, because the needle is in direct contact with the patient’s mucus and blood, the spread of infectious diseases through the use of different ...

A newly published clinical feeding study out of South Dakota State University suggests that lean pork can play a central role in plant-forward dietary patterns for aging adults, offering high-quality protein, broad acceptability and alignment with current dietary guidance.i*  The PRODMED study, an 18-week crossover randomized controlled trial published in Current Developments in Nutrition, compared diets centered on lean pork to those built around plant proteins (such as lentils and chickpeas) in free-living older adults. ...

In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine have identified a never-before-seen mechanism that enables the human immunodeficiency type 1 virus (HIV-1) to evade the body’s natural defenses and use it to support its survival and replication. The “loophole?” A biological process that involves circular RNAs (circRNAs), which form a “loop” or circle inside cells – unlike regular RNA molecules that are shaped like a straight line. This looped shape makes circRNAs much more ...

Over 6 million Americans are impacted by Alzheimer’s disease, and researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh  are discovering how lifestyle habits can impact the likelihood of developing the disease. According to a new research study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, researchers found that increased sedentary behavior, time spent sitting or lying down, in aging adults was associated with worse cognition and brain shrinkage in areas related to risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.   The research ...

DARIEN, IL – Five individuals have been selected as the 2025 American Academy of Sleep Medicine award recipients for their outstanding contributions to the field of sleep medicine. They will be recognized Monday, June 9, during the plenary session of the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Seattle. “Congratulations to this year’s award recipients for their exceptional dedication to advancing the field of sleep medicine,” said AASM President Dr. Eric J. Olson. “Their leadership and achievements in research, education, advocacy, and clinical care reflect ...

Images available via link in the notes section Researchers at the University of Oxford, Durham University and the University of Toronto have detailed the geological ingredients required to find clean sources of natural hydrogen beneath our feet. The work details the requirements for natural hydrogen, produced by the Earth itself over geological time, to accumulate in the crust, and identifies that the geological environments with those ingredients are widespread globally. Hydrogen is $135 billion industry, essential for making fertiliser and other important societal ...

UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 13 MAY 2025 AT 10AM UK TIME  Peer reviewed | Observational study | People    The results of an international study led by researchers from Queen Mary University of London’s Precision Healthcare University Research Institute (PHURI) shed new light the underlying biological mechanisms which cause differences in health risks, symptoms and outcomes between males and females.   The study, carried out in collaboration with the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité, ...

Researchers at UCL and the Francis Crick Institute have, for the first time, identified the origin of cardiac cells using 3D images of a heart forming in real-time, inside a living mouse embryo. For the study, published in The EMBO Journal, the team used a technique called advanced light-sheet microscopy on a specially engineered mouse model. This is a method where a thin sheet of light is used to illuminate and take detailed pictures of tiny samples, creating clear 3D images without causing any damage to living tissue. By doing this, they were able to track individual cells as they moved and divided over the course ...

Astronomers have developed a groundbreaking computer simulation to explore, in unprecedented detail, magnetism and turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) — the vast ocean of gas and charged particles that lies between stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Described in a new study published today in Nature Astronomy, the model is the most powerful to date, requiring the computing capability of the SuperMUC-NG supercomputer at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre in Germany. It directly challenges our understanding of how magnetized turbulence operates in astrophysical environments. James Beattie, ...

From the ocean’s rolling swells to the bumpy ride of a jetliner, turbulence is everywhere. It breaks large waves into smaller ones, cascading energy across scales. It is ubitquitous throughout our Galaxy and the broader Universe, shaping the behavior of plasma, stars, and magnetic fields. Yet despite its ubiquity, turbulence remains one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. Now, by developing the world’s largest-ever simulations of magnetized turbulence, an international team of scientists has measured — with unprecedented precision — how ...

Barcelona, 13 May 2025 – Just as species adapt over generations, our body’s cells accumulate DNA changes throughout life. Most are harmless, yet a few “driver” mutations give a cell a competitive edge and can spark cancer. Chemotherapy then adds a new evolutionary pressure, encouraging further genetic changes that let tumours bounce back. Researchers at IRB Barcelona have developed DiffInvex, a computational framework that tracks how evolutionary pressures on genes change as healthy cells become tumours and as tumours face chemotherapy. Applied to more than 11,000 human cancer and healthy tissue genomes spanning ...

People with multiple long-term physical health conditions are at a significantly greater risk of developing depression, a study shows.   Researchers found that some combinations of illnesses – particularly cardiometabolic ones like diabetes and heart disease – could more than double the likelihood of a future depression diagnosis.   With multimorbidity – when patients live with two or more chronic conditions – continuing to put pressure on an already stretched healthcare ...

Plants have small pores on the underside of their leaves, known as stomata. When the sun rises, these pores open and the plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, which they need, in addition to sunlight and water, for photosynthesis. At the same time, water evaporates through the open stomata; for a tree, this may be several hundred liters per day. When water is scarce, plants can close their stomata and thus prevent it from evaporating too much water. The fact that plants have this protective mechanism at their disposal is nothing new. Until now, however, it has not been clear when this closure occurs and what the trigger was. ...

ROCHESTER, New York, USA, 29 April 2025 -- In a comprehensive Genomic Psychiatry review article published today, researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center have synthesized decades of research on stress hormone systems in primate brains, potentially unlocking new paths toward treating stress-related psychiatric disorders. The article offers groundbreaking insights into how corticotropin releasing factor (CRF), a key stress hormone, interacts with dopamine neuron populations in ways that differ significantly between rodents and primates. The Stress-Dopamine Connection: More Complex Than Previously Understood Stress ...

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, 13 May 2025 - In a comprehensive Genomic Press Commentary published today, researchers have identified what could be the first reliable biomarker for depression risk, potentially transforming how this devastating condition is identified and treated. The commentary examines recent findings demonstrating that individuals with depression consistently exhibit a functionally enlarged salience network compared to non-depressed controls. Distinctive Brain Connectivity Pattern Identified The salience network, a neural system responsible for attention allocation and switching between different brain ...