Deep brain stimulation – implants in the brain that act as a kind of ‘pacemaker’ – has led to clinical improvements in half of the participants with treatment-resistant severe depression in an ‘open label’ trial. Significantly, the study, led by researchers in the UK and China, identified a telltale signature of brain activity that predicted how well individual patients responded to the treatment. This could be used in future to target the treatment at those patients most likely to benefit. Major ...

The background: Multicellular organisms (animals, plants, human) all have the ability to methylate the cytosine © base in their DNA. This process, a type of epigenetic modification, plays an important role in conditions such as cancer and processes such as aging. The findings: In this new paper, the researchers discovered that in more ‘primitive’ unicellular organisms, both the adenine and the cytosine bases are methylated. This would suggest that in some ways, these unicellular organisms are more complex than their multicellular peers. The team also found that methylation of the adenine ...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing health challenge, reducing the effectiveness of life-saving treatments and increasing the risk of complications from routine medical procedures.  To support global AMR research, EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) has launched the AMR portal, a central hub that connects bacterial genomes, resistance phenotypes, and functional annotations, all in one place.  The first release of the AMR portal is based upon a dataset from Imperial College London obtained from the Comprehensive Assessment of Bacterial-Based Antimicrobial resistance prediction ...

The weather patterns that produced some of Europe’s most extreme heat waves over the past three decades could prove far more lethal if they strike in today’s hotter climate, pushing weekly deaths toward levels seen during the COVID pandemic, according to a November 18 study in Nature Climate Change. “We showed that if these same weather systems were to occur after we’ve trapped a lot more heat in the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the intensity of the heat waves gets stronger and ...

 Feeling thirsty? Why not tap into the air? Even in desert conditions, there exists some level of humidity that, with the right material, can be soaked up and squeezed out to produce clean drinking water. In recent years, scientists have developed a host of promising sponge-like materials for this “atmospheric water harvesting.”  But recovering the water from these materials usually requires heat — and time. Existing designs rely on heat from the sun to evaporate water from the materials and condense it into droplets. But this step can take hours or even days.   Now, MIT engineers ...

Large language models can help improve questionnaires used to diagnose mental illness by optimizing symptom generalizability and reducing redundancy. They can even contribute to new conceptualizations of mental disorders. That is the result of an international study led by Professor Dr Joseph Kambeitz and Professor Dr Kai Vogeley from the University of Cologne’s Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne. The results of the study ‘The empirical structure of psychopathology is represented in large language models’ have been published in the journal Nature Mental Health. To ...

In stunning new time-lapse videos, biological nanoparticles scoot and flit across a starry field of glowing dots. Guided by the invisible chemistry of attraction, these microscopic travelers eventually group together to form perfectly round, glowing circles on a black surface. These mesmerizing new videos are made possible with LEVA (light-induced extracellular vesicle and particle adsorption), a groundbreaking new technology from Northwestern University and The Ohio State University.  LEVA is the first tool that enables ...

The University of Liverpool has unveiled an ambitious plan to position the Liverpool City Region and the UK as a global leader in AI-driven materials research, development, and innovation. Announced at the University’s annual Vice-Chancellor’s Conference, the new £100 million AI Materials Hub for Innovation (AIM-HI) will be a flagship national facility dedicated to accelerating the application of artificial intelligence in materials chemistry. Focusing on areas such as catalysis, materials for net-zero, soft matter, and product formulation, AIM-HI will drive innovation in sectors crucial to the UK economy and the transition to net zero. National Centre ...

  RAMAT GAN, Israel and New York, NY — November 18, 2025 — ARC Innovation at Sheba Medical Center and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (part of the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City) today announced a landmark three-year collaboration with NVIDIA to harness the power of artificial intelligence for genomic discovery through the application of large language model (LLM) technology. The initiative aims to pioneer the decoding of the majority of the human genome that remains poorly understood in order to unlock new pathways for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Over the three-year period, the project will be supported by significant ...

SRL Editor-in-Chief Allison Bent has appointed Hongfeng Yang as the first deputy editor-in-chief of its journal Seismological Research Letters (SRL). Yang, a professor in the department of Earth and environmental sciences at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, joined the editorial board of SRL as an associate editor in 2018. He will begin the deputy position on 1 December. “I’m looking forward to working more closely with Hongfeng in his new role as deputy editor. The dedication, thoughtfulness and good judgment he exercised as an associate editor will serve him ...

Despite determined efforts by countries and healthcare professionals, Europe is not on track to meet four of the five AMR targets set by the EU Council for 2030*, according to data released on EAAD. Rising AMR, together with a shortage of novel effective treatments, constitutes an evolving major public health crisis in Europe and globally. In an interconnected world, AMR further complicates the health challenges that stem from non-communicable diseases, demographic shifts and healthcare workforce shortages.   ‘Tackling AMR requires critical innovation on three key fronts: strong action for responsible antibiotic use, sustained and ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., and SINGAPORE, Nov 18, 2025 – Apriori Bio, a Flagship Pioneering company focused on developing prospective, variant-resilient vaccines, and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research Infectious Diseases Labs (A*STAR IDL) announced a strategic research partnership to co-develop and evaluate next generation self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) vaccines targeting seasonal and pandemic influenza. The collaboration brings together Apriori’s Octavia™ platform for intelligent, ...

The Notre-Dame Cathedral in Lausanne was built between 1170 and 1235 and is the largest Gothic church in Switzerland. Over time, this imposing building has been altered, extended and restored on multiple occasions. The nearly 80-metre-tall lantern tower, for example, has undergone several redesigns over the years, the most recent of which took place at the end of the 19th century during an extensive restoration. The stone used to build this cathedral, and many other monuments in the Swiss plateau, is particularly susceptible to a variety of degradation mechanisms, all of which are enabled by the presence of water (such ...

Researchers at the University of Tokyo developed an experimental method to induce a strong physiological response linked to psychological pressure by making participants aim for a streak of success in a task. Their findings suggest this approach reproduces pressurelike conditions in a laboratory setting more effectively than traditional methods, affording easier access to the study of this state. That in turn could open up research into how pressure influences human performance in physical and intellectual tasks. Whether in an exam hall or on the field, to “crack” under pressure is a common trope. But what’s the reality behind this idea? It’s easy to assume ...

Children have 20 milk teeth, 10 in each jaw. This set of teeth is important for chewing and speaking, and helps to keep space open for the subsequent set of 32 permanent teeth. Milk teeth begin to develop in the womb around the sixth week of gestation, and gradually come out ('erupt') between six months and three years after birth. However, there is considerable variation in this timing, due to genetics, geography, and an infant's overall health and nutritional status. Now, researchers from the US have shown for the first time that another factor can speed up the timing of teeth eruption: maternal ...

Nigella sativa (black cumin), the spice that boosts the flavor of curries like korma and paneer also has another use: its seeds have long been used as a medicinal plant in traditional medicine for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Now, a clinical trial led by Osaka Metropolitan University suggests that they also have anti-obesity benefits. To investigate these effects, a team led by Associate Professor Akiko Kojima-Yuasa of the Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology used cellular experiments and human clinical trials. In ...

A research team in South Korea has developed a novel gasket technology that enhances both the safety and efficiency of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and water electrolyzers (PEMWEs, AEMWEs)—core devices for hydrogen production and utilization—by simultaneously improving mechanical strength and gas-tight sealing. Dr. Keun-Hwan Oh and his colleagues at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) have successfully applied functionalized two-dimensional boron nitride nanoflakes (BNNFs) to silicone and ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM)-based sealing gaskets. The newly developed nanocomposite gasket demonstrates excellent ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — [November 18, 2025] —Nearly half of U.S. adults (47%) are worried they won’t be able to afford necessary healthcare in the coming year, the highest level of concern recorded since West Health and Gallup began tracking in 2021. The share of Americans reporting that they or someone in their household were not able to pay for prescription medications in the past three months has reached a record high of 20%, or one in five Americans. These trends are clear: millions of Americans are facing growing challenges ...

Vaccination rates are falling in many communities due to widespread misinformation and previously eliminated or controlled illnesses like measles are surging across the United States and Canada.   Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a new approach that could help public health officials predict where outbreaks might occur. By analyzing social media posts, the method identifies early signs of increasing vaccine skepticism — a warning signal that could emerge before any disease begins to spread.  “In nature, we have contagious ...

The rapid development of humanoid robots necessitates environmental perception for autonomous locomotion and dexterous manipulation. As one of the most fundamental perceptual modalities, tactile sensing provides critical physical feedback during contact-rich interactions. However, this sensing capability introduces a fundamental trade-off between compliance in physical interactions and high-fidelity response to mechanical stimuli.   The biomechanical intelligence of human fingertips offers a compelling paradigm ...

A University of Sydney-led study published today has found 42 percent of Australian adults — more than eight million people — experienced a traumatic event as children. Those affected have a 50 percent higher risk of developing a mental health or substance use disorder than the wider population, the research found. They are more likely to experience anxiety, depression or panic disorder later in life, with more than one in ten projected to attempt suicide. The findings highlight a need for urgent investment in trauma-informed support to better protect children and prevent lifelong mental health impacts, the authors say. Led by Dr Lucy Grummitt and Associate ...

A world’s most comprehensive meta-analysis in depression and mortality, led by the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), has found that people with depression have twice the risk of death than those without depression, and a nearly 10-fold increased risk of suicide. However, timely and effective treatment can significantly reduce these risks and improve survival rates. This study analysed data from 268 cohort studies, covering over 10 million people living with depression and nearly 2.8 billion controls, making it the largest research of its kind to date. The ...

A research team led by the Faculty of Dentistry at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has developed a novel vascularised tumour model using a non-surgical injectable hydrogel system. This innovative approach provides a powerful new platform for researching cancer and testing immune cell therapies. The breakthrough has been published in Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials, representing a significant advancement in modelling the complex nature of tumours for oncology. This study, led by Professor Sang Jin Lee, Assistant Professor in Biofunctional ...

Floating solar panels are emerging as a promising clean energy solution with environmental benefits, but a new study finds those effects vary significantly depending on where the systems are deployed. Researchers from Oregon State University and the U.S. Geological Survey modeled the impact of floating solar photovoltaic systems on 11 reservoirs across six states. Their simulations showed that the systems consistently cooled surface waters and altered water temperatures at different layers within the reservoirs. However, the panels also introduced increased variability in habitat suitability for aquatic species. “Different reservoirs are going to respond differently based ...

In a surprising discovery, a ‘sticky molecule’ that occurs naturally in our blood vessels could be both a culprit behind blood clots and organ failure during COVID and long COVID and the key to new treatments to counter COVID-related viruses. Researchers say the molecule, called P-selectin, could turn the tide to develop a new generation of mRNA therapies to combat not just COVID variants, but also other viruses in the same family. The study, co-led by the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, was ...