Scientists have engineered a nanowire platform that mimics brain tissue to study astrocytes, the star-shaped cells critical for brain health, for the first time in their natural state. Astrocytes are the brain’s most abundent and mysterious cells, responsible for regulating communication between neurons and helping to maintain the blood-brain barrier. They are also highly dynamic shape-shifters, someething they do not do on typical petri dishes, leaving major gaps in our understanding of how they ...

**EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL NOV. 24 AT 5 A.M. ET** An experimental cancer vaccine developed at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy has shown early promise in a phase I clinical trial for a rare form of liver cancer that primarily affects children and young adults. The trial, led by investigators at Johns Hopkins and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, was supported by the National Cancer Institute and the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation. In the study, 75% of participants (nine patients) with fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC) experienced disease control, including stable disease or measurable immune responses. ...

A major genetic risk factor for delirium has been identified in a landmark study that analysed the DNA of more than one million people worldwide. The study found that APOE, a gene already well known for its role in Alzheimer’s disease, also increases a person’s risk of developing delirium – a common medical condition characterised by a state of sudden mental confusion. Experts say this effect cannot be explained solely by the gene’s link to dementia, suggesting it also plays a distinctive, direct role in delirium. The ...

Humans have long wondered when and how we begin to form thoughts. Are we born with a pre-configured brain, or do thought patterns only begin to emerge in response to our sensory experiences of the world around us? Now, science is getting closer to answering the questions philosophers have pondered for centuries.  Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are using tiny models of human brain tissue, called organoids, to study the earliest moments of electrical activity in the brain. A new study in Nature Neuroscience finds that the earliest firings of the brain ...

Researchers have successfully grown platinum crystals in liquid metal, using a powerful X-ray technique giving rare insight into how these delicate crystals form and grow. More than a beautiful curiosity, liquid metal-grown crystals could be the key to creating new materials. They are potentially a vital ingredient in new technology being developed to extract hydrogen from water and in quantum computing applications.   Published in Nature Communications, the University of Sydney led team used metallic crystals to build an electrode that can efficiently produce hydrogen from water. Liquid metals like Gallium are curious elements. They shimmer on the surface like solid metals ...

When a wild orangutan leaves its mother after spending many years by her side, it has a mental catalog of almost 250 edible plants and animals, and the knowledge of how to acquire and process them. A new study in Nature Human Behaviour reveals that no lone orangutan could build this encyclopedic knowledge through trial and error. Instead, this knowledge forms a “culturally-dependent repertoire”— a diverse set of knowledge that is only attainable through years of watching and exploring alongside others. As humans, ...

Sixty-million-year-old rock samples from deep under the ocean have revealed how huge amounts of carbon dioxide are stored for millennia in piles of lava rubble that accumulate on the seafloor. Scientists have analysed lavas drilled from deep under the South Atlantic Ocean to understand how much CO2 is captured within the rocks due to reactions between the rocks and ocean. The research, led by the University of Southampton, found that piles of lava rubble, formed due to erosion of seafloor mountains, form geological sponges for CO2. It’s the first time the role of lava rubble as carbon sponges ...

Research led by polar scientists from Northumbria University has revealed new hope in natural environmental systems found in East Antarctica which could help mitigate the overall rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over long timescales. As Antarctica's ice sheets thin due to climate change, newly exposed mountain peaks could significantly increase the supply of vital nutrients to the Southern Ocean which surrounds the continent, potentially enhancing its ability to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to the research published in Nature Communications. A team of scientists with expertise in oceanography, ice sheet modelling and geochemistry contributed to the study ...

Volcanic bubbles help foretell the fate of coral in more acidic seas By 2100 Australian and global coral reef communities will be slow to recover, less complex, and dominated by fleshy algae, as high carbon dioxide changes ocean chemistry. An international study published today in Communications Biology has used unique coral reefs in Papua New Guinea to determine the likely impact of ocean acidification on coral reefs in the face of climate change. Oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and that acid will dissolve coral limestone. But it’s hard to predict what ...

Rutgers neuroscientist Peng Jiang was visiting his hometown of Qianshan, a city in China’s Anhui province, when a neighbor came to his parents’ house with a story that would stay with him. The man’s mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in her early 60s. After nearly a decade of decline, she no longer recognized her own son. One morning, she looked at him and asked gently, “How is your mother doing? Is she well?” As the neighbor recounted the moment, he broke into tears. He told Jiang that Alzheimer’s runs in his family and that he fears his own children may one day watch him fade the way he watched his mother’s memory vanish. That ...

The recipient of this year’s Individual Award, Simine Vazire, is a psychologist at University of Melbourne and editor-in-chief of Psychological Science. She is recognized for pioneering methodological rigor, reproducibility, and collaborative research in psychology, shaping initiatives such as the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) and the journal Collabra. The Institutional Award honors a nationwide effort to systematically evaluate research results in laboratory biology. The Brazilian Reproducibility Initiative is the largest ...

The drug dexamethasone supplements cancer treatments to alleviate side effects of chemotherapy such as nausea or inflammation. Researchers at the University of Basel, Switzerland, have now discovered that it also fights metastases in certain types of breast cancer. The active substance dexamethasone is a synthetic signaling substance with a similar effect to the body’s own stress hormone cortisol. A research group at the University of Basel has found evidence that this drug, which has been in use for a long time, could have a new, additional effect in certain treatment-resistant ...

The same technology used in COVID-19 vaccines could help prevent muscle damage from snakebites, according to a new study published in Trends in Biotechnology today [24 November].  Scientists from the University of Reading and the Technical University of Denmark tested whether mRNA technology could be used to protect against the damage caused by the venom of the Bothrops asper snake, found in Central and South America. This snake's venom destroys muscle tissue, often leaving victims with permanent disabilities even after receiving standard treatment.  The research team wrapped specific mRNA molecules in ...

New research reveals that certain social determinants of health—such as socioeconomic status, household characteristics, and racial/ethnic minority status—have significant effects on rural–urban disparities in colorectal cancer mortality rates. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Using 1999–2020 colorectal cancer mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pertaining to all US counties, investigators assessed how different components of the Social Vulnerability Index might affect differences in colorectal ...

There’s always a touch of melancholy when a chapter that has absorbed years of work comes to an end. In the case of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), those years amount to nearly twenty — and now the telescope has completed its mission. Yet some endings are also important beginnings, opening new paths for the entire scientific community. The three papers just published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP) by the ACT Collaboration describe and contextualize in detail the sixth and final major ACT data release — perhaps the most ...

Amid concerns about the simultaneous spread of multiple respiratory diseases, such as colds and influenza, with the change of seasons in current times, a recent clinical study has scientifically proven that kimchi, a traditional Korean fermented food, enhances the function of human immune cells and maintains the balance of the immune system. The World Institute of Kimchi (President: Hae Choon Chang), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, has reported the results of a single-cell genetic analysis that suggests that kimchi consumption ...

A US study of more than a million Medicaid enrollees, newly diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD), finds most – nearly seven in 10 – are not receiving access to potentially life-saving drugs within six months.  The major gap in access to these medications – vital for those receiving free or low-cost healthcare and needing treatment for a dependency on heroin, painkillers and other opioids – is revealed ahead of looming Medicaid funding cuts, which threaten to further limit access to many various medications.  The research, published ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study reveals that four wild cat species living in the same rainforest habitat in Guatemala reduce competition for food by hunting in different vertical zones, some in trees and others on the ground. Researchers from Oregon State University and the Wildlife Conservation Society of Guatemala used trail camera footage and DNA analysis of scat to study jaguars, pumas, ocelots and margays in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. They found that jaguars and ocelots primarily hunted ground-dwelling prey, while pumas and margays more frequently consumed animals that live in trees. Among the most surprising findings: Central American spider monkeys and black howler monkeys ...

Two new Cochrane reviews show strong and consistent evidence that HPV vaccines are effective in preventing cervical cancer and pre-cancerous changes, especially when given to young people before they are exposed to the virus. Girls vaccinated before the age of 16 were found to be 80% less likely to develop cervical cancer. The reviews also confirm that HPV vaccines are only likely to cause minor, transient side effects such as a sore arm. The reviews were supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a family of common ...

Around 115 million years ago, the seas off northern Australia were home to a gigantic ancestor of Jaws. Fossils of this ancient mega-predator reveal that modern sharks experimented with enormous body sizes much earlier in their evolutionary history than previously suspected, and took the top place in oceanic food chains alongside massive marine reptiles during the Age of Dinosaurs. This study presents a new interdisciplinary analysis to reconstruct size evolution in ancient sharks.    Sharks are iconic predators in the oceans today, and can trace their ancestry back over 400 million years. However, the evolutionary history ...

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have revealed how a catalyst in a promising chemical reaction for industry helps make ammonia, a major ingredient in fertilizer. Copper oxide is a key catalyst in the electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction, a greener alternative to the existing Haber-Bosch process. They discovered that copper particles are created mid-reaction, helping convert nitrite ions to ammonia. This insight into the underlying mechanisms promises leaps forward in developing new industrial chemistry.   As an ingredient in fertilizer, ammonia is an important chemical in industrial agriculture. The most widely adopted way to make ...

Let’s get one thing out of the way: All hummingbirds fight. Most species fight for food, using their tiny bodies and sharp bills to force competitors away from flowers. But the green hermit hummingbird, which lives primarily in mountain forests of Central and South America, fights to win a mate. “They gather together at a place in the forest that looks just like a singles bar,” said Alejandro Rico-Guevara, an associate professor of biology at the University of Washington. “They all have perches, and if someone else takes their perch — their place in the singles ...

DALLAS, Nov. 21, 2025 — One in every five American children and teens is obese; that’s up 35% from 2000, as severe childhood obesity rates have nearly doubled in that time[1]. In recognition of efforts to fight back locally to create healthier classrooms and communities, the American Heart Association, a relentless force changing the future of health for everyone everywhere, has honored nine students, schools and educators from across the country during a virtual awards ceremony on Nov. 20. The ceremony — held annually to recognize outstanding ...

LA JOLLA (November 21, 2025)—All the cells in an organism have the exact same genetic sequence. What differs across cell types is their epigenetics—meticulously placed chemical tags that influence which genes are expressed in each cell. Mistakes or failures in epigenetic regulation can lead to severe developmental defects in plants and animals alike. This creates a puzzling question: If epigenetic changes regulate our genetics, what is regulating them? Scientists at the Salk Institute have now used plant cells to discover that a type of epigenetic tag, called DNA ...

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, along with collaborators at Northwestern University, have developed a noninvasive approach to treat one of the most aggressive and deadly brain cancers. Their technology uses precisely engineered structures assembled from nano-size materials to deliver potent tumor-fighting medicine to the brain through nasal drops. The novel delivery method is less invasive than similar treatments in development and was shown in mice to effectively treat glioblastoma by boosting the brain’s immune response. The findings were published this month in PNAS. Glioblastoma ...