The Science Polyphenols are a diverse group of organic compounds produced by plants. These compounds are often toxic to microorganisms. In peatlands, scientists thought that microorganisms avoided this toxicity by degrading polyphenols using an enzyme that requires oxygen. However, when there is little or no oxygen, like after flooding due to climate induced thawing, the enzyme is inactive, and polyphenols accumulate. This inhibits microbes’ carbon cycling. In this study, scientists mined data for thousands of microbial genomes recovered from Stordalen Mire, an Arctic peatland in Sweden. They discovered that these microorganisms used alternative polyphenol-active ...

The risk of developing long COVID has decreased significantly over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis of data led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Researchers attributed about 70% of the risk reduction to vaccination against COVID-19 and 30% to changes over time, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s evolving characteristics and improved detection and management of COVID-19. The research is published July 17 in The New England Journal of Medicine. “The research on declining rates ...

The University of Freiburg is establishing a new tenure track professorship in Earth and Planetary Geodynamics at the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, made possible by a 1.71 million euro grant from the Volkswagen Foundation. The new tenure track professorship is part of a comprehensive strategic initiative for combining Earth system sciences with planetary sciences at the University that also includes the establishment of a new Earth System Simulation Lab (EaSySim) and the introduction of an Earth Sciences ...

A research team at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) has received a $5 million grant from the United States Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency to support the detection and prevention of brucellosis in Armenia. Brucellosis, which is caused by several bacterial species of Brucella, is a zoonotic disease that can spread to humans from dogs and major livestock species, including cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats. It can have a major impact on a country’s public health and agricultural economy. The team of Texas A&M researchers, led by VMBS Associate Professor Dr. Angela Arenas, will ...

MINNEAPOLIS – For people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study has found that the drug ofatumumab is more effective than teriflunomide at helping people across racial and ethnic groups reach a period of no disease activity. The study is published in the July 17, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Ofatumumab, a monoclonal antibody, is a newer drug for treating MS. Teriflunomide, an immunomodulatory agent, has been available for over a decade. MS is a disease in ...

MINNEAPOLIS – Insurance coverage, ethnicity and location may all play a role in a person’s ability to receive care after a stroke, according to a study published in the July 17, 2024, online issue of Neurology® Clinical Practice, an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Receiving the right care after a stroke is crucial to recovery and minimizing disability,” said study author Shumei Man, MD, PhD, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “Unfortunately, decisions about care may be influenced by factors such as race, insurance, and geographic location. Our study ...

A majority of people in Afghanistan support human rights for Afghan women, and men are especially likely to support women’s rights when primed to think about their eldest daughters, according to a study published July 17, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, by Kristina Becvar and colleagues from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Human rights groups have been concerned for the rights of Afghan women in particular since the Taliban took control of Kabul in 2021. Since then, Afghan ...

Scientists at the University of Sydney and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have made a remarkable discovery: a commonly used blood thinner, heparin, can be repurposed as an inexpensive antidote for cobra venom. Cobras kill thousands of people a year worldwide and perhaps a hundred thousand more are seriously maimed by necrosis – the death of body tissue and cells – caused by the venom, which can lead to amputation. Current antivenom treatment is expensive and does not effectively ...

Have you ever wondered how insects are able to go so far beyond their home and still find their way? The answer to this question is not only relevant to biology but also to making the AI for tiny, autonomous robots.  TU Delft drone-researchers felt inspired by biological findings on how ants visually recognize their environment and combine it with counting their steps in order to get safely back home. They have used these insights to create an insect-inspired autonomous navigation strategy for tiny, lightweight robots. The strategy allows such robots to come back home after long trajectories, while requiring extremely little computation and memory (0.65 kiloByte per ...

Researchers have developed soft, stretchable ‘jelly batteries’ that could be used for wearable devices or soft robotics, or even implanted in the brain to deliver drugs or treat conditions such as epilepsy. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, took their inspiration from electric eels, which stun their prey with modified muscle cells called electrocytes. Like electrocytes, the jelly-like materials developed by the Cambridge researchers have a layered structure, like sticky Lego, that makes them capable of delivering an electric current.   The self-healing jelly batteries can stretch ...

The most threatened reef fishes are also the most overlooked by scientists and the general public. That is the startling finding of a team of scientists led by a CNRS researcher.1 In a study to be published in Science Advances on July 17, they measured the level of human interest in 2,408 species of marine reef fish and found that the attention of the scientific community is attracted by the commercial value more than the ecological value of the fishes. The public, on the other hand, is primarily influenced by the aesthetic characteristics of certain species, such as the red lionfish ...

Mindfulness training may lead participants to experience disembodiment and unity – so-called altered states of consciousness – according to a new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge. The team say that while these experiences can be very positive, that is not always the case. Mindfulness teachers and students need to be aware that they can be a side-effect of training, and students should feel empowered to share their experiences with their teacher or doctor if they have any concerns. Mindfulness-based programmes have ...

When electronic devices like laptops or smartphones overheat, they are fundamentally suffering from a nanoscale heat transfer problem. Pinpointing the source of that problem can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. “The building blocks of our modern electronics are transistors with nanoscale features, so to understand which parts of overheating, the first step is to get a detailed temperature map,” says Andrea Pickel, an assistant professor from the University of Rochester’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “But you need something with nanoscale ...

Peek inside the human genome and, among the 20,000 or so genes that serve as building blocks of life, you’ll also find flecks of DNA left behind by viruses that infected primate ancestors tens of millions of years ago. These ancient hitchhikers, known as endogenous retroviruses, were long considered inert or ‘junk’ DNA, defanged of any ability to do damage. New CU Boulder research published July 17 in the journal Science Advances shows that, when reawakened, they can play a critical role in helping cancer survive and thrive. The study also suggests that silencing certain endogenous retroviruses can make cancer treatments work better. “Our study shows that diseases ...

Researchers have uncovered an under-the-sea phenomenon where coral-destroying crown-of-thorns starfish larvae have been feasting on blue-green algae bacteria known as ‘sea sawdust’. The team of marine scientists from The University of Queensland and Southern Cross University found crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) larvae grow and thrive when raised on an exclusive diet of Trichodesmium – a bacteria that often floats on the ocean’s surface in large slicks. UQ’s Dr Benjamin Mos from the School ...

Mental health training for line managers is strongly linked to better business performance, and it could save companies millions of pounds in lost sick days every year, according to new research led by experts at the University of Nottingham.  The results of the study, which are published in PLOS ONE, showed a strong association between mental health training for line managers and improved staff recruitment and retention, better customer service, and lower levels of long-term mental health sickness absence.  The study was led by Professor Holly Blake from the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham and Dr Juliet Hassard of Queen’s ...

When it comes to diatoms that live in the ocean, new research suggests that photosynthesis is not the only strategy for accumulating carbon. Instead, these single-celled plankton are also building biomass by feeding directly on organic carbon in wide swaths of the ocean. These new findings could lead researchers to reduce their estimate of how much carbon dioxide diatoms pull out of the air via photosynthesis, which in turn, could alter our understanding of the global carbon cycle, which is especially relevant given the changing climate.   This research is led by bioengineers, bioinformatics experts and other genomics researchers ...

UC Riverside environmental engineering team has discovered specific bacterial species that can destroy certain kinds of “forever chemicals,” a step further toward low-cost treatments of contaminated drinking water sources. The microorganisms belong to the genus Acetobacterium and they are commonly found in wastewater environments throughout the world.  Forever chemicals, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, are so named because they have stubbornly strong carbon-fluorine chemical bonds, which make them persistent in the environment.  The microorganisms discovered by UCR scientists and their collaborators ...

Research by the Technion has demonstrated that activation of the brain’s reward system could boost recovery from a heart attack. The research, which was conducted at the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, was led by Ph.D. student Hedva Haykin under the supervision of Prof. Asya Rolls and Prof. Lior Gepstein. The Technion research group focused on the reward system, a brain network activated in positive emotional states and motivation and evaluated its potential in improving recovery ...

ATLANTA — A research team at Georgia State University has developed tiny, potent molecules that are capable of targeting hidden strains of HIV. The source? Antibody genes from llama DNA. The research, led by Assistant Professor of Biology Jianliang Xu, uses llama-derived nanobodies to broadly neutralize numerous strains of HIV-1, the most common form of the virus. A new study from this team has been published in the journal Advanced Science. “This virus has evolved a way to escape our immune system. Conventional antibodies are bulky, so it’s difficult for them to find and attack the virus’ surface,” ...

You join a swing dance class, and at first you’re all left feet. But – slowly, eyes glued to the teacher – you pick up a step or two and start to feel the rhythm of the big band beat. A good start. Then you look over and realize the couple next to you has picked up twice the steps in half the time. Why? According to a new study from University of Florida biomechanical researchers, the quick, athletic learners among us really are built differently – inside their brains. That’s what UF Professor of Biomedical Engineering Daniel Ferris, Ph.D., and his former doctoral student, Noelle Jacobsen, Ph.D., discovered when they studied how people learn ...

-With images- Researchers at Durham University, UK and Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran have developed an innovative approach to diagnosing Multiple Sclerosis using advanced eye imaging techniques. This groundbreaking method could revolutionise how Multiple Sclerosis is detected, offering a faster, less invasive, and more accessible alternative to current diagnostic procedures. The study, led by Dr Raheleh Kafieh of Durham University, integrates two types of eye scans: optical coherence tomography (OCT) and infrared scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (IR-SLO). By training computer models ...

Traveling to and from a clinic or a laboratory for treatment can be difficult and expensive for older Americans. To address this, scientists developed and tested a new training and supervision program for older adults so they can receive Transcranial Electrical Stimulation (tES), a promising intervention for various clinical conditions, in their homes. Published in Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface, this groundbreaking training and supervision program was designed to introduce and teach caregivers, family members, and patients how to administer home-based transcranial electrical stimulation (HB-tES), equipping them ...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (July 17, 2024) — Van Andel Institute scientists have identified more than 1,000 previously undetected proteins in common metabolite samples, which persist despite extraction methods designed to weed them out.   The findings, published in Nature Communications, give scientists new insights and tools for improving future metabolomics experiments, including a novel protocol for removing these proteins during the extraction process. The study does not invalidate prior results but instead reinforces the importance ...

A new study found that increased exposure to residential greenery may help stave off cognitive decline by an annual rate of eight months. This delay was observed more among people living in low-socioeconomic status and highly populated neighborhoods, as well as people who carry the APOE-ɛ4 gene, which is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Research has shown that about 40 percent of dementia could be prevented or delayed worldwide by addressing modifiable risk factors associated with the condition, particularly during midlife.  A new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) ...