Step aside hard, rigid materials. There is a new soft, sustainable electroactive material in town — and it’s poised to open new possibilities for medical devices, wearable technology and human-computer interfaces. Using peptides and a snippet of the large molecules in plastics, Northwestern University materials scientists have developed materials made of tiny, flexible nano-sized ribbons that can be charged just like a battery to store energy or record digital information. Highly energy efficient, biocompatible and made from sustainable materials, the systems could give rise to new ...

Imagine walking into a room where several different grandfather clocks hang on the walls, each ticking at a different pace.  Quantum physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have essentially recreated that room at the scale of atoms and electrons. The team’s advancement could pave the way for new kinds of optical atomic clocks, devices that track the passage of time by measuring the natural “ticking” of atoms. The group’s new clock is made from a few dozen strontium ...

About The Study: This cross-sectional study addresses the dearth of information on how intersectionality in gender and autism status impacts the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and the results confirm the elevated risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among transgender or gender nonconforming and autistic populations. Interventions are needed to support college students with these identities.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Annabelle M. Mournet, MS, email amm883@psych.rutgers.edu. To ...

Each year millions of Pacific salmon make a grand journey from the ocean to their freshwater spawning grounds at the end of their life cycles. This migration has rippling effects through food webs and ecosystems along the way. Whether they decompose or are consumed by other animals, these salmon deliver both nutrients and contaminants they have accumulated in their bodies after spending most of their lives growing at sea.  A team of researchers from UConn, the University of South Dakota, the U.S. Geological Survey, Natural ...

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains the most aggressive and deadly type of breast cancer, but new findings from cancer researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, are pointing the way toward therapeutic strategies that could be tested in clinical trials in the future. Using patient-derived samples in pre-clinical work, researchers discovered that by combining two therapeutic agents they could nudge TNBC cells into a more treatable state. Findings are published in Nature. “When combined, these therapeutic agents ...

A UCLA-led study has provided an unprecedented look at how gene regulation evolves during human brain development, showing how the 3D structure of chromatin — DNA and proteins — plays a critical role. This work offers new insights into how early brain development shapes lifelong mental health. The study, published in Nature, was led by Dr. Chongyuan Luo at UCLA and Dr. Mercedes Paredes at UC San Francisco, in collaboration with researchers from the Salk Institute, UC San Diego and Seoul National University. It created the first map of DNA modification in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex — two regions ...

New research from the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience published this week in Nature has identified a key step in how neurons encode information on timescales that match learning. A timing mismatch Learning takes seconds to minutes. However, the best-understood mechanisms of how the brain encodes information happen at speeds closer to neural activity—around 1000 times faster. These mechanisms, known as Hebbian plasticity, suggest that if two connected neurons are both active within a hundredth of a second, then the connection between the two neurons is strengthened. In this ...

HOUSTON ―Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have demonstrated that patients with metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring specific mutations in the STK11 and/or KEAP1 tumor suppressor genes were more likely to benefit from adding the immunotherapy tremelimumab to a combination of durvalumab plus chemotherapy to overcome treatment resistance typically seen in this patient population.   Study results, published today in Nature, identify ...

Scientists discover viral trapdoor blocking HIV and herpes Ghent, 10 October 2024 – A group of researchers led by Xavier Saelens and Sven Eyckerman at the VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology discovered how a protein linked to the human immune system wards off HIV-1 and herpes simplex virus-1 by assembling structures in the cell that lure in these viruses and then trap them or even take them apart. The research was spearheaded by first author George Moschonas, published in Cell Host and Microbe, and could be used to devise new strategies to combat these viruses. The innate immune system of the human body can sense and respond to viruses by ...

How bladder cancer originates and progresses has been illuminated as never before in a study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and the New York Genome Center. The researchers found that antiviral enzymes that mutate the DNA of normal and cancer cells are key promoters of early bladder cancer development, and that standard chemotherapy is also a potent source of mutations. The researchers also discovered that overactive genes within abnormal circular DNA structures in tumor cells genes drive bladder cancer resistance to therapy. These findings are novel insights into bladder cancer biology and point to new therapeutic strategies for this ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A recently developed electronic tongue is capable of identifying differences in similar liquids, such as milk with varying water content; diverse products, including soda types and coffee blends; signs of spoilage in fruit juices; and instances of food safety concerns. The team, led by researchers at Penn State, also found that results were even more accurate when artificial intelligence (AI) used its own assessment parameters to interpret the data generated by the electronic tongue. The researchers published their results today (Oct. 9) in Nature. According to the researchers, ...

We often only realize how important our sense of smell is when it is no longer there: food hardly tastes good, or we no longer react to dangers such as the smell of smoke. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn and the University of Aachen have investigated the neuronal mechanisms of human odor perception for the first time. Individual nerve cells in the brain recognize odors and react specifically to the smell, the image and the written word of an object, for example a banana. The results of this study close a long-standing knowledge gap between animal and human odor research and have now been published in the renowned ...

ST. LOUIS, MO, October 9, 2024 - Plant scientists at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology have been awarded a four-year National Science Foundation (NSF) Enabling Discovery through GEnomics (EDGE) grant to advance their understanding of sphagnum moss, a crucial component of peatlands and a vital player in global ecosystems. The collaborative research team will develop genetic and genomic resources to study sphagnum's life cycle, growth, and adaptation to various environmental conditions. Sphagnum ...

Plastic pollution – tiny bits of plastic, smaller than a grain of sand – is everywhere, a fact of life that applies even to newborn rodents, according to a Rutgers Health study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.   Researchers have long understood that micro- and nanoplastic particles (MNPs), which enter the environment through oxidation and natural degradation of consumer products, are easily deposited in the human body through inhalation, absorption and diet.   Experts also understand that these pollutants can cross the placental barrier and deposit ...

A University of Queensland-led study has failed to find any strong links between drinking coffee during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental difficulties in children, but researchers are advising expectant mothers to continue following medical guidelines on caffeine consumption.   Dr Gunn-Helen Moen and PhD student Shannon D’Urso from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) led an in-depth genetic analysis of data from tens of thousands of families in Norway.   “Scandinavians are some of the biggest coffee consumers in the world, drinking at least 4 cups a day, with little stigma about drinking coffee during pregnancy,” ...

SAN ANTONIO — October 9, 2024 —As European Space Agency (ESA)’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft hurtled past the Moon and Earth in mid-August to provide its first gravity assist maneuver to the Jovian system, the Southwest Research Institute-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) instrument imaged the UV emissions radiating from the Earth and Moon. It was a successful test of one of three science instrument projects comprising NASA’s contribution to ESA’s Juice mission. The UVS data collected were then analyzed and found to be consistent with expectations for the Moon and the Earth. This confirmation that the instrument works ...

New artificial intelligence (AI) models for plasma heating can do more than was previously thought possible, not only increasing the prediction speed 10 million times while preserving accuracy, but also correctly predicting plasma heating in cases where the original numerical code failed. The models will be presented on October 11 at the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics in Atlanta. “With our intelligence, we can train the AI to go even beyond the limitations ...

Washington, October 9, 2024—English learner (EL) students represent the fastest growing student group in the United States over the past two decades, with numbers of EL students in public schools soaring in “new destination” states across the South and Midwest. Some commentators have expressed concerns about the possible adverse effect of immigrant students on current students if they require additional resources that are diverted from their peers. However, a new study finds significant positive spillover effects ...

The LANDFEED project, co-funded by the European Union, held its official kick-off meeting on 12-13 September in Bilbao, Spain. Coordinated by Miriam Pinto from NEIKER, LANDFEED brings together experts across Europe to implement sustainable, circular solutions to Europe’s waste challenges, helping to increase the continent's self-sufficiency in agricultural resources while reducing environmental impact.  LANDFEED will focus on converting under-utilised waste from the agri-food industry, forestry, urban centres, and the natural environment into ...

Images/Videos As Mcity begins welcoming researchers in autonomous and connected vehicle technologies from around the U.S. to be remote users of its physical and virtual testing environment, its leadership is calling for federal standards for safety testing, arguing that the lack of clear goalposts is hampering development.    The opening also coincides with a new industry partnership project announced at the NVIDIA AI Summit.    Following two years of upgrades, the University of Michigan's hub for autonomous testing has officially kicked ...

Just as a musician can train to more sharply distinguish subtle differences in pitch, mammals can improve their ability to interpret hearing, vision, and other senses with practice. This process, which is called perceptual learning, may be enhanced by activating a major nerve that connects the brain to nearly every organ in the body, a new study in mice shows. Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, the investigation centers on the vagus nerve, which carries signals between the brain and the heart, digestive system, and other organs. Experts have long explored targeting this nerve with ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9, 2024 — On behalf of the American Chemical Society (ACS), President Mary K. Carroll congratulates today’s winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry: David Baker, of the University of Washington; Demis Hassabis, of Google DeepMind; and John M. Jumper, of Google DeepMind. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize with one half to Baker “for computational protein design” and the other half jointly to Hassabis and Jumper “for protein structure prediction.” “This incredibly complex problem of predicting the 3D structures of proteins from the sequence of amino acids has been one of the biggest challenges ...

About The Study: Daily multidisciplinary rounds conducted by a board-certified intensivist through telemedicine did not reduce intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay in critically ill adult patients. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Adriano J. Pereira, M.D., Ph.D., email adrianojop@einstein.br. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.20651) Editor’s Note: Please ...

About The Study: Patients with acute brain injury and anemia randomized to a liberal transfusion strategy were less likely to have an unfavorable neurological outcome than those randomized to a restrictive strategy. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Fabio Silvio Taccone, MD, PhD, email fabio.taccone@ulb.be. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.20424) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict ...

About The Study: The use of a nonselective extracorporeal blood purification device connected to the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit in a nonemergent population of patients undergoing cardiac surgery was associated with a significant reduction of cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury in the first 7 days after surgery. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Xose L. Perez-Fernandez, PhD, MD, email xose74@gmail.com. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...