Plant-based diets, compassionate agriculture, Indigenous methods, consumer pressure, new laws, international agreements and even vegan pets – these are the solutions for fixing our broken food and farming systems, say dozens of environmental advocates, researchers, farmers and industry pioneers in a new book. Editors Joyce D’Silva and Carol McKenna sound the alarm in their introduction to Regenerative Farming and Sustainable Diets, warning that ‘our food system is broken’.  Radical change is needed, they say, in our world where one‑third of food is lost or wasted, 780 million people ...

Step aside tropical rainforests and coral reefs — the latest hotspot to offer awe-inspiring biodiversity lies no further than your bathroom. In a new Northwestern University-led study, microbiologists found that showerheads and toothbrushes are teeming with an extremely diverse collection of viruses — most of which have never been seen before. Although this might sound ominous, the good news is these viruses don’t target people. They target bacteria. The microorganisms collected in the study are bacteriophage, or “phage,” a type of virus that infects and replicates inside of bacteria. Although researchers know little about them, phage recently ...

Obesity and type 2 diabetes are risk factors for various malignancies, including pancreatic cancer, which has a high death rate. A new analysis in Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews suggests that weight-loss surgery—also called metabolic-bariatric surgery—may lower the risk of developing pancreatic cancer in people with obesity, especially in those who also have type 2 diabetes. In the systematic review and meta-analysis, investigators identified 12 relevant studies that explored the effects of metabolic-bariatric surgery on pancreatic cancer incidence, with a total of 3,711,243 adults ...

In research published in Advanced Science, investigators drew inspiration from the octopus to develop an adhesive that achieves strong attachment and controlled release on varied substrates in wet and underwater environments. The feat could have numerous applications in fields ranging from healthcare and underwater robotics to infrastructure repair. By studying the octopus’s suckers—specifically, the exposed disc-like portion called the infundibulum—the researchers designed an elastic, curved stalk with a membrane that can change its shape ...

Individuals at risk of anaphylaxis—an acute systemic hypersensitivity reaction to an allergen or trigger, typically associated with skin reactions, nausea/vomiting, difficulty breathing, and shock—are often prescribed adrenaline (epinephrine) autoinjectors such as EpiPens. A recent review published in Clinical & Experimental Allergy finds that these autoinjectors, which people use to self-administer adrenaline into the muscle, can deliver high doses of adrenaline into the blood, but these levels are short-lived and may not be sufficient to save lives in cases of fatal anaphylaxis. Investigators noted that data from animal and human studies ...

New research in Medical and Veterinary Entomology reveals that when rhinoceros are found dead after being illegally killed by poachers, analyzing insects on the decomposing body aids in estimating the time since death. This information has been used by investigators and officials to construct cases against suspected perpetrators. The study included 19 rhinoceros that were illegally killed and dehorned in the Republic of South Africa between 2014 and 2021. Scientists collected 74 samples of insect evidence from these rhinoceros remains, ...

New research published in Acta Paediatrica suggests that children who engage in outdoor play during their preschool years have a lower risk of developing obesity later in childhood. The study included children born in Japan during two weeks in January and July 2001. Of 53,575 children born, 42,812 had data on outdoor play habits at age 2.5 years. In a survey, parents were asked, “Where do your children usually play (excluding home residences and daycare centers attended)?” Available options for answers included “in my garden or on the grounds of my apartment complex,” “in parks,” “in natural areas such as ...

A new paper in Rheumatology, published by Oxford University Press, finds that consuming more caffeine may improve heart health. Vascular disease, damage of blood vessels, and their resulting consequences, heart attack and stroke, are among the leading causes of death in the general population. In patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, these risks are even much higher. This is both due to the diseases themselves and some of the treatments for them, particularly cortisone derivatives. Until ...

Many insects are naturally infected with symbiotic bacteria, which are typically transmitted vertically from mother to offspring but are not transmitted horizontally. Understanding the effects of these symbionts is important in terms of insect pest management as they can significantly affect the biology and reproduction of insects. The predatory mirid bug, Nesidiocoris tenuis, which preys on agricultural pests such as whiteflies and thrips, is an important biological control agent. Although the symbiotic bacterium Rickettsia is often found in N. tenuis, its effects on the host have not been clarified. A research team led by NARO and the University of Miyazaki has revealed that Rickettsia ...

Laser direct writing (LDW) employing multi-photon 3D polymerisation is a scientific and industrial lithography tool used in various fields such as micro-optics, medicine, metamaterials, programmable materials, etc., due to the fusion of high-throughput and fine features down to hundreds of nm. Some limitations of technology applicability emerge from photo-resin properties as any material modifications can strongly affect its printability due to applied photoexcitation conditions.   In a paper published at Light: Advanced Manufacturing, a team of scientists, led by Professor Mangirdas Malinauskas from Laser Research Center at Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania,  coworkers ...

Duke-NUS alumnus Dr Marjorie Hoang (Class of 2023) and her mentor, Professor Pierce Chow, have brought clarity to the complex decision-making process patients diagnosed with intermediate-stage liver cancer and their doctors face by creating an algorithm that can accurately calculate the likely overall survival and recurrence-free survival following surgery. Dr Hoang, whose interest in the liver stems from her first year at Duke-NUS, undertook a transformative third-year research project under the guidance of Prof Chow, a senior consultant specialising in liver cancer surgery at the National Cancer Centre ...

Engineers have worked out how to give robots complex instructions without electricity for the first time which could free up more space in the robotic ‘brain’ for them to ‘think’.  Mimicking how some parts of the human body work, researchers from King’s College London have transmitted a series of commands to devices with a new kind of compact circuit, using variations in pressure from a fluid inside it.    They say this world first opens up the possibility of a new generation of robots, whose bodies could operate independently ...

University of Queensland researchers are calling for reforms to Australia’s environmental laws, as threatened fish species continue to be legally exported. Their work has identified four species that have been listed under Australia’s  Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act and legally exported from Australia: the orange roughy, blue warehou, school shark and southern bluefin tuna. Despite being listed as threatened under Australia’s under-review EPBC Act, UQ PhD candidate Rosa Mar Dominguez-Martinez said these fish continue to be exported. “Since the inception ...

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 8, 2024 — A research team led by the University of California, Irvine has engineered an efficient new enzyme that can produce a synthetic genetic material called threose nucleic acid. The ability to synthesize artificial chains of TNA, which is inherently more stable than DNA, advances the discovery of potentially more powerful, precise therapeutic options to treat cancer and autoimmune, metabolic and infectious diseases. A paper recently published in Nature Catalysis describes how the team created an enzyme called 10-92 that achieves ...

Rosalee Hellberg, an associate professor in Chapman University’s Food Science Program, and her research team have made a significant breakthrough in the fight against adulteration in dietary supplements. Effective methods for identifying adulteration and fraud have remained elusive. Now, a new study of 50 commercially available ginseng products has found surprising results.  Ginseng products are vulnerable to fraud, with cheaper plant materials substituted for genuine ingredients, posing risks to consumer health and safety. Using a novel combination of DNA testing techniques, the researchers detected undeclared plant species in nearly half of the 50 ginseng supplements tested. The ...

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory funding as part of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Scientific Research program. These grants will drive the development of cutting-edge AI technologies that promise to accelerate scientific discovery while preserving data privacy and improving energy efficiency. Argonne Computational Mathematician Kibaek Kim received funding for the project called Privacy-Preserving Federated Learning for Science: Building Sustainable and Trustworthy Foundation Models. This project ...

Despite considerable progress in the discovery and development of new cancer drugs, there are significant disparities in both the availability and timeliness of these medicines worldwide, with poorer countries missing out, suggests a global analysis of new drug launches between 1990 and 2022, published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.  Few new cancer drugs were launched in lower-middle or low income countries, and the gap between rich and poor nations widened over the three decades, the analysis shows. Such inequities may help explain poor cancer outcomes in many countries, particularly those ...

Waiting more than 4 hours in emergency care for treatment is linked to heightened risks of death and a longer hospital stay for hip fracture patients, reveals a single centre study, published online in Emergency Medicine Journal.   The waiting time for more than 1 in 3 of these patients exceeded the 4 hour national standard, which now requires that 76% of emergency department patients must either be discharged or admitted to hospital within that time frame.  By the age of 80 an estimated third of women and 17% of men will have ...

A change in policy may be helping to drive a rise in treatment-resistant vaginal thrush, amid  significant yearly increases in the prevalence of fungal infections caused by fungal Candida species, suggests the first study of its kind, published online in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.   While the exact reasons for these trends aren’t yet clear, they follow a shift in clinical practice, with the aim of reducing laboratory workload, say the researchers. Family doctors in primary care are now encouraged to treat vaginal thrush empirically—on signs and symptoms alone, rather than on confirmatory lab test results. Vaginal thrush is ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL 23:30 UK TIME TUESDAY 8 OCTOBER 2024 Peer-reviewed / Data analysis / People  Heat stress may still affect babies once born, first evidence suggests Exposure to high levels of heat may both impact the growth of foetuses during pregnancy and infants up to the age of two, a new analysis suggests. The study is the first of its kind to show that heat stress may impact the development of babies after they’re born and adds to previous research by the team showing the impact of heat stress on foetal development. The research, which examined data from infants and their mothers collected during a clinical trial in ...

Stressed bees are much more likely to make pessimistic choices and lack a buzz in life, new research has revealed. Scientists at Newcastle University, UK, have found that bumblebees have a response to an adverse event resembling human emotions. Findings, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, show bees reduce their expectations of reward when they are agitated, and this could impact how they approach and pollinate flowers. High and low rewards Researchers trained bees to decide about whether a colour signalled something good or bad. Bees learned to identify ...

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 8, 2024 — Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other international institutions have for the first time achieved atomic-scale observations of grain rotation in polycrystalline materials. Widely used in electronic devices, aerospace technologies, automotive applications and solar energy systems, these substances have long been studied for their unique properties and structural dynamics. Using state-of-the-art microscopy tools housed in the UC Irvine Materials Research Institute, scientists were able to heat samples of platinum nanocrystalline thin films and observe the mechanism driving grain rotation in unprecedented ...

Is it possible to study the production of blood and immune cells inside the bone marrow? For the first time ever, the answer is yes, thanks to a new approach pioneered by USC Stem Cell scientist Rong Lu and Caltech synthetic biologist Michael B. Elowitz, together with co-investigators Carlos Lois and Lior Pachter at Caltech. The new approach will enable the scientists to study the blood-producing stem and progenitor cells, also called hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), within the difficult-to-access ...

Heterocyclic molecules are crucial in the pharmaceutical and materials science industries due to their diverse applications. Nitrogen-containing heterocycles have garnered significant interest for their versatility across various fields. Recent research highlights their importance, making the synthesis of N-heterocycles a key focus in synthetic chemistry, driven by their wide-ranging potential. A recent review published in Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry highlights major advancements in the synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds using microwave-assisted methods. This efficient technique, applicable to both non-catalytic and catalytic ...

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- When creating new materials for our modern needs, materials science engineers face a basic problem: Designing it to be strong when faced with loads in one direction may lead to structural weaknesses when facing stress from a different direction. Binghamton University, State University of New York Assistant Professors Mir Jalil Razavi and Dehao Liu want to develop a solution using artificial intelligence and machine learning to suggest unique types of composite materials that meet specific mechanical behavior requirements. “When we look at materials now, we usually tune mechanical properties in one ...