Women’ are around 50% more likely than men to develop COPD, the umbrella term for chronic lung conditions, such as emphysema and bronchitis, even if they have never smoked or smoked much less than their male counterparts, suggests observational research, published in the open access journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research. The findings challenge the widely held belief that women’s increased vulnerability to cigarette smoke likely explains this disparity, conclude the researchers. Smoking is the principal cause of COPD. But despite significant falls in cigarette smoking over the past 50 years, it remains a leading cause of death in the USA, with the ...

Eyes may be the window to the soul, but a person’s biological age could be reflected in their facial characteristics. Investigators from Mass General Brigham developed a deep learning algorithm called FaceAge that uses a photo of a person’s face to predict biological age and survival outcomes for patients with cancer. They found that patients with cancer, on average, had a higher FaceAge than those without and appeared about five years older than their chronological age. Older FaceAge predictions were ...

The North Korean government engages in unsustainable and illegal wildlife trade, which includes species protected under its own laws and poses a threat to biodiversity recovery in the region, finds a groundbreaking new study by UCL researchers. The report, published in Biological Conservation, found that although North Korea has a regulatory system of protected areas and protected species, these are regularly breached by people hunting and trapping wild animals for personal consumption or black market trade, either domestically or for sale to buyers in China. Additionally, the North Korean state itself is implicated in, and actively profiting from, harvesting and trade of endangered ...

A study including researchers from the University of Arizona Health Sciences and published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology found that firefighters had higher concentrations of certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and health care workers had moderate elevations of PFAS in their blood with significantly higher odds of two specific PFAS when compared with other essential workers. “Our study reinforces previous research showing ...

Every time a screen flickers to life, or sunlight powers a home, energy is being transferred from light into something useful. Yet for all of its ubiquity, scientists do not fully understand the process by which light transfers energy through materials. A grant from the U.S. Department of Defense will allow UC Riverside scientists to address that mystery. The research aims to deepen scientific understanding of one of physics’ most complex interactions.  The four-year, $1 million grant funds a collaborative effort between UCR theoretical chemist Bryan Wong and experimental ...

Brain metastases often occur as a result of advanced cancer and, despite medical innovations, are still associated with a poor prognosis. Now, an international expert committee led by the Medical University of Vienna and the Ludwig Maximilian University Hospital (LMU) in Munich has taken an important step towards improving diagnostics and therapy monitoring. A special imaging procedure, amino acid PET, can not only improve patient care, but also advance research into the development of new treatment ...

Children born to mothers with cardiometabolic health issues before or during pregnancy may face a higher risk of elevated blood pressure in childhood and adolescence, according to a new study funded by the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  High blood pressure in childhood often continues into adulthood and is linked to a greater risk of heart problems later in life. This ECHO research offers insights into how a mother’s heart and metabolic health before and during pregnancy may contribute to her child’s long-term cardiovascular well-being.  The study analyzed data from 12,480 mother-child ...

Mercury is released by environmental and human-driven processes. And some forms, specifically methylmercury, are toxic to humans. Therefore, policies and regulations to limit mercury emissions have been implemented across the globe. And, according to research published in ACS ES&T Air, those efforts may be working. Researchers found that atmospheric mercury levels have decreased by almost 70% in the last 20 years, mainly because human-caused emissions have been reduced. “By tracking mercury pollution over four decades at the top of the world, we show that global efforts to reduce pollution ...

A research team from AMOLF in Amsterdam created a soft robot that walks, hops, and swims — all without a brain, electronics, or AI. Just soft tubes, air, and some clever physics.  The study published this week in Science describes one of the fastest soft robots yet, and one of the simplest. It has no computer, no software, and no sensors. And still, it moves with surprising coordination and autonomy, simply because of its body and how it interacts with the world.  So, what’s really driving it? Underneath the movement is a principle you’ve probably seen, though maybe overlooked. Think of those wobbly, ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Researchers from MIT and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered that a class of peptides expressed in pancreatic cancer cells could be a promising target for T-cell therapies and other approaches that attack pancreatic tumors. Known as cryptic peptides, these molecules are produced from sequences in the genome that were not thought to encode proteins. Such peptides can also be found in some healthy cells, but in this study, the researchers identified about 500 that appear to be found only in pancreatic ...

Some plants lure pollinators not with sweet fragrances, but with the rank stench of decay. In a new study, researchers show how plants pull this off. In Asarum flowers, a gene typically used for detoxifying smelly compounds has instead evolved to produce unpleasant odors, the researchers report. The findings shed light on how plants co-opt widely conserved metabolic pathways for ecological advantage. A key feature of foul-smelling flowers is the release of malodorous volatile compounds, particularly oligosulfides like dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) and dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS). These compounds mimic the chemical signals given off by decaying material. ...

Simple and inexpensive interventions aimed at making changes in how Bangladesh’s informal brink kilns operate could dramatically cut emissions and boost profits for producers, according to a new study. The findings may offer a scalable model for tackling pollution in hard-to-regulate informal industries, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In many LMICs, weak regulatory systems limit the effectiveness of pollution control, especially in informal industries that tend to operate outside formal governance and ...

A new ultrasound-guided 3D printing technique could make it possible to fabricate medical implants in vivo and deliver tailored therapies to tissues deep inside the body – all without invasive surgery, researchers report. 3D bioprinting technologies offer significant promise to modern medicine by enabling the creation of customized implants, intricate medical devices, and engineered tissues tailored to individual patients. However, most current approaches require invasive surgical implantation. Although in vivo bioprinting – “3D printing” tissue directly within the body – offers ...

Using only airflow and simple physical design – resulting in a structure that looks like a roadside “inflatable tube dancer” – researchers have developed soft robots that achieve coordinated, autonomous movement without relying on complex electronic controllers. In nature, animals often move with remarkable efficiency. They do this by seamlessly integrating the nervous system, body mechanics, and environmental interactions. This decentralized coordination allows animals to move efficiently without relying on constant direction from the brain. In contrast, most robots depend ...

Brick manufacturing is a central component of the economy in South Asia, but also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, as the practice releases carbon dioxide (CO₂), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and other contaminants into the environment. This coal-powered industry poses a serious threat to human health, agriculture, and the environment in low- and middle-income countries that lack the capacity to monitor and regulate these largely informal operations. As scientists continue to sound the alarm on the increasing dangers of fossil fuels, a new study by researchers at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), Stanford ...

-With images- A peculiar spiny fossil, once thought to represent one of the earliest molluscs, has now been conclusively reclassified by scientists from Durham University and Yunnan University as something entirely different – a distant relative of sponge-like creatures known as chancelloriids. This striking revelation is set to reshape our understanding of early animal evolution. The fossil, named Shishania aculeata, hails from 500-million-year-old Cambrian deposits in Yunnan Province, southern China, ...

New report shows drastic decline in endangered primates and calls for conservation measures An international team of primate researchers has published the 25 most endangered primate species in Asia, Africa, Madagascar and South America for the years 2023 to 2025. The publication, supported by the German Primate Center (DPZ) - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen, emphasizes how urgently global conservation measures need to be implemented now to save irreplaceable biodiversity. "The situation is dramatic. If we don't act now, we will lose some of these species forever," warns Christian Roos, geneticist at the German Primate Center. “But ...

Imagine if doctors could precisely print miniature capsules capable of delivering cells needed for tissue repair exactly where they are needed inside a beating heart. A team of scientists led by Caltech has taken a significant step toward that ultimate goal, having developed a method for 3D printing polymers at specific locations deep within living animals. The technique relies on sound for localization and has already been used to print polymer capsules for selective drug delivery as well as glue-like polymers to seal internal wounds. Previously, scientists have used infrared light ...

KINGSTON, JAMAICA – May 8, 2025 – The Global Virus Network (GVN), in partnership with The University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus and the State University of New York (SUNY) at the University of Buffalo, convened top virologists, epidemiologists, public health experts, and government officials for the 2025 GVN Regional Meeting: Caribbean and Latin America in Kingston, Jamaica held May 1-2, 2025. The two-day summit focused on collaborative strategies to bolster viral surveillance, diagnostics, vaccine research, and pandemic preparedness ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Comprehensive spatial map provides insights into pancreatic cancer metastases Read summary | Read in Nature Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat, resulting in a five-year survival rate of roughly 12%. Approximately half of patients develop metastases shortly ...

A new analysis of a fatal landslide that occurred on 13 February 2024 at theÇöpler Gold Mine in Türkiye reveals that the site of the landslide had been slowly moving for at least four years prior to the failure. “Additionally, our analyses detected deformation anomalies in other sectors of the mining operation, which could potentially lead to similar catastrophes,” said Pınar Büyükakpınar of the GFZ German Research Centre For Geosciences, who published the study in The Seismic Record with her colleagues. The Çöpler Gold ...

Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists have developed a new approach to countering citrus greening and potato zebra chip diseases, two economically devastating agricultural diseases in the U.S. Their method uses spinach antimicrobial peptides, known as defensins, which naturally defend plants against a broad range of pathogens. In a recent study published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal, researchers showed that some spinach defensins can confer similar protection to citrus and potatoes — and possibly other crops. The effects show significant progress toward recovering ...

About The Study: Between February 28, 2025, and April 8, 2025, 694 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants were terminated across 24 of the 26 institutes and centers (including the Office of the Director) that administered active NIH grants. Targeted grant terminations have affected more than $1.8 billion in NIH funding. Terminations were spread across nearly all NIH institutes and centers, although cuts disproportionately impacted the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (30% of all funding). Corresponding ...

Sulfur applied to sugarcane crops in South Florida is flowing into wetlands upgradient of Everglades National Park, triggering a chemical reaction that converts mercury into toxic methylmercury, which accumulates in fish, new research from University of California, Davis finds. In a paper published in Nature Communications, researchers collected water and mosquito fish across wetlands fed by agricultural canals. They documented how sulfur runoff can dramatically increase methylmercury concentrations in fish — sometimes up to 10 million times greater than the waters in which they lived, posing a risk ...

A study published today in the journal Cell marks the first reported instance of generative AI designing synthetic molecules that can successfully control gene expression in healthy mammalian cells. Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) created an AI tool which dreams up DNA regulatory sequences not seen before in nature. The model can be told to create synthetic fragments of DNA with custom criteria, for example: ‘switch this gene on in stem cells which will turn into red-blood-cells but not platelets.’  The model then predicts which combination of DNA letters (A, T, C, G) are needed for the gene expression patterns required in specific types of cells. Researchers ...