New research in Plants, People, Planet indicates that bread wheat’s micronutrient content can be increased by cultivating it with a specific type of fungus. When investigators grew different types of wheat with and without the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis, they observed that crops grown with fungi developed larger grains with greater amounts of phosphorus and zinc. The higher amount of phosphorus in the grain did not result in an increase in phytate (a compound that can hinder digestion of zinc and iron). As a result, bread wheat grown with fungi had higher bioavailability of zinc and iron overall compared ...

Bethesda, MD (July 18, 2025) — Researchers employed a machine learning technique known as random forest analysis and found that it significantly outperformed traditional methods in predicting which hospitalized patients with cirrhosis are at risk of death, according to a new paper published in Gastroenterology. “This gives us a crystal ball — it helps hospital teams, transplant centers, GI and ICU services to triage and prioritize patients more effectively,” said Dr. Jasmohan S. ...

A research team in South Korea has developed a breakthrough transfer printing technology that forms protective thin layers on lithium metal surfaces—an innovation poised to solve the long-standing dendrite issue plaguing next-generation lithium-metal batteries. Dr. Jungdon Suk’s team (Advanced Battery Research Center) at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) has successfully transferred hybrid protective layers composed of solid polymers and ceramics onto lithium metal using a solvent-free process. Unlike conventional wet coating methods, this technique enables uniform coating over large areas without ...

The blood pressure lowering effect of nitrate-rich beetroot juice in older people may be due to specific changes in their oral microbiome, according to the largest study of its kind. Researchers at the University of Exeter conducted the study, published in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine, comparing responses between a group of older adults to that of younger adults. Previous research has shown that a high nitrate diet can reduce blood pressure, which can help reduce risk of heart disease. Nitrate is crucial to the body and is consumed as a natural part of a vegetable-rich diet.  When the older adults drank a concentrated beetroot juice ‘shot’ ...

Researcher at Guangdong University of Technology has developed a new method to build powerful, compact energy storage devices—called thin-film supercapacitors (TFSCs)—without using metal parts or traditional separators. Their tiny 3.8 cm³ device is even capable of outputting 200 volts—enough to light 100 LEDs for 30 seconds or a 3-watt bulb for 7 seconds. The method, detailed in the International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, could help power next-generation microelectronic devices, especially those used in harsh or space-constrained environments. At ...

Metformin is a widely used first-line therapy for type 2 diabetes, and studies increasingly point to its protective effects on the kidney. However, the mechanisms underlying metformin’s renal benefits, especially how it acts in different anatomical regions of the kidney, have remained unclear. A recent study, published in Life Metabolism, employed cutting-edge spatial multi-omics to produce the first detailed map of how metformin modulates metabolism and protein expression across different zones of the diabetic ...

Obesity has become a global epidemic, contributing to a host of chronic health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. In China, rising rates of overweight and obesity have become a major public health concern. While lifestyle interventions such as diet and exercise remain first-line treatments, long-term success is often limited due to frequent weight regain once interventions stop. Tirzepatide is a dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist that has shown remarkable weight loss efficacy in global clinical trials. In China, the SURMOUNT-CN trial marked the first phase 3 study evaluating tirzepatide in overweight and ...

Curtin University researchers have undertaken the world’s biggest survey of low frequency satellite radio emissions, finding Starlink satellites are significantly interfering with radio astronomy observations, potentially impacting discovery and research.   Unintended signals from satellites - leaked from onboard electronics - can drown out the faint radio waves astronomers use to study the universe.   Researchers from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), hosted at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA), focused on the Starlink mega-constellation as it has the most satellites in orbit, at ...

When women political candidates deviate from expectations or the views of their party, they are judged far more harshly than men by voters, a new study in Politics & Gender, published on behalf of the American Political Science Association by Cambridge University Press, reveals.  The research also found that voters begin campaigns with greater uncertainty about women candidates than about men, leading them to scrutinise women candidates to a greater extent when forming opinions of them.  The ...

A team led by the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (IREx)  has achieved the most precise study to date of the L 98-59 planetary system, and confirmed the existence of a fifth planet in the star’s habitable zone, where conditions could allow liquid water to exist. Volcanic planets, a sub-Earth, and a water world L 98-59, a small red dwarf located just 35 light-years from Earth, hosts three small transiting exoplanets discovered in 2019, thanks to NASA's TESS space telescope, and a fourth planet revealed through radial velocity measurements with the European Southern Observatory's ESPRESSO spectrograph. All four planets orbit their parent star in ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — The UC Davis Department of Ophthalmology has received a five-year, $3.6 million grant from the National Eye Institute to explore a new way to treat vision loss using gene therapy. The research could lead to safer and more effective treatments for people with serious eye diseases like macular degeneration and inherited blindness. It could also lead to treatments that don’t require surgery and can be done more widely in clinics. “We’re excited ...

As the climate becomes warmer on average, it makes intuitive sense that we will see more hot days and we've had predictions of this for some time. However, the duration of heatwaves — how many days in a row exceed a temperature that is unusually hot for a given region — can be very important for impacts on humans, livestock and ecosystems. Predicting how these durations will change under a long-term warming trend is more challenging because day-to-day temperatures are correlated — tomorrow's temperatures have a dependence on today's temperature. This study takes ...

GLP-1 receptor agonists, a class of drug used to treat type 2 diabetes, likely trump the widely prescribed metformin for curbing dementia risk in people with the condition, finds the largest study of its kind, published in the open access journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care. The findings suggest that future clinical guidelines for the treatment of type 2 diabetes would do well to consider prioritising drugs with both blood glucose and neuroprotective effects, say the researchers.  Published research suggests that both GLP-1 receptor agonists and metformin, which are widely used to treat type 2 diabetes, protect the brains of people with the disease. But as ...

The annual UK cost of the mental health disorder PTSD is likely to top £40 billion, but the figures are based on 2020-1 prevalence rates—the most recently available—and don’t include many indirect costs, such as family support services, finds a cost analysis published in the open access journal BMJ Open. The societal and financial impacts of this increasingly common condition have been “gravely” undervalued, conclude the researchers.  Post-traumatic stress disorder, more commonly referred to ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (July 22, 2025) – LaShae Rolle, 27, is a competitive powerlifer who could squat 441 pounds, bench 292 pounds and deadlift 497 pounds. She is also a breast cancer survivor and researcher and the lead author on a first-of-its kind study documenting elite-level strength training during active breast cancer treatment. The study challenges the long-held belief that cancer patients should stick to low- or moderate-intensity exercise and suggests that with individualized and symptom-informed exercise planning, even ...

The Sustainability Accelerator at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability has selected 41 projects spanning biology, agriculture, electricity, industry, and water. The teams involve 67 faculty from 27 departments across five of the university’s seven schools. The projects are as diverse as the problems they are trying to solve, ranging from developing plant-based meat alternatives to optimizing low-carbon steel production to helping coastal communities adapt to threats of saltwater ...

Most parents can think back to the first ultrasound image they saw of their unborn child, and may even be able to remember what impression that image had on them. Would their child be an active toddler, a tad bit ornery or stubborn, sweet and cuddly, fiercely independent, or shy and cooperative? New research suggests these initial perceptions may have been formed, at least in part, in response to how the health care provider described the baby during the exam. These prenatal care experiences play a large role in shaping how parents ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Almost 200 million people, including children, around the world have endometriosis, a chronic disease in which the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus. More severe symptoms, such as extreme pain and potentially infertility, can often be mitigated with early identification and treatment, but no single point-of-care diagnostic test for the disease exists despite the ease of access to the tissue directly implicated. While Penn State Professor Dipanjan Pan said that the blood and tissue shed from the uterus each month is often overlooked — and even stigmatized by some — as medical waste, menstrual effluent could enable earlier, ...

The University of Texas at Arlington has launched a $2.1 million  supercomputing hub, expanding its capacity to support data-intensive research, including work powered by artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies. The project was spearheaded by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and leaders from UT Arlington’s College of Engineering and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, who recognized the growing demand for high-performance computing across campus. The new hub will allow ...

At a time marked by debate about identity, migration and national cohesion, a new study brings a surprising message: Most Americans want a more ethnically and religiously diverse society than the one they live in today. The study, published in the journal Ethos, is based on a representative questionnaire survey of 986 American citizens. Participants were asked to assess both the actual and ideal composition of ethnic and religious groups in the United States. ‘We wanted to investigate whether the idea of a multicultural United States still has popular ...

Utica, NY - A groundbreaking new study led by researchers at the Masonic Medical Research Institute (MMRI) has identified a promising molecular target to protect the heart against damage caused by high-fat diet and obesity. The study, published this week in the leading journal Science Signaling, highlights the protein tyrosine phosphatase PTP1B, a nodal enzyme involved in insulin signaling, as a key driver in maladaptive cardiac metabolism and dysfunction under dietary stress. In obesity and high-fat diet conditions, the heart undergoes a metabolic switch, moving from ...

Researchers led by Gen Kurosawa at the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) in Japan have used theoretical physics to discover how our biological clock maintains a consistent 24-hour cycle—even as temperatures change. They found that this stability is achieved through a subtle shift in the “shape” of gene activity rhythms at higher temperatures, a process known as waveform distortion. This process not only helps keep time steady but also influences how well our internal clock synchronizes with the day-night cycle. The study was published in PLOS Computational Biology on July 22.   Have ...

A group of University of Ottawa researchers have already shown how scientists can harness gene therapies to deliver nano-sized treatments for cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases. Unfortunately, the delivery agents in the process do not possess any therapeutic potential and ultimately degrade after acting as the messenger. So, the researchers asked: can we not develop nanoparticle platforms to be more than just mules?  “Since millions of particles are injected to deliver ...

Public health promotion campaigns can be effective, but they do not tend to be efficient. Most are time-consuming, expensive, and reliant on the intuition of creative workers who design messages without a clear sense of what will spark behavioral change. A new study conducted by Dolores Albarracín and Man-pui Sally Chan of the University of Pennsylvania, government and community agencies, and researchers at the University of Illinois and Emory University suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) can facilitate theory- and evidence-based message selection. The research group, led by Albarracín, a social psychologist who is the Amy Gutmann ...

Peking University, July 16, 2025: A research team led by Prof. Yang Yuchao from the School of Electronic and Computer Engineering at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School has achieved a global breakthrough by developing the first sort-in-memory hardware system tailored for complex, nonlinear sorting tasks. Published in Nature Electronics, the study titled “A fast and reconfigurable sort-in-memory system based on memristors” proposes a comparator-free architecture, overcoming one of the ...