From Italy and the World

In Parkinson’s disease, growing evidence targets neuroinflammation as essential for brain pathogenesis. But which group of immune cells that reside in the brain direct this inflammatory response? In a study published in Nature Communications, Ashley Harms, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, used a mouse model…

What do superheroes Deadpool and Elastigirl have in common? Each was used in a college anatomy class to add relevance to course discussions — Deadpool to illustrate tissue repair and Elastigirl, aka Mrs. Incredible, as an example of hyperflexibility. Instructors at The Ohio State University College of Medicine created a…

Gray whales that spend their summers feeding off the coast of Oregon are shorter than their counterparts who travel north to the Arctic for food, new research from Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute shows. Both males and female gray whales in the subgroup known as the Pacific Coast Feeding…

In a small, exploratory study, levels of certain types of microbes in babies’ guts were shown to be associated with performance in tests of early cognitive development. Sebastian Hunter of the University of British Columbia, Canada, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 9,…

Fossilized feces preserve evidence of ancient parasites that infected an aquatic predator over 200 million years ago, according to a study published August 9, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Thanit Nonsrirach of Mahasarakham University, Thailand and colleagues. Parasites are a common and important component of ecosystems, but…

New research suggests that the US municipal bond market systemically misprices risk, as the pricing of municipal debt does not account for local physical climate risk, but does demand larger credit spreads from communities with a larger proportion of Black residents. Erika Smull of Duke University, US, and colleagues present…

While engaging in cell division research, Silke Hauf and members of her lab made a surprisingly quiet discovery. When cells express RNA, there is always some fluctuation, or noise, in how much RNA is produced. Hauf’s group found several genes whose noise dips below a previously established threshold, known as…

Pesticides are a leading source of chemical hazards in aquatic environments. A study published in PLOS Water by Nicol Parker and Arturo A Keller at University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States and colleagues introduces a new tool to help evaluate toxicity at high resolution and suggests…

A study of 12 species of highly migratory fish predators — including sharks, tuna, and billfish such as marlin and swordfish — finds that most of them will encounter widespread losses of suitable habitat and redistribution from current habitats in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean (NWA) and the Gulf of Mexico…

Trying to finish your homework while the big game is on TV? “Visual-movement” neurons in the front of your brain can help you stay focused, according to a new study from neuroscientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In the study, published recently in Neuron,…

CNN  —  A German national who worked for a government agency that equips the German armed forces, has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia, the German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement Wednesday. The man was employed the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and…

Whether it’s work or play that prevents us from getting enough shut-eye during the week, assuming we can make up for it by sleeping in over the weekend is a mistake. New research led by Penn State reveals that cardiovascular health measures, including heart rate and blood pressure, worsen over…

Huge streams of data pass through our computers and smartphones every day. In simple terms, technical devices contain two essential units to process this data: A processor, which is a kind of control center, and a RAM, comparable to memory. Modern processors use a cache to act as a bridge…

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has followed up on observations by the Hubble Space Telescope of the farthest star ever detected in the very distant universe, within the first billion years after the big bang. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument reveals the star to be a massive B-type star more…

Researchers at Lund University have developed a technique for simultaneously measuring electrical signals from 128 areas of the brain in awake rats. They have then used the information to measure what happens to the neurons when the rats are given psychedelic drugs. The results show an unexpected and simultaneous synchronisation…

Sea salt hides a secret: tiny droplets of the seawater from which it came, preserving geologic history. Using specializing equipment obtained from National Science Foundation grant funds, Mebrahtu Weldeghebriel, PhD ’22, a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, and Binghamton University Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences Tim Lowenstein were able to…

The universe is humming with gravitational radiation — a very low-frequency rumble that rhythmically stretches and compresses spacetime and the matter embedded in it. That is the conclusion of several groups of researchers from around the world who simultaneously published a slew of journal articles in June describing more than…

The first gene mapping study on human scalp hair whorls not only shows that hair whorl direction has a genetic basis, but also that it is affected by multiple genes. Four associated genetic variants that are likely to influence hair whorl direction are identified, as reported in the Journal of…

A classic movie was once promoted with the punchline: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Physicists Zhuoran Geng and Ilari Maasilta from the Nanoscience Center at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, have demonstrated, on the contrary, that in certain situations sound can be transmitted strongly across a vacuum…

Dam constructions have flooded over 1.13 million acres of tribal land in the US contributing to the historic and ongoing struggle against land dispossession for Indigenous peoples in the United States. New research, published in Environmental Research Letters, has identified that a region of tribal land larger than the state…

Innovative technology that creates ultra-thin layers of human cells in tube-like structures could spur development of lifelike blood vessels and intestines in the lab. The technique, known as RIFLE — rotational internal flow layer engineering — enables the construction of separate layers as delicate as one cell thick. Such versatility…

A new DNA study has nuanced the picture of how different groups intermingled during the European Stone Age, but also how certain groups of people were actually isolated. The study was carried out by researchers at Uppsala University working with an international team of researchers, who produced new genetic data…

The impact of particulate matter air pollution on death and disability is on the rise worldwide, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association. Previous research established the association of particulate matter (PM) pollution…

Scientists at St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute and the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen have shown that immunotherapy after stem cell transplantation effectively combats certain nerve tumors in children. Crucially, stem cells from a parent provide children with a new immune system that responds much better to immunotherapies. These…

A collaborative study between LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, the University of Rochester and Cellestia Biotech AG, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, provides compelling evidence that combining an investigational oral drug with standard-of-care medications reverts hormone resistance and increases Rx effectiveness in experimental models of estrogen-receptor…

While some parts of the world suffer extreme heat and persistent drought, others are being flooded. Overall, continental water volumes vary so much over time that global sea levels fluctuate significantly too. By combining the hydrological model WaterGAP with GRACE satellite data, a team of geodesists at the University of…

Breastfeeding has long been used as a method to help keep newborns healthy and protected against a variety of diseases. But certain sugars naturally found in breastmilk could also help prevent infections before a baby arrives. Researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have found that these sugars can stop a…

By some estimates, the human nose can detect up to a trillion different smells with its hundreds of scent receptors. But even just catching a quick whiff of certain chemicals known as nerve agents can be lethal, even in tiny amounts. Researchers now reporting in ACS Sensors have developed a…

Everywhere scientists look for microplastics, they’ve found them — food, water, air and some parts of the human body. But examinations of our innermost organs that aren’t directly exposed to the environment are still limited. Now, in a pilot study of people who underwent heart surgery, researchers in ACS’ Environmental…

In recent years, hydrogen gas has gained momentum as the fuel for a clean and green future. This carbon-neutral fuel source releases huge amounts of energy via combustion in the presence of oxygen with water vapor as the by-product. One of the most popular methods of hydrogen production is the…