Small Poke -- Huge Unexpected Response
Department of Energy, Office of ScienceExotic material exhibits an optical response in enormous disproportion to the stimulus -- larger than in any known crystal.
Exotic material exhibits an optical response in enormous disproportion to the stimulus -- larger than in any known crystal.
Professors Bruce Rittmann and Mark van Loosdrecht are named the 2018 Stockholm Water Prize Laureates for revolutionizing water and wastewater treatment. By revolutionizing microbiological-based technologies in water and wastewater treatment, Professors Mark van Loosdrecht and Bruce Rittmann have demonstrated the possibilities to remove harmful contaminants from water, cut wastewater treatment costs, reduce energy consumption, and even recover chemicals and nutrients for recycling.
Cervical fluid samples gathered during routine Papanicolaou (Pap) tests are the basis of a new screening test for endometrial and ovarian cancers developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Miniaturized sensors when mounted directly on a tooth and communicating wirelessly with a mobile device, can transmit information on sugars, alcohol and salt. Researchers note that future adaptations of these sensors could enable the detection and recording of a wide range of nutrients, chemicals and physiological states.
New data shows that all moderate or vigorous exercise can add up to reduce the risk of disease or death, even if you are exercising only in short bursts throughout the day.
Breitwieser and colleagues of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany) describe a fully automated high-throughput sorting system for zebrafish embryo phenotypes that benefits high-throughput screening by saving time and improving accuracy.
A promising discovery for advanced cancer therapy reveals that the efficiency of drug delivery in DNA nanostructures depends on their shapes, say researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology and the University of Kansas in a scientific paper published today (March 21, 2018).
A first-of-its-kind study of recent college graduates’ academic performance and their transition to the workforce finds that GPA matters little for men, and a high GPA can hurt women job applicants' chances of getting a call back from an employer.
Treating people with advanced metastatic kidney cancer using a combination of the immunotherapy drugs nivolumab (Opdivo®) and ipilimumab (Yervoy®) significantly increased overall survival versus treatment with sunitinib (Sutent®) alone, according to new findings from researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) that were reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Taking menopausal hormone therapy soon after menopause to relieve symptoms may also benefit the brain, according to a study published in the March 21, 2018, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Alcohol use early in the pregnancy by the mother may be a risk factor for a condition in which an infant's intestines develop outside the abdomen, according to a study published in the Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine.
The most common gene mutation associated with Parkinson’s alters cells circulating outside the brain, not within, offering a new understanding of what causes the disease.
A University of Vermont mathematician has developed a new tool to identify gerrymandered voting districts. The research shows Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina strongly gerrymandered for Republicans, while Maryland’s and California’s voting districts have been strongly tipped in favor of Democrats. The new tool could be important in the wake of two Supreme Court cases now being considered that might outlaw certain partisan gerrymanders.
Researchers from Penn State, China and Australia have developed a material with twice the piezo response of any existing commercial ferroelectric ceramics.
The face of American forests is changing, thanks to climate change-induced shifts in rainfall and temperature that are causing shifts in the abundance of numerous tree species, according to a new paper by University of Florida researchers.
Argonne researchers conducted basic science computational studies as part of a collaboration with researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago to design a “beyond-lithium-ion” battery cell that operates by running on air over many charge and discharge cycles. The design offers energy storage capacity about three times that of a lithium-ion battery, with significant potential for further improvements.
Immune cells called microglia can completely repopulate themselves in the retina after being nearly eliminated, according to a new study in mice from scientists at the National Eye Institute (NEI). The cells also re-establish their normal organization and function.
Mexican cavefish have insulin resistance, a hallmark of many human metabolic disorders and a precursor to type 2 diabetes that can lead to an overworked pancreas, excess fat storage and chronically elevated blood sugar. Despite dysregulated blood sugar, the fish don’t suffer the same health consequences people do. Study offers a fresh opportunity to understand how animals thrive with traits that sicken humans and could point the way to new interventions for disease.
University of Chicago researchers have begun to unravel the role of RNA epigenetics and chromatin structure in regulation of 5-azacytidine (5-AZA), a well-known DNA hypomethylating agent in MDS and AML. The finding may lead to novel strategies, as well as guidance from clinical biomarkers.
The more educated a member of the baby boomer generation, the more likely they are to misuse prescription opioids, according to new research from the University at Buffalo.
COSMIC, a next-generation X-ray beamline now operating at Berkeley Lab, brings together a unique set of capabilities to measure the properties of materials at the nanoscale. It allows scientists to probe working batteries and other active chemical reactions, and to reveal new details about magnetism and correlated electronic materials.
Low back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting an estimated 540 million people at any one time. Yet, a new Series of papers in The Lancet highlights the extent to which the condition is mistreated, often against best practice treatment guidelines.
Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s report in the journal Pediatrics a link between parents impacted by adverse childhood experiences and increased risk for delayed development of their children at age two.
Northwestern University researchers have discovered a new approach for creating important new catalysts to aid in clean energy conversion and storage. The method also has the potential to impact the discovery of new optical and data storage materials and catalysts for higher efficiency processing of petroleum products at lower cost. The researchers created a catalyst that is seven times more active than state-of-the-art commercial platinum by combining theory, a new tool for synthesizing nanoparticles and more than one metallic element.
A new CU Boulder study found that two-thirds of Twitter users are unaware their data can be used for science. Many think this would be against their terms of service agreement. It's not.
A study conducted at The Wistar Institute in collaboration with The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has demonstrated the efficacy of targeting aberrantly active telomerase to treat therapy-resistant melanoma.
Alzheimer's disease is characterized by clumps of two proteins – amyloid beta and tau – in the brain, but the link between the two has never been entirely clear. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that people with more amyloid in the brain produce more tau, which could lead to new treatments for the disease based on targeting the production of tau.
While Americans debate the rising cost of health care, a new study of 30 countries over 27 years found that medical expansion has improved overall health – with one major exception. Researchers found that increased spending on health care and increases in specialized care were both associated with longer life expectancy and less mortality in the countries studied. But pharmaceutical industry expansion was linked to negative health effects.
Two-thirds of surveyed caregivers felt that their child’s food allergy affected their own daily lives very much or extremely, according to a report in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Two-thirds of caregivers also expressed significant fear that their child would have an allergic reaction to food. Despite this fear, the majority of caregivers were eager to enroll their child in a clinical trial for immunotherapy, which involves giving the child a gradually increasing dose of the food allergen under close supervision in order to train the immune system to not react to that food. Only 8 percent of caregivers responded that they would not enroll their child in this type of clinical trial.
California relies on the Sierra Nevada snowpack for a significant portion of its water needs, yet scientists understand very little about how future changes in snowpack volume and timing will influence surface water and groundwater. Now researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are developing an advanced hydrologic model to study how climate change might affect California watersheds.
Patients who have been taking opioid pain relievers for several months before spinal fusion surgery are at increased risk of complications after their surgery, reports a study in the journal Spine, published by Wolters Kluwer.
South Africa has the worst epidemic of HIV in the world. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, 19 percent of the global number of people living with HIV are in South Africa. Many people in South Africa and around the globe do not even know they have HIV.
To make protein, soybean plants need a lot of nitrogen. Beneficial bacteria in root nodules typically assist. A new study shows it’s possible to increase the number of soybean root nodules—and the bacteria that live there--to further increase crop yields. This could remove the need to apply additional nitrogen fertilizers.
Scientists from two institutes at the Vienna BioCenter (VBC) have developed a method to identify and characterise microRNAs in individual cells of living animals.
Research led by the University of Southampton is helping governments in low-income countries strengthen their capacity to build and use population maps, to plan for the future and respond to emergencies.
Researchers from Queen’s University Belfast have demonstrated for the first time how molecular analysis of clinical trial biopsy samples can be used to help clinicians identify the key changes that occur in an individual patient’s bowel (colorectal) tumour prior to surgery, so clinicians can better understand and treat the disease.
Flexible, tunable technique warms plants without need for electricity, aiding ecosystem research in remote locales.
A new study has identified two genes associated with hyperemesis gravidarum, whose cause has not been determined in previous studies. The genes, known as GDF15 and IGFBP7, are both involved in the development of the placenta and play important roles in early pregnancy and appetite regulation.
A review article by Prof. Stefan Broer, Ph.D., highlights opportunities and challenges in using amino acid transporters as drug targets. Amino Acid Transporters as Disease Modifiers and Drug Targets provides an overview of methods used to identify new inhibitors for amino acid transporters and outlines cell and organ function where these can be used to modulate, prevent or to treat diseases.
New research from scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology shows how a diet high in fat and cholesterol depletes the ranks of artery-protecting immune cells, turning them into promoters of inflammation, which exacerbate atherosclerotic plaque buildup that occurs in cardiovascular disease. The team has also found that high density lipoproteins (HDL)—more commonly known as “good cholesterol”—counteract this process, helping the protective immune cells maintain their identity and keep arteries clear.
A UT Southwestern study in mice provides new clues about how a class of anti-rejection drugs used after organ transplants may also slow the progression of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
The nation’s overall cardiovascular health worsened from 1988 to 2014, with disparities among racial and ethnic groups dropping slightly. But the reduction in disparities was due to worsening health among whites — not improvements among African-Americans and Mexican-Americans, a new UCLA-led study suggests. “The reason for the reduction in disparities was unexpected,” said lead author Dr.
Four faculty members at New Mexico State University have published findings of their study involving effective measures to remedy stress among adolescents.
Understanding strontium titanate’s odd behavior will aid efforts to develop materials that conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency at higher temperatures.
A new study from the University of Iowa finds firms headquartered in more religiously observant counties have higher credit ratings and lower debt costs, evidence that suggests lenders and bondholders consider the company’s culture when deciding whether to give them money.
Chemical genomic-guided engineering of gamma-valerolactone-tolerant yeast.
Researchers have discovered a “missing mutation” in severe infant epilepsy—long-suspected genetic changes that might trigger overactive, brain-damaging electrical signaling leading to seizures. They also found early indications that specific anti-seizure medications might prevent disabling brain injury.
In a striking new finding, researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute found that typically-developing children gain more neurons in a region of the brain that governs social and emotional behavior, the amygdala, as they become adults. This phenomenon does not happen in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Instead, children with ASD have too many neurons early on and then appear to lose those neurons as they become adults. The findings were published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Understanding of tuberculosis is associated with higher, not lower, stigmatization of TB patients in Brazil, according to a new “Insights” report from Vanderbilt’s Latin American Public Opinion Project.
Weather patterns, brain activity and heartbeats each generate lines of complex data. To analyze this data, researchers must first divide up this continuous data into discrete pieces -- a task difficult to perform simply and accurately. Researchers have devised a method to transform data from complex systems, reducing the amount of important information lost, while still using less computing power than existing methods. They describe this new method in the current issue of Chaos.