ScienceDaily: All - March 04, 2025
Today's top research news
Having one traumatic experience is bad enough. If you've constantly experienced stress since before birth, you may be in for an especially tough time. Our emotions may be influenced by infections experienced in the mother's womb. This can result from two-hit stress, where an infection during pregnancy is followed by social stress during postpartum development. A team of researchers recently set out to understand the mechanisms behind which two-hit stress contributes to brain dysfunction and mental disorders.
Lack of medical oxygen affects millions
Hundreds of thousands die each year with millions more suffering due to lack of access to medical oxygen.
The extensive loss of biodiversity represents one of the major crises of our time, threatening not only entire ecosystems but also our current and future livelihoods. As scientists realize the magnitude and scale of ongoing extinctions, it is vital to ascertain the resources available for conservation and whether funds are being effectively distributed to protect species most in need.
Quantum properties in atom-thick semiconductors offer new way to detect electrical signals in cells
For decades, scientists have relied on electrodes and dyes to track the electrical activity of living cells. Now, engineers have discovered that quantum materials just a single atom thick can do the job with high speed and resolution -- using only light.
Breakthrough tool to enhance precision in cold-temperature cancer surgery
Researchers have developed an innovative tool that enhances surgeons' ability to detect and remove cancer cells during cryosurgery, a procedure that uses extreme cold to destroy tumors. This breakthrough technology involves a specialized nanoscale material that illuminates cancer cells under freezing conditions, making them easier to distinguish from healthy tissue and improving surgical precision.
A third of children worldwide forecast to be obese or overweight by 2050
Obesity rates are set to skyrocket, with one in six children and adolescents worldwide forecast to be obese by 2050, according to a new study. But with significant increases predicted within the next five years, the researchers stress urgent action now could turn the tide on the public health crisis.
Melting Antarctic ice sheets will slow Earth's strongest ocean current
Melting ice sheets are slowing the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), the world's strongest ocean current, researchers have found. This melting has implications for global climate indicators, including sea level rise, ocean warming and viability of marine ecosystems. The researchers have shown the current slowing by around 20 per cent by 2050 in a high carbon emissions scenario.
A 'chasm of misunderstanding and miscommunication' is often experienced between clinicians and patients, leading to autoimmune diseases such as lupus and vasculitis being wrongly diagnosed as psychiatric or psychosomatic conditions, with a profound and lasting impact on patients, researchers have found. A study involving over 3,000 participants -- both patients and clinicians -- found that these misdiagnoses (sometimes termed 'in your head' by patients) were often associated with long term impacts on patients' physical health and wellbeing and damaged trust in healthcare services.
We feed gut microbes sugar, they make a compound we need
Gut microbes that were thought to feed exclusively on dietary fiber also get fed sugar from our guts, from which they produce short-chain fatty acids that are crucial to many body functions. The discovery of this symbiotic relationship also points the way to developing novel therapeutics.
It's not just what you say -- it's also how you say it
First study to reveal the brain encodes pitch accents separately from the sounds that make up words. Heschl's gyrus region of the brain, an earlier stage of auditory processing, plays a much larger role than previously thought. Findings could transform speech therapy, AI-driven voice recognition and our understanding of what makes human communication unique.
Sleep patterns may reveal comatose patients with hidden consciousness
Overnight bursts of brain waves seen in normal sleep can help doctors predict which unresponsive patients hospitalized with acute severe brain injuries will awaken and eventually recover.
ChatGPT on the couch? How to calm a stressed-out AI
Distressing news and traumatic stories can cause stress and anxiety -- not only in humans, but these stories can also affect AI language models, such as ChatGPT. Researchers have now shown that these models, like humans, respond to therapy: an elevated 'anxiety level' in GPT-4 can be 'calmed down' using mindfulness-based relaxation techniques.
How a low-carb diet can drive colorectal cancer development
Researchers have shown how a low carbohydrate diet can worsen the DNA-damaging effects of some gut microbes to cause colorectal cancer. The study compared the effects of three different diets in combination with specific gut bacteria on colorectal cancer development in mice.
New biosensor can detect airborne bird flu in under 5 minutes
As highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza continues to spread in the U.S., posing serious threats to dairy and poultry farms, both farmers and public health experts need better ways to monitor for infections, in real time, to mitigate and respond to outbreaks. Newly devised virus trackers can monitor for airborne particles of H5N1.
A hot droplet can bounce across a cool pan, too
When a droplet of water falls on a hot pan, it dances across the surface, skimming on a thin layer of steam like a tiny hovercraft; this is known as the Leidenfrost effect. But now, researchers know what happens when a hot droplet falls on a cool surface. These new findings demonstrate that hot and burning droplets can bounce off cool surfaces, propelled by a thin layer of air that forms beneath them. This phenomenon could inspire new strategies for slowing the spread of fires and improving engine efficiency.
Engineers create more effective burner to reduce methane emissions
Researchers have published a new study showing an advanced new methane flare burner, created with additive manufacturing and machine learning, eliminates 98% of methane vented during oil production.
Novel research shows brain connections can predict future substance use in adolescents
Adolescent substance use is a significant predictor of future addiction and related disorders. Understanding neural mechanisms underlying substance use initiation and frequency during adolescence is critical for early prevention and intervention. A novel study shows that by tracking year-to-year changes in brain connectivity underlying cognitive control, the ability to flexibly use goals to guide behavior and overcome habitual responses, data can predict when an adolescent is at high risk of starting to use substances, an important message for early prevention.
Innovative animal model for studying limb spasticity
Researchers have made a significant advancement in the field of spinal cord injury research, developing a novel optogenetic mouse model that could lead to improved treatments for limb spasticity.
Caribou case study offers a new model to manage species at risk
Researchers are suggesting a more comprehensive approach for identifying at-risk wildlife populations -- such as caribou -- based on individual movement patterns. The article uses a long-term dataset of caribou wearing GPS collars across Western Canada. It identifies six distinct behavioral groups that would each deserve their own conservation actions.