ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Most cases of never-smokers’ lung cancer treatable with mutation-targeting drugs
• COVID-19 hospitalizations increase among unvaccinated pregnant women
• New treatment for inflammatory bowel disease: Opioids may cure that 'bad gut feeling'
• Scientists use nuclear physics to probe Floridan Aquifer threatened by climate change
• Study on African buffalo offers insights on persistence of highly contagious pathogens
• New metamaterial with unusual reflective property could boost your Wi-Fi signal
• Dynamic pregnancy intentions
• Looking beyond DNA to see cancer with new clarity
• Signaling from neighboring cells provides power boost within axons
• More effective treatment of Alzheimer’s
• Safer treatment for deep-seated tumors
• Connecting the dots between material properties and qubit performance
• Movement of genes within cells helps organisms tell time
• Scientists reverse pancreatic cancer progression in ‘time machine’ made of human cells
• New analytical technique helps researchers spot subtle differences in subcellular chemistry
• AMD: Reading ability crucial indicator of functional loss
• ‘Planet confusion’ could slow Earth-like exoplanet exploration
• New nanoparticle developed for intravenous cancer immunotherapy
• Scientists create material that can both move and block heat
• Bigleaf maple decline tied to hotter, drier summers in Washington state, U.S.
• Encourage wealthy and well-connected to use their influence to tackle climate change
• Gene found in monkeys and mice could work as a new type of antiviral to block HIV, Ebola, and other deadly viruses in humans
• Bioengineers develop new class of human-powered bioelectronics
• Earth is dimming due to climate change
• New treatment uses reverse vaccination to teach immune system not to attack life-saving drugs
• Relieving pain by mapping its biological signatures
• Cell labelling method from microscopy adapted for use in whole-body imaging
• Our choices may be making us more individualistic
• Cats' whiskers reveal felines favor free lunch
• Toxic DNA buildup in eyes may drive blinding macular degeneration
• How a committed minority can change society
• Primordial ‘hyper-eye’ discovered
• Getting beyond small talk: Study finds people enjoy deep conversations with strangers
• Breastfeeding status and duration significantly impact postpartum depression risk
• Dental care: The best, worst and unproven tools to care for your teeth
• Coral microbiome is key to surviving climate change
• Critical groundwater supplies may never recover from drought
• Extra spacing can boost children’s reading speed
• Study shows hormone therapy not associated with an increased risk of developing dementia
• Sibling bullying associated with poor mental health outcomes years later
• Researchers integrate optical devices made of multiple materials onto single chip
• Making waves: A contactless way to detect damage in transparent materials
• Scientists show that a novel therapy could be effective against pediatric leukemia
• Groundwater markets could promote solutions to the West’s water woes

Most cases of never-smokers’ lung cancer treatable with mutation-targeting drugs Posted: 30 Sep 2021 02:10 PM PDT Despite smoking's well-known role in causing lung cancer, a significant number of patients who develop lung tumors have never smoked. While scientists are still working to understand what spurs cancer in so-called 'never-smokers,' a study suggests that 78% to 92% of lung cancers in patients who have never smoked can be treated with precision drugs already approved by the Food and Drug Administration to target specific mutations in a patient's tumor.

COVID-19 hospitalizations increase among unvaccinated pregnant women Posted: 30 Sep 2021 02:10 PM PDT Unvaccinated pregnant women are increasingly being hospitalized with COVID-19 during a nationwide surge of the Delta variant, according to researchers.

New treatment for inflammatory bowel disease: Opioids may cure that 'bad gut feeling' Posted: 30 Sep 2021 02:10 PM PDT Opioid receptors play key roles in regulating our senses and emotions. Recently, their discovery outside the nervous system raised several questions about the effects of opioids on the immune system. Now, researchers have shown that KNT-127 -- a drug that targets delta opioid receptors -- can reduce pro-inflammatory signals in the colon. Their research highlights the immunomodulatory properties of opioids and indicates their therapeutic potential in inflammatory bowel disease and other related disorders.

Scientists use nuclear physics to probe Floridan Aquifer threatened by climate change Posted: 30 Sep 2021 01:04 PM PDT Scientists used a nuclear dating technique to study the dynamics of the Floridan Aquifer. The findings show the promise of this emerging technique to help understand geological processes and to forecast the effects of climate change on coastal aquifers.

Study on African buffalo offers insights on persistence of highly contagious pathogens Posted: 30 Sep 2021 01:04 PM PDT A new study on foot-and-mouth disease among buffalo in South Africa could help explain how certain extremely contagious pathogens are able to persist and reach endemic stage in a population, long after they've burned through their initial pool of susceptible hosts.

New metamaterial with unusual reflective property could boost your Wi-Fi signal Posted: 30 Sep 2021 01:04 PM PDT Engineers have achieved a practical mechanism for 'full-duplex nonreciprocity,' a property in metamaterials that allows for manipulation of both incoming and reflective beams of light.

Dynamic pregnancy intentions Posted: 30 Sep 2021 01:04 PM PDT A study found that pregnancy intentions often change over as short as a 12-month time period, and that they specifically vary with partner status, household income, and employment status.

Looking beyond DNA to see cancer with new clarity Posted: 30 Sep 2021 11:07 AM PDT Researchers have mapped out how hundreds of mutations involved in two types of cancer affect the activity of proteins that are the ultimate actors behind the disease. The work points the way to identifying new precision treatments that may avoid the side effects common with much current chemotherapy.

Signaling from neighboring cells provides power boost within axons Posted: 30 Sep 2021 11:07 AM PDT Nerve cells (neurons) send signals throughout the brain and the body along long processes called axons; these communication and information processes consume high levels of energy. A recent study shows that the support cells around axons provide a way to boost local energy production. The new findings help explain how long axons maintain sufficient energy levels and could have implications for the treatment of several neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), linked to disruptions in axonal energy supply.

More effective treatment of Alzheimer’s Posted: 30 Sep 2021 11:07 AM PDT Researchers have designed new antibodies that might provide more effective treatment methods for Alzheimer's disease. By designing antibodies that bind even to the smaller aggregates, or clumps, of the amyloid-beta protein, it may be possible to check the progress of the disease.

Safer treatment for deep-seated tumors Posted: 30 Sep 2021 11:07 AM PDT Scientists have detailed the effects of copper cysteamine, a next-generation cancer photo-drug.

Connecting the dots between material properties and qubit performance Posted: 30 Sep 2021 11:07 AM PDT Scientists studying superconducting qubits identified structural and chemical defects that may be causing quantum information loss -- an obstacle to practical quantum computation.

Movement of genes within cells helps organisms tell time Posted: 30 Sep 2021 11:07 AM PDT Using the relatively simple clocks found in fruit flies, researchers reveal that the subcellular location of clock proteins and genes fluctuates with the daily passage of time, indicating that spatial information is translated into time-related signals.

Scientists reverse pancreatic cancer progression in ‘time machine’ made of human cells Posted: 30 Sep 2021 11:07 AM PDT What makes pancreatic cancer so deadly is its covert and quick spread. Now, a 'time machine' has shown a way to reverse the course of cancer before it spreads throughout the pancreas.

New analytical technique helps researchers spot subtle differences in subcellular chemistry Posted: 30 Sep 2021 10:48 AM PDT Researchers can now rapidly isolate and chemically characterize individual organelles within cells. The new technique tests the limits of analytical chemistry and rapidly reveals the chemical composition of organelles that control biological growth, development and disease.

AMD: Reading ability crucial indicator of functional loss Posted: 30 Sep 2021 10:48 AM PDT In geographic atrophy, a late form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), reading ability is closely related to the altered retinal structure. Reading speed makes everyday functional impairment measurable, which the most common functional test in ophthalmology -- the best-corrected visual acuity assessment - cannot reflect. Retinal imaging can be used to assess loss of reading ability even when central visual acuity is still good.

‘Planet confusion’ could slow Earth-like exoplanet exploration Posted: 30 Sep 2021 10:48 AM PDT A new study finds that next-generation telescopes used to see exoplanets could confuse Earth-like planets with other types of planets in the same solar system.

New nanoparticle developed for intravenous cancer immunotherapy Posted: 30 Sep 2021 09:50 AM PDT Cancer immunotherapy seeks to turn 'cold' tumors into 'hot' tumors -- those that respond to immunotherapy -- by awakening and enlisting the body's own immune system.

Scientists create material that can both move and block heat Posted: 30 Sep 2021 09:50 AM PDT Scientists have invented a new way to funnel heat around at the microscopic level: a thermal insulator made using an innovative technique. They stack ultra-thin layers of crystalline sheets on top of each other, but rotate each layer slightly, creating a material with atoms that are aligned in one direction but not in the other. The result is a material that is extremely good at both containing heat and moving it, albeit in different directions -- an unusual ability at the microscale, and one that could have very useful applications in electronics and other technology.

Bigleaf maple decline tied to hotter, drier summers in Washington state, U.S. Posted: 30 Sep 2021 08:11 AM PDT A new study has found that recent bigleaf maple die-off in Washington is linked to hotter, drier summers that predispose this species to decline. These conditions essentially weaken the tree's immune system, making it easier to succumb to other stressors and diseases.

Encourage wealthy and well-connected to use their influence to tackle climate change Posted: 30 Sep 2021 08:11 AM PDT A paper article identifies five ways that people of high socioeconomic status have a disproportionate impact on global greenhouse gas emissions - and therefore an outsized responsibility to facilitate progress in climate change mitigation.

Gene found in monkeys and mice could work as a new type of antiviral to block HIV, Ebola, and other deadly viruses in humans Posted: 30 Sep 2021 08:11 AM PDT A nationwide team of researchers has determined how a genetic mutation found in mice and monkeys interferes with viruses such as HIV and Ebola. They say the finding could eventually lead to the development of medical interventions in humans.

Bioengineers develop new class of human-powered bioelectronics Posted: 30 Sep 2021 08:10 AM PDT A team of bioengineers has invented a novel soft and flexible self-powered bioelectronic device. The technology converts human body motions -- from bending an elbow to subtle movements such as a pulse on one's wrist -- into electricity that could be used to power wearable and implantable diagnostic sensors.

Earth is dimming due to climate change Posted: 30 Sep 2021 07:48 AM PDT Researchers used decades of measurements of earthshine -- the light reflected from Earth that illuminates the surface of the Moon to find that there has been a significant drop in Earth's reflectance over the past two decades. The Earth is now reflecting about half a watt less light per square meter than it was 20 years ago, with most of the drop occurring in the last three years.

New treatment uses reverse vaccination to teach immune system not to attack life-saving drugs Posted: 30 Sep 2021 07:48 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new treatment that uses reverse vaccination to pre-expose the body to medications and build immune tolerance. The treatment could be applied to a broad range of drug therapies, autoimmune disorders and allergies.

Relieving pain by mapping its biological signatures Posted: 30 Sep 2021 07:48 AM PDT Many people are confronted with chronic pain that can last for months or even years. How to best treat chronic pain? First, pain must be categorized for the right treatment to be prescribed. However, is that it is very challenging for patients to define their pain, its intensity or even its location using questionnaires. To overcome this difficulty, scientists have carried out a complete epigenomic analysis of patients, making it possible to find the epigenetic signatures specific to each pain category.

Cell labelling method from microscopy adapted for use in whole-body imaging Posted: 30 Sep 2021 07:48 AM PDT Scientist have utilized so-called SNAP-tag technology to radioactively label cells in living organisms. In a proof-of-principle study they developed a SNAP-tag substrate equipped with the radioactive signal emitter fluorine-18 and used it to make tumor cells in the bodies of mice visible in PET images. The labeling method, already established in microscopy, opens up the prospect of studying cells with different imaging techniques and at different temporal stages -- for example, when inflammation begins, continues and resolves again. This may help reveal more about how the functions of individual cells and entire organs are interconnected.

Our choices may be making us more individualistic Posted: 30 Sep 2021 07:48 AM PDT While having a variety of choices is widely seen as a positive consequence of economic development, what impact does this explosion of choice have on the psyche of the individual, and further, society as a whole?

Cats' whiskers reveal felines favor free lunch Posted: 30 Sep 2021 07:48 AM PDT Domestic cats that regularly catch wild animals still get most of their nutrition from food provided at home, new research shows.

Toxic DNA buildup in eyes may drive blinding macular degeneration Posted: 30 Sep 2021 07:14 AM PDT Damaging DNA builds up in the eyes of patients with geographic atrophy, an untreatable, poorly understood form of age-related macular degeneration that causes blindness, new research reveals. Based on the discovery, the researchers think it may be possible to treat the disease with common HIV drugs or an even safer alternative.

How a committed minority can change society Posted: 30 Sep 2021 07:14 AM PDT How do social conventions change? Robotic engineers and marketing scientists joined forces to study this phenomenon, combining online experiments and statistical analysis into a mathematical model that shows how a committed minority can influence the majority to overturn long-standing practices.

Primordial ‘hyper-eye’ discovered Posted: 30 Sep 2021 07:14 AM PDT Trilobites of the suborder Phacopina had a unique eye in which about 200 large lenses in each eye spanned at least six individual facets, each of which in turn formed its own small compound eye.

Getting beyond small talk: Study finds people enjoy deep conversations with strangers Posted: 30 Sep 2021 07:14 AM PDT People benefit from deep and meaningful conversations that help us forge connections with one another, but we often stick to small talk with strangers because we underestimate how much others are interested in our lives and wrongly believe that deeper conversations will be more awkward and less enjoyable than they actually are, according to new research.

Breastfeeding status and duration significantly impact postpartum depression risk Posted: 30 Sep 2021 07:14 AM PDT A study of 29,685 American women finds postpartum depression (PPD) is a significant health issue, with nearly 13 percent of the sample being at risk. Results showed that women who were currently breastfeeding at the time of data collection had statistically significant lower risk of PPD than women who were not breastfeeding. There also was a statistically significant inverse relationship between breastfeeding length and risk of PPD. As the number of weeks that women breastfed increased, their PPD decreased. Surprisingly, there was no significant difference in PPD risk among women with varying breastfeeding intent (yes, no, unsure).

Dental care: The best, worst and unproven tools to care for your teeth Posted: 30 Sep 2021 05:24 AM PDT Only a handful of oral hygiene tools actually prevent gum disease. At the moment, all other tools are only supported by insufficient evidence, say researchers.

Coral microbiome is key to surviving climate change Posted: 30 Sep 2021 05:24 AM PDT The microbiomes of corals -- which comprise bacteria, fungi and viruses -- play an important role in the ability of corals to tolerate rising ocean temperatures, according to new research. The team also identified several genes within certain corals and the symbiotic photosynthetic algae that live inside their tissues that may play a role in their response to heat stress. The findings could inform current coral reef conservation efforts, for example, by highlighting the potential benefits of amending coral reefs with microbes found to bolster corals' heat-stress responses.

Critical groundwater supplies may never recover from drought Posted: 30 Sep 2021 05:23 AM PDT New research shows groundwater takes an average of three years to recover from drought -- if it ever recovers at all. In the largest study of its kind, scientists found that this recovery time only applies to aquifers that aren't touched by human activity, and the recovery time might be even longer in regions with excessive pumping.

Extra spacing can boost children’s reading speed Posted: 29 Sep 2021 06:22 PM PDT A new study has found that a child's reading speed can be improved by simply increasing the space between letters within a piece of text. The study discovered that text with increased space between each letter provided a benefit to both dyslexic and non-dyslexic children. On average, the dyslexia group showed a 13% increase in reading speed, while the comparison group of non-dyslexic children showed a 5% increase in reading speed.

Study shows hormone therapy not associated with an increased risk of developing dementia Posted: 29 Sep 2021 06:21 PM PDT New research shows that the use of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT -- also known as hormone replacement therapy, HRT) is not linked to an increased risk of developing dementia.

Sibling bullying associated with poor mental health outcomes years later Posted: 29 Sep 2021 06:21 PM PDT Young people who are repeatedly bullied by siblings are more likely to suffer from poor mental health and wellbeing issues later in adolescence, a new study has suggested.

Researchers integrate optical devices made of multiple materials onto single chip Posted: 29 Sep 2021 11:57 AM PDT Researchers describe a highly accurate way to assemble multiple micron-scale optical devices extremely close together on a single chip. The approach could allow high-volume manufacturing of chip-based optical systems that would enable more compact optical communications devices and advanced imagers.

Making waves: A contactless way to detect damage in transparent materials Posted: 29 Sep 2021 11:28 AM PDT Existing methods to detect microscopic scratches and imperfections on transparent materials are costly and time-consuming. To tackle this problem, researchers developed a novel non-contact, non-destructive approach leveraging laser-induced plasma shockwaves and mechanical vibrations detectable by a high-speed polarization camera. Their strategy could pave the way to convenient and inexpensive quality control schemes for mass-production of high-quality transparent surfaces, with applications in smartphones, tablets, and solar panels.

Scientists show that a novel therapy could be effective against pediatric leukemia Posted: 29 Sep 2021 11:27 AM PDT Researchers have developed a therapy that shows promise against a deadly pediatric leukemia. The small-molecule therapy was highly effective in fighting a type of acute myeloid leukemia in both in vitro and in vivo experiments, according to new research.

Groundwater markets could promote solutions to the West’s water woes Posted: 29 Sep 2021 09:58 AM PDT Amid historic drought and changing rainfall patterns, a groundwater market in the California desert could serve as a template for the future of water management.

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