Field tests in Florida identify best available treatment to combat coral disease without need for antibiotics Scientists with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History have discovered that a bacterial probiotic helps slow the spread of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) in already infected wild corals in Florida. The findings, published today in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, reveal that applying the probiotic treatment across entire coral colonies helped prevent tissue loss. The new treatment provides a viable alternative…
A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution has found a simple rule that seems to govern how life is organised on Earth. The researchers believe this rule helps explain why species are spread the way they are across the planet. The discovery will help to understand life on Earth – including how ecosystems respond to global environmental changes. At first glance, Earth seems like a collection of wildly different worlds. Each region has its own species and environmental conditions. Yet,…
New tool provides a path for a scalable, cost-effective way to assess functional decline and could help end the argument over whether aging should be categorized as a disease A team of international researchers has developed a new biological age “clock” that estimates how well someone is aging, not just how “old” they or their various organs might be. The IC Clock, which is described in a study in Nature Aging, measures intrinsic capacity (IC), the sum of six key…
Bedtime procrastination in young adults is associated with negative emotions DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting found that bedtime procrastination in young adults is associated with specific personality traits, including depressive tendencies. Results show that bedtime procrastination was associated with higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness and extraversion. These results remained significant after statistically adjusting for chronotype. “Our study demonstrated that individuals who habitually procrastinate their bedtime were actually less likely to…
An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the University of Liège and collaborators in UK, Chile, the USA, and Europe, has discovered a giant planet orbiting the smallest known star to host such a companion The host star, TOI-6894, is a red dwarf with only 20% the mass of the Sun, typical of the most common stars in our galaxy. Until now, such low-mass stars were not thought capable of forming or retaining giant planets. But as published today…
Potatoes produce a molecule that is converted by microbes and causes potato parasites to hatch. The Kobe University discovery of this three-way relationship not only adds a new perspective to how plants interact with their environment, it also opens an avenue for developing countermeasures against the parasite. The potato cyst nematode is a root parasite in plants like potatoes and tomatoes that can cause large-scale yield loss if left untreated. Their eggs can survive in the soil for up to…
A new study in Genome Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford University Press, finds that the African Swine Fever virus, currently circulating in Europe, is not the result of a recent introduction. Instead, the virus has been present in the region since 2007. Its current dramatic spread appears to be driven largely by people within Europe traveling longer distances. African Swine Fever virus is a highly virulent DNA virus that causes a severe hemorrhagic disease of the same name affecting both…
Some two-thirds of riders and drivers for food delivery and ride-hailing apps in the UK may work in fear of “unfair feedback” and experience anxiety over sudden changes to working hours, a new survey study led by the University of Cambridge suggests.* Three-quarters of riders and drivers in the study report anxiety over potential for income to drop, with over half (51%) saying they risk health and safety while working. Some 42% of delivery and driver gig workers say they…
Consensus on how mindset and surroundings shape therapy outcomes is an important step toward regulatory approval for use of drugs like MDMA and psilocybin in treatment of debilitating mental health conditions As psychedelics gain traction as potential treatments for mental health disorders, an international study led by researchers at McGill University, Imperial College London, and the University of Exeter stands to improve the rigour and reliability of clinical research. Up to now, psychedelic clinical trials have had what has been widely acknowledged…
In September 2023, a bizarre global seismic signal was observed which appeared every 90 seconds over nine days – and was then repeated a month later. Almost a year later, two scientific studies proposed that the cause of these seismic anomalies were two mega tsunamis which were triggered in a remote East Greenland fjord by two major landslides which occurred due to warming of an unnamed glacier. The waves were thought to have become trapped in the fjord system, forming…
The elucidation of the biosynthetic pathway of ipecacuanha alkaloids shows how two distantly related plant species could develop the same substance independently Plants produce an enormous abundance of natural products. Many plant natural products are ancestry-specific and occur only in certain plant families, sometimes only in a single species. Interestingly, however, the same substances can sometimes be found in distantly related species. In most cases, however, only the end product is known and it is largely unclear how these substances…
A combination of stressors, not sea levels alone, cause the demise of reefs New research led by the University of Sydney adds to our understanding of how rapidly rising sea levels due to climate change foreshadow the end of the Great Barrier Reef as we know it. The findings suggest the reef can withstand rising sea levels in isolation but is vulnerable to associated environmental stressors arising from global climate change. Led by Professor Jody Webster from the School of…
Older people who use marijuana today have higher income, education levels Marijuana use among older adults in the US has reached a new high, with 7 percent of adults aged 65 and over who report using it in the past month, according to an analysis led by researchers with the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at the NYU School of Global Public Health. Their findings, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, also show that the profile of those…
Surprisingly, there was no association between biological circadian timing and impulsivity DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting found that adolescents who prefer to sleep and wake up later (“night owls”) reported greater impulsivity than those who prefer to sleep and wake up earlier (“morning larks”). Results show that adolescents with self-reported evening preference, or “night owl” tendencies, reported greater negative urgency and lack of perseverance, which are two aspects of impulsivity….
Flooding in coastal communities is happening far more often than previously thought, according to a new study from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The study also found major flaws with the widely used approach of using marine water level data to capture instances of flooding. “Government agencies and researchers use data from tide gauges to measure water levels in coastal areas, then use that data to estimate flood frequency in the region,”…
The detection of atmospheric methane and silicon monoxide suggests that it originated in a region analogous to the Solar System’s domain of gas and ice giants. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have provided new clues about how the exoplanet WASP-121b has formed and where it might have originated in the disc of gas and dust around its star. These insights stem from the detection of multiple key molecules: water vapour, carbon monoxide, silicon monoxide, and methane. With…
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