Amyloid plaques are protein deposits that collect between brain cells, hindering function and eventually leading to neuronal death. They are considered a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and the focus of multiple investigations designed to reduce or prevent their formation, including the nationwide A4 study. But amyloid deposits may also occur in the retina of […]

Researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have developed brain organoids — 3D, brain-like structures grown from human stem cells — that show organized waves of activity similar to those found in living human brains. Then, while studying organoids grown from stem cells derived from patients with […]

Drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco cigarettes throughout the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with nearly three times the risk of late stillbirth (at 28 or more weeks), compared to women who neither drink or smoke during pregnancy or quit both before the end of the first trimester, according to a study funded by the […]

[embedded content] The majority of patients who contracted COVID-19 while in hospital did so from other patients rather than from healthcare workers, concludes a new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital. The fact that the vast majority of infections were between patients suggests that measures taken by hospital staff to […]

[embedded content] Researchers have captured on film the moment when a Seychelles giant tortoise, Aldabrachelys gigantea, attacked and ate a tern chick. This is the first documentation of deliberate hunting in any wild tortoise species. The hunting tortoise was seen in July 2020 on Frégate Island, a privately owned island in the Seychelles group managed […]

In a finding that could help pave the way toward cleaner fuels and a more sustainable chemical industry, researchers at the University of Michigan have used machine learning to predict how the compositions of metal alloys and metal oxides affect their electronic structures. The electronic structure is key to understanding how the material will perform […]

Thirteen thousand years ago, most of Michigan was covered in a wall of ice up to a mile high. Archaeologists believed this kept some of the continent’s earliest people, a group called Clovis after their distinctive spear points, from settling in the region. But an independent researcher along with University of Michigan researchers have identified […]

Farmers using no-till production — in which soil never or rarely is plowed or disturbed — can reduce herbicide use and still maintain crop yields by implementing integrated weed-management methods, according to a new study conducted by Penn State researchers. While no-till agriculture can conserve soil and energy, it relies primarily on herbicides for weed control and […]

People who are HIV positive and living in high tuberculosis-transmission regions of the world are much more likely to finish a TB-prevention regimen lasting just three months – half as long as the standard treatment, a large clinical trial in Africa has found. An added benefit: The protocol involves a total of 12 weekly doses […]

Feeling like leisure is wasteful and unproductive may lead to less happiness and higher levels of stress and depression, new research suggests. In a series of studies, researchers examined the effects of a common belief in modern society: that productivity is the ultimate goal and time’s a-wasting if you’re just having fun. People who most […]