The American Lung Association’s new “State of the Air” report reveals that spikes in deadly particle pollution are the most severe they’ve been in the history of the report. According to the new report, people in the U.S. experienced the most days with “very unhealthy” and “hazardous” air quality due to particle pollution in 25 years. In total, the report finds that 131 million people (39%) are living in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution. The Lung Association’s 25th annual “State of the Air” report grades exposure to unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone air pollution (also known a ..read more

LAS VEGAS (April 22, 2024) – Today [Apr. 22, 2024], Brightline West officially broke ground on the nation’s first true high-speed rail system which will connect Las Vegas to Southern California. The 218-mile system will be constructed in the middle of the I-15 and is based on Brightline’s vision to connect city pairs that are too short to fly and too far to drive. Hailed as the greenest form of transportation in the world, Brightline West will run zero emission, fully electric trains capable of speeds of 200 miles per hour. Brightline West is a watershed project for high-speed rail in America ..read more

A university professor has found a way to help students – and himself – power through long lecture classes: exercise breaks. In a new study, a professor at The Ohio State University showed that five-minute exercise sessions during lectures were feasible and that students reported positive impacts on their attention and motivation, engagement with their peers and course enjoyment. The results may not be particularly surprising, but they do suggest a solution for a long-standing issue in college classrooms, said . Hayes said he was inspired to do this research by a similar laboratory-based stu ..read more

Conditions such as diabetes, heart attack and vascular diseases commonly diagnosed in people with spinal cord injuries can be traced to abnormal post-injury neuronal activity that causes abdominal fat tissue compounds to leak and pool in the liver and other organs, a new animal study has found.  After discovering the connection between dysregulated neuron function and the breakdown of triglycerides in fat tissue in mice, researchers found that a short course of the drug .  Previous research has found that cardiometabolic diseases are among the leading causes of death in people who ..read more

A new generation of batteries may bolster the EU’s green ambitions. By Anthony King A green industrial future for Europe may depend on an element that is part of a household staple: table salt. Dr John Abou-Rjeily, a researcher at Tiamat Energy in France, is using sodium to develop rechargeable batteries. Sodium is a part of sodium chloride, an ionic compound that is the technical name for ordinary salt. Supply sources The idea behind sodium-ion batteries is to reduce Europe’s reliance on the lithium-ion ones that power everything from toothbrushes and mobile phones to mopeds and cars. Today ..read more

A new collaboration involving researchers from the University of Cambridge, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) has been awarded up to US $3.5 million to explore the potential of quantum computing for improvements in human health. The interdisciplinary team aims to develop quantum computing algorithms that can speed up the production and analysis of pangenomes, which are new representations of DNA sequences that capture population diversity. The project, one of 12 selected worldwide for the Wellcome Leap Quantum for Bio (Q4Bio) Supported Cha ..read more

A new study published in Nature has revealed a strong connection between dietary choices and brain health, cognitive function, and mental wellbeing. Researchers from the University of Warwick and other institutions analyzed the dietary preferences of 181,990 participants from the UK Biobank, comparing them with various physical evaluations, including cognitive function, blood metabolic biomarkers, brain imaging, and genetics. Using machine learning, a type of AI, the researchers categorized the participants’ food preferences into 10 groups, such as alcohol, fruits, and meats. The study found ..read more

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence have discovered that the initial babbling of zebra finch chicks plays a crucial role in their ability to memorize songs, even before they practice singing on their own. This finding challenges the previous concept of song learning in zebra finches and is in line with observations in human infants, where babbling is essential for language acquisition. Male zebra finch chicks go through two learning phases: the sensory phase, where they memorize the song of their tutor (usually their father), and the sensorimotor phase, where ..read more

A recent national survey conducted by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center has shed light on the struggles faced by many parents. The survey found that a significant majority of parents experience isolation, loneliness, and burnout due to the demands of parenthood, with many feeling a lack of support in their role. According to the survey, about two-thirds (66%) of parents felt that the demands of parenthood sometimes or frequently feel isolating and lonely, while 62% reported feeling burned out by their responsibilities as a parent. Additionally, nearly 2 in 5 (38%) parents felt ..read more

In a significant breakthrough for cancer research, scientists have developed miniature colon tissues that can simulate the complex process of tumorigenesis outside the body with high fidelity. These mini-colons, created by combining microfabrication and tissue engineering techniques, give rise to tumors that closely resemble those found in vivo, bridging the gap between animal models and simplified cell culture methods. The research, now published in Nature, was conducted by Luis Francisco Lorenzo Martín, Tania Hübscher, and other members of the group of Matthias Lütolf at EPFL, with input f ..read more