Search Medical Journals & Research Articles

How Mars impacts Earth's climate

Earth's climate has swung between ice ages and warmer periods for millions of years, driven by subtle changes in our planet's orbit and axial tilt. These variations, known as Milankovitch cycles, occur because Earth doesn't orbit the sun in isolation. The gravitational pull of other planets constantly tugs at Earth, slowly altering its orbital path, the tilt of its axis, and the direction its poles point.

Black hole eats star: Student helps chart gamma-ray burst that lasted for days

A team of astronomers including George Washington University physics Ph.D. student Eliza Neights recorded an extraordinary cosmic outburst this July which likely heralds a new kind of stellar explosion. With a flood of data from sources including NASA satellites, the team observed a gamma-ray burst (GRB), the most powerful class of cosmic explosions. But while most GRBs are over in a minute, this one continued for days.

The rhythm of swarms: Tunable particles synchronize movement like living organisms

A collaboration between the University of Konstanz and Forschungszentrum Jülich has achieved the first fully tunable experimental realization of a long predicted "swarmalator" system. The study, published in Nature Communications, shows how tiny, self-propelled particles can simultaneously coordinate their motion and synchronize their internal rhythms—a behavior reminiscent of flashing fireflies, Japanese tree frogs or schooling fish.

Tropical cyclones and the carbon cycle: New insights from a model simulation

For the first time, scientists have resolved extremely intense tropical cyclones and their effect on the ocean carbon cycle in a global Earth system model. Using two category-4 hurricanes in the North Atlantic as examples, the study reveals a cascade of physical-biogeochemical effects including uptake of carbon dioxide and regional-scale phytoplankton bloom. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Simulation may illuminate safer cannabinoid drugs

New psychoactive substances, originally developed as potential analgesics but abandoned due to adverse side effects, may still have pharmaceutical value if researchers could nail down the causes of those side effects. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign used deep learning and large-scale computer simulations to identify structural differences in synthetic cannabinoid molecules that cause them to bind to human brain receptors differently from classical cannabinoids.

Detecting antibiotic resistance more reliably: AI tool reduces false positives

Researchers at University Medicine Oldenburg have developed an AI tool that delivers fewer false-positive results than conventional screening methods when testing bacteria for resistance to reserve antibiotics. The research group calls the new AI model CarbaDetector. It is better at identifying bacteria that are resistant to reserve antibiotics (also known as "last-resort" antibiotics) compared to other methods currently in use.

Analysis of Diplodocus dinosaur scales reveals possible speckled color patterning

Scientists have long been trying to reconstruct the appearance of dinosaurs. The tidbits they are able to piece together from fossils and other analysis are displayed in museums, educational materials, and media, lending to our idea of what these ancient creatures looked like. Yet, every once in a while we get another clue. A new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science describes a new such clue, relating to the Diplodocus—a member of the Sauropod group of dinosaurs, known for their large size and long necks.

'Mindful gifting' could be the kindest thing you do for yourself and others this Christmas

This year's Christmas advert from UK department store John Lewis is notable for its emotional impact and captivating storytelling. In it, a middle-aged former raver is gifted a vintage vinyl record by his son. The focus is on this fairly modest gift, which quietly speaks a language of love amid the noise and excess of the festivities.

Reconsidering Oxygen at Birth for Preterm Infants

At birth, newborns must transition from the low-oxygen environment of the womb to postnatal normoxemia. Most preterm newborns require supplemental oxygen to support this process. Yet, active debate remains about the optimal starting fraction of inspired oxygen (Fio2) for preterm delivery room resuscitation. Historically, high oxygen concentrations (Fio2 of 1.0) were used routinely, guided by the belief that maximizing oxygen delivery was essential to support cardiorespiratory compromise. Over time, recognition of oxygen toxicity and associations between high Fio2 and increased mortality in more mature newborns prompted a shift toward lower oxygen strategies for preterm newborns. In 2015, international guidelines for preterm infants recommended initiating respiratory support with lower Fio2 (0.21-0.3), based largely on concerns that unnecessary oxygen exposure may cause harm without clear benefit for mortality, major morbidities, or neurodevelopment. However, the recent NETMOTION collaborative individual participant data network meta-analysis, pooling 12 randomized trials including 1055 preterm newborns, challenged the start low paradigm, finding that higher initial Fio2 (≥0.9) was associated with reduced mortality compared with lower (≤0.3) or intermediate (0.5-0.65) concentrations. These emerging data underscore that the optimal starting Fio2 for preterm newborns remains undefined—a question with direct implications for millions of premature newborns worldwide each year.

Fatigue, Nausea, and Electrocardiogram Abnormalities

A previously healthy man had headache, chest pain, abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea 1 hour after eating raw tuna sashimi. His blood pressure was 67/42 mm Hg, and he had an erythematous nonpruritic rash on his upper torso, ST-segment elevation in lead aVR, and ST-segment depressions in leads II, III, aVF, and V3-6. What is the diagnosis and what would you do next?

Mechanistic Insights Into Post-TAVR Atrioventricular Block

Heart block is one of the more frequent adverse events of aortic valve replacement therapy, in both surgical aortic valve replacement and transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Data from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons/American College of Cardiology Transcatheter Valve Therapy Registry report a 30-day permanent pacemaker (PM) implantation rate of 11.3%, with extensive site-level variation (0%-36%). Current guidance from the 2020 American College of Cardiology Expert Consensus Decision Pathway recommends PM implantation for symptomatic bradycardia or complete heart block (CHB) and monitoring with consideration of electrophysiology study (EPS) for new or progressive conduction disturbances. Yet more than 2 decades after the introduction of TAVR, uncertainty remains regarding which conduction changes truly warrant permanent pacing, and different strategies have been proposed for conduction disturbance management.

Instantaneous response and quantum geometry of insulators

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 49, December 2025. SignificanceThe Quantum Geometric Tensor (QGT) encodes the geometry of Bloch electrons through their coupling to the dipole operator. By extending the QGT to the time domain, we obtain a single gauge-invariant object that fully captures the response of …

Structural modeling reveals the allosteric switch controlling the chitin utilization program of Vibrio cholerae

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 49, December 2025. SignificanceAll living things use protein receptors to sense and respond to environmental changes via a process termed signal transduction. However, how these proteins sense environmental stimuli remains poorly understood in many cases. In this study, we …

LHPP expression in triple-negative breast cancer promotes tumor growth and metastasis by modulating the tumor microenvironment

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 49, December 2025. SignificanceTriple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype with limited treatment options. This study identifies a distinct role for the phosphohistidine phosphatase LHPP, known as a tumor suppressor in other cancers, as a promoter of TNBC …

Recovery of infectious recombinant human norovirus using zebrafish embryos

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 49, December 2025. SignificanceHuman norovirus (HuNoV) is a clinically important pathogen. However, progress in developing antivirals and vaccines has been hampered by the lack of a robust reverse genetics system, a technique used to engineer recombinant viruses, for HuNoV. …