Cases of measles, a highly contagious and deadly disease, are surging in parts of the US, worrying doctors and public health experts. This year, so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has recorded 64 cases, already more than the 58 counted in 2023. The cases have popped up in 17 states, including at a Chicago migrant shelter, a Florida elementary school, and at a restaurant in Arizona. Most cases are linked to unvaccinated travelers, possibly driven by an uptick in measles cases abroad—in the European Union, for example, officials counted more than 42,000 cases in 2023 ..read more

Climate change will increase the future value of residential rooftop solar panels across the United States by up to 19% by the end of the century, according to new research. The study defines the value of solar, or VOS, as household-level financial benefits from electricity bill savings plus revenues from selling excess electricity to the grid—minus the initial installation costs. For many US households, increased earnings from residential rooftop solar could total up to hundreds of dollars annually by the end of the century, the researchers say. The study is published in Nature Climate Chang ..read more

Social stress during adolescence in female mice later results in prolonged elevation of the hormone cortisol after they give birth, a new study shows. The researchers say this corresponds to the equivalent hormonal changes in postpartum women exposed to adverse early life experiences—suggesting that early life stress may underlie a pathophysiological exacerbation of postpartum depression (PPD). The team’s findings, published in Nature Mental Health, also suggest that current drug treatments for PPD in people may, in some cases, be less effective at targeting the relevant chemical imbalances i ..read more

By simply talking to parents about preventing injuries, pediatricians can help families keep kids safer, according to a new study. Unintentional injuries are a leading cause of suffering and mortality in young children, and doctors agree that many of these injury-related deaths are preventable. To address this, the American Academy of Pediatrics designed The Injury Prevention Program, or TIPP. Launched in 1983, TIPP helps pediatricians implement injury prevention counseling for parents by providing anticipatory guidance based on child development schedules including what new skills children a ..read more

While a new “electronic tongue” bears little physical resemblance to its namesake, its strand-like sensory probes still outperformed human senses when detecting contaminated wine in a recent study. In an experiment , the e-tongue identified signs of microorganisms in white wine within a week after contamination—four weeks before a human panel noticed the change in aroma. This was also before those microbes could be grown from the wine in a Petri dish. Winemakers traditionally rely on these two methods, sniffing the wine and Petri dish testing, to identify potential wine “faults” or spoilage ..read more

Life cycle diagrams are ubiquitous in science textbooks, and they may be due for some updates, according to a new study. The findings show that simple design changes in science textbook diagrams can have a dramatic impact on the ability of undergraduate students to understand key biology concepts. “We were shocked by the study results,” says Jennifer Landin, an associate teaching professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University and corresponding author of the study published in the journal Education Sciences. “Making two small adjustments had a profound impact on the abilit ..read more

On this episode of the Big Brains podcast, Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan digs into why humans die—and how we can live longer. They’re perhaps the oldest questions in the science: Why do we die? And could we find a way to live forever? But for decades, anti-aging research was a “backwater” of the scientific community, considered too fanciful and unrealistic. That is until the last few years. Modern advances in biology have taught us a lot about how we age and why we die—could that knowledge help us turn back the clock? In his new book, Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for ..read more

A new paper explores the problems with physics culture and provides a road map for making departments in the field more equitable. Physics has long suffered from the perception that the most cutting-edge work is done by lone geniuses, usually white men. It’s a bias that’s seeped into how instructors interact with their students, and even into how students think about themselves. Prior research has shown that female students who get A’s in introductory physics think they’re as good at physics as male students who get C’s. “If we really want to actually give every student the opportunity to do ..read more

For the first time in more than 200 years, two broods of cicadas—Brood XIX, known as the Great Southern Brood, and Brood XIII, known as the Northern Illinois Brood—will emerge from the ground simultaneously this year. Hannah Burrack, professor and chair of the entomology department at Michigan State University, answers questions about what you should know about this rare occurrence: The post This year’s cicada invasion will be double trouble appeared first on Futurity ..read more

With immigration dominating politics and voter concerns, new research shows immigration boosts local wages and that having neighbors of foreign descent can reduce prejudice. When Americans mark their presidential election ballots later this year, immigration will be top of mind—it’s the nation’s number one issue, according to pollster Gallup. And one of the toughest talkers on the topic is former president and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. He’s built his political career on calls to secure the border and defend America against what he says are immigration’s dangers, warning of shrinki ..read more