Five minutes of extra exercise a day could lower blood pressure
New research suggests that adding a small amount of physical activity — such as uphill walking or stair-climbing — into your day may help to lower blood pressure. The study,…
Climate change parching the American West even without rainfall deficits
Higher temperatures caused by anthropogenic climate change made an ordinary drought into an exceptional drought that parched the American West from 2020-2022. A study by UCLA and National Oceanic and…
Toward better surgical outcomes in patients undergoing knee replacement surgery
When performing knee replacement surgery, also called total knee arthroplasty, doctors traditionally try to align the hip, knee, and ankle in a straight line, forming a neutral alignment, rather than…
Despite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the world
Large language models can do impressive things, like write poetry or generate viable computer programs, even though these models are trained to predict words that come next in a piece…
An extra year of education does not protect against brain aging, study finds
Thanks to a ‘natural experiment’ involving 30,000 people, researchers at Radboud university medical center were able to determine very precisely what an extra year of education does to the brain…
Persistent problems with AI-assisted genomic studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are warning that artificial intelligence tools gaining popularity in the fields of genetics and medicine can lead to flawed conclusions about the connection between genes and…
Bacteria breakthrough could accelerate mosquito control schemes
Mosquito larvae grow faster if they’re exposed to particular bacteria, according to a new study that could help global health programmes. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes spread illnesses including dengue, yellow fever…
Increased rates of severe human infections caused by Streptococcus subspecies
A concerning increase in global rates of severe invasive infections becoming resistant to key antibiotics has a team of infectious disease researchers at the Houston Methodist Research Institute studying a…
The Salton Sea — an area rich with lithium — is a hot spot for child respiratory issues
Windblown dust from the shrinking Salton Sea harms the respiratory health of children living nearby, triggering asthma, coughing, wheezing and disrupted sleep, USC research shows. The findings also indicate that…
Exposure to particular sources of air pollution is harmful to children’s learning and memory
A new USC study involving 8,500 children from across the country reveals that a form of air pollution, largely the product of agricultural emissions, is linked to poor learning and…