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A new drug shows promise for hot flashes due to menopause

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Up to 80 percent of women experience hot flashes at some point during the menopausal transition. A new nonhormonal drug to treat these symptoms performed well in clinical trials. Dmitrii Marchenko/Moment/Getty Images Plus Share this: A new treatment for hot flashes brought relief and a better night’s rest for women experiencing these disruptive symptoms during menopause. Two phase 3 clinical trials compared the drug elinzanetant with a placebo at two timepoints. The drug subdued hot flashes quickly: By the fourth week, a majority of those taking the drug reported at least a 50 percent reduction in frequency. By week 12,  more than 70 percent taking elinzanetant , compared with more than 40 percent on placebo, experienced that drop in hot flash frequency, researchers reported August 22 in the  Journal of the American Medical Association . Participants on elinzanetant also reported significantly improved sleep compared with those on placebo at the 12-week mark. “Elinzanetant is a promisi
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Life from a drop of rain: New research suggests rainwater helped form the first protocell walls

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A Nobel-winning biologist, two engineering schools, and a vial of Houston rainwater cast new light on the origin of life on Earth Date: August 21, 2024 Source: University of Chicago Summary: New research shows that rainwater could have helped create a meshy wall around protocells 3.8 billion years ago, a critical step in the transition from tiny beads of RNA to every bacterium, plant, animal, and human that ever lived. One of the major unanswered questions about the origin of life is how droplets of RNA floating around the primordial soup turned into the membrane-protected packets of life we call cells. A new paper from the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Houston Chemical Engineering Department and Chicago Center for the Origins of Life suggests rainwater could have helped create a meshy wall around protocells 3.8 billion years ago, a critical step in the transition from tiny beads of RNA to every bacterium, plant, animal, and human that ever lived. (Il
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A mixed origin made maize successful

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Source: University of California - Davis Summary: Maize is one of the world's most widely grown crops. It is used for both human and animal foods and holds great cultural significance, especially for indigenous peoples in the Americas. Yet despite its importance, the origins of the grain have been hotly debated for more than a century. Now new research shows that all modern maize descends from a hybrid created just over 5000 years ago in central Mexico, thousands of years after the plant was first domesticated. Maize is one of the world's most widely grown crops. It is used for both human and animal foods and holds great cultural significance, especially for indigenous peoples in the Americas. Yet despite its importance, the origins of the grain have been hotly debated for more than a century. Now new research, published Dec. 1 in  Science , shows that all modern maize descends from a hybrid created just over 5000 years ago in central Mexico, thousands of years after the plant
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How the rising earth in Antarctica will impact future sea level rise

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Effects will depend on how much global warming is controlled, study finds Date: August 2, 2024 Source: Ohio State University Summary: The rising earth beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet will likely become a major factor in future sea level rise, a new study suggests. The rising earth beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet will likely become a major factor in future sea level rise, a new study suggests. Despite feeling like a stationary mass, most solid ground is undergoing a process of deformation, sinking and rising in response to many environmental factors. In Antarctica, melting glacial ice means less weight on the bedrock below, allowing it to rise. How the rising earth interacts with the overlying ice sheet to affect sea level rise is not well-studied, said Terry Wilson, co-author of the study and a senior research scientist at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at The Ohio State University. In the new study, Wilson's colleagues at McGill University developed a model to predict
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Neural circuit basis of placebo pain relief

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 Source: Nature Placebo effects are striking demonstrations of mind-body interactions 1,2. During pain perception, in the absence of any treatment, an expectation of pain relief can reduce the experience of pain, a phenomenon known as placebo analgesia 3–6. However, despite the strength of placebo effects and their impact on everyday human experience and failure of clinical trials for new therapeutics 7, the neural circuit basis of placebo effects has remained elusive. Here, we show that analgesia from the expectation of pain relief is mediated by rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) neurons that project to the pontine nucleus (rACC→Pn), a pre-cerebellar nucleus with no established function in pain. We created a behavioral assay that generates placebo-like anticipatory pain relief in mice. In vivo calcium imaging of neural activity and electrophysiological recordings in brain slices showed that expectations of pain relief boost the activity of rACC→Pn neurons and potentiate neurotr
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Groundbreaking Pi Formula Revolutionizes Mathematics and Science

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1. Scientists developed a simpler model for particle interactions, resulting in a new representation of pi. 2. Pi representations allow scientists to use values close to real life without storing millions of digits. 3. The new pi representation was created using a series, a structured set of terms that converge or diverge. 4. Researchers used quantum mechanics principles to build a new model that includes an innovative pi representation. 5. Quantum mechanics often requires complex answers for simple questions, demanding massive computing power. 6. Physicists Arnab Priya Saha and Aninda Sinha described a quantum model in Physical Review Letters that reduces complexity while maintaining accuracy. 7. Optimization, a common concept, involves making processes simpler without losing essential details. 8. Saha and Sinha combined the Feynman diagram of particle scattering with the Euler beta function from string theory. 9. A series can generalize into overall equations or expressions, helping
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Breastfeeding should take a toll on bones. A brain hormone may protect them

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New findings in mice could one day lead to treatments for osteoporosis Birthing and caring for a newborn can be hard on a mother’s bones. Estrogen, which helps regulate bone growth, drops precipitously after birth, and lactation saps the skeleton of calcium. Yet nursing moms somehow maintain strong, dense bones. A hormone released from the brain may be the reason why, a study in mice suggests. When estrogen levels drop after birth, the hormone  CCN3 may take the role of boosting bone stem cell activity , leading to increased tissue production, researchers report July 10 in  Nature . This molecule originates in the hypothalamus, a brain structure that helps regulate appetite and body temperature. Besides possibly solving the mystery of nursing mothers’ strong bones, the finding could also point to a way to better heal fractures and fight bone loss in old age. The study “identifies a new direct loop between the hypothalamus and bone, which is, I think, totally unexpected,” says Sundeep K
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Does social status shape height?

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  A controversial idea suggests there’s more to stature than genetics and nutrition The Maya people of Guatemala are among the shortest people in the world. Men on average hover a few inches above 5 feet and women a few inches below. But if they move to the United States as children, the Maya grow taller. That extra growth carries to the next generation: Maya children born to Guatemalan immigrants in the United States are roughly four inches taller than their peers in Guatemala, research by biological anthropologist Barry Bogin shows. Some of that gap disappears as children reach adulthood, but even then, Maya people in the United States are still taller than people in their native country. Economists have long observed increases in height across immigrant communities worldwide. Improved nutrition and sanitation are the conventional explanations for such growth. But Bogin, of Loughborough University in England, and other researchers think there’s more to it than just better health. Eve
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