scientists have done research into

The scientific method and climate change: How scientists know

By Holly Shaftel, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The scientific method is the gold standard for exploring our natural world. You might have learned about it in grade school, but here’s a quick reminder: It’s the process that scientists use to understand everything from animal behavior to the forces that shape our planet—including climate change.

“The way science works is that I go out and study something, and maybe I collect data or write equations, or I run a big computer program,” said Josh Willis, principal investigator of NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) mission and oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “And I use it to learn something about how the world works.”

Using the scientific method, scientists have shown that humans are extremely likely the dominant cause of today’s climate change. The story goes back to the late 1800s, but in 1958, for example, Charles Keeling of the Mauna Loa Observatory in Waimea, Hawaii, started taking meticulous measurements of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in the atmosphere, showing the first significant evidence of rapidly rising CO 2 levels and producing the Keeling Curve climate scientists know today.

“The way science works is that I go out and study something, and maybe I collect data or write equations, or I run a big computer program, and I use it to learn something about how the world works.”- Josh Willis, NASA oceanographer and Oceans Melting Greenland principal investigator

Since then, thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers have come to the same conclusion about climate change, telling us that human activities emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, raising Earth’s average temperature and bringing a range of consequences to our ecosystems.

“The weight of all of this information taken together points to the single consistent fact that humans and our activity are warming the planet,” Willis said.

The scientific method’s steps

The exact steps of the scientific method can vary by discipline, but since we have only one Earth (and no “test” Earth), climate scientists follow a few general guidelines to better understand carbon dioxide levels, sea level rise, global temperature and more.

• Form a hypothesis (a statement that an experiment can test)
• Make observations (conduct experiments and gather data)
• Analyze and interpret the data
• Draw conclusions
• Publish results that can be validated with further experiments (rinse and repeat)

As you can see, the scientific method is iterative (repetitive), meaning that climate scientists are constantly making new discoveries about the world based on the building blocks of scientific knowledge.

“The weight of all of this information taken together points to the single consistent fact that humans and our activity are warming the planet." - Josh Willis, NASA oceanographer and Oceans Melting Greenland principal investigator

The scientific method at work.

How does the scientific method work in the real world of climate science? Let’s take NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) campaign, a multi-year survey of Greenland’s ice melt that’s paving the way for improved sea level rise estimates, as an example.

• Form a hypothesis OMG hypothesizes that the oceans are playing a major role in Greenland ice loss.
• Make observations Over a five-year period, OMG will survey Greenland by air and ship to collect ocean temperature and salinity (saltiness) data and take ice thinning measurements to help climate scientists better understand how the ice and warming ocean interact with each other. OMG will also collect data on the sea floor’s shape and depth, which determines how much warm water can reach any given glacier.
• Analyze and interpret data As the OMG crew and scientists collect data around 27,000 miles (over 43,000 kilometers) of Greenland coastline over that five-year period, each year scientists will analyze the data to see how much the oceans warmed or cooled and how the ice changed in response.
• Draw conclusions In one OMG study , scientists discovered that many Greenland glaciers extend deeper (some around 1,000 feet, or about 300 meters) beneath the ocean’s surface than once thought, making them quite vulnerable to the warming ocean. They also discovered that Greenland’s west coast is generally more vulnerable than its east coast.
• Publish results Scientists like Willis write up the results, send in the paper for peer review (a process in which other experts in the field anonymously critique the submission), and then those peers determine whether the information is correct and valuable enough to be published in an academic journal, such as Nature or Earth and Planetary Science Letters . Then it becomes another contribution to the well-substantiated body of climate change knowledge, which evolves and grows stronger as scientists gather and confirm more evidence. Other scientists can take that information further by conducting their own studies to better understand sea level rise.

All in all, the scientific method is “a way of going from observations to answers,” NASA terrestrial ecosystem scientist Erika Podest, based at JPL, said. It adds clarity to our way of thinking and shows that scientific knowledge is always evolving.

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• 05 January 2022

How researchers can help fight climate change in 2022 and beyond

You have full access to this article via your institution.

Devastating floods that hit Germany last July were made more likely by the warming climate. Credit: Christof Stache/AFP/Getty

Late last year, the major climate summit in Glasgow, UK — the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations climate convention (COP26) — injected much-needed momentum into the political and business community in the fight to stop climate change. The year ahead represents an opportunity for scientists of all stripes to offer up expertise and ensure that they have a voice in this monumental effort.

Science is already baked into the UN’s formal climate agenda for 2022. In February, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is scheduled to release its assessment of the latest research into how climate warming is affecting people and ecosystems; a month later, the panel is set to provide an analysis of the options for curbing emissions and halting global warming. Combined with last year’s report on climate science , the governments of the world will have a solid review of the state-of-the-art of research on climate change. But the research community’s work stretches far beyond the IPCC.

At the top of governments’ climate agenda is innovation. Existing technologies such as wind and solar power, whose price has plummeted over the past decade, and more-efficient lighting, buildings and vehicles will help to reduce emissions. But if green energy is to push out fossil fuels and fulfil the rising demand for reliable power in low-income countries, scientists and engineers will be needed to solve a range of problems. These include finding ways to cut the price of grid-scale electricity storage and to address technical challenges that arise when integrating massive amounts of intermittent renewable energy. Research will also be required to provide a new generation of affordable vehicles powered by electricity and hydrogen, and low-carbon fuels for those that are harder to electrify, such as aircraft.

Even in the most optimistic scenarios, such clean-energy deployments are unlikely to be enough to enable countries to keep their climate commitments. More innovation will also be needed — for example, in the form of technologies that can pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. These have yet to be tested and demonstrated at any significant scale. Governments and funders also need to support scientists in efforts to understand the safety and efficacy of various controversial geoengineering technologies — methods for artificially cooling the planet, such as the addition of particles to the stratosphere to reflect sunlight back into space — if only to determine whether there is sense in even contemplating such alternatives.

Give research into solar geoengineering a chance

There are signs of renewed support for research and innovation in helping to address climate change. In Glasgow, 22 countries, as well as the European Commission (EC), announced plans to cooperate on innovation focused on greening cities, curbing industrial emissions, promoting CO 2 capture and developing renewable fuels, chemicals and materials. The EC has also announced efforts to drive new funds into demonstration projects to help commercialize low-carbon technologies. And China, currently the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is creating a vast research infrastructure focused on technologies that will help to eliminate carbon emissions.

China creates vast research infrastructure to support ambitious climate goals

In the United States, under President Joe Biden, the Democrats have also made innovation a linchpin of efforts to address climate change. A bipartisan bill enacted in November will expand green-infrastructure investments, as well as providing nearly US$42 billion for clean-energy research and development at the US Department of Energy over the next 5 years, roughly doubling the current budget, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank in Washington DC. Another $550 billion for climate and clean-energy programmes is included in a larger budget bill that Democrats hope to pass this year. Economic modelling suggests that the spending surge could help to lower emissions in the coming decade while teeing up technologies that will be crucial to eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions in the latter half of the century.

In addition to enabling green innovation, scientists have an important part to play in evaluating climate policies and tracking commitments made by governments and businesses. Many of the initiatives that gained traction at COP26 need science to succeed. That includes evaluating how climate finance — money that wealthy nations have committed to help low-income nations to curb emissions and cope with climate change — is spent. Research is also needed to understand the impacts of carbon offsets and carbon trading, for which new rules were agreed at COP26.

COP26 climate pledges: What scientists think so far

Climate science, too, must continue apace, helping governments and the public to understand the impact of climate change. From floods in Germany to fires in Australia, the evolving field of climate attribution has already made it clear that global warming is partly to blame for numerous tragedies. Attribution science will also feed into an ongoing geopolitical debate about who should pay for the rising costs of climate-related natural disasters, as many low-income countries seek compensation from wealthy countries that are responsible for the bulk of the greenhouse-gas emissions so far.

These and other issues will be discussed again in November at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where it will be crucial to make sure that everyone has a voice and that research supports climate monitoring and innovation everywhere, not just in richer nations.

A new agreement made at COP26 that requires governments to report annually on their climate progress should help to maintain pressure on them to act on climate change. But science and innovation will be equally important to driving ever-bolder climate policies.

Nature 601 , 7 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03817-4

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Science leads the response to COVID-19. These 25 scientists are tackling the other global challenges

Introducing the Class of 2020 Young Scientists Image:  Photo by Drew Hays on Unsplash

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Martha chahary.

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• Scientists have maximum visibility in the COVID-19 response, while proposing solutions to other global challenges, from climate change to cybersecurity, poverty to pandemics, and food technologies to fracking.
• The World Economic Forum created the Young Scientists Community in 2008, to engage leaders with science and the role it plays in society. The class of 2020 represents 25 researchers at the forefront of scientific discovery from 14 countries across the world.

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted science’s vital role in society. Science will provide us with an “exit strategy” from the pandemic when a vaccine is finally developed but until then, scientists are helping to understand the origins of the virus, how it spreads, what treatment(s) are most effective and indeed if a cure is possible.

Scientists have maximum visibility right now as different groups of people turn to them looking for answers. COVID-19 aside, science proposes solutions to the myriad of other global challenges facing society, from climate change to cybersecurity, poverty to pandemics, and food technologies to fracking.

Have you read?

Here’s how ‘science diplomacy’ can help us contain covid-19, bill gates explains how the world can use science to tackle the crisis.

That’s part of the reason why the World Economic Forum created the Young Scientists Community in 2008, to engage leaders with science and the role it plays in society. Science is no longer a specialist concern. It is the driving force behind the highest-level decisions on global governance and policy-making, while also informing the individual choices people make about how they want to live and what changes they want to make.

Today we announce our Class of 2020 Young Scientists, representing 25 exceptional researchers at the forefront of scientific discovery from 14 countries across the world.

From chemical oceanography to child psychology and artificial intelligence, these brilliant young academics are joining a community whose aims are to:

• Communicate cutting-edge research and position science discourse within the context of scientific evidence.
• Develop leadership skills and a fuller understanding of global, regional and industry agendas.
• Build a diverse global community of next-generation scientific leaders, committed to engaging in collaborations related to collectively identified issues.

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic requires global cooperation among governments, international organizations and the business community , which is at the centre of the World Economic Forum’s mission as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.

Since its launch on 11 March, the Forum’s COVID Action Platform has brought together 1,667 stakeholders from 1,106 businesses and organizations to mitigate the risk and impact of the unprecedented global health emergency that is COVID-19.

The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.

As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched – bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.

By joining Forum events, engaging in personal and professional learning modules and sharing experiences with each other, we’re looking forward to working with the Class of 2020 Young Scientists to help leaders from the public and private sector engage more meaningfully with science and in doing so, help these amazing young researchers become stronger ambassadors for science.

Here are the World Economic Forum’s Young Scientists of 2020:

From Africa:

Sarah Fawcett (University of Cape Town, South Africa, South African): Sarah researches the role of ocean chemistry and biology in climate, as well as the impacts of human activities on marine environments.

Salome Maswime (University of Cape Town, South Africa, South African): Salome seeks to understand surgical health systems and causes of maternal death during caesarean section in poorly resourced areas to improve surgical care across populations.

From the Americas:

Gao Wei ( California Institute of Technology, USA, Chinese): Gao Wei develops skin-interfaced wearable biosensors that will enable analytics through sweat rather than blood, leading to non-invasive and real-time analysis and timely medical intervention.

Francisca Garay (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile, Chilean): Francisca is studying what are the most basic building blocks of the universe by developing technologies to accelerate and enhance the capabilities of particle accelerators.

Diego Garcia-Huidobro (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile, Chilean): Diego uses human-centred design methods to develop sustainable and scalable community-level health interventions in Chile.

Jennifer Ronholm (McGill University, Canada, Canadian): Jennifer is working to strengthen the microbiome of agricultural animals to resist infections in the absence of antibiotics, with the aim of reducing the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Stefanie Sydlik (Carnegie Mellon University, USA, American): Stefanie designs new materials that stimulate the body's healing response to enable the regeneration of natural bone as an alternative to metal implants currently used to heal bone injuries.

Fatma Zeynep Temel (Carnegie Mellon University, USA, Turkish): Fatma uses mathematical models and physical prototypes to test and explore biologically inspired designs, leading to the development of small-scale robots and sensors

Lee Sue-Hyun (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea, Korean): Sue-Hyun researches how memories are recalled and updated, and how emotional processes affect human memory, to inform therapeutic interventions for mental disorders.

Meng Ke (Tsinghua University, China, Chinese): Meng Ke seeks to understand the socio-economic causes of population ageing and declining fertility rates to suggest what public policy measures and innovations can be used to address them.

Shi Ling (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China, Chinese): Shi Ling researches the vulnerability of cyber-physical systems to protect safety-critical infrastructures – such as power utilities and water transportation systems – from attacks.

Sho Tsuji (University of Tokyo, Japan, Japanese): Sho Tsuji seeks to understand how an infant’s social environment affects language acquisition – a key predictor of future literacy – to inform culturally sensitive, science-based, societal interventions.

Wu Dan (Zhejiang University, China, Chinese): Wu Dan is researching technological advances in MRI techniques to improve its ability to detect tumours and stroke, as well as monitor foetal brain development.

Yi Li (Peking University, China, Chinese): Yi Li researches social-communicative impairments in children with autism in China to develop more precise screening and diagnosis, as well as innovative treatment approaches in the country.

Ying Xu (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, Chinese): Ying Xu’s research focuses on enhancing China's low-orbit Beidou navigation satellite system, which could lead to advances in the commercial aerospace industry

From Europe:

Celeste Carruth (ETH Zurich, Switzerland, American): Celeste is developing a new 2D ion trap experiment for quantum information processing that is expected to be more reliable and cheaper to scale up than competing technologies and aims to lead to breakthrough quantum computing results.

Nicola Gasparini (Imperial College London, United Kingdom, Italian): Nicola is developing novel technologies to treat severe and incurable vision problems caused by degeneration of the retina, which affects almost 200 million people worldwide.

Joe Grove (University College London, United Kingdom, British): Joe investigates how viruses enter human cells and evade the immune system to reveal new biology and inform the design of future vaccines.

Philip Moll (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, German): Philip is developing new methods to make micro-scale modifications to material structures with the potential to improve quantum computing.

Mine Orlu (University College London, United Kingdom, British): Mine is designing patient-tailored pharmaceutical and healthcare technologies that contribute to healthy and independent ageing across the life course.

Michael Saliba (University of Stuttgart, Germany, German): Michael is developing inexpensive, stable and highly efficient perovskite solar cells that will enable the acceleration of sustainable energy technology.

Andy Tay (Imperial College London, United Kingdom, Singaporean): Andy is developing new technology and materials to engineer immune cells, tissues and systems, with the aim of preventing and treating cancer.

Jan Dirk Wegner (ETH Zurich, Switzerland, German): Jan develops novel artificial intelligence methods to analyse large-scale environmental data and accelerate humanity’s ability to solve ecological problems

From the Middle East:

Joseph Costantine (American University of Beirut, Lebanon, Lebanese): Joseph’s research leverages electromagnetism to design a new generation of wireless communication systems, biomedical sensors and wirelessly powered devices through radio frequency energy harvesting.

Joanna Doummar (American University of Beirut, Lebanon, Lebanese): Joanna seeks to better understand complex underground drainage systems, known as karst aquifers, to better address and solve national water quality and quantity challenges.

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Have you ever wondered how research works? How scientists make discoveries about our health and the world around us? Whether they’re studying plants, animals, humans, or something else in our world, they follow the scientific method. But this method isn’t always—or even usually—a straight line, and often the answers are unexpected and lead to more questions. Let’s dive in to see how it all works.

The Question Scientists start with a question about something they observe in the world. They develop a hypothesis, which is a testable prediction of what the answer to their question will be. Often their predictions turn out to be correct, but sometimes searching for the answer leads to unexpected outcomes.

The Techniques To test their hypotheses, scientists conduct experiments. They use many different tools and techniques, and sometimes they need to invent a new tool to fully answer their question. They may also work with one or more scientists with different areas of expertise to approach the question from other angles and get a more complete answer to their question.

The Evidence Throughout their experiments, scientists collect and analyze their data. They reach conclusions based on those analyses and determine whether their results match the predictions from their hypothesis. Often these conclusions trigger new questions and new hypotheses to test.

Researchers share their findings with one another by publishing papers in scientific journals and giving presentations at meetings. Data sharing is very important for the scientific field, and although some results may seem insignificant, each finding is often a small piece of a larger puzzle. That small piece may spark a new question and ultimately lead to new findings.

Sometimes research results seem to contradict each other, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the results are wrong. Instead, it often means that the researchers used different tools, methods, or timeframes to obtain their results. The results of a single study are usually unable to fully explain the complex systems in the world around us. We must consider how results from many research studies fit together. This perspective gives us a more complete picture of what’s really happening.

Even if the scientific process doesn’t answer the original question, the knowledge gained may help provide other answers that lead to new hypotheses and discoveries.

Learn more about the importance of communicating how this process works in the NIH News in Health article, “ Explaining How Research Works .”

This post is a great supplement to Pathways: The Basic Science Careers Issue.

Pathways introduces the important role that scientists play in understanding the world around us, and all scientists use the scientific method as they make discoveries—which is explained in this post.

Learn more in our Educator’s Corner .

2 Replies to “How Research Works: Understanding the Process of Science”

Nice basic explanation. I believe informing the lay public on how science works, how parts of the body interact, etc. is a worthwhile endeavor. You all Rock! Now, we need to spread the word ‼️❗️‼️ Maybe eith a unique app. And one day, with VR and incentives to read & answer a couple questions.

As you know, the importance of an informed population is what will keep democracy alive. Plus it will improve peoples overall wellness & life outcomes.

Thanks for this clear explanation for the person who does not know science. Without getting too technical or advanced, it might be helpful to follow your explanation of replication with a reference to meta-analysis. You might say something as simple as, “Meta-analysis is a method for doing research on all the best research; meta-analytic research confirms the overall trend in results, even when the best studies show different results.”

Comments are closed.

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Scientists Find the Largest Known Genome Inside a Small Plant

A fern from a Pacific island carries 50 times as much DNA as humans do.

Tmesipteris oblanceolata, a fern growing in a forest on an island east of Australia. “It doesn’t catch the eye,” said Jaume Pellicer, who studies it. “You would probably step on it and not even realize it.” Credit... Pol Fernández

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By Carl Zimmer

• Published May 31, 2024 Updated June 3, 2024

Last year, Jaume Pellicer led a team of fellow scientists into a forest on Grande Terre, an island east of Australia. They were in search of a fern called Tmesipteris oblanceolata. Standing just a few inches tall, it was not easy to find on the forest floor.

“It doesn’t catch the eye,” said Dr. Pellicer, who works at the Botanical Institute of Barcelona in Spain. “You would probably step on it and not even realize it.”

The scientists eventually managed to spot the nondescript fern. When Dr. Pellicer and his colleagues studied it in the lab, they discovered it held an extraordinary secret. Tmesipteris oblanceolata has the largest known genome on Earth. As the researchers described in a study published on Friday, the fern’s cells contain more than 50 times as much DNA as ours do.

If you find it strange that such a humble plant has such a gigantic genome, scientists do, too. The enigma emerged in the 1950s, when biologists discovered that the double helix of DNA encodes genes. Each gene consists of a series of genetic letters, and our cells read those letters to make corresponding proteins.

Scientists assumed that humans and other complex species must make a lot of different proteins and therefore have bigger genomes. But when they weighed the DNA in different animals, they discovered they were wildly wrong. Frogs, salamanders and lungfish had far bigger genomes than humans did.

It turns out that genomes are much weirder than scientists had expected. We carry about 20,000 protein-coding genes, for example, but they make up only 1.5 percent of the 3 billion pairs of letters in our genome.

Another nine percent or so is made up of stretches of DNA that don’t encode proteins but still carry out important jobs. Some of them, for example, act like switches to turn neighboring genes on and off.

The other 90 percent of the human genome has no known function. Some scientists have an affectionate nickname for this vast quantity of mysterious DNA: junk .

Some species have little junk DNA, whereas others have staggering amounts. The African lungfish , for example, has about the same number of protein-coding genes as we do, but they are scattered in a giant genome that totals 40 billion pairs of DNA letters — 13 times as much DNA as our own genome holds.

In the early 2000s, when Dr. Pellicer trained as a botanist, he was intrigued to learn that a few lineages of plants have massive genomes as well. Onions, for example, have a genome five times as large as ours.

In 2010, when Dr. Pellicer began working at Kew Gardens in London, he got the chance to study a family of plants known as bunchflowers, which were known to have big genomes. He spent months mincing leaves with a razor blade, isolating cells from dozens of species and weighing their DNA.

When he weighed the genome of a plant called Paris japonica, which grows in the mountains near Nagano, Japan, he was shocked at the result. The ordinary flower had a genome containing 148 billion pairs of letters — a world record.

In the years that followed, colleagues sent him fresh samples of ferns from Australia and New Zealand to chop up. He discovered that those plants, too, had massive genomes, although not quite as big as that of Paris japonica.

Dr. Pellicer knew that related fern species grew on a few Pacific islands. In 2016, he began making plans for an expedition to Grande Terre, part of the archipelago known as New Caledonia.

It wasn’t until 2023 that he finally made it to the island. He collected a number of species along with a team that included colleagues from Kew, his graduate student Pol Fernández and local plant experts.

Back in Barcelona, Mr. Fernández was startled to discover that Tmesipteris oblanceolata’s genome contained about 160 billion pairs of DNA letters. Thirteen years after Dr. Pellicer had discovered a record-breaking genome, his graduate student was also experiencing the thrill of breaking the record.

There are two chief ways in which genomes expand over evolutionary time. Many species carry virus-like stretches of DNA. As they make new copies of their genomes, they sometimes accidentally make an extra copy of that viral stretch. Over many generations, a species can accumulate thousands of new copies, causing its genome to swell.

It’s also possible for a species to suddenly end up with two genomes instead of one. One way an extra genome can arise is when two closely related species mate. Their hybrid offspring may inherit full sets of DNA from both parents.

Dr. Pellicer and his colleagues suspect that a combination of virus-like DNA and duplicated genomes is responsible for the huge amount of genetic material in Tmesipteris oblanceolata. But they don’t know why this humble fern ended up with a record-setting genome while other species — like us — have so much less DNA.

It’s possible that most species gradually accumulate DNA in their genomes without suffering any harm. “A lot of biology is ‘why not?’ rather than ‘why?’” said Julie Blommaert, a genomicist at the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research who was not involved in the new study.

Eventually, however, genomes may get so big that they become a burden. Cells may have to expand to house all the extra DNA. They also need more time and more nutrients to make new copies of their giant genomes. An organism with an oversized genome may lose out to a rival with a smaller one. So mutations that chop out unneeded DNA may be favored by evolution.

It’s possible that animals and plants can evolve truly giant genomes only in special environments, such as in stable climates where there is little competition. “Maybe that’s why they’re so rare — they get ripped away because they’re not efficient,” Dr. Pellicer said.

Even in the most welcoming home, genomes can’t grow to infinite sizes. In fact, Dr. Pellicer suspects that Tmesipteris oblanceolata may have nearly reached a genome’s physical limit. “I believe we are close,” he said.

Others aren’t so sure.

“I don’t know if we have reached an upper boundary yet,” said Brittany Sutherland, a botanist at George Mason University who was not involved in the study. She noted that botanists have measured the sizes of genomes in only 12,000 species of plants, leaving 400,000 other species to study. “What we have estimates for is a drop in the bucket,” she said.

Carl Zimmer covers news about science for The Times and writes the Origins column . More about Carl Zimmer

The Mysteries and Wonders of Our DNA

Women are much more likely than men to have an array of so-called autoimmune diseases, like lupus and multiple sclerosis. A new study offers an explanation rooted in the X chromosome .

DNA fragments from thousands of years ago are providing insights  into multiple sclerosis, diabetes, schizophrenia and other illnesses. Is this the future of medicine ?

A study of DNA from half a million volunteers found hundreds of mutations that could boost a young person’s fertility  and that were linked to bodily damage later in life.

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Environmental DNA research has aided conservation, but scientists say its ability to glean information about humans poses dangers .

That person who looks just like you is not your twin. But if scientists compared your genomes, they might find a lot in common .

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September 8, 2021

Explaining How Research Works

We’ve heard “follow the science” a lot during the pandemic. But it seems science has taken us on a long and winding road filled with twists and turns, even changing directions at times. That’s led some people to feel they can’t trust science. But when what we know changes, it often means science is working.

Explaining the scientific process may be one way that science communicators can help maintain public trust in science. Placing research in the bigger context of its field and where it fits into the scientific process can help people better understand and interpret new findings as they emerge. A single study usually uncovers only a piece of a larger puzzle.

Questions about how the world works are often investigated on many different levels. For example, scientists can look at the different atoms in a molecule, cells in a tissue, or how different tissues or systems affect each other. Researchers often must choose one or a finite number of ways to investigate a question. It can take many different studies using different approaches to start piecing the whole picture together.

Sometimes it might seem like research results contradict each other. But often, studies are just looking at different aspects of the same problem. Researchers can also investigate a question using different techniques or timeframes. That may lead them to arrive at different conclusions from the same data.

Using the data available at the time of their study, scientists develop different explanations, or models. New information may mean that a novel model needs to be developed to account for it. The models that prevail are those that can withstand the test of time and incorporate new information. Science is a constantly evolving and self-correcting process.

Scientists gain more confidence about a model through the scientific process. They replicate each other’s work. They present at conferences. And papers undergo peer review, in which experts in the field review the work before it can be published in scientific journals. This helps ensure that the study is up to current scientific standards and maintains a level of integrity. Peer reviewers may find problems with the experiments or think different experiments are needed to justify the conclusions. They might even offer new ways to interpret the data.

It’s important for science communicators to consider which stage a study is at in the scientific process when deciding whether to cover it. Some studies are posted on preprint servers for other scientists to start weighing in on and haven’t yet been fully vetted. Results that haven't yet been subjected to scientific scrutiny should be reported on with care and context to avoid confusion or frustration from readers.

We’ve developed a one-page guide, "How Research Works: Understanding the Process of Science" to help communicators put the process of science into perspective. We hope it can serve as a useful resource to help explain why science changes—and why it’s important to expect that change. Please take a look and share your thoughts with us by sending an email to  [email protected].

Below are some additional resources:

• Discoveries in Basic Science: A Perfectly Imperfect Process
• When Clinical Research Is in the News
• What is Basic Science and Why is it Important?
• ​ What is a Research Organism?
• What Are Clinical Trials and Studies?
• Basic Research – Digital Media Kit
• Decoding Science: How Does Science Know What It Knows? (NAS)
• Can Science Help People Make Decisions ? (NAS)

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History of Climate Science Research

History of climate change interactive timeline.

The tables below contain all of the items that are in the timeline above, organized by category (greenhouse gases, modeling, past climate, impacts of climate change, and climate reports). If you have suggestions for additions to this timeline of the History of Climate Science Research , please contact us .

Greenhouse Gases and the Greenhouse Effect

Modeling the earth and future climate, studying past climate, the science of climate impacts, the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc).

Can scientists ‘solve’ stress? They’re trying.

From cardiovascular disease and obesity to a weakened immune system, the side effects of stress can be life-altering. But there may be a way to prevent those outcomes.

As modern-day stress ratchets up to what feels like unbearable levels, researchers are striving to learn more about the precise mechanisms through which it affects our body and mind. The hope is that by unlocking more about how stress works physiologically, we can find ways to prevent it from permanently harming people.

Over the last five decades, scientists have established beyond doubt that persistent stress really can poison our overall health. In addition to increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease , stress plays a role in obesity and diabetes and can weaken the immune system , leaving us more vulnerable to infectious diseases. You can recover swiftly from an episode of acute stress—for example, the alarm one might feel when caught unprepared for a presentation. Chronic stress, on the other hand, is more toxic as it is an unrelenting circumstance that offers little chance for a return to normalcy. Financial strain, having a bully for a boss, and social isolation are all examples.

Today chronic stress seems to be increasing worldwide, as people grapple with rapid socioeconomic and environmental change.   A 2023 national survey by the American Psychological Association found that stress has taken a serious toll since the start of the pandemic , with the incidence of chronic illnesses and mental health problems going up significantly, especially among those ages 35 to 44.

( Do you have chronic stress? Look for these signs. )

So far, one of the major realizations among scientists is that stress harms all of us in different and powerful ways. But is there any way to avoid it—or at least recover more quickly? Some promising avenues of research offer hope for the future.

Preventing chronic stress from harming you in the first place

Groundbreaking studies in orphans showed how stress in early life can leave an indelible mark on the brain.

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“Chronic stress in early life has more serious and lasting effects, because that’s when a lot of connections are being laid down in the brain,” says Aniko Korosi, a researcher at the University of Amsterdam who has been conducting experiments on mice to elucidate that link between early-life stress and brain development.

Korosi may have found a surprising link between stress and the resulting nutrient composition in the brain . She and her colleagues noticed that mouse pups that had been exposed to stress in the first week of their lives—having been moved from their mother’s care to a cage—had lower levels of certain fatty acids and amino acids in their brains compared with pups being raised in a stress-free environment.

She wondered if it was possible to normalize a stressed pup’s development by feeding it a diet rich in the specific nutrients its brain would be lacking. To find out, the researchers first fed a supplemented diet to the mothers so it would pass through their milk, then continued to provide it in the pups’ feed for two weeks after they were weaned. A few months later, the researchers tested the now adult mice in learning and memory. Unlike stressed mice that had never received an enriched diet, these mice did not display cognitive impairments.

( How wild animals cope with stress—from overeating to sleepless nights. )

“I was surprised that changing the nutrition could have such a powerful effect, because it’s such an easy intervention,” Korosi says.

If further studies provide more evidence of the nutritional pathway, she says, there would be a strong basis for supplementing the diets of infants born to mothers living in stressful conditions.

Developing an early warning system for stress

Katie McLaughlin, a psychologist at the University of Oregon, is investigating how mental health problems arise in adolescents as they’re going through a particularly vulnerable time in their lives, transitioning to adulthood.

She and her colleagues are still collecting data , but a smaller, precursor study tracking 30 teenagers offers clues about what the researchers might learn—and how it might help them identify stress before it goes too far.  

In that study, McLaughlin found that the extent of stress experienced by a subject in the month before their lab visit changed how their brain responded to emotionally impactful information such as when they were shown a picture of a threatening face. The brain’s prefrontal cortex, which helps regulate emotions, showed less activation when the subject had experienced higher levels of stress.

McLaughlin is optimistic that data from the ongoing study will help pinpoint changes in behavior as well as brain activity that predict the emergence of mental health problems like anxiety and depression. This could enable the development of targeted interventions delivered to teenagers at just the right time, she says. If the identified marker of stress were a sudden decrease in sleep duration or a sharp decline in social interactions, for example, it would be possible to push the intervention out to the individual on their smartphone.

“Like, here’s a reminder about good sleep hygiene, or this might be a good time to check in with your counselor at school about what’s been going on in your life,” McLaughlin explains.

( ‘Hysterical strength’? Fight or flight? This is how your body reacts to extreme stress. )

Learn more about stress and how to manage it

Preventing inflammation caused by chronic stress.

Gaining a deeper understanding of how stress affects the immune system may also help find a way to reverse those effects.

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How to cope with stress at work—and avoid burning out

In the 1980s, psychologist Janice Kiecolt-Glaser and her virologist husband, Ronald Glaser, began exploring the physiological impact of stress on two notably stressed segments of society: medical students and older caregivers. The researchers found the students’ immune systems were less robust when they were taking exams than during non-exam times—and that stress altered the body’s response to vaccines.

Researchers then administered the flu and pneumonia vaccines to individuals responsible for a spouse with dementia. Unlike medical students taking exams, who were likely stressed only in the short term, these people were experiencing unrelenting stress. When tested at set periods after inoculation, they had fewer antibodies compared with a control group —they couldn’t maintain their protective response. “That gave us good evidence that the changes brought on by stress were biologically meaningful,” says Kiecolt-Glaser, now an emeritus professor at the Ohio State University.

Around the same time, researchers led by Sheldon Cohen, now emeritus professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, delivered cold-causing viruses into the nostrils of about 400 adult volunteers in the U.K. “The more stress they reported prior to our exposing them to a virus, the higher the risk was for them to develop a cold,” says Cohen. The duration and type of stress mattered: Chronic economic or interpersonal stress were what really put people at high risk—and the longer it went on, the greater the susceptibility to falling sick.

Cohen and his colleagues also learned that when exposed to viruses, chronically stressed people tended to produce an excess of cytokines—proteins that serve as messengers of the immune system, traveling to sites of infection and injury and activating inflammation and other cellular processes to protect the body. Too many cytokines cause an excess of inflammation.

Researchers still don’t know enough about how stress alters the immune system’s ability to regulate cytokines to devise an intervention to reduce the inflammation, but in one way, these findings signal some hope: There are clear targets for more work to be done.  

Understanding stress on a cellular level

The future of understanding and combating stress may lie in our DNA.

In 2023, Ursula Beattie, then a doctoral student at Tufts University, and her colleagues found possible evidence that stress can overwhelm DNA’s repair mechanisms . In their study, researchers repeatedly tapped on sparrow cages with pens, played the radio loudly, and other actions designed to cause distress but no physical harm. Blood and tissue samples from the sparrows after three weeks of this unpleasant treatment revealed damage to the DNA. “It’s like if you had two pieces of string coiled up, just like DNA, and you took a pair of scissors and cut them,” Beattie says.

While these kinds of double-strand breaks in DNA occur all the time in sparrows and other species, including humans, the damage is typically reversed through self-repair mechanisms. In a chronic-stress setting, “those repair mechanisms get overwhelmed, which is how we see a buildup of DNA damage,” Beattie explains. The damage in the birds appears to be the most severe in cells of the liver, she adds, suggesting that for humans, too, the extent and type of damage inflicted by stress might be different for different tissues of the body.

Separately, Kiecolt-Glaser and psychologist Lisa Christian at OSU are conducting a longitudinal study to determine whether chronic stress ages you more quickly. If results support a smaller, earlier study, it appears that chronically stressed caregivers not only are more likely to get sick and heal more slowly but they also show signs of accelerated aging.

We’re still learning how deep stress goes into our bodies. But these exploratory findings mean we’re getting closer to solving the puzzle that is stress, which promises a future where we can better meet the ongoing demand for change.

( 20 stress-relief gifts for the frazzled friend in your life. )

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Scientists uncover a multibillion-year epic written into the chemistry of life

by Tokyo Institute of Technology

The origin of life on Earth has long been a mystery that has eluded scientists. A key question is how much of the history of life on Earth is lost to time. It is quite common for a single species to "phase out" using a biochemical reaction, and if this happens across enough species, such reactions could effectively be "forgotten" by life on Earth.

But if the history of biochemistry is rife with forgotten reactions, would there be any way to tell? This question inspired researchers from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) in the US. They reasoned that forgotten chemistry would appear as discontinuities or "breaks" in the path that chemistry takes from simple geochemical molecules to complex biological molecules .

The early Earth was rich in simple compounds such as hydrogen sulfide , ammonia, and carbon dioxide—molecules not usually associated with sustaining life. But, billions of years ago, early life relied on these simple molecules as a raw material source. As life evolved, biochemical processes gradually transformed these precursors into compounds still found today. These processes represent the earliest metabolic pathways.

In order to model the history of biochemistry, ELSI researchers—Specially Appointed Associate Professor Harrison B. Smith, Specially Appointed Associate Professor Liam M. Longo and Associate Professor Shawn Erin McGlynn, in collaboration with Research Scientist Joshua Goldford from CalTech—needed an inventory of all known biochemical reactions, to understand what types of chemistry life is able to perform.

They turned to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database, which has cataloged more than 12,000 biochemical reactions. With reactions in hand, they began to model the stepwise development of metabolism.

Previous attempts to model the evolution of metabolism in this way had consistently failed to produce the most widespread, complex molecules used by contemporary life. However, the reason was not entirely clear. Just as before, when the researchers ran their model, they found that only a few compounds could be produced. The research is published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution .

One way to circumvent this problem is to nudge the stalled chemistry by manually providing modern compounds. The researchers opted for a different approach: They wanted to determine how many reactions were missing. And their hunt led them back to one of the most important molecules in all of biochemistry: adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

ATP is the cell's energy currency because it can be used to drive reactions—like building proteins—that would otherwise not occur in water. ATP, however, has a unique property: The reactions that form ATP themselves require ATP. In other words, unless ATP is already present, there is no other way for today's life to make ATP. This cyclic dependency was the reason why the model was stopping.

How could this "ATP bottleneck" be resolved? As it turns out, the reactive portion of ATP is remarkably similar to the inorganic compound polyphosphate. By allowing ATP-generating reactions to use polyphosphate instead of ATP—by modifying just eight reactions in total—nearly all of contemporary core metabolism could be achieved. The researchers could then estimate the relative ages of all common metabolites and ask pointed questions about the history of metabolic pathways.

One such question is whether biological pathways were built up in a linear fashion—in which one reaction after another is added in a sequential fashion—or if the reactions of pathways emerged as a mosaic, in which reactions of vastly different ages are joined together to form something new. The researchers were able to quantify this, finding that both types of pathways are nearly equally common across all of metabolism.

But returning to the question that inspired the study—how much biochemistry is lost to time? "We might never know exactly, but our research yielded an important piece of evidence: only eight new reactions, all reminiscent of common biochemical reactions, are needed to bridge geochemistry and biochemistry," says Smith.

"This does not prove that the space of missing biochemistry is small, but it does show that even reactions which have gone extinct can be rediscovered from clues left behind in modern biochemistry," concludes Smith.

Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution

Provided by Tokyo Institute of Technology

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After 50 Years, U.S. Opens The Door To More Cannabis Crops For Scientists

More than 30 states have medical marijuana programs — yet scientists are only allowed to use cannabis plants from one U.S. source for their research. That's set to change, as the federal government begins to add more growers to the mix. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption

More than 30 states have medical marijuana programs — yet scientists are only allowed to use cannabis plants from one U.S. source for their research. That's set to change, as the federal government begins to add more growers to the mix.

After more than 50 years, the federal government is lifting a roadblock to cannabis research that scientists and advocates say has hindered rigorous studies of the plant and possible drug development.

Since 1968, U.S. researchers have been allowed to use cannabis from only one domestic source : a facility based at the University of Mississippi, through a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

That changed earlier this month, when the Drug Enforcement Administration announced it's in the process of registering several additional American companies to produce cannabis for medical and scientific purposes.

It's a move that promises to accelerate understanding of the plant's health effects and possible therapies for treating conditions — chronic pain, the side effects of chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis and mental illness, among many others — that are yet to be well studied .

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How one boy's fight with epilepsy led to the first marijuana-derived pharmaceutical.

"This is a momentous decision," says Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which has spearheaded research into other Schedule 1 drugs — the most restrictive class of controlled substance, which the federal government defines as "drugs with no currently accepted medical use."

"This is the last political obstruction of research with Schedule 1 drugs," he says.

About one-third of Americans currently live in a state where recreational marijuana is legal — and more than 30 states have medical marijuana programs . Yet scientists still aren't allowed to simply use the cannabis sold at state-licensed dispensaries for their clinical research because cannabis remains illegal under federal law.

Medical Marijuana's 'Catch-22': Limits On Research Hinder Patient Relief

"It is a big disconnect," says Dr. Igor Grant , a psychiatry professor and director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at University of California, San Diego.

The new DEA decision doesn't resolve the conflict between federal and state laws, but it does offer researchers a new, federally sanctioned pipeline for more products and strains of cannabis.

"We'll see a decade or more of explosive cannabis research and potential new therapies," says Dr. Steve Groff, founder and chairman of Groff North America , one of three companies that has publicly announced it has preliminary approval from the federal government to cultivate cannabis for research.

A long-running fight to overturn federal "monopoly"

Despite their efforts, scientists have encountered administrative and legal hurdles to growing pharmaceutical-grade cannabis for decades.

In 2001, Dr. Lyle Craker, a prominent plant biologist, first applied for a license to cultivate marijuana for research — only to encounter years of delay that kicked off a prolonged court battle with the DEA, which has to greenlight research into Schedule 1 drugs like cannabis.

"There's thousands of different cannabis varieties that all have unique chemical profiles and produce unique clinical effects, but we didn't have access to that normal diversity," says Dr. Sue Sisley , a cannabis researcher and president of the Scottsdale Research Institute, which also received preliminary DEA approval to produce cannabis for research.

Only in 2016 did the federal government signal a change in policy that would open the door for new growers, but applications to do so languished for years. Craker and others ended up suing the federal government over the delay.

Psychiatrist Explores Possible Benefits Of Treating PTSD With Ecstasy Or Cannabis

Sisley has long taken issue with the supply of cannabis coming from the NIDA facility in Mississippi — in particular, how it's processed. She used cannabis produced there in her recently published clinical trial on treating PTSD in military veterans.

She describes the product as an "anemic" greenish powder.

"It's very difficult to overcome the placebo effect when you have something that diluted," she says.

The 76-person study, which took 10 years to complete, concluded that smoked cannabis was generally well tolerated and did not lead to deleterious effects in this group. But it also did not find any statistically significant difference in abating the symptoms of PTSD when compared to a placebo.

For Grant of UCSD, the problem with the long-standing supply of cannabis isn't so much the quality, but the lack of different products like edibles and oils and of cannabis strains with varying concentrations of CBD and THC, the plant's main psychoactive ingredient.

"We don't have enough research on the kind of marijuana products that people in the real world are using," he says.

As CBD Oils Become More Popular, The FDA Considers Whether To Set New Rules

Because of the limited domestic supply, some researchers have resorted to importing cannabis from outside the U.S. — a legal but wildly counterintuitive arrangement that is "arduous" and prone to hiccups, says Sisley.

The constraints on research cannabis also has impeded the pathway to drug development because the NIDA facility's cannabis could only be used for academic research, not for prescription drug development . A drug studied in phase 3 clinical trials — what's required before submitting for approval from the Food and Drug Administration — must be the same as what's later marketed.

"The NIDA monopoly has primarily been why we have medical marijuana in the states, but we don't have medical marijuana through the FDA," says Doblin of MAPS. "It's a fundamental change that we can now have drug development with domestic supplies."

A few barriers still remain

The few companies that will soon land DEA spots to cultivate cannabis have an eager marketplace of researchers who are "clamoring" for the chance to study the scientific properties and medical potential of the plant, says Groff, whose company is up for DEA approval and who also has an FDA project to study the antimicrobial properties of cannabis for killing dangerous bacteria like MRSA .

By the end of next year, Groff anticipates his company will be producing up to 5,000 pounds of marijuana per year, offering researchers a "full menu of customizable options."

Biopharmaceutical Research Company — a third company that will soon cultivate cannabis with a DEA license — already has dozens of agreements in place with U.S. researchers and is hearing from more academic institutions, drugmakers and biotech companies in the wake of the change in policy, says CEO George Hodgin.

"Now there's a very clear, approved and legal path for them to legally enter the cannabis space in the United States," says Hodgin.

The Coronavirus Crisis

'illegal to essential': how the coronavirus is boosting the legal cannabis industry.

Washington State University's Center for Cannabis Policy, Research and Outreach is one of the places that expects to eventually procure cannabis from Hodgin's business.

"It's definitely a big step in the right direction because the industry is moving much faster than we are in research," says Michael McDonell , an associate professor of medicine and director of the university's cannabis center.

But he also points out that even with more growers coming online, it's still by no means easy to study cannabis, because researchers need a special license when working with a Schedule 1 drug and grants to conduct these studies are hard to come by.

Despite the widespread use of marijuana in the U.S., research into the medical potential of other Schedule 1 drugs like MDMA (ecstasy) is much further along than cannabis .

UCSD's Grant says the biggest leap forward for research would come from moving cannabis out of the Schedule 1 drug classification. "If that were to happen," he says, "that would solve a lot of these problems that we've been talking about."

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Science News

Scientists are fixing flawed forensics that can lead to wrongful convictions.

Police lineups, fingerprinting and trace DNA techniques all need reform

Forensic science can help solve crimes, but some techniques and methods of analysis need improvement.

The Red Dress

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By Amber Dance

June 6, 2024 at 9:00 am

Charles Don Flores has been facing death for 25 years.

Flores has been on death row in Texas since a murder conviction in 1999. But John Wixted, a psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, says the latest memory science suggests Flores is innocent.

The murder Flores was convicted of happened during a botched attempt to locate drug money. An eyewitness, a woman who looked out her window while getting her kids ready for school, told the police that two white males with long hair got out of a Volkswagen Beetle and went into the house where the killing took place. The police quickly picked up the owner of the car, a long-haired white guy.

The police also suspected Flores, who had a history of drug dealing. He was also a known associate of the car owner, but there was a glaring mismatch with the witness description: Flores is Hispanic, with very short hair.

Still, the police put a “very conspicuous” photo of him in a lineup, says Gretchen Sween, Flores’ lawyer. “His [photo] is front and center, and he’s the only one wearing this bright-colored shirt, screaming ‘pick me!’”

But the eyewitness did not pick him. It was only after some time passed, during which the witness saw Flores’ picture on the news, that she came to think he was the one who entered the house. Thirteen months after she described two white men with long hair, she testified in court that it was Flores she saw.

Memory scientists have long been mistrustful of eyewitness reports because memory is malleable. But in recent years, Wixted says, research has shown that the initial lineup — the very first memory test — can be reliable. He argues that the witness’s initial rejection of Flores’ photo is evidence of innocence.

In 2013, Texas became the first state to introduce a “junk science” law allowing the courts to reexamine cases when new science warranted it. Sween has submitted hundreds of pages of arguments to get a judge to consider this new slant on memory science. So far, the Texas authorities have remained unconvinced.

“Our criminal justice system is generally slow to respond to any kind of science-based innovation,” laments Tom Albright, a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif.

But researchers are pushing ahead to improve the science that enters the courtroom. The fundamental question for all forms of evidence is simple, Albright says. “How do you know what is right?” Science can’t provide 100 percent certainty that, say, a witness’s memory is correct or one fingerprint matches another. But it can help improve the likelihood that evidence is tested fairly or evaluate the likelihood that it’s correct.

“Our criminal justice system is generally slow to respond to any kind of science-based innovation.” Tom Albright, neuroscientist

Some progress has been made. Several once-popular forms of forensics have been scientifically debunked, says Linda Starr, a clinical professor of law at Santa Clara University in California and cofounder of the Northern California Innocence Project, a nonprofit that challenges wrongful convictions. One infamous example is bite marks. Since the 1970s, a few dentists have contended that a mold of a suspect’s teeth can be matched to bite marks in skin, though this has never been proved scientifically. A 2009 report from the National Academy of Sciences noted how bite marks may be distorted by time and healing and that different experts often produce different findings.

More than two dozen convictions based on bite mark evidence have since been overturned, many due to new DNA evidence.

Now researchers are taking on even well-accepted forms of evidence, like fingerprints and DNA, that can be misinterpreted or misleading.

“There are a lot of cases where the prosecution contends they have forensic ‘science,’ ” Starr says. “A lot of what they’re claiming to be forensic science isn’t science at all; it is mythology.”

Do the eyes have it?

Though research has been clear about the shortcomings of eyewitness memory for decades, law enforcement has been slow to adopt best practices to reduce the risk of memory contamination, as appears likely to have happened in Flores’ case.

The justice system largely caught on to the problem of memory in the 1990s, when the introduction of DNA evidence overturned many convictions. In more than 3,500 exonerations tracked since 1989, there was some version of false identification in 27 percent of cases, according to the National Registry of Exonerations . What’s become clear is that an eyewitness’s memory can be contaminated, as surely as if someone spit into a tube full of DNA.

Over the last decade, expert groups, including the National Academy of Sciences and the American Psychological A­ssociation , have recommended that police investigators treat a lineup — usually done with photographs these days — like a controlled experiment. For example, the officer conducting the lineup should be “blind” as to which of the people is the suspect and which are “fillers” with no known link to the crime. That way, the officer cannot subconsciously influence the results.

Those best-practice recommendations are catching on, but slowly, says Gary Wells, a psychologist at Iowa State University in Ames who coauthored the American Psychological Association recommendations. “We continue to have cases popping up, sort of right and left, in which they’re doing it wrong.”

Exonerating circumstances

Of over 3,500 exonerations in the United States tracked since 1989, problems with forensic evidence and eyewitness testimony each played a role in about a quarter of the cases (exonerations can have multiple contributing factors, so the bars total more than 100 percent).

Factors contributing to exonerations since 1989

One problem arises when the filler photos don’t match the witness’s description of a suspect, or the suspect stands out in some way — as Sween contends happened with Flores. Fillers should all have the same features as the eyewitness described, and not be too similar or too different from the suspect. For now, it’s on police officers to engineer the perfect lineup, with no external check on how appropriate the fillers are.

As a solution, Albright and colleagues are working on a computer system to select the best possible filler photographs. The catch is that computer algorithms tend to focus on different facial features than humans do. So the researchers asked human subjects to rank similarity between different artificially generated faces and then used machine learning to train the computer to judge facial similarity the way people do. Using that information, the system can generate lineups — from real or AI-generated faces — in which all the fillers are more or less similar to the suspect. Next up, the scientists plan to figure out just how similar the filler faces should be to the suspect for the best possible lineup results.

Proper filler selection would help, but it doesn’t solve a key problem Wixted sees in the criminal justice system: He wants police and courts to appreciate a newer, twofold understanding of eyewitness testing. First, eyewitnesses who are confident in their identification tend to be more accurate , according to an analysis Wixted and Wells penned in 2017. For example, the pair analyzed 15 studies in which witnesses who viewed mock crimes were asked to report their confidence on a 100-point scale. Across those studies, the higher witnesses rated their own confidence, the more likely they were to identify the proper suspect. Accurate eyewitnesses also tend to make decisions quickly, because facial memory happens fast: “seconds, not minutes,” Wixted says.

Conversely, low confidence indicates the identification isn’t too reliable. In trial transcripts from 92 cases later overturned by DNA evidence, most witnesses who thought back to the first lineup recalled low confidence or outright rejection of all options, according to research by Brandon Garrett, a law professor at Duke University.

The confidence correlation is appropriate only when the lineup is conducted according to all best practices, which remains a rare occurrence, warns Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine. But Wixted argues it’s still relevant, if less so, even in imperfect lineups.

The second recent realization is that the very first lineup a witness sees, assuming police follow best practices to avoid biasing the witness, has the lowest chance of contamination. So a witness’s memory should be tested just once . “There’s no do-overs,” Wixted says.

Together, these factors suggest that a confident witness on the first, proper lineup can be credible, but that low confidence or subsequent lineups should be discounted.

Those recommendations come mainly from lab experiments. How does witness confidence play out in the real world ? Wells tested this in a 2023 study with his graduate student Adele Quigley-McBride, an experimental psychologist now on the faculty at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada. They obtained 75 audio recordings of witness statements during real, properly conducted lineups. While the researchers couldn’t be sure that the suspects were truly the criminals, they knew that any filler identification must be incorrect because those people were not connected to the crime in any way.

Face-to-face

During a photo lineup, an eyewitness is shown a suspect’s photo and filler photos, either simultaneously or sequentially, and asked to ID the suspect. An alternative approach doesn’t ask a witness to make an identification. Instead, the witness views pairs of photos, some of which include the suspect and some of which don’t. For each pair, the witness judges which person looks more like the potential perp. The procedure ranks each lineup face to see if the suspect was overall judged as most similar to who the witness saw.

Volunteers listened to those lineup recordings and rated witness confidence. Witnesses who quickly and confidently picked a face — within about half a minute or less — were more likely to pick the suspect than a filler image. In one experiment, for example, the identifications that ended on a suspect had been rated, on average, as 69 percent confident, as opposed to about 56 percent for those that ended up on a filler. Quigley-McBride proposes that timing witness decisions and recording confidence assessments could be valuable information for investigators.

Witnesses also bring their own biases. They may assume that since the police have generated a lineup, the criminal must be in it. “It’s very difficult to recognize the absence of the perpetrator,” Wells says.

In a 2020 study, Albright used the science of memory and perception to design an approach that might sidestep witness bias , by not asking witnesses to pick out a suspect from a lineup at all. Instead, the eyewitness views pairs of faces one at a time. Some pairs contain the suspect and a filler; some contain two fillers. For each pair, the witness judges which person looks more like the remembered perpetrator. Based on those pairwise “votes,” the procedure can rank each lineup face and determine if the suspect comes out as most similar. “It’s just as good as existing methods and less susceptible to bias,” Albright says.

Wixted says the approach is “a great idea, but too far ahead of its time.” Defense attorneys would likely attack any evidence that lacks a direct witness identification.

Putting fingerprints to the test

Fingerprints have been police tools for a long time, more than a century. They were considered infallible for much of that history.

Limitations to fingerprint analysis came to light in spectacular fashion in 2004, with the bombing of four commuter trains in Madrid. Spanish police found a blue plastic bag full of detonators and traces of explosives. Forensic experts used a standard technique to raise prints off the bag: fumigating it with vaporized superglue, which stuck to the finger marks, and staining the bag with fluorescent dye to reveal a blurry fingerprint.

Running that print against the FBI’s fingerprint database highlighted a possible match to Brandon Mayfield, an Oregon lawyer. One FBI expert, then another, then another confirmed Mayfield’s print matched the one from the bag.

Mayfield was arrested. But he hadn’t been anywhere near Madrid during the bombing. He didn’t even possess a current passport. Spanish authorities later arrested someone else, and the FBI apologized to Mayfield and let him go.

The case highlights an unfortunate “paradox” resulting from fingerprint databases, in that “the larger the databases get … the larger the probability that you find a spurious match,” says Alicia Carriquiry. She directs the Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence, or CSAFE, at Iowa State University.

In fingerprint analyses , the question at hand is whether two prints, one from a crime scene and one from a suspect or a fingerprint database, came from the same digit ( SN: 8/26/15 ). The problem is that prints lifted from a crime scene are often partial, distorted, overlapping or otherwise hard to make out. The expert’s challenge is to identify features called minutiae, such as the place a ridge ends or splits in two, and then decide if they correspond between two prints.

Studies since the Madrid bombing illustrate the potential for mistakes. In a 2011 report, FBI researchers tested 169 experienced print examiners on 744 fingerprint pairs, of which 520 pairs contained true matches. Eighty-five percent of the examiners missed at least one of the true matches in a subset of 100 or so pairs each examined. Examiners can also be inconsistent : In a subsequent study, the researchers brought back 72 of those examiners seven months later and gave them 25 of the same fingerprint pairs they saw before. The examiners changed their conclusions on about 10 percent of the pairings.

Forensic examiners can also be biased when they think they see a very rare feature in a fingerprint and mentally assign that feature a higher significance than others, Quigley-McBride says. No one has checked exactly how rare individual features are, but she is part of a CSAFE team quantifying these features in a database of more than 2,000 fingerprints.

Computer software can assist fingerprint experts with a “sanity check,” says forensic scientist Glenn Langenburg, owner of the consulting firm Elite Forensic Services in St. Paul, Minn. One option is a program known rather informally as Xena (yes, for the television warrior princess) developed by Langenburg’s former colleagues at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.

Xena’s goal is to calculate a likelihood ratio, a number that compares the probability of a fingerprint looking like it does if it came from the suspect (the numerator) versus the probability of the fingerprint looking as it does if it’s from some random, unidentified individual (the denominator). The same type of statistic is used to support DNA evidence.

To compute the numerator probability, the program starts with the suspect’s pristine print and simulates various ways it might be distorted, creating 700 possible “pseudomarks.” Then Xena asks, if the suspect is the person behind the print from the crime scene, what’s the probability any of those 700 could be a good match?

To calculate the denominator probability, the program compares the crime scene print to 1 million fingerprints from random people and asks, what are the chances that this crime scene print would be a good match for any of these?

If the likelihood ratio is high, that suggests the similarities between the two prints are more likely if the suspect is indeed the source of the crime scene print than if not. If it’s low, then the statistics suggest it’s quite possible the print didn’t come from the suspect. Xena wasn’t available at the time of the Mayfield case, but when researchers ran those prints later, it returned a very low score for Mayfield, Langenburg says.

Another option, called FRStat , was developed by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory. It crunches the numbers a bit differently to calculate the degree of similarity between fingerprints after an expert has marked five to 15 minutiae.

While U.S. Army courts have admitted FRStat numbers, and some Swiss agencies have adopted Xena, few fingerprint examiners in the United States have taken up either. But Carriquiry thinks U.S. civilian courts will begin to use FRStat soon.

Trace DNA makes for thin evidence

When DNA evidence was first introduced in the late 20th century, courts debated its merits in what came to be known as the “DNA wars.” The molecules won, and DNA’s current top status in forensic evidence is well-deserved — at least when it’s used in the most traditional sense ( SN: 5/23/18 ).

Forensic scientists traditionally isolate DNA from a sample chock-full of DNA, like bloodstains or semen from a rape kit, and then focus in on about 20 specific places in the genomic sequence. These are spots where the genetic letters repeat like a stutter, such as GATA GATA GATA. People can have different numbers of repeats in each spot. If the profiles are the same between the suspect and the crime scene evidence, that doesn’t confirm the two people are one and the same. But because scientists have examined the stutter spots in enough human genomes, they can calculate a likelihood ratio and testify based on that.

So far, so good. That procedure can help juries answer the question, “Whose DNA is this?” says Jarrah Kennedy, a forensic DNA scientist at the Kansas City Police Crime Laboratory.

But in recent years, the technology has gotten so sensitive that DNA can now be recovered from even scant amounts of biological material. Forensic scientists can pluck a DNA fingerprint out of just a handful of skin cells found on, say, the handle of a gun. Much of Kennedy’s workload is now examining this kind of trace DNA, she says.

“Human people do this work, and human people make mistakes and error.” Tiffany Roy, forensic DNA expert

The analysis can be tricky because DNA profiles from trace evidence are less robust. Some stutter numbers might be missing; contamination by other DNA could make extra ones appear. It’s even more complicated if the sample contains more than one person’s DNA. This is where the examiner’s expertise, and opinions, come into their assessments.

“Human people do this work, and human people make mistakes and errors,” says Tiffany Roy, a forensic DNA expert and owner of the consulting firm ForensicAid in West Palm Beach, Fla.

And even if Roy or Kennedy can find a DNA profile on trace evidence, such small amounts of DNA mean they haven’t necessarily identified the profile of the culprit of a crime. Did the suspect’s DNA land on the gun because they pulled the trigger? Or because they handled the weapon weeks before it ever went off?

“It’s not about the ‘who?’ anymore,” Kennedy says. “It’s about ‘how?’ or ‘when?’ ”

Such DNA traces complicated the case of Amanda Knox, the American exchange student in Italy who was convicted in 2009, with two others, of sexually assaulting and killing her roommate. DNA profiles from Knox and her boyfriend were found on the victim’s bra clasp and a knife handle. But experts later deemed the DNA evidence weak: There was a high risk the bra clasp had been contaminated over the weeks it sat at the crime scene, and the signal from the knife was so low, it may have been incorrect. The pair were acquitted, upon appeal, in 2015.

Here, again, statistical software can help forensic scientists decide how many DNA profiles contributed to a mixture or to calculate likelihood ratios. But Roy estimates that only about half of U.S. labs use the most up-to-date tools. “It keeps me awake at night.”

And Roy suspects the courts may at some point have to consider whether science can inform how a person’s DNA got on an item. Thus, she says, “I think there’s a new DNA war coming.” She doesn’t think the science can go that far.

When science saves the day

Change happens slowly, Wixted says. And Flores and others remain incarcerated despite efforts by Sween and others questioning faulty evidence.

One reason U.S. courts often lag behind the science is that it’s up to the judge to decide whether any specific bit of evidence is included in a trial. The federal standard on expert testimony, known as Rule 702 and first set out in 1975, is generally interpreted to mean that judges must assess whether the science in question is performed according to set standards, has a potential or known error rate, and has been through the wringer of scientific peer review. But in practice, many judges don’t do much in the way of gatekeeping. Last December, Rule 702 was updated to reemphasize the role of judges in blocking inappropriate science or experts.

In Texas, Sween says she’s not done fighting for Flores, who’s still living in a six-by-nine-foot cell on death row but has graduated from a faith-based rehabilitation program and started a book club with the help of someone on the outside. “He’s a pretty remarkable guy,” Sween says.

But in another case Wixted was involved with, the new memory science led to a happier ending.

Miguel Solorio was arrested in 1998, suspected of a drive-by shooting in Whittier, Calif. His girlfriend — now wife — provided an alibi. Four eyewitnesses, the first time they saw a lineup, didn’t identify him. But the police kept offering additional lineups, with Solorio in every one. Eventually, two witnesses identified him in court. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

When the Northern California Innocence Project and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office took a fresh look at the case, they realized that the eyewitnesses’ memories had been contaminated by the repeated lineups. The initial tests were “powerful evidence of Mr. Solorio’s innocence,” the district attorney wrote in an official concession letter.

Last November, Solorio walked out of prison, a free man.

Investigating crime science

Some forensic techniques that seem scientific have been criticized as subjective and had their certainty questioned. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are never brought into court or that they’re meritless. For some techniques, researchers are studying how to make them more accurate.

Hair analysis

Experts judge traits such as color, texture and microscopic features to see if it’s possible a hair came from a suspect, but not to make a direct match. Analysis of DNA from hair has largely supplanted physical examination. But if no root is present, authorities won’t be able to extract a complete DNA profile. Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are analyzing whether certain hair proteins , which vary from person to person, can be correlated with a suspect’s own hair protein or DNA profile.

Fire scene investigation

Fire investigators once thought certain features, such as burn “pour patterns,” indicated an arsonist used fuel to spur a fast-spreading fire. In fact, these and other signs once linked to arson can appear in accidental fires, too, for example due to high temperatures or water from a firefighter’s hose. A 2017 report from the American Association for the Advancement of Science said identifying a fire’s origin and cause “can be very challenging and is based on subjective judgments and interpretations.”

Firearms analysis

A gun’s internal parts leave “toolmarks” on the bullet. Examiners study these microscopic marks to decide whether two bullets probably came from the same gun. A 2016 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report said the practice “falls short of the scientific criteria for foundational validity.” In 2023, a judge ruled for the first time that this kind of evidence was inadmissible. Researchers at NIST and the Center for Statistics and Applications in F­orensic Evidence, or CSAFE, are developing automated, quantifiable methods to improve objectivity.

Bloodstain pattern analysis

Experts examine blood pooled or spattered at a crime scene to determine the cause, such as stabbing, and the point of origin, such as the height the blood came from. While some of this is scientifically valid, the analysis can be complex, with overlapping blood patterns. In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences warned that “some experts extrapolate far beyond what can be supported.” CSAFE has compiled a blood spatter database and is working on more objective approaches.

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Scientific research cooperation: Why collaborate in science? Benefits and examples

The need for a stronger scientific collaboration

It was one of the longest-standing enigmas in art history. For centuries, no one had been able to say for sure that a Madonna and Child painting, often attributed to Raphael, had been directly created by the great Renaissance master himself.

During that time, the painting had changed hands many times. It became the property of popes, was looted by Napoleon during the Italian campaign and in the 1930s ended up in a private collection in Prague, disappearing from public view.

The painting lay almost forgotten until 2020, when a robotic scanner using a particle detector developed at CERN , the European Organization for Nuclear Research, confirmed the brushstrokes on the canvas were indeed Raphael’s.

The authentication of Raphael’s painting through particle detection is just one of the many scientific discoveries that have moved from CERN’s laboratories in Switzerland to daily life, along with the World Wide Web and medical scanners.

Since its foundation in 1954 under the auspices of UNESCO, the complex – one of the largest scientific facilities on earth – has been home to scientists, engineers and students from CERN’s 21 Member States and visiting scholars from other countries.

More than six decades later, CERN has become one the most striking examples of successful scientific cooperation in the world. Its birth was one of the first large initiatives in science and science diplomacy at UNESCO, as well as a diplomatic answer to seek the peaceful benefits of atomic energy after the destruction caused by WW2. Today, CERN has become a model for cooperation in terms of research, embodying the ‘one-earth’ approach that the world needs to tackle the global challenges we are facing.

Places like CERN contribute to the kind of knowledge that not only enriches humanity but provides the wellspring of ideas that become the technologies of the future.

The path of science diplomacy

World War II had not long ended when the idea of scientific laboratories began to emerge under the auspices of UNESCO. It was felt that such endeavours would bring warring nations together, rebuild cooperation and reach scientific excellence.

US Nobel laureate for physics Isidor Rabi’s proposal resulted in the constitution of CERN four years later.

As the world emerged from the ravages of the war, the idea of science diplomacy began to gain traction. In August 1955, the United Nations’ International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, known as "Atoms for Peace", was held in Geneva, attended by a delegation from the USSR that included a number of scientists. It was the first time that a large delegation of Soviet scientists working in particle physics took part in a scientific conference in the West. The symposium offered the opportunity for many to make personal contacts. Several Soviet physicists who attended went on to fill important roles in their countries and their work began to be translated into English and published in the West.

Using CERN as a blueprint, global cooperation among scientists became one of UNESCO’s key missions and paved the way to support other institutions that combine scientific excellence with science diplomacy. Science diplomacy helps establish links and strengthen relations between societies, especially where there may not be another official approach.  Science is then used to strengthen or build links between countries that have tense or even non-existent relationships.

UNESCO should be the catalyst for the science in the world. I do not mean that UNESCO should run the research centres, but that it should make the initial plans, get them started and see that they are kept going.

Scientific community: linking East and West

Even though the Cold War continued to intensify, scientific cooperation projects were able to demonstrate the capacity of scientific cooperation to forge links between countries and colleagues beyond political or religious considerations.

Ten years after the birth of CERN, UNESCO supported the creation of another venture that would provide a rare line of communication between scientists from the East and the West.

In 1960, a 34-year-old physicist from Pakistan, future Nobel laureate Abdus Salam, suggested the founding of an international theoretical physics institute to help advance scientific expertise.

Salam was convinced that "scientific thought and its creation are the common and shared heritage of mankind". However, at that time, researchers in developing countries, as well as those in smaller countries of the developed world, were often unable to improve their knowledge and sharpen their skills.

His proposal became a reality in 1964 when the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) was set up in Trieste, Italy, through an agreement between UNESCO, the Italian Government and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Over the decades, ICTP has provided scientists from developing countries with the continuing education and skills necessary to further their careers. Many alumni teach at major universities in their countries, lead key research centres and have been recognized for their contributions to science.

Another example of international cooperation in science: a global vision for the Earth’s soil

Amid the successive waves of decolonisation in Africa and Asia, the 1960s became the United Nations Development Decade. At the time, soil erosion – along with the threat it posed to the global food supply – was a main concern for conservationists, just like global warming is today for 21st-century citizens.

The world needed a global map to obtain a comprehensive appraisal of its soil resources.  However, no international soil classification existed at the time. Many countries, in fact, had multiple competing regional classifications or were developing their own national systems. Only international collaboration could produce reliable knowledge with worldwide legitimacy and deal with the terminology jungle that until then had undermined international scientific communication.

The Soil Map of the World , backed by UNESCO and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) , began in 1961 – just a few months before President Kennedy proclaimed the 1960s were the Decade of Development at a meeting of the UN General Assembly.

The Herculean project, completed over a span of twenty years and now available in digital form, is the result of a worldwide collaboration between many soil scientists from different countries who worked together to develop a new international classification system. Until recently, it was the only global overview of the planet’s soil resources and a concrete example of the power of scientific collaboration to bring the world together.

Benefits of scientific collaboration: Humanity and the Biosphere

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, global environmental problems had taken centre stage. The post-war economic boom had brought an endless appetite for non-renewable resources, higher levels of pollution and the potential loss of environmental habitats.

In 1971, some 4,000 scientists from around the world warned the UN Secretary-General in the "Menton Message" that there were already far too many people on Earth in proportion to the available resources.

How could human beings continue to develop while preserving the biodiversity that surrounds them? To help answer this question, UNESCO launched the Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) in 1971.

One year before the landmark Stockholm conference that spearheaded the concept of sustainable development, UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere programme proposed the creation of some areas committed to the conservation of nature through sustainable socio-economic development, where local cultures and traditions are respected. This was clearly a revolutionary approach to nature conservation, stating that the preservation of nature did not mean the creation of pristine isolated parks and reserves, but the development and promotion of sustainable ways to manage resources and live in harmony with nature. These places were called Biosphere Reserves. Since the birth of the programme, the reserves have promoted the peaceful and balanced coexistence between people and nature, the development of society and the respect for natural and geological heritage. Each reserve supports projects in many different areas, such as sustainable tourism, organic production and, most importantly, scientific investigation.

Through MAB, UNESCO provides a unique platform for cooperation on research and development, capacity-building and networking to share information across 727 biosphere reserves in 131 countries around the world (in 2021), where 260 million people call their biosphere reserves their home. The experiences and Biosphere reserves are "learning places for sustainable development". They provide evidence that living in harmony with nature is possible, and they develop practices and skills to reconcile the people and the planet.

How do scientists collaborate? Science for peace in the Middle East

Middle Eastern countries share many unifying attributes, such as language, religion, history, culture and common aspirations. Throughout recent history, however, development in the region has been held back by political instability and conflict.

Bringing them together to establish an intergovernmental organization that could push aside historical and political differences in the name of science became UNESCO’s mission in the new millennium.

Despite numerous challenges, the International Centre for Synchrotron Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East ( SESAME ) became a reality in 2017.

Based in Jordan, the laboratory helps Members of the region’s scientific community carry out world-class scientific research in several fields ranging from biology to archaeology.

Such high-level scientific cooperation is helping to foster a culture of peace in the region. Scientists from the eight full member countries – Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine and Turkey – are working together within the SESAME community, proving that science can be a common language.

We are trying to build, with the use of science, understanding in the region. The project is very special. Each of us brings its own history, its own wounds, its own scars. Each of us has its own interests, yet we have a common vision, which is to benefit the people of the region and the whole of humanity.

Open science collaboration and innovation for a sustainable future

Humanity continues to face complex challenges that governments and communities cannot solve alone.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to reinforce cooperation, as it has once again reminded us that we all live on one planet. The record speed with which COVID-19 vaccines were developed is due in part to global scientific collaboration.

The dominant view among global leaders is that scientific collaboration is essential to tackle imminent threats such as biodiversity loss, pollution, poverty reduction and the introduction of disruptive new technologies, including artificial intelligence.

To address the complex challenges of the 21st century, science needs to be more transparent, accessible and inclusive. It needs to become open.

Nearly 70% of scientific publications in the world have paid or restricted access. During the health crisis, this proportion dropped to 30% for publications dedicated to COVID-19. This is proof that science can be more transparent and better shared to accelerate research for the benefit of all.

Sharing scientific data on a global scale is a formidable research accelerator - it only took 3 days to decode the genome of the Coronavirus, thanks to an unprecedented collaboration of researchers across borders.

With open science, scientists and engineers can use open licences to share their publications, data, research materials and infrastructure more widely.

By opening traditional science to other knowledge systems, science can be enriched by exchanges with indigenous and marginalized groups for the benefit of all people in every corner of the world.

In 2021, UNESCO adopted the first global recommendation for open science, so that knowledge is no longer the privilege of a minority, but a common good accessible in a more equitable way.

Many scientists have already joined UNESCO in developing the first International Recommendation on Open Science, setting global standards for making open science a reality that leaves no one behind.

However, unrestrained scientific progress is not always ethically acceptable.

The rapid pace of scientific development is not necessarily matched by the various dialogues about its potential impact on society. To address these concerns, since the 1970s, UNESCO has been involved in promoting international reflections on the ethics of life sciences, culminating in the creation of the Programme on Ethics of Science and Technology in the 1990s.

UNESCO regards the human genome as the "heritage of humanity", which should be protected and passed on to future generations. All advances in science need to be considered in the light of human rights.

UNESCO’s initiatives for science

A timeline of our initiatives

CERN - Advancing the frontiers of technology

Every day, thousands of engineers, technicians and scientists work on developing novel  technologies and expertise that can be shared with society.

CERN also collaborates with industry – including large companies, SMEs or recent start-ups – and engages with other stakeholders, such as policy-makers, especially those acting in CERN’s Member States.

UNESCO-FAO Soil Map of the World

The FAO Digital Soil Map of the World is the digitized version of the  FAO-UNESCO Soil Map of the World   produced in a paper version at a scale of 1:5 million. It shows 4,931 mapping units consisting of soil associations, which are mixtures of different soil types.

The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics is an international research institute for physical and mathematical sciences that operates under a tripartite agreement between the Italian Government, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

World Network of Biosphere Reserves

The World Network of Biosphere Reserves of the UNESCO MAB Programme  is a network of Biosphere reserves offering solutions for sustainable development in diverse ecological, social and economic contexts. They foster the harmonious integration of people and nature for sustainable development through participatory dialogue; knowledge sharing; poverty reduction and human well-being improvements; respect for cultural values and society’s ability to cope with change – thus contributing to the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SESAME international centre for scientific research, a competitive synchrotron light source and the first in the Middle East and neighbouring countries, was inaugurated in Allan, Jordan, on 16 May 2017. This pioneering project, established under the auspices of UNESCO, is the result of fourteen years of hard work, uniting eight countries around a twofold goal – to consolidate scientific excellence in the region and to build cross-border collaboration, dialogue and understanding between scientists with diverse cultural, political and religious backgrounds.

The first international framework on open science was adopted by 193 countries attending UNESCO’s General Conference in November 2021. By making science more transparent and more accessible, the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science will make science more equitable and inclusive. Through open science, scientists and engineers use open licenses to share their publications and data, software and even hardware more widely. Open science should, thus, enhance international scientific cooperation.

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Age Reversal Breakthrough: Harvard/MIT Discovery Could Enable Whole-Body Rejuvenation

By Impact Journals LLC July 15, 2023

Scientists from Harvard Medical School, the University of Maine, and MIT have published a groundbreaking study revealing a chemical method to reprogram cells to a more youthful state. This technique offers a potential alternative to gene therapy for reversing aging. The implications of this research are vast, with potential applications in regenerative medicine, treatment of age-related diseases, and whole-body rejuvenation.

In a pioneering study, researchers from Harvard Medical School, University of Maine, and MIT have introduced a chemical method for reversing cellular aging. This revolutionary approach offers a potential alternative to gene therapy for age reversal. The findings could transform treatments for age-related diseases, enhance regenerative medicine, and potentially lead to whole-body rejuvenation.

Groundbreaking Discovery in Aging Reversal

In a monumental study, a team of researchers has revealed a novel approach to combating aging and age-related diseases. This work, undertaken by scientists at Harvard Medical School, introduces the first chemical method to rejuvenate cells, bringing them to a more youthful state. Prior to this, only powerful gene therapy could achieve this feat.

Mice in the Sinclair lab have been engineered to age rapidly to test the effectiveness of therapies to reverse the aging process. The mouse on the right has been aged to 150% that of its sibling on the left by disrupting its epigenome. Photo credit: D. Sinclair, Harvard Medical School. Credit: 2023 Yang et al.

On July 12, 2023, researchers from Harvard Medical School, the University of Maine, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published a fresh research paper in Aging . The paper, titled, “Chemically induced reprogramming to reverse cellular aging,” extends upon a previously groundbreaking discovery. The researchers are Jae-Hyun Yang, Christopher A. Petty, Thomas Dixon-McDougall, Maria Vina Lopez, Alexander Tyshkovskiy, Sun Maybury-Lewis, Xiao Tian, Nabilah Ibrahim, Zhili Chen, Patrick T. Griffin, Matthew Arnold, Jien Li, Oswaldo A. Martinez, Alexander Behn, Ryan Rogers-Hammond, Suzanne Angeli, Vadim N. Gladyshev, and David A. Sinclair.

Exploring the Methodology

This discovery builds on the finding that the expression of specific genes, known as Yamanaka factors, can transform adult cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This breakthrough, which earned a Nobel Prize, prompted scientists to question if cellular aging could be reversed without pushing cells to become too young and potentially cancerous.

Rejuvenation and age reversal of senescent human skin cells by chemical means. Cells in the right two panels have restored compartmentalization of the red fluorescent protein in the nucleus, a marker of youth that was used to find the cocktails, before the scientists confirmed they were younger, based on how genes were expressed. Image credit: J. -H. Yang, Harvard Medical School. Credit: 2023 Yang et al.

In this recent study, the scientists probed for molecules that could, in tandem, revert cellular aging and refresh human cells. They designed advanced cell-based assays to differentiate between young and old, as well as senescent cells. The team employed transcription-based aging clocks and a real-time nucleocytoplasmic protein compartmentalization (NCC) assay. In a significant development, they identified six chemical combinations that could return NCC and genome-wide transcript profiles to youthful states, reversing transcriptomic age in less than a week.

Relevance and Potential Applications

The Harvard team has previously shown the possibility of reversing cellular aging without causing unregulated cell growth. This was done by inserting specific Yamanaka genes into cells using a viral vector. Studies on various tissues and organs like the optic nerve, brain, kidney, and muscle have yielded encouraging results, including improved vision and extended lifespan in mice. Additionally, recent reports have documented improved vision in monkeys.

These findings have profound implications, paving the way for regenerative medicine and potentially full-body rejuvenation. By establishing a chemical alternative to gene therapy for age reversal, this research could potentially transform the treatment of aging, injuries, and age-related diseases. The approach also suggests the possibility of lower development costs and shorter timelines. Following successful results in reversing blindness in monkeys in April 2023, plans for human clinical trials using the lab’s age reversal gene therapy are currently underway.

Views from the Research Team

“Until recently, the best we could do was slow aging. New discoveries suggest we can now reverse it,” said David A. Sinclair, A.O., Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Genetics and co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School and lead scientist on the project. “This process has previously required gene therapy, limiting its widespread use.”

The team at Harvard envisions a future where age-related diseases can be effectively treated, injuries can be repaired more efficiently, and the dream of whole-body rejuvenation becomes a reality. “This new discovery offers the potential to reverse aging with a single pill, with applications ranging from improving eyesight to effectively treating numerous age-related diseases,” Sinclair said.

Reference: “Chemically induced reprogramming to reverse cellular aging” by Jae-Hyun Yang, Christopher A. Petty, Thomas Dixon-McDougall, Maria Vina Lopez, Alexander Tyshkovskiy, Sun Maybury-Lewis, Xiao Tian, Nabilah Ibrahim, Zhili Chen, Patrick T. Griffin, Matthew Arnold, Jien Li, Oswaldo A. Martinez, Alexander Behn, Ryan Rogers-Hammond, Suzanne Angeli, Vadim N. Gladyshev and David A. Sinclair, 12 July 2023, Aging-US . DOI: 10.18632/aging.204896

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Mit physicists harness quantum “time reversal” for detecting gravitational waves and dark matter, 33 comments on "age reversal breakthrough: harvard/mit discovery could enable whole-body rejuvenation".

How long would it be possible to be available to public consumption?

“If living was a thing that money could buy, then the rich would live and the poor would die.”

Shut up. My mother was reading articles like this when she was young. I’ve been reading them all my life. My grandkids will also be reading them.

YEP. Promises! Promises! All the way back to the Egyptian Pharaohs and their “cost-intensive” bid for immortality. If one skips the fancy Jar and storage in a Mausoleum, it “more affordable”. It certainly won’t matter to the Dead. As such, memory and some photos will do.

Is David Sinclair involved? Then, it’s very probably more snake oil.

If science is able to eliminate death control via senescence and apoptosis, and this technology spreads to everyone regardless of affordability, then birth control will become even more critical, in fact essential, to keep the human race from overpopulating into mass disaster. But it would also mean the end of natural human evolution, and the advent of taking our evolution into our own hands via genetic modification, because it would also mean the end of children, who are evolution’s natural mutation-testing petri dish, in the name of preserving terrestrial space for the survival of the glut of already living and henceforth virtually immortal adults.

We will not be threatened by overpopulation. Man is not that stupid.

This idea tires me. It falls in line with UFO and the Pyramids. Waste of time and emotion.

Live life well and properly instead; doing your best to be loving kind to all. Peace.

They have literally already done it with mice.

People will probably mass produce less but they are working on taller buildings and colonizing the moons. The tech is there.

1. Reversing methylation doesn’t cure aging. Even if we can control senescent cells, extend telomeres, restore healthy mitochondria, and restore the thymus gland. None of the aging scientists have a plan for repairing DNA errors. We incur 10,000 to 100,000 DNA breaks in each cell every day. 99%+ are repaired correctly, but some are not. Those mistakes carry over to future cell generations. Most DNA is junk, other genes are not important to the tissue damaged, so every mistake is not crucial. There are genetic variants that do a better job of repair and are more represented in the population of centenarians. And there are other things that accumulate like glucosepane, forms of amyloid plaques like misfolded transthyretin, genetically damaged mitochondria (they burn fuel inefficiently making wastes like lipofuscin which is the brown stuff in age spots, and these lipofuscin accumulations are not just on the skin. They are in muscle, heart, liver, kidneys, and the brain). We accumulate scar tissue. Accumulated latent infections often promote diseases, quite possibly schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, and others. 2. The Earth can handle 500x current human population provided we develop technology to directly manufacture food from atoms, recycle everything, live in greater density, and in more diverse locations, like under domes in Antarctica, on the oceans, underground, on stilts above the surface of the land, without interfering with the land. And we can build large space stations and inhabit the Moon, Mars, asteroids… The Solar System can support many trillions of humans while dramatically improving the Earth environment. 3. Machines and tech that allow food surplus and some tech like contact lenses and braces, limit selection pressure, but it remains. We can and should reduce genetic birth defects through genetic surgery at the zygote or blastocyst stage. But there will always be natural births that are not repaired. We can fix some of this, but the repairs will be limited.

Let me die, and let it die! Mankind is fooling with God and should take heed! The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

Were we playing God, when we developed fire? Clothing? Shoes? The plow? Antibiotics? Anesthesia? Eyeglasses? Scuba gear? Airplanes? Spaceships? If you haven’t noticed, life expectancy has tripled from the time of the Romans. If it doubles or triples again, how is that any different? I am not saying this treatment will double it. I would find that highly unlikely, but in combination with other advances, it is not inconceivable. It is very unlikely you will be kept alive, if you sign a do not resuscitate will, and have a copy in your wallet, or on a metal wristband. Certainly, no one will force you to take some elixir of life or anything like that. Seems exceedingly unlikely, anyway.

How does one sign up for the clinical trials?

I would do the clinical trial as well!

How can you try this?

This would be extremely dangerous to try. It may be justified for some very important tissue like the retina to restore vision or the “hair” cells in the cochlea to restore stop maddening ear ringing, or to attempt to reverse spinal injuries. For whole body, there are many steps to go to insure safety. They have to test on normal mice, perhaps dogs, then monkeys, then people with some unusual condition where methylation aging is accelerated, then probably the very old, with little to lose. Probably with a very modest dose, at first. Probably a good 15 years, before they get to ordinary 40-70-year-olds. Maybe millionaires will get it in some Latin American country in 5 or 10 years. But that would be very risky. I would try gene therapy, way before I would try this.

I’m open for a clinical trial. 58 yr old healthy male. Sign me up!

I’m really hoping that there will be side effects like growing my long blonde hair back. If I may die during this process let me die with my boots on! And a full head of hair!

I am with you on this Troy!

There have been other successful attempts to correct fast aging mice. The type of fast aging mice are well-chosen, or engineered exactly for the test. Something of a parlor trick. But it has a purpose. It verifies what has gone wrong and that it can be fixed. But it gives the impression that you can just apply this to people with decent chance of success. Unless and until they dramatically increase the life expectancy of normal mice, they have not proven anything. That takes a few years. Hopefully, they already started a couple of years ago because doing something dramatic, like doubling average lifespan, will take 5 or 6 years to finish. There are many things which change during aging. This will not correct the other dozen, even if it worked perfectly in humans with no side effects. And that is a big “if” because it may restore senescent cells, which can be very dangerous. There is also the risk that cells will regress too far and forget what they are and create tumors. If you talk to aging scientists, they will likely emphasize the aspect of aging they are working on, and mostly ignore the others. Methylation may be upstream of some of these, but not all of them. Various types of accumulations with age are unlikely to be addressed. Things like the accumulation of genetic damage. Each cell’s DNA is broken 10,000-100,000 times a day. And most of the time correctly repaired, but not all the time. Errors are carried over to the next generation of cells. And there is this stuff called Glucosepane which accumulates between cells making the tissues stiff, especially arteries, and is implicated in a number of aging diseases. Neither our bodies nor scientists have figured out how to reverse this. There are also the accumulations of misfolded proteins called amyloid. And there are 30 kinds, not just the 1 involved in Alzheimer’s, like Wild-type ATTR Amyloidosis, which may be near certain over 110 years of age. That stiffens the heart, and make exertion very difficult.

Clickbait goodness

How much reverse aging are we talking about? The paper as I understand it spoke of age reversal of only a few years. Also how long will this “pill” remain in effect? Will there be a rebound or is the effect permanent? Much remains to be done but still a groundbreaking paper even if the results don’t lead to an anti-aging pill.

Willing to take part of the human trials. Soon to be 62 & Marine vet!

At 94 and in good health and determined to live beyond 100+, what specifics should I consider beyond a careful diet, three one hour days weakly at the gym, routine shopping and Church on Sunday.

I say,..we’ll see. Mother Nature is not one to be messed with.

Mother nature is messed with all the time. Vaccines, surgeries, pills, etc…

Mother nature provided each of us with a brain. Our brains gives us the power to learn, to think and to create. I we were not destined to use our brains to benefit our species, why would we have been given brains?

Still collect social security?

Always it’s the mice that get the first shot at it. How about human trials for those of us with little to loose? Old age is the pits. Once hearing is gone, eyesight starts to fade and dementia begins to slow brain functions, there’s not much quality of life left. I’d rather take a chance on restoring full function for a few years than slowly fade into uselessness. Even if it doesn’t work, at least I’d contribute some data to the research community.

By a small Chance I would like to Volunteer for your study. This has been a Thought throughout my life to stay young looking while we age. I’m Preserving my body (Cryonics) for the further to bring myself back to my 20s.

To those who say we can’t or shouldn’t try to slow or reverse the biological aging process I say … Fine, then don’t participate. To others who wish to contribute to society, to preserve and use the lifetime of knowledge they’ve accumulated, the skills they’ve learned and to pass that irreplaceable wisdom on to younger generations, I say join the human race and try to make it better. Death is a complete and terrible waste of everything we learn throughout our lives. Everything others took the time and effort to teach us and everything we’ve learned from our own experiences. The longer we live, the wiser we become. The longer we live, the more we can contribute to the sum of human knowledge. As one who has attended the university of life for almost 80 years, I feel that I have useful knowledge and skills which should be passed on. Deteriorating sight and hearing are obstructing my ability to teach or conduct research. Unless I can participate in age reversal testing and restore my physical abilities, I will eventually become a burden on society and negate whatever useful contributions I’ve made in the past. Give me the opportunity to participate in developing health and vitality restoration therapies. If successful, I can continue to contribute. If I die in the attempt, my body and whatever can be learned from a study of it, will contribute to future research. Either outcome will contribute useful knowledge to the human race.

Of the many stages of life delineated in the ancient Buddhist Sutras,”Old Age & Death” are merged into one’! While it’s interesting to learn another of the myrriad proximal causes the end of of life, there,’s always a novel one to to set my 86-year old self up straight: “Wild-type ATTR Amyloidosis, which may be near certain over 110 years of age. That stiffens the heart, and makes exertion very difficult.” In fact, We’re all going to be killed by statistics! All Men are Mortal is a mathematically certain truth about the (empirical) world! I’m relying on Elysium: “I’m gonna ride [my horse] ’till I can’t no more!” (Old Town Road)

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July 26, 2011

The Science Behind Dreaming

New research sheds light on how and why we remember dreams--and what purpose they are likely to serve

By Sander van der Linden

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For centuries people have pondered the meaning of dreams. Early civilizations thought of dreams as a medium between our earthly world and that of the gods. In fact, the Greeks and Romans were convinced that dreams had certain prophetic powers. While there has always been a great interest in the interpretation of human dreams, it wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung put forth some of the most widely-known modern theories of dreaming. Freud’s theory centred around the notion of repressed longing -- the idea that dreaming allows us to sort through unresolved, repressed wishes. Carl Jung (who studied under Freud) also believed that dreams had psychological importance, but proposed different theories about their meaning.

Since then, technological advancements have allowed for the development of other theories. One prominent neurobiological theory of dreaming is the “activation-synthesis hypothesis,” which states that dreams don’t actually mean anything: they are merely electrical brain impulses that pull random thoughts and imagery from our memories. Humans, the theory goes, construct dream stories after they wake up, in a natural attempt to make sense of it all. Yet, given the vast documentation of realistic aspects to human dreaming as well as indirect experimental evidence that other mammals such as cats also dream, evolutionary psychologists have theorized that dreaming really does serve a purpose. In particular, the “threat simulation theory” suggests that dreaming should be seen as an ancient biological defence mechanism that provided an evolutionary advantage because of  its capacity to repeatedly simulate potential threatening events – enhancing the neuro-cognitive mechanisms required for efficient threat perception and avoidance.

So, over the years, numerous theories have been put forth in an attempt to illuminate the mystery behind human dreams, but, until recently, strong tangible evidence has remained largely elusive.

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Yet, new research published in the Journal of Neuroscience provides compelling insights into the mechanisms that underlie dreaming and the strong relationship our dreams have with our memories. Cristina Marzano and her colleagues at the University of Rome have succeeded, for the first time, in explaining how humans remember their dreams. The scientists predicted the likelihood of successful dream recall based on a signature pattern of brain waves. In order to do this, the Italian research team invited 65 students to spend two consecutive nights in their research laboratory.

During the first night, the students were left to sleep, allowing them to get used to the sound-proofed and temperature-controlled rooms. During the second night the researchers measured the student’s brain waves while they slept. Our brain experiences four types of electrical brain waves: “delta,” “theta,” “alpha,” and “beta.” Each represents a different speed of oscillating electrical voltages and together they form the electroencephalography (EEG). The Italian research team used this technology to measure the participant’s brain waves during various sleep-stages. (There are five stages of sleep; most dreaming and our most intense dreams occur during the REM stage.) The students were woken at various times and asked to fill out a diary detailing whether or not they dreamt, how often they dreamt and whether they could remember the content of their dreams.

While previous studies have already indicated that people are more likely to remember their dreams when woken directly after REM sleep, the current study explains why. Those participants who exhibited more low frequency theta waves in the frontal lobes were also more likely to remember their dreams.

This finding is interesting because the increased frontal theta activity the researchers observed looks just like the successful encoding and retrieval of autobiographical memories seen while we are awake. That is, it is the same electrical oscillations in the frontal cortex that make the recollection of episodic memories (e.g., things that happened to you) possible. Thus, these findings suggest that the neurophysiological mechanisms that we employ while dreaming (and recalling dreams) are the same as when we construct and retrieve memories while we are awake.

In another recent study conducted by the same research team, the authors used the latest MRI techniques to investigate the relation between dreaming and the role of deep-brain structures. In their study, the researchers found that vivid, bizarre and emotionally intense dreams (the dreams that people usually remember) are linked to parts of the amygdala and hippocampus. While the amygdala plays a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions, the hippocampus has been implicated in important memory functions, such as the consolidation of information from short-term to long-term memory.

The proposed link between our dreams and emotions is also highlighted in another recent study published by Matthew Walker and colleagues at the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at UC Berkeley, who found that a reduction in REM sleep (or less “dreaming”) influences our ability to understand complex emotions in daily life – an essential feature of human social functioning.  Scientists have also recently identified where dreaming is likely to occur in the brain.  A very rare clinical condition known as “Charcot-Wilbrand Syndrome” has been known to cause (among other neurological symptoms) loss of the ability to dream.  However, it was not until a few years ago that a patient reported to have lost her ability to dream while having virtually no other permanent neurological symptoms. The patient suffered a lesion in a part of the brain known as the right inferior lingual gyrus (located in the visual cortex). Thus, we know that dreams are generated in, or transmitted through this particular area of the brain, which is associated with visual processing, emotion and visual memories.

Taken together, these recent findings tell an important story about the underlying mechanism and possible purpose of dreaming.

Dreams seem to help us process emotions by encoding and constructing memories of them. What we see and experience in our dreams might not necessarily be real, but the emotions attached to these experiences certainly are. Our dream stories essentially try to strip the emotion out of a certain experience by creating a memory of it. This way, the emotion itself is no longer active.  This mechanism fulfils an important role because when we don’t process our emotions, especially negative ones, this increases personal worry and anxiety. In fact, severe REM sleep-deprivation is increasingly correlated to the development of mental disorders. In short, dreams help regulate traffic on that fragile bridge which connects our experiences with our emotions and memories.

Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe. He can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas .

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What is Scientific Research and How Can it be Done?

Scientific researches are studies that should be systematically planned before performing them. In this review, classification and description of scientific studies, planning stage randomisation and bias are explained.

Research conducted for the purpose of contributing towards science by the systematic collection, interpretation and evaluation of data and that, too, in a planned manner is called scientific research: a researcher is the one who conducts this research. The results obtained from a small group through scientific studies are socialised, and new information is revealed with respect to diagnosis, treatment and reliability of applications. The purpose of this review is to provide information about the definition, classification and methodology of scientific research.

Before beginning the scientific research, the researcher should determine the subject, do planning and specify the methodology. In the Declaration of Helsinki, it is stated that ‘the primary purpose of medical researches on volunteers is to understand the reasons, development and effects of diseases and develop protective, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions (method, operation and therapies). Even the best proven interventions should be evaluated continuously by investigations with regard to reliability, effectiveness, efficiency, accessibility and quality’ ( 1 ).

The questions, methods of response to questions and difficulties in scientific research may vary, but the design and structure are generally the same ( 2 ).

Classification of Scientific Research

Scientific research can be classified in several ways. Classification can be made according to the data collection techniques based on causality, relationship with time and the medium through which they are applied.

• Observational
• Experimental
• Descriptive
• Retrospective
• Prospective
• Cross-sectional
• Social descriptive research ( 3 )

Another method is to classify the research according to its descriptive or analytical features. This review is written according to this classification method.

I. Descriptive research

• Case series
• Surveillance studies

II. Analytical research

• Observational studies: cohort, case control and cross- sectional research
• Interventional research: quasi-experimental and clinical research
• Case Report: it is the most common type of descriptive study. It is the examination of a single case having a different quality in the society, e.g. conducting general anaesthesia in a pregnant patient with mucopolysaccharidosis.
• Case Series: it is the description of repetitive cases having common features. For instance; case series involving interscapular pain related to neuraxial labour analgesia. Interestingly, malignant hyperthermia cases are not accepted as case series since they are rarely seen during historical development.
• Surveillance Studies: these are the results obtained from the databases that follow and record a health problem for a certain time, e.g. the surveillance of cross-infections during anaesthesia in the intensive care unit.

Moreover, some studies may be experimental. After the researcher intervenes, the researcher waits for the result, observes and obtains data. Experimental studies are, more often, in the form of clinical trials or laboratory animal trials ( 2 ).

Analytical observational research can be classified as cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies.

Firstly, the participants are controlled with regard to the disease under investigation. Patients are excluded from the study. Healthy participants are evaluated with regard to the exposure to the effect. Then, the group (cohort) is followed-up for a sufficient period of time with respect to the occurrence of disease, and the progress of disease is studied. The risk of the healthy participants getting sick is considered an incident. In cohort studies, the risk of disease between the groups exposed and not exposed to the effect is calculated and rated. This rate is called relative risk. Relative risk indicates the strength of exposure to the effect on the disease.

Cohort research may be observational and experimental. The follow-up of patients prospectively is called a prospective cohort study . The results are obtained after the research starts. The researcher’s following-up of cohort subjects from a certain point towards the past is called a retrospective cohort study . Prospective cohort studies are more valuable than retrospective cohort studies: this is because in the former, the researcher observes and records the data. The researcher plans the study before the research and determines what data will be used. On the other hand, in retrospective studies, the research is made on recorded data: no new data can be added.

In fact, retrospective and prospective studies are not observational. They determine the relationship between the date on which the researcher has begun the study and the disease development period. The most critical disadvantage of this type of research is that if the follow-up period is long, participants may leave the study at their own behest or due to physical conditions. Cohort studies that begin after exposure and before disease development are called ambidirectional studies . Public healthcare studies generally fall within this group, e.g. lung cancer development in smokers.

• Case-Control Studies: these studies are retrospective cohort studies. They examine the cause and effect relationship from the effect to the cause. The detection or determination of data depends on the information recorded in the past. The researcher has no control over the data ( 2 ).

Cross-sectional studies are advantageous since they can be concluded relatively quickly. It may be difficult to obtain a reliable result from such studies for rare diseases ( 2 ).

Cross-sectional studies are characterised by timing. In such studies, the exposure and result are simultaneously evaluated. While cross-sectional studies are restrictedly used in studies involving anaesthesia (since the process of exposure is limited), they can be used in studies conducted in intensive care units.

• Quasi-Experimental Research: they are conducted in cases in which a quick result is requested and the participants or research areas cannot be randomised, e.g. giving hand-wash training and comparing the frequency of nosocomial infections before and after hand wash.
• Clinical Research: they are prospective studies carried out with a control group for the purpose of comparing the effect and value of an intervention in a clinical case. Clinical study and research have the same meaning. Drugs, invasive interventions, medical devices and operations, diets, physical therapy and diagnostic tools are relevant in this context ( 6 ).

Clinical studies are conducted by a responsible researcher, generally a physician. In the research team, there may be other healthcare staff besides physicians. Clinical studies may be financed by healthcare institutes, drug companies, academic medical centres, volunteer groups, physicians, healthcare service providers and other individuals. They may be conducted in several places including hospitals, universities, physicians’ offices and community clinics based on the researcher’s requirements. The participants are made aware of the duration of the study before their inclusion. Clinical studies should include the evaluation of recommendations (drug, device and surgical) for the treatment of a disease, syndrome or a comparison of one or more applications; finding different ways for recognition of a disease or case and prevention of their recurrence ( 7 ).

Clinical Research

In this review, clinical research is explained in more detail since it is the most valuable study in scientific research.

Clinical research starts with forming a hypothesis. A hypothesis can be defined as a claim put forward about the value of a population parameter based on sampling. There are two types of hypotheses in statistics.

• H 0 hypothesis is called a control or null hypothesis. It is the hypothesis put forward in research, which implies that there is no difference between the groups under consideration. If this hypothesis is rejected at the end of the study, it indicates that a difference exists between the two treatments under consideration.
• H 1 hypothesis is called an alternative hypothesis. It is hypothesised against a null hypothesis, which implies that a difference exists between the groups under consideration. For example, consider the following hypothesis: drug A has an analgesic effect. Control or null hypothesis (H 0 ): there is no difference between drug A and placebo with regard to the analgesic effect. The alternative hypothesis (H 1 ) is applicable if a difference exists between drug A and placebo with regard to the analgesic effect.

The planning phase comes after the determination of a hypothesis. A clinical research plan is called a protocol . In a protocol, the reasons for research, number and qualities of participants, tests to be applied, study duration and what information to be gathered from the participants should be found and conformity criteria should be developed.

The selection of participant groups to be included in the study is important. Inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study for the participants should be determined. Inclusion criteria should be defined in the form of demographic characteristics (age, gender, etc.) of the participant group and the exclusion criteria as the diseases that may influence the study, age ranges, cases involving pregnancy and lactation, continuously used drugs and participants’ cooperation.

The next stage is methodology. Methodology can be grouped under subheadings, namely, the calculation of number of subjects, blinding (masking), randomisation, selection of operation to be applied, use of placebo and criteria for stopping and changing the treatment.

I. Calculation of the Number of Subjects

The entire source from which the data are obtained is called a universe or population . A small group selected from a certain universe based on certain rules and which is accepted to highly represent the universe from which it is selected is called a sample and the characteristics of the population from which the data are collected are called variables. If data is collected from the entire population, such an instance is called a parameter . Conducting a study on the sample rather than the entire population is easier and less costly. Many factors influence the determination of the sample size. Firstly, the type of variable should be determined. Variables are classified as categorical (qualitative, non-numerical) or numerical (quantitative). Individuals in categorical variables are classified according to their characteristics. Categorical variables are indicated as nominal and ordinal (ordered). In nominal variables, the application of a category depends on the researcher’s preference. For instance, a female participant can be considered first and then the male participant, or vice versa. An ordinal (ordered) variable is ordered from small to large or vice versa (e.g. ordering obese patients based on their weights-from the lightest to the heaviest or vice versa). A categorical variable may have more than one characteristic: such variables are called binary or dichotomous (e.g. a participant may be both female and obese).

If the variable has numerical (quantitative) characteristics and these characteristics cannot be categorised, then it is called a numerical variable. Numerical variables are either discrete or continuous. For example, the number of operations with spinal anaesthesia represents a discrete variable. The haemoglobin value or height represents a continuous variable.

Statistical analyses that need to be employed depend on the type of variable. The determination of variables is necessary for selecting the statistical method as well as software in SPSS. While categorical variables are presented as numbers and percentages, numerical variables are represented using measures such as mean and standard deviation. It may be necessary to use mean in categorising some cases such as the following: even though the variable is categorical (qualitative, non-numerical) when Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) is used (since a numerical value is obtained), it is classified as a numerical variable: such variables are averaged.

Clinical research is carried out on the sample and generalised to the population. Accordingly, the number of samples should be correctly determined. Different sample size formulas are used on the basis of the statistical method to be used. When the sample size increases, error probability decreases. The sample size is calculated based on the primary hypothesis. The determination of a sample size before beginning the research specifies the power of the study. Power analysis enables the acquisition of realistic results in the research, and it is used for comparing two or more clinical research methods.

Because of the difference in the formulas used in calculating power analysis and number of samples for clinical research, it facilitates the use of computer programs for making calculations.

It is necessary to know certain parameters in order to calculate the number of samples by power analysis.

• Type-I (α) and type-II (β) error levels
• Difference between groups (d-difference) and effect size (ES)
• Distribution ratio of groups
• Direction of research hypothesis (H1)

a. Type-I (α) and Type-II (β) Error (β) Levels

Two types of errors can be made while accepting or rejecting H 0 hypothesis in a hypothesis test. Type-I error (α) level is the probability of finding a difference at the end of the research when there is no difference between the two applications. In other words, it is the rejection of the hypothesis when H 0 is actually correct and it is known as α error or p value. For instance, when the size is determined, type-I error level is accepted as 0.05 or 0.01.

Another error that can be made during a hypothesis test is a type-II error. It is the acceptance of a wrongly hypothesised H 0 hypothesis. In fact, it is the probability of failing to find a difference when there is a difference between the two applications. The power of a test is the ability of that test to find a difference that actually exists. Therefore, it is related to the type-II error level.

Since the type-II error risk is expressed as β, the power of the test is defined as 1–β. When a type-II error is 0.20, the power of the test is 0.80. Type-I (α) and type-II (β) errors can be intentional. The reason to intentionally make such an error is the necessity to look at the events from the opposite perspective.

b. Difference between Groups and ES

ES is defined as the state in which statistical difference also has clinically significance: ES≥0.5 is desirable. The difference between groups is the absolute difference between the groups compared in clinical research.

c. Allocation Ratio of Groups

The allocation ratio of groups is effective in determining the number of samples. If the number of samples is desired to be determined at the lowest level, the rate should be kept as 1/1.

d. Direction of Hypothesis (H1)

The direction of hypothesis in clinical research may be one-sided or two-sided. While one-sided hypotheses hypothesis test differences in the direction of size, two-sided hypotheses hypothesis test differences without direction. The power of the test in two-sided hypotheses is lower than one-sided hypotheses.

After these four variables are determined, they are entered in the appropriate computer program and the number of samples is calculated. Statistical packaged software programs such as Statistica, NCSS and G-Power may be used for power analysis and calculating the number of samples. When the samples size is calculated, if there is a decrease in α, difference between groups, ES and number of samples, then the standard deviation increases and power decreases. The power in two-sided hypothesis is lower. It is ethically appropriate to consider the determination of sample size, particularly in animal experiments, at the beginning of the study. The phase of the study is also important in the determination of number of subjects to be included in drug studies. Usually, phase-I studies are used to determine the safety profile of a drug or product, and they are generally conducted on a few healthy volunteers. If no unacceptable toxicity is detected during phase-I studies, phase-II studies may be carried out. Phase-II studies are proof-of-concept studies conducted on a larger number (100–500) of volunteer patients. When the effectiveness of the drug or product is evident in phase-II studies, phase-III studies can be initiated. These are randomised, double-blinded, placebo or standard treatment-controlled studies. Volunteer patients are periodically followed-up with respect to the effectiveness and side effects of the drug. It can generally last 1–4 years and is valuable during licensing and releasing the drug to the general market. Then, phase-IV studies begin in which long-term safety is investigated (indication, dose, mode of application, safety, effectiveness, etc.) on thousands of volunteer patients.

II. Blinding (Masking) and Randomisation Methods

When the methodology of clinical research is prepared, precautions should be taken to prevent taking sides. For this reason, techniques such as randomisation and blinding (masking) are used. Comparative studies are the most ideal ones in clinical research.

Blinding Method

A case in which the treatments applied to participants of clinical research should be kept unknown is called the blinding method . If the participant does not know what it receives, it is called a single-blind study; if even the researcher does not know, it is called a double-blind study. When there is a probability of knowing which drug is given in the order of application, when uninformed staff administers the drug, it is called in-house blinding. In case the study drug is known in its pharmaceutical form, a double-dummy blinding test is conducted. Intravenous drug is given to one group and a placebo tablet is given to the comparison group; then, the placebo tablet is given to the group that received the intravenous drug and intravenous drug in addition to placebo tablet is given to the comparison group. In this manner, each group receives both the intravenous and tablet forms of the drug. In case a third party interested in the study is involved and it also does not know about the drug (along with the statistician), it is called third-party blinding.

Randomisation Method

The selection of patients for the study groups should be random. Randomisation methods are used for such selection, which prevent conscious or unconscious manipulations in the selection of patients ( 8 ).

No factor pertaining to the patient should provide preference of one treatment to the other during randomisation. This characteristic is the most important difference separating randomised clinical studies from prospective and synchronous studies with experimental groups. Randomisation strengthens the study design and enables the determination of reliable scientific knowledge ( 2 ).

The easiest method is simple randomisation, e.g. determination of the type of anaesthesia to be administered to a patient by tossing a coin. In this method, when the number of samples is kept high, a balanced distribution is created. When the number of samples is low, there will be an imbalance between the groups. In this case, stratification and blocking have to be added to randomisation. Stratification is the classification of patients one or more times according to prognostic features determined by the researcher and blocking is the selection of a certain number of patients for each stratification process. The number of stratification processes should be determined at the beginning of the study.

As the number of stratification processes increases, performing the study and balancing the groups become difficult. For this reason, stratification characteristics and limitations should be effectively determined at the beginning of the study. It is not mandatory for the stratifications to have equal intervals. Despite all the precautions, an imbalance might occur between the groups before beginning the research. In such circumstances, post-stratification or restandardisation may be conducted according to the prognostic factors.

The main characteristic of applying blinding (masking) and randomisation is the prevention of bias. Therefore, it is worthwhile to comprehensively examine bias at this stage.

Bias and Chicanery

While conducting clinical research, errors can be introduced voluntarily or involuntarily at a number of stages, such as design, population selection, calculating the number of samples, non-compliance with study protocol, data entry and selection of statistical method. Bias is taking sides of individuals in line with their own decisions, views and ideological preferences ( 9 ). In order for an error to lead to bias, it has to be a systematic error. Systematic errors in controlled studies generally cause the results of one group to move in a different direction as compared to the other. It has to be understood that scientific research is generally prone to errors. However, random errors (or, in other words, ‘the luck factor’-in which bias is unintended-do not lead to bias ( 10 ).

Another issue, which is different from bias, is chicanery. It is defined as voluntarily changing the interventions, results and data of patients in an unethical manner or copying data from other studies. Comparatively, bias may not be done consciously.

In case unexpected results or outliers are found while the study is analysed, if possible, such data should be re-included into the study since the complete exclusion of data from a study endangers its reliability. In such a case, evaluation needs to be made with and without outliers. It is insignificant if no difference is found. However, if there is a difference, the results with outliers are re-evaluated. If there is no error, then the outlier is included in the study (as the outlier may be a result). It should be noted that re-evaluation of data in anaesthesiology is not possible.

Statistical evaluation methods should be determined at the design stage so as not to encounter unexpected results in clinical research. The data should be evaluated before the end of the study and without entering into details in research that are time-consuming and involve several samples. This is called an interim analysis . The date of interim analysis should be determined at the beginning of the study. The purpose of making interim analysis is to prevent unnecessary cost and effort since it may be necessary to conclude the research after the interim analysis, e.g. studies in which there is no possibility to validate the hypothesis at the end or the occurrence of different side effects of the drug to be used. The accuracy of the hypothesis and number of samples are compared. Statistical significance levels in interim analysis are very important. If the data level is significant, the hypothesis is validated even if the result turns out to be insignificant after the date of the analysis.

Another important point to be considered is the necessity to conclude the participants’ treatment within the period specified in the study protocol. When the result of the study is achieved earlier and unexpected situations develop, the treatment is concluded earlier. Moreover, the participant may quit the study at its own behest, may die or unpredictable situations (e.g. pregnancy) may develop. The participant can also quit the study whenever it wants, even if the study has not ended ( 7 ).

In case the results of a study are contrary to already known or expected results, the expected quality level of the study suggesting the contradiction may be higher than the studies supporting what is known in that subject. This type of bias is called confirmation bias. The presence of well-known mechanisms and logical inference from them may create problems in the evaluation of data. This is called plausibility bias.

Another type of bias is expectation bias. If a result different from the known results has been achieved and it is against the editor’s will, it can be challenged. Bias may be introduced during the publication of studies, such as publishing only positive results, selection of study results in a way to support a view or prevention of their publication. Some editors may only publish research that extols only the positive results or results that they desire.

Bias may be introduced for advertisement or economic reasons. Economic pressure may be applied on the editor, particularly in the cases of studies involving drugs and new medical devices. This is called commercial bias.

In recent years, before beginning a study, it has been recommended to record it on the Web site www.clinicaltrials.gov for the purpose of facilitating systematic interpretation and analysis in scientific research, informing other researchers, preventing bias, provision of writing in a standard format, enhancing contribution of research results to the general literature and enabling early intervention of an institution for support. This Web site is a service of the US National Institutes of Health.

The last stage in the methodology of clinical studies is the selection of intervention to be conducted. Placebo use assumes an important place in interventions. In Latin, placebo means ‘I will be fine’. In medical literature, it refers to substances that are not curative, do not have active ingredients and have various pharmaceutical forms. Although placebos do not have active drug characteristic, they have shown effective analgesic characteristics, particularly in algology applications; further, its use prevents bias in comparative studies. If a placebo has a positive impact on a participant, it is called the placebo effect ; on the contrary, if it has a negative impact, it is called the nocebo effect . Another type of therapy that can be used in clinical research is sham application. Although a researcher does not cure the patient, the researcher may compare those who receive therapy and undergo sham. It has been seen that sham therapies also exhibit a placebo effect. In particular, sham therapies are used in acupuncture applications ( 11 ). While placebo is a substance, sham is a type of clinical application.

Ethically, the patient has to receive appropriate therapy. For this reason, if its use prevents effective treatment, it causes great problem with regard to patient health and legalities.

Before medical research is conducted with human subjects, predictable risks, drawbacks and benefits must be evaluated for individuals or groups participating in the study. Precautions must be taken for reducing the risk to a minimum level. The risks during the study should be followed, evaluated and recorded by the researcher ( 1 ).

After the methodology for a clinical study is determined, dealing with the ‘Ethics Committee’ forms the next stage. The purpose of the ethics committee is to protect the rights, safety and well-being of volunteers taking part in the clinical research, considering the scientific method and concerns of society. The ethics committee examines the studies presented in time, comprehensively and independently, with regard to ethics and science; in line with the Declaration of Helsinki and following national and international standards concerning ‘Good Clinical Practice’. The method to be followed in the formation of the ethics committee should be developed without any kind of prejudice and to examine the applications with regard to ethics and science within the framework of the ethics committee, Regulation on Clinical Trials and Good Clinical Practice ( www.iku.com ). The necessary documents to be presented to the ethics committee are research protocol, volunteer consent form, budget contract, Declaration of Helsinki, curriculum vitae of researchers, similar or explanatory literature samples, supporting institution approval certificate and patient follow-up form.

Only one sister/brother, mother, father, son/daughter and wife/husband can take charge in the same ethics committee. A rector, vice rector, dean, deputy dean, provincial healthcare director and chief physician cannot be members of the ethics committee.

Members of the ethics committee can work as researchers or coordinators in clinical research. However, during research meetings in which members of the ethics committee are researchers or coordinators, they must leave the session and they cannot sign-off on decisions. If the number of members in the ethics committee for a particular research is so high that it is impossible to take a decision, the clinical research is presented to another ethics committee in the same province. If there is no ethics committee in the same province, an ethics committee in the closest settlement is found.

Thereafter, researchers need to inform the participants using an informed consent form. This form should explain the content of clinical study, potential benefits of the study, alternatives and risks (if any). It should be easy, comprehensible, conforming to spelling rules and written in plain language understandable by the participant.

This form assists the participants in taking a decision regarding participation in the study. It should aim to protect the participants. The participant should be included in the study only after it signs the informed consent form; the participant can quit the study whenever required, even when the study has not ended ( 7 ).

Peer-review: Externally peer-reviewed.

Author Contributions: Concept - C.Ö.Ç., A.D.; Design - C.Ö.Ç.; Supervision - A.D.; Resource - C.Ö.Ç., A.D.; Materials - C.Ö.Ç., A.D.; Analysis and/or Interpretation - C.Ö.Ç., A.D.; Literature Search - C.Ö.Ç.; Writing Manuscript - C.Ö.Ç.; Critical Review - A.D.; Other - C.Ö.Ç., A.D.

Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Financial Disclosure: The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.

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As the need for highly trained scientists grows, a look at why people choose these careers

What leads people to a career in science?

It’s an important question because the road to a successful career in science – as with technology, engineering and mathematics, the other STEM fields – can be challenging, often requiring a Ph.D. or other postgraduate training. And once in their fields, there can be political and economic pressures with which to contend. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects workforce shortfalls for many science fields, though the projected needs differ across the life, physical and natural sciences.

Some 55% of working Ph.D. scientists belonging to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) who we surveyed in 2014 said this was generally a good time for their scientific specialty, while 44% said it was a bad time. And while nearly half (47%) said it was a good or very good time to begin a career in their field, 53% said it was a bad time to start out in their field.

So, what draws people into these careers? Roughly one-third (32%) of working Ph.D. scientists said a main motivator for their career path was a lifelong interest in science and desire for intellectual challenge, according to the 2014 survey . 

Many of these scientists reported an interest and curiosity in science or the natural world starting in early childhood. For some 12% their curiosity was fostered by parents and other family members who brought them in contact with scientists and science labs, nature or science and technology museums. Others (27%) remembered effective mentoring and encouragement from teachers whether in elementary school, graduate school or somewhere in between. And some 17% talked about the importance of lab and field work, often at the high school and college levels, which spurred their interest in a science career.

Men and women in this group of working Ph.D. scientists mentioned similar kinds of influences on their career choice. Women were slightly more likely than men to say that lab and internship experiences played a significant part in guiding their career path (23% of women scientists vs. 14% of men scientists). And scientists of all ages tend to cite similar kinds of influences.

Here are some of their stories:

In second grade, I read a scientific explanation of something I experienced every day. That flash of insight stimulated an intense curiosity of how things work. I knew from then on that I would be a scientist. – Molecular biologist, man, age 60

[Meseleson-Stahl]

I found science interesting. Growing up, I had a chemistry set and telescope (later building my own), and because of these, read a lot about chemistry and astronomy. My father took me rock collecting and brought chemicals home for me to analyze. Those experiences led to a degree (BS and MS) in Physics and a Ph.D. and career in Geophysics . – Geophysicist, man, age 65

[vacuum flask]

My interest in science was first piqued as a seven-year-old observing a full moon through the telescope of a friend. A couple of years later, my interest in space and the possibility of space exploration was promoted by the start of the manned launches into space in the early 1960s, and in a written essay in fourth or fifth grade I even expressed interest in science as one of three possible career paths …. – Medical Physicist, man, age 63

My entire childhood was steeped in experiences in the natural world and in scientific observation/experimentation. Both my parents are scientists. One memory that stands out in particular is of a canoe trip to the boundary waters in northern Minnesota when I was about 12, where I saw carnivorous plants in the wild for the first time – beautiful, huge, floating mats of pitcher plants …. – Ecologist, woman, age 35

While many scientists mentioned childhood experiences facilitated by their families, some 6% said science media was particularly influential in their career path. These scientists mentioned a range of media including books such as Microbe Hunters; magazines such as National Geographic and Scientific American; TV programming on PBS and commercial stations such as NOVA, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, Mr. Wizard and Bill Nye the Science Guy.

One scientist noted:

When I was a child, my exposure through media of what science was and what scientists did influenced my career decisions. My grade school education in science was very poor, which increased the importance of the media exposure. – Biotechnologist, woman, age 54

Scientists’ reflections often touched on multiple themes; some emphasized their curiosity about the world and others emphasized the role of people in their lives who fostered their interests. As one scientist put it: “I love puzzles and to me, science is the ultimate puzzle.”

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Cary Funk is director of science and society research at Pew Research Center .

Meg Hefferon is a former research analyst focusing on science and society research at the Pew Research Center .

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Researchers solve 2,000-year-old mystery of the shipworm

Secret of the world's most destructive and intriguing mollusk has implications for everything from climate change to human health.

They bedeviled ancient Greek navies, helped shipwreck Christopher Columbus, aided in the sinking of the Spanish Armada and caused the wharves in San Francisco Bay to collapse into the sea, but until now, scientists have been unable to pinpoint exactly how shipworms -- a family of mollusks -- are able to cause such damage. A team of researchers, jointly led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Plymouth, along with collaborators from the University of Maine and UMass Chan Medical School, have discovered that a population of symbiotic microbes, living in an overlooked sub-organ of the gut called the "typhlosole," have the ability to secrete the enzymes needed to digest lignin -- the toughest part of wood.

"Shipworms are such important animals," says Reuben Shipway, co-corresponding author of the research published recently in International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation and who initiated this work as part of his postdoctoral fellowship at UMass Amherst. "They are found throughout the world's oceans and not only have they changed history, they are also ecosystem engineers and play a fundamental role in cycling carbon in aquatic environments. It's incredible that we haven't had a full understanding of how they do this."

Wood is a miraculous substance: flexible and tough, its stringy but nutritious cellulose can make a great meal -- but only for those living things that can digest it and also get through the layer of lignin, a tough, armor-like substance that surrounds the cellulose like "wrap rage"-inducing packaging around your favorite treat. Microbiologists have long known that those animals capable of digesting lignin -- like termites -- host specialized, symbiotic colonies of microbes in their guts that do the work of breaking the lignin down for them. "But," says lead author Barry Goodell, recently retired professor of microbiology at UMass Amherst and emeritus professor at the University of Maine, "the shipworm's digestive tract has long been thought to be virtually sterile."

How then do shipworms do what they do?

Goodell and Shipway have spent the better part of the last decade trying to answer this question, testing a variety of innovative hypotheses -- none of which gave up the shipworms' secret.

"We decided to take a very careful look at the shipworm's gut again," says Goodell, "on the off chance that the last hundred years' worth of researchers missed something."

Indeed, that appears to be the case.

It turns out that shipworms have a curious sub-organ, called a typhlosole -- "it looks like Salvador Dali's mustache upside down," says Shipway -- that is embedded in the mollusk's digestive tract. Previous researchers had thought that it served as a mixing structure, but, when Goodell and Shipway did some precise culturing work, then enlisted the aid of the Argonne National Lab's facilities for metagenomic analysis as well as the advanced genetic-probe-microscopy technique at the UMass Amherst Institute for Applied Life Sciences, they found what generations of researchers had overlooked: hidden clusters of bacterial symbionts with the capability to produce lignin-digesting enzymes.

Not only does this research help to solve a longstanding mystery, but the findings may also have important practical application. Biotech companies are searching for new enzymes that can digest recalcitrant substrates more efficiently than current bio-industrial processes allow, and new sources of enzymes that can open the structure of biomass residues are very important in growing this field. Furthermore, previous shipworm symbionts have proven to be a treasure trove of natural products -- such as novel anti-parasitic antibiotics -- which may have significant impacts on human health.

On the climate change front, research such as this can help refine models predicting how CO 2 and other greenhouse gasses are released into the environment, especially given that large amounts of woody debris on land winds up in the ocean, where much of it passes through the shipworm gut.

Finally, other animal species, including other mollusks, the common earthworm and even the tadpole stages of frogs, also possess a typhlosole that has not been thoroughly studied before. If symbionts similar to those in shipworms were found in those animals, it could change our understanding of how those animals also make their way in the world. "It's very satisfying," says Goodell of the research. "We've been trying to crack this mystery for years and we finally discovered the shipworm's hidden bacterial symbiont secret."

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Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Massachusetts Amherst . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Related Multimedia :

• The shipworm is actually a mollusk

Journal Reference :

• Barry Goodell, James Chambers, Doyle V. Ward, Cecelia Murphy, Eileen Black, Lucca Bonjy Kikuti Mancilio, Gabriel Perez- Gonzalez, J. Reuben Shipway. First report of microbial symbionts in the digestive system of shipworms; wood boring mollusks . International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation , 2024; 192: 105816 DOI: 10.1016/j.ibiod.2024.105816

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Chinese scientists cure diabetes using stem cells in world first

• The 59-year-old patient of 25 years received a transplant of pancreatic cells derived from his own stem cells in 2021. He is now insulin independent.
• This marks the world’s first successful use of stem cell-derived islet transplantation to cure diabetes .
• The achievement, published on Cell Discovery on April 30, comes after over a decade of research at Shanghai Changzheng Hospital.
• Diabetes is a major health threat, affecting 422 million people worldwide. While there is still no known cure for diabetes, methods of management include insulin injections and other medications.
• The patient reportedly suffered a significant decline in pancreatic islet function, which regulates blood sugar, after undergoing a kidney transplant in 2017. Since then, he had been dependent on daily multiple insulin injections. 
• In July 2021, a team at the hospital led by researcher Yin Hao used the patient’s own blood cells to create stem cells, which were then converted into pancreatic islet cells.
• The transplant successfully eliminated the patient’s need for external insulin within 11 weeks. Oral medication was also gradually reduced and ultimately discontinued a year later.
• Follow-up exams showed restored pancreatic function and normal kidney function, suggesting that the patient has been cured .
• In 2023, the FDA approved a similar cell therapy  treatment by a Chicago-based startup for type 1 diabetes.
• The Chinese researchers say more research is needed to confirm the long-term efficacy and broaden applicability of this treatment.

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