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Medical Xpress / Omitting Medicare data skews hospital readmission penalties, study shows

For more than a decade, hospitals have worked to help older adults avoid repeated inpatient stays, incentivized by a federal program that cuts Medicare reimbursements if hospitals have higher-than-expected rates of readmissions ...

Jan 22, 2026 in Medical economics
Phys.org / Ancient Jordan mass grave reveals human impact of first known pandemic

"A plague is upon us'' may have been a common phrase in ancient Jordan, where countless people perished from a mysterious malady that would shape both a society and an era of civilization.

Jan 20, 2026 in Other Sciences
Medical Xpress / Williams-Beuren syndrome: Early enzyme changes may hold key to future treatments

Williams-Beuren syndrome is a rare, congenital disease in which the main morbidity and mortality comes from obstructions, or stenoses, in specific arteries. When these obstructions involve the aorta, it is known as supravalvular ...

Medical Xpress / The price of plasticity: Modifiable neurons lose their function with age, fruit fly study suggests

While probing the escape reflex in the fruit fly Drosophila, researchers at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz (JGU) and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, found that the synapses of one of the participating ...

Jan 23, 2026 in Neuroscience
Tech Xplore / AI models tested on Dungeons & Dragons to assess long-term decision-making

Large Language Models, like ChatGPT, are learning to play Dungeons & Dragons. The reason? Simulating and playing the popular tabletop role-playing game provides a good testing ground for AI agents that need to function independently ...

Jan 20, 2026 in Computer Sciences
Tech Xplore / Misleading text in the physical world can hijack AI-enabled robots, cybersecurity study shows

As a self-driving car cruises down a street, it uses cameras and sensors to perceive its environment, taking in information on pedestrians, traffic lights, and street signs. Artificial intelligence (AI) then processes that ...

Jan 21, 2026 in Security
Medical Xpress / Long-term physical inactivity linked to higher stress burden in midlife

Prolonged insufficient physical activity in adulthood increases the body's stress burden, according to a large longitudinal study based on the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966. By contrast, engaging in physical activity ...

Jan 23, 2026 in Health
Phys.org / Study finds albumin, the most abundant blood protein, acts as a shield against deadly fungal infections

Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB-FORTH) and the University of Crete, together with collaborators from Greece, Europe, the U.S., and India, have discovered a novel role of albumin, the ...

Jan 17, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Old diseases return as settlement pushes into the Amazon rainforest

Human activity continues to expand ever further into wild areas, throwing ecology out of balance. But what begins as an environmental issue often evolves into a human problem.

Jan 21, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Optical technique reveals hidden magnetic states in antiferromagnets

Imagine computer hardware that is blazing fast and stores more data in less space. That's the promise of antiferromagnets, magnetic materials that do not interfere with each other and can switch states at high speed, opening ...

Jan 21, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Arctic blast to wallop N. America—is climate change to blame?

An unusually brutal winter storm is set to pummel more than 160 million Americans from Friday, as a stretched "polar vortex" sends a devastating blast of Arctic air, bringing heavy snows and freezing rains.

Jan 23, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Webb finds young sun-like star forging common crystals and flinging them into its outer disk

Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own solar system contain crystalline silicates, since crystals require intense heat to form and these "dirty snowballs" spend most of their ...

Jan 21, 2026 in Astronomy & Space