What roles did volcanoes play on early Mars?

Lucia Bellino, PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, takes a look back to find out.

Lucia Bellino is a doctoral student and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in her fourth year at the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, TX. Under the guidance of Dr. Chenguang Sun, Lucia’s research centers the cycling of hydrogen, carbon, and sulfur through high-temperature magmatic processes like magmatic degassing. She seeks to understand the connection between the interior and surface of planetary bodies through volcanism to investigate the potential habitability, climate, atmosphere, and evolution of Mars and Io.

Volcanic sulfur emissions may have played a key role in shaping the habitability of early Mars.

Observations of fluvial activity—landforms shaped by rivers and streams—suggest that Mars had a warm enough climate to sustain liquid water around 3 to 4 billion years ago. But the exact composition of the greenhouse gases that could have supported this climate remains a mystery.

Given the widespread presence of sulfur-bearing minerals on the Martian surface and in Martian meteorites, it’s likely that sulfur was a major atmospheric component. Volcanic activity could have transported sulfur from the planet’s interior to its surface.

Previous research suggested that early Martian volcanoes would have released sulfur primarily as sulfur dioxide (SO₂), which tends to cool atmospheres rather than warm them. Our research re-evaluates this assumption by accounting for a broader range of magmatic processes—especially how the crystallization of minerals from magma affects the composition of volcanic gases.

We find that instead of SO₂, sulfur would more likely have been released as S₂ (diatomic sulfur) and H₂S (hydrogen sulfide). On exoplanets, these gases are known to contribute to atmospheric haze by forming complex molecules. If such haze formed on early Mars, it could have significantly altered the planet’s climate.

Importantly, molecules derived from S₂ can react with fluorine gas (F₂) to form SF₆—sulfur hexafluoride—a greenhouse gas over 20,000 times more potent than CO₂.

Our findings suggest that volcanic emissions of S₂ and H₂S may have helped generate a hazy, greenhouse-rich atmosphere on early Mars.

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AI may be able to speed up patient care.

Eyal Klang, chief of generative AI, Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, explores one way to do so.

Eyal Klang, MD, is Chief of Generative AI in the Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His research focuses on using artificial intelligence to improve healthcare delivery and clinical decision-making

Medical coding assigns ICD-10 codes to each diagnosis. These codes go into the medical record, but the process is slow and often wrong. It also takes time away from patient care.

Large language models can read doctors’ notes and suggest codes. But on their own they make mistakes, even inventing codes that don’t exist, a problem called hallucinations.

We tested a method called retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG. The model first suggests a diagnosis from the note. That text is then checked against ICD-10 codes used in our emergency rooms. The system returns the closest matches, and the model picks from those. This keeps the output tied to real codes.

We studied 500 emergency visits. Independent doctors compared provider-assigned codes with RAG-assisted codes. In most cases, they judged the AI codes more accurate and more specific. Even smaller open-source models improved when paired with RAG.

The goal is to cut paperwork and improve records. Better coding means fewer mistakes, cleaner data, and more time for doctors to spend with patients.

Our results show that retrieval-augmented AI can make coding faster, more accurate, and less of a burden for clinicians.

Read More:[NEJM AI] - Assessing Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Models for Medical Coding

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How products are priced can leave consumers confused while trying to get the best deal.

Mathew Isaac, Loyola professor of marketing and chairperson of the Marketing Department at the Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University, delves into why.

Mathew S. Isaac, Ph.D. is the Seattle University Loyola Professor of Marketing and Chairperson of the Marketing Department at the Albers School of Business and Economics. Dr. Isaac’s research focuses primarily on consumer judgment and decision-making, including how numerical information affects consumer evaluations and decisions. His work has been published in leading scientific journals and featured in the business and popular press, including Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, Time, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and The Atlantic. He writes a blog on cognition for Psychology Today.Dr. Isaac received a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Chicago, an M.B.A. from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Prior to entering academia, he advised media, healthcare, and private equity clients as a Consultant and Manager for Bain & Company and ZS Associates.

Trader Joe’s sells bananas at 23 cents per banana. Publix charges 55 cents per pound. Why do these retailers choose different price formats, and does this affect shoppers? My co-authors Sarah Whitley and Julio Sevilla from the University of Georgia and I find that consumers’ price perceptions are influenced by the numerical value shown to them. For prices, lower numbers signal better deals – people anchor on these low numbers without fully considering what the number actually means. As a result, for low-weight products that are each under one pound, like bananas, unit-based pricing is more attractive to consumers. On the other hand, for higher-weight products that are over one pound, like watermelons, weight-based pricing is more attractive. For example, paying $8 for a 4-pound watermelon seems like a worse deal to consumers than paying $2 per pound for the same watermelon, even though they would actually pay $8 in each situation! We conducted 16 studies with nearly 10,000 participants to demonstrate the robustness of this price format effect, including two field experiments that examine consumers’ actual purchasing behavior. Our findings have important implications for retailers, given that some merchants use unit-based pricing and some use weight-based pricing for the same product. We conducted a series of interviews with retail industry executives and found that they often lack an articulated rationale for choosing one price format over another. Being more strategic when choosing a pricing format for produce and other grocery products can influence consumer perceptions and potentially increase their sales. For consumers, being aware of this anchoring bias can potentially help them make smarter decisions when they are out grocery shopping.

Read More:

[Sage] - Units or Pounds? How Anchoring on Salient Price Information Influences Perceptions of Product Value

[Psychology Today] - All Things Numbered

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We’re in need of new ways to fight cancer.

Jeffrey Ravetch, Theresa and Eugene M. Lang professor of immunology, virology, and microbiology at the Rockefeller University, examines one new path forward.

Ravetch is a faculty member in the David Rockefeller Graduate Program, and the Tri-Institutional M.D.-Ph.D. Program

While cancer immunotherapy has helped many patients, most do not respond—and those who do often face serious side effects. In my lab, we’re working to make immunotherapy both safer and more effective by targeting a key part of the immune system: dendritic cells.

Dendritic cells are the body’s sentinels. They detect threats like infections or tumors and activate other immune cells to fight back. But tumor cells fight back too—by creating an environment that suppresses the immune response. Most current immunotherapies try to remove this suppression, like taking the foot off the brakes. Our approach is different: we aim to press the accelerator.

We focus on a protein called CD40, found on dendritic cells, which powerfully stimulates immune activity. But previous attempts to target CD40 systemically have failed—causing limited immune activation and significant side effects.

To address this, we developed a new antibody, 2141-V11, designed to strongly activate dendritic cells—but only within the tumor itself. We then launched a first-in-human clinical trial at The Rockefeller University Hospital. Patients with cancers like metastatic melanoma and breast cancer received direct injections into a single tumor site.

The results were remarkable. The treatment was safe, and repeated doses led to dramatic responses—even complete tumor disappearance in some patients. Not only did the injected tumors shrink, but distant metastases also vanished. Biopsies showed no cancer cells—just organized immune structures resembling lymph nodes.

This suggests that local CD40 stimulation can spark a body-wide immune response—strong enough to clear tumors but precise enough to spare healthy tissue.

We’re now expanding trials into bladder, prostate, and brain cancers—and testing combination therapies to help more patients benefit from this promising new approach.

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Capping out-of-service oil wells can be expensive, but is there a better way to do so?

Mark Mba-Wright, professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, looks into biofuels as a solution.

Mark Mba-Wright is a professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University. His research focus is sustainable energy systems, including techno-economic analysis, lifecycle assessment and process optimization.

What if an often-overlooked danger that lingers after fossil fuel wells are done pumping could be mitigated by a sustainable, bio-based oil that returns carbon back underground?Across the U.S., there are hundreds of thousands of oil wells no longer in service. These miles-deep shafts pose emissions and safety risks, but they’re expensive to cap, up to $1 million per well. At the same time, numerous plant-based waste products are underutilized. Think of the woody debris culled from forests to lessen wildfire risks, or the stalks and cobs left behind after a corn field is harvested. These biomass materials can be used to make a dense, carbon-rich bio-oil with fast pyrolysis, a process of transforming biological matter into liquid by exposing it in an oxygen-free environment to a few seconds of high heat – temperatures that can exceed 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Injecting that bio-oil into orphaned crude oil wells could both cap the wells and act as a form of carbon capture. It’s an opportunity to match an abundant resource with an urgent demand, and it’s already in limited commercial use. When the research team I lead studied the emerging practice, our models showed a network of 200 mobile bio-oil production facilities could offer an economically and technically feasible expansion of the technology. The proposed system could sequester carbon dioxide for an estimated $152 per ton, making it competitive with the dominant method of removing atmospheric carbon, a technology called direct air capture that requires far more upfront investment. Our research shows a pyrolysis-based bio-oil sequestration system holds great potential, offering a decentralized, smaller-scale path to carbon capture that also provides other associated benefits. Carbon removal is an important way to address climate change, but it doesn’t need to be an either/or proposition.

Read More:

[Iowa State] - Bio-oil made with corn stalks, wood debris could plug orphaned fossil fuel wells

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With shifting landscapes, it can be hard to know why certain ancient temples were built where they are.

Benjamin Pennington, school of geography and environmental science at the University of Southampton, takes a closer look at the history of one.

Dr Benjamin Pennington is a Visiting Fellow in Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Southampton, as well as a secondary school Geography teacher.His research focusses on reconstructing ancient landscapes in order to answer targeted archaeological questions, usually by drilling sedimentary boreholes and analysing the deposits that are retrieved. Most of his work has focussed on Egypt, and to a lesser extent Iraq, China and other areas in the Mediterranean.

One of the ancient world’s largest temple complexes stands at Karnak, in Luxor in Egypt. Used for some three thousand years and dedicated to the state deity, Amun-Ra, today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site a few hundred metres from the Nile, welcoming millions of tourists every year.Despite over 150 years of archaeological investigation, the exact date of its foundation, its original landscape setting, and why it was located where it is, have all been open to debate.Our team has been working at the site for several years to answer these questions. We drilled 61 sediment cores in and around the temple complex, analysed the layers of mud and sand that came up, and studied tens of thousands of small pieces of ceramic that were also contained in the cores.We found the temple complex could not have been founded before about two-and-a-half-thousand BC due to regular flooding from the Nile, and our best indications are that it was initially begun in the Egyptian Old Kingdom, in the latter half of the third millennium BC.We also found that the temple was initially built upon a particularly high island, surrounded by Nile channels. This is surprising because today the Nile is some distance westward and there is also no river channel on the far side of the temple.But most intriguingly, our new understanding of the landscape around Karnak has striking parallels with an ancient Egyptian creation myth found in Old Kingdom texts, which features a creator god manifesting as high ground emerging out of ‘the lake’. We argue that it is possible that this location – the only known example of such elevated land emerging from water in this area at the time – was chosen for its similarities to this scene, which it would have recreated each year as the annual Nile flood receded.

Read More:[Southampton] - Research unearths origins of Ancient Egypt’s Karnak Temple

[Cambridge University Press] - Conceptual origins and geomorphic evolution of the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak (Luxor, Egypt)

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On University of Connecticut Sports Science Week: Having an athletic trainer on hand can be lifesaving for athletes. Why are there not more of them?

Robert Huggins, Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, examines.

Dr. Robert Huggins is currently the President of Occupational Safety and Athlete Performance at the Korey Stringer Institute. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Huggins oversees the operations of the Athlete Performance Testing division of KSI and the Heat Safety Performance Coalition (HSPC) which strives to protect occupational laborers and workers from the dangerous effects of acute and chronic heat exposure. Dr. Huggins is the director of the Athletic Training Locations and Services (ATLAS) Project which keeps track of the level of AT services in over 21,000 secondary schools in the U.S. since 2015.Dr. Huggins focuses on two major areas of research, 1) athlete/laborer health, safety, and performance and 2) the access and provision of Athletic Training Services to secondary schools. In athletes and laborers, his research interests include the heat illness prevention, thermoregulation, hydration, and monitoring training load/workload and physiological biomarkers for the prevention of injury/illness. Related to AT services, his research focuses on improving the delivery of AT services at the secondary school level, emergency best practices in youth athletes, and the economic impact of medical services rendered by ATs. Dr. Huggins has been a lead or co-author on ~70 publications) and has delivered ~80 professional presentations throughout the US. His work can be found here (Research Gate and Google Scholar)

The Athletic Training Locations and Services or ATLAS Project has been keeping track of the level of Athletic Training Services in the over 21,000 high schools with athletics programs in the United States since 2015. This project is a joint effort between the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the Korey Stringer Institute. Our key aims were to provide impactful data in an effort to identify areas of need, understand the factors driving the provision of AT services in schools across the U.S. and state by state, and to determine the impact that appropriate medical care has on sudden death and injury outcomes in high school sport. We’ve surveyed over 13,000 schools every 2-3 years for the past 10 years totaling ~39,000 surveys. These data provide key data in real-time, to schools, school boards, coaches, parents, high school athletics associations, and state athletic training associations to ensure that they have a pulse on their state and the provision of athletic healthcare and where they need to focus their efforts. Some examples of what our research has found include:• One third (33%) of high schools in the US do NOT have AT services, that school size, geographic locale/urbanicity, and poverty are some of the driving factors related to having versus not having an AT. • High schools with full time AT services are 2.1 to 4.3 times greater odds of having life-saving equipment needed for exertional heatstroke, anaphylaxis, exertional sickling, asthma, and diabetes prevention and care.• Minority student-athletes have lower sudden cardiac arrest survival rates compared with white non-Hispanic student-athletes (51.1% vs 75.9%)• High schools with higher levels of poverty were associated with lower AT employment, and access to AT services highlighting the need for strategies to ensure student athlete safety in higher poverty regions.ATLAS has provided key data that has informed decisions, enhanced the provision of healthcare in the form of AT services, and has ensured that athletes remain safe during sport.

Read More:[UConn Today] - Athletic Trainer Employment in High Schools Associated with Fewer Fatalities and Injuries

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On University of Connecticut Sports Science Week: How do we prevent sudden deaths in sports?

Rebecca L. Stearns, associate professor-in-residence in the department of kinesiology, details potential strategies.

Rebecca Stearns currently works as the Chief Operating Officer of the Korey Stringer Institute within the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Connecticut. During her time at Connecticut, Dr. Stearns has published more than 75 peer-reviewed publications and provided over 50 local or national presentations on subjects related to exertional heat stroke, heat-related illnesses, enhancing athletic performance in the heat, preventing sudden death in sport, and hydration. Dr. Stearns has been a co-author on numerous sports medicine inter-association task forces and position statement pertaining to sudden death in exercise including: The National Athletic Trainers’ Association Position Statement on Preventing Sudden Death in Sports, the Inter-Association Task Force For Preventing Sudden Death In Collegiate Conditioning Sessions as well as in Secondary School Athletics Programs. In April 2010, Dr. Stearns became one of the founding members of the Korey Stringer Institute and continues to work towards the KSI mission of serving the public to work towards preventing sudden death in sport by means of education, advocacy, public policy change, research, media outreach, and publications.

In 2001, Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer tragically died from exertional heat stroke during training camp. His death sparked a movement to prevent sudden death in sport, culminating in the creation of the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut.

One of our most impactful initiatives is the Team Up for Sports Safety, or TUFSS, campaign. Since 2018, we’ve traveled to 48 states to work directly with state leaders, athletic trainers, physicians, and policymakers. Our mission: to advance evidence-based health and safety policies that protect high school athletes.

The science behind exertional heat stroke continues to guide our efforts. Modifications to activity based on Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT)—a measure of environmental heat stress—can reduce exertional heat illnesses by up to 79%. Additionally, when best practices for heat acclimatization are mandated, such as gradually increasing amount of practice time, when contact can occur for contact sports, and when equipment can be introduced in hot conditions, heat illness rates drop by 55% during the high-risk preseason period when most cases occur among high school athletes.

The project has been a massive success. When we began, fewer than 50% of states had adopted the component policies that make up five key areas: sudden cardiac arrest, exertional heat stroke, exertional sickling, access to medical services, and emergency planning. Today, these categories have over 50% of the respective policies adopted nationwide—a major step forward in protecting young athletes.

TUFSS is about collaboration. By bringing together experts and decision-makers, we’re helping states adopt policies that save lives. But the work isn’t done. Continued effort is needed to reach our goal: preventing sudden death in secondary school athletes. Every student deserves to play safely—and every parent deserves peace of mind.

Read More:[National Library of Medicine] - Fatal Exertional Heat Stroke Trends in Secondary School Sports From 1982 Through 2022

[UConn Today] - Athletic Trainer Employment in High Schools Associated with Fewer Fatalities and Injuries

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On University of Connecticut Sports Science Week: How do social rituals bind us together?

Dimitris Xygalatas, associate professor of anthropology, looks at sports fans for clues.

Dr. Xygalatas is a cognitive anthropologist whose research combines laboratory and field methods to study human interaction in real-life settings. He has conducted several years of fieldwork in Southern Europe and Mauritius, and continues to go to the field each year. Before coming to UConn, he held positions at the universities of Princeton, Aarhus, and Masaryk, where he served as Director of the Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion (LEVYNA). At UConn, he directs the Experimental Anthropology Lab, which develops methods and technologies for quantifying behavior in real-life settings. He is affiliated with the Cognitive Science Program, the Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy.

What makes sports fans so passionate? Is it the thrill of competition, the skill of the athletes, or something else entirely? Recent research suggests that the most powerful emotional moments may not happen during the game itself, but in the rituals that surround it.To explore this, we studied Brazilian football fans during a major cup final in the city of Belo Horizonte. Using wearable heart-rate monitors, we tracked their physiological responses before, during, and after the match—including a remarkable pregame ritual known as the Rua de Fogo, or Route of Fire.Hours before kickoff, thousands of fans lined the avenue leading to the stadium, waiting for their team’s bus. When it appeared, the crowd erupted. Night turned into day as they ignited thousands of flares, creating a sea of pulsating light and smoke while chanting in unison.The physiological data showed something extraordinary. This pregame ritual produced emotional arousal as intense as the most dramatic moments of the match itself. Even more striking, fans’ heart rates became synchronized, literally beating in unison. And this synchrony extended to those riding on the team bus, who showed the same pattern of arousal despite not actively participating in the ritual.These findings reveal that sports fandom is not simply about watching. It’s about shared experience. Rituals like the Rua de Fogo transform crowds into cohesive groups, generating emotional synchrony that strengthens social bonds.The implications reach far beyond sports. From concerts and political rallies to religious gatherings and public protests, understanding how shared rituals create unity offers insights into the social glue that binds communities, highlighting how physical presence and coordinated action shape our emotional lives.

Read More:[PNAS] - Route of fire: Pregame rituals and emotional synchrony among Brazilian football fans

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On University of Connecticut Sports Science Week: Nutrition is important for athletics, so why are so many athletes poorly informed?

Jennifer B. Fields, Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, investigates this question.

Jennifer Fields is an assistant professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences within the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources at the University of Connecticut. Earning her BS at the University of Maryland in 2013, she went on to earn an MS in health promotion and nutrition education at American University and a Ph.D. in Kinesiology at George Mason University. Her research interests focus on optimizing athlete health and sport performance through investigations into low energy availability, nutritional status, nutritional interventions, body composition, and sport technology.

High school student-athletes face unique nutritional challenges. Specifically, they’re training hard while still growing, which increases their energy and nutrient needs compared to adults. If their nutritional needs aren’t met, it can lead to decreased performance and longer recovery, heightened risk of injury, and low energy availability which may have long-lasting effects on their overall health. Unlike collegiate or professional athletes, most high school athletes don’t have access to sports dietitians or formal nutrition education, so their eating habits are often shaped by their parents, social media, or socioeconomic factors. Research also shows that better nutrition knowledge is linked to healthier eating habits, suggesting that education could make a real difference. So, our main question was: do high school athletes truly understand their energy and macronutrient needs, and what is their current level of sports nutrition knowledge?To explore this, we recruited high school athletes, both boys and girls, and had them complete 2 surveys: one was a validated sports-nutrition knowledge questionnaire and the other was an internally developed survey where they self-reported what they believed their energy and macronutrient needs were for their sport. Then we compared those beliefs against evidence-based recommendations from the International Society of Sports Nutrition.What we found turned out to be pretty interesting. On the knowledge test, athletes correctly answered only about 43-45% of questions, which was classified as “poor knowledge.” And when we looked at their perceived dietary requirements, they significantly underestimated how many calories and carbohydrates they needed, while highly overestimating how much protein and fat they needed. Overall, it’s recommended that high school athletes be exposed to more educational interventions focused on general nutrition concepts, sports-related fueling strategies, and the unique dietary requirements of athletes to help them better understand fueling strategies for optimal performance and health.

Read More:[UConn Today] - On the Field with Sports Nutritionist Jennifer Fields

[MDPI] - Nutrition Knowledge and Perceived Dietary Requirements of Adolescent Student-Athletes: A Pilot Study

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