The annual economic cost of the nearly 16,000 premature births linked to air pollution in the United States has reached $4.33 billion, according to a report by scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center. The sum includes $760 million spent on prolonged hospital stays and long-term use of medications, as well as $3.57 billion in lost economic productivity due to physical and mental disabilities associated with preterm birth.

With people wanting to use smaller electronic devices, smaller energy storage systems are needed. Researchers of Aalto University in Finland have demonstrated the fabrication of electrochemically active organic lithium electrode thin films, which help make microbatteries more efficient than before. Researchers used a combined atomic/molecular layer deposition (ALD/MLD) technique, to prepare lithium terephthalate, a recently found anode material for a lithium-ion battery.

"Autistic people are cold and feel no empathy." True? It is a pervasive stereotype, but when analyzed through the lens of science, reality turns out to be quite different. According to a study at SISSA, carried out in collaboration with the University of Vienna, when autistic people are placed in "moral dilemma" situations, they show an empathic response similar to the general population. The myth of coldness in autism is likely due to the presence of the subclinical trait of alexithymia, which is often associated with autism, but is distinct and can be present in the general population, and is characterized by the inability to recognize one's own, or others' emotions. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Metabolites - substances that are created during metabolism -- can provide a wealth of information about individual health, disease, diet, and life-style. Now, they can tell us even more. Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) researchers and collaborators at Kyoto University have recently discovered metabolites that are specifically related to aging and shed light on how the human body ages. The team, led by OIST's Professor Yanagida, published their results in PNAS.

A large, multi-center study led by the UC Davis School of Medicine for the first time has shown that people as young as their 40s have stiffening of the arteries that is associated with subtle structural damage to the brain that is implicated in cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease later in life.

A collaboration of UC Davis, the Framingham Heart Study and Boston University, among others, the study found that, among young healthy adults, higher aortic "stiffness" was associated with reduced white matter volume and decreased integrity of the gray matter, and in ages much younger than previously described.

Like most annuals, lettuce plants live out their lives in quiet, three-act dramas that follow the seasons. Seed dormancy gives way to germination; the young plant emerges and grows; and finally in the climax of flowering, a new generation of seeds is produced. It's remarkably predictable, but the genetics that coordinates these changes with environmental cues has not been well understood.