How scientists forecast and manage volcanic eruptions – New award-winning educational video series

Swansea University

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Dr Rhian Hedd Meara standing on Eldfell, the volcano that reshaped Heimaey in 1973, during filming of Isle of Fire.

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Credit: Dr Rhian Meara

Swansea University has helped launch an award-winning educational video series that brings Icelandic eruptions into school classrooms, offering students a deeper understanding of volcanic forecasting and hazard management.

“Isle of Fire | Lessons in Volcanic Hazard Management from Heimaey to Grindavik” brings together leading volcano experts and Icelandic communities in a groundbreaking project.

Developed by Time for Geography, the series provides an unprecedented 50-year perspective of one of the most important eruptions in the history of volcanic hazard management: the 1973 eruption on the island of Heimaey in southwest Iceland.

Isle of Fire is based on four years of published academic research by Swansea University’s Dr Rhian Meara.

Series co-author and presenter Dr Meara, senior lecturer in Geography, said: “Swansea University’s involvement in Isle of Fire highlights our commitment to pioneering research that has real-world impact.

“It has been a privilege to work with a brilliant team of experts and the local community to bring this extraordinary case study to life for future geographers.”

Alongside Dr Meara, the project features insights from a number of other leading experts, including co-presenters Professor Janine Kavanagh (University of Liverpool), Dr Marc Reichow (University of Leicester), and Dr Jane Boygle and Dr Iestyn Barr (Manchester Metropolitan University).

Together, they demonstrate cutting-edge techniques in eruption reconstruction and forecasting, as well as modern management strategies; more important than ever, given current volcanic activity on the Reykjanes peninsula, which is threatening major population centres for the first time since 1973.

Series producer and presenter Dr Rob Parker, director of Time for Geography, said: “The key to this project was the invaluable contributions of a unique collaboration of leading volcanologists and hazards experts, as well as those who were there at the time, experiencing, filming and photographing the eruption. This enabled us to bring the events and their scientific significance to life on screen, with previously untold stories, never-before-seen footage and new insights.”

Isle of Fire has earned national recognition, winning three prestigious awards for its impact on geography education:

• Geographical Association 2025 Silver Publishers Award – Recognising the series’ exceptional quality in advancing Geography education.

• Geographical Association 2025 Highly Commended Publishers Award – Honouring the virtual student conference inspired by the series, which has contributed to geographical education and professional development.
• Scottish Association of Geography Teachers 2024 Resource Award – Celebrating Time for Geography’s impact on Geography education in Scotland, with Isle of Fire recognised as the platform’s flagship project of 2024.

This open-access, feature-length series has been made possible thanks to the fantastic support of Time for Geography’s community of partners, with special acknowledgement to education travel partner Rayburn Tours, who led an intensive filming campaign capturing the physical and human geography of the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, rich in volcanic processes and landforms.

Dr Meara said: “We would like to thank the community of Vestmannaeyjabær for their fantastic support and valuable contributions to this project. It has been a privilege to help bring Heimaey’s story to life for a new generation in school classrooms.”

Explore how volcanic hazard management has evolved from Heimaey to Grindavik—watch Isle of Fire.

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DOI

10.30909/vol.07.01.361403 

 

Scientists use salinity to trace changes in the US Northeast Coastal Ocean

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

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Algae growth on an Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Surface Mooring, which measured water properties and velocity at the US Northeast shelfbreak, right after recovery.

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Credit: Photo: Lukas Taenzer/©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Woods Hole, Mass. (May 19, 2025) -- The near-bottom water on the U.S. Northeast continental shelf provides a critical cold-water habitat for the rich regional marine ecosystem. This “cold pool” preserves winter temperatures, even when waters become too warm or salty elsewhere during the summer.

However, the U.S. Northeast coastal ocean has experienced accelerated warming in recent years, compared to the global average. Now, scientists using salt as a tracer are investigating how much the influx of warm, salty offshore water onto the continental shelf contributes to the observed seasonal “erosion” of the cold pool.

Lukas Taenzer, a recent Ph.D. graduate from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), is the lead author of the paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans.

“This paper provides first evidence for a seasonal salinification of the cold pool on the US Northeast continental shelf, as consistently observed in the multi-year mooring record of the [Ocean Observatories Initiative] Coastal Pioneer Array,” said Taenzer.

“We follow the signatures of the ocean’s salinity, rather than temperature, to identify the physical processes that are responsible for the observed changes of coastal ecosystem conditions. Our results demonstrate the value of salinity measurements to highlight how the interplay between air-sea interactions, offshore forcing, and upstream conditions influence coastal ecosystem conditions in the sheltered cold pool on the timescales of weeks to years. This understanding is important to help NOAA Fisheries to manage U.S. fish stocks sustainably.”

To explain the seasonal erosion of the cold pool, the authors set up a salinity budget, which acts like a census taker and counts the influx and exit of ocean water into and out of the cold pool from different directions and over different timescales. Using salinity as a tracer can show why the cold pool erodes during the summer season when stratification (or, ocean layering) is high and where these changes come from.

Novel observations – such as those from the Coastal Pioneer Array (which was located off the coast of New England from 2016-2022) – have motivated new research questions, said Svenja Ryan, an assistant scientist in the physical oceanography department at WHOI. “We didn’t see the salinification of the cold pool previously because we didn’t have continuous subsurface measurements. The fact that salinity is a valuable tracer enables us to advance our dynamic understanding of the seasonal cycle and the processes in the ocean,” she said.

Ryan is the lead author of a recently published companion journal article in JGR: Oceans in 2024. That study provides insights into seasonal and year-to-year salinity variations in the Northwest Atlantic and examines how salinity influences stratification (water layering) on the continental shelf using historical data. While the current study focuses on the ocean depth, the 2024 study focuses mostly on surface values.

“Continuous, global sea surface salinity observations from satellites, such as the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite mission, are critical for tracking surface ocean conditions in near-real time. They enabled our novel findings about the seasonal evolution of freshwater signals across the Northeast U.S. shelf over the past decade. Also, they are increasingly used by the fishing community, for example, in their decision-making,” said Caroline Ummenhofer, a senior scientist in the physical oceanography department at WHOI and lead-PI on the NASA project that co-funded both papers.

“We have known for a while that the cold pool changes throughout the year, and that it gets slightly warmer. What we didn’t know was why,” said Taenzer. “That’s really hard to determine when using temperature as a tracer, because with temperature you can’t really distinguish why the pool gets warmer. By tracking salt, we can actually pinpoint why the cold pool changes throughout the year.”

Lukas Taenzer (right), first author of the study, and Adrienne Silver, former Postdoc at WHOI, prepare a Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) rosette to be deployed from RV Neil Armstrong to capture the water properties on the US Northeast continental shelf.

Credit

Photo: Avijit Gangopadhyay/©UMass Dartmouth

Acknowledgments:

Financial support for this research was provided by the NASA Ocean Salinity Science Team, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Ocean Science Division, and at WHOI the George E. Thibault Early Career Scientist Fund and the Scripps Chair for Excellence in Oceanography. Observations were provided by the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), which is a major facility fully funded by NSF.

Authors:

Lukas L.Taenzer1,2, Ke Chen2, Albert J. Plueddemann2, Glen G. Gawarkiewicz2

Affiliations:

1Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

2Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA

About Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate an understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. WHOI’s pioneering discoveries stem from an ideal combination of science and engineering—one that has made it one of the most trusted and technically advanced leaders in basic and applied ocean research and exploration anywhere. WHOI is known for its multidisciplinary approach, superior ship operations, and unparalleled deep-sea robotics capabilities. We play a leading role in ocean observation and operate the most extensive suite of data-gathering platforms in the world. Top scientists, engineers, and students collaborate on more than 800 concurrent projects worldwide—both above and below the waves—pushing the boundaries of knowledge and possibility. For more information, please visit www.whoi.edu

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Journal

Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans

DOI

10.1029/2024JC021534 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Seasonal and Interannual Salinity Variability on the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf: Insights From Satellite Sea Surface Salinity and Implications for Stratification

Article Publication Date

16-May-2025

 

Antibiotic treatment in patients hospitalized for nonsevere COVID-19

JAMA Network Open

About The Study:

 In this large cohort study of patients hospitalized with non severe COVID-19, there was no clinically meaningful difference in outcomes with early antibiotic treatment. Given the risks associated with unnecessary antibiotic treatment, these results argue against routine antibiotic use in this population.

Corresponding author: To contact the corresponding author, Michael S. Pulia, M.D., Ph.D., email mspulia@medicine.wisc.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.11499)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

#  #  #

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.11499?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=051925

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

 

Mental health trajectories among US survivors of adolescent and young adult cancer

JAMA Network Open

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About The Study:

 In this cohort study, survivors of adolescence and young adulthood cancer reported significantly worse mental health trajectories into middle or older adulthood, compared with individuals who experienced cancer as adults or never had it. Cancer clinicians should recognize the mental health burden for this population into middle age and older adulthood.

Corresponding author: To contact the corresponding author, Anao Zhang, Ph.D., email zhangan@med.umich.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.11430)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

#  #  #

 http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.11430?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=051925

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

 

Mice use chemical cues such as odours to sense social hierarchy

The Francis Crick Institute

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Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have shown that mice use chemical cues, including odours, to detect the social rank of an unfamiliar mouse and compare it to their own, using this information to determine their behaviour.

Like many mammals, mice live in a social hierarchy where some are more dominant than others. This helps to avoid conflict and establish breeding partners.

It has been suggested previously that some mice might display fixed behaviour regardless of who they are interacting with, or that physical properties can give cues about social ranking. However, new research published today in Current Biology shows that mice instead infer an unfamiliar mouse’s rank through chemical cues transmitted in the air (odours) or through direct contact (non-volatile scent cues).

The Crick team worked this out using a test where male mice enter a transparent tube at opposite ends, meeting in the middle. In this type of confrontation, a more submissive animal will typically retreat1.

The researchers first looked at interactions in mice who shared the same cage, using this to rank each mouse on a hierarchy, before observing how the mice responded to a set of unfamiliar opponents.

They found that the strangers could recognise each other’s rank, compare it to their own, and either retreat or force the other mouse to retreat.

The team then tested the mice in the dark, finding that this did not affect rank recognition, suggesting that cues like physical size or behaviour don’t determine recognition of a more aggressive opponent. Similarly, castrating the mice to remove their sex hormones had no impact.

Finally, the team experimentally blocked the two chemosensory systems that mice use – one for odours in the air (olfactory system) and one for chemical signals transmitted by physical contact (vomeronasal system).

They found no effect when just one of these systems was removed; both needed to be ablated before the mice couldn’t recognise opponent rank. This showed that mice use both olfactory and vomeronasal systems to recognise rank and can compensate if one is missing.

Like mice, people can also infer the social status of others around them relative to their own, also using sensory cues, including language, facial expression or clothing.

The next step for the researchers is to investigate which areas of the brain process the information on opponent rank and own rank and initiate a decision to retreat or advance.

Neven Borak, former PhD student in the State-Dependent Neural Processing Laboratory at the Crick and first author, said: “We’ve shown that mice weigh up strangers using chemical cues and can detect social status without needing an extensive history of confrontations with those specific opponents. This is a fascinating phenomenon that humans do too mostly using visual cues. Our work offers an interesting perspective on social mobility: humans, like mice, can enter a new group of people but still maintain understanding of own social rank and gauge the social status of unfamiliar people.”

Jonny Kohl, Group Leader of the State-Dependent Neural Processing Laboratory at the Crick and senior author, said: “We’ve shown for the first time how mice integrate internal and external information about dominance. This shows that a decision based on relative ranks is made in the brain before mice show either aggression or submissive behaviour, rather than there being fixed differences in behaviours leading to an aggressive or docile mouse.” 

The State-Dependent Neural Processing Laboratory studies how processes within the brain are impacted by the state of the body. By studying how physiological states, such as pregnancy, stress or sleep, impact neural circuits in mice, the researchers hope to advance a more integrative view of brain physiology in health and disease.

-ENDS-

For further information, contact: press@crick.ac.uk or +44 (0)20 3796 5252

Notes to Editors

Reference: Borak, N. et al. (2025). Dominance rank inference in mice via chemosensation. Current Biology.

1. All experimental protocols involving mice were performed in accordance with guidelines of the Francis Crick Institute, and in accordance with the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. This study was approved by the UK Home Office.

The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute with the mission of understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work helps improve our understanding of why disease develops which promotes discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat disease.

An independent organisation, its founding partners are the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London and King’s College London.

The Crick was formed in 2015, and in 2016 it moved into a brand new state-of-the-art building in central London which brings together 1500 scientists and support staff working collaboratively across disciplines, making it the biggest biomedical research facility under a single roof in Europe.

http://crick.ac.uk/

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Journal

Current Biology

Article Title

Dominance rank inference in mice via chemosensation

Article Publication Date

19-May-2025

 

Experimental painkiller could outsmart opioids – without the high  

Compound offers non-opioid pain relief by targeting neurotensin receptor 1 (NTSR1) found on sensory neurons and the spinal cord 

Duke University

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Research led by Ru-rong Ji, PhD, an anesthesiology and neurobiology professor at Duke University School of Medicine, shows the non-opioid compound SBI-810 relieves pain without side effects.

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Credit: Duke University School of Medicine

An experimental drug developed at Duke University School of Medicine could offer powerful pain relief without the dangerous side effects of opioids.

The drug, called SBI-810, is part of a new generation of compounds designed to target a receptor on the nerves and spinal cord. While opioids flood multiple cellular pathways indiscriminately, SBI-810, a non-opioid treatment, takes a more focused approach, activating only a specific pain-relief pathway that avoids the euphoric “high” linked to addiction.  

In tests in mice, SBI-810 worked well on its own and, when used in combination, made opioids more effective at lower doses, according to the study published May 19 in Cell. 

“What makes this compound exciting is that it is both analgesic and non-opioid,” said senior study author Ru-Rong Ji, PhD, an anesthesiology and neurobiology researcher who directs the Duke Anesthesiology Center for Translational Pain Medicine. 

Even more encouraging: it prevented common side effects like constipation and buildup of tolerance, which often forces patients to need stronger and more frequent doses of opioids over time.  

SBI-810 is in early development, but Duke researchers are aiming for human trials soon and they’ve locked in multiple patents for the discovery.

There’s an urgent need for pain relief alternatives. Drug overdose deaths are declining, but more than 80,000 Americans still die each year most often from opioids. Meanwhile, chronic pain affects one-third of the U.S. population.   

Researchers said the drug could be a safer option for treating both short-term and chronic pain for those recovering from surgery or living with diabetic nerve pain.

SBI-810 is designed to target the brain receptor neurotensin receptor 1. Using a method known as biased agonism, it switches on a specific signal—β-arrestin-2—linked to pain relief, while avoiding other signals that can cause side effects or addiction. 

“The receptor is expressed on sensory neurons and the brain and spinal cord,” Ji said. “It’s a promising target for treating acute and chronic pain.”

SBI-810 effectively relieved pain from surgical incisions, bone fractures, and nerve injuries better than some existing painkillers. When injected in mice, it reduced signs of spontaneous discomfort, such as guarding and facial grimacing. 

Duke scientists compared SBI-810 to oliceridine, a newer type of opioid used in hospitals, and found SBI-810 worked better in some situations, with fewer signs of distress.  

Unlike opioids like morphine, SBI-810 didn’t cause tolerance after repeated use. It also outperformed gabapentin, a common drug for nerve pain, and didn’t cause sedation or memory problems, which are often seen with gabapentin. 

Researchers said the compound’s dual action—on both the peripheral and central nervous systems— could offer a new kind of balance in pain medicine: powerful enough to work, yet specific enough to avoid harm. 

The study was supported by the NIH and the Department of Defense.  

Additional Duke authors include first authors Ran Guo and Ouyang Chen; Sangsu Bang, Sharat Chandra, Yize Li, Gang Chen, Rou-Gang Xie, Wei He, Jing Xu, Richard Zhou, Shaoyong Song, Ivan Spasojevic, Marc G. Caron, William C. Wetsel and Lawrence S. Barak.    

  

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Journal

Cell

DOI

10.1016/j.cell.2025.04.038 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Arrestin-biased allosteric modulator of neurotensin receptor 1 alleviates acute and chronic pain

Article Publication Date

19-May-2025