https://medicalxpress.com/ en-us provides the latest news from University of Southern California A new global study has found that people without access to clean drinking water are significantly more likely to experience food insecurity and food safety threats, underscoring the urgent need for coordinated global action to address these issues together. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-gaps-linked-hunger-unsafe-food.html Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:50:01 EDT news699631741 The ocean is full of invisible workers. Trillions of microbes quietly break down carbon-containing organic matter, which helps to regulate Earth's climate. But scientists have long struggled to understand how different microbes contribute to the process. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-metabolic-niches-reveal-ocean-microbes.html Mon, 01 Jun 2026 17:00:05 EDT news699545282 Could the way doctors traditionally measure obesity allow a subset of people with obesity-related health risks to slip through the cracks? Medical experts have typically calculated obesity using body mass index (BMI), a calculation based on a person's height and weight. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-bmi-obesity-millions-americans-health.html Mon, 01 Jun 2026 17:00:02 EDT news699522181 Scientists at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering have developed a robotic hand that can hear a melody once and play it back after just two minutes of self-taught practice on a keyboard, without relying on sheet music or preprogrammed scores. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-robot-play-music-ear-possibilities.html Thu, 28 May 2026 12:00:02 EDT news699186841 A devastating earthquake in Myanmar is giving scientists new insight into how major quakes start, spread, and grow. The findings could improve risk estimates for dangerous faults around the world. A new study, published in the journal Science and led by researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, finds that faults that appear structurally simple can produce surprisingly complex earthquakes. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-myanmar-devastating-quake-reshape-california.html Thu, 07 May 2026 14:00:07 EDT news697362181 Approximately 308,000 people in the United States live with spinal cord injury. Nearly all lose bladder control. And yet the vast majority of research and engineering attention in neurotech has poured into motor restoration—making paralyzed limbs move again. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-team-spinal-cord-paralysis-overlooked.html Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:20:05 EDT news696764238 In materials science, if you can understand the "texture" of a material—how its internal patterns form and shift—you can begin to design how it behaves. That's the focus of the work of Zhenglu Li, assistant professor in the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Li's recently published paper in PNAS, titled "Moiré excitons in generalized Wigner crystals," demonstrates that the way electrons organize themselves inside a material determines how that material responds to light—and how this organization can be engineered. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-electron-affects-responses-moir-materials.html Fri, 24 Apr 2026 05:30:02 EDT news696223587 A web tool designed to spark reminiscence could help people with dementia and their caregivers feel more connected to each other and less impacted by feelings of pre-death grief, according to a clinical trial co-led by USC and Weill Cornell Medicine published in JAMA Network Open. With features such as photo albums, autobiographical questions, and journaling prompts, the Living Memory Home for Dementia Care Pairs (LMH-4-DCP) website is a customizable virtual space that facilitates collaborative and interactive reminiscence therapy for both dementia patients and caregivers, said lead author Francesca Falzarano, assistant professor at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-digital-reminiscence-app-grief-relationships.html Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:00:07 EDT news696002461 USC researchers are developing a computational model that combines satellite data and physics-based simulations to forecast a wildfire's path, intensity, and growth rate. If you've ever been evacuated from your home during a wildfire, you'll be aware of the terrifying unpredictability of the situation. From your location on the ground—rapidly gathering a few vital belongings and attempting to identify the best route to safety—there's no way of knowing how fast a fire is growing or which direction it's likely to take. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-accurately-wildfires-real.html Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:20:04 EDT news695904961 A diet rich in fruit, vegetables, and whole grains is generally recommended for better health and to lower the risk of cancer and other diseases. However, new research from USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC, presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research suggests that this type of diet may put non-smoking Americans under the age of 50 at greater risk of developing lung cancer. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-healthy-diets-expose-younger-smokers.html Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:00:03 EDT news695625539 Heart transplant surgeon Raymond Lee, MD, explains what patients can expect after a heart transplant—including how long the heart will last. The average lifespan of a transplanted heart is about 10 years, though outcomes vary from patient to patient. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-transplanted-heart.html Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:20:01 EDT news695628121 When a bank wrongly charges fees, a debt collector harasses someone over a disputed bill, or a mortgage servicer fails to apply payments correctly, Americans have a formal recourse: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Filing a complaint with the CFPB is not like venting on Yelp. Companies are legally required to respond within a defined window, typically 15 days. That legal muscle makes the CFPB fundamentally different from most consumer redress channels. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-financial-complaint-delays-seniors-veterans.html Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:00:06 EDT news695572827 Just a fraction of prescriptions for the abortion pill mifepristone were filled at brick-and-mortar retail pharmacies after federal drug regulators lifted longstanding dispensing limits, according to a new USC study in JAMA. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2023 permanently removed rules requiring patients to obtain mifepristone—the first of two drugs used in medication abortion—in person at a clinic or hospital. That change meant in-store and mail-order pharmacies could provide the drug when it was prescribed by a certified provider, a shift expected to broaden access nationwide. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-fda-retail-pharmacies-mifepristone.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 11:00:17 EDT news695042382 Use of ChatGPT, Claude and other large language models, or LLMs—what most people call "AI"—has surged since ChatGPT debuted publicly in 2022. Hundreds of millions of people now use these tools weekly, according to recent estimates. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-ai-worldview.html Fri, 10 Apr 2026 07:20:03 EDT news695022302 People may assume that if they drink lightly during the week or month, heavy drinking on the occasional Friday or Saturday may not cause their liver harm. New research suggests otherwise, according to a Keck Medicine of USC study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-occasional-heavy-triple-liver.html Thu, 02 Apr 2026 07:30:03 EDT news694250343 The electronics inside your phone, your car, and every satellite currently orbiting Earth share one critical weakness: heat. Push them past about 200 degrees Celsius and they start to fail. For decades, that thermal ceiling has been one of the hardest walls in engineering. Now a team at the University of Southern California may have just found a way around it. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-memory-chip-survives-temperatures-hotter.html Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:20:06 EDT news694195201 For more than 40 years, the Golden State Killer haunted California. A serial rapist and murderer active in the 1970s and '80s, he eluded detectives for decades. By 2018, hope of identifying him was fading, until a woman—curious about her ancestry—spat into a plastic tube and mailed it to a genealogy company. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-dna-reveal-dont.html Sun, 29 Mar 2026 15:00:01 EDT news693480113 As more states legalize marijuana, many people might be wondering if that means it is safe to use. While smoking tobacco is a known and well-studied cause of lung cancer, linking marijuana to cancer is more complicated, says Brooks Udelsman, MD, a thoracic surgeon with USC Surgery, part of Keck Medicine of USC. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-marijuana-lung-cancer.html Fri, 27 Mar 2026 11:20:01 EDT news693822048 A landmark research paper for the first time maps the genetics of how individual regions of the brain age—and why some of those regions are the very ones most ravaged by Alzheimer's and dementia. Published in the journal GeroScience, the paper is titled "Deep Neural Networks and Genome-Wide Associations Reveal the Polygenic Architecture of Local Brain Aging." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-scientists-genetics-brain-ages-region.html Thu, 26 Mar 2026 06:42:24 EDT news693726081 A study led by researchers at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology suggests that the benefits of the Mediterranean diet may be driven, in part, by tiny proteins hidden within our mitochondria, opening a new window into how diet shapes aging and disease risk. The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-mediterranean-diet-boost-mitochondrial-linked.html Mon, 23 Mar 2026 19:40:03 EDT news693501979 Chosen families are evolving but remain a cherished—and vital—lifeline for many. Mention "communal living" and the image that may spring to mind is the free-love, back-to-the-earth hippy communes of the 1960s, complete with bandannas and fringed suede vests. But communal living is once again very much part of the zeitgeist—albeit with a very different look. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-free-apocalyptic-survival-trend-redefining.html Fri, 20 Mar 2026 18:50:01 EDT news693213044 The 2025 Eaton fire's smoke did more than darken the sky: It generated a carbon monoxide and particulate matter surge that far exceeded Los Angeles County's average daily human-caused emissions, according to a new study led by researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. The findings are published in the journal ACS ES&T Air. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-eaton-pollution-los-angeles.html Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:00:01 EDT news692612614 Older Americans are willing to travel far for medical care—sometimes much farther than policymakers and experts assume, according to researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. As hospitals close in some areas, practices consolidate and telehealth expands, older adults may tolerate long trips for care—but not equally. The study suggests socioeconomic status affects willingness to travel. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-seniors-doctor.html Fri, 13 Mar 2026 17:40:01 EDT news692631425 Imagine it is two weeks before a major election in a closely contested state. A controversial ballot measure is on the line. Suddenly, a wave of posts floods X, Reddit, and Facebook, all pushing the same narrative, all amplifying each other, all generating the appearance of a massive grassroots movement. Except none of it is real. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-ai-agents-autonomously-propaganda-campaigns.html Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:40:05 EDT news692544181 Texas busing programs that transported newly arrived immigrants to Democratic-led cities boosted President Donald Trump's vote share in affected counties during the 2024 election, according to a new study from the USC Price School of Public Policy and the University of North Texas. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-texas-controversial-migrant-busing-voting.html Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:20:01 EDT news692380801 For years, the guiding assumption of artificial intelligence has been simple: an AI is only as good as the data it has seen. Feed it more, train it longer, and it performs better. Feed it less, and it stumbles. A new study from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering was accepted at the IEEE SoutheastCon 2026, taking place March 12–15. It suggests something far more surprising: with the right method in place, an AI model can dramatically improve its performance in territory it was barely trained on, pushing well past what its training data alone would ever allow. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-ai-taught-knew.html Tue, 10 Mar 2026 15:40:07 EDT news692374681 A new study details how fecal transplants from older female mice significantly improve ovarian function and fertility in young mice. The surprising results reveal a direct link between the microbiome (the collection of all bacteria and other microbes present) of the gut and ovarian health and function. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-fecal-transplants-older-mice-significantly.html Tue, 03 Mar 2026 09:00:05 EST news691749961 You've probably heard or read about congestive heart failure. Maybe you've even been told you have it, or know someone who has. In the future, however, you may not encounter the "congestive" part of the diagnosis as frequently in discussions with your doctor or in health articles like this. The term "congestive heart failure" is falling out of favor with doctors. A Keck Medicine of USC cardiologist explains why—and why the shift may signal better outcomes for patients. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-doctors-congestive-heart-failure-today.html Fri, 27 Feb 2026 10:10:07 EST news691408801 High-grade astrocytoma, which includes glioblastoma, is a fast-growing, aggressive brain cancer that often returns after the tumor is removed, making it difficult to treat. Patients with recurrent high-grade astrocytoma typically only survive for four to five months. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-laser-therapy-immunotherapy-survival-deadly.html Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:00:07 EST news691261981 Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland in the front of your neck. Its main job is to produce thyroid hormones, which help regulate your body's metabolism and control your heart rate, body temperature, growth and development. A thyroid nodule is a small bump or growth that develops on this gland. Thyroid nodules can cause a range of symptoms—or none at all. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-thyroid-nodules.html Sat, 21 Feb 2026 11:30:03 EST news690808781