Osaka, Japan – Catalysts are vital substances that speed up many chemical reactions fundamental to modern life, including fertilizer, pharmaceutical, and energy production. However, many catalysts depend on expensive transition-metal elements, and their supply damages the environment and is vulnerable to geopolitical disruption. Recently, a team in Japan has developed a way to achieve a crucial type of chemical transformation without relying on transition-metal element resources. In an article due to be published in the Journal ...

Groundbreaking new research warns that Africa’s forests, once vital allies in the fight against climate change, have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source. A new international study published in Scientific Reports and led by researchers at the National Centre for Earth Observation at the Universities of Leicester, Sheffield and Edinburgh reveals that Africa’s forests, which have long absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, are now releasing more carbon than they remove. This alarming shift, which happened after 2010, underscores the urgent need for stronger global action to protect forests, ...

Yuwei Gu was hiking through Bear Mountain State Park in New York when inspiration struck. Plastic bottles littered the trail and more floated on a nearby lake. The jarring sight in such a pristine environment made the Rutgers chemist stop in his tracks. Nature makes plenty of long-stranded molecules called polymers, including DNA and RNA, yet those natural polymers eventually break down. Synthetic polymers such as plastics don’t. Why? “Biology uses polymers everywhere, such as proteins, DNA, RNA and cellulose, ...

In humans, CBD is thought to have therapeutic effects for some conditions including chronic pain, nausea, or inflammation. Now, dogs may be reaping some of the benefits, too, according to a new study. Researchers in the US have used data from the Dog Aging Project to characterize demographics, health status, and behavior of dogs that used CBD or hemp supplements. They published their results in Frontiers in Veterinary Science. “Behaviorally, dogs given CBD products for multiple years are initially more aggressive compared to dogs not receiving those products, but their aggression becomes less intense over time,” said senior author ...

By Alistair Jones SMU Office of Research Governance & Administration – A dystopian future where advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems replace human decision-making has long been a trope of science fiction. The malevolent computer HAL, which takes control of the spaceship in Stanley Kubrick's film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is a chilling example. But rather than being fearful of automation, a more useful response is to consider what types of repetitive human tasks could be safely offloaded to AI, particularly with the advances of large language ...

By Vince Chong SMU Office of Research Governance & Administration – It might not be ubiquitous just yet but embodied artificial intelligence is slowly but surely cementing its place in the world. Robotic systems equipped with sensors and cameras help with everything from factory assembly to surgery, while autonomous, self-driving cars and drones are science fiction no more. Despite these advances though, there is a limit to what embodied AI can do in unpredictable, everyday environments like homes or offices. Say, a robotic arm may be programmed ...

By Alistair Jones SMU Office of Research Governance & Administration – Beomgeun Cho, an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Singapore Management University (SMU), is the inaugural recipient of the Kyujin Jung Memorial Research Award, presented at the 2025 American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) conference.  The award, which recognises a promising early-career scholar in the field of public administration, is based on an overall assessment of their academic trajectory and achievements, rather than a specific paper. "I am deeply honoured to be the ...

SMU Office of Research Governance & Administration – Associate Professor Yasmin Ortiga chats with Filipino nurses for a living. The sociologist at Singapore Management University (SMU) tends to ask them about their hopes and dreams, why they uprooted themselves to go work in a hospital miles away from their home in the Philippines, often leaving young children behind. Every conversation builds up her research on international migration.  Of late, the chats have thrown up cases of these migrant nurses choosing to bypass Singapore, which relies on Filipinos for over half of its foreign registered nurses. A blip or a notable shift ...

By Vince Chong SMU Office of Research Governance & Administration - Increasing tax competition, cryptocurrency taxation, environmental taxation, and myriad global tax reforms. These are among the many concerns facing the international tax system right now, as regulatory environments diverge and grow ever more complex. Tackling the challenges head on is SMU Assistant Professor Vincent Ooi, who leads a prestigious new initiative launched in partnership with the Tax Academy of Singapore: ...

SMU Office of Research Governance & Administration – In a coup for Singapore Management University (SMU), a team led by Associate Professor of Computer Science He Shengfeng has edged out competing research institutions to clinch a grant for developing a groundbreaking deepfake detection system. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) project, when completed in an estimated three years’ time, promises to have widespread commercial applications. It would also be the first multilingual deepfake data set that includes dialectal variants such as Singlish and Korean dialects. “Many existing tools don’t perform well on Asian languages, accents, or content,” ...

Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility, will today welcome delegates from SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) as well as representatives from the UK government, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and UKRI (UK Research and Innovation). The event is aimed at deepening an existing collaboration between the two facilities.   SESAME, located in Allan, Jordan, is an intergovernmental synchrotron radiation facility established under the auspices of UNESCO and modelled on CERN. It is a unique scientific ...

Long-term exposure to toxic air can substantially weaken the health benefits of regular exercise, suggests a new study by an international team including UCL (University College London) researchers. The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, analysed data from more than 1.5 million adults tracked for more than a decade in countries including the UK, Taiwan, China, Denmark and the United States. The team found that the protective effect of regular exercise on people’s risk of dying over a specific period – from any cause and from cancer and heart disease specifically – appeared to be reduced, but not eliminated, for those who ...

The domestic cat may be a far more recent arrival to Europe than previously thought, arriving roughly 2000 years ago and not because of the Paleolithic expansion of Near East farmers. The findings offer new insight into one of humanity’s most enigmatic animal companions and identify North Africa as the cradle of the modern housecat. The domestic cat has a long and complex, albeit uncertain, history. Genetic studies show that all modern cats descended from the African wildcat, which is found today in North Africa and the Near East. However, sparse archaeological remains and the difficulty of distinguishing domestic from wild ...

An injection that blocks the activity of a protein involved in aging reverses naturally occurring cartilage loss in the knee joints of old mice, a Stanford Medicine-led study has found. The treatment also prevented the development of arthritis after knee injuries mirroring the ACL tears often experienced by athletes or recreational exercisers. An oral version of the treatment is already in clinical trials with the goal of treating age-related muscle weakness. Samples of human tissue from knee replacement surgeries — which include both the extracellular scaffolding, or matrix, in the joint as well as cartilage-generating ...

Macaques can tap along to a musical beat, according to a new study – findings that upend the assumption that only animals with vocal-learning abilities can find and move to a groove. According to the authors, the discovery offers fresh insights that suggest the roots of rhythm may run far deeper in our evolutionary past than previously believed. Humans have a unique ability to perceive and move in time to a steady musical beat. It is a skill that develops early in life and requires complex pattern recognition, prediction, and motor coordination. Outside of humans, the ability to synchronize ...

A new experiment using an AI-powered browser extension to reorder feeds on X (formerly Twitter), and conducted independently of the X platform’s algorithm, shows that even small changes in exposure to hostile political content can measurably influence feelings toward opposing political parties – within days of X exposure. The findings provide direct causal evidence of the impact of algorithmically controlled post ranking on a user’s social media feed. Social media has become an important source of political information for many people worldwide. However, the platform’s algorithms exert a powerful influence on what ...

Using nearly a decade of satellite data, researchers show how glaciers worldwide speed up and slow down with the changing of the seasons – annual rhythms that reveal how Earth’s ice may respond to long-term climate warming. The findings show that glaciers in regions that reach above-freezing temperatures experience the largest seasonal swings in ice flow, and rising temperatures may amplify these movements and shift their timing worldwide. Earth’s glaciers and ice sheets have been rapidly ...

A new tool shows it is possible to turn down the partisan rancor in an X feed – without removing political posts and without the direct cooperation of the platform.  The Stanford-led research, published in Science, also indicates that it may one day be possible to let users take control of their own social media algorithms. A multidisciplinary team created a seamless, web-based tool that reorders content to move posts lower in a user’s feed when they contain antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity, such as advocating for violence or jailing supporters of the opposing party. In an experiment using ...

Bird flu viruses are a particular threat to humans because they can replicate at temperatures higher than a typical fever, one of the body’s ways of stopping viruses in their tracks, according to new research led by the universities of Cambridge and Glasgow. In a study published today in Science, the team identified a gene that plays an important role in setting the temperature sensitivity of a virus. In the deadly pandemics of 1957 and 1968, this gene transferred into human flu viruses, and the resulting virus thrived. Human ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (EMBARGOED UNTIL THURSDAY, NOV. 27, 2025) – In preclinical studies, researchers found that priming the immune system with a Treg-expanding therapy before stem cell transplant boosted survival, protected vital organs, and promoted a balanced gut microbiome—offering hope for safer, more effective treatment of blood cancers. The study, led by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and collaborating organizations, is highlighted on the cover of the Nov. 27, 2025, issue of the journal, Blood. The new protocol focuses on improving outcomes for patients who undergo allogeneic ...

Instagram users may overestimate the extent to which they are addicted to the platform, according to research conducted on 1,204 US adults published in Scientific Reports. The findings suggest that for most social media users, excessive use is driven by habit rather than genuine addiction. Addiction towards a substance or action is typically characterised by a cluster of symptoms including difficulties controlling use, experiencing cravings to use, experiencing withdrawal symptoms when not using, and continuing to use despite negative consequences or risk of harm. Ian Anderson and Wendy Wood surveyed an approximately representative sample of 380 US Instagram users, who were 50% ...

Successive major droughts, each lasting longer than 85 years, were likely a key factor in the eventual fall of the Indus Valley Civilization, according to a paper in Communications Earth & Environment. The findings may help explain why this major ancient civilization — a contemporary of ancient Egypt located around the modern India-Pakistan border — slowly declined, and highlights how environmental factors could shape ancient societies. The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was one of the ...

Breast cancer remains a predominant global health challenge for women, with late-stage diagnosis being a key contributor to its high mortality. This is particularly pronounced in low-resource settings where access to advanced, costly diagnostic tools is limited. There is a pressing need for affordable, non-invasive, and accessible diagnostic strategies. This review underscores the significant potential of hematological and biochemical serum markers as pivotal tools to bridge this diagnostic gap, offering insights into diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic monitoring for breast cancer. Hematological Markers Associated with Breast Cancer Hematological ...

Japan is facing the urgent challenge of aging infrastructure, amidst ineffective linking of on-site experience and expertise with vast amounts of digital data in maintenance operations. This is especially the case for bridges across Japan. With a large number of bridges constructed during the rapid economic growth period, aging simultaneously, extensive inspection data and repair histories have been managed disparately across paper ledgers or departmental systems thus far, leading to inadequate integration between the experience of skilled engineers and digital data. To address this inefficiency, it is vital to leverage cutting-edge ...

Biliary tract cancers, including intrahepatic, perihilar, and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer, are among the most aggressive gastrointestinal malignancies.  Treatment options remain limited once the disease progresses after first-line chemotherapy, and survival rarely exceeds one year. To address this, the team of researchers led by Professor Yun Hak Kim from Pusan National University, analyzed 12 years of clinical data from 54 patients treated at Yonsei Severance Hospital and combined the results with a systematic review and meta-analysis of 21 studies from around the world. This paper was made available ...