The ability to sense environmental temperature, which helps animals move away from sub-optimal locations and find those with ideal temperatures, involves various channels on sensory neurons that open at specific temperature ranges. In research published in FEBS Open Bio, scientists found that one such channel—called the transient receptor potential channel TRPM8—from several salamanders that prefer cooler environments exhibits significantly diminished cold sensitivity compared with TRPM8 from frogs, which prefer warmer climates. The ...

A study published in Contemporary Economic Policy investigated the extent to which the companies’ political investments influence their success in the competition for federal contracts. The study, which analyzed information on S&P 1500 firms from 1999 to 2019 available from several different databases, revealed a positive relation between a firm’s political power and the number of contracts awarded, the size of the contracts, and the favorableness of the contract terms. Interestingly, engagement with local politicians, who have incentives to support employers in their districts, ...

School classrooms are dynamic environments with interactions between students, teachers, their belongings, classroom infrastructure, and the overall school ecosystem. Interactions between each of these players affect the nature and quality of classroom activities. Studies have shown that a teacher’s movements and positioning within the classroom affect student attention at various points of a lesson period, particularly during transitions such as from a lecture to workbook exercises. The opening phase of a lesson is a crucial point where students come together and the teacher lays out the constraints and expectations for the class ahead. Teachers’ orientation ...

A new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that while the COVID-19 virus has developed rapidly since 2019, it has done so within limited genetic channels. These genetic limits have remained unchanged. Despite scientists’ earlier fears about dramatic, rapid evolution of the COVID-19 virus, it appears recent changes in the virus were relatively constrained; the virus altered by combining pre-existing mutations. The virus has not expanded the number of genetic routes it can take to evolve. SARS-CoV-2 underwent rapid evolution after first infecting humans in late 2019, resulting in new viral variants with properties that ...

Release Summary Text: In atomically thin semiconductors, enhancing the frequency-doubled light signal has come at the cost of losing polarization information tied to the valley degree of freedom. Researchers now show that silicon nanospheres can break this dilemma, providing design guidelines for next-generation valley photonic devices. END ...

EDMONTON, Alta. — To protect the vulnerable biodiversity of the Arctic, researchers from the University of Alberta and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA) have identified a new conservation strategy in western Hudson Bay: using polar bears as an "umbrella species" to guide where protection is needed most. Establishing boundaries for marine protection is often difficult due to a lack of data on where marine life gathers. Polar bears offer a solution: by analyzing two decades of tracking data from 355 bears, a new study ...

Improving the wellbeing of young people is an international priority. The World Health Organization has reported that suicide is now the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 29-years-old globally, and is strongly correlated to youth mental illness. A new research study led by Dr Jason Goopy, Senior Lecturer in Music Education in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University (ECU), has investigated the positive impact of community music education programs (CMEPs) in regional Australia. CMEPs provide non-medical, cost-effective, and community-based opportunities to reach out to young people who are struggling and to promote wellbeing ...

A new study published in Engineering provides significant insights into the evolutionary history of the human N-glycosylation pathway, a critical process in protein modification. Researchers from various institutions in Croatia, including the University of Zagreb and the Ruder Bošković Institute, utilized phylostratigraphy to trace the origins of glycosylation machinery (GM) genes and glycoproteins (GPs) across a broad phylogenetic context.   Glycosylation, the enzymatic process of attaching glycans ...

For decades, it has been widely believed that electrons move most efficiently in materials that are clean and highly ordered. Much like water flowing more easily through a smooth pipe, conventional wisdom has held that electrical transport improves as a material’s internal structure becomes more perfectly arranged. However, a recent study shows that the opposite can also be true. A research team at POSTECH in South Korea has discovered that engineered disorder can actually enhance electron transport. The work was conducted by Prof. Hyungyu ...

As bees and hummingbirds flit from flower to flower, greedily sipping nectar in exchange for pollination, the animals often get another treat: alcohol. In the first broad analysis of the alcohol content of flower nectars, University of California, Berkeley biologists found detectable alcohol in at least one flower of 26 of the 29 species of plants tested. While most samples had very low levels, almost certainly from yeast fermenting the sugars in the nectar, one contained 0.056% ethanol by weight: ...

With over a fifth of the global population, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) represents a massive piece of the international climate puzzle. Figuring out how these eight nations can expand their economies without severely degrading the atmosphere is an urgent, complex challenge. Now, an in-depth econometric analysis provides a concrete, data-backed roadmap for balancing regional wealth with environmental health. Authored by corresponding researcher Imran Khan, who bridges the Department of Economics at The University of Haripur in Pakistan and the School of Economics and Management at China University of Mining and Technology in China, this ...

Feeding the global population currently requires clearing vast forests for soy plantations or heavily depleting the oceans for fish meal. What if the agricultural industry could bypass the farm and the sea entirely, opting instead to brew high-quality food from a problematic greenhouse gas? A rigorous new life-cycle assessment demonstrates that cultivating methane-consuming microbes is far more than an experimental concept—it is a highly lucrative, environmentally superior reality. Driving this evaluation are corresponding authors Yanping Liu and Ziyi Yang from the Beijing ...

A new study reveals that converting agricultural waste into biochar could significantly reduce emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, from forest soils. The findings offer a promising strategy for climate-smart land management in rapidly growing bamboo ecosystems. “Transforming crop residues into biochar can shift soils from being a source of greenhouse gases to a potential climate solution,” said the study’s corresponding author. “Our results highlight how small changes in soil management can have large environmental benefits.” Nitrous oxide, or N2O, is a powerful greenhouse gas with ...

UC Riverside researchers have identified a mechanism that allows plants to rapidly slow growth in response to extreme environmental stress. The finding could help farmers grow more resilient crops, and one researcher continued the work years into retirement to uncover it. The rapid response system is based on a process inside plant cells that produces compounds needed for growth, development, and survival. If even one of the key enzymes in this process fails, the plant cannot live.  Under stress conditions such as intense light, this biological pathway behaves in an unexpected manner. Rather than being governed by changes in gene expression, a standard mechanism in biology, ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00:05 GMT WEDNESDAY 25 MARCH 2026 The hidden cost of sperm storage: ejaculates found to deteriorate across the animal kingdom Current World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines typically recommend 2–7 days of abstinence before taking semen samples or assisted reproduction. However, a new study led by Oxford University researchers suggests that regular ejaculation – whether through sexual activity or masturbation – results in higher quality sperm, with less DNA damage.  The ...

UCL Press release Embargoed until Tuesday March 24th 23:30 UK time / 19:30 US Eastern time Peer-reviewed / Observational study / People Parenting programmes can improve wellbeing for families from diverse backgrounds Evidence-based parenting programmes delivered through community organisations can support family wellbeing and should be considered as part of wider strategies to reduce health inequalities, a landmark UCL study has found. In a new paper published in The Lancet Public Health, the researchers assessed the effectiveness and value for money of the Race Equality Foundation-designed Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities (SFSC) programme, ...

By Tiffany Dobbyn, UC Davis Packaged foods offer convenience for families and individuals, but they can be a major source of saturated fat, sodium and added sugars, which when consumed in excess contribute to chronic disease. To help people build healthier diets, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed a new front-of-package nutrition label in January 2025 that would inform consumers about the presence of these nutrients. While the FDA works to finalize the label, a research team led by the University of California, ...

Astronomers at the University of Warwick have validated over 100 exoplanets, including 31 newly detected planets, using a new artificial intelligence tool applied to data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a space mission that monitors the sky for the subtle dimming of starlight caused when planets pass in front of their host stars.  Published in MNRAS, the team applied their newly developed AI pipeline called RAVEN to observations of over 2.2 million stars collected during TESS’s first four years of operations.  They focused on finding planets ...

Schools, families and social pressures are channelling young people – especially girls and poorer students – away from studying creative subjects because they are considered low-status or financially “risky”, a report says. The University of Cambridge study argues that the underrepresentation of women and people from lower-income backgrounds in the creative industries reflects a “narrowing pathway” that begins at school, and steers students away from subjects like art, music and drama as their education ...

Preparing a home cooked meal at least once a week may cut older people’s risk of dementia by 30%, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.  And this risk may be 70% lower in older novice cooks with few culinary skills, the findings indicate.  Over the past few decades, people have increasingly come to rely on restaurants, takeaways, and frozen food rather than cooking their meals at home, note the Japanese researchers.  But for older people, meal preparation is not only an important source of physical activity, but also cognitive ...

Maternal deaths rise by around 11% in countries that rely on US aid following a switch from a Democratic to a Republican administration, suggest the findings of a data analysis published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health. This is equivalent to around 45 additional deaths for every 100,000 live births, eroding a fifth of the decline in global maternal deaths that has been achieved since 1985, conclude the researchers. US foreign aid for family planning and reproductive health services has been heavily influenced by changes in the implementation of the Mexico City Policy—first introduced as the US Policy on Population ...

Barcelona, Spain: Women who are treated with mastectomy for breast cancer often choose to have surgery to reconstruct the breast using an implant. But hard, painful scar tissue can form around the implant, especially when women have radiotherapy as part of their treatment.   New research, presented at the 15th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC15) in Barcelona today (Wednesday), shows that the risk of this scarring and the need for further corrective surgery could be reduced if women are given a polyurethane-coated breast implant. These implants are made of silicon, but they have a spongy outer layer, ...

Barcelona, Spain: The chances of breast cancer recurring remain very low when patients are treated with radiotherapy that is tailored to their individual risk following chemotherapy and surgery. These are the findings of a ten-year study presented at the 15th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC15) in Barcelona today (Wednesday).   In the study, radiotherapy treatment was selected according to whether there were still signs of breast cancer cells in patients’ lymph nodes after chemotherapy and surgery. For women with no signs of cancer remaining in the lymph nodes, this approach meant minimal or even no radiotherapy. Scaling treatment ...

People often downplay being offended during online arguments to appear more rational, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).  A new study reveals how social media users navigate, negotiate and often reject accusations of being offended during heated online exchanges, even when their language suggests strong emotional involvement.  Recent debates illustrate the pattern. For example, when YouTuber and professional boxer Jake Paul criticised singer Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, ...