February 12, 2026 - New research following US adolescents ages 11–12 shows that problematic use of mobile phones, social media, and video games was associated with higher risks of mental health problems, sleep disturbance, and suicidal behaviors one year later. The study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, reveals that the links between problematic screen use and mental health are stronger than those previously reported for overall screen time and highlights the risks of addictive use. Screen use increases rapidly during early adolescence, ...

The National Science Foundation has awarded a UT San Antonio assistant professor of biology, health and the environment the distinguished Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award. The assistant professor, Matthew Troia, will use the award to investigate how climate change and urbanization are affecting freshwater ecosystems by enabling exotic tropical fish species to expand northward. “We hope our research will provide a deeper understanding of how biodiversity responds to increasing human impacts on the environment,” Troia said. “Our goal is to ...

Medieval Christians in Denmark showed off their wealth in death by buying prestigious graves: the closer to the church, the higher the price. Researchers used these gravesites to investigate social exclusion based on illness, by studying whether people with leprosy — a highly stigmatized disease culturally associated with sin — or tuberculosis were kept out of the higher-status areas. Unexpectedly, they found that people who were ill with stigmatized diseases were buried just as prominently as their peers.  “When we started this ...

Cognitive impairment, including decreased attention and memory, remains one of the most disabling aspects of schizophrenia, affecting social life of patients. However, no effective treatment has yet been established for it. Now, researchers have investigated the effect of adding brexpiprazole on cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia. The findings revealed that patients with schizophrenia receiving adjunctive brexpiprazole showed a meaningful improvement in information processing speed, without worsening psychiatric symptoms.   Schizophrenia ...

Background Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by progressive cognitive decline and memory impairment with an insidious and irreversible pathological process. As the global population ages, AD imposes a heavy burden on families and society: one new case is diagnosed every 3 seconds worldwide. Advanced-stage patients lose full self-care ability, and the associated medical and nursing costs account for over 1.3% of the global GDP. Current clinical treatments mainly focus on symptomatic relief: cholinesterase inhibitors and the N-methyl-D-aspartate ...

In a study published in Robot Learning journal, researchers propose a new learning-based path planning framework that allows mobile robots to navigate safely and efficiently using a Transformer model. By learning from Improved RRT* with Reduced Random Map Size path-planning algorithms and combining this knowledge with a modified right-of-way rule, the system enables reliable navigation and replanning in dynamic multi-robot environments. Autonomous mobile robots are increasingly used in factories, warehouses, and service environments to transport materials and perform repetitive tasks. To operate safely, robots must plan collision-free ...

Nurses can safely deliver many services traditionally performed by doctors, with little to no difference in deaths, safety events, or how patients felt about their health, according to a new Cochrane review. In some cases, nurse-led care even outperformed doctor-led care. Healthcare services are facing pressure due to an ageing population, complex health needs, long waiting lists, and doctor shortages. Receiving care from nurses, rather than doctors has been proposed as one way to improve access to hospital services for patients who ...

Niigata, Japan - Researchers at Niigata University have used advanced three-dimensional (3D) imaging to reveal how amyloid β (Aβ) deposits spread along blood vessels in the human brain in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). By analyzing postmortem brain tissue, the team showed that vascular amyloid deposition is most prominent in surface arteries and extends continuously toward deeper vascular branches, providing insight into the spatial organization of amyloid pathology in CAA. CAA is a cerebrovascular disorder ...

Trauma patients urgently requiring a breathing tube are more likely to survive if the tube is inserted before arriving at hospital compared to insertion afterwards, suggests a modelling study led by researchers at University College London (UCL) and the Severn Major Trauma Network. The researchers found that prehospital emergency intubation of high-risk trauma patients could improve 30-day survival by 10.3%, and could save 170 lives each year in the UK. The findings of the new artificial intelligence (AI)-supported analysis, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, provides ...

One of the longest stellar dimming events ever observed was likely caused by the gigantic saucer-like rings of either an unseen brown dwarf or 'super-Jupiter' blocking its host star's light, astronomers say. For decades the star – which sits 3,200 light-years from Earth and is about twice as big as our Sun – had been observed as stable, but at the end of 2024 it faded dramatically. It then remained this way for more than nine months, far longer than is normal for an event like this, sparking confusion among researchers and prompting speculation as to what could have caused such an "extremely rare" phenomenon. Now, in a new study published today in Monthly ...

Embargoed until 2:45 PM PST, February 11, 2026        Study: Discontinuing Antidepressants in Pregnancy Nearly Doubles Risk of Mental Health Emergencies       Las Vegas, NV – Pregnant patients who stopped taking their antidepressant medication during pregnancy were almost twice as likely to experience a mental health emergency compared with pregnant patients who continued taking their prescription, according to new research presented today at ...

WASHINGTON—The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), the leading nonprofit medical society representing invasive and interventional cardiology, is proud to participate in the relaunch of the Congressional Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) Caucus, organized by the PAD Pulse Alliance and hosted by Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL). The bipartisan event brought together physicians, patient advocates, and lawmakers to discuss current research and data, treatment, and urgent ...

Phase II study evaluates treatment for patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), a rare, aggressive blood cancer The antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) pivekimab sunirine (PVEK) targets the CD123 antigen, which is overexpressed in BPDCN PVEK monotherapy demonstrated strong responses, enabling ability to proceed with stem cell transplant for high-risk subgroup of patients with BPDCN Seventy-five percent of patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) who were treated with the antibody-drug conjugate ...

Professor Zhen Zhang's research group at the State Key Laboratory of Bionic Interface Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, proposed and constructed a neuromorphic computing system based on a cascaded van der Waals heterostructure two-dimensional nanofluidic membrane, achieving light-driven electron-ion coupling to simulate neural signal transmission and neuromorphic visual information processing. The article was published as an open access Research Article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese ...

In the lush landscapes of tropical agriculture, two waste products—oyster shells from the sea and coconut shells from the trees—are being combined to solve a major headache for farmers: how to turn animal manure into high-quality compost faster and more effectively. A study recently published in Carbon Research reveals that a unique "Ca-modified biochar" can act as a powerful catalyst for the composting process. Developed by a research team at Hainan University, this new material helps transform pig manure and rice straw into stable, nutrient-rich humus, significantly boosting the ...

Researchers have found that most biochar fed to dairy cows survives the digestive process and remains highly stable, meaning it could be applied to fields through manure and act as a long-term carbon storage solution. The findings provide new evidence that livestock systems could play a role in climate change mitigation. The study, recently published in Biochar, investigated what happens to biochar after it passes through the digestive system of cattle. Biochar is a carbon-rich material produced ...

Scientists have uncovered practical strategies that can significantly reduce harmful air pollution from composting while improving the quality of organic fertilizers. The findings, based on a large global meta-analysis, provide new evidence to help farmers, waste managers, and policymakers adopt climate-smart composting practices. The research, published in Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes, analyzed data from 135 scientific studies and 1,683 experimental observations worldwide. The study evaluated how different ...

A global research collaboration of scientists from McMaster University (Canada), Flinders University (Australia) and Universitätsmedizin Greifswald (Germany) uncovered why a small number of people developed dangerous blood clots after either receiving certain COVID‑19 vaccines or experiencing a natural adenovirus infection, and the answer lies in an unexpected case of misdirected targeting by the immune system. The discovery, published Feb. 12, 2026 in the New England Journal of Medicine, explains ...

NEW YORK, NY--Researchers at Columbia University have found that accidental drug overdose, homicide, and suicide are the leading causes of death among pregnant and postpartum women.  The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.  “Overdose and violence are not typically on our radar when it comes to thinking about approaches to reducing maternal morbidity and mortality, but these events are far more common among pregnant and postpartum women than we think,” says Hooman Azad, who led the study and is a maternal-fetal medicine fellow ...

Even though aging is the largest risk factor for Parkinson’s disease, the majority of research aimed at taming the incurable neurodegenerative motor disease has largely left aging out of the mix.  A group of researchers from around the globe seek to change that.  “Unraveling the intersection of aging and Parkinson’s disease: a collaborative road map for advancing research models,” is now available online at the Nature publication npj Parkinson’s Disease. The vast majority ...

Researchers at the University of California San Diego and the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System have identified a distinct biological pattern of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), a chronic respiratory illness frequently associated with exposure to airborne toxins, such as wildfire smoke and military burn pits. The research team, led by first author and UC San Diego Assistant Professor of Medicine Xinyu "Steve" Wang, MD, PhD, found that veterans with CRS who were exposed to burn pits and other toxins show a marked increase in sinus ...

University of Houston engineering professor Venkat Selvamanickam has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional honors awarded to engineers worldwide. Selvamanickam is the M.D. Anderson Chair Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and director of the Advanced Manufacturing Institute at the UH Cullen College of Engineering. He was recognized for his cutting-edge contributions to industrial-scale advanced manufacturing processes for high-temperature superconductor wires ...

When severe weather strikes, the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Office of Water Prediction (OWP) makes critical flood forecasts with the National Water Model. Despite improvements over time, the model’s performance has plateaued in recent years, leaving researchers from the federal government, academia, and private industry searching for a better solution.    Now a new set of software tools, the Next Generation Water Resources Modeling framework, or NextGen, will help develop better predictions. As detailed in a new study led by OWP and the University ...

ANN ARBOR—A University of Michigan study has taken a fine-grained, long-term look at residential-area air pollution and how it relates to deteriorating mobility—and hindered recovery—for older Americans. By pairing and comparing the mobility and disability experiences of 29,790 participants in the national Health and Retirement Study with air quality exposures over 10 years, a team of veteran environmental health researchers found that people with long-term exposures were at greater risk of progressing from no physical function limitations to states of more physical function limitations ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2026 Highlights: New research shows that people who engage in lifelong learning such as reading, writing and learning languages have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and slower cognitive decline. The study does not prove that lifelong learning decreases the risk of Alzheimer’s; it only shows an association. The study looked at 1,939 adults, examining cognitive enrichment including access to atlases and newspapers as children and having library cards in middle age. People in the ...