In collaboration with the National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Oshima College, the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) succeeded in developing a new regenerator material composed solely of abundant elements, such as copper, iron, and aluminum, that can achieve cryogenic temperatures (approx. 4 K = −269°C or below) without using any rare-earth metals or liquid helium. By utilizing a special property called "frustration" found in some magnetic materials, where the spins cannot simultaneously satisfy each other's orientations in a triangular lattice, the team demonstrated a novel method that replaces the ...

First-ever measurements of melatonin in wild sharks show that artificial light from coastal cities can disrupt nighttime hormone levels, with resident species more affected than highly mobile sharks. MIAMI — Artificial light from major coastal cities can disrupt the nighttime biology of sharks, according to new research that provides the first-ever measurements of melatonin—a hormone tied to biological rhythms—in wild sharks. The study, published in Science of the Total Environment, found that sharks living in brightly lit coastal waters near large urban areas had altered melatonin levels at night compared to ...

Key Takeaways Pregnancy and breastfeeding may improve long-term cognitive function in women.  The study found that an increase in cumulative time spent pregnant and time spent breastfeeding correlated with greater cognition, verbal memory and visual memory later in life.  The findings may open the door to potential advancements in preventative strategies targeting women at greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Female brains have historically evolved to adapt to pregnancy, undergoing structural and functional changes. But the cognitive health implications of these adaptations have long ...

The vibrant colors in our clothes and consumer goods often come at a heavy environmental price. Organic dyes are notorious water pollutants, stubbornly resisting traditional treatment and threatening aquatic ecosystems. Now, a comprehensive review published in Carbon Research highlights a brilliant new solution: using microscopic "carbon dots" and common polymers to harness the power of light for cleaning up contaminated water. Leading this research is Professor Elena F. Krivoshapkina from ITMO University in St. Petersburg. Her team’s ...

A new study reveals that biochar can create tiny but powerful soil microenvironments that significantly reduce cadmium contamination in crops. The findings offer fresh insight into how this carbon-rich material can improve food safety and environmental health when applied to polluted farmland. The research, published in Sustainable Carbon Materials, shows that when biochar is mixed into soil, it forms a distinct zone known as the “charosphere.” Within only a few millimeters around each biochar particle, soil chemistry changes in ways that ...

Scientists are exploring how graphene-based materials could help solve one of the most pressing environmental challenges of the modern era: the growing spread of new contaminants in water, soil, and ecosystems. In a newly published perspective article, researchers highlight how advanced graphene-based technologies may provide powerful tools for removing emerging pollutants, including microplastics, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, pharmaceutical residues, and radioactive contaminants. These substances are increasingly detected in natural and engineered environments but remain difficult to remove using conventional treatment methods. New contaminants, ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new analysis shows that the Pacific Northwest’s mature and old-growth forests are most at risk of severe wildfire in areas that historically burned frequently at lower severity. The study by scientists at Oregon State University and USDA Forest Service Research & Development is important because those forests are culturally, economically and ecologically significant, supporting biodiversity while storing vast amounts of carbon, and they are under increasing threat of stand-replacing wildfire. Researchers used state-of-the-art modeling techniques to gain knowledge that can help guide ...

Anxiety is the second leading cause of disability and mortality worldwide. Roughly a third of adults in the U.S. will experience an anxiety disorder within their lifetime, and the median age of onset is 17 years old. Anxiety increases the risk for multiple other problematic outcomes, including depression and suicide. While social media can be a cause of anxiety, it can also be a potential solution. A researcher at the University of Arkansas recently found that young adults who receive emotional support on social media are significantly more likely to report reduced anxiety symptoms, with a few specific personality traits reporting the most improved well-being.   Among the study’s ...

DETROIT – A collaborative team of researchers and students from Wayne State University’s Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, School of Medicine, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Institute of Gerontology are studying the impact of a backward walking program on individuals with multiple sclerosis. The study, “Structural and Functional Changes With 8 Weeks of Backward Walking Training in Multiple Sclerosis: A Case Series,” was published in the January issue of the Journal of Neurologic ...

Embargoed until Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, 10 a.m. CT/11 a.m. ET NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 3, 2026 – Eleven top scientists in stroke and brain health will be recognized for their individual exceptional professional achievements and contributions to stroke and brain health care and research during the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2026. The meeting will be held in New Orleans, Feb. 3-6, and is a world premier meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health. The awardees include five groundbreaking scientists who have devoted ...

Media Contact: pr@cos.io A new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) proposes a systems-level framework for evaluating the trustworthiness of research findings across methods and approaches.  The paper, “A Framework for Assessing the Trustworthiness of Research Findings”, is authored by a multidisciplinary group of research leaders with expertise in metascience, research integrity and assessment, and science communication: Brian Nosek (Center for Open Science; University of Virginia), David Allison (Baylor College of Medicine), Kathleen Hall Jamieson ...

Porto, Portugal, 3 February 2026 – Governments, industry representatives and international organizations representing over 70 countries at the International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit 2026 reaffirmed today the need to strengthen support for the subsea cables at the heart of global digital communications. A declaration issued at the summit’s closing in Porto, Portugal, together with a set of recommendations developed by the International Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience, offered guidance to bolster international cooperation across the public and private sectors to boost the resilience of this vital shared infrastructure, ...

A multidisciplinary team of University of Cincinnati Cancer Center researchers has received a $40,000 Ride Cincinnati grant to study a delayed release preparation, or wafer, of an immunostimulatory molecule to stimulate the central nervous system (CNS) immune system after surgery to remove glioblastoma, a form of primary brain cancer. Jonathan Forbes, MD, the project’s principal investigator, explained glioblastomas are the most common type of primary cancer of the brain. Only 5% to 7% of patients with a glioblastoma survive five years after diagnosis. Effective treatments for these tumors have been hard to identify for decades due to two primary ...

Before the opening bell ever rings on a company’s initial public offerings, some of the executives may already be sitting on a quiet windfall. An IPO can act as a source of “cheap money” because of how stock options are valued before a company goes public. In private firms, options are supposed to be issued “at the money,” with exercise prices reflecting the fair value of the shares at the time of the grant. But without a public market price, those valuations rely on models and judgment, giving companies wide discretion. When the ...

Cancer is one of the causes responsible for the most deaths worldwide; in 2020, for example, it resulted in ten million deaths. It has been estimated that micro-organism infections caused between 13-18% of these cases. Until now, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified thirteen micro-organisms as carcinogenic, which include viruses, bacteria and parasites. However, recent studies have shown that there are other micro-organism types linked to cancer; some of them are fungi. The Candida albicans fungus is one of them: “This fungus is part of ...

Home service workers—those who provide care, inspections, or repairs inside private homes—can often lack paid sick leave, making illness a direct financial risk. New research from George Mason University College of Public Health suggests paid sick leave should be understood not only as an employee benefit, but as a preventive health intervention.  In the study led by assistant nursing professor Suyoung Kwon, paid sick leave was linked to lower perceived infection risk, reduced job stress, and higher job satisfaction. During the early months of COVID-19, the research team surveyed more than 1,600 home service workers in South Korea, including home nurses, childcare ...

AMHERST, Mass. — In 2023, a subatomic particle called a neutrino crashed into Earth with such a high amount of energy that it should have been impossible. In fact, there are no known sources anywhere in the universe capable of producing such energy—100,000 times more than the highest-energy particle ever produced by the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. However, a team of physicists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently hypothesized that something like this could happen when a special kind of black hole, called a “quasi-extremal primordial black hole,” explodes. In new research published by Physical Review ...

A swarm of small earthquakes within the Karoo Basin in South Africa has revealed a critically stressed fault that could be perturbed by potential shale gas exploration in the area, according to a new report in Seismological Research Letters. The analysis by Benjamin Whitehead of the University of Cape Town and colleagues concludes that the Karoo microseismicity occurred along a buried fault that may extend through sedimentary layers to the crystalline bedrock, which would increase its vulnerability to stresses produced ...

The vaginal microbiota is shaped by bacterial access to specific nutritional resources, influencing health outcomes. This study uses a resource-based model supported by clinical data to identify key ecological mechanisms underlying microbiota composition and potential bacterial vaginosis interventions.   In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology: https://plos.io/4qaZ2kt  Article title: Resource landscape shapes the composition and stability of the human vaginal microbiota Author countries: France, United States Funding: Research reported in this publication was supported by the Fondation pour ...

A research team led by La Trobe University has developed a single-use test strip which could ultimately change how diseases like cancer are diagnosed.   The research, published in the journal Small, used enzymes to boost an electrical signal to detect disease-indicative molecules, also known as microRNAs.   The biosensor works in a similar way to glucose test strips but senior researcher Dr Saimon Moraes Silva said it was much more sensitive, detecting microRNAs in blood plasma at ultra-low concentrations ...

FEBRUARY 2, 2026, NEW YORK – It is with great pleasure that we announce that the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research has established the Ludwig Laboratory for Cell Therapy at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center. The laboratory is directed by former Ludwig Lausanne Director George Coukos, a physician-scientist and global authority on tumor immunology and cellular immunotherapy. Coukos returns to the U.S. following an extraordinarily productive tenure over the past decade as the founding director of the current Lausanne Branch and of the Department of ...

WASHINGTON—A new expert opinion from the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) examines the evolving role of angiography-derived physiology (ADP), a wire-free method for coronary physiologic assessment that applies computational modeling or artificial intelligence (AI) to standard coronary angiographic images for the assessment and management of coronary artery disease.  Published in JSCAI, “Angiography-Derived Physiology for Coronary Artery Disease Assessment: Expert Opinion from ...

Young men are being encouraged to undergo testosterone testing and start hormone therapy through Instagram and TikTok content that promotes unproven health claims while downplaying medical risks, a new international study has found.     The study was done at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Medicine and Health, and led by Emma Grundtvig Gram, a visiting PhD student from the University of Copenhagen. It found that influencer marketing on social media is normalising unnecessary testosterone testing ...

In a new partnership between open-access scholarly publisher Pensoft and the AI-driven reviewer discovery system provider Prophy, the editorial teams at all journals hosted on the publisher’s ARPHA Platform receive access to a broader and more diverse global pool of researchers.  The integration connects ARPHA’s editorial and peer review workflows with Prophy’s continuously updated database of millions of active, qualified researchers. As a result, editorial teams across more than 90 open-access peer-reviewed journals powered by ARPHA can now opt to enjoy data-driven reviewer recommendations based on structured analysis ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2026 — Arctic sea ice has large effects on the global climate. By cooling the planet, Arctic ice impacts ocean circulation, atmospheric patterns, and extreme weather conditions, even outside the Arctic region. However, climate change has led to its rapid decline, and being able to make real-time predictions of sea ice extent (SIE) — the area of water with a minimum concentration of sea ice — has become crucial for monitoring sea ice health. In Chaos, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the United States and the ...