Research announcements from universities, hospitals and scientific institutions. Explore the stories, people and discoveries behind the headlines.
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Fiberglass particles appeared in 96% of sediment sites sampled at the Cowichan Estuary in 2023, up from 64% in 2020. The 400-hectare intertidal area supports migratory shorebirds, shellfish harvesting, and Cowichan Tribes First Nations food security - making contamination an urgent management concern.
Read the releaseOf 1,567 shed antlers examined from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 86% showed gnaw marks and 99% of those marks were made by caribou. The finding offers a compelling answer to why female caribou evolved antlers: to bring calcium and phosphorus to calving grounds and consume them when nursing demands peak.
Read the releaseResearcher Daiki Sato used genetic analysis, remote sensing, and behavioral experiments on two Tokyo Bay isopods and found that artificial light at night explains their different distribution patterns, with light exposure reducing activity in one species and acting as a barrier to genetic exchange.
Read the releaseMorocco's INRA found digital soil color analysis predicted organic matter with high accuracy at 96% lower cost than standard chemical methods, with a five-year ROI of 940% for labs processing 5,000 samples annually.
Read the releaseUniversity of Queensland scientists have pinpointed the genomic region in the wild Calcutta 4 banana subspecies that controls resistance to Fusarium wilt Sub Tropical Race 4 - a soil-borne disease threatening Cavendish banana crops worldwide and for which no chemical control exists.
Read the releaseA long-term field experiment finds that blending biochar, compost, and sludge reduces cumulative drainage by more than 40 percent compared to individual treatments in sandy soils. The results point toward practical strategies for drought-prone agriculture where water retention is the limiting factor.
Read the releaseAn international team from the University of Galway and University Ibn Zohr in Morocco has mapped the environmental conditions that determine where the most dangerous scorpion species concentrate in central Morocco - a region responsible for a significant share of the estimated 2 million annual scorpion stings worldwide. Published in Environmental Research Communications, the findings show soil type is the primary driver of most species' distributions, with temperature playing a key role for others.
Read the releaseA decade-long study has revealed that rising atmospheric CO₂ and warming work together to reduce the availability of phosphorus in rice-upland crop rotation systems, potentially threatening future food security. The research, which was led by scientists from the Institute of Soil Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, shows that warming plays a dominant role in redirecting phosphorus into less accessible soil pools. The findings were published in Nature Geoscience on February 3. The journal also invited ...
Read the releaseEarth’s surface is covered by more than a dozen tectonic plates, and in subduction zones around the world—including the Japanese Islands—plates converge and dense oceanic plates sink into the Earth’s interior. These regions, especially plate boundaries, are known for frequent seismic activity. In recent years, scientists have increasingly emphasized that water plays a crucial role in earthquake phenomena in subduction zones, and thus conducted active research to investigate the influence of water on various processes occurring within earthquake source regions. When water is supplied, peridotite—the primary constituent of ...
Read the releaseStanford researchers have created the first-ever global map of a rare earthquake type that occurs not in Earth’s crust but in our planet’s mantle, the layer sandwiched between the thin crust and Earth’s molten core. The new map will help scientists learn more about the mechanics of mantle earthquakes, in turn opening a window into the complexities and triggers for all earthquakes. As reported in a study published Feb. 5 in Science, continental mantle earthquakes occur worldwide but are clustered regionally, particularly in the Himalayas in southern Asia and the ...
Read the releaseA new study reveals that soil acidity plays a critical role in determining how wheat competes with soil microorganisms for nitrogen, a nutrient essential for plant growth and global food production. The findings provide new insight into how farmers may optimize nitrogen use efficiency and improve crop productivity by considering soil chemical conditions. Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients limiting plant growth worldwide. Plants typically absorb nitrogen from the soil in two primary forms: ammonium and nitrate. However, plants are not the only organisms that rely on these nutrients. Soil microorganisms ...
Read the releaseBefore plants evolved, vegetative life consisted of primitive green algae living in the sea. Like plants, these algae survived by performing photosynthesis, turning sunlight into energy. However, little light reaches the ocean where algae live; therefore, they evolved specialized organs to grab what little is available. Among these tiny ocean algae are prasinophytes, which are among the earliest photosynthetic life forms on Earth. Like all photosynthetic organisms, they rely on a pigment–protein complex called LHC to capture sunlight. How efficiently LHC performs photosynthesis in different environments depends on the pigments ...
Read the releaseThe fossils, representing at least five individuals, were first uncovered by Fidel Torcida Fernández-Baldor of the Dinosaur Museum of Salas de los Infantes. “From the beginning, we knew these bones were exceptional because of their minute size. It is equally impressive how the study of this animal overturns global ideas on ornithopod dinosaur evolution,” he notes. The genus name Foskeia is derived from the ancient Greek. The prefix fos means ‘light’, given the very lightweight and small body size of grown individuals (Dieudonné et al. 2023). The combination of letters ...
Read the releaseBabies and very young sauropods – the long-necked, long-tailed plant-eaters that in adulthood were the largest animals to have ever walked on land – were a key food sustaining predators in the Late Jurassic, according to a new study led by a UCL (University College London) researcher. The study, published in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, used data from fossils laid down 150 million years ago in the Morrison Formation*, in the United States, to map out a “food web” of the time – a gigantic network of who ate what and who ate whom. The research team found that very young sauropods, relatively defenceless ...
Read the releaseCadmium contamination in agricultural soils is a growing global concern, threatening food safety, crop productivity, and human health. New research shows that not all biochars work the same way and that choosing the right type of biochar can make the difference between trapping toxic metals in soil or unintentionally making them more mobile. In a study published online on January 15, 2026, researchers report that biochar produced at high temperatures can work together with soil microbes to effectively immobilize cadmium, one of the most hazardous heavy metals found in farmland ...
Read the releaseFor decades, researchers thought that an October 1843 earthquake on the small Greek island of Chalke caused a powerful tsunami and led to the deaths of as many as 600 people. But a new analysis of primary accounts of the event by Ioanna Triantafyllou at Hellenic Mediterranean University suggests the truth was much less dramatic and destructive. As Triantafyllou reports in Seismological Research Letters, evidence from primary sources indicates that the mainshock occurred on Chalke on 17 September 1843, causing ...
Read the releaseA new three-dimensional model of the fault beneath the Marmara Sea in Türkiye reveals where a future major earthquake could take place, as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. Using electromagnetic measurements, the team mapped hidden structures that help explain how earthquakes initiate and where ruptures could occur in this region. The findings help improve earthquake forecasts and could guide disaster prevention strategies for millions living in Istanbul and nearby, where seismic risk is high. The Republic of Türkiye sits in one of the most seismically ...
Read the releaseBy tracking swarms of very small earthquakes, seismologists are getting a new picture of the complex region where the San Andreas fault meets the Cascadia subduction zone, an area that could give rise to devastating major earthquakes. The work, by researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of California, Davis and the University of Colorado Boulder, is published Jan. 15 in Science. “If we don’t understand the underlying tectonic processes, it’s hard to predict the seismic hazard,” said coauthor Amanda Thomas, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis. Three of the great tectonic ...
Read the releasePolyester microfibers in soil negatively impact the development of cherry tomato plants in experiments, raising concerns over the potential effect of high levels of such contaminants Article URL: https://plos.io/3Ne0e7W Article title: Polyester microfibers delay growth of cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme) throughout the lifecycle Author countries: Canada Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. END ...
Read the releaseFor decades, scientists have been counting annual growth rings—similar to tree rings—inside fossilized leg bones of Tyrannosaurus rex to estimate how old the giant carnivores were when they died and how quickly they grew to adulthood. The best estimates from previous studies were that T. rex typically stopped growing at around age 25. An extensive new study of 17 tyrannosaur specimens, ranging from early juveniles to massive adults, now concludes that the king of carnivores took 40 years to reach its full-grown size of around eight tons. The new analysis—the most complete life ...
Read the releaseA new study shows that resilient and remarkably diverse populations of organisms can persist in the soil despite harsh and extremely dry conditions. An international team led by researchers from the University of Cologne, has examined tiny nematodes in the Chilean Atacama Desert. Along with the polar regions, the Atacama Desert is considered one among these most arid regions in the world. Lack of rainfall, high salt content in the soil, and extreme temperature fluctuations make it one of the most hostile places on earth. The interdisciplinary team with researchers from the fields of zoology, ecology and botany demonstrated the strategies used by different nematodes ...
Read the releaseIn a surprising twist amid rising climate concerns, new research shows that scorching soil temperatures during extreme heatwaves do not necessarily boost the uptake of toxic elements like arsenic in rice crops. This finding, from a real world experiment during China's record breaking 2022 heatwaves, challenges fears that global warming will poison staple foods. "Our study reveals that soil warming alone, decoupled from air temperature rises, does not inevitably ramp up arsenic or heavy metal accumulation in rice grains," said Sha Zhang, ...
Read the releaseThe Seismological Society of America (SSA) will be holding its annual meeting on 14-18 April 2026 at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California. The meeting attracts more than 800 scientists, engineers and policymakers for presentations and posters that cover the latest seismological research from around the globe. The meeting's topics are presented in 53 technical sessions, including topics such as earthquake early warning, seismic ...
Read the releaseJohns Hopkins University geneticists and a small army of researchers across the country, including students, are working to catalog the vast and largely unknown soil microbiome of the United States. The project, one of the biggest microbiome studies ever attempted, that’s tapping the latest DNA-analysis technology, has already resulted in the discovery of more than 1,000 new strains of bacteria and never-before-seen microbes—still just a tiny fraction of the microbial dark matter. “This scientific void we’re trying to fill on microbial diversity could only be accomplished by having this network of scientists and students across the United States,” ...
Read the releaseSummary In April 2025, the Main Marmara Fault below the Sea of Marmara in north-western Türkiye has experienced its largest earthquake in over 60 years. In a new study now published in Science, a team of researchers led by Prof. Dr Patricia Martínez-Garzón from the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany, analyses nearly two decades of seismic data framing the 2025 April magnitude M 6.2 earthquake. The analysis of rupture dynamics and aftershock patterns on multiple temporal scales reveals a remarkable ...
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