Research announcements from universities, hospitals and scientific institutions. Explore the stories, people and discoveries behind the headlines.
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MIT scientists developed a method to detect the specific stratospheric temperature signals of individual volcanic eruptions and wildfires against background climate noise, confirming measurable atmospheric effects from Pinatubo (1991), the 2019-20 Australian fires, and Hunga Tonga (2022).
Read the releaseA Waterloo research team has used a sunlight-driven photocatalyst to convert plastic waste into acetic acid at high selectivity, offering a potential route to both reducing microplastic pollution and generating a commercially valuable chemical.
Read the releaseFederal criminal environmental enforcement by the EPA tends to cluster in wealthier counties rather than in communities facing the worst pollution, according to a study from Washington State University. The analysis challenges a common assumption that the agency's toughest sanctions serve as a backstop for environmental justice. Instead, the pattern suggests enforcement follows economic and legal infrastructure that makes prosecution easier, not environmental need -- an equity gap with significant policy implications.
Read the releaseRadiocarbon dating of dissolved CO2 in Lac Mai Ndombe and Lac Tumba in the Democratic Republic of Congo reveals that up to 40 percent of the carbon being emitted comes from peat thousands of years old - not recently decomposed plant matter as previously assumed. The Congo Basin peatlands store around one-third of all tropical peatland carbon globally, covering 0.3 percent of Earth's land surface. Two parallel studies published in Nature Geoscience and Journal of Geophysical Research also found that lower water levels allow larger methane emissions. How the ancient carbon is mobilized remains unknown.
Read the releaseScientists from the University of Edinburgh's Wallace Lab have demonstrated that E. coli bacteria fed sugars from waste bread can produce enough biological hydrogen to drive hydrogenation reactions under mild, near-room-temperature conditions in a single sealed flask. Hydrogenation currently depends almost entirely on hydrogen derived from fossil fuels and requires temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius. Life cycle analysis showed the process can be carbon-negative when waste bread is the feedstock. The study was published in Nature Chemistry.
Read the releaseClimate researchers at the University of Graz have developed a new mathematical method for computing the total extremity of climate hazard events - combining frequency, duration, intensity, and spatial extent into a single metric. Applied to daily maximum temperature records across Europe from 1961 to 2024, the method finds a roughly tenfold increase in the total extremity of extreme heat in Austria and Central and Southern Europe over the current climate period (2010-2024) compared to the 1961-1990 baseline. The study was published in Weather and Climate Extremes.
Read the releaseFossil specimens of ancient marine amphibians collected in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in the 1960s-70s, then lost for roughly 50 years, have been rediscovered and reanalyzed. High-resolution 3D imaging reveals that the collection contains not one but two distinct trematosaurid species - Erythrobatrachus and Aphaneramma - occupying different ecological roles in the same habitat 250 million years ago. Aphaneramma fossils are known from Svalbard, Russia, Pakistan, and Madagascar, confirming rapid trans-oceanic dispersal of early Mesozoic marine vertebrates.
Read the releaseA multinational research team has published a roadmap in Nature Reviews Biodiversity proposing a unified Biodiversity Observation Network for Europe built around 84 Essential Biodiversity Variables. The plan calls for a new EU-level coordination centre, standardized data pipelines integrating eDNA, acoustic sensors, satellite imagery and citizen science, and alignment with the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. The European Parliament has already approved a preparatory action to begin implementation.
Read the releaseUsing publicly available ocean data spanning 65 years and climate model experiments, Duke University researchers found that specific salinity patterns in the western Pacific can increase El Nino intensity by about 20% and make extreme events twice as likely. Fresher water at the equator combined with saltier water farther away drives eastward currents that push warm surface water east, feeding El Nino development - a mechanism overlooked in existing forecasting models.
Read the releaseModels for the Antarctic Peninsula show that at very high emissions sea ice could fall 20% and ice shelves face collapse, while a low-emissions path limits winter sea ice loss and Peninsula sea level contributions to a few millimeters.
Read the releaseA new open-access book from AABNet, ILRI, and three partner organizations consolidates research on Africa's indigenous livestock genetics and outlines science-based breeding strategies that preserve adaptive traits while improving productivity.
Read the releaseScientists combined two industrial waste streams - metals recovered from spent mobile phone batteries and carbon derived from lignin byproducts - to produce a composite anode material that delivered over 1,000 mAh/g initial capacity in sodium-ion battery tests, pointing to a scalable low-cost production pathway.
Read the releaseA 20-person team led by University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno discovered a new species of Spinosaurus in northern Niger, named Spinosaurus mirabilis for its large scimitar-shaped bony crest. The find is remarkable partly because spinosaurids had previously been found only near ancient coastlines - this specimen lived up to 1,000 kilometers inland from the Tethys Sea, in a riparian habitat 100-95 million years ago.
Read the releaseAn international team led by Cambridge University analyzed chemical fingerprints in deep-sea cores off Portugal spanning 5.3 million years of climate history. They pinpoint a threshold crossed roughly 2.7 million years ago when the growth of northern hemisphere ice sheets triggered violent millennial-scale temperature swings during glacial periods - the same period when the genus Homo first appeared in the fossil record.
Read the releaseScientists at Southwest Research Institute and NSF's National Center for Atmospheric Research have built PINNBARDS, an AI-driven tool that reconstructs subsurface solar magnetic states from surface data. The approach could extend space weather forecasting from hours to weeks, protecting GPS systems, power grids, and astronauts.
Read the releaseA lidar station in northern Germany detected a lithium plume at 94-97 km altitude in February 2025 that was 10 times the baseline concentration. Atmospheric modeling traced the source to a Falcon 9 upper stage re-entering over the Atlantic, marking the first direct detection of upper-atmospheric pollution from space debris re-entry, published in Communications Earth and Environment.
Read the releaseResearchers at Jeonbuk National University reviewed and demonstrated metal oxide electrode systems that detect microplastics electrochemically in water samples. The approach offers significant advantages over conventional spectroscopy in speed, cost, and potential for real-time monitoring in aquatic environments.
Read the releaseA new analysis combining field data and molecular evidence confirms that Hierodula tenuidentata, the giant Asian mantis, has established self-sustaining populations in southern Europe - meeting the formal criteria for invasive species status. The findings raise concerns for native mantid populations and insect biodiversity.
Read the releaseJapanese scarab beetles of two closely related species use mirror-image versions of the same pheromone molecule to attract mates of their own species and repel males of the other - a chemical system that prevents wasted mating attempts between species sharing the same habitat.
Read the releaseExtreme fire weather is increasingly striking multiple countries simultaneously, shrinking the window when nations can share firefighting resources. A global analysis spanning 1979 to 2024 attributes more than half of this increase to human-caused climate change.
Read the releaseThe first company-level monitor of energy transition progress, applied to 25,000 Hungarian businesses, shows the shift to low-carbon energy is barely occurring in the private sector. If current trends hold, fossil fuels will still supply 80% of business energy in 2050 - far short of the EU's climate-neutrality target.
Read the releaseNorwegian University of Science and Technology researchers deliberately encased polar willow plots in ice for five consecutive January experiments starting in 2016. The plants survived intact. Those also subjected to summer warming in open-top greenhouses produced more above-ground biomass, flowered earlier, and dispersed seeds earlier than plants in neither treatment - raising questions about how Arctic plants may respond to changing climate.
Read the releaseA Jeonbuk National University research team overcame a fundamental wettability problem with carbon cloth electrodes to create a Prussian blue system that adsorbs 1,173 milligrams of cesium per gram within three hours - the highest figure reported to date - while maintaining 97 percent efficiency across repeated cycles.
Read the releaseConventional biomaterials weaken when wet. Inspired by marine worm fangs, researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia combined chitosan with nickel ions to create a material that becomes up to 50 percent stronger when immersed in water, with a closed-loop process that recovers 100 percent of the nickel used.
Read the releaseStomach contents reflect only a few hours of recent feeding in ringed seals, usually a limitation. A study in Inglefield Bredning, Greenland turned that limitation into an advantage by comparing stomach contents with harvest locations. Seals caught near glacier fronts had fuller stomachs and ate different prey - a finding with implications as Arctic glaciers retreat.
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