Science
press releases.

Science17 Jul 2025

Do dogs judge you?

Kyoto, Japan -- Many people tend to trust dogs' instincts regarding humans. If dogs gravitate towards you, dog lovers will likely see you as safe and trustworthy, but if dogs are apprehensive around you, some may begin to question your character. Yet how and even if dogs socially evaluate people remains a mystery. Studies have demonstrated that cognitively complex and social animal species -- such as chimpanzees -- can form reputations of humans either through direct interaction or by observing third-party interactions. The historically ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Look to the data, not the marketing: Turfgrass research shows no differences in ‘penetrant’ and ‘retainer’ wetting agents

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — After several years of research, the results are in on the difference in turfgrass soil surfactants that are marketed as “penetrants” and “retainers.” Mike Richardson, professor of horticulture with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, says putting greens built to United States Golf Association standards with 12-inch-deep sand root zones require meticulous water management to promote both plant health and playability. Among the most important tools for managing water in putting greens are soil surfactants, ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Revised, more accurate Baltic ringed seal count – Hunting slows population growth

The Baltic ringed seal population has increased fivefold since the 1970s when long-term overhunting and environmental toxins endangered the future of the species. A new statistical model now revises the population estimate. Since its lowest point in the 1970s, the Baltic ringed seal population has grown from around 5,000 to 25,000 individuals. Behind this increase are hunting bans and the phasing out of environmentally hazardous substances such as PCB and DDT. The decline in environmental toxins has allowed the reproductive ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

The American Ornithological Society announces its 2025 research grantees

CHICAGO—July 16, 2025—The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is pleased to announce the grantees of the 2025 Kessel Fellowships for Ornithological Research and Latin American/Caribbean Conservation Research Grants for early-career researchers. The AOS Kessel Fellowship funding supports the full range of ornithological research by early-career scientists currently published in peer-reviewed journals, such as avian biology, ecology, behavior, conservation, genetics, and interdisciplinary work. One arctic research Kessel Fellowship of $30,000 was awarded to Dr. Teresa Pegan; and five individual $15,000 fellowships were awarded to Drs. Vitek ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Fetal exposure to vape liquids linked to changes in skull shape

COLUMBUS, Ohio – In utero exposure to two liquid ingredients in e-cigarettes – minus the nicotine that drives addiction – can alter skull shape during fetal development, a new study in mice has found. In a series of experiments, pregnant mice were exposed to a combination of two liquids used to create vaping’s throat hit and smoke plume. Compared to two other experimental conditions, the offspring of mothers exposed to a specific ratio of these compounds weighed less and were born with narrowed facial features and shortened skulls. The ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Did a meteor impact trigger a landslide in the Grand Canyon?

Two world-famous Arizona attractions – the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater Natural Landmark – may share a hidden connection, according to new research from the University of Arizona and the University of New Mexico. Published in the journal Geology, an international research team presents the results of an intriguing "detective story" that has played out over several decades and across scientific disciplines: the meteorite impact just west of Winslow, Arizona, that created Meteor Crater about 56,000 years ago ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Innovation Crossroads welcomes six entrepreneurs for Cohort 2025

Six entrepreneurs comprise the next cohort of Innovation Crossroads, a Department of Energy Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program node based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The program provides energy-related startup founders from across the nation with access to ORNL’s unique scientific resources and capabilities, as well as connect them with experts, mentors and networks to accelerate their efforts to take their world-changing ideas to the marketplace. "Through Innovation Crossroads, ORNL plays a critical role in catalyzing innovation and collaboration and nurturing early-stage startups,” said Susan Hubbard, ORNL deputy for science and ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Researchers explore ways to better safeguard romaine supply

ITHACA, N.Y. – E. coli outbreaks in romaine lettuce have long been a public health concern. and now a new Cornell University paper suggests that a combination of efforts in the field, and even postharvest techniques, can minimize risk to human health. Co-authored by Renata Ivanek, a professor in the department of population medicine and diagnostic sciences, and Martin Wiedmann, professor in food safety, the paper outlines interventions likely to make a concrete difference in the safety of the nation’s romaine. “This study supports that interventions should focus on reducing produce contamination via contaminated irrigation water, on assuring ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Food insecurity causes anxiety and depression

Food insecurity is not only linked with, but directly causes symptoms of anxiety and depression, according to research published in the open access journal PLOS Mental Health. Melissa Bateson of Newcastle University, UK, and colleagues at École Normale Supérieure, Northumbria University and York University, collected monthly data from adults in the UK and France and found that changes in food insecurity one month resulted in changes in symptoms of anxiety and depression the next. The authors therefore ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

The patterns of elites who conceal their assets offshore

Billionaires, oligarchs, and other members of the uber rich, known as "elites," are notorious for use of offshore financial systems to conceal their assets and mask their identities. Understanding the transnational offshore finance networks that they utilize has long been a challenge given the secrecy involved. But a new Dartmouth study reveals there are distinct patterns associated with the offshore system, which are specific to where a wealthy person comes from. Specifically, the quality of the governance in the home country of an elite is tightly associated with the patterns. The findings ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Walking slightly faster could help older adults stay fit

Frailty is a medically defined condition in older adults that increases vulnerability to everyday stresses, leading to a higher risk of falls, hospitalization and loss of independence. Warning signs of frailty include: Unintentional weight loss Moving slowly Feeling weak Persistent tiredness Low levels of physical activity Because most of these signs have a direct link to how active someone is, walking is a particularly effective way to help older adults improve their overall health and quality of life and maintain independence ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

MD Anderson Research Highlights for July 16, 2025

Promising therapeutic strategies for lung cancer, AML and advanced solid tumors Novel insights into ovarian cancer, blood disorders and chemotherapy-related secondary cancers New-onset diabetes as an early marker of pancreatic cancer HOUSTON, JULY 16, 2025 ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Specific co-mutations in KRAS-mutant NSCLC improve treatment response Read ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Why some elephants take more risks around people than others

Elephants that live near farms are more daring than their deep-forest counterparts, and that behavior could be the key to helping people and elephants get along. That’s the central finding of new research by CUNY Graduate Center alumna Sarah Jacobson (Ph.D. ’24, Psychology), published in Royal Society Open Science. Working with Professor Joshua Plotnik (GC/Hunter, Psychology), Jacobson found that wild elephants on the edge of agricultural land in Thailand were more curious and exploratory when presented with unfamiliar objects than elephants living in protected forests. The paper is a chapter of Jacobson’s dissertation, completed under Plotnik’s mentorship. ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Hope in sight for autosomal dominant optic atrophy (ADOA)

Autosomal dominant optic atrophy (ADOA), the most common genetic optic neuropathy, is an insidious disease. It often presents slowly during childhood by way of blurry vision, trouble reading or focusing, and sometimes only as a failed vision test. But behind these subtle signs lies progressive, irreversible vision loss in both eyes caused by deterioration of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) — the neurons responsible for carrying information from the eyes to the brain. In most cases, the damage is linked to mutations ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

How a tiny gene ensures the survival of male birds

Birds have developed a unique evolutionary solution to ensure the survival of males – a powerful microRNA. This tiny gene allows male embryos to survive despite a genetic imbalance between the sexes by balancing the activity of the sex chromosomes. An international research team led by biologists from Heidelberg University and the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) has discovered this previously unknown mechanism, which differs significantly from the system that mammals have developed in the course of evolution ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Researchers track the willingness of gun owners to temporarily store guns outside their homes

Rutgers researchers have found that firearm owners are more likely to consider temporary out-of-home storage when worried about the safety of others. Their study reveals that firearm owners prioritize the safety of household members over their own self-protection when deciding whether to temporarily store their firearms outside the home. At the same time, many remain concerned about leaving the home defenseless. Researchers surveyed 3,018 U.S. adults living in households with firearms through an online survey. The respondents were asked who lived in a home with a firearm and their willingness to temporarily store their firearms with either ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Estimated burden of influenza and direct and indirect benefits of influenza vaccination

About The Study: In this analytical model study, influenza vaccination provided substantial benefit in reducing infections to both the vaccinated and unvaccinated portions of the population. Even when both vaccine effectiveness and vaccine uptake were low, vaccination showed marked reductions in disease burden for transmission levels characteristic of seasonal influenza. However, when the level of transmission was very high, even a highly effective vaccine did not protect unvaccinated individuals. These findings underscore the importance of vaccination in disease prevention and ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

What does it cost an animal to fight?

How do animals decide when to fight and when to walk, fly, slither, or swim away? Most research on animal conflict has focused on the short-term costs of single interactions, but a pair of behavioral ecologists argue that these one-time events might paint an incomplete picture. In an opinion paper publishing July 16 in the Cell Press journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, the researchers say that to really understand the consequences of animal conflict, we need to also consider its long-term and cumulative impact on an individual’s longevity and reproduction. “By linking individual contests to lifetime reproductive success, we ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

PPPL’s Jack Berkery receives Fulbright Specialist award to share research on spherical tokamaks

In a field where collaboration is key to progress, Jack Berkery, a leader in U.S. fusion research, is heading to Japan as a Fulbright Specialist to help strengthen the ties that power the future of fusion energy. Berkery is the deputy director of the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The Fulbright Specialist Program pairs specialists with select host institutions to build international partnerships. Berkery’s two-week visit to Japan will include meetings with researchers at Kyushu University and participation ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Scientists uncover key to stable, high-performance, and long-life sodium-ion batteries

Sodium (Na)-ion batteries have recently emerged as cost-effective and sustainable alternatives to lithium (Li)-ion batteries. Na, the sixth most abundant element on Earth, offers lower material costs and greater availability compared to Li-ion batteries. The design of cathode materials plays a key role in determining battery life and stability. Layered sodium manganese oxide (NaMnO2) has received increased attention from researchers for its use as a cathode material in Na-ion batteries. NaMnO2 exists in two crystal forms: α-NaMnO2 and β-NaMnO2. The α-phase features a monoclinic layered structure, where planar MnO2 layers, consisting of edge-sharing distorted ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Man’s best friend could be the spotted lanternfly’s worst enemy

Imagine if your dog’s favorite game — sniffing out treats or toys — could help protect America’s vineyards, orchards, and forests from a devastating invader. It turns out, it just might. A new study led by Virginia Tech found that volunteer dog-handler teams — made up of everyday people and their pets — can effectively detect the elusive egg masses of the spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect that's damaging farms and forests across the eastern and central United States. It’s the first study to show that citizen dog-handler ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Human eggs power down to protect themselves

Human eggs are some of the most patient cells in the body, lying dormant for decades until needed. A study published today in The EMBO Journal shows that the cells deliberately slow the activity of their internal waste disposal systems as they mature, most likely an evolutionary design which keeps metabolism low and damage at bay. “By looking at more than a hundred freshly donated eggs, the largest dataset of its kind, we found a surprisingly minimalist strategy that helps the cells stay pristine for many years,” says Dr. Elvan Böke, corresponding author of the study and Group Leader at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona. Women are born with one to ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

What makes debris flows dangerous

The landslide that occurred in Blatten in the canton of Valais at the end of May 2025 and the one in the village of Brienz in Graubünden in June 2023 remind us of the potential for landslide hazards in the Alps. Debris flows are one such hazard. These flows of water, sediment and rock fragments typically occur after heavy rainfall in steep terrain, and rapidly travel down a channel, potentially destroying everything in their path. In the past year, major debris flows have attracted attention, particularly in Sorte (canton of Graubünden), Fontana (canton of Ticino) and the Saas Valley (canton of Valais). ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Light reveals secrets encoded in chiral metasurfaces

Imagine trying to wear a left-handed glove on your right hand: it doesn’t fit because left and right hands are mirror images that can’t be superimposed on each other. This ‘handedness’ is what scientists call chirality, and it plays a fundamental role in biology, chemistry, and materials science. Most DNA molecules and sugars are right-handed, while most amino acids are left-handed. Reversing a molecule’s handedness can render a nutrient useless or a drug inactive and even harmful. Light can also be left or right ‘handed’. When a light beam is circularly polarized, its electric field ...

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Science16 Jul 2025

Depression often associated with early menopause: Why some women are at greater risk

CLEVELAND, Ohio (July 16, 2025)—Premature menopause has been described as a life-changing diagnosis with profound physical, psychological, and social consequences. Affected women not only experience the effects of estrogen deficiency, but they also experience the unanticipated loss of reproductive function. However, some women are more adversely affected by these changes than others. A new study helps explore reasons for these differences. Results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. Premature ...

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