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Research announcements from universities, hospitals and scientific institutions. Explore the stories, people and discoveries behind the headlines.

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Science

Fruit fly diapause sensitivity tracks latitude smoothly, with the timeless gene driving female response

Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University studied 21 strains of Drosophila triauraria collected across Japan's latitudinal range and found that sensitivity to entering reproductive diapause varies smoothly with both day length and air temperature, rather than switching sharply between regional populations. Genetic sequencing using a monophyletic window approach identified differing expression of the timeless gene as a key factor in female diapause sensitivity, adding to evidence that circadian rhythm genes regulate seasonal dormancy in insects.

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Science

Chemically flipped TB peptide becomes more potent and less toxic in an unexpected result

Researchers at Penn State and the University of Minnesota Medical School found that chemically inverting a natural host-defense peptide - reversing both its backbone direction and its spatial handedness - produced a compound that was not only more stable against enzymatic degradation but significantly more potent against the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. The modified peptide also showed reduced toxicity to human cells, a combination the researchers did not anticipate.

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Science

How parents drink and parent both shape whether teenagers use substances

A Brazilian study tracking 4,280 adolescents and their guardians found that parental substance use raises the probability of adolescent use significantly - but parenting style substantially modifies that risk. Authoritative parenting, combining warmth with clear rules, reduced intergenerational transmission even in households where parents used alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana. Parental abstinence remained the strongest single protective factor, with 89% of those adolescents reporting no substance use.

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Science

Five Common Food Acids Taste Differently Sour Even at Identical Concentrations

A Penn State study of 71 non-trained consumers found that five organic acids widely used in food - lactic, malic, fumaric, tartaric, and citric - produce different sourness, puckering, and drying sensations even when tested at equal concentrations. Published in Food Quality and Preference, the work identifies three distinct consumer response patterns and finds that sour food preference is tied to dietary habits, not personality traits like risk-seeking.

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Science

Wild Parrot Duets Follow Syntax Rules, 10-Year Field Study Reveals

A decade of fieldwork and data analysis on critically endangered Yellow-naped Amazon parrots has found that their territorial warble duets carry language-like structure. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown identified 36 call types organized by syntax rules and collocates - paired calls that appear together consistently, analogous to word-pairing in human language. The study was published in the Journal of Avian Biology.

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Science

Cardiac Device Complication Rate Holds at 5.5% in Indian Tertiary Care Study

A prospective study tracking 183 patients who received cardiac implantable devices in India over two years recorded a 5.5% adverse event rate - in line with international and Indian benchmarks. Device infection accounted for most complications. No statistically significant differences emerged between male and female patients, though the study's modest size limits definitive conclusions.

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Science

A Single Amino Acid Determines Why One Antihistamine Isomer Binds Five Times Stronger

Doxepin exists as two geometric mirror-image molecules that behave very differently at the histamine H1 receptor. New work from Tokyo University of Science explains why: a single threonine amino acid in the receptor's binding pocket creates an enthalpy-entropy tradeoff that gives the Z-isomer five times stronger binding. The findings published in ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters offer a template for more selective antihistamine design.

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Science

Heat Can Flow Backward in Pure Crystals, EPFL Theory Confirms

Physicists at EPFL have built an analytical model proving that in highly ordered crystalline materials, heat can flow toward warmer regions rather than cooler ones - a phenomenon called phonon hydrodynamics. The work, published in Physical Review Letters, offers practical guidance for designing electronics that manage waste heat more efficiently.

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Science

Twelve Paths to Managing Great Salt Lake Dust - and Why None Is Easy

Great Salt Lake's shrinking surface exposes sediments laced with arsenic and heavy metals to desert winds. A comprehensive University of Utah analysis now maps twelve intervention strategies alongside their costs, water demands, and ecological tradeoffs - a long-overdue accounting before crisis forces the state's hand.

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Science

Wrinkled Rocks From Deep-Sea Morocco Preserve 180-Million-Year-Old Microbial Life

Rowan Martindale spotted wrinkle-textured Jurassic sediments in Morocco that resembled microbial mat fossils - but the geological context was all wrong. The rock had formed in deep water, nearly 600 feet below the surface, where prevailing theory said photosynthetic microbes could not survive. A new paper in Geology proposes the wrinkles were made by chemosynthetic bacterial communities nourished by underwater landslide debris - expanding where and when microbial fossil traces might be found.

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Science

Yangtze River Fishing Ban Shows Fish Biomass More Than Doubling in Four Years

China's 2021 commercial fishing ban on the Yangtze River - the most sweeping freshwater conservation intervention ever attempted - has produced measurable early results. Fish biomass more than doubled, species richness modestly increased, and the Yangtze finless porpoise population grew from 445 to 595 individuals between 2017 and 2022. Structural modeling identified the fishing ban as the dominant driver, outweighing all other concurrent environmental management measures.

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Science

Genomic Blueprints for Reviving the American Chestnut After a Century of Blight

The American chestnut was effectively wiped out by a fungal pathogen introduced in the late 19th century. A new genomic study in Science assembled complete reference genomes for three key founder chestnuts, revealing that blight resistance is genetically complex, involves copy number variation and metabolic compounds, and requires recurrent multi-generational selection rather than straightforward backcross breeding to achieve meaningful resistance alongside high American ancestry.

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Science

A Ribosome Modification Controls Whether Plants Grow Roots or Wood

The same signaling molecule, thermospermine, governs two opposing fates in plant vascular development - promoting one transcription factor while inhibiting another. The key is a specific chemical modification on ribosomes. Without it, thermospermine cannot bind, the balance breaks down, and plants overproduce water-conducting vessels at the expense of storage cells. The finding, published in Science, links ribosome chemistry to agricultural traits including root crop yield and wood formation.

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Science

Myelin Swellings in MS Can Grow, Shrink, and Recover - Nerve Activity Drives the Cycle

A multi-institution study tracked myelin swellings - long considered fixed precursors to multiple sclerosis lesions - and found they respond to nerve fiber activity in real time. Higher activity produces more and larger swellings; reduced activity allows recovery. The work, published in Science, was carried out using advanced microscopy that can observe the process in living tissue over time.

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Science

Hunter-gatherers northwestern Europe adopted farming from migrant women, study reveals

A new study has used ancient DNA to reveal that hunter-gatherers in Belgium, the Netherlands and nearby parts of Germany adapted to farming thousands of years later than elsewhere in Europe. It has also uncovered the pivotal role of women in the process. The research, published in Nature, involved scientists from Bournemouth University (BU) and the University of Huddersfield and was led by David Reich ...

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Science

Which childhood abuse survivors are at elevated risk of depression? New study provides important clues

Scientists have identified a pattern of gene activity present in some female survivors of childhood abuse that is associated with an elevated risk of depression. “We know childhood abuse increases the risk of depression at the population level, but at the individual level it’s much harder to predict who will actually develop the disorder,” said senior author Patricia Silveira, professor in McGill’s Department of Psychiatry and researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. “Our findings point to a biological mechanism that may help explain who is more at risk, at least in women.” This pattern ...

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Science

Plants retain a ‘genetic memory’ of past population crashes, study shows

Researchers at McGill University and the United States Forest Service have found that plants living in areas where human activity has caused population crashes carry long-lasting genetic traces of that history, such as reduced genetic diversity. Because genetic diversity helps species adapt to climate change, disease and other stresses, the study suggests it is vital to consider a population’s history-influenced genetics alongside its size and habitat in conservation planning. “Two populations may look equally healthy on the surface, yet one may be far more vulnerable to future environmental change because it lacks genetic diversity and consists of individuals with ...

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Science

FAU study finds teen ‘sexting’ surge, warns of sextortion and privacy risks

A new national study finds a concerning surge in teen “sexting,” which frequently exposes them to serious risks, including sextortion, coercion and privacy violations. Sexting involves sending or receiving sexually suggestive images or video, while sextortion is the threat to share explicit or intimate images without consent to pressure someone into providing more images, sexual favors, money or other demands. Sextortion is especially harmful for teens, who are still developing impulse control, risk assessment and emotional regulation. Using a national sample of 3,466 adolescents aged 13 to 17 years in the United States, researchers from Florida ...

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Science

Towards unlocking the full potential of sodium- and potassium-ion batteries

As the world is moving towards more sustainable energy solutions, the emergence of next-generation batteries is a crucial and indispensable milestone. One such next-generation battery is the lithium-ion battery (LIB), which has been currently dominating the energy solutions sector. However, lithium is sparsely distributed across geographies, increasing extraction difficulties and battery production cost. Other next-generation batteries, such as sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) and potassium-ion batteries (KIBs), are promising alternatives to LIBs, offering resource-unconstrained, cost-effective, and sustainable ...

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Science

What drives a mysterious sodium pump?

Kyoto, Japan -- The enzyme Na⁺-NQR is a sodium pump that drives the respiration of many marine and pathogenic bacteria. Using redox reactions, the process of exchanging electrons between materials, it powers the transportation of sodium ions across the membrane, supporting the growth of the bacteria. Yet there is a mystery behind this mechanism, as scientists have had trouble understanding exactly how the redox reactions are linked to sodium-pumping. In particular, the lack of structural information on the key intermediate states that form while the enzyme is operating has posed a major challenge; determining these structures is essential to understanding how the ...

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Science

Queen Mary research results in changes to NHS guidelines

Hundreds of people with advanced bladder cancer across the UK can now receive three rather than six chemotherapy cycles following research by Queen Mary University of London which has led to a change to NHS treatment guidelines. For people with the condition, this means fewer toxic side effects and a better quality of life during treatment. Until recently, people with advanced bladder cancer routinely received between four to six cycles of intensive chemotherapy, followed by avelumab, a type of immunotherapy, as standard NHS care. ...

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Science

Releasing pollack at depth could benefit their long-term survival, study suggests

During 2026, new legislation – the result of an agreement between the UK Government and the European Union – is planned to come into force for recreational pollack fishing that limits catches to three fish per angler per day. It will result in more fish being released after they are caught, but new research has suggested changing how that release happens could have a marked difference on the fisheries’ long-term sustainability. Specifically, it suggests that releasing pollack closer to the depths they are normally caught could improve their chances of survival ...

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