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press releases.

Science23 Jan 2026

What do rats remember? IU research pushes the boundaries on what animal models can tell us about human memory

In a new study Indiana University researchers observed episodic memory in rats to a degree never documented before, suggesting that rats can serve as a model for complex cognitive processes often considered exclusively human. Unlike semantic memory, which involves isolated facts, episodic memory involves replaying events in the order and context in which they occurred. “The ability to replay a stream of episodic memories in context suggests that rats can serve as a model for complex cognitive processes,” said ...

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Science23 Jan 2026

Frontiers Science House: did you miss it? Fresh stories from Davos – end of week wrap

Open science at the center of global dialogue Antimicrobial resistance: a “pandemic” killing more people than cancer by 2050 – Davos needs to talk about this The science trust dividend: why data integrity matters Before AI runs out of data, we need a new AGI paradigm Frontiers Planet Prize: advancing planetary boundary science through interdisciplinary research New AI platform building cities within planetary boundaries UNESCO Science Decade: aligning global ...

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Science23 Jan 2026

New grounded theory reveals why hybrid delivery systems work the way they do

New research into project management in software engineering shows that the most successful systems are not the ones that follow a fixed blueprint from the start, but those that evolve in response to real challenges as projects unfold. Hybrid delivery models are born out of practical necessity when teams face complex and competing demands in software projects, and they improve over time as those teams adapt to real-world pressures. The research offers reassurance that messiness and adjustment are not signs of failure, but normal features of working in complex environments. The paper, titled The Pragmatics of Hybridity: A Grounded Theory of Method Integration ...

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Science23 Jan 2026

Ion accumulation in liquid–liquid phase separation regulates biomolecule localization

Liquid–liquid phase separation is a process in which a uniform solution separates into two coexisting liquid phases. In living cells, it governs the formation of membrane-less compartments that selectively concentrate molecules and regulate biochemical reactions. This phenomenon is also widely used in practical applications, including biomolecular separation and purification. A long-standing question in phase separation research is why specific molecules preferentially localize in one phase over the other. Conventional explanations have focused on polymer–polymer ...

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Science23 Jan 2026

Hemispheric asymmetry in the genetic overlap between schizophrenia and white matter microstructure

Schizophrenia is a highly heterogeneous psychiatric disorder affecting ~1% of the global population, typically emerging in adolescence or early adulthood and characterized by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, and cognitive impairments; while its etiology remains elusive, genetic factors are widely recognized as fundamental, and GWAS have identified over 200 genome-wide significant loci. White matter microstructure is essential for neural communication and is strongly heritable; diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) quantifies white matter integrity via FA, MD, and the three tensor eigenvalues (λ1–λ3), and widespread ...

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Science23 Jan 2026

Combined aerobic-resistance exercise: Dual efficacy and efficiency for hepatic steatosis

Hepatic steatosis is a core pathological feature of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). It not only drives disease progression to intrahepatic conditions such as cirrhosis but also elevates the incidence and mortality risk of cardiovascular diseases and extrahepatic malignancies. Importantly, hepatic steatosis is reversible in its early stages. Clinical practice guidelines recommend exercise intervention as the primary approach for treating the disease, and the concept of "exercise as medicine" is widely acknowledged. In recent years, researchers have mainly evaluated how different components of exercise prescriptions affect health ...

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Science23 Jan 2026

Forty years of tracking trees reveals how global change is impacting Amazon and Andean Forest diversity

New research published in Nature Ecology and Evolution reveals significant recent shifts in tree diversity among the tropical forests of the Andes and Amazon, driven by global change. The study, led by Dr Belen Fadrique from the University of Liverpool, uses 40 years of records on tree species collected by hundreds of international botanists and ecologists in long-term plots to offer comprehensive insights into tree diversity change in the world’s most diverse forests. Key Findings At the continental level, ...

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Science23 Jan 2026

Breathing disruptions during sleep widespread in newborns with severe spina bifida

Children with spina bifida, a malformation of the spinal cord that can lead to mobility impairments and hydrocephalus — a buildup of fluid in the brain — face significant risk of cognitive difficulties throughout their lives. A new multi-center study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Michigan Medicine finds that breathing problems during sleep are a widespread but often undetected issue among these babies and raises the possibility that early treatment might significantly improve ...

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Science23 Jan 2026

Why wetland restoration needs citizens on the ground

Wetland restoration is expanding worldwide, but long-term success often remains uncertain. Most projects rely on short-term, expert monitoring that ends long before restored wetlands stabilize, leaving major gaps in understanding how restored wetlands actually evolve over time. One increasingly discussed way to close these gaps is to extend monitoring beyond professional teams by engaging local communities and citizens in long-term observation. In a Perspective published (DOI: 10.1016/j.ese.2026.100656) in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology in January 2026, researchers from Aarhus University ...

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Science23 Jan 2026

Sharktober: Study links October shark bite spike to tiger shark reproduction

New University of Hawaiʻi research confirms that “Sharktober” is real, revealing a statistically significant spike in shark bite incidents in Hawaiian waters every October. The study, which analyzed 30 years of data (1995–2024), found that about 20% of all recorded bites occurred in that single month, a frequency far exceeding any other time of the year. Researchers at UH Mānoa’s Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) Shark Lab published their findings in Frontiers in Marine Science. The research, led by HIMB Professor Carl G. Meyer, determined ...

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Science23 Jan 2026

Why a crowded office can be the loneliest place on earth

A comprehensive new review published in the Journal of Management synthesizes decades of research to understand the epidemic of workplace loneliness. By analyzing 233 empirical studies, researchers from Portland State University have identified how workplace conditions contribute to isolation and offer evidence-based paths to reconnection. The research emphasizes that loneliness is distinct from social isolation. While isolation is about being alone, loneliness is the subjective feeling that one’s social relationships are deficient—meaning ...

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Science23 Jan 2026

Desperate race to resurrect newly-named zombie tree

A recently identified tree species in Australia has been given the name ‘zombie’ by scientists who say ambitious assistance is needed to reverse its ‘living dead’ status. University of Queensland botanist Professor Rod Fensham said it was a race against time to save Rhodamnia zombi from the fungal disease myrtle rust. “This species did not have a name when it was first assessed in 2020, and since then 10 per cent of the trees have died and none of those remaining are producing flowers or fruit because of myrtle rust,” ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

How is your corn growing? Aerial surveillance provides answers

With already thin profit margins and increasingly uncertain farm labor and other input costs, precision agriculture technology could improve New England’s small and medium-sized farms’ efficiency, productivity, and resilience. Unfortunately, factors such as up-front costs and validation of the technology’s accuracy in the region remain a barrier to adoption. A research team at UNH led by Benjamin Fraser, visiting assistant professor and director of the Basic and Applied Spatial Analysis ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

Why some messages are more convincing than others

What kinds of marketing messages are effective — and what makes people believe certain political slogans more than others? New research from the University of California San Diego Rady School of Management explores how people constantly evaluate whether messages are true or false and finds that a surprisingly small ingredient — whether a word has an easy opposite — can shape how confident people feel when deciding whether a message is true. “Effective messaging isn’t just about ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

Drexel study finds early intervention helps most autistic children acquire spoken language

After receiving evidence-based early interventions, roughly two-thirds of non-speaking kids with autism speak single words, and approximately half develop more complex language, according to a new study led by researchers at Drexel University’s A.J. Drexel Autism Institute. The findings, which offer insights that might help improve success rates for the kids who remain non-speaking or minimally speaking (e.g. not combining words to form short phrases) after therapy, were recently published in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. About one in 31 kids in the United States are autistic, according to a 2025 CDC report, a number that ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

Human penis size influences female attraction and male assessment of rivals

Men assess potential rivals that have a larger penis as more of a threat, both physically and sexually, according to a study by Upama Aich at the University of Western Australia and colleagues, publishing January 22nd in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. Relative to body size, the human penis is larger than that of other primates, a fact that has puzzled evolutionary biologists. Before the invention of clothing, the penis would have been a prominent feature that might influence potential mates and ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

National Multiple Sclerosis Society awards Dr. Manuel A. Friese the 2025 Barancik Prize for Innovation in MS Research

Manuel A. Friese, MD, clinician-scientist at the Institute of Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany was awarded the 2025 Barancik Prize for Innovation in MS Research. He is being recognized for his groundbreaking work studying the interactions between inflammation and nerve cell death (also called neurodegeneration) that drive disease progression. His work has the potential to identify new therapeutic targets for MS. It also brings the field closer to stopping disease progression, ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

PBM profits obscured by mergers and accounting practices, USC Schaeffer white paper shows

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) under the microscope for their role in high drug prices have often cited their reportedly slim profit margins as evidence that they do not drive up costs. The three leading PBMs, which control about 80% of the prescription drug market, have historically reported profit margins of 4% to 7%, among the lowest in the healthcare industry. A new white paper from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics demonstrates that these slim margins are dramatically influenced by the accounting practices PBMs elect to employ. The paper also shows how efforts to assess PBM profits have become more challenging ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

Palaeontology: Ancient giant kangaroos could hop to it when they needed to

Giant ancestors of modern-day kangaroos — which previous research has estimated could weigh up to 250 kilograms — may have been able to hop in short bursts, according to research published in Scientific Reports. These findings challenge those of previous studies suggesting that giant kangaroos weighing more than 160 kilograms were too heavy for their ankles to withstand hopping. Megan Jones and colleagues studied the hindlimbs of 94 modern and 40 fossil specimens from 63 kangaroo and wallaby species — including members of the extinct giant kangaroo group Protemnodon, which lived during the Pleistocene (between 2.6 million and 11,700 ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

Resurrected ancient enzyme offers new window into early Earth and the search for life beyond it

By resurrecting a 3.2-billion-year-old enzyme and studying it inside living microbes, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have created a new way to improve our understanding of the origins of life on Earth and possibly recognize signs of life elsewhere. Recently published in Nature Communications, the NASA-funded study uses synthetic biology to reverse-engineer modern enzymes and rebuild their possible ancestors. Betül Kaçar, a professor of bacteriology, and Holly Rucker, a PhD candidate in Kaçar’s lab, focused on an enzyme called nitrogenase, which is critical to the process that converts atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by living ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

Scientists discover why some Central Pacific El Niños die quickly while others linger for years

Predicting the duration of a Central Pacific El Niño event has long frustrated climate scientists and forecasters. Now, a new study reveals that Central Pacific El Niños follow two fundamentally different life cycles—and the difference is determined months before they peak. The research group, led by Prof. Xin Wang from the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, shows that strong Central Pacific El Niño events essentially self-destruct by triggering negative feedbacks from the distant Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Weaker events, however, survive by forming a lasting partnership with a regional North Pacific climate ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

CNU research explains how boosting consumer trust unlocks the $4 billion market for retired EV batteries

Electric vehicles (EVs) are gaining unprecedented popularity across the globe, with their number reaching 26 million in 2022 and expected to grow eightfold by the end of the decade. While EVs represent the next-generation technology for transport decarbonization, they are expected to lead to the issue of retired battery management. Notably, EV batteries are utilized only until their capacity reduces to 70-80%, meaning an average lifespan of 8-to-10 years. Therefore, the volume of retired batteries is going to rise rapidly by 2030. To mitigate this problem, scientists have ingeniously come up with ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

Sniffing out the cause of keratoderma-associated foot odor

The distinct foot odor that comes with the skin disorder Nagashima-type palmoplantar keratosis (NPPK) is caused by the overgrowth of a specific bacterial strain. The Kobe University result also shows that topical application of benzoyl peroxide restores balance in the bacterial skin flora, reducing the odor. Affecting some 10,000 individuals in Japan and several hundreds of thousands more across East Asia, Nagashima-type palmoplantar keratosis (NPPK) is a condition that causes several symptoms, including redness on the palms and soles of ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

Humans use local dialects to communicate with honeyguides

Researchers from the University of Cape Town (UCT), working with international collaborators, have shown that people in northern Mozambique use regionally distinct “dialects” when communicating with honeyguide birds, revealing a striking parallel to the way human languages diversify. Published in People and Nature, the study shows for the first time that human-to-wildlife communication can vary within a region in much the same way that human languages develop local dialects. These dialects allow communities to coordinate cooperation with greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator), wild birds that lead people to honeybees’ nests in exchange for ...

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Science22 Jan 2026

Delayed stroke care linked to increased disability risk

Gaps in the U.S. stroke transfer system are drastically reducing survivors’ chances of receiving critical treatment and increasing the likelihood that they will leave the hospital with a disability, according to a new study published in The Lancet Neurology. Around one-third of ischemic stroke patients are eligible for endovascular thrombectomy, an effective intervention that changed the landscape of stroke treatment more than a decade ago. More than 40% of people who receive endovascular therapy initially arrive at hospitals that don’t offer the treatment. These patients require transfer to more advanced facilities capable of delivering ...

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