Science
press releases.

Science9 Oct 2025

Scientists propose 4 new uses for old veggies

Food waste is more than just the starting material for compost. From dried-up beet pulp to millipede-digested coconut fibers, scientists are finding treasure in our trash. Four recent papers published in ACS journals detail how food waste contains sustainable solutions for farming and new sources of bioactive compounds for pharmaceuticals. Reporters can request free access to these papers by emailing newsroom@acs.org. Sugar by-product may “beet” wheat disease. Researchers report in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that sugar beet pulp could help reduce agriculture’s reliance on synthetic pesticides. The pulp, about 80% of the beet’s ...

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Science9 Oct 2025

Shedding light on the impact of the Bank of Japan’s exchange-traded fund purchase program

It is widely recognized that the Bank of Japan’s Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) purchases had a substantial impact on stock prices. Market participants and media reports have often highlighted that the policy distorted market valuations. At the same time, they pointed out that ETF management appeared to accelerate stock lending activity as the number of ETFs held by the Bank of Japan increased over time. This pattern suggests that the stock market, particularly the lending market, has mechanisms that enhance market efficiency and counteract the effects of the Bank of Japan’s policy. Recently, a team of researchers from Japan, led by Dr. Junnosuke ...

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Science9 Oct 2025

Body illusion helps unlock memories – new study

New research has discovered that briefly altering how we perceive our own body can help unlock autobiographical memories – potentially even those from the early stages of childhood. Published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, the study is the first to find that adults can better access their early memories after embodying a childlike version of their own face. Led by neuroscientists at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge, the study of 50 adult participants involved an “enfacement illusion”, which allows people to experience a face they see on a computer screen as their own, as though looking in a mirror. The participants ...

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Science9 Oct 2025

Early planting to avoid heat doesn’t match current spring wheat production

PULLMAN, Wash. — Planting wheat earlier in the spring to avoid crop damage from ever-hotter summers may not keep harvests on pace with current levels. That’s a key finding from new research at Washington State University challenging assumptions that earlier planting could offset the effects of a warming climate. Researchers used computer modeling to show that moving crop plantings earlier in the season brings about other plant growth issues that could hinder productivity. The findings were published in Communications, Earth, and Environment. “Over the years, a lot of studies addressing climate change in agriculture have talked in positive terms about ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Prostate testing may not target those most likely to benefit, warn experts

Current prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing “may not effectively target testing to those most likely to benefit, raising concerns about overtesting” warn researchers from the University of Oxford in a study of over 10 million men across England published by The BMJ today. Despite UK recommendations to limit PSA testing to patients with symptoms or after discussion with a GP, the results show that many patients are tested more frequently than recommended and repeat testing is ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Global analysis shows hidden damage from men’s alcohol use

A global analysis led by La Trobe University has highlighted the hidden harms to women and children caused by men's alcohol use and calls for urgent gender-responsive and alcohol policy action worldwide and in Australia. The paper, Harms to Women and Children from Men’s Alcohol Use: An Evidence Review and Directions For Policy, analyses findings including three recent reviews of 78 papers. Globally, up to one in three women in some countries report living with a heavy-drinking partner and children exposed to men's harmful alcohol use face increased risk of violence, neglect, poor health and reduced life opportunities. The harms ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

DRI recognizes Ashley Cornish as the 2025 Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award Winner for Women in Atmospheric Sciences

DRI is pleased to announce that the 27th annual Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences has been awarded to Ashley Cornish of the University of Georgia. An award ceremony commemorating her achievement was held at the DRI campus in Reno on Oct. 7, 2025. The Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences is an annual competition recognizing the published works of women pursuing a master’s or Ph.D. in the atmospheric sciences or any related program at a university in the United States. The award is presented to women graduate students with outstanding academic publications ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Bringing modern science to vitamin biology: Isha Jain wins NIH Transformative Research Award

Vitamins are ubiquitous in medicine cabinets everywhere, with more than half of all U.S. adults regularly taking vitamins or other dietary supplements to boost their health. But the science of vitamins and how they interact with the body—a field known as “vitamin biology”—is far behind the times. Isha Jain, PhD, an investigator at Gladstone Institutes, is on the path to change that. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has just announced Jain as a 2025 recipient of its prestigious Transformative Research Award, which comes with a $6.6 million grant to fuel her work reviving the field of vitamin biology with modern science. “Vitamin biology ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Introduced animals change how island plants spread, new global study finds

On islands, many plants rely on animals such as birds, bats and reptiles to disperse their seeds and help them grow in new places. When native animals go extinct, this naturally reduces seed dispersal. However, a new global study, published October 7 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has discovered that the impact of introduced, invasive animal species on how plant seeds are dispersed across island ecosystems is even greater than the impact of native animal extinctions. The study analyzed data from 120 islands across 22 archipelagos, examining how extant native, extinct native, and introduced vertebrate frugivores—animals that eat fruit ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

New hope for MS

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a chronic autoimmune disease affecting more than 2.9 million people worldwide. It occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the myelin sheath, the protective insulation around nerve fibers, causing disruption of nerve signals between the brain and body. Symptoms can include numbness, tingling, vision loss, and paralysis. While current treatments can reduce inflammation, no therapies yet exist to protect neurons or restore the damaged myelin sheath. Researchers have now taken a major step forward in the development of such a therapy, supported ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Early humans butchered elephants using small tools and made big tools from their bones

During warmer periods of the Middle Pleistocene, ancient humans in Italy were in the habit of butchering elephants for meat and raw materials, according to a study published October 8, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Beniamino Mecozzi of Sapienza University of Rome, Italy and colleagues. Ancient humans used animal carcasses for meat and other resources, but direct evidence of butchery is sparse and can be difficult to identify in the archaeological record. In this study, Mecozzi and colleagues describe the remains ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

1,000-year-old gut microbiome revealed for young man who lived in pre-Hispanic Mexico

Analysis of preserved feces and intestinal tissue has revealed specific types of bacteria that were present in the microbiome of a young adult man who lived in Mexico about 1,000 years ago, prior to Spanish colonization. Santiago Rosas-Plaza of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on October 8, 2025. The human gut microbiome consists of microorganisms, including bacteria, that naturally live in people’s intestines. ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Bears and pandas in captivity develop significantly different gut microbiomes compared to their wild counterparts, and giant pandas in particular have less diverse microbiomes than their wild counterp

Bears and pandas in captivity develop significantly different gut microbiomes compared to their wild counterparts, and giant pandas in particular have less diverse microbiomes than their wild counterparts Article URL: http://plos.io/4pL5D5p Article title: Captivity-driven microbiota reshaping: A cross-species analysis of divergent patterns in the gut microbiota of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), red pandas (Ailurus fulgens), and Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) Author countries: China Funding: This work was ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Prenatal and postnatal support apps might not work

Prenatal and postnatal support apps might not work: parents experienced little to no benefit on rates of postnatal depression, anxiety, infant bonding, breastfeeding, parenting satisfaction, or sense of social support, per systematic review. Article URL: https://plos.io/489vrBI Article Title: Effects of perinatal mobile apps for couples on psychosocial and parenting outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis Author Countries: Peru Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. END ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Farmed totoaba could curb poaching

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — The trade of totoaba has all the intrigue of a crime thriller. Dollars and drugs change hands as a criminal cartel vies against the government. Communities and endangered species are caught in the crosshairs of a lucrative illicit trade. It may then come as a surprise that the totoaba is a fish. The totoaba is a large, yet unassuming, species of fish native to the Gulf of California. But its mundane appearance belies incredible value on the black market. “Totoaba swimbladder can sell for up to $80,000 USD per kilogram ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Avalanches: user-carried safety device increases survival time fivefold

When the Norwegian company that manufactures the Safeback SBX device which is already on the market, approached Eurac Research to have it independently tested, it was clear that the international research team led by physician and researcher Giacomo Strapazzon would publish the results of the study in any case, regardless of the outcome. For the researchers, the experiment posed a significant challenge, as many participants were completely buried in snow, raising concerns that over two-thirds might require urgent excavation. The volunteer group – composed entirely of enthusiastic ski mountaineers, roughly half of them women – ranged from ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Burning issue: study finds fire a friend to some bees, a foe to others

New Curtin University research has found the impact of bushfires and prescribed burns on global bee populations is highly varied, with some species benefiting from fire while others face severe risks. The study, led by Adjunct Research Fellow Dr Kit Prendergast from Curtin’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, examined 148 studies from around the world to understand how fire impacts bees. The review considered the severity, frequency and duration of fires, along with the different characteristics of bees, such as where they ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Insights from 15 years of collaborative microbiome research with Indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon

Forming sustainable research partnerships with Indigenous peoples requires trust and mutual benefit, say microbiome researchers in an opinion paper publishing October 8 in the Cell Press journal Trends in Microbiology. The paper presents a framework for building this type of relationship based on insights from the team’s 15-year-long collaboration with the Matsés, a group of people who live in the Amazon rainforest on the border of Peru and Brazil. To build trust, the researchers worked in collaboration with the Matsés through all stages of the research project, from developing research methods to disseminating results. “Establishing genuine partnerships with ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Losing Nemo: Almost all aquarium fish in the US are caught in the wild

New research has revealed that about 90 percent of marine aquarium fish sold by online retailers in the United States are sourced directly from wild populations, mostly in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean. With the US accounting for around two-thirds of all global aquarium fish imports, researchers warn that this reliance on wild capture threatens the sustainability of coral reef ecosystems and puts endangered and threatened species at greater risk of extinction. The research, led by postdoctoral research associate Dr Bing Lin from the University of Sydney’s Thriving Oceans Research Hub in the School of Geosciences, analysed data from four major US-based online aquarium ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Association for Molecular Pathology develops standardized biomarker report template for providers

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Oct. 8, 2025 — The Association for Molecular Pathology, the premier global molecular diagnostic professional society, today announced the publication of new best practice recommendations for improving how complex molecular profiling information is presented to oncologists and other healthcare providers. The manuscript, titled “Developing Consensus for a More Provider-Friendly Next-Generation Sequencing Molecular Biomarker Report: A Joint Consensus Recommendation of the Association for Molecular Pathology and College of American ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Making regular GPS ultra-precise

We mostly take it for granted that the position shown by our GPS is correct. But if we are in a new city and use the map app on our phone to find our way back to the hotel, it can often look like we are jumping around from one point to another – even though we are actually walking perfectly normally on the same pavement the whole time. “Cities are brutal for satellite navigation,” explained Ardeshir Mohamadi. He is a doctoral fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Slime mold metabolites are a promising, eco-friendly repellent of root-knot nematodes

Root-knot nematodes (RKNs) are worm-like parasites of the genus Meloidogyne that are found in many parts of the world. They attack the roots of plants, causing them to wilt and eventually die. It is estimated that crops worth nearly USD 173 billion are lost every year due to RKN infestations. While chemical pesticides are effective in controlling RKNs, they also kill other microorganisms that are beneficial to plants, thereby reducing soil fertility. New, less toxic control methods are needed to prevent the loss of crops and soil fertility to RKNs. Cellular slime mold ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Lizard genetics provide new perspective on evolution

Some colourful lizards and a mathematical formula from the finance sector have been used to build a new framework to model evolution. Developed by Dr Simone Blomberg from The University of Queensland’s School of the Environment, it is the first mathematical model to combine short-term natural selection (microevolution) with the way species evolve over millions of years (macroevolution). “There has been a big debate about whether microevolution can explain all of macroevolution,” Dr Blomberg said. “We ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Could slime mold microbes be a source of potent antimicrobials?

The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum is a soil microbe that produces diverse natural products with potential antibiotic activity. Previously, three chlorinated compounds had been detected in Dictyostelium, but only the most abundant compound (CDF-1) was identified and shown to be almost as effective an antimicrobial as ampicillin. In research published in FEBS Open Bio, investigators optimized lab culture conditions of Dictyostelium cells to boost the levels of low-abundance chlorinated compounds and to characterize their antimicrobial properties. The optimized culture conditions took advantage of propionic acid and zinc supplementation to increase the ...

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Science8 Oct 2025

Deadwood brings wild orchids to life

Deadwood-decomposing fungi feed germinating orchids, providing the carbon their tiny seeds don’t have. The Kobe University finding not only closes a gap in our understanding of wild orchid ecology but also uncovers an important carbon flux in the ecosystem. Orchid seeds are as small as dust and do not provide any nutrients for the young plant to grow. The adult plants are known to rely on a certain type of fungi that develop structures within the plant’s roots, but whether these same fungi also help with germination has not been established. “Studying orchid germination in nature is notoriously difficult. In particular, the painstaking ...

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