Science
press releases.

Science1 Oct 2025

Text message reminders for court appearances reduce warrants and pretrial incarceration

Have you ever forgotten about an upcoming doctor’s appointment—only to be reminded the day before by a text from your doctor’s office? People with legal obligations might also forget about upcoming court dates, but the consequences are more dire than a no-show fee. Across America, missed court dates routinely result in warrants and arrests. In a new study, published in the open-access journal Science Advances, researchers at NYU, Harvard, and Stanford created software that sent text messages to clients of public defenders in California, reminding them of upcoming court dates. They found that reminders significantly ...

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Science1 Oct 2025

Uncovering links between depression and hypertension in African populations

In Africa, 150 million people live with hypertension, 54 million with diabetes, and over 40 million battle depression or bipolar disorder. “In Africa, the twin burden of mental illness and cardiometabolic disease is a silent crisis,” says Dr Vivien Chebii, a researcher at the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB) who was awarded the prestigious Wellcome fellowship. This dual burden of the diseases is particularly challenging, says Chebii, as one condition may exacerbate the other. Those who live with poor mental health face an increased risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases and vice versa. The Wellcome ...

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Science1 Oct 2025

Science newswire EurekAlert! quadruples academic papers’ media coverage potential

Broad public understanding of scientific discoveries has traditionally been shaped by mainstream media coverage. To better understand the process of communicating academic publications to popular media, a team from Harvard University analyzed 1,155 archaeology papers published in one specialist and six general science journals over six years and the resulting media coverage. The team found that archaeology journal articles with news releases on EurekAlert!, a news release distribution platform operated by the non-profit American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), were about four times more likely to receive ...

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Science1 Oct 2025

Taming the “bad” oxygen

Researchers from the Freunberger group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have unveiled pivotal insights into the redox chemistry of oxygen and reactive oxygen species (ROS). While some ROS play essential roles in cell signaling, the particularly harmful singlet oxygen damages cells and degrades batteries. For the first time, the team uncovers a way to tune it. The results, published in Nature, could have broad applications, including in energy storage processes. While “oxidation” sounds oddly similar to “oxygen,” the two words have little in common. Oxidation-reduction—or ...

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Science1 Oct 2025

New discovery of Jurassic reptile blurs the line between snake and lizard

New research has uncovered a species of hook-toothed lizard that lived about 167 million years ago and has a confusing set of features seen in snakes and geckos—two very distant relatives. One of the oldest relatively complete fossil lizards yet discovered, the Jurassic specimen is described in a study, published today in the journal Nature, from a multinational collaboration between the American Museum of Natural History and scientists in the United Kingdom, including University College London and the National Museums Scotland, France, and South Africa. The ...

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Science1 Oct 2025

Data for a better vanadium flow

Scientists at PSI have created a dynamic database for vanadium, an important raw material. This metal has enormous potential for the energy transition. Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) can store electricity for longer than the widely used lithium-ion technology. This makes them particularly suitable for storing surplus wind and solar power in large facilities and feeding it back into the grid at a later time. They can therefore serve as energy buffers, stabilising the power grid and ensuring electricity supply even during a dunkelflaute, a period when neither the wind nor the sun are producing enough electricity. The lack of such storage facilities is considered ...

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Science1 Oct 2025

Potential smoking gun signature of supermassive dark stars found in JWST data

The first stars in the universe formed out of pristine hydrogen and helium clouds, in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang. New James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations reveal that some of the first stars in the universe could have been very different from regular (nuclear fusion-powered) stars, which have been observed and catalogued by astronomers for millennia. A recent study led by Cosmin Ilie, at Colgate University, in collaboration with Shafaat Mahmud (Colgate ’26), Jillian Paulin (Colgate ’23) at UPenn, and Katherine Freese, at The University of Texas at Austin, identifies four ...

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Science1 Oct 2025

NIH grant will fund autism research replication, validation, and reproducibility center

Investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell’s Ithaca campus have received a $5.1 million, three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI) to launch the Autism Replication, Validation, and Reproducibility (AR²) Center. The center aims to improve the reliability of autism research and foster public trust in the field. “The AR² Center will serve as a scientific quality control hub for the ADSI teams and projects,” said the principal investigator, Dr. Judy Zhong, chief of the Division of Biostatistics in the Department of Population ...

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Science1 Oct 2025

Fungi set the stage for life on land hundreds of millions of years earlier than thought

New research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution sheds light on the timelines and pathways of evolution of fungi, finding evidence of their influence on ancient terrestrial ecosystems. The study, led by researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and collaborators, indicates the diversification of fungi hundreds of millions of years before the emergence of land plants. The five paths to a complex world Professor Gergely J. Szöllősi, author on this study and head of the Model-Based Evolutionary ...

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Science1 Oct 2025

Study links shift work to higher risk of kidney stones, influenced by lifestyle factors

Rochester, MN, October 1, 2025 – A study evaluating how various shift work patterns contribute to kidney stone risk has revealed that shift workers have a 15% higher risk of developing kidney stones, especially younger workers and those with low levels of manual labor. Body mass index (BMI), fluid intake, and other lifestyle factors play key roles contributing to the occurrence of kidney stones. The findings of the novel study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, published by Elsevier, indicate that kidney stone prevention efforts should extend to shift workers. Long-term shift work, identified ...

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Science1 Oct 2025

Scientific evidence that pianists can change timbre through touch

A research group led by Dr. Shinichi Furuya of the NeuroPiano Institute and Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. announced research findings that for the first time scientifically clarified how pianists’ manipulations of keys alters piano timbre. Creativity in painting, music, and other arts is underpinned by the ability to create diverse perceptual experiences for audiences. However, whether timbre could actually be changed mid-instrumental performance, and what physical motor skills would be required to do so, remained unclear. The research group developed a unique sensor system that can measure piano key movements at ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

In a landmark move, ECMWF is poised to announce a new phase in its data sharing strategy

As part of its strategy and ongoing commitment to open science, ECMWF (The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) has been opening its extensive data catalogue and making its science more widely open and accessible. The organisation holds one of the world’s largest meteorological archives, exceeding 1.3 exabytes of data. Starting with historical data and charts, and ECMWF is now moving to make real-time forecast data openly available. By making its data openly available, ECMWF is supporting the UN’s Early Warnings for All initiative and enabling societies ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

Seal’s sensitive whiskers hold key to foiling fish escapes

Life beneath the waves can be a game of cat and mouse. Seals pursue swimming fish by following the tell-tale wakes and spinning vortices they leave behind, sensing the faint swirls with their sensitive whiskers. But fish might have a trick up their sleeves. Yvonne Krüger from University of Rostock, Germany, explains that escaping fish produce three jets of different sizes they dart away, squirting in individual directions almost simultaneously – at least two of which form into vortex rings, like smoke rings – which could confuse a seal. But might seals be able to see through the ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

Feeling in control helps beat daily stress, researchers find

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A looming deadline at work, a clogged toilet, an argument with a loved one — these daily hassles can make any day feel more stressful. When these demands pile up, it can feel overwhelming, like there’s no end in sight. Yet, the perception of control could make resolving these everyday inconveniences easier, according to a new study from a team including researchers from Penn State. The research team found that on days when people felt they had more control over stressors ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

Scientists solve mystery of loop current switching in kagome metals

Quantum metals are metals where quantum effects—behaviors that normally only matter at atomic scales—become powerful enough to control the metal's macroscopic electrical properties. Researchers in Japan have explained how electricity behaves in a special group of quantum metals called kagome metals. The study is the first to show how weak magnetic fields reverse tiny loop electrical currents inside these metals. This switching changes the material's macroscopic electrical properties and reverses which direction has easier electrical flow, a property ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

Beneath the ice: spring sunlight triggers photoinhibition and recovery in lake Akan Marimo

The marimo (Aegagropila brownii), a nationally designated Special Natural Monument of Japan, inhabits Lake Akan in Hokkaido, where environmental conditions fluctuate drastically with the seasons. Of particular concern is the period immediately after ice melt in early spring, when low water temperatures coincide with strong sunlight, posing a risk of severe damage to photosynthetic activity. In this study, a research team led by the Astrobiology Center conducted a detailed assessment of marimo photosynthetic performance during this critical transition period, combining field observations ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

Radiologists probe aftermath of mass casualty terror attack

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Researchers in Israel have detailed the experience of one hospital’s radiology department during the mass casualty incident following the October 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel, to provide recommendations for future crisis preparedness, according to a new study published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The findings underscore the critical importance of in-hospital triage protocols, rapid staff mobilization and versatile imaging resources management. ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

Study first to show if nesting heat affects sea turtle hatchling ‘IQ’

As sand temperatures continue to rise, concerns about the future of sea turtles are growing. Hotter nests not only skew sex ratios – producing more females – but also reduce hatchling survival, slow growth, and increase the likelihood of physical deformities. Yet one important and often overlooked question remains: does this heat also affect cognitive ability – how well hatchlings can learn, adapt and respond to the rapidly changing world they face from the moment they emerge? A new study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

Retraining after a lapse in endurance exercise adds to muscle gains, study finds

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — New research offers potential good news for those who’ve lapsed at the gym. The study found that mice that voluntarily ran on an exercise wheel for four weeks, stopped for four weeks and ran again for another four weeks saw unexpected gains. The second bout of wheel running led to a bigger increase in the size of muscle fibers than the first, even though the retraining effort was less intense than the initial bout, researchers report. The findings are detailed in the American Journal of Physiology: Cell ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

PLOS announces a new publishing agreement in India

SAN FRANCISCO, CA —The Public Library of Science (PLOS) today announced a publishing agreement with Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), enabling its researchers to have unlimited publishing in all PLOS Journals. MAHE is participating in our Community Action Publishing, Global Equity and Flat Fee models that shift publishing costs from authors to research institutions. The publishing agreement runs through 2026. “Manipal Academy of Higher Education, recognized as an Institute of Eminence by the Government of India, is proud to partner with PLOS under an institutional agreement, which aligns seamlessly with our commitment to fostering open, accessible, and impactful ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

Scientists read mice’s ‘thoughts’ from their faces

***SUMMARY YOUTUBE VIDEO LINK***: https://youtu.be/eNjkmeJ-lvE Summary: “Mind reading” evokes images of futuristic scanners, but a study published in Nature Neuroscience demonstrates that a simple video may be enough. Using machine learning techniques, a team at the Champalimaud Foundation in Portugal, showed that mice’s facial movements reflect their hidden thoughts. According to the authors, this discovery could offer unprecedented insight into brain function, but also signals a need to consider safeguards for mental privacy. It’s easy to read emotions on people’s ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

Psilocybin may present unique risks during the postpartum period

Magic mushrooms may not be the answer to postpartum depression, new research from the University of California, Davis suggests. In a first-of-its-kind study appearing in Nature Communications, an interdisciplinary team from the university’s Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics (IPN) dosed mouse mothers with psilocybin and found that the drug amplified anxiety and depressive-like symptoms associated with perinatal mood disorders — mental health conditions that can ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

Experts warn federal cuts may extinguish momentum in tobacco control

A new commentary paper in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, published by Oxford University Press, argues that recent cuts to the National Institutes of Health, including about $2 billion in terminated research grants and a $783 million cut to research funding linked to diversity and inclusion initiatives, will have a dramatically negative effect on efforts to combat tobacco usage and health disparities in the United States. The health and economic burdens of commercial nicotine and tobacco use are high, contributing to about 480,000 premature US deaths ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

The insomnia trade-off

One-third of our lives is spent sleeping, yet 30 to 40 percent of adults are reported to experience some form of insomnia. Japan in particular has the lowest sleep duration among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, falling at one hour below average. Public health research has identified long commutes, noise, and light pollution from densely populated living environments as factors that impair sleep. While such metropolitan housing offers advantages in commuting time, its livability is far less than the suburbs. To find a balance between convenience and sleep, urban architecture research, which examines the relationship between housing location, ...

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Science30 Sep 2025

Why mamba snake bites worsen after antivenom

A breakthrough study at The University of Queensland has discovered a hidden dangerous feature in the Black Mamba one of the most venomous snakes in the world. Professor Bryan Fry from UQ’s School of the Environment said the study revealed the venoms of three species of mamba were far more neurologically complex than previously thought, explaining why antivenoms were sometimes ineffective. “The Black Mamba, Western Green Mamba and Jamesons Mamba snakes aren’t just using one form of chemical weapon, they’re launching a coordinated attack at 2 different points in the nervous system,” Professor Fry said. “If you’re bitten by 3 out of ...

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