Science
press releases.

Science4 Sep 2025

This common fish has an uncommon feature: Forehead teeth, used for mating

When it comes to teeth, vertebrates have a lot in common. No matter the shape, size or sharpness, teeth share genetic origins, physical characteristics and, of course, a home in the jaw. New findings call into question one of these core assumptions. Spotted ratfish, a shark-like species native to the northeastern Pacific Ocean, have rows of teeth on top of their heads, lining a cartilaginous appendage called the tenaculum that loosely resembles Squidward’s nose. Researchers have long speculated about the origins of teeth — structures so vital to survival and evolution that most of us rarely stop to think about ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

MSU study finds accessible wireless ultrasounds are accurate

MSU has a satellite uplink/LTN TV studio and Comrex line for radio interviews upon request. Why this matters: A new MSU study found that wireless ultrasounds, compared to standard ultrasounds, provide accurate measurements of muscle size and muscle quality in female Division I athletes. Wireless ultrasounds can shorten the time needed to perform scans, are more cost-effective, and are easier to use in the field — making them especially valuable for sports medicine professionals monitoring athletes during a season. Although more research is needed, muscle assessments using wireless ultrasound are a reasonable alternative to standard ultrasound. EAST ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

Scientists review breakthrough methods to disrupt toxic “forever chemicals” in water

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), often called “forever chemicals,” are among the most persistent and harmful contaminants threatening global water safety. A new review published in New Contaminants provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of cutting-edge physicochemical technologies for PFAS removal, offering guidance for sustainable solutions. PFAS are widely used in products such as non-stick cookware, food packaging, firefighting foams, and electronics manufacturing. Their remarkable stability makes them resistant to natural degradation, allowing them to accumulate in rivers, groundwater, and even drinking water supplies. Long-term exposure has been ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

Ghost sharks grow forehead teeth to help them have sex

Male “ghost sharks” — eerie deep-sea fish known as chimaeras that are related to sharks and rays — have a strange rod jutting from their foreheads, studded with sharp, retractable teeth. New research reveals these are not merely lookalikes, but real rows of teeth that grow outside the mouth. What’s more, the toothy appendage is likely used for mating. Found only in males, the forehead rod — called a tenaculum — is the ghost sharks’ only source of distinct teeth, and it seems to be used to grasp females in much the same way sharks use their toothy mouths in mating. “If ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

Evolution of rodents’ unique thumbnail contributed to their successful radiation

The humble rodent “thumb” may not seem like an obvious window into evolution, but its keratinized tip – the unguis (hoof, claw, or nail) – turns out to reveal striking insights into rodent history and adaptation, according to a new study. The findings suggest that rodents owe much of their evolutionary success to their thumb-nail (the first digit, D1), an adaptation that gave them dexterous hands for cracking seeds and nuts. The tetrapod (four-limbed vertebrate) hand is a crucial structure for interacting with the environment, and its digits show great evolutionary diversity in both form and function. Among them, the first ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

Politecnico di Milano wins two ERC starting grants

Improving living conditions for Parkinson's patients, and diagnoses for patients suffering from inflammatory processes. The medical field is the common factor in these Politecnico di Milano research projects, which have been awarded two ERC (European Research Council) Starting Grants with a funding of 1.5 million each, for a duration of five years. The prestigious awards were won by researchers Emanuele Riva from the Department of Mechanical Engineering with the LUMEN project and Claudio Conci from the Department of Chemistry, Materials, and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta” with the ALFRED project. ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

ERC awards €761M to the next generation of scientists in Europe

Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said: ‘Among the winners in this new round of EU funding are researchers of 51 nationalities. They will be advancing knowledge across a wide range of scientific fields, including cancer, mental health and quantum science. We see leading scientists coming to Europe with these new grants, and many choosing to remain here thanks to this support. This demonstrates Europe’s potential to attract and keep top scientific talent.’ ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

U-M awarded $15 million NSF grant to transform the science of natural hazards

ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan, in collaboration with more than a dozen academic, governmental and community partners across the country, will launch the Center for Land Surface Hazards. CLaSH is a new center aimed at advancing research on the fundamental science processes that cause landsliding, river erosion, debris flows and flooding. When hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes or other natural disasters tear through communities, the change they wreak upon the landscape can trigger other disastrous events such as landslides and flooding. But it has been difficult to predict how these events connect to ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

After early-life stress, astrocytes affect behaviour

Canadian researchers show that stress modifies the morphology of brain cells in mice, directly influencing the rodents’ level of physical activity. Astrocytes in the lateral hypothalamus region of the brain, an area involved in the regulation of sleep and wakefulness, play a key role in neuron activity in mice and affect their behaviour, Canadian researchers have found. Led by Ciaran Murphy-Royal of Université de Montréal’s affiliated hospital research centre, the CRCHUM, the scientists detail their finding in a study published in Nature Communications. In ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

Regular walking prevents chronic back pain

A major study has investigated the relationship between walking and the risk of developing chronic lower back problems. The findings could save the healthcare system significant amounts of money while also alleviating many people’s back pain – if we just follow the simple advice provided. The results are clear: People who walk a lot have less back pain than people who do not walk much – and the volume is what matters most, not the intensity.. It is better to walk a lot than to walk fast. “People who walk more than 100 minutes every day have a ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

Broccoli seeds can spread resistance to multiple fungicides

Key Points: Researchers screened commercial broccoli seeds for Alternaria brassicicola, a fungal pathogen. They found that seeds can harbor A. brassicicola and can spread resistance to multiple fungicides that growers use to try to manage A. brassicicola. Based on the findings, the researchers developed a faster way for detecting and monitoring fungicide resistance. Washington, D.C.—A new study found evidence that commercial broccoli seeds can harbor a fungal seedborne pathogen, Alternaria brassicicola, with cross resistance to 2 commonly used fungicides. The finding highlights the need to include ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

MIT Press expands Direct to Open (D2O) open access model in 2026 with publishing partners

As we enter the fifth funding cycle for Direct to Open (D2O)—our model for open access monographs—the MIT Press is thrilled to partner with Duke University Press and Goldsmiths Press to bring even more vital research to the communities that need it most. Starting in 2026, D2O will include offerings from all three presses, furthering our shared mission in building a more open and accessible future for academic publishing. Libraries and consortia can commit to support the growing Direct to Open program through November 30, 2025. Launched in 2021, D2O is the MIT Press’s bold, innovative framework for open access monographs that shifts publishing ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

Stress & Stars: Two more ERC Starting Grants for ISTA

Two Assistant Professors at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have won European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants of 1.5 million euros each to pursue their potentially groundbreaking work in astrophysics and neuroscience. These prestigious grants empower scientists at the beginning of their careers to launch projects, form teams and explore their best ideas. Neuroscientist Amelia Douglass looks into how animals react to stress – both behavioral and physiological – to ensure their survival. Astrophysicist Ylva Götberg researches pairs of stars ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

Theresa Rienmüller and Robert Winkler receive ERC Starting Grants

As the European Research Council announced today, two further ERC Starting Grants have been awarded to Graz University of Technology (TU Graz). Theresa Rienmüller from the Institute of Biomechanics and Robert Winkler from the Institute of Electron Microscopy and Nanoanalysis were able to secure this highly endowed prize with their submitted projects. Theresa Rienmüller is researching the electrical stimulation of nerve cells as a therapy for traumatic brain injury, while Robert Winkler is developing ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

Hidden chemistry of Earth’s core revealed by how it froze

A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford, University of Leeds, and University College London has identified a new constraint on the chemistry of Earth’s core, by showing how it was able to crystallise millions of years ago. The study has been published today (4 September) in Nature Communications. The researchers showed that the core would need to be made of 3.8% carbon for it to have begun crystallising. This result indicates that carbon may be more abundant in Earth’s core than previously thought, and that this element could have played a key role in how it froze, offering a rare glimpse into ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

“Cracks in the system” driving high suicide rates for autistic people

A new study, led by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with Bournemouth University, shows that autistic people identify loneliness, hopelessness and feelings of worthlessness and failure as key factors underpinning their suicidal feelings. Individuals who highlighted being unable to access the support they needed were more likely to have attempted suicide. Autistic women and gender minorities were disproportionately over-represented among those who struggled to access support. The study, published in the journal Autism ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

NTU Singapore scientists develop cooling sunscreen from pollen

Materials scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have invented the world’s first pollen-based sunscreen derived from Camellia flowers. In experiments, the pollen-based sunscreen absorbed and blocked harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays as effectively as commercially available sunscreens, which commonly use minerals like titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and zinc oxide (ZnO). In laboratory tests on corals, commercial sunscreen induced coral bleaching in just two days, leading ...

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Science4 Sep 2025

Flying blind: aviation experts call for more pilot training amid poor general aviation safety record

A new study shows that piloting a light aircraft remains an inherently risky business, accounting for over 90% of aviation-related fatalities*. Private air travel – termed ‘general aviation’ as opposed to commercial flights or freight operations – has a poor safety record, with significantly higher accident rates compared to commercial aviation. In a review of 46 studies exploring fixed-wing general aviation accidents, aviation researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA) have shed new light on persistent safety ...

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Science3 Sep 2025

Don’t sweat it: New device detects sweat biomarker at minimal perspiration rate

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Available on-demand, in abundance and containing multiple biomarkers, sweat is an increasingly appealing medium for monitoring health, according to researchers at Penn State. But not everyone — especially critically ill patients — can build up enough sweat to provide a robust enough sample for current analysis techniques. That may no longer be an issue, thanks to the team at Penn State that has developed a novel wearable sensor capable of continuously monitoring low rates of perspiration for the presence of a lactate — a molecule ...

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Science3 Sep 2025

SwRI and Copeland win R&D 100 Award for innovative oil-free compressor

SAN ANTONIO — September. 3, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) announced today that compressor technology co-developed with Copeland has won an R&D 100 Award. R&D World Magazine has recognized the “Copeland oil-free centrifugal compressor with Aero-lift™ bearing technology” as among the 100 most significant innovations for 2025. “We are all proud of being recognized with this 2025 R&D 100 Award,” said SwRI President and CEO Adam Hamilton, P.E. “SwRI is honored ...

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Science3 Sep 2025

Among women suffering hyperemesis (extreme nausea and vomiting) in pregnancy, half report considering terminating their pregnancy, and 9 in 10 have considered having no more children

Among women suffering hyperemesis (extreme nausea and vomiting) in pregnancy, half report considering terminating their pregnancy, and 9 in 10 have considered having no more children, per Australian survey which also found that only half rated popular treatments as effective Article URL: http://plos.io/45zK0gd Article title: Assessing the burden of severe nausea and vomiting of pregnancy or hyperemesis gravidarum and the associated use and experiences of medication treatments: An Australian consumer survey Author countries: Australia Funding: This study was supported by a 2020 Engaging Opportunities research ...

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Science3 Sep 2025

Chronic benzodiazepine consumption impacts sleep quality in older adults, new research shows

Long-term use of benzodiazepine and related drugs has been linked to poorer quality sleep in older adults with insomnia. While they are cheap, commonly prescribed and widely available in Quebec, these drugs are also addictive: quitting cold turkey can lead to serious withdrawal symptoms, including increased risk of falls, hospitalization and cognitive issues. A new study led by Concordia researchers published in the journal Sleep shows that use of benzodiazepine and benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRA) can also affect brain rhythms during sleep that are important for memory and cognitive health in adults aged between 55 and 80. “These drugs don’t ...

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Science3 Sep 2025

Close link between street sweeps, overdose and systemic harm: SFU study

Confiscating personal belongings during government-led dismantling of tent cities in Vancouver inflicts immediate harm and further destabilizes people already struggling to meet their basic needs, according to a new study from Simon Fraser University. Published in the journal Public Health, the study found nearly one in four people experiencing homelessness reported having their personal belongings confiscated by city workers between 2021 and 2023. These confiscations—often part of street sweeps to remove tent cities—were significantly associated with non-fatal overdoses, violent victimization, and barriers to accessing essential services. “Our data captures ...

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Science3 Sep 2025

Delta-8 THC use highest where marijuana is illegal, study finds

Researchers from University of California San Diego have found that Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-8 THC), a psychoactive compound often sold as a legal alternative to marijuana, is most commonly used in states where marijuana use remains illegal and delta-8 THC sales are unregulated. The findings, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, highlight how gaps in cannabis policy may be inadvertently steering people toward less-regulated substances and have allowed manufacturers to evade restrictions ...

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Science3 Sep 2025

Chinese scientists reveal hidden extinction crisis in native flora

A new study has revealed a "hidden extinction crisis" in China's flora, showing that habitat decline over the past four decades has sharply increased extinction risks nationwide. The findings, published in One Earth on September 3, suggest that current conservation efforts are failing to keep pace with biodiversity threats. Led by Dr. SHEN Guozhen from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with international collaborators, the researchers combined satellite-based land-cover data (1980–2018) with species-composition models to quantify—for ...

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