A study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Nature Food analyses the ecological “footprint” from diets – and policy options to counteract through price signals. EU-wide, 23 percent of greenhouse gas emissions generated directly and indirectly by private households arise in this sector. When it comes to nitrogen and phosphorus compounds entering the environment, water and land consumption, and threats to biodiversity, the share of diets in the overall impacts is as high as 56 to 71 percent.  Full value added tax on meat can quickly ...

The mpox virus appears to be circulating silently in parts of Nigeria, in many cases without the symptoms typically associated with the disease, according to new research led by scientists from the University of Cambridge and partners in Nigeria. The findings may have implications for controlling the spread of the disease. In a study published today in Nature Communications, researchers show that exposure to the mpox virus can occur without recognised illness, and that residual immunity from historic smallpox vaccination continues to shape how the virus spreads in human populations. Mpox is a zoonotic virus – that is, one that initially jumped species to spread from animals ...

Shingles vaccination not only protects against the disease but may also contribute to slower biological aging in older adults, according to a new USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology study. Using data from the nationally representative U.S. Health and Retirement Study, researchers examined how shingles vaccination affected several aspects of biological aging in more than 3,800 study participants who were age 70 and older in 2016. Even when controlling for other sociodemographic and health variables, those who received the shingles vaccine showed ...

Osaka Metropolitan University scientists have created a molecule that naturally forms p/n junctions, structures that are vital for converting sunlight into electricity. Their findings offer a promising shortcut to producing more efficient organic thin-film solar cells. Solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity. Within each cell, two semiconductors — p-type and n-type — form a p/n junction, where the photovoltaic effect performs the conversion. Organic thin-film solar cells use carbon-based semiconductors instead of the traditional silicon, making them lightweight, flexible, and economical. They can be incorporated ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 20 JANUARY 2026 AT 5:01 AM GMT / 0:01 AM ET   More images available via the link in the notes section   A decade-long study led by Penguin Watch1, at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, has uncovered a record shift in the breeding season of Antarctic penguins, likely in response to climate change. These changes threaten to disrupt penguins’ access to food and increase interspecies competition. The results have been published today (20 January - World Penguin Awareness Day) in the Journal of Animal Ecology. Lead ...

Global supply chains are increasingly exposed to climate-related disruptions, redrawing the boundaries of what can be insured and how risk is distributed across the global economy. In recent years insured catastrophe losses have grown by roughly 5–7% per year in real terms. As insurers retreat from high-risk geographies and sectors, the burden of loss increasingly shifts to public budgets, enterprises, and households. Disruption of international supply chains are a major systemic risk for Europe and countries ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 19 January 2026    Follow @Annalsofim on X, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin              Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.    ----------------------------     1. ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL January 19, 2026 at 3:00 PM U.S. Eastern time Bacteriophages have been used therapeutically to treat infectious bacterial diseases for over a century. As antibiotic-resistant infections increasingly threaten public health, interest in bacteriophages as therapeutics has seen a resurgence. However, the field remains largely limited to naturally occurring strains, as laborious strain engineering techniques have limited the pace of discovery and the creation of tailored therapeutic strains. Now, ...

Over the years, passing spacecraft have observed mystifying weather patterns at the poles of Jupiter and Saturn. The two planets host very different types of polar vortices, which are huge atmospheric whirlpools that rotate over a planet’s polar region. On Saturn, a single massive polar vortex appears to cap the north pole in a curiously hexagonal shape, while on Jupiter, a central polar vortex is surrounded by eight smaller vortices, like a pan of swirling cinnamon rolls.  Given that both planets are similar ...

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals that organized civil society and social mobilizations are key, yet often unrecognized, agents of global biodiversity conservation. By analyzing a global dataset of 2,801 socio-environmental mobilizations from the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas), the research identifies that local struggles against polluting industries are critical for protecting the planet’s biodiversity most sensitive regions. The research ...

56 million years ago, the Earth was already warm. ‘As a result, there was a lot of vegetation, even at high latitudes. That means that a lot of carbon was stored in, for example, vast coniferous forests.’ Biologist Mei Nelissen is conducting PhD research at NIOZ and Utrecht University. She analysed pollen and spores in clearly layered sediment that her supervisors had drilled from the seabed in the Norwegian Sea in 2021. This revealed unique information in great detail – even per season – about what happened when the Earth warmed by five degrees in a short period of time those 56 million years ago. Layers ...

Physicists have uncovered a link between magnetism and a mysterious phase of matter called the pseudogap, which appears in certain quantum materials just above the temperature at which they become superconducting. The findings could help researchers design new materials with sought-after properties such as high-temperature superconductivity, in which electric current flows without resistance. Using a quantum simulator chilled to just above absolute zero, the researchers discovered a universal pattern in how electrons — which can have spin ...

As people age, structural brain changes influence their ability to adapt to the environment. New from eNeuro, Tatiana Wolfe and colleagues at the University of Arkansas characterized changes in the brain across two periods of adulthood that may correspond to changes in adaptive behavior.  The researchers identified brain areas associated with the ability to adapt to the environment by analyzing previous neuroimaging studies. They ...

The Society of Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), announces the appointment of Madeline M. Farley, PhD, as its new Scientific Director, effective January 19. Farley joins SLAS after serving as Chief Scientific Officer, Biochemistry & Bioanalytical Division at Genesis Drug Discovery & Development (GD3) in Township, NJ, as well as Managing Director for PharmOptima, a GD3 subsidiary. As Chief Scientific Officer, she led teams across three U.S. laboratory sites, built the Ocular Center of Excellence and oversaw regulated and exploratory bioanalysis. “I’m excited ...

In 1982, cartoonist Gary Larson published a now-iconic Far Side comic entitled Cow Tools. In it, a cow stands proudly beside a jumble of bizarre, useless objects that are “tools” in name only. The joke hinged on a simple assumption: cows are not intelligent enough to make or use tools. Now, this assumption is being challenged by a real cow named Veronika, according to a new study published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on January 19. This study is the first to describe tool use in a pet cow, suggesting that the cognitive abilities of cattle ...

When a rhinovirus, the most frequent cause of the common cold, infects the lining of our nasal passages, our cells work together to fight the virus by triggering an arsenal of antiviral defenses. In a paper publishing January 19 in the Cell Press journal Cell Press Blue, researchers demonstrate how the cells in our noses work together to defend us from the common cold and suggest that our body’s defense to rhinovirus—not the virus itself—typically predicts whether or not we catch a cold, as well as how bad our symptoms will be. “As the number one cause of common colds and a major cause of breathing problems in people with asthma and ...

A new study examines the potential impact of the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan (M3P) — an opt-in policy implemented in 2025 under the Inflation Reduction Act that allows beneficiaries to spread out of pocket (OOP) costs over the calendar year — on Medicare Part D beneficiaries with cancer who face high out-of-pocket (OOP) prescription drug costs. Many cancer patients enrolled in Part D incur thousands of dollars in OOP expenses at the start of the year to quickly reach the catastrophic coverage threshold, after which cost-sharing drops to zero. For patients living on fixed or limited incomes, these large upfront payments can be unmanageable, ...

Through a statewide partnership, hospitals in Michigan drastically increased the number of patients who receive follow up imaging after undergoing aortic aneurysm repair, according to a recent study. The rate of imaging in the year following endovascular aneurysm repair, or EVAR, improved from nearly 28% in 2017 to just below 80% in 2023. Patients who participated in surveillance imaging had a nearly 60% decrease in the likelihood of dying within one year of surgery, after controlling for other comorbidities. The results are published in Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes. “EVAR is now more common that open surgery, yet as many as 57% of patients were ...

Hydrogen, a clean energy source, requires a highly reliable and safe storage system, which is currently lacking. Layered hydrogen silicane (L-HSi) is a promising, safe, lightweight, and energy-efficient solid-state hydrogen carrier with potential for practical utility. This material releases hydrogen when irradiated with low-intensity visible-light sources like sunlight or LEDs. L-HSi represents a new direction for hydrogen carrier system research. Hydrogen is a promising fuel that can replace conventional fossil fuels as it emits no carbon dioxide during combustion or oxidation and can be produced from ...

One of the discoveries that fundamentally distinguished the emerging field of quantum physics from classical physics was the observation that matter behaves differently at the smallest scales. A key finding was wave-particle duality, the revelation that particles can exhibit wave-like properties. This duality was famously demonstrated in the double-slit experiment. When electrons were fired through two slits, they created an interference pattern of light and dark fringes on a detector. This pattern showed that each electron behaved like a wave, with its quantum wave-function passing through both slits and interfering with itself. The same phenomenon ...

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is an emerging communication technology that utilizes quantum mechanics principles to ensure highly secure communication between two parties. It enables the sender and receiver to generate a shared secret key over a channel that may be monitored by an attacker. Any attempt to eavesdrop introduces detectable errors in the quantum signals, allowing communicating parties to detect if communication is compromised via QKD protocols. Among the various parameters that influence the performance of QKD systems, ...

A new three-dimensional model of the fault beneath the Marmara Sea in Türkiye reveals where a future major earthquake could take place, as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. Using electromagnetic measurements, the team mapped hidden structures that help explain how earthquakes initiate and where ruptures could occur in this region. The findings help improve earthquake forecasts and could guide disaster prevention strategies for millions living in Istanbul and nearby, where seismic risk is high. The Republic of Türkiye sits in one of the most seismically ...

What if you could create new materials just by shining a light at them? To most, this sounds like science fiction or alchemy, but to physicists investigating the burgeoning field of Floquet engineering, this is the goal. With a periodic drive, like light, scientists can ‘dress up’ the electronic structure of any material, altering its fundamental properties – such as turning a simple semiconductor into a superconductor. While the theory of Floquet physics has been investigated since a bold proposal by Oka and Aoki in 2009, ...

Researchers have developed a wearable, comfortable and washable device called Revoice that could help people regain the ability to communicate naturally and fluently following a stroke, without the need for invasive brain implants. The device, whose development was led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, uses a combination of ultra-sensitive sensors and artificial intelligence to decode speech signals and emotional cues to allow people with post-stroke speech impairment to communicate naturally. The Revoice device, worn as a soft and flexible choker, captures the wearer’s heart rate and tiny vibrations from throat muscles, and uses those signals ...

Media Contact: John Dudley (814) 490-3290 (cell) jjdudley@usf.edu Click here for images and a PDF of the journal article EMBARGOED UNTIL MONDAY, JAN. 19, 2026, AT 5 A.M. ET Key takeaways: AI analysis of 20 years of satellite data shows floating macroalgae blooms expanding worldwide, with rapid growth beginning around 2008–2010. Researchers used deep learning and high-performance computing to detect algae that often make up less than 1% of a satellite pixel — a task not possible without artificial intelligence. While floating algae can support marine life offshore, large blooms threaten coastal ecosystems, tourism and ...