Lots of single-use water bottles made from poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) end up in landfills, but there’s a growing interest in upcycling them instead. Researchers in ACS’ Energy & Fuels report on new heat-based fabrication methods to transform PET into supercapacitor electrodes and separator films for upcycled energy storage devices. In demonstrations, an all-plastic supercapacitor made from discarded water bottles outperformed a similar design that used a traditional glass fiber separator. “PET ...

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 ...

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 ...

Patents are valuable for the generation of novel ideas through technology opportunity discovery. In recent years, scientists have made several attempts to identify technology opportunities by determining vacancies in patent maps—visual representations of patent distribution in particular technological fields created using dimensionality reduction techniques. However, there is a major bottleneck in this approach: it is challenging to precisely define and interpret the technological content of these patent vacancies. In a breakthrough study, researchers from the Republic of Korea and the United States, led by Professor Hakyeon Lee of the Department ...

SEATTLE, WASH. — October 9, 2025 — In an exciting scientific first, researchers at the Allen Institute successfully designed a new gene therapy that reversed symptoms related to SYNGAP1-related disorders (SRD) in mice. These are a class of brain disorders that can lead to severe and debilitating symptoms including intellectual disability, epilepsy, motor problems, and risk-taking behaviors in humans. In most cases, SRDs are caused when someone has only one working copy of the SYNGAP1 gene instead of the normal ...

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 ...

A study led by researchers at Queen Mary University of London has found that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may help reverse changes in the immune system caused by menopause, potentially booting immune health. The research reveals new evidence that menopause significantly alters women’s immune system, increasing their vulnerability to infections.  The study, published in Aging Cell is the first detailed analysis of how ageing and sex differences influence monocytes, a key group of immune cells that act as the body’s first responders to infection. Analysing blood samples from younger adults less than 40 years of age and older ...

Melting ice sheets in North America played a far greater role in driving global sea-level rise at the end of the last ice age than scientists had thought, according to a Tulane University-led study published in Nature Geoscience. The findings overturn decades of conventional wisdom about how Earth emerged from its last great freeze and could reshape how scientists view the risks of climate change in today’s warming world. Between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, retreating North American ice sheets alone caused more than 30 feet (about 10 meters) of global sea-level rise. For years, scientists ...

Embargoed until publication in Nature Chemical Biology on Oct. 9, 2025 at 10:00am (London time) / 05:00am (US Eastern Time). Targeted drug delivery is a powerful and promising area of medicine. Therapies that pinpoint the exact areas of the body where they’re needed — and nowhere they’re not — can reduce the medicine dosage and avoid potentially harmful “off target” effects elsewhere in the body. A targeted immunotherapy, for example, might seek out cancerous tissues and activate immune cells to fight the disease only in those tissues.  The tricky part ...

  The fossil fuel industry is falling far short of its pledge to lead the energy transition, according to new research from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). The study shows that the world’s largest oil and gas companies are responsible for only 1.42% of renewable energy projects worldwide.  The research, recently published in Nature Sustainability, challenges the dominant narrative promoted by the fossil fuel industry that positions itself as a key player in tackling climate ...

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 ...

Researchers at Umeå University have identified a key molecular player that helps bacteria survive the hostile environment inside the body. Their study reveals how the protein RfaH acts as a protective shield for bacterial genes — and points to new strategies for fighting persistent infections. “The human body is a very stressful place for bacteria,” says Kemal Avican, research group leader at Department of Molecular Biology and Icelab at Umeå University and leader of the study. “During infection, the immune system attacks, nutrients are scarce, and microbes are exposed to bile salts, acids and heat. We looked at how RfaH helps bacteria deal with ...

Tokyo, Japan – [Sept 18, 2025] – A team of researchers from Keio University School of Medicine, the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Tokyo, and the National Center for Child Health and Development has reported the first cross-disease, cross-stakeholder survey on PPIE in Japan. The study compared allergy research with cancer and rare diseases, fields where PPIE has already advanced.     The survey revealed that: •100% of allergy-related PAGs considered PPIE essential, and 50% had formal rules for engagement. •By contrast, only 9.4% of allergy researchers reported established rules, and just ...

Amsterdam, October 9, 2025 – An important new study in the Journal of Hepatology, published by Elsevier, reports the world’s first auxiliary liver xenotransplant from a genetically engineered pig to a living human recipient. The patient survived for 171 days, offering proof-of-concept that genetically modified porcine livers can support key metabolic and synthetic functions in humans, while also underscoring the complications that currently limit long-term outcomes. According to the World Health Organization, thousands of patients die every year while waiting for organ transplants due to the limited supply ...

Between Jan 2024 and Aug 2025, peaks in the prevalence of acute malnutrition match periods of severe aid restrictions.   More than 54,600 children in Gaza are estimated to be acutely malnourished, including over 12,800 severely so, with few therapeutic options available to them. With measurements up to the middle of August 2025, the study comprehensively tracks wasting among children during the war, estimates population prevalence, and highlights unprecedented increases in child malnutrition following periods of blockades and severe ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Researchers at UBC Okanagan have uncovered how plants produce mitraphylline, a rare natural compound that may help fight cancer.  Mitraphylline belongs to a small group of plant molecules called spirooxindole alkaloids.   These compounds have unusual “twisted” ring structures and are known for their strong effects, like fighting tumours and inflammation.   Despite their promise, the molecular steps plants use to make spirooxindoles remained a mystery.  That changed in 2023, when Dr. Thu-Thuy Dang’s research group in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science found the first plant enzyme that can twist a molecule into the spiro shape. ...

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 ...

A rare microorganism found in an unexpected environment may be evading detection by “playing dead,” according to microbiologists at the University of Houston. Discovered in NASA spacecraft assembly clean rooms, this rare novel bacterium, called Tersicoccus phoenicis (T. phoenicis), could have major implications for planetary protection and clean room sterilization practices, said Madhan Tirumalai, lead author of this study published in August in Microbiology Spectrum, a peer-reviewed scientific journal from ...

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 ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a protein that acts like a traffic controller for DNA, preventing damage during cell division — a discovery that could lead to new cancer therapies, according to a study published in Nature. "DNA is the code of life. It's critical for how a cell functions, but it's also critical for our own being and defines what we are," says Zhenkun Lou, Ph.D., the Swanson/Schmucker Endowed Professor to Support Health ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – October 8, 2025) Stress granules are droplet-like protein hubs that temporarily shield fragile RNA from cellular stresses such as toxins. VCP is a protein essential for breaking up stress granules and has been linked to neurodegenerative diseases. However, VCP has a protein partner, ASPL, whose role has been unclear until now. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital discovered that ASPL regulates stress granule disassembly by facilitating VCP phosphorylation. They also found ASPL facilitates stress granule assembly independent of VCP by stabilizing interactions among core stress granule proteins. The findings, published ...

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 ...