CORVALLIS, Ore. – Measuring mountain snowpack at strategically selected hotspots consistently outperforms broader basin-wide mapping in predicting water supply in the western United States, a new study found. Researchers analyzed more than 20 years of snow estimates and streamflow data across 390 snow-fed basins in 11 western states to evaluate two potential strategies for expanded snow monitoring. This analysis revealed locations the researchers are calling hotspots — localized areas ...

In 2020, haunting images of corroded metal barrels in the deep ocean off Los Angeles leapt into the public consciousness. Initially linked to the toxic pesticide DDT, some barrels were encircled by ghostly halos in the sediment. It was unclear whether the barrels contained DDT waste, leaving the barrels’ contents and the eerie halos unexplained. Now, new research from UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography reveals that the barrels with halos contained caustic alkaline ...

September 9, 2025 – New York – The Blavatnik Family Foundation and The New York Academy of Sciences today announced the Finalists for the 2025 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. The Awards recognize scientific advances made by researchers in the United States across the following disciplines: Life Sciences, Chemical Sciences, and Physical Sciences & Engineering.   Subra Suresh, ScD, Former Director of the National Science Foundation and current President of the Global Learning Council in Switzerland, will announce the three 2025 ...

Barrels filled with industrial waste that were dumped in the sea near Los Angeles more than 50 years ago are creating new microbial ecosystems adapted to highly alkaline conditions. It has been estimated that hundreds of thousands of barrels of waste were dumped off the coast of California in the mid 20th century. Previous investigations suggested that the barrels once contained dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT)—an insecticide known for its broad toxicity that was banned for agricultural use in 1972. ...

A living ink containing bacteria attracts coral larvae and could help rebuild reefs. Corals are struggling with water pollution, as well as warming and acidification caused by climate change. One way to support coral reef persistence is to encourage coral recruitment onto the reef. Coral larvae are free-swimming animals that eventually settle onto a surface and transform into a polyp with a hard, durable body. Certain bacteria secrete chemical cues that stimulate settlement and metamorphosis. Settled polyps may then reproduce asexually, expanding the size of the reef. Daniel Wangpraseurt and colleagues created a living material that encourages coral larvae to attach ...

An AI-powered satellite counting effort conducted over two years concludes that less than 600,000 wildebeest migrate across the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem each year—half of previous estimates from manned aircraft surveys. Lions, hyenas, crocodiles, and tourism professionals all rely on the annual migration of wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) which transit through Kenya and Tanzania as the herds follow the seasonal growth of grass. Prior estimates of the migratory wildebeest population that make the trek each year were reached by extrapolating counts from aerial photos in the south of the ecosystem. Isla Duporge and colleagues ...

Neurological diseases affect millions worldwide, and the need for long-term patient-friendly treatments has never been greater. While needle-based injections are the standard for most therapies, regular drug injections can often be painful and inconvenient. Microneedles—which are tiny, micron-sized needle systems— have emerged as a promising alternative to conventional needles and offer a pain free way to deliver medicines. However, most existing microneedles are rigid and can cause discomfort during prolonged use and therefore limits their adoption in long-term use. To overcome this, researchers from South Korea have designed a new microneedles system inspired by the ...

The Earth’s tropical regions drive some of the most powerful weather and climate variability globally. Among these, the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a dominant intraseasonal climate signal, characterized by large clusters of clouds and rainfall that slowly move eastward across the warm tropical oceans. In doing so, the MJO shapes rainfall patterns, influences tropical cyclones, modulates monsoons, and even impacts weather far beyond the tropics. Understanding the factors that govern its ...

Understanding the brain’s functional architecture is a fundamental challenge in neuroscience. The connections between neurons ultimately dictate how information is processed, transmitted, stored, and retrieved, thus forming the basis of our cognitive functions. Scientists often study neuronal signaling by recording the brief electrical pulses they generate over time, often referred to as ‘spike trains.’ Because of their bursty and aperiodic nature, inferring causal relationships between spike trains recorded from different neurons remains ...

(Barcelona, Spain September 9, 2025 1 p.m. CEST / UTC +2)  — New research presented identifies interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3) as a critical regulator of immunotherapy sensitivity in small cell lung cancer (SCLC), offering a promising new avenue for overcoming resistance to PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint blockade. The research was presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC). SCLC tumors are typically characterized by low expression of major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I), which impairs ...

Birds flock in order to forage and move more efficiently. Fish school to avoid predators. And bees swarm to reproduce. Recent advances in artificial intelligence have sought to mimic these natural behaviors as a way to potentially improve search-and-rescue operations or to identify areas of wildfire spread over vast areas—largely through coordinated drone or robotic movements. However, developing a means to control and utilize this type of AI—or “swarm intelligence”—has proved challenging.  In a newly published paper, an international team of scientists describes a framework designed to advance swarm intelligence—by controlling flocking and ...

(Barcelona, Spain--September 9, 2025 at 11:30 AM CEST / UTC +2)— A new analysis from the PALOMA-2 study presented today shows that subcutaneous administration of amivantamab every four weeks (Q4W), in combination with daily oral lazertinib, yields a high objective response rate in patients with previously untreated EGFR-mutated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The results were presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer at the 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC). In the fully enrolled Cohort 5 of the PALOMA-2 trial, the Q4W dosing regimen was shown to maintain similar efficacy compared ...

A study led by University of Oxford and Brookhaven National Laboratory researchers has uncovered how exposure to hydrogen atoms dynamically alters the internal structure of stainless steel. The findings reveal that hydrogen allows internal defects in steel to move in ways not normally possible – which can lead to unexpected failure. This discovery offers vital insights that could help make hydrogen fuel systems safer and more reliable, from aircraft and fusion reactors to pipelines and storage tanks. The study has been published today (9 Sept) ...

(Barcelona, Spain September 9, 2025, 10:15 a.m. CEST / UTC +2) — A new study presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) demonstrates that monitoring circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can refine and personalize the use of consolidation immunotherapy in patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC). The research, led by scientists at the National Cancer Center of China, assessed ctDNA in 177 patients with LS-SCLC treated with chemoradiotherapy (CCRT), 77 of whom received consolidation immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Circulating tumor DNA was measured ...

(Barcelona, Spain September 9, 2025, 10:15 a.m. CEST / UTC +2) – A new study presented today reports encouraging long-term survival outcomes from an experimental viral  immunotherapy, CAN-2409, in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who previously failed to respond adequately to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). The study was presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer. The phase 2a clinical trial investigated the efficacy of two intratumoral injections of CAN-2409 combined with an oral prodrug (valacyclovir) in ...

(Barcelona, Spain September 9, 2025, 10:15 a.m. CEST / UTC +2) — A randomized Phase II trial from National Taiwan University Hospital reports early evidence that resecting the primary thoracic tumor following EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy may prolong disease control in patients with metastatic EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The study was presented today at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC). The trial, which enrolled both oligometastatic and polymetastatic patients, is the first to assess  surgical ...

(Barcelona, Spain September 9, 2025, 10:15 a.m. CEST / UTC +2)  — A large-scale survey conducted by Lung Cancer Europe (LuCE) has identified critical communication barriers that affect information access, understanding, and shared decision-making among lung cancer patients and caregivers across Europe. The research was reported at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC). The study, based on 2,040 valid survey responses from 34 WHO European Region countries in 20 languages, evaluated three key areas: general knowledge about lung cancer, access to information, ...

(Barcelona, Spain September 9, 2025, 10:15 a.m. CEST / UTC +2)  — Results from the Female Asian Nonsmoker Screening Study (FANSS) highlight the potential value of low-dose CT (LDCT) screening for lung cancer among a growing but underserved population: Asian women with no history of smoking. The study results were reported today at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC). FANSS is the first known lung cancer screening program in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to ...

Five well-publicized polar geoengineering ideas are highly unlikely to help the polar regions and could harm ecosystems, communities, international relations, and our chances of reaching net zero by 2050.  This is according to a new assessment, published in Frontiers in Science, which looked at five of the most developed geoengineering proposals currently being considered for use in Antarctica and the Arctic.  The polar regions are home to fragile communities and ecosystems, as well as most of the world’s ice. Technological ‘geoengineering’ approaches have been proposed to delay or address the impacts of climate ...

Unarmed Black civilians are three times more likely to be shot and killed by police officers than unarmed white civilians in the U.S. In tragic cases in recent years, unarmed Black men holding innocuous objects like a wallet, cell phone, or vape pen were killed by police officers because those objects were misidentified as weapons. These split-second fatal mistakes, often under ambiguous and stressful conditions, have sparked urgent debates about their causes and how to fix them. A new brain-imaging study from researchers at Columbia University ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Using tiny particles shaped like bottlebrushes, MIT chemists have found a way to deliver a large range of chemotherapy drugs directly to tumor cells. To guide them to the right location, each particle contains an antibody that targets a specific tumor protein. This antibody is tethered to bottlebrush-shaped polymer chains carrying dozens or hundreds of drug molecules — a much larger payload than can be delivered by any existing antibody-drug conjugates. In mouse models of breast and ovarian cancer, the researchers found that treatment with ...

In a move that could reshape drug discovery, researchers at Harvard Medical School have designed an artificial intelligence model capable of identifying treatments that reverse disease states in cells. Unlike traditional approaches that typically test one protein target or drug at a time in hopes of identifying an effective treatment, the new model, called PDGrapher and available for free, focuses on multiple drivers of disease and identifies the genes most likely to revert diseased cells back to healthy function. The ...

Glioblastoma is a devastatingly effective brain cancer. Doctors can cut it out or blast it with radiation, but that only buys time. The cancer has an insidious ability to hide enough tumor cells in tissue around the tumor to allow it to return as deadly as ever. Patients diagnosed with glioblastoma survive for an average of 15 months. What’s needed is a better way of identifying those hidden cancer cells and predicting where the tumor might grow next. Jennifer Munson believes she and her research team at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC have developed a tool to do just that. Their method, described ...

A new technique has measured boron in individual cancer cells for the first time, enabling researchers to better understand how drugs act to kill tumours in some cancers.   In a new article in the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, a team from the University of Birmingham funded by the Rosetrees Trust have for the first time used a technology to conduct real-time measurement of boron in live tumour cells.  The technique, called single-cell ICP-MS, enabled the team to see how and when treatments for head and neck cancers enter and exit tumour cells.   Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a new form of therapeutic for head and neck cancer that involves ...

Cardiovascular diseases remain the most common cause of death worldwide. In Europe, they account for over 40 percent of all deaths. However, known risk factors such as high cholesterol levels or high blood pressure cannot fully explain the high mortality rate or the number of cardiovascular diseases. Scientists in Graz have now investigated a new factor that is closely linked to cardiovascular mortality. Elevated levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the blood led to a stiffer and less elastic aorta in an animal model. These findings contribute to the current understanding ...