The atmosphere is an important transport medium that carries microplastics to even the most remote parts of the world. These microplastics can be inhaled and pose a health risk to humans and animals. They can also settle out of the atmosphere and contaminate oceans and soils worldwide. A new study by the Department of Meteorology and Geophysics at the University of Vienna estimates microplastic emissions from land-based and oceanic sources into the atmosphere based on global measurement data and model simulations. The results: over 20 times more microplastic ...

Can a small lump of metal be in a quantum state that extends over distant locations? A research team at the University of Vienna answers this question with a resounding yes. In the journal Nature, physicists from the University of Vienna and the University of Duisburg-Essen show that even massive nanoparticles consisting of thousands of sodium atoms follow the rules of quantum mechanics. The experiment is currently one of the best tests of quantum mechanics on a macroscopic scale.  Matter as a wave In quantum mechanics, not only light but also matter can behave both as a particle and as a wave. This has been proven many ...

A research team of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has achieved a revolutionary breakthrough in smart materials, successfully developing soft magnetorheological textiles that can flexibly deform and modulate their mechanical properties under a human-safe magnetic field. Driven by electricity and programmable control, these new materials combine lightweight, flexible and breathable textile characteristics, making them widely applicable in smart wearables, soft robotics, virtual reality and metaverse ...

Rice University launched the Global Brain Economy Initiative (GBEI) Jan. 21 during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This initiative positions brain capital, or brain health and brain skills, at the forefront of global economic development, particularly in the age of artificial intelligence. The GBEI, based at Rice and launched in collaboration with The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) and the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, aligns with a recent World Economic Forum and McKinsey ...

Quantum computers have immense potential because they could perform highly complex calculations much faster than current supercomputers. However, the hurdle to the practical application of quantum computers is just as immense today: the error-prone nature of their hardware. Researchers around the world are therefore working on quantum error correction methods to make the calculations of quantum computers more reliable. Against this backdrop, neQxt GmbH, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State ...

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and its progressive form, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), represent the most common chronic liver diseases in Western populations, driven largely by obesity and insulin resistance. MASH can progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with the incidence of MASH-related HCC rising rapidly. While lifestyle modification remains foundational, pharmacological intervention is increasingly important. This review explores the emerging ...

Most research on the health effects of stress focuses on adults, but a new review looks at how stress uniquely affects children. In the most comprehensive review of its kind to date, UC San Francisco researchers found robust evidence that stress occurring as early as before birth or as late as adolescence can affect multiple conditions in kids, from asthma to mental health to cognitive functioning. The results appear Jan. 20 in the Annual Review of Psychology. Among the most important findings: Stress can impact many areas at once — mental ...

Flue gas is exhausted from home furnaces, fireplaces and even industrial plants, and it carries polluting carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. To help mitigate these emissions, researchers reporting in ACS Energy Letters have designed a specialized electrode that captures airborne CO2 and directly converts it into a useful chemical material called formic acid. The system performed better than existing electrodes in tests with simulated flue gas and at ambient CO2 concentrations. “This work shows that carbon capture and conversion do not need to be treated as separate steps. By integrating both ...

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Type One Energy and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT), are partnering to establish a world-class facility that will drive American innovation and move fusion energy closer to reality.  This high-heat flux (HHF) facility, located at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Bull Run Energy Complex in East Tennessee, will evaluate how materials react under extreme conditions in a fusion device. The HHF facility will accelerate the development of plasma-facing components (PFCs), ...

New York, NY | January 21, 2026: The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) is pleased to announce the launch of AI, Health, and Digital Spaces, a new section of the peer-reviewed Journal of Health Communication, International Perspectives. The section responds to the growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital platforms on how health information is created, shared, and understood, and marks an important step forward in advancing scholarship at the intersection of technology and public health communication. The ...

Ammonia is an essential chemical used across many industries worldwide. Beyond its traditional role as a fertilizer, it is also a promising liquid hydrogen carrier and low-carbon fuel that could help reduce reliance on fossil fuels. However, conventional ammonia production based on the Haber–Bosch (HB) process requires considerable energy and contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for roughly 1–1.3% of global emissions annually. Given its growing importance, there is an urgent need to reduce the environmental burden of ammonia production. Recently, ...

Physical rehabilitation and symptom management still remain the mainstay of treatment for stroke, as clot removal or dissolution is effective only within a narrow time frame after the stroke. After that, many patients are left with long-term problems like difficulty in walking, speaking, and memory decline. Exercise has been beneficial in preventing strokes and improving recovery. However, the majority of these patients, being elderly, are too frail to exercise enough to gain these benefits.   In an ...

Thermal management is essential for reducing future heating and cooling energy consumption. Notably, the near-infrared (NIR) component of sunlight is closely associated with heat absorption. Hexagonal tungsten oxide nanorods are promising NIR-blocking electrochromic materials that change their color, transparency, and opacity upon the application of a small electric voltage. Their hexagonal tunnels, known as optically active sites, can effectively accommodate electrolyte ions and enable dynamic NIR ...

The language used to describe conflicts naturally reflects assumptions about how different forms of violence emerge and develop. “For instance, we think that 'civil wars' are the result of internal strife, and we debate whether wars should be characterized as matters of 'invasion' or 'defense.' In a similar way, experts also label conflicts to indicate important properties and to make patterns across conflicts comparable for use in systematic analysis, early warning, and ...

Highlights: According to the American Heart Association’s 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S. and stroke has moved up to the #4 spot. Together, heart disease and stroke accounted for more than a quarter of all deaths in the U.S. in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available. Cardiovascular diseases, including all types of heart disease and stroke, claim more lives in the U.S. each year than all forms of cancer and accidental deaths — the #2 and #3 causes of death — combined. Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT / 5 a.m. ET Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026 DALLAS, ...

A nanostructure made of silver and an atomically thin semiconductor layer can be turned into an ultrafast switching mirror device that may function as an optical transistor – with a switching speed around 10,000 times faster than an electronic transistor. An international team of researchers led by University of Oldenburg physicist Professor Dr. Christoph Lienau describes this effect in a paper published in the current issue of Nature Nanotechnology. Ultrafast light switches offer interesting prospects for optical data processing, the researchers explain. The team’s goal was to find a material ...

Are generative artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT truly creative? A research team led by Professor Karim Jerbi from the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal, and including AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, also a professor at Université de Montréal, has just published the largest comparative study ever conducted on the creativity of large language models versus humans. Published in Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio), the findings reveal that generative AI has reached a major milestone: it can ...

Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and colleagues have developed a new way to fabricate three-dimensional nanoscale devices from single-crystal materials using a focused ion beam instrument. The group used this new method to carve helical-shaped devices from a topological magnet composed of cobalt, tin, and sulfur, with a chemical formula of Co₃Sn₂S₂, and found that they behave like switchable diodes, meaning that they allow electricity to flow more easily in one direction than the other. Creating ...

Organic chemistry is packed with rules about structure and reactivity, especially when it comes to making and breaking chemical bonds. The rules governing how these bonds, which hold atoms together in molecules, form and the shapes they give molecules are often thought to be absolute, but UCLA organic chemists are pushing the boundaries of the possible.   In 2024, Neil Garg’s lab violated Bredt’s rule, a 100-year-old rule stating that molecules cannot have a carbon-carbon double bond at the “bridgehead” position (the ring junction of a bridged bicyclic molecule). Now, they’ve developed the chemistry of ...

A new global dryland assessment using long-term satellite observations reveals widespread vegetation greening over the past two decades, reversing long-held expectations of accelerating desertification. Using satellite-based productivity data, researchers quantified where greening occurred, at what speed, what forces contributed to it, and how much was driven by agricultural expansion rather than climate or CO₂ fertilization alone. The findings reshape our understanding of dryland ecosystems and highlight the strong influence of human land-use practices. Drylands cover more than 40% of the global land surface and support over three billion people while maintaining essential ecological ...

PeroCycle, which is developing a closed carbon loop system to decarbonise foundation industries, has announced the appointments of Allan Baker, Managing Director at Société Générale, as a Non-Executive Director (NED), and Ruth Herbert, a senior leader at Essar Energy Transition, as Board Advisor. The new appointments significantly strengthen the company’s strategic abilities, and reflect PeroCycle’s commitment to surrounding its leadership with experienced voices from across policy, finance, and industry to support long-term growth and meaningful climate impact.  The system under ...

Just as avalanches on snowy mountains start with the movement of a small quantity of snow, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has discovered that a solar flare is triggered by initially weak disturbances that quickly become more violent. This rapidly evolving process creates a ‘sky’ of raining plasma blobs that continue to fall even after the flare subsides. The discovery was enabled by one of Solar Orbiter’s most detailed views of a large solar flare, observed during the spacecraft’s 30 September 2024 close approach to the Sun. It is described in a paper being published on Wednesday 21 January in Astronomy ...

January 21, 2026 – LeapSpace™, Elsevier’s research-grade, AI-assisted workspace, is now live and available to customers. Built on the world’s most comprehensive collection of scientific content, LeapSpace helps academic and corporate researchers uncover deeper insights, accelerate innovation, and collaborate seamlessly in one secure environment. It combines multi-model responsible AI with transparency and clear trust markers, industrial-grade data privacy and security, so that every insight is explainable, traceable, and ...

Belugas are even harder to study than most whales: it’s difficult to observe a species that vanishes under the Arctic ice. But now DNA analysis has given scientists a precious glimpse into the social life of a beluga population living in Bristol Bay, Alaska. They found that males and females mate with many different partners over the years, which could be keeping this small, isolated population genetically viable.  “We still know very little about beluga whales, despite their immense popularity,” said Dr Greg O’Corry-Crowe of Florida Atlantic University, lead author of the paper ...

In the icy waters of Alaska’s Bristol Bay, a new study reveals how a small population of beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) survive the long haul through a surprising strategy: they mate with multiple partners over several years. The combination of long-term genetics, observation and careful analysis is starting to reveal some of the most intimate insights into one of the Arctic’s most elusive whales. Beluga whales live in a world that’s difficult for scientists to observe, so surprisingly little is known about how they choose mates, compete for partners, ...