A new discovery about how cells communicate with each other in the body’s immune system has revealed deeper insights for an international team of scientists into fundamental immune system function.  The new study, published in Nature Communications, overturns a long held understanding about how T cells – white blood cells that make up a key part of the immune system – recognise lipid antigens, a chemical class of molecules that make up cell membranes. Lipids are presented to T cells by a distinct family of molecules called CD1, yet one member of this family, CD1c, has remained poorly understood despite its significant role in human immunity. For more than 30 years, ...

Medium- and short-chain fatty acids (C8-C14) are widely used in industries including food, pharmaceuticals, lubricants, and surfactants, and they are currently mainly extracted from coconut and palm oils. Developing sustainable microbial alternatives, especially for producing fatty acids with high purity and precise chain-length control, is a major goal of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. In a study published in Nature Chemical Biology, Prof. ZHOU Yongjin's team from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. Martin Grininger's team from Goethe University Frankfurt developed a modular ...

Porous molecular sieve catalysts, including aluminosilicate zeolites and silicoaluminophosphate (SAPO) molecular sieves, are widely used in heterogeneous catalysis and are expected to play an important role in advancing carbon neutrality and sustainable development. Given the ubiquitous presence of water during catalyst synthesis, storage, and application, the interactions between water and molecular sieves—along with their subsequent effects on framework stability and catalytic performance—have garnered significant attention ...

Researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) Shark Lab have solved a long-standing global mystery in shark biology: the location and nature of tiger shark mating. A new study, based on six years of acoustic tracking data, provides the first concrete evidence of a potential seasonal mating aggregation site for tiger sharks, located off Olowalu, Maui. This discovery challenges the conventional understanding of tiger sharks as purely solitary animals, revealing a predictable seasonal convergence ...

A mysterious bar-shaped cloud of iron has been discovered inside the iconic Ring Nebula by a European team led by astronomers at UCL (University College London) and Cardiff University. The cloud of iron atoms, described for the first time in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is in the shape of a bar or strip: it just fits inside the inner layer of the elliptically shaped nebula, familiar from many images including those obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope at infrared wavelengths1. The bar’s length is roughly 500 times that of Pluto’s orbit around the Sun and, according ...

World’s first research-backed intervention reduces harmful engagement with AI-generated explicit imagery. As the Grok AI-undressing controversy grows, researchers say user education must complement regulation and legislation. Study links belief in deepfake pornography myths to higher risk of engagement with non-consensual AI imagery.   Friday, 16 January 2026: A new evidence-based online educational tool aims to curb the watching, sharing, and creation of AI-generated explicit imagery. Developed by researchers at University College Cork (UCC), the free 10-minute intervention Deepfakes/Real Harms is designed to reduce users’ willingness ...

Providing accurate information about the climate crisis can help to correct misperceptions about how much public support exists for action.   However, simply showing that others support climate action does not, on its own, have a meaningful impact on people’s own beliefs or behavioural intentions, a new study based on data from Germany shows, challenging common expectations about the power of public consensus to drive climate action.   The study finds that learning about widespread public support for climate action policies can initially make people think such policies are more politically feasible and more likely to be implemented. However, these effects are small ...

JANUARY 2026 TIP SHEET Cancer and Lifestyle Medicine Sylvester Expert Can Help Digest New Dietary Guidelines Forty percent of cancers are preventable, and diet is one of the biggest levers at one’s control, according to a Sylvester expert on lifestyle interventions in cancer treatment. Tracy Crane, Ph.D., RDN, director of Lifestyle Medicine and co-lead of Sylvester’s Cancer Control Research Program, says the updated U.S. dietary guidelines emphasize an overall healthy eating pattern ...

The Oceanography Society (TOS) has awarded the Ocean Observing Team Award to the Global Ocean Ship-Based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP), recognizing the program’s groundbreaking and sustained contributions to ocean observing that have transformed scientific understanding of the global ocean and delivered profound societal benefits. Team members will be recognized during The Oceanography Society’s Awards Breakfast taking place on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. GO-SHIP is the international community’s premier program for full-depth, ...

The Oceanography Society (TOS) has selected Dr. Elva Escobar Briones of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, as the recipient of the TOS Mentoring Award, recognizing her outstanding and sustained excellence in mentoring the next generation of ocean scientists, as well as her leadership in advancing inclusion, equity, and capacity building in oceanography. Her achievements will be celebrated during the TOS Honors Breakfast on February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. The TOS Mentoring Award honors individuals whose ...

When agitated dementia patients wander or shout through the night, families and caregivers understandably feel the need to treat this frightening and potentially dangerous behavior.  Antipsychotic medications are often resorted to with such patients, contributing to increases in antipsychotic treatment rates among older people. Indeed, a research letter by Rutgers and Columbia University researchers in JAMA Psychiatry shows those prescriptions are becoming more common in the United States, even though antipsychotic drugs do little for dementia and carry a black-box warning on their labels stating ...

A large McGill University study has found that two classes of medications commonly prescribed for Type 2 diabetes, both incretin-based, are associated with a reduced risk of dementia. Drawing on clinical data from more than 450,000 patients, the research adds to growing evidence that incretin-based therapies have protective benefits for the brain. The study examined GLP-1 receptor agonists, which include such medications as Ozempic, as well as DPP-4 inhibitors. “These are very promising results,” said Dr. Christel Renoux, associate professor ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. --  research team including a UC Riverside astrophysicist and his former graduate student has received the 2025 Buchalter Cosmology Prize for a study that offers new insight into one of the universe’s earliest and most transformative eras — the epoch of cosmic reionization — and its possible role in generating magnetic fields that permeate intergalactic space. Anson D’Aloisio, an associate professor of physics and astronomy, is a senior author on the paper, titled “Kiloparsec-scale turbulence driven by reionization may grow intergalactic magnetic fields,” that won the first prize. Second and third ...

SETI Institute Opens Call for Nominations for the 2026 Tarter Award January 15, 2026, Mountain View, CA – The SETI Institute announced that nominations are now open for the 2026 Tarter Award for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth. The Tarter Award recognizes individuals whose projects or ideas significantly advance humanity’s search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence.  Named in honor of Dr. Jill Tarter, SETI Institute co-founder and leader in the field of SETI research, the award celebrates contributions across science, technology, education, art, ...

Reston, VA (January 13, 2026)--A newly developed radiopharmaceutical pair can precisely detect and effectively treat--completely eradicating tumors in certain preclinical models--gastric and pancreatic tumors. Targeting the well-defined and accessible biomarker claudin-18.2, the theranostic technique has the potential to move the field substantially closer to durable disease control and potentially cure--in otherwise difficult-to-treat solid tumors. This research was published in the January issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Advanced upper gastrointestinal cancers, including esophageal, gastric, and pancreatic cancer, are among ...

Obesity causes hypertension. Hypertension causes cardiovascular disease. And cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. While the link between fat and high blood pressure is clearly central to this deadly chain, its biological basis long remained unclear. What is it about fat that impacts vascular function and blood pressure control? Now, a new study demonstrates how thermogenic beige fat—a type of adipose tissue, distinct from white fat, that helps the body burn energy—directly shapes blood pressure control. Building on clinical evidence ...

A new study led by researchers at the University of Oxford has shown that the shape and orientation of coastlines significantly influenced extinction patterns for animals living in the shallow oceans during the last 540 million years. In particular, animals living on convoluted or east-west orientated coastlines (such as those found in the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico today) were more likely to go extinct than those living on north-south orientated coastlines. The findings, published today (15 Jan) in Science, provide new insight towards understanding patterns of biodiversity distribution throughout ...

In a Review, Nils Opel and Michael Breakspear discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) can be responsibly and effectively integrated into mental health care, given the unique clinical, ethical, and societal challenges of the field. “It is tempting to be blinded or bewildered by the technological appeal of AI and its superhuman accomplishments,” write the authors. “We suggest that the opportunities and contradictions of AI can be reconciled by avoiding this technology-centric allure and instead adopting a human-centered approach…” AI is poised to reshape mental health care. Recent advances in machine ...

Using satellite data and the physics of ice flow, researchers have mapped Antarctica’s hidden subglacial bedrock landscape – one of the Solar System’s least mapped planetary surfaces – in unprecedented detail, revealing previously unseen geological structures shaping the ice sheet from below. The findings not only improve ice sheet models but can also guide future geophysical surveys and reduce uncertainty in projections of ice loss and sea-level rise. Hidden beneath Antarctica’s massive ice sheet lies a complex landscape of mountains, valleys, plains, ...

Beige fat surrounding blood vessels actively works to keep high blood pressure in check, according to a new study in mice, promoting healthy vascular function even during obesity. The findings support the notion that therapeutic activation of thermogenic fat tissue could help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. High blood pressure is a leading cause of heart disease and stroke and is a major risk factor for early death. Adipose tissue, or fat, plays an active role in regulating blood pressure. However, growing evidence suggests that it’s ...

Even at amounts considered safe under regulatory frameworks, chronic exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos accelerates physiological aging and shortens the life spans of wild fish, according to a new study based in China. The findings raise concerns about the long-term impacts of low-level environmental pesticide contamination. Traditionally, to define risk, chemical safety regulations have relied on the acute dangers of short-term exposure to high doses. While this method captures immediate toxicity, it assumes that exposure to much lower concentrations is more ...

By tracking swarms of very small earthquakes, seismologists are getting a new picture of the complex region where the San Andreas fault meets the Cascadia subduction zone, an area that could give rise to devastating major earthquakes. The work, by researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of California, Davis and the University of Colorado Boulder, is published Jan. 15 in Science. “If we don’t understand the underlying tectonic processes, it’s hard to predict the seismic hazard,” said coauthor Amanda Thomas, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis. Three of the great tectonic ...

EMBARGOED: May be published no earlier than 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, Jan. 15.  Long-term exposure to low levels of a common agricultural pesticide can accelerate physiological aging and shorten lifespan in fish — a finding from new research led by University of Notre Dame biologist Jason Rohr with potentially far-reaching implications for environmental regulations and human health. The study, published in Science, shows that chronic exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos at concentrations ...

A domestic research team led by Professor Tae-Woo Lee (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea & SN Display Co., Ltd) has developed a hierarchical-shell perovskite nanocrystal technology that simultaneously overcomes the long-standing instability of metal-halide perovskite emitters while achieving record-breaking quantum yield, operational stability, and scalability. This breakthrough paves the way for next-generation vivid-color display technologies. The results were published in the world’s leading academic journal ...

FRANKFURT. Maintaining cellular order is a major logistical challenge: Individual mammalian cells contain billions of protein molecules, which must be synthesized, deployed, and removed with precision. In the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), proteins destined for degradation are tagged with chains of several ubiquitin proteins and then degraded by the proteasome. The crucial step is the target selection: E3 ligases are enzymes that act as molecular “broker” by binding specific target proteins and coordinating the transfer of ubiquitin from ...