PULLMAN, Wash. -- To the casual observer, it’s nothing more than an abandoned golf course. But the land, along with other weedy, minimally maintained “marginal lands” in the Puget Sound area, is home to scores of wild bee species, including many never found before in Snohomish and King counties, according to a seven-year study by Washington State University researchers and others. The survey of bees at three plots of land near airports and beneath power lines adds to the evidence that small corners of largely untended land can sustain bee populations amid the concrete and asphalt landscape of cities ...

SAN FRANCISCO — The Public Library of Science (PLOS) today announced the launch of two journals, PLOS Aging and Health and PLOS Ecosystems. Both journals are grounded in our commitment to rigor and research integrity of the highest standard and our open science principles, which facilitates greater reproducibility, faster scientific progress, and broader access to knowledge. In addition, both journals are underpinned by our Flat Fee model that is designed to shift the cost from researchers to an institutional annual fee, which enables institutions to provide unlimited publishing opportunities ...

Artificial light-type plant factories are an emerging agricultural innovation that enable crops to be grown year-round in precisely controlled environments. By adjusting factors such as light, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, and nutrient delivery, these facilities can produce stable yields independent of climate conditions. They offer a promising way to reduce pesticide use and minimize the impacts of climate change. However, legumes like edamame have long been considered difficult to cultivate in such settings because of their long growth periods, short storage periods, complex flowering, and pod-setting processes.  Against this backdrop, the research ...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains one of the most pressing public health challenges, leaving millions with lasting disabilities each year. When the brain suffers a sudden impact, from a fall, vehicle accident, or sports collision, it triggers inflammation, oxidative stress, and nerve damage that continue long after the initial trauma. Despite decades of research, the traditional diagnosis and treatment strategies often face limitations such as poor detection and inefficient drug delivery. In a ...

Researchers from the Natural History Museum and Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU) have identified a new species of ancient symbiotic fungus preserved within a 407-million-year-old plant fossil from Scotland. The discovery provides unprecedented three-dimensional insight into one of the earliest known plant–fungus partnerships, known as mycorrhiza. Beyond this discovery, the advanced microscopy techniques used to distinguish the fungus from the surrounding plant cells open a powerful new way to identify fossilised life forms. By analysing their unique ...

New research comparing four different flu vaccines found that the ability of the vaccines to activate cells of the immune system that help to protect against infection varied greatly depending on the vaccine type and age of the patient. Researchers say these findings have the potential to guide vaccine recommendations, especially for older adults. The 2024-2025 flu season was considered highly severe, causing at least 47 million illnesses, 610,000 hospitalizations, and 27,000 deaths. A new study, published in The Journal of Immunology, found that while all four seasonal influenza vaccines produced similar antibody levels, their ability to activate cellular immunity varied greatly depending ...

Underwater passive acoustic recording is vital for researchers to monitor and study marine animals in their natural environment with minimal disturbance. “Using passive acoustic monitoring to detect acoustically active animals helps to census biodiversity, understand animal behavior and habitat use, and reduce the negative impacts of human-made noise,” said Associate Professor Evgeny A. Podolskiy of the Arctic Research Center at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. “For these reasons, scientists increasingly rely on passive acoustic monitoring to answer fundamental ecological questions and manage conservation.” Endemic Arctic whales, ...

New research has revealed for the first time the full extent of how Artificial Light At Night (ALAN) is increasing carbon released by plants and animals across continents – without any increase in the carbon they absorb. The result is reduced carbon storage in ecosystems – which has major implications for climate models and global carbon budgets. Artificial light at night is reshaping carbon balance of whole ecosystems Published in Nature Climate Change, the study from researchers at Cranfield University is the first to demonstrate how ALAN is silently reshaping the carbon balance of ecosystems across ...

Hoboken, N.J., November 12, 2025 — If it were to become a reality, hypersonic flight, long the realm of science fiction, could revolutionize global travel, transforming day-long international flights into brief commutes no longer than a feature length movie. The duration of a long-haul route, such as Sydney to Los Angeles, might drop from 15 hours to just one.  “It really shrinks the planet,” says Professor Nicholaus Parziale, whose research focuses on making such hypersonic flight a reality, and who is a recent recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists ...

A large research study by an international team of scientists led by Christoph Böttner from Aarhus University shows clear evidence of extensive natural hydrocarbon seepage along the Northeast Greenland margin — one of the least explored continental margins on Earth.  The new discoveries of widespread natural seepage and gas hydrates in NE Greenland represent a significant advance in our understanding of natural seepage across the Arctic. This is important in the light of rapidly changing ...

Astronomers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that the famous Pleiades star cluster, the “Seven Sisters” often spotted on winter nights, is just the bright tip of a much larger stellar family. By combining data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope, the team uncovered thousands of hidden siblings spread across the sky, a sprawling structure they call the Greater Pleiades Complex. The discovery shows the Pleiades is 20 times larger than previously thought.  Most stars, including our own Sun, are born ...

From navigating the COVID-19 pandemic alongside cyclones, bushfires, and other natural disasters, school principals are often the unsung heroes leading communities through crises.  New research from Edith Cowan University’s (ECU) School of Education has revealed important insights into how school principals navigated the extraordinary period of compounding crises between 2020 and 2023.  Analysis of interviews with principals from Australia, Fiji and New Zealand revealed a balance of directive and collaborative approaches as they adapted to meet changing community needs.   “A ...

A research team in South Korea has successfully developed a novel technology that combines nanoparticles with stem cells to significantly improve 3D bone tissue regeneration. This advancement marks a major step forward in the treatment of bone fractures and injuries, as well as in next-generation regenerative medicine. Dr. Ki Young Kim and her team at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), in collaboration with Professor Laura Ha at Sunmoon University, have engineered a nanoparticle-stem cell hybrid, termed a nanobiohybrid by integrating mesoporous ...

Biology Letters study shows that bumblebees can be trained to differentiate between long and short light flashes  Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have shown for the first time that an insect – the bumblebee Bombus terrestris – can decide where to forage for food based on different durations of visual cues.   In Morse code, a short duration flash or ‘dot’ denotes a letter ‘E’ and a long duration flash, or ‘dash’, means letter ‘T’. Until now, the ability to discriminate between ‘dot’ and ‘dash’ has been seen only in humans and other vertebrates ...

Researchers at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), have demonstrated that doxycycline, a commonly available and inexpensive antibiotic, can improve survival rates and neurological outcomes in Central Nervous System Tuberculosis (CNS-TB) in a preclinical non-human study. Published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation, the study offers a promising adjunctive therapy for this severe and often fatal disease. The study, led by Associate Professor Catherine Ong ...

Scientists have identified practical fertilizer strategies that can help rice farmers in Myanmar boost their profits, protect the environment, and improve food security. Recent research, led by an international team including experts from the University of Melbourne and local partners, provides new recommendations for nitrogen fertilizer use, aiming for a balance between high yields and low environmental costs. Myanmar is one of Southeast Asia’s largest rice producers, yet struggles with low productivity, financial challenges, and food insecurity. Most local farmers rely on ...

The insightful Carbon Research Webinar, "Fossil-Free Graphite from Biomass for Greener Process Industries," is now available on-demand on YouTube! This insightful discussion with Prof. Weihong Yang of KTH Royal Institute of Technology took place on Monday, August 11, 2025. In case you couldn't join us live, you can now catch the full session on-demand, where Prof. Yang explores innovative strategies for replacing fossil-based materials with sustainable, bio-based graphite. He provides key insights into: Converting bioprecursors into fossil-free graphite. Its critical applications ...

As perovskite solar cells (PSCs) move toward commercialization, their extreme sensitivity to ambient moisture remains a major barrier to scalable, low-cost manufacturing. Now, researchers from Xidian University, led by Prof. Weidong Zhu and Prof. Chunfu Zhang, have developed a self-buffered molecular migration strategy that enables moisture-resistant, ambient-air crystallization of perovskite films—achieving record efficiencies without the need for strict humidity control. Why Self-Buffered Molecular Migration Matters Moisture Tolerance: A BABr shielding layer slows intermolecular ...

Professor Zhongkui Zhao of Dalian University of Technology, in collaboration with Professor Riguang Zhang of Taiyuan University of Technology, Researcher Yuefeng Liu of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Ting Zhang of Qingdao University, and Professor Chunshan Song  of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, constructed a single-atom Cu-N2O1 site with axial oxygen coordination on C3N4. Through the polar activation of the CH bond by the polar Cu-O bond, ...

New research led by UH Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) has drastically increased our understanding of Hawaiian monk seal (Neomonachus schauinslandi) underwater sound production, revealing a vocal repertoire far more complex than previously described. Published today in Royal Society Open Science, the study analyzed thousands of hours of passive acoustic data and identified 25 distinct underwater vocalizations, a dramatic increase from the six calls previously known from seals in human care. The team also ...

Five minutes of training can significantly improve people's ability to identify fake faces created by artificial intelligence, new research shows. Scientists from the University of Reading, Greenwich, Leeds and Lincoln tested 664 participants' ability to distinguish between real human faces and faces generated by computer software called StyleGAN3. Without any training, super-recognisers (individuals who score significantly higher than average on face recognition tests) correctly identified ...

Shouting at seagulls makes them more likely to leave your food alone, research shows. University of Exeter researchers put a closed Tupperware box of chips on the ground to pique herring gulls’ interest. Once a gull approached, they played either a recording of a male voice shouting the words, “No, stay away, that’s my food”, the same voice speaking those words, or the ‘neutral’ birdsong of a robin.   They tested a total of 61 gulls across nine seaside towns in Cornwall and found that ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00:01 UK TIME ON WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2025 Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can spot hard-to-see objects lodged in patients’ airways better than expert radiologists. In a study published in npj Digital Medicine, the AI model outperformed radiologists in checking CT scans for objects that don’t show up well on scans. These accidentally inhaled objects can cause coughing, choking, difficulty breathing and sometimes lead to more serious complications if not treated properly. The findings highlight how AI can support doctors in diagnosing complex and potentially life-threatening conditions. The ...

Researchers at the University of Southampton have identified a new subtype of lymphoma which could pave the way to improved and more targeted treatments for some blood cancer patients. The cancer scientists and biologists have also found that lymphoma cells of this new subtype carry a unique sugar that promotes the survival and growth of the cancer. Lymphoma is a type of blood cancer that affects white blood cells called lymphocytes. There are many different types of lymphoma, but this latest breakthrough is in a type called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), which affects our B cells. When operating ...

A new study led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) reveals what drives investors to put their money behind business start-ups. Researchers analysed more than a thousand successful crowdfunding campaigns on the platform Seedrs. They found that setting a £90K “sweet spot” target, having around 19 team members, and using certain phrases including “health” and “organic” in campaign pitches all helped attract investors. Offering a high equity percentage in return for investment was also found to be crucial – with low equity ratios putting investors off. The researchers hope their work could help entrepreneurs fine-tune ...