In the heat of a warming world, public fountains have become the crown jewels of urban cooling and interactive play. With over 100,000 installations worldwide attracting 3 billion visitors annually, these features are more than just aesthetic landmarks—they are critical hubs of human activity. However, a new editorial published in Carbon Research warns that the mist we walk through might be carrying more than just a refreshing chill. Professor Xiaohui Liu, from the Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology (Ministry of Education) ...

Scientists are proposing a new way to boost the climate benefits of biochar by pairing it with peatland restoration. A new study suggests that applying biochar to rewetted peatlands could dramatically improve long term carbon storage while making biochar production more efficient and scalable. Biochar, a charcoal like material made by heating biomass in low oxygen conditions, is widely recognized as a promising carbon dioxide removal technology. When added to soil, it can store carbon for decades or centuries. However, the stability of biochar varies depending on how it is produced and where it is applied. Current ...

Small fragments of plastic were found in nine out of 10 patients with prostate cancer, and in higher levels inside tumors than in nearby noncancerous tissue, a new study finds.  The small, single-center study was led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and its Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards. It explored the potential role of plastic exposure in development of prostate cancer, which is the most common cancer among American men according to the American Cancer Society.   Experts have found that when ...

URBANA, Ill. — A lot has changed on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus since its founding in 1867, but a storied plot of land near the south quad has been preserved nearly intact for a century and a half. The Morrow Plots, famed in song and story, represent the oldest continuously running agricultural experiment in North America, and are the second oldest in the world. And this year, they turn 150.   “The Morrow Plots are a huge part of our story in the College of ACES. They’re a direct example of how we live out our land-grant mission, providing evidence-based recommendations ...

To keep up with today’s computing needs, researchers mine the quantum realm to find better ways to handle massive data demands. A new field known as “orbitronics” is the newest of these efforts. Orbitronics uses the path of an electron around a nucleus, a property known as orbital angular momentum, to store and process more information, much more efficiently. Typically, controlling an electron’s orbit requires using magnetic materials, like iron, that are heavy, expensive and burdensome for practical orbitronics devices. In a new study, researchers developed the most streamlined system yet for generating orbital angular ...

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received an $80 million grant to continue research into the mysteries of exceptional longevity. The grant renews support for the Long Life Family Study, a long-running, international investigation of multiple generations of families with unusually high numbers of individuals who have lived much longer than statistical models predict, including some to age 100 and beyond. The work is supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Launched in 2004, the Long Life Family Study has built on WashU Medicine’s ...

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), in collaboration with international partners, have shown that ocean temperature patterns help limit the global spread of droughts. Published in Communications Earth & Environment, the study analysed climate data from 1901–2020 and found that synchronised droughts affected between 1.8% and 6.5% of global land, far lower than earlier claims that one-sixth of the planet could dry out at once. The study, led by Dr Udit Bhatia, with co-authors from IITGN and the Helmholtz ...

A team of scientists led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), and Leipzig University has developed a new method to track the Earth’s greenness – a key indicator of vegetation health and activity – by calculating its centre of mass. Lead author Prof. Miguel Mahecha explains: “Imagine holding a perfectly round globe in your hands and attaching small weights to it, each representing the green leaves at every point on the Earth’s surface. If you then carefully place this globe into calm water, the centre of mass will ...

Even people who are only barely altruistic still choose to self-isolate when infected, suggesting it may be a natural survival strategy, finds new University of Warwick led study. Reducing social contact is widely understood to slow disease spread, but because there is no personal health benefit gain from self-isolating, this would seem to require some concern for others. But how much do you have to care about others before you would choose to self-isolate when sick?  Published ...

EMBARGO February 23, 2026 at 3:00 PM U.S. Eastern time Over 40,000 years ago, our early ancestors were already carving signs into tools and sculptures. According to a new analysis by linguist Christian Bentz at Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz at the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Museum of Prehistory and Early History) in Berlin, these sign sequences have the same level of complexity and information density as the earliest proto-cuneiform script that emerged tens of thousands of years later, around 3,000 B.C.E. Using a ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Volcanoes and wildfires can inject millions of tons of gases and aerosol particles into the air, affecting temperatures on a global scale. But picking out the specific impact of individual events against a background of many contributing factors is like listening for one person’s voice from across a crowded concourse. MIT scientists now have a way to quiet the noise and identify the specific signal of wildfires and volcanic eruptions, including their effects on Earth’s global atmospheric temperatures. In a study appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers report that ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Pickup basketball and neighborhood kickball are less common now than for generations past, giving way to more organized and formal youth sports intended to help kids get ahead, a new study suggests. Researchers found that compared to people born in earlier decades, youths born in the 1990s spent more of their recreational time playing formal sports – coached by adults and wearing uniforms – than with friends and neighbors playing informal matchups organized by kids. “Overall, there’s been a pretty healthy mix across generations and among our respondents in playing both informal and formally organized sports, ...

LEDs no wider than a human hair could soon take on work traditionally handled by lasers, from moving data inside server racks to powering next-generation displays. New research co-authored by UC Santa Barbara doctoral student Roark Chao points to a practical path forward. “We’re talking about devices that are literally the size of a hair follicle,” said Chao, who studies electrical engineering. “If you can engineer how the light comes out, those microLEDs can start to replace lasers in short-distance data communication.” The work builds on UCSB’s longstanding strengths in gallium nitride research and optoelectronics. Chao is co-advised by Steven ...

AURORA, Colo. (February 23, 2026) – A 13-year study led by the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz reveals why a deadly parasitic infection targeted for elimination in China persisted in some areas even after decades of control. The research, which used artificial intelligence (AI) and classic “shoe-leather” investigations, investigated some of the last pockets of disease in the country. They found that farming practices and unsafe sanitation contributed to disease spread. Additionally, as the region approached ...

NEW ORLEANS – Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center at The Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center in New Orleans announces a milestone in advanced cancer treatment, as the first institution in Louisiana to provide an adult patient with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) therapy for advanced melanoma.   Advanced melanoma is classified as stage III or IV metastatic melanoma and is a form of skin cancer that has spread ...

Superhydrophobic surfaces — those famously “never-wet” materials that make water bead up and roll away — have a stubborn weakness: hot water. Once temperatures climb above roughly 40 degrees Celsius, many superhydrophobic coatings abruptly lose their magic. Instead of skittering off, hot droplets start sticking, soaking into the surface texture and leaving behind wet patches and residue. A new study from mechanical engineers at Rice University describes a surprisingly straightforward ...

Research shows that as individuals learn and acquire a new skill, their brain structure and activity changes. But how do more complex skills involving multiple learning processes influence the brain? New from JNeurosci, researchers led by Erik Wing, from Baycrest Hospital, compared the brains of 29 expert birders with 29 age- and sex-matched beginners. Because birding requires a keen eye, attention, and strong memory, this work may have implications for ...

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have discovered a way to turn plastic waste into acetic acid, the main ingredient of vinegar, using sunlight.  The breakthrough offers a promising new approach to reducing plastic pollution through photocatalysis, while simultaneously creating a useful, value-added chemical product through a process inspired by nature.  “Our goal was to solve the plastic pollution challenge by converting microplastic waste into high-value products using sunlight,” said Dr. Yimin Wu, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering and ...

Munich astronomers image and model extremely rare gravitationally lensed supernova Measuring the expansion of the universe with cosmic fireworks An image that could solve a long lasting cosmic mystery Unprecedented chance to measure the growth of the universe Collaboration between TUM, LMU and Max Planck Institutes That the universe is expanding has been known for almost a hundred years now, but how fast? The exact rate of that expansion remains hotly debated, even challenging the standard model ...

A horse’s whinny is an unusually distinctive mix of sounds including both high and low frequencies. Reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on February 23, researchers demonstrate how horses produce high-frequency sounds that defy their large size while simultaneously producing lower tones: they whistle through their larynx while vibrating their vocal folds as a human does while singing. Horses likely ...

About The Study: The findings of this study indicate declines of more than 10 percentage points in newborn hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination in the last 2 years, following 6 years of growth. These estimates derived from large-scale hospital and clinic electronic health records align with WHO and CDC coverage through 2022 and provide interim surveillance for 2023-2025, a period not yet reflected in national or global reports. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Joshua M. Rothman, MD, MS, email jmrothman@health.ucsd.edu. To access the embargoed study: ...

An attractive influencer couple chats in a kitchen as they prepare dinner. A wine bottle sits on the counter. Someone takes a sip. It looks less like an ad than a slice of ordinary life, the kind of moment that can pass unnoticed during an aimless scroll on social media. But a randomized experiment from Rutgers Health and Harvard University suggests those casual cues matter. Young adults who viewed influencer posts with alcohol were significantly more likely to desire a drink than peers who watched similar posts – from the same influencers – with no alcohol involved. The study in JAMA Pediatrics, led by Jon-Patrick Allem, an associate professor at the Rutgers School ...

About The Study: Exposure to alcohol-promoting social media content was associated with desire to drink across varying levels of prior alcohol use, and social media influencers may contribute to normalization of alcohol consumption among young people. This experimental evidence adds to a growing body of research showing that exposure to alcohol-promoting content, particularly on social media, is associated with alcohol-promoting attitudes and behaviors in young adults.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jon-Patrick Allem, PhD, MA, email jon.patrick.allem@rutgers.edu. To ...

About The Study: This study found that as community disadvantage increased, access to dialysis facilities decreased in a stepwise fashion. Patients with end-stage kidney disease in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities had significantly fewer options for receiving hemodialysis and were more likely to live in areas without nearby dialysis facilities.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Renee Y. Hsia, MD, MSc, email renee.hsia@ucsf.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this ...

About The Study: The results of this study reveal that healthy diets, exemplified by the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet for blood pressure control and diets with lower hyperinsulinemia and inflammation potentials, were associated with a lower subjective cognitive decline risk and better cognitive function. These findings underscore the importance of a healthy diet for maintaining long-term cognitive health. Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Changzheng Yuan, ScD, (chy478@zju.edu.cn) and Kjetil ...