Scientists share their work by publishing articles in journals, such as Nature, Science or PLOS Biology. One major part of the publishing process involves having these manuscripts reviewed by unpaid peers. These scientists specialize in the same topic and volunteer to make sure the science is sound and the authors haven't missed anything critical in their data analysis. The peer review process has reached a critical point where there are too many manuscript submissions and not enough peer reviewers. Carl Bergstrom, University of Washington professor of biology, and ...

Depending on others for something you need may feel like a risky proposition—and perhaps a human one. It is actually a survival strategy found in the microbial world, and far more frequently than one might expect. Discovering why is key to understanding how microbes form stable communities across medical, industrial, and ecological settings. A new study by bioengineering professor Sergei Maslov, computational scientist Ashish George, and biology professor Tong Wang explores why interdependence can be such a winning move for microbial communities. Their work, published this week in Cell Systems , demonstrated ...

ORANGE, Calif. — Feb. 24, 2026 — A new peer-reviewed study led Dr. Hesham El-Askary, Ph.D., professor of computational and data science at Chapman University, concludes that the saddle dam of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam shows significant vulnerabilities that if breached could threaten downstream communities, property, and infrastructure if urgent monitoring and mitigation steps are not taken.  The study integrates satellite data, hydrological modeling, and advanced geospatial analysis to identify several warning ...

By Maddy Frank Love is in the air for the vinegar fly. Drosophila melanogaster has long been a model for understanding how brains translate sensory information into courtship behavior. Male flies perform a multitude of romantic actions — orienting, tapping, chasing and singing — directed toward eligible females. While researchers know that things like pheromones and sound play essential roles in these rituals, the influence of vision has been thought to be fairly simple in comparison: spot the female, track her and follow. A study published in February in G3 from Yehuda Ben-Shahar, a professor of biology in Art & Sciences ...

February 24, 2026— Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health has received an award as part of the PROactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience (PROSPR) program within the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to accelerate research on the biological hallmarks of aging. The project led by Daniel Belsky, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology, will help identify interventions that can extend healthy years of life in humans. While ...

Research shows nighttime drops in oxygen force fish to use more energy and could affect the health of entire reef ecosystems Abu Dhabi, UAE: A new study from NYU Abu Dhabi has found that small coral reef fish in the Arabian Gulf are facing a hidden but growing source of stress. When oxygen levels drop at night, a common occurrence on some of the world’s hottest reefs, these fish must use extra energy just to recover the next day. Over time, this additional strain could impact their growth, survival, and the overall balance of reef ecosystems. The research shows that even short nighttime drops in oxygen force the Gulf blenny, ...

Key points The COVID-19 pandemic had an immediate effect on how educators at museums and science centers interacted with their audiences. Many began offering online programming for the first time while simultaneously grappling with budget shortfalls, staff layoffs and low morale. Two inquiry-based studies had previously tracked the application of distance learning in museums. In a third study, recently published in the Quarterly Review of Distance Education, researchers assess the state of online museum programming three years after the pandemic’s onset to find out what worked ...

Beaver dams are critical to river health and a source of biodiversity. They create wetlands, slow water and improve water quality. They also reduce flood peaks and delay runoff. But beaver dams are often blamed when extreme rainstorms cause flooding — especially when they fail. This blame had serious consequences following the extraordinary rainstorms that hit Quebec’s Charlevoix region in 2005 and 2011 in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Irene. Flooding along the Port-au-Persil watershed caused considerable damage to a riverside inn downstream, leading its owners to successfully sue the Charlevoix-Est Regional County ...

Simon Fraser University researchers have uncovered concerning fibreglass contamination in a key estuary on Vancouver Island, raising concerns about how an as-yet overlooked contaminant could affect aquatic birds, marine life and coastal communities that rely on shellfish and seafood. A new SFU study found fibreglass particles buried in the sediment and biofilm layers of the Cowichan Estuary, a 400-hectare intertidal ecosystem used by the Cowichan Tribes First Nations for generations. The areas is an internationally designated important bird area ...

A new study published in Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology reveals a surprising link between cellular aging markers and survival in black-legged kittiwakes (members of the gull family). In “Who’s coming home? Shorter early-life telomeres predict return to the natal colony in an Arctic seabird” authors Jingqi Corey Liu, Olivier Chastel, Christophe Barbraud, Claus Bech, Pierre Blévin, Paco Bustamante, Børge Moe, Elin Noreen, and Frédéric Angelier found that kittiwake chicks with shorter telomeres were more likely to return to their birthplace as adults, contradicting predictions that longer telomeres would indicate better ...

Biologists have long wondered why caribou are the only deer in the world in which females, like males, have antlers. A study of shed antlers collected from calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge provides a new answer. Calving grounds are areas where migratory females give birth every year and also where they shed their antlers. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati found evidence that caribou, particularly moms with newborns, gnaw on antlers that were shed years earlier to supplement their diets with crucial minerals. The study ...

A new study sheds light on the behavior of yeast cells in the gut, paving the way for new lines of yeast that more efficiently produce therapeutic drugs tailored to address specific diseases. “Yeast is promising as a drug-delivery platform,” says Nathan Crook, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University. “Previous work has shown that yeast cells can be modified to produce specific molecules in the gut, such as therapeutics that ...

Key takeaways Precious transition metals like platinum and palladium are used as catalysts to speed up chemical reactions that produce carbon-nitrogen bonds. UCLA organic chemists have figured out how to make inexpensive phosphine act like a transition-metal catalyst by using a light-reactive molecule to activate it. The achievement could be useful in the pharmaceutical industry and help bring down the price of some drugs. A discovery by UCLA organic chemists may one day put catalytic converter thieves out of business. In new research, they’ve used ...

The process of peer review is vital to contemporary science, but is also under enormous strain. This study uses mathematical models to dissect the threats to the long-term viability of peer review, suggesting paths forward to place peer review on more stable footing. In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology: https://plos.io/3NUgj2X Article title: Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review Author countries: United States of America Funding: This work was partially supported by NSF (www.nsf.gov) awards SES-2346645 ...

Rediscovering long forgotten music does not mean recovering how it was meant to be performed, and that is a major challenge for the arts, finds a new study from the University of Surrey. An expert found that rediscovered music comes with no shared understanding for how it should sound, leaving performers to make radically different interpretive choices that reshape the work itself. In an article published in Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, a researcher focused on a little-known piano miniature by Surrey-based British composer ...

BATON ROUGE, La. – As part of its continued investment in specialty care access for the Baton Rouge community, Ochsner Baton Rouge welcomes several new physicians and advanced practice providers who are now accepting new patients.   Alexis Ambeau, PhD, practices neuropsychology at Ochsner Health Center – O'Neal, specializing in assessing adults with a range of conditions, including neurodegenerative disorders and other dementias, movement disorders, multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders, traumatic brain injury, stroke, central nervous ...

A new study has overcome a long-standing challenge—how to isolate and study elusive HIV-infected cells called authentic reservoir clones (ARCs) that evade the immune system, making the disease difficult to cure. Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University, and collaborating institutions offer a detailed look into these hidden HIV‑harboring cells and show that some may be more vulnerable to immune destruction than previously believed. The findings, published Feb. 24 in Nature, detail how the researchers ...

Global efforts to combat climate change in the last two decades have contributed to considerably cutting carbon emissions, according to a new study conducted primarily by scientists from Germany and the United Kingdom. The participating researchers investigated which climate policies were particularly effective. Reduced emissions have generally been the result of ambitious, i.e., larger and stricter climate policy portfolios. In addition, countries targeting the largest sources of emissions were particularly successful, according to the experts from Heidelberg University, who played a major role in the study. The research findings are based on a statistical analysis ...

Wastewater contains untapped resources that, if reclaimed, could power agriculture, global sanitation, and its own treatment to help us meet UN SDG goals.   This is according to a new Frontiers in Science lead article in which researchers Prof Uwe Schröder, Prof Falk Harnisch, Dr Elizabeth Heidrich, and Dr Deepak Pant examine how microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) can convert organic waste streams into electricity, fuels, fertilizers, and usable water more efficiently. Pilot deployments—from the UK’s Glastonbury Festival to field trials in Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa—are demonstrating its ...

Whether it’s redfin pickerel in the Kennebec River or sturgeon in the Great Lakes, nearly one-third of freshwater fish species are facing possible extinction, threatening food supplies, ecosystems and outdoor recreation. As conservationists work to preserve these species, the University of Maine assistant professor Christina Murphy asked herself if there was an easier way to identify threats to fish before they become endangered.  After five years of data collection, programming and testing, Murphy and her colleagues developed a computer model that identifies potential threats to more than 10,000 freshwater species worldwide. Encouragingly, the majority of species accounted for ...

We have known for several decades that the universe is expanding. Scientists use multiple techniques to measure the present-day expansion rate of the universe, known as the Hubble constant. These methods are internally consistent and based on the same physics, so all observed values of the Hubble constant should agree. But those that come from early-universe datasets disagree with those that come from late-universe datasets. This problem is known as the Hubble tension and is considered to be one of the most significant open questions in cosmology.  Now a team of astrophysicists, cosmologists, and physicists at The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ...

With children across the U.S. facing long wait times for medical care due to a shortage of pediatricians, UC San Francisco has launched a medical education program designed to strengthen the pediatric workforce and improve childhood health outcomes. The Pediatric Specialized Training and Advancement to Residency Track (Peds-START) is the only program of its kind in the West and provides early mentorship, individualized training, and a pathway into the UCSF pediatric residency program. Nationwide, there are just 82 pediatricians per 100,000 children, ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2026 — Live music can engage more than just one sense, despite it being an auditory medium. Lighting and visual effects can enhance the listening experience, but it is unclear if they can also affect the impression of the sound. In JASA, published on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing, researchers from Germany’s Technical University of Berlin found that the color of a concert hall has an impact on the sound perception of a listener. “Room acoustics perception is multidimensional,” ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2026 — With increasing cyberattacks and government data breaches, one of the most important devices to keep secure is the one in everyone’s pocket: smartphones. The problem is that it is difficult to check that a smartphone has not been tampered with without the risk of unintentionally damaging the device itself. In AIP Advances, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology developed a way to remotely fingerprint and identify a cellular ...

About The Study: This study found that thyroid cancer overdiagnosis in the U.S. remains substantial, even after accounting for possible increases in true incidence. This finding suggests an opportunity to reduce unnecessary thyroid ultrasonography referrals, particularly for nonpalpable nodules, and to reduce unnecessary diagnoses and treatment-related harms without increasing mortality.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, David O. Francis, MD, MS, email dofrancis@wisc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.59852) Editor’s ...