A new scientific review highlights major advances in the use of iron enhanced biochar as a powerful tool for cleaning contaminated environments and supporting sustainable agriculture. The study synthesizes recent breakthroughs in modifying biochar with iron to dramatically improve its ability to capture pollutants, catalyze chemical reactions, and stabilize nutrients in soil and water systems. Biochar is a carbon rich material created when agricultural residues, wood waste, or other biomass are heated under limited ...

Alcohol-related diseases and injuries have the potential to cost the Australian healthcare system a staggering $68 billion over 60 years if nothing is done to stop the impact. The new Griffith University developed The Alcohol Policy (TAP) model is an epidemiological model used to estimate the avoidable alcohol-related disease, injury and healthcare cost burden in the Australian population aged over 15 years. Dr Mary Wanjau from Griffith’s School of Medicine and Dentistry said if we eliminated alcohol consumption ...

NIMS, in collaboration with Nagoya University, Gifu University, and the University of Adelaide, has developed a method for simultaneously imaging DNA and RNA inside cells using harmless infrared to near-infrared light. This study enables high-precision detection of all stages of cell death, paving the way for early detection of cell aging and damage for disease prevention. The results were published in Science Advances on October 23, 2025. Background Early detection of cellular damage that leads to aging or death is essential for developing therapeutic strategies for many diseases. Achieving this requires observing cellular changes throughout their life cycle by cell ...

Across North America, mountain lions, bears, and gray wolves have made a remarkable comeback over the last 50 years. Once nearly exterminated, these animals have been recovering their populations and returning to the landscapes they historically roamed, thanks to protections like the Endangered Species Act, hunting limits, and reintroduction programs. The ecological impact of restoring these large carnivores is potentially huge, in part because of the way they could help to balance ecosystems by keeping prey populations under control.    One ...

How much squid do short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) off the coast of Hawai’i need to consume each day to survive and are there sufficient squid to sustain the population? Knowing these basic facts is essential in the fight to protect populations. Researchers from the USA, Spain, Australia and Denmark reveal in Journal of Experimental Biology that individual Hawaiian short-finned pilot whales consume between 82 and 202 squid per day, adding up to a total of 88,000 tonnes of squid per year for the entire ...

Seven new species of a distinctive frog-like insect have been discovered by a scientist from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge, England. Belonging to the genus Batracomorphus, the seven previously unknown species of leafhopper were found by Dr Alvin Helden during fieldwork in the tropical rainforest of Uganda. The name Batracomorphus derives from the Greek for “frog-shaped”, and these leafhoppers are mostly green, possess large eyes and jump using their long hind legs, which are tucked alongside their bodies like frogs. The details of Dr Helden’s discoveries have been published in the journal Zootaxa and they are the first new ...

Countless everyday products from plastic squeeze bottles to outdoor furniture are derived by first turning propane into propylene. A 2021 study in Science demonstrated chemists could use tandem nanoscale catalysts to integrate multiple steps of the process into a single reaction—a way for companies to increase yield and save money. But it was unclear what was happening at the atomic level, making it difficult to apply the technique to other key industrial processes. Researchers at the University of Rochester developed ...

For the first time, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB), and the Allen Institute are collaborating to present a three-day scientific symposium led by early-career scientists. The Stem Cell & Developmental Biology Early Career Symposium is designed to nurture the next generation of researchers and provide a platform for professional growth while fostering collaboration at the intersection of developmental biology and stem cell science. The organizing committee comprises: Alessandro ...

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A new study published in Nature and Science of Sleep reveals a strong connection between social media addiction and poor sleep quality among high school graduates in Bangladesh, offering fresh insights into the mental health and digital habits of young people.  Researchers from the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, CHINTA Research Bangladesh, University of South Asia, Jahangirnagar University and the Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, analyzed data from 1,139 students preparing for university admission. The study found that higher levels of social media addiction were closely ...

A University of Massachusetts Amherst study has found that gerrymandering in North Carolina resulted in reduced access to healthcare services. As states across the country grapple with politically charged redistricting efforts, the finding could ultimately offer a new strategy to fight gerrymandering in the courts, the researchers say. “Access to healthcare should not be dependent on which party is in power,” says Auden Cote-L’Heureux, lead author of the paper published Nov. 13 in the American Journal of Public Health, which also issued an editorial piece on the research. “Healthcare should be protected from political whims.”  Cote-L’Heureux, ...

Four researchers from LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center have been named among the world’s most highly cited scientists, according to the 2025 Highly Cited Researchers list from Clarivate Analytics. Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Steven Heymsfield, Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk, Dr. Eric Ravussin, and Dr. Donna Ryan are recognized among the top 1 percent of researchers whose work has demonstrated significant and broad influence in their respective fields. The list identifies scientists whose publications rank among the most cited globally over the past 11 years, as measured in the Web of Science database. This year’s list recognizes 6,868 researchers representing more ...

Imagine existing as an apple tree, stretching your branches toward the sun and sinking your roots into the soil. Imagine life as a prairie dog, digging tunnels among those roots and peeking out to feel the sun’s warmth. Imagine being a robot tractor, planting vegetables beside the tree.  Now, thanks to a team of University of Nebraska–Lincoln researchers and emerging media artists, players can step into all those roles and more through an extended reality (XR) experience that brings science to life. “MuMu: Worlds of Connection Chapter One” is an experience where players learn about network science — the study of connections ...

SAN FRANCISCO—The immune system faces a delicate balancing act: it must be aggressive enough to fight infections and cancer, yet restrained enough to avoid attacking the body’s own tissues. More than two decades ago, researchers identified a gene called FOXP3 as playing a critical role in maintaining this balance and preventing autoimmune disease—work that garnered this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Now, scientists at Gladstone Institutes and UC San Francisco (UCSF) have mapped the intricate network of genetic switches ...

Research institutions around the world house valuable genetic information that could help unlock countless medical mysteries. However, because DNA degrades over time, it is difficult for researchers to analyze DNA samples older than 20 years using conventional analytical approaches. Although modern technologies have transformed researchers’ ability to learn about disease, these technologies have primarily been used on modern genetic samples. The ability to study genetic data from earlier decades has been exceedingly limited, which hinders researchers’ understanding of old diseases and why changes in ...

Alexandria, VA – The American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) is pleased to announce the program participants (mentees) for the sixth cohort of the AADOCR Mind the Future program: David Fraser, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Mohamed Hassan, Washington University in St. Louis Miaomiao Li, The Ohio State University Paula Ortega-Verdugo, University of California, Los Angeles Sudha Rajderkar, UT Health Houston Ligia Schmitd, University of Michigan Lakmali Silva, Harvard University Harim Tavares dos Santos, University at Buffalo Heather Taylor, Indiana University Jaqueline ...

Just a few million years after the end-Permian mass extinction event (EPME), aquatic reptiles and other vertebrates had recovered to form thriving and diverse oceanic ecosystems, according to a study of an Early Triassic-age fossil site in the Arctic. The findings challenge previous assumptions of a slow and gradual establishment of mid-Triassic marine communities and suggest that vertebrate evolution paralleled the rapid resurgence of invertebrate life in the Early Triassic. The EPME, which occurred roughly 251.9 million years ago (Ma), wiped out upwards of 90% of all marine species on Earth. It has long been thought that recovery of ocean ecosystems following this event was slow, taking ...

As human groups migrated and settled across Holocene Eurasia, dogs often traveled with them, researchers report in a new genomic study – and sometimes dogs were traded among populations. The study reveals the integral role these animals played in culture and exchange. For at least the last 11,000 years, dogs and humans have lived side-by-side. However, the true antiquity of their association with humans remains elusive. Some evidence suggests that major dog lineages in different parts of the world appear to have diversified thousands of years earlier, suggesting that these dogs may have traveled with humans as they colonized different parts of Europe, ...

A magnetically guided microrobotics system is capable of navigating the body’s intricate passageways and vasculature to deliver drugs with pinpoint accuracy, according to a new study. The novel system could enable safer, targeted drug treatments that minimize unwanted side effects. Systemic drug treatments often cause unwanted side effects due to off-target exposure and account for nearly one-third of failures in clinical trials, illustrating the need for precise, targeted drug delivery strategies. To address this, researchers have worked to develop magnetic micro- and nanorobots designed to deliver drugs directly to diseased tissues. Advances in materials ...

Every year, 12 million people worldwide suffer a stroke; many die or are permanently impaired. Currently, drugs are administered to dissolve the thrombus that blocks the blood vessel. These drugs spread throughout the entire body, meaning a high dose must be administered to ensure that the necessary amount reaches the thrombus. This can cause serious side effects, such as internal bleeding. Since medicines are often only needed in specific areas of the body, medical research has long been searching for a way to use microrobots to deliver pharmaceuticals to where they need to be: in the case of a stroke, directly to the stroke-related thrombus. Now, a ...

Researchers have achieved a new level of control over the atomic structure of a family of materials known as halide perovskites, creating a finely tuned ‘energy sandwich’ that could transform how solar cells, LEDs and lasers are made. Due to their remarkable ability to absorb and emit light, and because they are cheaper and can be configured to convert more of the solar spectrum into energy than silicon, perovskites have long been touted as a potential replacement for silicon in solar cells, LEDs and quantum technologies. However, their instability and durability has, so far, largely limited perovskite devices to the laboratory. ...

In the world of phylogenetics, there’s team sponge and team comb jelly. Which creature roots the animal tree of life — the simple sponge or the more complex comb jelly — has stirred fierce debate among phylogeneticists, researchers who study evolutionary history. Scientists long assumed the muscle-less and neuron-less sponges gave rise to more complex organisms, including humans. But genomic analyses in 2008 comparing hundreds of genes from many different animals and their relatives delivered ...

A groundbreaking archaeological study has revealed when domestic dogs first began to show the remarkable diversity that characterises them today.  By applying cutting-edge shape analysis to hundreds of archaeological specimens spanning tens of thousands of years, researchers have traced the emergence of distinct dog forms deep into prehistory, pinpointing the moment dogs began to diversify in size and shape - at least 11,000 years ago. These findings challenge long-standing assumptions that canine diversity is largely a recent phenomenon shaped by selective breeding, ...

The fossils were found in 2015, but took nearly a decade of painstaking work to excavate, prepare, sort, identify, and analyse. The long-awaited research findings have now been published by a team of Scandinavian palaeontologists from the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo, and the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago is world famous for producing marine fossils from the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs. These are preserved in rock layers that were once mud at ...

In a policy brief published in Science, scientists call on European Union for a new approach to protect people and nature from the hidden risks of chemical cocktails. Every day, people and all other living organisms are potentially exposed to dozens or even hundreds of chemicals – from plastics and pesticides to cosmetics and cleaning agents. While each chemical may individually meet safety standards, their combined effects can quietly add up. A new policy brief published in Science argues that current chemical ...

University of Pittsburgh Researchers Reveal Hidden Impacts of Drinking Water Treatment on Urban Streams Aging lead-pipe drinking water systems, along with the public health measures implemented to reduce their risks, are reshaping the chemistry and health of nearby urban streams. New research from University of Pittsburgh biogeochemists, hydrologists, and environmental engineers uncovered previously overlooked environmental impacts of a common water treatment practice: adding orthophosphate to drinking water systems to prevent lead pipe corrosion. Published in PLOS Water, the study reveals that phosphate used in drinking water treatment can leak into urban streams, altering ...