A research team led by Prof. LIANG Xu at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed an ultra-compact excimer laser—roughly the size of a thermos bottle. The results were recently published in APL Photonics. Excimer lasers, as critical deep ultraviolet sources, are widely used in scientific research, industrial processing, and environmental monitoring. However, traditional systems rely on mechanical gas pumps for medium circulation, resulting in large size, high noise, and significant vibration. These limitations restrict their application in field environments, marine exploration, and airborne platforms. To overcome ...

In a national effort to make medicines safer for older Australians, the University of South Australia is calling for aged care providers and pharmacists to join a new pilot study to assess medication safety and management in residential aged care.   Developed in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the study will use the new PHARMA-Care National Quality Framework to evaluate medication management and clinical services provided by pharmacists, included as part of the Australian Government’s $350 million Aged Care On-site ...

A new comprehensive study highlights the remarkable potential of engineered biochar, a carbon-rich product derived from plant and waste biomass, for addressing one of the world’s most stubborn environmental problems: the co-contamination of water by heavy metals and organic pollutants. This joint effort, led by researchers at Guizhou University with collaborators from across China, reveals how strategic modifications to biochar’s structure dramatically expand its ability to capture and remove hazardous substances from wastewater, making it a viable, sustainable solution ...

LOS ANGELES — City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States with its National Medical Center ranked among the nation’s top cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, today announced that internationally recognized physician-scientist Christine M. Lovly, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.S.C.O., will spearhead the development of its new national thoracic oncology program, furthering City of Hope’s mission to deliver exceptional multidisciplinary care and transformative research for patients with lung cancer. Dr. Lovly’s appointment is effective Jan. 1. Dr. ...

Higher levels of greenness are associated with lower risks of hospital admissions for mental disorders, finds an analysis of data from seven countries over two decades, published in the BMJ’s climate issue today. Local greenness was associated with a 7% reduction in hospital admissions for all cause mental disorders, with stronger associations for substance use disorders (9%), psychotic disorders (7%), and dementia (6%). However, associations varied across countries and disorders. For example, Brazil, Chile, and Thailand showed consistent ...

Lisbon, Portugal: Aerobic and resistance exercise can significantly improve physical performance in patients living with metastatic breast cancer according to new results presented at the Advanced Breast Cancer Eighth International Consensus Conference (ABC8) today (Friday).   Anne May, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology of Cancer Survivorship at the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht and the Netherlands Cancer Institute, The Netherlands, presented new results [1] from the PREFERABLE-EFFECT study [2] that showed a nine-month programme of supervised exercise improved muscle mass and muscle strength, particularly in the arms and ...

DETROIT – Researchers at Wayne State University will work with Michigan agencies and education partners to improve access to school-based substance use prevention and treatment programs for adolescents who are at risk of substance misuse and substance use disorders (SUDs). The research will be funded by a two-year, $883,176 R61 exploratory grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Andria B. Eisman, associate professor of community health in Wayne State’s College of Education, will lead the study, “Reducing Addiction through ...

Woodpeckers pack a punch., pounding wood with extreme force and experiencing decelerations of up to 400g. Now Nicholas Antonson, Matthew Fuxjager, Stephen Ogunbiyi, Margot Champigneulle and Thomas Roberts (all at Brown University, USA) and bird song expert Franz Goller (University of Münster, Germany) reveal in Journal of Experimental Biology that drilling woodpeckers turn themselves in hammers birds by bracing their head, neck, abdomen and tail muscles to hold their bodies rigid when they pound on wood, driving each impact with the hip flexor and front neck muscles. In addition, ...

A team of four leading scientists from four European universities has been awarded a prestigious Synergy Grant of approximately €10 million by the European Research Council (ERC) for the project CARAMEL (Covalent Chaotropic Membrane Transport for Biotherapeutic Delivery). The project aims to overcome one of the biggest challenges in medicine: efficiently delivering modern biotherapeutics, such as peptides and proteins, into cells—a key hurdle in developing new treatments for diseases like cancer.  The CARAMEL project team comprises four principal investigators from leading European universities: Dr. ...

Jiahe Zhang, PhD, of the Department of Psychiatry at Mass General Brigham, is the lead author of the paper published in Nature Neuroscience, “Cortical and subcortical mapping of the human allostatic-interoceptive system using 7 Tesla fMRI.” Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, and Marta Bianciardi, PhD, of the Department of Radiology at Mass General Brigham are co-senior authors. Barrett is also affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry at Mass General Brigham. Q: How would you summarize your study for a lay audience? Using an ultra-high-resolution imaging technology called 7 Tesla functional MRI (fMRI) on human participants, we mapped how different parts of the brain work together. ...

HOUSTON – (Nov. 6, 2025) – A team of researchers from Rice University and the Houston Methodist Research Institute has received a John S. Dunn Foundation Collaborative Research Award through the Gulf Coast Consortia to study how the brain responds over time to neural implants.  The project brings together expertise in materials science, neuroscience and clinical medicine and is led by Rice researchers Yimo Han, assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering, and Chong Xie, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, together with Dr. Damiano Barone, assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Houston Methodist ...

NORMAN, Okla. – Lethal lettuce in Missouri. Murderous onions in Colorado. To biochemists at the University of Oklahoma, these aren’t just headlines – they’re warnings of the risks posed by drug-resistant bacteria and the human cost of inaction. “Treatment of chronic conditions and many surgeries requires antibiotics,” said Helen Zgurskaya, George Lynn Cross Research Professor in the OU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “When bacteria become resistant to antibiotics ...

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) presents a roundup of four research articles recently published across its esteemed journals. Widely recognized for fostering innovation and advancing ecological knowledge, ESA’s journals consistently feature illuminating and impactful studies. This compilation of papers explores unexpected links between Arctic land and sea, how much beavers could counter the threat of wildfire, whether uniformity within a species is good for biodiversity and what happened after ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – November 6, 2025) The enzyme RNA polymerase II transcribes genes into messenger RNA. This process is guided by modifications to the enzyme’s “tail” called phosphorylation patterns. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital explored these patterns, identifying 117 kinases that could phosphorylate multiple locations within the protein tail. This greatly expands upon the set of kinases previously known to phosphorylate RNA polymerase II. The work also links the enzyme’s activity to ...

Why This Matters: Accelerates Crop Innovation: Cuts months off the process of developing gene-edited crops, speeding up the path from gene discovery to field-ready varieties. Expands Accessibility: Reduces reliance on specialized tissue culture labs, making advanced bioengineering feasible for more research institutions and crop species. Boosts Global Food Security: Has the potential to enable faster breeding of crops with better resilience, nutrient efficiency and disease resistance. A team of plant biotechnologists ...

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), in collaboration with Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (MBI), the City of Worcester, and more than 30 regional partners, has been awarded $5.2 million from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to establish the BioHub, a transformative initiative designed to power the bioindustrial revolution in Central Massachusetts.  The award was announced by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll at an event held at WPI, where she also recognized 14 other innovation and technology projects funded by the state to strengthen Massachusetts’ growing innovation economy.  The BioHub will ...

The United States is falling far behind China in remote sensing research, according to a comprehensive new study that tracked seven decades of academic publishing and reveals a notable reversal in global technological standing. China now accounts for nearly half of all peer-reviewed journal publications in this critical field, while American output has declined to single digits. "This represents one of the most significant shifts in global technological leadership in recent history," said Debra ...

A new study identified large clusters of food deserts, where residents have limited access to affordable, nutritious food, in East London—particularly Newham, Redbridge, and Barking and Dagenham—and in parts of west London such as Ealing and Brent. The findings were published November 6th in the open-access journal PLOS Complex Systems by Tayla Broadbridge of the University of Nottingham, UK, and colleagues. Poor diet and unequal access to healthy food are linked to rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. To effectively target interventions to areas where residents face barriers ...

An unprecedented heatwave and drought in 2023 turned the Amazon’s lakes into shallow simmering basins, with water temperatures soaring to temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (ºC) in one case and water levels plunging to record lows, researchers report. The extreme temperatures had impacts ranging from isolating remote riverine communities to driving mass die-offs in fish and endangered Amazon river dolphins. The findings confirm a worrisome warming trend across the Amazon’s poorly monitored lakes and rivers and portend escalating ...

New research reveals how genetic changes in the barley MKK3 gene fine-tune seed dormancy, determining whether grains stay dormant or sprout too soon. The findings offer breeders new genetic tools to balance seed dormancy and crop resilience under changing climate conditions. The rise of agriculture was driven by the intentional selection of crops with improved traits. One key trait under selection, particularly in cereal crops, is grain dormancy – the period before which a seed can germinate. In wild cereals, grain dormancy helps ensure plant survival under unpredictable conditions. ...

A new record of Arctic sea-ice coverage – informed by the slow and steady sedimentation of cosmic dust on the sea floor – reveals that ancient ice waxed and waned with atmospheric warming, not ocean heat, over the last 300,000 years. The findings provide rare insights into how modern melting in the region could reshape the Arctic’s nutrient balance and biological productivity. The Arctic is warming more rapidly than any other region on Earth, driving a precipitous decline in sea ice coverage. This loss not only affects the region’s marine ecosystems and coastal communities, but it also has far-reaching implications on global ...

Models that inform how magma moves and volcanic eruptions unfold may need an update, according to a new study. It reports that gas bubbles in magmas can form through the mechanical forces of shear as magmas flow and deform–  a new physical mechanism for magma bubble nucleation that challenges conventional degassing models. The formation of gas bubbles within magma – also known as nucleation – is a fundamental process that shapes how volcanic eruptions unfold. The timing and rate at which these bubbles appear and expand influences key magma features, including its buoyancy, viscosity, and explosive potential. Understanding nucleation is therefore vital for ...

Arctic sea ice has declined by more than 42% since 1979, when regular satellite monitoring began. As the ice grows thinner and recedes, more water is exposed to sunlight. Ice reflects sunlight but dark water absorbs it, advancing warming and accelerating ice loss. Climate models indicate that the Arctic will see ice-free summers within the coming decades, and scientists still aren’t sure what this will mean for life on Earth.  Researchers have known for some time that fine-grained dust from space blankets the surface of Earth, falling from the cosmos at a constant rate and settling into ocean sediments. A study published Nov. 6 in Science shows that tracking where cosmic dust has ...

Superconductors are like the express trains in a metro system. Any electricity that “boards” a superconducting material can zip through it without stopping and losing energy along the way. As such, superconductors are extremely energy efficient, and are used today to power a variety of applications, from MRI machines to particle accelerators.  But these “conventional” superconductors are somewhat limited in terms of uses because they must be brought down to ultra-low temperatures using elaborate cooling systems to keep them in their superconducting state. If ...

For decades, scientists have generally thought that rivers emit more carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, than they take in. But a new analysis of every river network in the contiguous United States — including underrepresented rivers in deserts and shrublands — challenges this assumption, uncovering hints that many Western waterways may be soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The findings were published in Science and led by Taylor Maavara, an aquatic biogeochemist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. “Rivers ...