A specialized shark-hunting pod of orcas in the Gulf of California has been caught on camera expertly targeting young great white sharks — flipping them upside-down to eat the energy-rich liver. The pod, known as Moctezuma’s pod, could be taking advantage of warming waters altering shark nursery areas to hunt juveniles, which lack the experience to flee as older sharks do. These observations suggest that orcas may hunt white sharks more often than we realized. However, a broader survey collecting more data is needed to draw strong conclusions.   “I believe that orcas that eat elasmobranchs — sharks and rays — could eat a great white shark, ...

A terrestrial broadcasting transmission technology developed by Korean researchers has been adopted as the next-generation broadcasting standard in Brazil, following its adoption as a North American standard. Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on August 29 that the physical layer transmission method for Brazil’s next-generation broadcast standard (DTV+) has been finally selected by Brazilian Presidential Decree. It is a transmission technology that combines ATSC 3.0-based multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) and layered division multiplexing ...

New research shows that modern agriculture is impacting biodiversity inside protected areas in Europe, while some traditional agricultural practices may help preserve it. The Natura 2000 is the largest network of protected areas in the world, established to conserve the most valuables habitats and species in the European Union (EU). Researchers conducted a large-scale survey among Natura 2000 protected area managers across all Europe focusing on management practices, funding and threats to biodiversity facing the Natura 2000 network.   The ...

Living farther than 30 km from a family physician can negatively affect access to health care, found a new Ontario study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.250265. Over the last 10 years, access to primary care has declined in Canada, and this decline accelerated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Even after moving, many patients reported continuing with their family physicians, despite travelling longer distances to reach them. “Distance to health care services is an important ...

Provincial governments that partner with for-profit virtual health care companies need to be cautious to protect public trust in the health care system, according to an analysis article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.250639. At least 4 provinces in Canada have partnered with corporate virtual care organizations as part of efforts to deal with challenges in primary care access, offering medical care via video, phone and text messaging. “There are risks associated with direct-to-consumer virtual ‘walk in’ style ...

As Medicaid funding cuts enacted through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are expected to reduce health coverage among adults, researchers and clinicians from Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian and Ariadne Labs argue in a New England Journal of Medicine perspective, published Nov. 1, that children are at increasing risk of unintended downstream effects. The bill, which became law on July 4, will cause 10 million people to lose their health insurance by 2034, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates. Children aren’t mentioned explicitly in the bill, but the authors say that many parents who lose coverage ...

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a new atomically layered material which experiences a five order of magnitude resistivity reduction when oxidized, more than a hundred times the reduction seen in similar, non-layered materials. By analyzing the structure, the team discovered a synergy between oxidation and structural modification which drives dramatic changes in physical properties. The new material promises more power efficient next-generation devices, ...

Oct. 31, 2025--Researchers at the Columbia University Fertility Center reported the first successful pregnancy using an AI-guided method they developed to recover sperm in men with azoospermia, in which ejaculate contains little or no sperm.  The case is described in a research letter published in The Lancet.  Male factors account for approximately 40% of couples with infertility. Of those, about 10-15% of men with infertility have azoospermia.    “A semen sample can appear totally normal, but when you look under the microscope you discover just a sea of cellular ...

A sweeping new study has uncovered global patterns in how bacteria thrive and interact within lakes and reservoirs, offering new insights into the invisible forces that sustain freshwater ecosystems. The research, led by scientists from Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, analyzed hundreds of samples from around the world to understand how geography, temperature, and nutrients shape bacterial communities in water and sediments. Freshwater ecosystems are vital sources of drinking water, biodiversity, and economic activity, yet they are increasingly threatened by pollution, eutrophication, and climate change. Microorganisms, though microscopic, play a central role in ...

Researchers from the University of Toronto have uncovered how the hidden architecture of wood can give rise to biochar materials as strong as mild steel. Their new study reveals that the direction in which biochar is measured can make its hardness vary by more than twenty-eight times, opening the door to a new generation of sustainable carbon materials for use in energy devices, filters, and structural applications. Biochar, a carbon-rich material produced by heating biomass in the absence of oxygen, has long been valued for its environmental ...

Professor Lijia Wang's group at East China Normal University, in collaboration with Academician Yong Tang of the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed a nickel (II)-catalyzed asymmetric [2+2] cyclobutanization reaction. By introducing a flexible "antenna" structure into the traditional chiral BOX ligand, they successfully achieved efficient asymmetric cyclobutanization of indole-derived heterocyclic enamines with methylene malonates. Based on this method, the team completed a concise asymmetric synthesis of seven ...

Max Planck Digital Library and BioOne announced the signing of a three-year agreement to bring the flagship BioOne Complete aggregation to 84 Max Planck Society Institutes. Notably, this agreement includes the full term of BioOne’s Subscribe to Open (S2O) pilot from 2026 through 2028, supporting shared goals of sustainable open access and equitable scholarly communications. BioOne’s Subscribe to Open pilot brings together 71 journals from 54 societies, museums, and research organizations worldwide into a conditional open access framework —representing ...

A new study by a large international team of conservation scientists and artists explores how growing synergies between conservation and the arts can unveil many mutual benefits and fresh approaches to intractable conservation problems. “These collaborations can generate new knowledge, attract funding, boost visibility, and even catalyze behavioural change”, says Ivan Jarić, researcher from the University of Paris-Saclay in France and the Czech Academy of Sciences, and lead author of the study. “By working ...

When Sean Fletcher walked into Sam Biswas’ Medical and Molecular Sciences (MMSC) lab at the University of Delaware College of Health Sciences during the summer of his first year, he had no research or laboratory experience.  Two years later, the senior honors medical diagnostics major has published a paper as a first author after uncovering new insights into how human papillomavirus (HPV) functions on a molecular level.  In a study recently published in Virology Journal, Fletcher and co-authors Biswas, professor of MMSC, and Esther Biswas-Fiss, professor and chair of MMSC, used bioinformatics to pinpoint conserved ...

Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn have discovered how a small, naturally occurring RNA molecule in the kidney activates a mutated immune receptor, triggering a chain reaction. In cooperation with Nanyang Technological University Singapore and the University Hospital Würzburg, among others, the study provides an explanation for how a point mutation in the immune receptor RIG-I transforms the body's defense system into a self-destructive force and causes severe organ-specific autoimmune diseases. The results have now been published in the journal Science Immunology. RIG-I is an important ...

New research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) uncovers unique genetic signatures in cancer patients of non-European ancestry; identifies social adversity as a potential risk factor for higher rates of triple-negative breast cancer among Black women; shows a web-based system could help head-and-neck cancer survivors report their concerns; and finds adding immunotherapy can boost the effectiveness for hard-to-treat follicular lymphomas. Study uncovers unique genetic signatures in cancer patients of non-European ancestry In the era of personalized oncology, it’s becoming increasingly important to ...

The announcement was made in early October in Denver, USA, during the 11th edition of the conference, and marks the first time Portugal will host this prestigious international event. The proposal, coordinated by Dr. Nunes, was selected by an international panel of experts and received enthusiastic support from global institutions, including several regional chapters of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). “Ecosystem restoration lies at the heart of tackling the climate and biodiversity crises, ...

Hybrid electrocatalysts can produce green hydrogen, for example, and valuable organic compounds simultaneously. This promises economically viable applications. However, the complex catalytic reactions involved in producing organic compounds are not yet fully understood. Modern X-ray methods at synchrotron sources such as BESSY II, enable catalyst materials and the reactions occurring on their surfaces to be analysed in real time, in situ and under real operating conditions. This provides insights ...

LA JOLLA, CA—Nearly 40 years after HIV was first identified, the virus continues its devastating march across the globe. Today, 38 million people live with HIV, and each year brings 1.5 million new infections and 650,000 more deaths—while nearly 10 million people still lack access to life-saving medicines. Despite decades of intensive research and remarkable progress in treatment, one goal remains frustratingly out of reach: a vaccine that provides lasting protection. Now, a team of scientists at Scripps Research has been awarded a $6.9 million five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to address this specific challenge. Led by Bryan Briney, associate ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 30, 2025 – Myriad Genetics, Inc., (NASDAQ: MYGN), a leader in molecular diagnostic testing and precision medicine, today announced a post-hoc analysis of the Precision Medicine in Mental Health Care (PRIME) study showed that treatment informed by the GeneSight® test led to faster initial remission and response in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Further, the post-hoc analysis showed that this benefit persisted over six months with no evidence of changing over time. “Every single day matters to someone suffering from depression; patients want to get back to feeling like themselves as quickly ...

A research team led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and collaborating with the Biomedical Research Institute of A Coruña (INIBIC), as well as other international research groups, has developed pioneering technology that enables human kidney organoids to be produced in a scalable manner. This technology allows the organoids to be combined with pig kidneys outside the body and then transplanted back into the same animal to evaluate their viability. This breakthrough study, published in the journal Nature Biomedical ...

Critical concerns regarding the security and privacy of information transmitted within Internet of Medical Things systems have increased greatly, since these systems manage and generate substantial amounts of sensitive private data. Current traditional security methods have not yet adapted to evolving cyber threats, making the need for data security in medical settings crucial. Recently, a security framework based on blockchain technology and distributed reinforcement learning has been developed to address these challenges. The new framework ...

Nowadays, compute-intensive programs, like those for training artificial intelligence and machine learning models, are used extensively. Modern compilers use vectorization techniques to exploit parallel processing capabilities to improve the performance of such programs. A group of scientists from the University of Southern California, Cisco AI Research, and Intel Labs designed a data-driven, graph-based learning framework for automatic vectorization called autograph, which utilizes deep reinforcement learning to have an intelligent agent learn an optimal policy. Autograph greatly outperformed other approaches across ...

Plankton are the invisible engines of life on Earth, producing much of the planet’s oxygen and forming the foundation of the oceanic food chain. They are also incredibly diverse, with tens of thousands of species described so far, and many more waiting to be discovered. Among them, protists,  tiny, single-celled organisms, stand out for their extraordinary diversity and evolutionary significance, yet for decades, scientists could study them only through genomic data, as reliable imaging methods were lacking.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, EMBL Group Leader Gautam Dey received a Zoom call from his ...

A new international study led by researchers from Aarhus University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) reveals that small bats can be just as efficient predators as lions – and often more successful. To find out how fringe-lipped bats (Trachops cirrhosus), miniature carnivores from the forests of Panama, hunt in the wild, the research team equipped 20 of them with miniature “backpacks” – biologging tags that recorded every movement and sound, including those from the surrounding environment. The data revealed something remarkable: these bats hunt large prey such as frogs, birds and ...